Lauren Swenson: MAET - CEP 820: Teaching Students Online

My course on nonfiction writing was created for my twenty-six fifth grade students. This course was created as a supplement to in-person teaching, and designed to come after students had already learned about nonfiction texts, researched a topic of choice, and created a draft of this writing in their notebooks. I spaced out this creation unit to be 5 lessons long, this way students are only focusing on one skill per lesson and have a course that flows naturally. Students are also given the opportunity to select the presentation medium in which to work on, so that they are truly working on something that meets their individual needs. Students also have opportunities to collaborate with partners based on their presentation medium so that students do not need to teach their partner how to operate their online presentation. Students also have multiple metacognitive moments throughout the lesson to reflect on what they have learned and where they need to improve their learning in order for students to take ownership of their creations.

Two of the main theoretical foundations that I have grounded my online course design process in are humanizing and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Due to the fact that my course was designed for a younger audience, I want my students to feel comfortable approaching me with concerns and questions that they may have. I also wanted them to know that I am a human as well, not just an educator. This helps the students to feel comfortable in the learning space that I have created. I also focused on incorporating aspects of UDL to accommodate all types of learners. I have a wide range of needs in my classroom, and when approaching online learning, I need to be cognizant of their needs so that they can be successful as well. This included subtitles, multiple forms of work creation, and including audio of longer texts. While creating this course, I kept my students' needs at the forefront of my mind. I knew that ten-year-old students need clear expectations, chunked directions, and simple tasks to complete. When I created each aspect of my course, I incorporated these aspects online, just like I would in my physical classroom.

My students in this course are assessed through an authentic creation. This creation is a mixture of a final project and an essay question. Through this summative assessment, students are able to grow in their online creation presence, which is an important aspect of 21st Century Learning, while also starting the importance of giving credit to sources through bibliographies. Writing is an ever developing process, and this assessment is another way to assess the writing journey that my students are on.

When creating an online course, I would recommend selecting a management system that is already being used by your particular institution. This will allow for an easier transition into the course, and avoid the extra step of having to create a tutorial on how to navigate the course management system. I would also recommend planning with the end in mind. While creating a course, the individual tasks within a lesson can be fun and exciting to try new things, but each task has to lead to the summative assessment. It is crucial to ask yourself each step of the way if the task helps students to reach the end goal you have set for them.

Course Overview

Within this section of my course, I included a Meet the Teacher section, in order to humanize me as an educator, a course navigation video, a communication policy, and grading policy/technology requirements.

Lesson 1

For the first lesson of this course, students will be researching four different types of online presentation sources. They will do this by reading the learning targets (or listening to them), watching the lesson navigation video, researching using ThinkLink, and then reflecting on their decision by either using Flip or Google JamBoard.

Lesson 2

For this lesson, students will be learning about different types of text features and incorporating three into their presentations. The students will also be transferring their draft into the online presentation system before starting with text features. The lesson will start with students reading or listening to the learning targets. Then, students will watch the text features video as a review of the material. Students will then incorporate three text features and upload screenshots of these aspects into Google Classroom. Lastly, students will post the link to their online presentations using Padlet.

Lesson 3

For this lesson, students will learn how to properly cite sources. To start the lesson, students will read or listen to the learning targets. Then, students will watch the lesson overview video. Next, students will watch a BrainPop lesson on how to cite sources using MLA citations. Finally, students will create their bibliography within their presentation, copy it, and paste it into a Google Doc for feedback.

Lesson 4

For this lesson, students will give and receive feedback from a peer using the same online presentation method. Students will begin by reading or listening to the learning targets. Then, students will watch the lesson overview video. Next, students will view who their editing partner is, view their partner's presentation, and grade them based on the informational writing rubric. Finally, students will reflect on how editing improved their writing by completing an exit ticket.

Lesson 5

For the last lesson of the course, students will be recording a video of their presentation. To begin, students will read or listen to the learning targets for the lesson. Then, students will watch the lesson 5 overview video. Next, students will view a tutorial on how to record using the platform Screencastify. Then, students will create their videos and submit them using Screencastify. Finally, students will complete a unit reflection form to rate their final submission, determine what they learned, and what area they want to improve on for the next writing unit.

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