CEP 800- Lesson Plan Reflection

The following recaps a lesson I recently taught that implemented technology.

                                                    Lesson Reflection

Lesson Plan
    Since my 8th grade students had recently finished reading science fiction novels, a science fiction graphic novel, and studied the elements of science fiction, I wanted to create an assignment that incorporated each of those things. So this lesson had students write and create their own science fiction graphic novel on the online comic creation site Pixton. They were required to include specific elements of the science fiction genre that we had discussed in class. When they finished their story, they embedded the finished product onto the class Edmodo page, viewed their classmates’ graphic novels and wrote comments on them on Edmodo. The only change that I made to the whole plan was that I modified the assignment even more than I thought I would for four of my students who have a 2nd-3rd grade reading level. I had them re-create a scene from the science fiction novel they read on Pixton, rather than write an original story. This allowed them to still use what they had learned about the genre and their specific novel, while not feeling overwhelmed.

Implementation
    The first group I taught my lesson to was my 3rd period class. I have 25 students in that class with a mix of ability levels. When I first told them they would be making a graphic novel there was quite a bit of enthusiasm. When I told them they would be writing the story themselves, most were excited about the opportunity for more creative writing. I implemented the lesson as planned: modeling the site, using guided learning, and then letting the students work independently. Students were eager to begin working on their stories on their own and they were excited to be able to use the laptops in the classroom. From time to time when a student would ask me a question, before I could answer, another student would try to help them, which was a clear sign that they were excited about what they were doing.

Reflection

With this assignment, students learned how to write and present an original science fiction story through a graphic novel format. The underlying assumptions held with this assignment were that students may have struggled with writing an original story in this unique format because they did not have much experience with either. The affordances for how the information was represented was that they had an opportunity to use technology that was easily accessible, with high quality graphics, and a very large variety of graphic options. The constraints were that each student was required to have an email account to access the site and would need to remember to save the link when they finished the project in order to turn it in.

Constructivism was used during the active learning components when allowing students to discover how to use Pixton in order to create a comic that meshed with their personal vision. Students assimilated their knowledge about how to use creation websites and their understanding of the elements of science fiction in order to understand and create a story on Pixton. Social constructivism was seen when students turned their projects into Edmodo and commented on each others’ graphic novels, allowing them to learn from each other. This lesson was intended to enhance what was already learned within the curriculum, while allowing the students to apply that knowledge in a unique format.

I assessed students’ learning throughout this lesson through their original graphic novels using the required science fiction elements that they turned in. This provided evidence that they understood the characteristics of science fiction. I also assessed how students learned from each others’ graphic novels by reading the comments written to each other on the class Edmodo page under each project.

Technology played a crucial role in this lesson. The online comic creation site not only made creative a graphic novel accessible to all students, it also frequently helped inspire students while creating their stories as they saw the various characters and backgrounds available to them. The advantage was that this site allowed all students to create a graphic novel regardless of artistic ability and made it so that changes could easily be made. The only disadvantage was that students needed an email address to log in. The only questions students had were minor trouble shooting questions, such as how to change backgrounds, or how to double check if their work had saved. Often, other students would answer each others’ questions before I even had the chance to. If it was something I had gone over already, I would try to guide them into remembering that from my example, if not, we would go through it step by step on the computer. The students were overall incredibly enthusiastic and engaged throughout the duration of this assignment. Their projects showed that they had a great grasp on the elements of science fiction and were able to be authors of their own science fiction comics.