Main plc updat

“Secrets” of High-Quality Interactive Lesson Content

• Jacqui Derby: Quia

• Dennis Goyette: Interactive Sites for Math and Calculus

• Charlene Montoya: Writing Center

• Shelly Robinson: Financial Literacy

• Zak Stroker: Dalton’s Play

Beginning

• Definition of “Interactive Activity” and changing the focus of our PLC

What makes a Interactive Activity High Quality?

• The focus is on student interactivity not teacher interactivity.

• The learning objective is student focused

• The learning objective is observable and measurable

• It offers opportunities for the students to practice the skills we want them to learn

• If animation is used it has a purpose

• The activity is sequenced from easy to difficult building on students' prior knowledgeThe activity assists students in arriving at the correct answer with feedback based on course content.

Next Steps• We each found an interactive activity that we could use in our classrooms.

• We implemented these in a different ways.

• We talked to or surveyed our students to see what they thoughts were.

Zak’s Interactive

Dalton’s Playhouse

Conservation of matter in chemistry

What it is.

• An interactive web site that allows students to have a virtual inquiry-based experience in chemistry.

• Students navigate the four mini-experiments and by answering questions specific to their data, come to the conclusion that matter is conserved in all chemical reactions.

What the students thought.• “It was pretty cool how you could see the experiment and re-do

it if you needed to”

• “It was really hard to figure out how to use the balance thingy”

• “That was so much easier than just reading about it”

• “I wish it had sound”

• “That made so much more sense because I could, like, see what was happening to the stuff and I knew it was impossible to lose it (matter)”

What the teacher thought.

• Although it lacked certain aspects that I would have liked to have seen, namely sound, pop-up instructions, language options and a running commentary, I really liked this interactive because it gave the students the opportunity to not only “perform” an experiment but to engage in true virtual inquiry. I would highly recommend using it in Chemistry or Physical Science classes.

Jacqui’s InteractiveQuia Activities

What it is.

What the students thought.

What the teacher thought.

Future implementation

Interactive sites for algebra and calculus along with Texas Instrument’s

new TI-Nspire CX calculator.

Dennis’ INTERACTIVE MATHEMATICS

TI-Nspire CX

http://education.ti.com/calculators/products/US/home/

TI-Nspire CXOther sites include:

www.youtube.com/TIforEducators

www.youtube.com/TexasInstrumentsCalc

www.atomiclearning.com/ti_nspire

Also a TI-Nspire for Dummies book

Sites for Calculus http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=221

http://www.analyzemath.com/calculus.html

http://cow.math.temple.edu/

http://curvebank.calstatela.edu/calculus/calculus.htm

There also the multi-media lessons with simulations built into the lessons from NROC

Students Comments:

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=221 is very helpful when I need to find the tangent lines at a point of the derivative of a function. The only thing that threw me off was that I had to use the x-intercepts to graph it instead of inputting the functions but everything else was fine after that. I'll stick to my own graphing calculator though. The free calculus tutorials and problemshttp://www.analyzemath.com/calculus.html was extremely helpful. I feel that it helped me a lot with parts I wasn't understanding. With Cow Math I had been using it before and I've always found usefulwhenever I got stuck with a particular section in my math and couldn't understand it.

I didn't find Curvebank helpful at all. Some of the topics they discussed were a bit hazy and not very well explained. I would rather use Cow Math instead.

I for one find the lessons to be highly effective. I find that reading while listening really helps to implant things in my memory, and the equations and graphs really help to bolster my understanding. Also, it's nice to be able to just listen or just read, in situations where I'm multitasking or short on time. It also translates easily into concise, accurate notes.

I honestly don’t think that the lessons and simulations help that much. They give you an elementary understanding of the material but the example questions in the lessons don’t help at all when you go to do the homework assignments.

Other Sites http://teacherlink.org/content/math/interactive/flash/

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/

http://multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm

http://www.vectorkids.com/

http://www.hellam.net/algebra/

http://interactivecontentcorner.com/

http://www.ixl.com/math/algebra-1

What the teacher thought. For the classroom, any math or science course, I would highly recommend the

TI-Nspire calculator and interactive activities. As for algebra, I think the http://www.ixl.com/math/algebra-1 site would be the

best. For calculus, I go with what one student commented on for the sites. He

seemed to be the only one seriously checking them out. The calculus lessons with audio and simulations are good as well. Obviously

listening and watching something being explained is very usefule Sites for video tutorials that are not interactive include

http://www.analyzemath.com http://www.brightstorm.com/amth http://www.khanacademy.org/#browse

Writing Center

Charlene Montoya

What Students Think

”The thing I find most helpful about the writing center is the Purdue Owl. I have used Perdue Owl on numerous research papers and I love it. I try to use it as much as possible because you have been telling me to expand my writing.”

”They seem like they could be very useful if given a specific format that we needed to write in. Currently being in an AP English class, I am learning most of those formats, but for someone who does not have that background it seems like it would be very helpful.”

What the Teacher Thinks I have noticed an increase in the writing level of my students after including

the Writing Center.

I believe giving them additional resources to assist them in their writing has helped their overall performance in my AP classes.

Shelly Robinson’s Interactive Activities

Financial Literacy Mathematics Sem 1 and Sem 2

What it is?Interactive Activity on W-2 and Form 1099 INT

Interactive Activity on form W-4

http://www.irs.gov/app/understandingTaxes/hows/mod03/sim_mod03_01.jsp http://www.irs.gov/app/understandingTaxes/

hows/mod01/sim_mod01_01.jsp

What it is?Interactive Activity on how to write a check

Interactive Activity on filling out a deposit slip

http://www.themint.org/kids/writing-a-check.html http://www.gcflearnfree.org/everydaylife/deposit

What Students Thought?After the activities students there was a survey for students to evaluate the activities Financial Literacy Math Semester 1

(Interactive Activities on Taxes and W-4)

10 students completed the unit with the activities, and 2 students completed the survey. #1 This IRS Tutorial Assisted me with your understanding of the W-4 Form. Neither Agree or Disagree 100%

#2 What did you like or not like regarding this simulation from the IRS? Explain how it helped you understand the concepts or was it a waste of time.

1) I didn't like it just because the work is pretty tough.2) The video helped me understand how the W-4 form, because it went in detail about how the form worked and made sure the watcher understood the details of W-4 form.

Financial Literacy Math Semester 2 (Interactive Activities on Writing a check and filling out a deposit slip)

6 students completed the unit with the activities, and 4 students completed the survey. #1 This Interactive Activities helped

me understand how to write a check, fill out a deposit slip and check registers?

Strongly Agree 25%

Agree 50%

Neither Agree or Disagree 25%

#2 What did you like or not like regarding this interactive activities? Explain how it helped you understand the concepts or was it a waste of time?

1) This would be extremely helpful to someone unsure about how a check is written. I would recommend this as a great learning tool for students.

2) I had a hard time understanding how to make sure how to make a deposit, but eventually I figured it out and its all right.3)  It was hard to write with the mouse when I had to sign my name on the check. It was easy to understand and very

detailed of how to fill everything out. 4) The one about writing a check was fun.  I just had a little bit of a problem using the mouse to write my name.

The deposit slip activity was kind of confusing.  It kept saying that "I need to add $40 dollars cash to the deposit", but there was no cash in sight to put with the deposit. Plus, there wasn't any directions until I accidentally clicked on the hand that told me what I was suppose to do. I was impressed with the check writing activity.  It was fun.I wasn't impressed with the deposit slip.  I really felt it needed to have more explanation with it.Both concepts were good.  I did learn from both.

What Teacher Thought?Financial Literacy Math Sem 1• there were two activities and 10 students have completed the unit with the

activities and only 2 students completed the survey. • Not known how many actually completed the activities.• Several of these students were on an accelerated pace for May 2012

graduation doing the course in 8 weeks, so they did not do any extra work. • Some students do not want to take the time to do activities in Math courses.• Taxes are a difficult topic for most people • The activities were long and from the IRS Website

Financial Literacy Math Sem 2 • There were two activities and 6 students completed the unit with the activities

and 4 of the 6 completed the survey. • Less students rushing to complete the material in an accelerated amount of

time. • The topics were a easier and shorter and had animation• More directions and explanation should be added to the deposit slip activity

based on comments from students.

General: http://www.thinkport.org/classroom/tools.tphttp://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm Technology - http://www.edutopia.org/interactive-whiteboards-technology-success Englishhttp://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/http://www.twiddla.com/ http://writeboard.com/http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowWelcome.htm http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/virtual-keyboard.html Mathhttp://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.htmlhttp://teacherlink.org/content/math/interactive/flash/http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/http://multiplication.com/interactive_games.htmhttp://www.vectorkids.com/http://www.hellam.net/algebra/http://interactivecontentcorner.com/ Lanuagehttp://www.transparent.com/language-resources/games/http://www.spanish4teachers.org/InteractiveActs.html Arthttp://www.nga.gov/kids/http://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/interactives Research - http://advan.physiology.org/content/30/4/135.full http://www.am.dodea.edu/acss/ahs/documents/interactiveClassroom-fall09issue.pdf