Level 3 - Infusion
At a Level 3 (Infusion), the instructional focus emphasizes student higher order thinking (e.g., Bloom Levels – analyzing, evaluating, creating; Webb’s Levels – short-term strategic thinking) and teacher-directed problems. Though specific learning activities may lack authenticity, the instructional emphasis is, nonetheless, placed on higher levels of cognitive processing and in-depth treatment of the content using a variety of thinking skill strategies (e.g., problem-solving, decision-making). The concept attainment, inductive thinking, and scientific inquiry models of teaching are the norm and guide the types of products generated by students.
Digital and/or environmental resources are used by students and/or the teacher to execute teacher-directed tasks that emphasize higher levels of student cognitive processing relating to the content under investigation.
Level 4a – Integration: Mechanical
At a Level 4a (Integration: Mechanical) students are engaged in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using the available digital and/or environmental resources; however, the teacher may experience classroom management (e.g., disciplinary problems) or school climate issues (lack of support from colleagues) that restrict full-scale integration. Heavy reliance is placed on prepackaged materials and/or outside resources (e.g., assistance from other colleagues) that aid the teacher in sustaining engaged student-directed learning. Emphasis is placed on the constructivist, problem-based models of teaching that require higher levels of student cognitive processing (e.g., Bloom Levels – analyzing, evaluating, creating; Webb’s Levels – short-term strategic thinking, extended strategic thinking) and in-depth examination of the content.
Student use of digital and/or environmental resources is inherent and motivated by the drive to answer student-generated questions that dictate the content, process, and/or products embedded in the learning experience.
Forced Somewhere in Between
When thinking about my classroom in comparison to the LoTi framework I would place myself somewhere in between Level 3 and Level 4 a. I teach mainly American Literature to high school juniors. The American Literature course comes with an extremely high stakes end of course exam. Much of the year is spent preparing students for this test that carries implications not only for the student, but for the success of the school.
I approach this somewhat complicated class from a project-based approach all the while keeping in mind that the standardized test looms in the background. Students collaborate often and I use technology frequently to assist with this collaboration. My school system is integrated with google and all students have a county managed google account. This integration allows me to use Drive for not only collaboration, but also instant feedback, and ultimately create a paper-free classroom. I manage a course wiki on google sites that allows students to not only access all course materials, but provides opportunities for them to collaborate together through the use of Google Drive. My course site can be accessed at www.tinyurl.com/pitmanamericanlit.
Students are using and interacting with technology everyday in my classroom. The technology does more than supports learning in my classroom, but helps my students learn differently. Drive affords me the opportunity to provide feedback to students quicker and also gives them new collaboration opportunities. Through Drive, I am able to have students create collaborative documents without ever leaving their desks through their mobile devices. I use this often as we create vocabulary study sheets and even use the method in test prep with my students. The course wiki houses the documents and students are able to refer back to them frequently.
I feel that the way that I use technology in my classroom places me at level 4 or maybe even close to level 5 on the framework. I do not use technology for the sake of using it, and I do believe that students are learning differently because of the way it is being used in my classroom. My struggle with the framework is the requirement that students work with real-world problems that they develop. When I first began my teaching career, I was very idealistic and bought into the idea and importance of real world connections. My idealistic teacher-self still believes in this very perfect student-led learning, but the reality of today’s education system makes this idealistic world difficult to achieve. The test driven education system forces me to a place that prevents such student-led instruction. So much time has to be spent preparing for a standardized test that has little to do with the ‘real world’. Unfortunately, instruction should be driven by the assessment, and the assessment that we are given does not encourage questions, collaboration, or authentic problem solving. I work the create an authentic environment within the box that I am forced into, but given the current climate in education, I have to wonder if truly achieving anything above a 3 is really possible?
Hi, Elizabeth!
ReplyDeleteGoogle Drive also allows students to work collaboratively from home. It has some pretty cool resources such as chatting, commenting and editing. I have experienced some problems with Google Drive before when writing a document collaboratively. The dpcument was frozen and I had to refresh the page. However, it saved the editings and I did not have any extra work.
I understand the struggle you go through because sometimes we have to stay "within the lines" and we cannot employ certain methods, strategies and techniques. As instructors, we have to comply to state, national and local educational standards, as well as school policies. So it might be frustrating sometimes not to be able to do what you feel it is best for students. However, I think you could use project-based learning or problem-based learning to generate activities that, at the same time, prepare your students for the test and for real life. You could assign test-directed activities as homework and provide a better contextualization in the classroom.
Hi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteNice explanation of how the district constraints and expectations limit the ability to incorporate technology and perform real-world tasks. I would imagine with a subject such as American Literature, where there is pre-determined information that the students must learn, that it would be difficult to incorporate technology as you might like.
Is there any flexibility in your class time? Could your students take what they learn and use technology to take the information and use it in some way outside the classroom? More specifically, I was thinking that they could use the theme of the story as a catalyst for a community project. For example if the theme was charity, they could also research and present on, or participate in an activity through a charitable organization.
Or what about an online "study buddy" at a different school where they use technology for the interactions? I was just thinking about how when I was in high school we had pen pals in Japan, and we helped them practice their English.