Context
I work in the city of Cancun, Mexico teaching Language Arts and Social Studies. Most of the students are Mexican, but there are also students from all over the world. The Mexican students are learning english as a second language and the international students learn spanish as a second language. I have two classrooms averaging twenty to twenty five students each year.The technology provided to aid in teaching are: a projector, a teacher ipad and speakers. A high percentage of the students own their own iOS device, yet they are not allowed to bring them to school on a regular basis for fear of getting lost or damaged. Computer lab access is limited. The lab has twenty five computers and it is shared with the entire school; kindergarten through sixth grade. When planning a visit to the computer lab, there are only thirty minute sessions that are available about twice a week.
Content
The Language Arts curriculum used in school is McGrawhill‘s Open Court. Every week they are introduced to a new vocabulary list of ten words. These words appear throughout their weekly readings and are also part of worksheet assignments. The words are used in only one context throughout the week. For example, if the weekly reading is about the Oregon Trail, the words will only have examples in the context of that time period. Thinking about the six aspects of understanding, the outcome expected from the students is for them to be able to explain the definition of these words to someone else and apply them in a correct manner. Students often, memorize the definition of these words, but do not have a deep understanding of them.
Technology
The technology best suited for my content are ipads. I would like a classroom set of 25. This would give each student an opportunity to work individually and to be able to advance at their own pace. There are 3 apps that each ipad would need to have which are: Pic Collage, Popplet and iMovie. This past year I started using both of these apps in class. I used iMovie for book reports and found that the students would really make an effort when creating their movies and enjoyed acting. iMovie has very easy drag and drop features and the students are already familiar with this app. Pic Collage is free. I used it for vocabulary this past school year. I had two students be in charge every week of taking pictures of themselves or choosing from the internet images that portrayed the definition of each word. Next, they would create a collage on the ipad and at the end of the week, they would explain to the class why they chose that image. Their classmates made observations suggesting other images they could have used or what they should have been doing in the pictures they took themselves. In the past, I used paper and pencil to have students draw an image that explained each vocabulary word, but that would take too much time and not every student is fond of drawing. Popplet, also a free app, allows students to create concept maps. Students used to make these in their notebooks, but would take too long to finish. Popplet is a very simple to use app which allows you to include images and videos from the web. Another beneficial feature is that popplets can be shared and edited by more than one student. This allows for team work. Each fifth grade student has an ePortfolio where they upload their projects. The products of these three apps can be embedded into websites.
Another advantage of having iPads is the ability to look up the definition of a word in a thesaurus. While reading, my students tend to ask me what words mean, My reply is to first look up the word in the dictionary and if they still do not understand, then come to me. Students are put off by the amount of time it takes to look up a word in the dictionary and prefer to continue reading the story. With iPads, students can rapidly search for the definition of a word in a thesaurus and it will also provide word relationships like synonyms and antonyms which helps them better understand the word and hence the reading.
Pedagogy
The pedagogy I believe will work best within the framework of expanding students‘ vocabulary is Constructivism. There are two different paths with in constructivism which are social and cognitive (Powel and Kalina, 2009). The difference between them is how a person constructs their knowledge. Cognitive refers to a personal process in which every student goes through on their own to build their knowledge and social is done as a group. This can be done in small groups or the classroom as a whole. Having a one-to-one technology environment allows students to be able to advance at their own pace and work through their own process. As well as, working collaboratively to create projects.
Both lines of Constructivism work off the idea of having meaningful learning experiences. This is interpreted as having the students take ownership of the word, have a deeper understanding of it thus, they are more likely to remember and utilize them.
Both lines of Constructivism work off the idea of having meaningful learning experiences. This is interpreted as having the students take ownership of the word, have a deeper understanding of it thus, they are more likely to remember and utilize them.
The Total Package
When choosing the technology that would effectively aid in the building of my students‘ vocabulary I took considerations about what would work in my context of teaching. My technology choices will enhance the teaching and learning experience in my classroom.
The TPACK model is a framework teachers need to consider when integrating technology. In accordance to the TPACK model my goal is for students to be able to explain and apply new words in their daily writing and speaking. This goal is met through a constructivist approach. The Constructivist theory is aided by the use of ipads and apps to acquire vocabulary.
The implications in the classroom are to try to connect each word to something they are familiar with. One example of how this looks like with the word shattered is to start by analyzing the difference between shatter, break and rip. Next, students can come up with lists of items that fall under each category. Items could be brought to the class and students could experience breaking something, ripping and shattering. This is where the integration of technology aspect comes into place. Students would record themselves ripping, breaking and shattering objects, while others might create a concept map and others a collage with images depicting these verbs. There are different options to demonstrate their understanding of the word because even though they work as a group constructing knowledge, by choosing their own method of presentation, they are also going through their own mental process of learning the word. Students choose the technology that best suits them. This will have a positive impact in the classroom by creating a setting for students to learn from each other and acquire new vocabulary.