Case Study C
Miss Martinez’s First Grade – Unit on Animals
Background
Miss Martinez is a first grade teacher that would like to take advantage in using
technology that is available to her. She would like to integrate technology into her lesson on
animals to make it more appealing to her students. She would like her students to take a more
active role on the research and presentation of a zoo animal of their choosing. Her class consists
of 20 students, two of which have severe dyslexia.
Three Additional Technologies
Three additional technologies that can be utilized to enhance Miss Martinez’s lesson on
animals would be to use: (1) Web 2.0 technologies/Internet, (2) digital storytelling software, and
(3) 12 microphone headsets. Since the students need to begin by choosing and researching a zoo
animal they will need to use web 2.0 technologies. A popular web 2.0 technology that can be
used in this case is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an interactive online encyclopedia. Through the use
of Wikipedia students can find information on the zoo animal that they choose. Once they have
all the facts that they need they can also use the internet to find images that pertain to their
chosen animals. After all their research is complete they can use digital storytelling software to
create their presentation. Student will be able to create slides using the images they found and
put them into the digital storytelling software to create a sort of documentary on their chosen
animal. Their documentary would provide them with a fun a way to deliver information on their
chosen animal. Finally they will be able to use the microphone headsets to add narration to their
presentation. Since there are only 12 microphone headsets and 20 students, students will be
placed into groups of two to have enough microphone headsets. Through the use of microphone
headsets the two students with severe dyslexia would be able to participate much more freely.
They will not have to worry about their dyslexia since they will be speaking. Through the use of
web 2.0 technologies student would be able to complete the research portion of the lesson while
the use of digital storytelling software would enable the students to complete the presentation
portion of the lesson.
Planning and Evaluating
As with all lessons, planning is an important part of the integration of technology into a
lesson. To begin with I would schedule a pre-conference with Miss Martinez. In this preconference I would determine a couple of things. I would need to find out to what extent Miss
Martinez would like me to be involved in the implementation of the lesson and how technology
literate Miss Martinez is. I would inform Miss Martinez of the technologies that I think would
suit her needs the best in delivering her lesson on animals. I would then determine how familiar
she is with these technologies and provide Miss Martinez with the necessary trainings via
tutorials and job aids. Once Miss Martinez was comfortable with the technology that would be
used in the lesson we would move on to adjusting her lesson plan to include the integration of the
selected technologies. At this time we would also determine how the students would be placed in
groups. It would be wise to place students that vary in knowledge of use of technology. Once the
lesson was complete, I would help Miss Martinez focus on how the students would be evaluated.
First we would create a checklist. In this checklist we would provide her students with an outline
of the steps that need to be completed to get their presentation done. The checklist would cover
everything from accessing the web to get information and images on chosen zoo animal to
creating their digital story along with narration. In conjunction to the checklist, we will create
two rubrics. One rubric will focus on the preparation portion of the lesson. Students will be
assessed based on the level of participation and working as a team. The other rubric will be used
to grade the presentation portion of the lesson. The students will gain points based on the facts,
pictures, and accuracy of information. My support and guidance in planning the lesson and
evaluating her students would assist Miss Martinez in helping her become more informed on the
integration of technology, using new technology and coming up with a way to evaluate her
students on their use of the technology.
Implementing
When it comes time implement the lesson I would change my schedule to work around
Miss Martinez schedule. In this way I would ensure that I am always available to Miss Martinez
and her students through the duration of the lesson if they were ever to need me. I would also
schedule some time for the entire class to have some work time in the computer lab. In this way
they are able to have plenty of time to research and create their presentation. I would also make
sure that I assist Miss Martinez’s students in using the new technologies. I would make sure that
they know how to use the technology that will be needed to complete the assignment. Keeping in
mind that the students are 1st graders I would provide them with simplified versions of tutorials
and job aids to aid them throughout the duration of the lesson.
Evaluating
To support Miss Martinez in evaluating the applications of the technology used I would
hold a post-conference. In this post-conference I would ask Miss Martinez if the overall
objective of the lesson was accomplished through the use of the specific technology that was
used. I would determine if there are any changes that she would like to be made to improve
future presentations of this lesson. Once these adjustments have been made, I would run it by
Miss Martinez. At this point Miss Martinez would hopefully be confident that the changes would
improve the desired outcome of the lesson. If she did not like a specific technology that was
utilized in the lesson I would try to present her with an alternative technology what would also
improve her lesson.
Enhancing a Social Studies Lesson
The same technologies can be used to enhance a lesson in social studies. Miss Martinez’s
students can also use web 2.0 technologies to acquire information on a lesson on creating a
timeline of the origins of a holiday. They can go onto Wikipedia to look for information on the
origins of their chosen holiday. They can research on important dates of how their holiday came
to be.