Class Activities

First Group Activity

Brian, Magdalen, Bill, Anne: We compared our lesson plans and concept maps. Bill's covered the scientific model, Anne's required students to imagine being a "Renaissance Reporter," Magdalen's was a concept map of a writing project for 8th graders, and Brian's covered geography for 3rd graders.

Second Group Activity

Presenting one of our concept maps to other groups.

  1. Judy: Her lesson plan involved 2nd graders understanding food chains and habitats.
  2. April S.: "Green Eggs and Ham" for 1st graders. Sequence events of the book; sequence foods the student does not like.
  3. Tarsha: 3rd/4th graders on the topic of adjectives.
  4. Heather: 11th graders "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty.
  5. John: Throwing a football to a moving target. 9th and 10th graders.
  6. Anne: "Renaissance Reporters" 6th grade social studies
  7. Brian: 3rd grade geography for special needs population

Break

http://www.tucows.com A place to download cool stuff, including timers.

Concept map discussion

Concept maps are a glimpse into a person's mind and their organizational style.

Examples of previous experience with concept maps:

  1. Brian: Dr. Giannangelo's Models class
  2. Tarsha: Flow charts in her undergrad programming class
  3. Bill: Mapping of the banking industry, as well as Regions/AmSouth's place in it.
  4. Julie: Relationship among/between data

NTeQ model for lesson planning

Brief discussion in small groups of the NTeQ model.

Discussion of what's good/not-so-good about NTeQ:

Good

  1. User friendly
  2. Makes students think, using HOTS (higher order thinking skills)
  3. Next phase model for tech integration
  4. Student centered
  5. More effective teachers
  6. Gets students working together
  7. Very organized, procedural
  8. Helps with time management
  9. Encourages computer use

Not-So-Good

  1. Time consuming for the teacher
  2. Too complex for some students
  3. Not challenging enough for older students
  4. Repetitious
  5. Not much flexibility
  6. No/little room for team teaching
  7. Better for use with a prior lesson plan
  8. Looks like means overshadows the ends