Lesson 3: Evaluating Podcasts, Videocasts,Digital Stories


Hello, 3rd graders!



What are we doing today?

Today we have 2 goals:

• Content goal: We will discover more about animal and insect habitats by taking a field trip to the Richardson Nature Center.



• Language goal: We will make predictions about the animals, insects and habitats we think we will see on our field trip to the Richardson Nature Center.
  

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REVIEW THESE IMPORTANT WORDS:

• habitat: the place a plant, animal, insect, or other living thing lives in nature

Some examples of habitats are: woodlands, ponds, meadows, marshes, lakes, deserts, mountains, caves, tropical forests, prairies...and many more.

• prediction: a guess about what you think will happen

Examples: I predict it will rain today. I predict we will learn a lot about habitats on our field trip.

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Your job today:

• Review the important words habitat and prediction above.


• Go to the Richardson Nature Center page on our class wiki.

To get to our class wiki, click on this link: http://mswilsonsellworkspace.pbworks.com/.

Then, go down to Student Response Pages and click on Field Trips.

Then, click on Richardson Nature Center.

• Listen to the podcast about the Richardson Nature Center on our wiki page.


• Follow the steps at the end of the podcast and on the wiki page to make 3 predictions about what you think we will see at the Richardson Nature Center.


• Post your 3 predictions on our Richardson Nature Center wiki page.

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Excellent work! I am excited to read your predictions for our fabulous field trip to the Richardson Nature Center!
-- Ms. Wilson






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Lesson Overview:

Students: 3rd grade ELLs, of varying language and cultural backgrounds
English language level: Intermediate ESL
Lesson time: 1 hour in classroom with laptops (one per student, includes one pair of headphones per laptop)
Class location environment: This lesson will be taught in the ELL or mainstream classroom, depending on the ELL model in place (pull out/collaboration). Each student will work individually, and will start by sitting down at an assigned laptop (which will be open to our class blog), reading over the start-up directions and checklist for the day, and getting started.

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Lesson Review:

How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?

Content goal: We will discover more about animal and insect habitats by taking a field trip to the Richardson Nature Center.

Language goal: We will make predictions about the animals, insects and habitats we think we will see on our field trip to the Richardson Nature Center.

The blog/wiki/podcast combination used in this lesson meets the instructional goals by:

• First, the blog provides students with a review and examples of the important words used in this lesson.
• Then, the wiki provides a photo slide show of the Richardson Nature Center to help build some background.
• The link to the podcast is also on the wiki page, as well as a scaffold for students needing support to comprehend the podcast: a link to the podcast’s script.
• The content of the podcast provides background knowledge on what a nature center is, what a pond habitat is, and what a visit to the nature center entails. The podcast also gives explicit instructions for making predictions, and provides sentence frames for students to use as a guide for their predictions.
• The wiki page reiterates the prediction instructions, including the questions and sentence frames. It also lays out the directions for how to post to the wiki page, and offers an example of what the completed predictions should look like.
• By the end of the lesson, students will have posted their three predictions about animals, insects and habitats on the class wiki, thus beginning to discover more about animal and insect habitats.

What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and adapt this resource for your instructional goals?

• Each student will have the start-up directions and a checklist on a half sheet of paper:
• Sit down at your assigned laptop.
• Read the information for Lesson 3. When it tells you to, go to our class wiki page and listen to the podcast about the Richardson Nature Center.
• Make your 3 predictions after you listen to the podcast, and post them on our Richardson Nature Center wiki page.
• Checklist: (to be marked with an “x” when completed) I am sitting at my assigned laptop. I read the goals for this lesson. I understand what habitat means. I understand what prediction means. I read all of the information for Lesson 3. I listened to the podcast about the Richardson Nature Center on our class wiki page. I posted my 3 predictions on our class wiki page.
  

Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource appropriate for your instructional goals?

Format and design:

I think the blog’s reading format is appropriate for the goals of this lesson because it is separated into short, thematic text sections with pictures and text size to scaffold and aid in comprehension. The format of the Richardson Nature Center’s wiki page also includes photos, the podcast, and short text sections, which I think help guide ELLs in completing the assigned task.

Organization:

The blog’s organization is very sequential, based on the goals and background knowledge needed to complete the prediction assignment. The organization of the wiki is fairly straight forward; however students do need to follow a few links to finally arrive at the Richardson Nature Center page.

Language level:

I think the language level of the blog, wiki pages, and podcast is appropriate for the targeted students, as most of the words are tier 1 or tier 2. More challenging words or concepts, such as habitat and predicting, are scaffolded with definitions, examples and visual aids.

What are the potential problems, either language based or technical, that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?

Language-based problems: The success of this lesson depends on students’ listening and reading comprehension of the podcast, podcast script, and the directions. Although the podcast is not very long and includes a lot of voice inflection and questions to hold students’ attention, it is still possible for students to zone out or get lost while listening (even if they have the script in front of them). However, I think assignments that require independent work can be great practice for ELLs because they can go at their own pace, and have the option to listen to all or part of the podcast as many times as they need to.

Technical problems: Posting to the wiki page could still pose a challenge for some students because it requires so many steps: first you need to login, then find the next available posting space by going to the very bottom of all of the posts, then change the font/color/size/style, then perhaps comment on a friend’s post, then publish. It could be easy to get confused or lost in the middle of all of those posting steps. I will be around to help students who have trouble, and hopefully after the first few times posting, students will get the hang of it.