website project - planning document

Debra ScottFRIT 7335Summer 2011

Website Planning Document

Statement of PurposeThe principle purpose of the site is to create a forum for the collaborative development of middle school science study units.

Objectives Build a learning community composed of science educators with a variety of years of experience. Facilitate collaborative unit design through interaction using a discussion board. Create a library of study units including practical evaluation(s) of the effectiveness of various

instructional strategies by contributors.

AudienceThe target audience for this website is middle school science teachers within a single school district. Invitations to join the community will make it clear that the interaction will be valuable for all teachers regardless of their number of years of experience.

Content & Storyboard The website content is included in the storyboard on pages 2-13 included in this document. Hyperlinks are indicated by an underline, bold text, and blue font color.

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Understanding by Design

Overview

Have you ever needed feedback on a new lesson

plan but felt you had no one to turn to? Instructional design can feel like a lonely and extremely challenging endeavor for new and inexperienced teachers. Collaborating with other teachers is not only motivating but it also builds relationships. The ideas being shared in these web pages are growing from just a seed of an idea to create a forum for reaching out to and collaborating with other middle school science teachers that would like to be a part of an effort to build comprehensive science units for use in their classrooms. A website format was chosen because online communities tend to have an advantage because they allow an asynchronous exchange of ideas without any concerns for scheduling conflicts among the contributors.

The understanding by design model for instructional design is highly encouraged in order to establish a consistent framework from which to design. Effective instructional design demands a systematic approach to producing learner driven replicable processes for the communication of knowledge based on clearly defined objectives, and finally evaluated using unbiased assessment tools.

Please review the web content and share any ideas, questions, comments, and or suggestions for building this community using the discussion wiki.

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL

DESIGNER’S TOOLKIT

LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI

2011/Debra J. Scott/[email protected]

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Understanding by Design (UBD): The Backwards Design Model

"To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." (Covey, 1994)

Clearly determining what evidence will indicate that students have attained the desired understanding and proficiencies before preparing lesson plans encourages teachers to remain results conscious.

The UBD model consists of the following three stages:

I. Identify desired results

II. Determine acceptable evidence

III. Plan learning experiences and instruction

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL


LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI


ubdmodel.htm

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Designer Tool Kit

“Links to tutorials and/or innovative tools used to produce instructional materials and multimedia learning tools are shared on this page.”

Essentials Include:

1) Word Processing Tools2) Presentation Tools3) Image Processing Tools4) Video Production Tools5) Audio Production Tools6) Website Development Tools

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL


LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI


tools.htm

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Learner Analysis“The purpose of a learner analysis is to discover or uncover the unique requirements/interests/aptitudes of individual student in order to maximize their learning experience. Recognizing the unique attributes of the student is essential to developing instructional strategies.”

Addressing multiple intelligences creates more opportunities for engaging students. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences addresses the following intelligences:

Linguistic intelligence involves the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to express oneself and/or as a means to process deeper understanding of ideas. Writers, poets, lawyers, and speakers are among those that demonstrate high linguistic intelligence.

Logical-mathematical intelligence consists of the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, detect patterns, and investigate issues scientifically. This intelligence is most often associated with scientific and mathematical aptitude.

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL


LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI

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Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the ability create music by varying pitch, tone, and rhythm. Music is a powerful tool for communicating a message and therefore is an ideal instructional medium.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence recognizes the potential of using one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements. Gardner sees mental and physical activity as being closely related. Using stimuli to appeal to all the senses provides more opportunity to engage the entire student, not just their mind in the subject matter.

Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and utilize spatial patterns to explain fundamental characteristics of space & time. Physical scientists and engineers demonstrate a well developed spatial intelligence.

Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders and counselors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence. Cooperative learning activities can be used to strengthen and develop interpersonal intelligence. Cooperatively, students can work on more complex projects than they could ever be expected to complete independently.Intrapersonal intelligence involves the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations. In Howard Gardner's view it involves having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such information to regulate our lives. Using self assessments is a means to encourage students to consider and exploit their metacognitive abilities.

Download Learner Analysis Example2011/Debra J. Scott/[email protected]

learner_analysis.htm

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Motivational Strategies

“Motivation is based on both internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. Listening to individual students to determine what motivates them can be challenging but the information learned can be used as a powerful instructional strategy”

The ARCS Model is an easy to apply check list or evaluation tool used with the objective of designing instruction that specifically and purposefully appeals to your target audience.

Use the ARCS model to quickly evaluate if your instruction incorporates the following key components:

AttentionAttention strategies for arousing and sustaining curiosity and interest. (Novelty, surprise, uncertainty, incongruity)

RelevanceStrategies that genuinely relate to learner needs, interests, and past experiences.

ConfidenceStrategies that help students develop a positive expectation for success. Clearly defined objectives and assessment criteria. Provide “success opportunities.”

SatisfactionProvide extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement for effort.

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL


LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI


motivation.htm

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The UBD Design Process

Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3

Stage 1 – Identify Desired ResultsThe desired results should be based on The National Education Technology Standard(s) & The Georgia Performance Standard(s) for Science (grades 6-8).

Use concise statements to clearly list what students will know and understand & what they will be able to do as a result of completing the unit of study.

Essential Questions are carefully developed with the goal of ascertaining the level of understanding. The students’ ability to answer the “essential questions” provides an indication of the depth of understanding.

There are 2 types of essential questions:1) Overarching QuestionsQuestions which transcend topic and subject matter.2) Topical QuestionsQuestions which are specific to the topic.

Download Stage 1 – Theory of Plate Tectonics Unit

Stage 2 – Determine

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL


LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI

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Acceptable EvidenceAssessments are designed to clearly answer the question: How can students display concrete quantifiable evidence that they have acquired the clearly defined understandings and skills?

Periodic assessment throughout a unit is encouraged in order to identify any misconceptions and misunderstanding as the unit progresses.


Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences

Activities are designed to strengthen performance skills through practical application, reinforce knowledge, and develop enduring understanding as clearly stated in Stage 1.

Performance Task(s) or projects are designed to provide evidence that students are able to use their knowledge in context.



process.htm

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Foundational Learning TheoriesConstructivism | Cognitivism | Behaviorism

The following is a brief description of the key concepts of several basic learning theories that form the foundation of effective instructional design.

Constructivism

According to Constructivist theory:

Knowledge is constructed from experience. Learning is a personal interpretation of the

world. Learning is an active process in which

meaning is under development. Deeper understanding comes from sharing

multiple perspectives through collaborative learning.

Learning should involve realistic tasks; Assessment should be integrated within the task.(Merrill, 1991)

Cognitivism

According to Cognitive theory learning builds on an internal knowledge structure. New information is related to existing cognitive structures called "schema". The following model is generally used to simulate how information is processed for learning:

OVERVIEW

UBD MODEL


LEARNER ANALYSIS

MOTIVATION

DESIGN PROCESS

LEARNING THEORIES

DISCUSSION WIKI

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3 -Stage Information Processing Model

1. Sensory Register - receives input from senses which lasts from less than a second to four seconds and then disappears through decay or replacement.

2. Short-Term Memory (STM) - input that is considered important or interesting is transferred from the sensory register to the STM. Memory can be retained here for up to 20 seconds or more if rehearsed repeatedly. Short-term memory can hold up to 7 plus or minus 2 items. STM capacity can be increased if material is chunked into meaningful parts.

3. Long-Term Memory and Storage (LTM) - Deeper level processing generating connections between old and new information allow for greater retention and an ability to efficiently access stored information. Long-term memory has an unlimited capacity.

The following are several cognitive effects that are important to keep in mind during instructional design:

Practice Effect - Practicing or rehearsing improves retention especially when it is distributed practice. By distributing practice over time and place the learner associates the material with different contexts.

Organization Effect - When a learner categorizes input such as “fruit” when memorizing several fruit items for a grocery list, the items tend to be easier to remember.

Mnemonic Effect - Mnemonics are strategies used by learners to organize relatively meaningless input into more meaningful images or semantic contexts. For example, the order of operations in mathematics can be remembered by using the mnemonic: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. There is no meaningful relationship between that sentence and the mathematical operations (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication & Division, and Addition & Subtraction) and I don’t have a Dear Aunt Sally but it has served me well as a mnemonic device many years!

Schema Effect - If new information does not fit a person's previous schema built to relate similar

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ideas it may be more difficult for them to remember because they cannot figure out how to mentally attach the new information to the old information. Essential questions are a good tool for uncovering misconceptions.

Behaviorism

According to Behaviorist theory, learning objectives should be clearly stated in specific concrete and quantifiable terms.

Determining Behavioral objectives can be illustrated by using the following mnemonic device to remember to clearly define:

ABCD

A - Audience – identify characteristics

B - Behavior – provide correct response(s) on cue

C - Condition - clearly defined cue(s) associated with a specific context

D - Degree - percent correct responses on assessment

(Schwier, 1998)

To develop behavioral learning objectives information appropriate for the target Audience should be broken down into specific measurable tasks, the desired Behavior must be modeled throughout the study unit, and unbiased assessment(s) must be designed to evaluate the Degree to which the students’ can complete those tasks.


theories.htm

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ResourcesInstructional Design & Learning Theory

http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

howard gardner, multiple intelligences and education

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

Understanding By Design Model

http://xnet.rrc.mb.ca/glenh/understanding_by_design.htm

Images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art Library

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http://xnet.rrc.mb.ca/glenh/understanding_by_design.htm

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

website project - planning document

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