TPACKing for a Wonderful Educational Trip/Group 1/Group 1

Lesson #1: Discovering the Religions of the World
Note: This unit should be completed in five 90-minute class periods.

Instructional Procedures
Day 1 The teacher gives a broad overview of the origin, the organization, and the tenets of the world's major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism). Information includes common symbols and representative music of each religion. Teacher checks for understanding during the instruction by using a student response system. Students take notes and respond to questions using their clickers (student response devices).

Day 2 Students take an online quiz (using Quizlet covering the material from Day 1.

Students, working in pairs, select a religion to research from this website focusing on the symbols and music of the religion. Students use Diigo to collect sources, and they will record notes in a Google Doc. The teacher provides guidance and checks websites' reliability.

Day 3 The teacher demonstrates how to create a simple timeline using Dipity. Student pairs create timelines using significant dates associated with their selected religion. Pairs incorporate symbolic images into the timeline. They also include dates and images of major world events in order to synthesize an understanding of relationships the historical and cultural context.

Day 4 Student pairs create presentations about their chosen religion. Presentations include timelines and information about the religion's origin, organization, tenets, symbols and music. Students may choose to create a PowerPoint, Prezi, video, website, or wiki. Teacher provides assistance and guidance as needed.

Day 5 Each team delivers their presentation. The teacher encourages other students to ask questions and give feedback. The teacher facilitates a discussion about the similarities and differences among the religions. The teacher uses a rubric to assess the presentation content and quality and the students’ participation in the discussion.

Extensions


 * Compose an original song or write a new verse for an existing song representing the religion the student researched.
 * Draw an original symbol representing the religion the student researched.
 * Select and research a different religion.

Assessment Plan


 * Formative assessment using clickers during the teacher’s presentation on Day 1.
 * Summative assessment via online quiz on Day 2.
 * Formative assessment through observation of the students' actions and participation on Days 3 and 4.
 * Summative assessment of student presentations and discussion participation using a rubric on Day 5.

Reflection
I’ve never written a lesson plan in my life, and developing this one was way out of my comfort zone. It gave me a renewed appreciation for what K-12 teachers do (do they really write a plan like this for every lesson?), and it renewed my conviction that I did the right thing by majoring in computer science and not teacher education.

Although I think I understand the concept of TPaCK, it’s more difficult to put into practice than it might seem, and that makes me wonder if I really do understand it. I don’t know that much about world religions, and I know even less about the methods of teaching social studies to high school students; that left me feeling competent in only one of the three TPaCK areas – technology. However, the activity types compiled by Harris and Hofer put “legs” on the TPaCK concept and gave me a place to start.

My process for designing the activities did not follow a neat sequential pattern. In fact, I had to go back and revise the original activities and activity types, for my selected standards, after I had written the lesson plan.

Like most things, TPaCKing a lesson probably gets easier with practice, but this first time was like pulling teeth. ;)
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Lesson #2: Religions, Music, and Society
Primary Core Objectives

Understand the significant religious, philosophical, and social movements and their impacts on society and social reform.

Intended Learning Outcomes
 * Students will be able to understand how music influences religious ceremonies.
 * Students will be able to use technological devices in order to collect information, sequence information, and conduct a discussion related to music and its influence on religion.

Instructional Procedures
Day 1 Students and teacher will read the article, at the link below, about religion and music. Students then select a specific religion, researching general and specific historical information.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0515/p20s02-bogn.html/

Day 2 Students will choose one particular culture and look for information about its predominant religion. The focus of this research concerns the instruments used in the religion's ceremonies. Students will create a video explaining their findings and share them in YouTube. A rubric identifies the number of images and other media elements, the depth and quality of the research, and additional important information.

Day 3 Students will write in a Google Doc ideas that illustrate their pre-existing knowledge about music and religious dances from South America. Next, they will watch a video from a religious festivity in Chile at the following link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4oYb5qwViE&feature=related. After the video, students will research this festival (and others across South America) and put the information in Google Docs.

Extensions

Students are able to earn extra credit by completing one or more of the listed activities:
 * Find additional types of dances that are related to religions in other parts of the world.
 * Make a video simulating a religious ceremony including dancing and music – caution must be exercised with this option; any video must be respectful of the religious ceremony.

Assessment Plan

Formative assessment

Students have a rubric to develop self assessment and peer-assessment strategies. This rubric includes quality of the artifact, quality of the information included, and use of technology.

Summative assessment

Students are evaluated via a rubric. This rubric includes artifact quality, evaluation of the information included, use of technology, group work, self assessment and peer assessment.

Reflection
From my point of view, TPaCK opens a new approach. This approach is based on learners' experiences. Students select information and create something with the information available. Also, teachers become guides helping students to understand and apply the knowledge they acquire.

The challenges that I faced were Iowa Core Standards and creating lesson plans. The first lesson was fairly simple to create. My greatest problem lay in imagining and developing the activities, because I am not a expert in music or history. Related to the lesson plan specifically, I can say this is the first time that I have seen a lesson plan like this, so it was a kind of difficult to understand the way it works.

In summary, I learned a lot doing this. I learned how to combine the three parts of TPaCK and create a lesson plan.

Lesson #3: The History and Analysis of Jazz
Primary Core Objectives

Understand, and correctly apply, concepts such as chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity to explain, analyze, and show connections between Jazz and American history.

Intended Learning Outcomes
 * Students will understand and learn how the genre of Jazz began, events that took place during different Jazz eras, and people that excelled in this genre.
 * Students will be able to identify the correct Jazz era in which a piece of music was written and performed.
 * Students will be use technology to do research on a specific Jazz topic, and they will express themselves through performance and/or technology.

Instructional Procedures
Day 1 Students will listen to audio recordings of Jazz music to familiarize themselves with this genre.

Day 2 Students will investigate the multiple characteristics, evidence, and perspectives of the various Jazz eras. (ie. Big Band compared to Bossa Nova.)

Day 3 Students will perform a piece of music, from a particular jazz era, and create a music video.

Extensions

Students can receive extra credit by creating a blog that pertains to this course. They will have to find videos of performances, articles and websites, then post their thoughts and opinions on their blogs.

Assessment Plan

Formative Assessment

Students will be observed throughout the course in class discussions and individual assignments. Students will submit evidence of progress at the end of each activity through video, write-up or VoiceThread.

Summative Assessment

Students will use their choice of technology to express and discuss various topics in this course. They will be evaluated by a rubric that they have access to view at any time in the course.

Reflection
TPaCK is an interesting method that I found to be very useful and possibly effective in any lesson plan strategy. This method can be used to "feed the need" of anyone wanting to implement technology into his or her curriculum.

This approach is the opposite of how things are usually done. Instead of a tool being implemented to improve a course, tools are usually added just because, it's the next new thing. The TPaCK method forces you to think of the issue at hand and then what technology can be added to better the outcome you are trying to achieve.

Instructional Procedures
Days 1 & 2 – Students will visit a music-related web site, select two countries or cultures to learn about, and read the materials presented.

Day 2 Students will search the Internet for additional information about the music of their selected countries, noting important facts and characteristics. Students should focus on cultural influences and history.

Day 3 Students will listen to and experience music recordings representative of the countries/cultures selected.

Day 4 Students organize, categorize, and compare the musical styles, tonality, purpose, instrumentation, influences, and history of the two countries or cultures selected.

Day 5 Students use web-based technologies to illustrate musical similarities and differences.

Extensions

If time permits, students can earn extra credit by completing one or more of the following additional activities:
 * Use GarageBand to record audio examples (podcasts) of rhythms commonly associated with a variety of cultures and countries
 * Interview a musician who performs specific musical styles (i.e., Zydeco, Gaelic, Latin, etc.) and use Prezi to present what was learned.
 * Use Microsoft Word or Google Documents to write a report on the music of a selected culture or country.

Assessment

Formative Assessment: Students are observed throughout the learning experience and submit evidence of progress at the end of each activity.

Summative Assessment: Students use technology to communicate cultural similarities and differences in music and discuss their findings with classmates using VoiceThread. Quality will be evaluated using a rubric distributed at the beginning of the lesson.

Reflection
I found the TPACK method to be a logical, methodical process that can be used to introduce technology into conventional lesson plan development. As Judi Harris indicated, this process allows established learning goals and activities to guide appropriate technology choices, rather than selecting technology first and striving to fit learning goals to the capabilities of the technology.

This approach to technology selection is familiar to me. In my current role as a technology support specialist, one of my responsibilities is to recommend/select technologies that address and complement stated business needs. Identifying and clearly defining needs prior to selection and implementation is critical for success.
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Lesson #5: Title goes here
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Instructional Procedures
Day 1 A brief summary of the day's activities. Add additional days as needed.

Extensions

 

Assessment Plan



Reflection
 

Group Report
Process Description

We met via Skype and a Google Document to determine our subject, standards, activities and activity types. We each selected two of the standards to work on, and then worked individually to flesh out the activities associated with each standard. We met again to review our list and to make plans for next steps. Each member then created individual lesson plans, and we met again to review our work and work together to finalize this group report.

Challenges
 * Finding times to meet that worked for everyone.
 * Finding subject areas that pertained to our Performing Arts School.
 * Reaching a common understanding of the assignment.
 * Understanding the individual portion of this assignment.

Realizations
 * The overall process allowed us to better understand how to include TPaCK in a lesson plan.
 * It is possible to develop group work at a distance using technology.
 * TPaCK is more student-centered than other approaches.

The assignment allowed us to begin to develop skills necessary to select technology according the needs.