Use Technology Effectively

Use Technology Effectively

In this section, we provide ideas on how you can use the technology you have more effectively in the teaching and learning environment. We recognize the challenges adult education settings have with uneven technology infrastructure (to say the least); however, there are ways to be creative, and we hope to inspire you to try out some of these ideas.

See the TEAL Center Fact Sheet on Technology Supported Writing Instruction at the end of this section for ideas on how to support writing at every stage with specific tools.

One Computer, No Presentation Capabilities

Make sure everyone has an e-mail address (at least a free account such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, or Gmail). In this way, you can exchange digital materials with students. If you do not have access to a computer laboratory or public computers where you can help get this accomplished, work with a partnering organization to do so. The public library, a community center, a local school (public, private, or charter) or college, a vocational rehabilitation center, One Stop, or even a business that has a computer laboratory may be an effective partnering organization. Teach learners how to open and send attachments.

Huddle Up! Use video and multimedia content on full-screen view, and have learners huddle around the one screen. Use this content to demonstrate a concept, introduce background knowledge, or make a point. Consider the learners’ ability to see details in such a situation. Send them home with the Web address so that they can watch the clip again on their own time, with better viewing capacity.

E-Mail Supplemental Materials to Learners. Discuss the materials and your expectations for their work in advance while you have learners in class, and discuss again as a debriefing activity. For example, if you want learners to do Web research, discuss ways to organize what they find and learn. Examples include the following:

• Discuss/show on the whiteboard how to copy the URL and how to paste it into an e-mail. Get everyone in the habit of annotating the URL with their thoughts and review of the material. If all learners e-mailed you a few annotated URLs where they found good material on a topic, you could create quite a robust list of resources.
• Discuss/show how to capture a screenshot and paste it into an attachment or e-mail. This process is incredibly helpful to document the moment when “I got stuck”!
• Look for supplemental materials that generate a document that learners can print, save, or e-mail to themselves or you. This provides a learning object on which you can continue to build.

Survey Learners for the Technology Tools They Have in Their Pockets. If at least every two learners have a smart phone and a data plan that allows them to get e-mail in the class, find applications that can be e-mailed or sent via text messaging to the cell phones. Look for compact and mobile software programs if learners are working on tiny screens and keyboards.

Here are some examples:

• Dr. Dictionary, Word of the Day (http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/list/) – available by e-mail, text message, twitter feed.
• Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/) – has Q&A for many common grammatical challenges; subscribe to the newsletter or Facebook page and learn a tip at a time.
• Language translation sites (http://translate.google.com/#).
• Google mobile browser (www.google.com/mobile/) – which runs much better on phones.
• This Day in History for history buffs (www.history.com/this-day-in-history) – available by e-mail; find similar sites for sports, arts, movies, cooks, poetry, Bible readers—almost anything!
• Twitter! You can find a Twitter feed for any interest that will send short headlines and teasers; you might consider starting a Twitter channel for your classroom so that you can send links to classroom and supplemental materials. See what’s happening nationally in adult education by searching www.Twitter.com for #adulted.

“I find our class uses a variety as
well including voice recorders,
video recorders, laptops,
PowerPoint, i-pods, zip drives,
and projectors. It really seems to
keep that twinkle in the students’
eyes when they are utilized.
However, many of us could
probably agree that the cost is
really an issue. ... Perhaps
collaborating resources with
nearby districts may alleviate
some restrictions. My class works
very closely with the schools in
our neighboring school districts
… because the adult parents that
I teach have children that attend
schools in close proximity. I find
that the teachers are very willing
to set aside time to allow our class
to visit, a field trip if you will, to
learn on the SMARTboards that
their very own children [use].”

Teacher,
New York TEAL Team

“We use YouTube; often I just
turn my monitor around so the
class can see.”

Hilary Gwilt, Texas TEAL Team

“I have used my ELMO and also
find it very useful—not only as a
quick way to ‘throw’ something up
on the screen, but also to change
and add to it. It works great for
math as well as writing. It also
means you can model writing and
the students can see what you’re
doing because you’re not blocking
the board!”

Jonathon Moore,
Mississippi TEAL Team

An Instructor’s Computer With Presentation Equipment

In addition to what you can do with one computer, when you have a projector, there are many other ways you can engage learners. Almost everything that you want your learners to do with technology should be considered a new skill that has to be explicitly taught. Start by demonstrating how to use the features.

• Demonstrate sentence-combining techniques in your focus lesson by underlining or highlighting the key word from the second sentence and demonstrating editing a new word into a text string.
• Demonstrate various editing and revision features of your word processing software, such as highlighting related ideas by color code for reorganization, how to use track changes, how to add comments, and how to cut and paste.
• Teach the use of spell checkers! Discuss the suggested words and why they may be included, and teach learners how to choose the right word or work to get a better selection. (Focus on trying to spell the beginning sounds of a word to get a closer match.)
• Teach learners how to use text-to-speech to listen to their writing as a proofreading and revision strategy.
• A single computer also can be a way to introduce websites, software, and ideas you want learners to explore on their own as supplemental to the classwork.
• Show learners in whole or small groups the websites that you want them to explore on their own time at home, in open laboratories, or in libraries. Use TrackStar (http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/index.jsp) to create a set of URLs or “track” for individual learners or groups working on similar skills. Search the TrackStar site for tracks created and shared by other teachers, or sign up for the “track of the day.”

Classroom Technologies

• SMART Boards have a wide range of functions, from projecting presentation slides andInternet sites to serving as an interactive surface that gets learners working together,solving mutual problems. One of the best features is the ability to print the screen, so that all work related to a lesson is saved for later discussion. They are great for showing editing, sentence combining, graphic organizers, planning, and revising.
• ELMOs are projectors that do not require a laptop—they simply project onto the wall or screen, whatever is put under the lens. You can project student work samples, writing taken from magazines, photos, a notebook page with annotations—anything! When they are connected to laptops, ELMOs can project anything on the screen. They are great for showing editing, sentence combining, graphic organizers, planning, and revising.
• Digital cameras and recorders can get learners out in the community and bring thecommunity back into the classroom with digital stories. Learn about the use of digitalstories in adult education at www.creativenarrations.net/.

Nothing!

We hear this from correctional educators who work in the most constrained instructional environments with learners who have little control over their own schedules. However, even with no Internet technology, you can introduce the concepts learners might encounter when they do gain access.

• Teach the vocabulary that describes technology and program features; it changes all the time!
• “Cut and paste” during revision. Do it physically with papers that are ripped apart and taped back together in a new order.
• Highlight and comment with physical highlighters and self-adhesive notes.
• Save “documents” in “folders” that are named, dated, and organized on your “desktop.”
• “Tweet” and “text” short headlines and review comments to check for understanding as an Exit or Entrance Ticket (See Writing to Learn). Count the number of words rather than characters.
• “Google it.” Digital literacy depends on being able to judge the value of what you find. Bring in various levels of credible information on a topic of discussion. Talk about how you can tell whether something is worth reading, worth citing, how to cite an article found online, and so on. Describe or draw on the whiteboard how search engines display returns with commercials, paid advertising on top and on the side, and freely available sources listed in the middle of the page. Talk about “photoshopping” and how images can be altered. This knowledge will hold learners in good stead when they do get online.

Effective Lesson Planning

Effective Lesson Planning

Planning ahead to identify a course of action that can effectively help learners reach their goals and objectives is an important first step in effective instruction. Lesson planning communicates to learners what they will learn and how their goals will be assessed, and it helps instructors organize content, materials, time, instructional strategies, and assistance in the classroom.

About Effective Lesson Planning

Planning ahead to identify a course of action that can effectively reach goals and objectives is an important first step in any process, and education is no exception. In education, the planning tool is the lesson plan, which is a detailed description of an instructor’s course of instruction for an individual lesson intended to help learners achieve a particular learning objective. Lesson plans communicate to learners what they will learn and how they will be assessed, and they help instructors organize content, materials, time, instructional strategies, and assistance in the classroom. Lesson planning helps English as a second language (ESL), adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education (ASE), and other instructors create a smooth instructional flow and scaffold instruction for learners.

The Lesson Planning Process

Before the actual delivery of a lesson, instructors engage in a planning process. During this process, they determine the lesson topic (if states have implemented content standards, the topic should derive from them). From the topic, derive the lesson objective or desired results—the concepts and ideas that learners are expected to develop and the specific knowledge and skills that learners are expected to acquire and use at the end of the lesson. Objectives are critical to effective instruction because they help instructors plan the instructional strategies and activities they will use, includingthe materials and resources to support learning. It is essential that the objective be clear and describe the intended learning outcome. Objectives can communicate to learners what is expected of them—but only if they are shared with learners in an accessible manner. Instructional objectives must bespecific, outcome-based, and measurable, and they must describe learner behavior. Heinich, Molenda, Russell, and Smaldino (2001) refer to theABCD’s of writing objectives:

• Audience – learners for whom the objective is written (e.g., ESL, ABE, GED)
• Behavior – the verb that describes what the audience will be able to do (e.g., describe, explain, locate, synthesize, argue, communicate)
• Condition – the circumstances under which the audience will perform the behavior (e.g., when a learner obtains medicine from the pharmacy, he or she will be able to read the dosage)
• Degree – acceptable performance of the behavior (i.e., how well the learner performs the behavior)

Learner assessment follows from the objectives. Based on the principles of backward design developed by Wiggins and McTighe (1998), instructors identify the lesson objective or desired results and then decide what they will accept as evidence of learners’ knowledge and skills. The concept ofbackward design holds that the instructor must begin with the end in mind (i.e., what the student should be able to know, understand, or do) and then map backward from the desired result to the current time and the students’ current ability/skill levels to determine the best way to reach theperformance goal.

The WIPPEA Model for Lesson Planning

The WIPPEA Model, an acronym that stands for Warm-up, Introduction, Presentation, Practice, Evaluation, Application, is a lesson plan model that represents a continuous teaching cycle in which each learning concept builds on the previous one, serving as an instructional roadmap for instructors. The WIPPEA lesson plan model is adapted from the work of Hunter (Hunter, 1982). This six-step cyclical lesson planning approach has learners demonstrate mastery of concepts and content at each step before the instructor proceeds to the next step. In the following list, TEAL Center suggestions for incorporating each of these elements are included in italics.

Warm-up – Assesses prior knowledge by reviewing previous materials relevant to the current lesson. Introduce an activity that reviews previously learned content (e.g., for a vocabulary lesson, the warm-up may be a quick matching exercise with words previously learned and their definitions), and also include an activity that focuses on the topic to be taught.

Introduction – Provides a broad overview of the content and concepts to be taught and focuses the learners’ attention on the new lesson. Introduce the purpose of the lesson by stating and writing the objectives for learners and discussing the lesson content and benefits by relating the objective tolearners’ own lives. Assess learners’ prior knowledge of the new material by asking questions and writing learners’ responses on a chalkboard or flip chart.

Presentation – Teaches the lesson content and concepts. Create an activity to introduce the concept or skill (e.g., introduce new vocabulary by asking learners to work in groups to identify words related to taking medications) and then introduce information through a variety of modalities using visuals, realia, description, explanation, and written text. Check for learner understanding of the new material and make changes in lesson procedures if necessary.

Practice – Models the skills and provides opportunities for guided practice. Introduce a variety of activities that allow learners to work in groups, in pairs, or independently to practice the skills, concepts, and information presented. Integrate technology into activities as available.

Evaluation – Assesses each learner’s attainment of the objective. Include oral, aural, written, or applied performance assessments. For example, ask learners to fill in the blanks on a cloze activity using the four medicine warning labels that were discussed in class. For lower level learners, provide a word bank at the bottom of the worksheet. Omit the word bank for more advanced students.

Application – Provides activities that help learners apply their learning to new situations or contexts beyond the lesson and connect it to their own lives. Choose activities that learners can relate to or have expressed concern about. For example, have learners read the label of a medication they or a family member may use at home to make certain they understand the meaning of the words on the label. Gather feedback from learners in follow-up classes and help them assess what additional support, if any, they may require.

The following graphic integrates the WIPPEA process with backward design in a lesson planning wheel. In this cyclical approach, teachers assess prior knowledge, provide a broad overview of the content/concepts to be taught, introduce vocabulary, teach content/concepts, check comprehension,combine the content and vocabulary through guided practice, evaluate student performance, and provide an application activity. Instructional strategies vary depending on the lesson content and skill areas and the needs of the learners.

Planning for differentiated instruction requires various learner profiles to inform the process (See TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 5. on Differentiated Instruction). Students demonstrate mastery of concepts/content in each step before the teacher proceeds to the next step.

The relationship of the objective to the evaluation keeps the lesson focused and drives instruction. By keeping the end in mind (backward design) and creating the evaluation activity at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher has a clear destination for the lesson and a roadmap to get there. Instructors can then select materials and activities that will best prepare students to successfully complete the evaluation activity in the lesson. The process is repeated for each learning objective. Lesson planning is an ongoing process in which instruction flows from one objective to the next. This cyclical process is repeated for each learning objective.

How Does Lesson Planning Benefit Learners and Instructors?

Instructors and learners benefit from thoughtful lesson planning. It provides a framework for instruction, and it guides implementation of standards-based education. Lesson planning establishes a road map for instructors of what has been taught and what needs to be taught. It allows them to focus on one objective at a time and communicate to learners what they will learn in each lesson. Because lessons incorporate ongoing assessments that determine how well learners understand concepts and skills, instructors are able to make mid-course changes in instructional procedures or provide additional support to learners. Additionally, the practice and application components of the lesson help learners use the new skills and knowledge in educational and other settings, thus promoting generalization and relevance.