Cyberlesson Reflection
For what grade level and curriculum did you develop it?
This cyberlesson was developed for my special education students who are in the second grade. A major unit in second grade science curriculum is the study of plants and their life cycle. Many of my students have significant learning disabilities in the areas of speech/language (receptive and expressive language) and reading. Therefore, they require modifications and accommodations to access the second grade curriculum. Thus, I decided to develop a cyberlesson on plants that would introduce them to and teach the same concepts as the district’s curriculum, but with modified reading materials and activities that my special education students could participate in and feel successful with. This lesson could serve as a pre-teaching or concept reinforcement unit for the special education students as well, so they will feel more successful when participating in the district’s science unit on plant.
How did you implement your cyberlesson? (small group, whole group, posted on the Internet to be done at home? Individually, as a learning center etc.)
My cyberlesson was implemented in a small group setting in the school’s computer lab. Four of my special education students participated in the small group. Having access to the computer lab, allowed each student to have their own computer and I was able to facilitate the lesson through the use of a SmartBoard to serve as a visual reference for the students while accessing the cyberlesson.
How did your students respond to the project?
All of my students enjoyed the cyberlesson. Students in the school do not have computers as a specialized program until third grade, so a visit to the computer lab for their reading instruction was something that they looked forward to. Many of them were anxious and excited to use the computers, so they needed a few reminders to be careful when and where they clicked the mouse. They particularly liked the links to the websites to learn more about plants and they also had fun creating their own plant on kidpix. Some of them were very creative.
Strengths?
Overall I think this lesson was developmentally appropriate for my special education students, therefore, it allowed the students to be independent learners throughout the lesson, which is something they do not often get to experience in their classroom with the second grade curriculum. This cyberlesson served as a nice reinforcement of the concepts and vocabulary associated with the life cycle of a plant, which they had been exposed to in the second grade curriculum unit on plants. I also think that the beyond reading activity of creating your own plant on kidpix was the students favorite part of the lesson, but also served as a great reinforcement regarding the students’ ability to identify the parts of a plant.
Weaknesses?
I gave myself an hour to implement this lesson, but I definitely needed more time, partly due to time management but also due to complications with the computers and accessing the district’s server page to teach the lesson. Even though I had the help of the computer teacher, there were a lot more complications than I had anticipated, so I felt as though the flow of the lesson was interrupted a few times.
In what ways do you think your cyberlesson supported student learning?
This cyberlesson served as a nice reinforcement of the concepts and vocabulary associated with the life cycle of a plant, which the students had been exposed to in the second grade curriculum unit on plants. Since it was a modified lesson to teach the concept of the parts of the plants, it allowed my students the opportunity to be more independent learners. As well as teaching the science concepts, the lesson taught these concepts in a way that also reinforced their reading comprehension strategies.
How would you modify the way in which you implemented the project to make it more successful?
Rather than having the students type their answers on the created Word documents, I think that it would be more time efficient if the students wrote their answers on paper. Typing for them was time consuming.
Recommendations?
Implementing a cyberlesson for the first time is very time consuming. It was a lot of work to develop the lesson and inspite of all that time spent, there were still complications due to the technology. I would recommend being very patient and allotting yourself more time than you originally anticipate to implement it. Also, teachers should make sure to go over how to use a computer. Students often double clicked on the mouse when they did not need to and they would often go to the next screen. Therefore, there were complications in regards to which screen they needed to be on for the lesson. Researching the websites is important and making sure they are developmentally appropriate for the age group that you are working for. The websites were one of the most exciting parts of the cyberlesson for the students.