Project Description / Overview: 

(continuation of the previous project in Course Development page. For more in-depth details concerning learner analysis and needs assessment, please check the Design Document.)

I often work at different schools in different capacities and I am sometimes asked to help teach certain content. In this instance, I was assisting a high school with updating student technology knowledge to increase their future success while teaching them presentation skills they will need to know.

 

The Problem / Situation:

Many students do not have basic technology skills that are adequate enough for what they will need in university (for example PowerPoint or using Google drive). Many students also do not know how to give presentations in either Japanese or English, as it is not a part of traditional learning strategies used in classrooms (Lecture style and passive learning, all work handwritten from students if a report or writing of some kind must be done). This project is relevant to the issues at hand because universities, especially the top ones, are increasingly using more technology in educating students and expect that incoming students will have already mastered basics. Universities and the exams they require for entry are increasingly becoming communicative and needing students to present and interview well. The school is very concerned with changing attitudes towards educational technology and technology in the workplace and must stay competitive and prepare their students for university. The vice principal and the head of the English Department at the school want the students in their last year of high school (3rd years) to make and present a short in-class presentation and incorporate the use of PowerPoint to do it.

Purpose of the planned instruction is to get their presentation skills up and also learn how to use basic functions of PowerPoint to do so.

 

Aim:

• Students will develop presentation/speech skills and demonstrate those skills.
• Students will discover how to make a basic PowerPoint presentation and prepare one on their topic of
  choice to demonstrate in class.

 

The Audience:

The target audience are Students are 17-18 years old and in their third (and final) year of high school. For this particular project, the three highest academic classes and the three lowest academic sports classes will participate. There is on average 35 students in a class with my smallest class being 28 students and my largest being 42 students. They all have basic knowledge of computer usage, but vary on English Language comprehension. This class is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class that is one of three types of English class that is required.

 

Instruction Delivery:

The instruction will be delivered face-to-face, as this will be a continuation of their special English class. It is also the method of instruction students are most familiar with and considering the language barrier, it is best to stick to a routine they know. They will also be instructed using the programs they will learn as an example.  They will have many task based activities in pair work, group work, and individual instruction.

 

Alignment:

The alignment chart is a document that illustrates the alignment of objectives, assessments, and learning experiences or activities.  It shows their relationship and connectivity to each other to guide the learner through the learning experience. This particular chart highlights and organizes plans for instruction and their components. This instructional unit of lessons are also aligned for the goals of both the school, the students, and the expectations they will have in the future to transfer this knowledge. The “absorb” column means how students will receive (absorb) the necessary information and get the learners’ attention. According to Horton (2011) in e-Learning by Design, the “do” column is the area where the students are actively participating in their learning by practicing their skills, analyzing, and using new information and create meaning. The “connect” column is where learners apply what they have learned to their own lives and connect it with previous information. Those columns involve different levels of thinking to facilitate a greater understanding and application.

 

Sample Activities:

These sample activities were taken from the first terminal objective listed.  It is important for students to understand how to create a speech and put it on their medium (PowerPoint) before delivering. These are only a few examples of all that would be done within the learning unit.

-Absorb

This power point is the “absorb” activity where it informs the student and it also contains a do activity and a little assessment after the 6th slide where we circled where the parts of the speech were and to accompany that after would be some simple content questions and then the students could self check by looking at the teachers answers on the board. There is supposed to be both a teacher demonstration and a video of students of similar ages as the learners giving similar speeches. There is also a vocabulary box of useful words and phrases in English translated for them in Japanese to save time and increase understanding, especially with lower level classes.

UDL: PowerPoint notes with space to add more notes are provided to all the students in case of hearing impairment or if they find information easier to process by reading. The video within the PowerPoint has closed captioning and the text to the teacher-demonstrated speech is also provided. I text version of the notes can be provided for text reading technology if requested.

Parts of a speech

 

-Do

This worksheet is part of the first two enabling objectives of the first terminal objected listed on the alignment chart.  It is not to be completed all on the same day, but rather a tool for the students to use to help guide them through.  The “do” part is them choosing a topic and brainstorming it out using a list, mind map, or whatever helps them think of ideas. That is the first page. What also is considered a do (and also a connect activity) would be to fill out the outline with key points.  The other “Do” activity is when filling out their outline with key points, they make sure it is organized and arranged properly (before having a teacher check it over and check the individual’s progress).

UDL: The teacher can read the directions aloud and show a completed version of all the activities (at the proper times) so students can see what is expected of them and use it as a guide line. If further accommodation is needed they can use voice recording.

preparation worksheet

(this worksheet is similar but slightly modified from part of the previous course’s supporting documentation.)

 

-Connect

The connect activity is for the students to make their own outline for their speech on the topic they chose.  It is about what they like and feel best about doing and they will apply what they have learned to complete their outline with their own meaning and information.  Another part of this not shown is the outline for their actual PowerPoint presentation and that after learning principles of PowerPoint design they will fill out their own practice paper PowerPoint using the information on this outline before doing do digitally. Depending on language level, Japanese directions may be provided on more complicated tasks.

UDL: If unable to see they can use any sort of note taking that works with the person’s abilities. If they are having a difficult time writing they may do a voice recoding of their notes.

See page 2 of document posted above in the “Do” activities section for sample connect activity on the same worksheet.

 

Assessment:

The formative assessments included in the chart are to help facilitate student understanding with immediate feedback and for the instructor to check student progress and where there might be issues with understanding the required information to meet the goals. It is necessary for the students to understand the small parts to scaffold and build up to the main goal of what they need to do. The final assessment is where the students will demonstrate what they have learned in both creating and delivering their speeches and they will be graded according to the rubric that is based off of the main objectives of the course. Assessments and activities provided are based off of pedagogical research in language acquisition that work well for the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Classroom. Depending on students’ English level, Japanese will also be on the rubric and the directions for maximum clarity and understanding.

-Formative Assessment

This quiz isn’t really graded for a score based on the content but for checking student understanding and progress.  It is checked for participation and if they decided to attempt the quiz or not. It helps the student learn and they can use the quiz hand out for notes or later reference. The questions can be made harder or easier to match the class level and motivation.  It can even be turned into a game if the learners are more active with more active learning preferences.

UDL: This can always turn into a verbal test with verbal answers if someone has some informational processing issues or visual impairment of some kind.

parts of a speech quiz

-Summative Final Assessment

Final assessment for the unit. It will be scored on the two terminal objectives and the enabling objectives re-worded and used for student assessment. It is a double sided paper with each rubric on one side and easily scored. The sum of the two parts will equal the total score of the Exam.  Students are to stand up in front of class and use the laptop projector and HDMI cable (all school provided) to present the PowerPoint part that accompanies their speech. The instructor will use the Rubric to score them.

UDL: If students have certain serious challenges with speaking or speaking in front of class, arrangements can be made for them to present via video, privately in front of an instructor, or if decided it is best, a written speech may be provided. The video demonstrations’ audio can help those who are vision impaired listen for how the speech is to be conducted and further examples can be provided by the teacher (or any student who learns best with a/v technology). If eye contact or physical movement are an issue due to a condition, then they can be taken off or modified.

 

 

Reflection:

This project was a continuation of the previous class.  In EDUC 765, we focused on learning theories, analysis, and creating objectives.  I used the learner analysis from previous work and the objectives created from the demonstrated need for instruction and extended it for this one.  EDUC 766 focuses on assessment and instructional strategies and how the objectives, assessments, and activities align with the enabling objectives. I took that information and divided it up even further to take a closer look at what exactly needed to be done and its relationship together to guide the student in to learning and demonstrating what I needed them to demonstrate.

-Design Process

Because I am the subject matter expert in this area of instruction and I am one of the instructions who will facilitate the learning and implement the newly created unit of instruction, I used more of the Kemp model of designing in mind to build this unit.  I’m used to building educational courses and materials in the traditional classroom environment. Analysis of instructional need and learner behavior and traits are paramount to building any course, and using this model I can use a learner centered approach and think of what their experiences are when participating and learning the material. The organizational process is more appropriate for a traditional classroom setting in school.

After using the previous analysis information an terminal objectives, I broke it down further in the enabling objectives and arranged in an order that made sense in which to teach it for maximum student understanding.  Via the process of backloading, I looked at the objectives, the enabling objectives and thought of the final assessment which we would assess for those objectives in what we wanted the students to “do” or “know” and how they would demonstrate this knowledge in a way we could measure. Then I continued to work backwards to create further formative assessments and activities to scaffold to the main event, which was their final presentation and speech.  I used scaffolding to build supports for students to work their way up to being able to do that giant task. All the activities and assessments are aligned and have a close relationship to each other to build off of one another. Information and activities were organized and the concept of chunking was in my mind as not to give the students cognitive overload, in which they would forget everything or not absorb what they needed to. I found the newly introduced concept of Absorb -Do -Connect helpful in making sure all my components of my lessons or units were tightly aligned and didn’t lose sight of the main purpose of instruction.

As this course continued I changed some of the objectives to make more sense and be more objective and measurable.  Using words related to Blooms taxonomy helped me take in consideration the different orders of thinking that were required of students taking on such an endeavor. Being able to use better performative words highlighting these different orders helped me keep things varied, appropriate, and more objective and measurable on what my students needed to DO and what they should DO to demonstrate they KNOW. In writing out objectives in such a way it helped me imagine the tasks required and I was able to plan and create activities and assessments much easier than I have in the past.  My background in in many years of EFL teaching and training, so this new information enhanced and built off what I already understood in the realm of education. I got to get a new perspective and be much clearer in focus in my work.  That helps the student and it helps me.

-UDL (Universal Design for Learning)

In any educational setting, the concept of accessibility and accommodation is extremely important in order to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity for learning. Another benefit is that it is in environment where students are primarily communicating in their second language therefore visual literacy, clarity, organization, gestures/body language, and principals of universal design can assist students in their learning goals. I had thought about how to improve this because including universal design (UDL) into my instruction and class materials would only help and strengthen lessons.  It made me change some activities and think of new parts to add to some.  One example was instead of just watching what I’m doing when giving a demonstration, I could also include written notes form my students or pre-print the slides if using PowerPoint.  It helps them understand better (as most students in the country I reside in can communicate with reading and writing better than speaking or listening) and it helps my students who process information in different ways.  I have had a couple of students in the past who are hearing impaired and/or speech impaired and we had to figure out fair alternate ways of doing things.  However, the way I presented information was not as accommodating as it should have been and this is probably the biggest change I make to my materials and instruction. I also will include (which possible) closed captions on videos and links to uploaded materials where students can view it on their own time if they wish to do so. In this project I have included more written notes, more captions, and more visual ways of communicating instructions and tasks to them. I also have a lot of neurodivergence within my classes and accommodate for that by ways of showing “what done looks like” by doing more examples and demonstrations of activities and tasks and what a completed task will look like so students know how to start and get ideas to use my example as a guide to be creative instead of encountering decision paralysis.

danielle UDL certificate