Design an assessment rubric

Hello everyone!

In my previous post I explained how to turn a flat activity into a super learning mission. If you have not seen it, go see "Learning mission 1" and "Learning mission 2". In order to complete the development of my educational project, I created an assesment rubric. After designing our mission, it is important to select the criterias of our assesment. To do this, we need not only focus on the final product but also other aspect that can be evaluated during the development of the mission. In order to asses all the asepcts that we think important to acquire, it is necessary to design an assesment criteria as en evaluation tool.

The creation of a rubric to evaluate allow us to know if we are covering all the aspects that we want to work during the learning process and to make sure that students achieve the goals that we want them to reach.

In addition, in order to explain and summarize the process of designing assesment rubric, I have created an infographic using Piktochart.




                                        Piktochart by Samia 

Now that we know the steps that we should follow to create an assesment rubric, I would like to show you my sample.First of all, I chose the mission I wanted to asses. I have decided to evaluate Learning mission 2, if you remember through this mission students have to create a presentation indicating the main characteristics of an vertebrate animal. After choosing the mission to asses, I have selected the criteria that I want to asses taking into account the goals that we want to achieve in this mission. In order to do the rubric, I used an interesting application called QuickRubric. However, I couldn´t embed it, so I added a picture of my rubric. But, if you want you can also see it by clicking here.

Rubric by Samia

I hope you liked my project and it would be grateful if you can give any opinions or comment that you consider important in my post.

See you soon!

Turning a flat activity into a super learning mission! Part 2

Hello again!

I hope you liked my previous post related to the transformation of flat activities in missions. As I said in the previous blog, I have created two different missions. If you haven´t seen it, go to my previous post. Today, I'm going to explain how I performed the second mission. This second mission has been created to show you again how we can transform a flat activity into a super learning mission.

This second mission is quite different from the previous one, because children will learn how to create a presentation by using several images or slides. The flat activity consist of  the creation of a display of a vertebrate animal indicating its main characteristics. However, I would prefer to do it more attractive and motivating by using some digital artifacts.

Therefore, this mission consists in the creation of a presentation of a specific vertebrate animal. This mission is called "My vertebrate animal" and students will choose the vertebrate they like and they will have to explain the main characteristics of that vertebrate animal and explain what makes that animal different from the rest of the vertebrates. 

The objectives that we want to achive in this mission are the following ones:

• See the characteristics that make animals different from each other.
• Learn quite a lot of specific vocabulary related to animals’ physical appearance.
• Deal with the quantity of new vocabulary and concepts, through colourful images.
• Review animal behaviour, what they eat, and their habitat. 
• Explains the characteristics of the different groups of vertebrate animals.
• Classifies animals according to what they eat: omnivores, carnivores and herbivores.
• Identifies some animals from each of these groups.
• Look for, selects and organizers concrete and relevant information; analyses, reaches conclusions, communicates the results; reflects on the process and communicates information orally and in writing.
• Consults and uses written documents, images and graphs.
• Begins to show autonomy in the planning and carrying out of actions and tasks and begins to take the initiative when taking decisions.
• Uses the correct vocabulary according to the content block.
• Learn how to use some ICT tools and digital artifacts.
• Work collaboratively.

As I said before, the main objective of this mission is to show the content learned, not only through a simple image, but in several images or animated slides. For this reason, children must design in pairs each of their slides and then it will become a presentation. Then, they have to explain to their peers the main characteristics of their vertebrate animals. In order to do this mission, student will use the following digital artifacts:

• In order to create our infographic of vertebrate animals we can use several applications such us Canva , Piktochart, Easel.ly, Infogr.am or Visme.

• Blog of the class, where the children upload their videos.

The curricular objective is to know how to classify a particular vertebrate animal, taking into account its characteristics. This mission, like the previous one, is aimed at children of second grade and it will be developed in one session. In addition, the competencies involved in this mission are: Digital skills, learning to learn and social skills.

This mission allows student to:

• Learn to process information

• learn how to organize information visually

• Enhance the assimilation of concepts

• Make the transmission of information in a more attractive way.

Here, I bring you a sample of the presentation that children have to create in this mission:

My vertebrate animal de samia saidi

 On the other hand, I would like to mention that this mission is aligned with  InfoEDUgrafias, which is the collaborative project to which I would be delighted to collaborate and participate with, because as in the case of infoedugrafias, one of the fundamental objectives of my project is the learning of a specific curricular subject using visual resources.

Self- reflection

After completing my last two post, I realized the great importance of the use of ICT tools in teaching a content. These resources allow us to carry out activities in a more organized, clear and visual way for the learning of certain contents. In addition, these resources enhance the acquisition and learning of the content that you want to learn in a more easy and motivating way.

On the other hand, doing this post, I have become familiar with many applications that at first I dind´t Know.
What I have learned during these challenges is the need to create missions or activities that help and facilitate the learning process of kids.

I hope you liked my post!

See you soon

Turning a flat activity into a super learning mission! Part 1

Hello everyone,

Today, I bring you a post to show you how to change a boring activity into a super learning mission!

I have turned two activities in super learning mission, so I have created two different posts, explaining the process of changing those activities into a super learning mission individually. The two activities that I have chosen are selected from my prototype of my educational project.

Therefore, this post will be just focused on explaining one of the two activities I have planned and created. First of all, I decided to change the flat activity and turn it into a mission, to make it more fun, dynamic and innovative. The objective of the flat activity is that the students make a poster using a cardboard, explaining the different types of vertebrate animals. However, I wanted to change this activity and make it a more entertaining mission taking advantage of the use of ICT. 

The objective of the activity does not vary, because the curricular objective of this the learning is the same: To know the different types of vertebrate animals. Nevertheless, the resources that we are going to use in the mission are different from the actual flat activity. The mission is called: "Vertebrate animals" and it will consist of creating and designing an infographic by using applications that allow to create that infographic. The goal of this mission is to show the different types of vertebrates in a more visual and attractive way.

The objectives of this mission are:

• Take a closer look at different groups of animals.

• Create a classification key.

• See the characteristics that make animals different from each other.

• Deal with the quantity of new vocabulary and concepts, through colourful images.

• Presents work in an organized way  digitally either individually or in groups.

• Uses the correct vocabulary according to the content block.

• Review animal behaviour, what they eat, and their habitat. 

• Begins to show autonomy in the planning and carrying out of actions and tasks and begins to take the initiative when taking decisions.

• Consults and uses images and graphs.

• Identifies some animals from each of these groups.

• To create a digital artifact using an adequate web tool.

• To work collaboratively and actively during the mission.

• Create artifacts that can be shared with others.

• Learn and use the vocabulary related to vertebrate animals.

The mission is aimed at second grade of primary and the mission will be carried out in one session. In addition, the competencies involved in this mission are: Digital skills, learning to learn and social skills.

The skills that we are going to improve in this mission are the four skills: speaking, writing, listening and reading. In order to do it more visual, students need to use different digital artifacts. The digital artifacts used during the mission are the following ones:

• In order to create our infographic of vertebrate animals we can use several applications such us Canva , Piktochart, Easel.ly, Infogr.am or Visme.
• A blog for the class. In this blog children will upload the digital works done. In this case, teacher will upload to the blog each one of the infographics that children have created.

This mission allows student to:

• Learn to process information
• learn how to organize information visually
• Enhance the assimilation of concepts
• Make the transmission of information in a more attractive way.

As I said before the purpose of this mission is to learn the different types of vertebrates. Another objective related to the mission is the learning of use some digital artifacts to show in a more visual way the content that student want to learn.

Here you can see a sample of an infopgraphic showing the different types of vertebrate animals:

                                        Piktochart by Samia Saidi

On the other hand, I would like to mention that this mission is aligned with InfoEDUgrafias, which is the collaborative project to which I would be delighted to collaborate and participate with, because as in the case of infoedugrafias, one of the fundamental objectives of my project is the learning of a specific curricular subject using visual resources.

Self- reflection

After created this post, I came to the conclusion that it is important for teachers to know how to create an innovative and creative mission from a simple activity. In this way, we can take advantage of the activity by using different digital resources, applications and web pages. All these resources facilitate the student's learning in a specific content. While I was doing this post, I realized the importance of creativity in the creation of activities, because through creative activities the teacher motivates the child and encourages their learning.

Therefore, I would like to stress the importance of creating meaningful and motivating activities or challenges for students in the teaching-learning process.

I hope you like my post!

See you soon!

Partner search

Hello everyone!

To continue enriching my project, my next goal is to be part of another collaborative project. For this, I searched on the net for some of them such as The other Kids EDU, InfoEDUgrafias, Tertulias con sabor achocolate, The Twima project and No me cuentes historias,dibújame.

All of them are very interesting. However, I need one that fits with my educational project. Therefore, I have decided to join InfoEDUgrafias.

It is an open collaborative project that allows the participation of any teacher of different educational levels. One of the reasons I chose this site is because the project is focused on the creation of infographies or posters by children. I believe that the visual resources are very enriching in the learning of the student, since it facilitates the learning of a content in a more visual and effective way. The final mission of my educational project will be the creation of a poster that reflects the main characteristics of the vertebrate animal that student has been chosen. These posters can be enriched with ICT tools, so I think this site can be very useful for my educational project.

Another reason that has made me choose this project is that they base their project on learning the following strategies:

• Discriminate information

• Organize information visually so that learning is more effective.

• Transmitting discriminated and organized information.

In order to make the video, I had written a draft of my pitch trhough Google docs. You can click on the link to see it : Script of my elevator pitch.

I would like to share my educational project with other teachers, as it is a way to improve my teaching and learn from others. After analyzing each collaborative project in depth and choosing one of them, I have created an elevator pitch, with the aim of accepting me as a new partner.

Elevator pitch it is an enterprise technique to find financial support for a project in 20 seconds. I have used this tool to explain the reasons why I want to be part of that educational community.

How can we do an elevator pitch?

In order to do an elevator pitch you need to have a draft of what you want to share or explain. This is quite difficult, because you have to explain it just in 20 seconds.

So, in your elevator pitch you have to follow these steps:

• Hook: You have to get your audience's interest and explain your idea.
• Problem: define the specific problem, need or cause you are concerned about.
• Solution: How you are going to solve that problem.
• Close: Tell what achieving that goal will mean to you.

Self-reflection

First of all I am very excited to have the opportunity to be part of the educational community that I have chosen. It seems to me a very effective way of collaborating in the educational field, since it can help me improve in my teaching.

On the other hand, when performing the elevator pitch, it has been very difficult to do so in such a short time, since it is very difficult to summarize everything in 20 seconds. As with every challenge, I have learned to use another interesting application to upload and edit my video. This application is called Wevideo.

From my point of view, I consider that this challenge has been a great opportunity to know different collaborative projects and I consider that these projects are a way to grow and to learn professionally in the educational field. 

See you soon !!

Turning my Open Educational Project into a collaborative one

Hello everyone!

In the last post, I showed you the prototype of my educational project. For this challenge it would be necessary for us to have a look to my latest post .Today, we will see how we can enrich our project.

In order to enrich it, we should make it collaborative. First of all, I want to explain to you what collaborative work means.  Cooperative and collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which children team together to create a meaningful project. 

In order to make the project more collaborative, we will focus on three types of collaboration movements:

• Collaboration in the classroom through cooperative learning.
• Collaboration out of the classroom.
• Collaboration back to the classroom.

So, I followed the previous steps about collaboration and I change my activities into the following ones:

·         Collaboration within the classroom

     In order to carry out activities that involve the collaboration and cooperation of the students, I have changed some of the activities that I had planned in the project. Some of the activities I planned were individual. As a result, I have changed these activities so that all tasks are collaborative. The number of students will depend on the activity to be carried out. They can work in small groups of three or four students, in pairs or even the whole class. The members of the groups will not always be the same; they will change and mingle with other groups.

Therefore, the students will carry out all the activities planned in each session in a collaborative way. The final mission will consist in the creation of a display in pairs of a vertebrate animal, indicating its main characteristics. Afterwards, each team will present  and share with their classmates their work.

·         Collaboration out of the classroom

To collaborate outside the classroom, the teacher will be in charge of forming small groups of different classrooms.

My students will be divided into pairs and each pair will join another pair from different classrooms.

Each group will have a several images with different types of vertebrates. They will have to classify each animal according to its characteristics (herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, viviparous, oviparous). Each group will have to share their opinions and thoughts and should classify each animal taking into account its characteristics.

·         Collaboration back to the classroom

Throughout the activities and task that students have done, they have to reflect on what they have learned. For that, in pairs, students will have to decide what activity they liked most and explain the reason. After exchanging their opinions, in pairs, they should share with the world their knowledge about vertebrates. To do this, each pair will write in the collaborative blog showing the final work they have done and also sharing the Knowledge and information that they have learned throughout the sessions. In this way, they can share with their peers, teachers, and parents the work that they have done and the knowledge that they have acquired.

I created a flyer to summarize the change of my educational project. Here you have it:

I have also made my visual metaphor

Vertebrate animal de samia saidi

Procedure:

Before the challenge, I had to do some research. In addition, I also read information about cooperative and collaborative learning and how to create a collaborative project.

After reading all the information about this topic, I have created a visual metaphor to summarize the three types of collaborative movements that I will use in my project. For this, I saw different pages, but in the end I chose an application that is called Smore and I also used another one that is called Canva to create my visual metaphor.

After creating my visual metaphor, I wrote the article in the blog with the purpose of explaining and showing you the transformation of my project prototype into a collaborative project.

Self-reflection:

From my point of view, this task has been very useful, since it has encouraged me to carry out some research on collaborative learning. Through this task, I have realized the importance of collaborative work in the teaching-learning process of the student. This challenge gave me the opportunity to learn how to enrich my educational project by turning it into a collaborative one.

On the other hand, this challenge has made me think again in the planning of my project and it encouraged me to learn more about collaborative learning.

 I hope you like the way I've tried to enrich my educational project!