I have really enjoyed this class.  I like to think that I am a pretty good problem solver when it comes to efficiency, especially with time management.  Designing this course was focused on my thoughts on keeping the students in my reading class engaged and owning their learning while I was pulling small groups and being more of a coach in the classroom.  I am constantly thinking about how can I get the biggest bang for my buck without working harder than necessary. This course will last six weeks, and the following reading courses will fall right into place easily.

Design Stage

As I thought about my online learning course, I was thankful for my  UbD-Reading and the Margie -3 Column Table -Reading I created in 5313 that has helped me go deeper in my planning and implementing ownership of learning.  I will be following Texas State Standards, focusing on 4.6 where my 4th-graders will use metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts through an authentic learning environment that will give them choice, voice, and ownership of their reading growth.  They will learn the importance of being in charge of their own learning and the impacts it has on their growth.  

My learners will be able to set their own reading goals, track their progress, and self-reflect on their learning.  They will select their reading materials each week and choose how they will respond to their daily reading and how they will demonstrate understanding of their daily/weekly written responses and end-of-unit projects.  

My focus is on Blending Learning using the station rotation model.  Unfortunately, my school does not have an engaging online reading platform that would encourage ownership and accountability, so I came up with some things to use while we find this magical learning platform. I will use station rotations to implement student ownership of their reading lives by checking in on their tracking and growth in small groups.  My hope is that students will take their tracking with them and eventually add it to their ePortfolios when they get to that point. 

I use the word ePortfolio when talking about students tracking their learning growth throughout my planning, but ePortfolios are not my focus, YET.  Students will be tracking their reading on google slides and/or google sheets.  Students will track books read, Newsela articles read and quizzes taken along with scores.  Station rotations are just what I need for ensuring my blended learning course is successful for all learners because they will allow for small group and even one on one check-ins from the start.  Holding learners accountable at the beginning as they form routines that work for them is going to be key to a successful course of students owning their learning. 

My goal is that teachers will take more of a guide on the side or coaching role in the classroom and that students will take ownership of their learning and eventually take this new skill to other aspects of their lives for years to come.

 

Implementation Stage

I designed a blended learning reading program that is presented in Google Classroom. I have created the course schedule and lesson plans using google sheets and my goals from Finks 3 column table.  My UbD has been the most helpful in the planning stages.  My introduction video and course overview are under the “Start Here” tab.  My course goal is for students to take ownership of their reading through engaging activities that allow for more choice and voice. I will be utilizing Newsela as well as Flipgrid I will share the main course goal (Increasing reading comprehension of complex texts by owning your learning) in the student outline. Students in my course will be doing a lot of self-assessment, self-reflection, peer-to-peer feedforward, and checking in with me during station rotations. This course is student-centered and designed for the first six weeks of the school year when we are creating routines and teachers are getting to know their students as learners. I am implementing Blended Learning with station rotations in reading and this course will serve as the online platform station and therefore could be used as an online course. Students will learn to track their reading and set appropriate reading goals and self-select reading material that will challenge them. They will follow rubrics when giving responses to their reading comprehension and will complete reading projects of their choice for the end-of-course assessment. My role is more of a guide on the side that will hold them accountable during the first 6 weeks in order to establish strong routines by checking in with everyone during station rotations each day in reading. Because I will be using this in my classroom, I will be able to support students with any issues they might face using google classroom.

Weekly Reading and Response is where students will track what they read and use it for weekly reflection and the next week’s reading choices and goal setting/adjusting. The reading response choice board is linked on this page as well. The objectives will change, along with the response choices on the board.  

 

Usability Stage

My course is designed in our school LMS (Google Classroom) and will serve as the online station. My district doesn’t have an online reading platform, so I tried coming up with something on my own. It will engage students in reading activities that will teach them how to take ownership of their learning, specifically in reading. I asked my current 4th graders to join this Google Classroom along with my 4th-grade teachers. I asked them to look through the “start here” section and “week 1” checking for accessibility (working links and videos, FlipGrid login, etc.). I created a google form and linked it to my stream page for feedback on my course. My students all said the documents are too wordy and said the outline (my 3-column table) stressed them out. You can see their comments and suggestions on the Google Classroom Review. One major problem I am currently facing with this online program I have designed is YouTube accessibility. My district has restricted student access, therefore my team and I will be spending a lot of time recreating videos using Screencastify. This has been hard for me to wrap my head around because it is an inefficient use of our time to remake a bunch of videos.

 

References

Bates, A.W. (2019). Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Harapnuik. D. (2020). Feedforward vs. Feedback. https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=8273

Quality Assurance Begins with a Set of Standards. (n.d.) https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards Select a QM Rubric that matches your learning context.

Top 7 Instructional Design Models to Help You Create Effective Learning Material. (2021). https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/instructional-design-models-process/

Backward course design (n.d.) https://teaching.uwo.ca/curriculum/coursedesign/backward-design.html