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ISLT 9484 Fall 2013 Howland September 15, 2013 I have chosen 9-12 grade Career Management as my area of interest. This course prepares students to locate, secure, keep, and change careers. Emphasis is placed on self-assessment of characteristics, interests, and values; education and career exploration; evaluation of career information and creation of a career plan. Based on the National Career Development Guidelines, skills learned in this course include, but are not limited to communications, interpersonal skills, problem solving, personal management and teamwork. English language arts are reinforced. My goal would be to find methods that would engage students in a way the face-to-face instruction could not. Some teachers utilize textbooks and some do not. Each of these strategies requires a computer and Internet access. The assumption is that these resources are provided by the school, either through the classroom or library, if they are not available in the home. Each of the solutions below uses elements of a learner-centered approach and seeks to stimulate the students' creativity and deeper retention, therefore relieving boredom and increasing understanding. Solution/Intervention Strategy #1 To present content to students in a more interactive way, my plan would be to use an online news source that delivers a short segment each day for viewing that relates to and encourages critical thought of the content being taught in the course. This resource will enhance learning and assist retention of necessary content pertinent to the passing of the state mandated VoCATs assessment at the end of the semester. http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/index.html Students will respond daily (Monday through Friday) to a question or questions on a discussion forum relating to the CNN Student News 10-minute segment that day. The questions would seek to explore current news items that relate to career management, economics, real-world application to content, etc. Questions would be open-ended to give students an opportunity to elaborate on thoughts and explore new thread directions. An example of a question might include, "What U.S. city approved a ban on some sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces? Can the government impose such regulations? If so, how? Students would then be required to watch the news, read an article or investigate an Internet site to find the answer and see how the government can even impose those types of regulations. Then they each post their own question and are expected to facilitate the conversation. The assignment would be completed daily, which would give students time to exchange ideas. A discussion of thoughts would begin the next week's class. Success for this activity would be qualitative, not quantitative, meaning the number of posts is not as important as the quality of posts. But a minimum number of posts is expected as well as a demonstration of weeklong engagement.
Quia will initially be used to introduce and repetitively practice vocabulary by having students define the words and then play games such as flash cards, matching, battleship, rags to riches, Who Wants to be a Millionaire on Quia. This will occur at the beginning of each Objective to ensure that vocabulary is grasped to understand the lesson at hand. Then, Quia will be used to assess retention of content and test-taking skills by having students complete weekly quizzes on Quia. The helpful component of this assignment is that all students can take and retake each quiz as many times as needed to be successful. Those students that dont require the extra chances will complete the assignment with an A and move on. However, those that require extra help may continue to try until they are successful while being exposed to the material more at the same time. This will prove beneficial, not only for the short-term but also for the long-term state assessment, VoCATs. Solution/Intervention Strategy #3 Assessing students is an important component of both an online class and a state assessed course. It is important that testing procedures are conducted according to certain rules and specifications to mimic the same expectations they will face on the state assessment. For example, each student needs to be administered the same or comparable sets of questions, given the same directions, and allowed the same time frame to complete the test.