Day 3
Lesson Narrative/Reflection
Note: Reflective thoughts are expressed in italics.
This lesson is all about helping students understand the AUP they're required to sign to use computer equipment in school. It's poorly written and full of semi-legal jargon that's virtually impossible for children to understand. Microsoft Word is the technology tool they'll be using for this assignment, but it's completely tangential to learning. Word processing allows students to easily edit their ideas, look up synonyms for "big" words, and quickly combine each group’s work into one cohesive document. This narrative takes place on day 3 of the 5-day unit; it’s the first unit we do and we start right after all the housekeeping that goes on at class start-up.
It’s
The second bell has just
rung and all students are in their seats working on Mavis. Oops, here comes
Candace in the door (tardy again). We make eye contact and I hold up my two
fingers. She nods and takes her seat. I take role while students tap away at
their keyboards. Nat comes up to my desk for no particular reason. I ask her to
have a seat and work on keyboarding. Same thing happens with Jared. After a
couple of minutes, I ask all students to wrap up and exit Mavis.
I might decide to wait on introducing the kids to Mavis
warm-ups until after this unit. Even a few minutes of warm up will cut into
their work time and we’ll need every minute.
Students face the back of the room when I give direct instruction. This turns them away from the "click zone." Once all students are facing me, I review the plan for the day, which is written on the white board behind me.
"Today is the day each group is to begin drafting a more understandable version of their section. That means you have to take the school's grown up words and put them into your own words. Pretend you're trying to write this for a 2nd grader. It needs to be really simple." Hand goes up.
"Yes, Justin."
"My brother is in 2nd grade and once he spilled a juice box all over our computer at home. My Dad was so mad...we couldn't use the computer for a long time...and once my sister was on the Internet and this picture came up..."
"Hang on a second, Justin. That sounds like a story to include in a "free type" session. And it does help us understand why we might need things like Acceptable Use Policies in schools. We can't be spilling juice on the keyboards, can we?"
(me continuing) Today, you'll use Microsoft Word to write your "understandable version" of the AUP. We won’t be using paper/pencil. How many of you have used Microsoft Word?" (80% of the hands go up) "How many of you think you're an "expert" at using Microsoft Word? (maybe 2 hands go up, or maybe none). "The good news is that, Kelly turn around and face me please, you don't have to be good at using Microsoft Word today. In fact, you don't have to know anything about it. Only one of the group members needs to actually type, although if others would like a turn, you need to share the computer. Today we will be saving your work to disks which I will be pass out with your notes from yesterday." Hand goes up.
"Yes, Alicia"
"What if our group won't share the computer?"
"Well, there are a couple of ways you could solve that. There will be about 20 minutes of work time, and that's about 5 - 7 minutes apiece at the computer. You could just watch the clock and trade when it's time. Or, you could hand write your information on paper, then take turns typing different sentences. I'll let you attempt to work out those details, and if you need my help just raise your hands. Other questions?"
About 4 hands go up and
students ask questions like: Do we have to finish this today? [No] Can we use
any font we want? [not this time - just use the one that comes up (the
default)] Do we need to save this? [Yes - on disk] Can we change the color of
the text? [Not this time] Can we add pictures? [probably won't have time - wait
until tomorrow] Can I go to the bathroom? [Do you want to use your restroom
coupon?]
At this point, there could be so many questions that they
cut into work time. Must be careful to get kids into their groups ASAP. Often
they answer their own questions once they get with their peers.
"Good job, class. Now please go to your groups and continue working until you hear the timer ding."
Groups form and I walk around, passing out each groups' notes and feedback together with a floppy disk. At first, they're reading and working fairly intently. Then Cheri comes up to me with her group's teacher feedback and asks, "What's this say"
"Oh, that says 'you
left out the part about Internet email' so you need to be sure to include that
in your understandable version. I highlighted it in yellow on the AUP
handout."
I need to be careful about printing comments rather than
handwriting them. Moving from 8th grade to 5th grade is a
big difference and I still have some bad habits to break.
"What is Internet
email?"
This is a legitimate question and there are likely to be
many more like them. Kids might now understand the AUP, even in layman’s
terms if they’re not familiar with the technologies being described.
"Have you asked your group?"
"Not yet"
"Off you go..."
By now, at least 5 of the
groups will have launched Microsoft Word and started typing. Some will have put
their names at the top. Others won't even think about writing their names. Some
will have a title at the top of the page, others won't. Those that have a title
will probably have it centered. Most groups will have increased the font size
to make it more readable. There are a ton of misspelled words in their typed
text. There won’t be long paragraphs, probably just a few sentences by
the end of the class period.
Getting started may not go as smoothly as I’m
hoping. They will have first drafts to work from, so that’s good. But I
should be prepared for the possibility that this part may not go so well.
It’s possible that there could be questions about
how to use the program, but I’m counting on not having too many. If there
are tons of questions about using Word, I may have to pull the group back
together and direct teach some basics.
Hands start to go up now and I make my way from group to group answering questions and troubleshooting problems:
"We can't decide who gets to go first." [I hand them a coin to flip]
"
“What does this
word mean?” [show students how to use the thesaurus to look it up]
Now that I think about it, I should have showed them the
thesaurus right up front. There will be a lot of words they don’t know
and I bet most of the hands that go up will be questions about the meaning of
the text. The thesaurus won’t solve all the questions, but it should cut
down on the number of questions.
This early in the school year, students may not work
so well in cooperative groups. I expect my 6th graders will do better than the
5th graders. I can see that this activity might take at least one day longer
than I originally anticipated. Twenty minutes of work time may not be enough on
an assignment like this.
I continue
monitoring and answering questions. Timer goes off and I call students away
from their keyboards, then ask,
“How many of you
know how to save a file to a floppy disk?”
Half the hands in class
go up. “That’s great! And if you don’t know how to save you
can watch someone else in your group while they do it and we’ll also
cover it in class when we start learning more about Microsoft Word. When you
save your work, please call it Group 1 AUP, or Group 2 AUP or whatever your
group number is.”
Students save their
files; I visit each group and check to make sure it’s not on the hard
drive. Some of the groups have named their file Document 1. Some have saved
into the My Documents folder. We fix it together and I take their disks and
written rough drafts.
I was originally planning to have student bring their
disks to me, but it makes sense for me to collect them while they’re
still at the computer in case they save it incorrectly. Need to make sure they
exit Word before pullinjg out their disks.
“I’ll be
keeping your disks overnight and you’ll have group time tomorrow to
finish your work. Mice upside down, please, and gather your belongings.”
I make a sweep of the room checking for missing mouse balls, stray pencils and
other materials, then dismiss students by section.