On task behavior documentation

For my ARP I have been documenting students behaviors during direct instruction time, during group project work and then during individual tasks. Here are some of my observations so far:

• Group
• initially there is a lot of discussion
• some students made the decisions, other members wait for instructions
• students confered with each other about progress during writing of article
  
• when students were formatting their newspaper page, students who were not actually controlling the computer were not as involved.
• groups that only had 1 or 2 members formatting per page were more on task than higher numbers
• Direct Instruction
• teacher can view 3/4 of screens from her vantage point and see if all are following along with instruction
• students are engaged when instruction is unfamiliar - opening word outline in PPT
• If students perceive they already know the material - they seem to "check out"
  
• Where students sit in room seems to have direct impact of how well they pay attention. Students in front right row and back row do not watch demonstrations on overhead screen.
• Off task behaviors include trying to use headphones to listen to music or websites, viewing own screen instead of demo, not looking at teacher, talking to neighbor
• Individual tasks
• some students work well on their own
• some students need interaction or clarification to understand the task
• if students have clear understanding of task, or written directions to refer to, they usually are more productive than those who have to stop and ask for clarifications
• the more confident the student is in their ability to complete the task at hand, the more on task behavior I observed
• personality & overall school achievement has a lot to do with on-task behaviors
  

chart of behaviors will be posted soon.

Podcasting fun!

Today was the first time in class that my students tried podcasting. Students had a choice of whether to write a mail-merge letter or create a podcast to share their views on Oregon House Bill 2650 (eliminating junk food from schools) or the topic of lunch waste. Three different groups chose podcasting - and after the looks and giggles today - I am sure a few of the other groups wished they had chosen to record their opinions too.

The podcast/mail-merge assignment is the final activity in the What's for Lunch? curriculum unit. Originally the students took photos of lunches for one week and analyzed the nutrition content, cost and waste using an Excel spreadhseet. Next, the students created a desktop publishing poster that was hung in the cafeteria and classroom. This final assignment is to have the students share their knowledge with people outside the classroom.

Students used Audacity to record their podcasts. Many times I observed them rerecording sections to make it just right. All of the groups imported short audio segments for the intro music to the podcast. All three groups were completely engaged during the class sessions and were having fun too!