Computers
As classrooms begin to rely less on texts to convey information, computers have become a more common delivery system for learning. Academic computer literacy, if practiced and mastered, can be a highly efficient way to process new information. As you will see from the list below, your students will still exercise their reading skills, sometimes by deep reading, sometimes gathering snippets of information, link by link, as they perform online searches.
Skills involved in computer usage include:
- locating information on the internet by using search engines and links
- skimming for main ideas
- scanning for specific facts
- using multiple sources to answer questions or pursue a topic
- combining online sources with print media
- locating and interpreting maps
- interpreting graphs and other non-text based material
- evaluating the validity and applicability of sources
- presenting and explaining information in a visually pleasing and targeted way
Always provide guidelines on how to evaluate sources. Careful reading of domain names will help determine, but not guarantee, the validity of material. An ".edu" domain will ensure that the site is connected to an educational institution, usually a college. Other institutional domains include government (.gov) and military (.mil). The ".org" domains used to be more reliable, but with open access policy on the .org domain, caution your students to be selective. The ".com" domains run the gamut from highly informative to incoherent, so you might want to include guidelines on how to evaluate a source's credibility.
Find out how to teach internet research skills to elementary students at the link below.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/elementary-research-mary-beth-hertz
This 2018 article can be listened to as a podcast; it reviews six recent ed-tech tools: Flipgrid, InsertLearning, Book Creator, NewseumEd, AutoDraw, and Sway. Scroll down to review all six tools.
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/6-tech-tools-2018/
Cyber-bee provides some ready to use examples of internet integration of lesson plans and activities. This site also provides tools and templates for creating lessons of your own:
http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html
Texas State University has compiled Spanish-language social studies resources at the following link.
http://www.education.txstate.edu/ci/socialstudies/social-ed-eng/
resourcesinspanish/Social-Studies-Internet-Resources-in-Spanish.html
The following article from the online version of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education focuses on guidelines for using technology to prepare Social Studies teachers.
Identifying Strategies, Methods, Tools, and Planning Resources for Social Sciences Instruction
Planning for Instruction
According to Stiliana Milkova of Oberlin College in an article written for the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan, "[a] lesson plan is the instructor's road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time." Milkova identifies "three key components" of a successful lesson plan: 1) identifying "objectives for student learning"; 2) designing appropriate "teaching/learning activities"; and 3) developing "strategies to check student understanding." She writes, "[s]pecifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished" (Milkova, 2013).
For a closer look at how to develop effective lesson plans, click the following link: http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5.
Grant Wiggins, president of the educational consulting firm Authentic Education, recommends a process he calls backward design. "Instead of jumping to the activities—'"Oh, I could have kids do this, oh, that'd be cool"—you say, "Well, wait a minute." Before you decide exactly what you're going to do with them, if you achieve your objective, what does it look like? …What's the evidence that they can now do it, whatever the "it" is? So you have to think about how it's going to end up, what it's going to look like. And then that ripples back into your design, what activities will get you there. What teaching moves will get you there?" (http://www.edutopia.org/grant-wiggins-assessment#graph1) In other words, it's wise to consider assessment before beginning to plan lessons—your teaching moves.
While choosing what learning goals and objectives are to be assessed is part of lesson planning, another part of developing effective lesson plans is finding and identifying appropriate resources for instruction. The following links will provide jumping-off points to get started with this process.
