EdTech 521: Asynchronous Lesson Self-Evaluation

I believe my asynchronous lesson "A Plant's Life: It's Not Easy Being Green" has been successful at meeting the expectations of both the Asynchronous Lesson Rubric as well as the Common Core Instructional Guides. The instructional strategies align with goals of the Common Core Standards for literacy, even though this is essentially a science lesson.

Reflecting on the tips from the relevant Common Core Guide tool 3-12 ELA / Literacy Instructional Practice Guide: Coaching, I believe my lesson has included the following:

• Includes high-quality texts of multiple texts. (Although the lesson isn't specifically text-based, but rather multimedia in nature, many of the websites are presenting at different reading levels to accommodate a variety of learners.)
• Lesson engages students in reading, speaking, or writing about text(s). (Students must read and respond to audio-visual texts in different mediums.)
• The text(s) are clear and build knowledge relevant to the content being studied. (The websites and activities were chosen because they included content specifically on topic and were of high quality (clear and organized).)
• Questions and tasks require students to cite evidence from the text to support analysis, inference, and claims. (The presentation formative assessment asks students to use information gained from the resource collection to present information in a new way.  Although they are not directly analyzing or claiming anything new in this lesson, their connections between the plant life steps as well as the "why" questions on their slides will incorporate informational text support.
• Students are required to appropriately use academic language (i.e., vocabulary and syntax) from the text. (Students will learn and use scientific vocabulary words.)
• Sequences of questions support students in delving deeper into text, data, or graphics to support inquiry analysis, and appropriate procedures. (By participating in the Scavenger Hunt students are following a sequence of questions to aid in comprehension and connection-making.)
• The teacher provides the conditions for all students to focus on text. (The lesson is designed to minimize distractions and direct students to appropriate "texts" that will captivate their interest.)
• The teacher creates the conditions for student conversations and plans tasks where students are encouraged to talk about each other’s thinking.  (The peer evaluation piece at the end of the lesson requires student conversations about the plant life cycle and the presentation process itself.)

Looking more deeply at the CC Standards Guide, I could have incorporated more peer interaction in this lesson.  For example, in my lesson, students do not use evidence to build on each other’s observations or insights during discussion or collaboration.  This is a relatively private and individual learning task.  I could look for extension opportunities for peer teaching or collaborative knowledge-building.  I could also have included one or two resources that were strictly text-based passages as to encourage more critical analysis and interpretation of writing.

The Lesson Rubric itself speaks more to the multi-faceted design of the lesson, and I believe I have been successful in the areas of content, learning styles, engagement, adaptive/assistive technologies, and assessment.

• I have included all required content components (with the exception of associated assignments).  It wouldn't hurt to add the original lesson plan to this website to tie the two together.  It might also be a good idea to list the resources used in the video (including Scavenger Hunt resources) on the written lesson plan.
• The learning styles supported in my lesson, I believe, as varied.  Visual and audio learners will be engaged by the scavenger hunt activity and video tutorials.  Tactile learners will hopefully respond well to the drawing and presentation construction.
• Engagement should be high with the interactive (but hopefully not-too-overwhelming) nature of the webpages.  I have no chat or discussion board in this particular lesson, but the comments feature in Google Docs is a good alternative.
• The content of my website is accessible to many learners.  I'm sure I could find ways to improve the variety of presentation modes and input methods for students with disabilities, and it may be worth adding one or two.  In the meantime, I've tried to accommodate ELL learners who are native Spanish speakers.  I have also accommodated ELL learners and students with reading challenges by including written directions as well as step-by-step videos for each part of the lesson.  The resources I've selected are also of various reading and complexity levels.
• The assessment tools are both formative and summative.  They are interwoven with the lesson in a seamless, natural way.  They are also directly aligned with the lesson objectives.

A few minor additions could improve this lesson and its accompanying website, however I think it is quite solid in its current form.