Course Artifact of Choice: Tier 2 Presentation Tool
Prezi is actually something that I have used in my classroom in the past for student presentations. It’s a tool that students enjoy and is more interesting to watch than just a PowerPoint Presentation by the audience. It is easy for students to use, and allows them to create a product that is more reflective of the content in their presentations.
Hispanic Art Project
Objectives
2.4.2 Students will understand a description of an art form in a magazine, website or other reading.
3.4.1 Students will understand another person's opinion or description about art.
5.4.3 Students will write a description about the life and contributions of an artist.
For this lesson, I initially give a presentation on basics about a number of famous Hispanic artists and Spanish vocabulary that students will need to know in order to create their projects. I use gestures to help students acquire the basic art vocabulary that they will need, and review vocabulary that they already know and can utilize in the project. I use a lot of questioning in Spanish throughout my presentation (normally a PowerPoint) to make sure that students are following and comprehending the information.
The students individually, or in small groups, chose an artist to research. They looked into both the biography of the artist, as well as examples of his/her work.
Then for their presentation to the class, one of the choices was to create a Prezi on his/her/their artist. They were also given the choices of PowerPoint, Glogster, Voicethread, Tagxedo and Blabberize as additional technological tools that students could incorporate into their presentations.
TPACK was addressed in a way that I believe shows I possess strong content knowledge not only in Spanish, but also in some aspects of Hispanic Art. The pedagogical knowledge is also strong in that I use a variety of different methodologies to help students retain the information. I build on already learned skills while adding new ones to incorporate in their projects. Students then have a choice of electronic presentation methods, which adds in the technological component.
In the future, I think that I need to do a better job showing students ideas for how Prezi can be utilized. Some of the students come into my class knowing how to create a Prezi, but others do not. As Prezi is relatively new to me, I need to spend more time in order to understand the program better so that I can do demonstrations for the students prior to their choosing a presentation format as I do think that it’s a better presentational tool as compared for example to a PowerPoint. If I were able to do my own presentation with a Prezi, it could give students ideas on how they can use the tool themselves.
Hispanic Art Project
Objectives
2.4.2 Students will understand a description of an art form in a magazine, website or other reading.
3.4.1 Students will understand another person's opinion or description about art.
5.4.3 Students will write a description about the life and contributions of an artist.
For this lesson, I initially give a presentation on basics about a number of famous Hispanic artists and Spanish vocabulary that students will need to know in order to create their projects. I use gestures to help students acquire the basic art vocabulary that they will need, and review vocabulary that they already know and can utilize in the project. I use a lot of questioning in Spanish throughout my presentation (normally a PowerPoint) to make sure that students are following and comprehending the information.
The students individually, or in small groups, chose an artist to research. They looked into both the biography of the artist, as well as examples of his/her work.
Then for their presentation to the class, one of the choices was to create a Prezi on his/her/their artist. They were also given the choices of PowerPoint, Glogster, Voicethread, Tagxedo and Blabberize as additional technological tools that students could incorporate into their presentations.
TPACK was addressed in a way that I believe shows I possess strong content knowledge not only in Spanish, but also in some aspects of Hispanic Art. The pedagogical knowledge is also strong in that I use a variety of different methodologies to help students retain the information. I build on already learned skills while adding new ones to incorporate in their projects. Students then have a choice of electronic presentation methods, which adds in the technological component.
In the future, I think that I need to do a better job showing students ideas for how Prezi can be utilized. Some of the students come into my class knowing how to create a Prezi, but others do not. As Prezi is relatively new to me, I need to spend more time in order to understand the program better so that I can do demonstrations for the students prior to their choosing a presentation format as I do think that it’s a better presentational tool as compared for example to a PowerPoint. If I were able to do my own presentation with a Prezi, it could give students ideas on how they can use the tool themselves.
Evidence of Student Use
Self Reflection
The original assignment that I have chosen for this artifact came from the Tier 2 course: Designing for the Online/Blended Environment. I then used the assignment with my Spanish 3H students and so in the Tier 2 course: Adding Online Elements to the Traditional Classroom, I was able to include an example of what my students were able to produce to demonstrate student use of a presentation tool. In this example, the students used Prezi to create their presentation that they later gave in Spanish to the class. The benefit of using online tools like Prezi is that the students can be working on the same project, but from different locations. It is innovative and a more creativity control by the user than PowerPoint, for example. I also particularly like Prezi because it is similar to digital storytelling, more like creating a movie clip than just slides of pictures. It allows students to have a free flow of creativity with the information they gather. They can also add video and audio clips to the text.
I chose this assignment because it exemplifies what students can create online. Students were able to do the initial assignment, from the button above, on their own from the computer lab or from home. They then either worked in pairs or alone to create a presentation project based on one specific Hispanic artist. While the total duration of the assignment was four weeks from start to finish, all of the information for students was available through the end of the school year. Parents liked the detail of assignment deadlines so that they could help their own children meet them. Administration saw these activities as a way to effectively integrate lab experiences for students in Spanish. Because students worked at their own pace in the computer lab setting and all of the information was online, I was able to move from student group to student group and help them individually. The amount of choice and resources available also helped students tailor the assignment to their own interests and ability levels.
If I were to use this assignment again with students in a brick-and-mortar setting, I would definitely spend more time with students on how to use the various presentation tools. Some students, like from the student example above, are quite knowledgeable and adept at using the tools. I loved how some of these assignments turned out as they not only contained the pertinent information for the assignment, but the presentations were interesting to watch and in some ways mimicked students' personalities in the way that they put them together. Others had very little familiarity with the technologies and so had a harder time with the technological component of the assignment. Among the things I would spend time on are how to start a Prezi, what tools are offered to enhance the presentations created, and how to export into PowerPoint or share online for collaboration and presentation. I also would work more in SoftChalk to fix some of the formatting issues that I struggled with in the creation of this specific online assignment.
I chose this assignment because it exemplifies what students can create online. Students were able to do the initial assignment, from the button above, on their own from the computer lab or from home. They then either worked in pairs or alone to create a presentation project based on one specific Hispanic artist. While the total duration of the assignment was four weeks from start to finish, all of the information for students was available through the end of the school year. Parents liked the detail of assignment deadlines so that they could help their own children meet them. Administration saw these activities as a way to effectively integrate lab experiences for students in Spanish. Because students worked at their own pace in the computer lab setting and all of the information was online, I was able to move from student group to student group and help them individually. The amount of choice and resources available also helped students tailor the assignment to their own interests and ability levels.
If I were to use this assignment again with students in a brick-and-mortar setting, I would definitely spend more time with students on how to use the various presentation tools. Some students, like from the student example above, are quite knowledgeable and adept at using the tools. I loved how some of these assignments turned out as they not only contained the pertinent information for the assignment, but the presentations were interesting to watch and in some ways mimicked students' personalities in the way that they put them together. Others had very little familiarity with the technologies and so had a harder time with the technological component of the assignment. Among the things I would spend time on are how to start a Prezi, what tools are offered to enhance the presentations created, and how to export into PowerPoint or share online for collaboration and presentation. I also would work more in SoftChalk to fix some of the formatting issues that I struggled with in the creation of this specific online assignment.