Snow Day Online

I've missed blogging for a little while, but now I'm back. I wanted to take a moment and begin explaining what happened a few weeks ago! Well here I go, so a few weeks ago we had a little snow storm which caused Bishop Dunn to close. Dr. Smirnova, decided the safest way to still have class was through Adobe Connect. I've used Adobe Connect before, but it was exciting to use it all over again. I walked to the computer lab that we were originally supposed to be in and began logging on as I usually do. Dr. Smirnova began with her introduction and went right into the lesson. With Adobe Connect you can do a lot of neat aspects. She decided to project a PowerPoint in the background so we could all see it. While we were all viewing the PowerPoint she did a voiceover on what she wanted us to know. Her PowerPoint was about designing lessons for edTPA. The cover page really caught my attention because edTPA is such an important aspect to learn about for student teaching. There are five different models of teaching just like the blog below. The five types are behavioral, information processing, social interactive, experiential, and independent study. These five strategies do sound very familiar to me. Some of them were actually used below this specific blog. Moving along, the next couple of slides were discussing the "meat and cheese" of writing a lesson plan. This would include: goals and objectives. These two terms I am very familiar with, but it never hurts to brush up on aspects. The examples she used would were:

Objective Example: Given a task to work in a group of 4 and the resources on the American Revolution, the student will create a poster, following the criterial of the rubric and scoring at 3/4.

Dr. Smirnova supplied us with an outline when designing your own objective which is also very useful. The formula she gave us was: Given (a task or materials) the student will verb (from Bloom's Taxonomy) with (an expected level of performance). You have been hearing me talk about Bloom's Taxonomy so much but what really is Bloom's Taxonomy? In 1956, Benjamin Bloom collaborated with a few other colleges and designed a framework with educational goals. They broke it up into small little sections, what you might know as a pyramid. The six sections of this pyramid include: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Each section has a purpose to accomplish a higher order thinking. Remember is always at the bottom of the pyramid and creating is always at the top. As you can see by the pyramid to the right. There are multiple versions of this Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid, but they all correlate back to the original one. Before getting into the detail about they other pyramids let's first break down each part. 

Remembering/Knowledge

This process involved the recalling of specific material. It can be a recall in pattern, structure, or setting. I like to relate this section to the direct lesson. Throughout a direct lesson the students are recalling the information that is given to them. This is hitting the first section in Bloom's Taxonomy. It is pretty amazing to see some sort of correlation between the two.

Understanding/Comprehension

It is just the next step in the process. This refers to the type of understanding or apprehension so that the individual can make connections with the material. A good connection with this would be having the students answer check point questions based on the direct lesson. The students are understanding the material and applying their cognitive skills to answer the question. Which brings us right to applying. 

Applying/Application

This process uses the abstraction of particular and concrete situations. I know this definition doesn't really explain the attributes. Basically what the definition means is to have the individuals taking the material and using it in and out of the classroom setting. The students/individuals apply their knowledge into the "real world." 

Analyzing/Analysis

It is the breakdown the material into component parts so that the structure may be understood. The outcomes in this sections have a higher intellectual level than comprehension and application. Through this step individuals are understanding the relationship between the content and structural form of the material. 

Evaluating/Synthesis

The second to last step would be the evaluating section which is confusing because in the original Bloom's taxonomy model this would be the last, but they focus on the same attribute in this part of the pyramid. This is where individuals are able to put the pieces back together to make it into a whole. It is either done by research or unique communication. You can say during this step the inquiry process would be a good way to hit the higher order thinking. 

Creating/Evaluating

Last but not least creating! This is the ability to judge then value of material. The judgement are based off criteria that is set for the individuals. Through the teaching model the cooperative lesson plan hits this top section. This is where the students are creating their own presentation, but also giving a peer evaluation. 

Look at the Bloom's Taxonomy model, there are many attributes that carry right into teaching. Dr. Smirnova mentioned many of these attributes throughout her Adobe Connect conversation. I look forward to having more of these online meetings and learning more about Bloom's Taxonomy along the way. Until next time bloggers :)