Developer's Notebook
During CEP 820, I created an online math unit for 2nd grade students learning subtraction with regrouping. Throughout the development of my course, I recorded ideas and received feedback in a Google doc. The link to my developer's notebook is posted below.
Developer's Notebook
As I created this course, I constantly had to keep in mind that my audience would be early elementary school students. When I began I primarily thought of online modules being for high school or college level students. Getting into the mindset of creating something for early elementary students was a bit challenging, even for someone who has been teaching elementary school for a while! I really only had my graduate online experience to reflect on and creating something for early elementary students was much different. I selected Weebly because it was easy to use and allowed for the user to modify “the look” of the course depending on what was needed or wanted.
Because I was going to be using this course with young learners, I kept the text, color, layout, etc. clean and simple. I didn’t want to distract the students from the overall goal of the course. I tried to keep a consistent theme, give clear directions, and follow a similar format on each page of the module. I also wanted to keep the students engaged by presenting the material through multiple methods. A short video, a series of photos with writing, and a how-to screencast are a few examples I used throughout my course. I found this aspect could be difficult to balance at times. Presenting the material in an engaging, meaningful way could easily become cluttered and overwhelming to new technology users. I started with too much information, gadgets, and ideas. I slowly had to weed out what was most important and stick with those. I also found that much of the language related to subtraction with regrouping is inconsistent. I purposely selected videos, photos, readings, etc. that used varying language so that students would be exposed to a variety of vocabulary. I want them to realize that “borrowing” and “regrouping” are essentially the same thing.
I had to take my audience into account when I was creating the assessment as well. The assessment is a blog posting of a few sentences. For 2nd graders, a few sentences can speak volumes about their overall understanding. I created a detailed rubric for the blog posting so it would be easy to students to follow. I also made the rubric a self-assessment so that students would feel responsible for their own learning progress.
Developer's Notebook
As I created this course, I constantly had to keep in mind that my audience would be early elementary school students. When I began I primarily thought of online modules being for high school or college level students. Getting into the mindset of creating something for early elementary students was a bit challenging, even for someone who has been teaching elementary school for a while! I really only had my graduate online experience to reflect on and creating something for early elementary students was much different. I selected Weebly because it was easy to use and allowed for the user to modify “the look” of the course depending on what was needed or wanted.
Because I was going to be using this course with young learners, I kept the text, color, layout, etc. clean and simple. I didn’t want to distract the students from the overall goal of the course. I tried to keep a consistent theme, give clear directions, and follow a similar format on each page of the module. I also wanted to keep the students engaged by presenting the material through multiple methods. A short video, a series of photos with writing, and a how-to screencast are a few examples I used throughout my course. I found this aspect could be difficult to balance at times. Presenting the material in an engaging, meaningful way could easily become cluttered and overwhelming to new technology users. I started with too much information, gadgets, and ideas. I slowly had to weed out what was most important and stick with those. I also found that much of the language related to subtraction with regrouping is inconsistent. I purposely selected videos, photos, readings, etc. that used varying language so that students would be exposed to a variety of vocabulary. I want them to realize that “borrowing” and “regrouping” are essentially the same thing.
I had to take my audience into account when I was creating the assessment as well. The assessment is a blog posting of a few sentences. For 2nd graders, a few sentences can speak volumes about their overall understanding. I created a detailed rubric for the blog posting so it would be easy to students to follow. I also made the rubric a self-assessment so that students would feel responsible for their own learning progress.