Evidence of Learning
Artifact 1
This product title is "Travel Agency Rebranding". It is directions for a project that my students will complete in groups as a formative assessment over Ancient Civilizations. My students have a hard time connecting with ancient civilizations. I am hoping that through creating this assignment, my students will be able to explore some of the ancient world and find things that interest them.
There are several elements that I included based on my training. I was able to include clipart as a logo for our "company" by doing a Google Image search within the Docs app. WordArt is something new that I added through the "drawing" option to create a more eye popping title. I also included a table to divide up the roles within each group so each person would be able to find their directions more easily. Inserting a link to the Google Earth portion of the project was also made easier through my training. This will make it much easier to access the locations for the group members when viewing the document in Google Classroom.
This project will be graded as an assessment. I usually have two tests for each unit. One test is a traditional multiple choice assessment and the other is a performance based assessment. This project will be the performance based assessment and will be graded using a rubric that I create in Google Docs. This task is differentiated because each group will work on a different civilization and each person within the group will also have a different task to complete based on their interest.
I have one student who uses assistive technology in this class. He has a very low reading level and he uses a pen reader to help him read texts. The whole class will get a paper copy of these directions so they can look at it with me, however it will also be posted on Google Classroom for those who prefer a digital copy. The student who used the pen reader also has a set of earbuds that he uses so that other students can't hear the reader. He will be able to use this assistive device to help him work through this assignment. There is also software on his computer that will help him by reading information on webpages, so he will still be able to find information for research.
Artifact 2
This link is part of the same project for Artifact 1. I used Google Earth to pinpoint eight places in Ancient Mesopotamia. These sites are either ruins or museums. I plan to incorporate this into Google Classroom so students can access the link and plan a tour to these historic sites. Students are not required to only use these sites, they can explore and find others to incorporate at well.
I was very excited about using Google Earth to help make history come alive. I had played with Google Earth a little bit before these lessons, but this helped me to learn a lot more things that I could accomplish using Google Earth. I learned that I could create these projects to share with students. I also learned how to tell the distance from each place. I plan to do a mini lesson on using the measurement tool to help the groups plan their tours. This example also shows different elements that I have included to help students such as roads and landmarks to help students find places a little easier.
Each group will have one similar to this with places marked for each Ancient Civilization that we cover. Each group will have their own assignment in Google Classroom with links to their own Google Earth project that I have created. I didn't want them to go into the project blind without any idea of what to look for when planning their tours. By adding these pins to the locations of Mesopotamia, students are able to get a better idea of what I am wanting them to do. I don't plan to find 8 places for each group. I did for this one, because they are going to have the hardest time with the political turmoil in the region today. I wanted to provide some elements of scaffolding for my students.
Artifact 3
This is a questionnaire that I created using Google Forms called "Areas of Interest in Church". I created this to help our church establish places that people are interested in helping. Each year leaders within our church nominate people to certain positions of service within the church, however this comes with a lot of challenges. My husband is serving on the committee this year as a representatives for the deacons. He asked me for help in developing a survey to see where people has the most interest in serving. I immediately thought of Google Forms and how it would be easier to use this instead of printing a paper copy that we would have to analyze by hand. When I suggested this, he was very hesitant to use this resource because he felt there would be some push back within the church, however when I showed him all of the benefits of using this method he was very excited by how much easier it could make collecting results. I created a Form and shared it with the group so we could collaborate to make changes. This link is a copy of the original form. I did not want to publish the link that gave access to our results since they include people's first and last names. I wanted to protect their privacy.
I customized the survey by adding a fish banner at the top to represent the symbolism that Jesus uses by wanting to make his disciples "fishers of men." I introduced the lesson with a short paragraph to help encourage people to enter the mission field. I also incorporated a video to help inspire people to help spread the message of Christ. The types of questions responses are varied slightly to include drop down and short answer responses. I have also incorporated a link to Google Sheets where I can analyze the answers as they come in.
We plan to share the link with all of the members of our church through email for them to complete if they are interested in serving anywhere. Only having a digital option, does pose a problem because there are several members of our congregation who are not comfortable with technology or who do not have access to Wi-Fi at home. In order to accommodate these people, we plan to have a station set up before and after Sunday morning services for 2 weeks and before and after Wednesday evening services for 3 weeks to give them the opportunity to complete the survey with assistance. We will use the information we receive from the congregation to create committees that have people with an interest in that particular area so they will be more invested in serving.