Forms of student/student-instructor interactions implemented in my course prototype

The ten-module unit plan I developed is a blended learning course including both, flipped lessons and face-to-face instruction. I chose asynchronous format for this course to better address the needs of the grade 4 English as an Additional Language (EAL) students giving them the opportunity to listen to the course as many times as needed, with the focus of reaching students who are away from the classroom for a longer period of time. By having Scholantis as the Learning Management System (LMS), students become not only familiar with the learning platform used by the Regina Catholic School Division, but they also have easy access from all over the world using their Office 365 accounts. The advantage of the flipped format of the course is that it gives students the opportunity to listen to instructional videos through the Scholantis Learning Management System (LMS) before class, providing more time for group work and addressing questions.

In my first module on adjectives, I implemented the three key phases of knowledge construction of the Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) developed by Harasim (2012). As part of the flipped lesson, students become familiar with the content while listening to a short lesson on adjectives. This lesson includes pictures, written sentences and audio recording so it is easier for the EAL students to follow, leading to better understanding. After the students listen to the recorded lesson at their own pace, and practice using descriptive words related to the short video on Hawai’i pollution, they review the content in class with the help of Mentimeter. After watching a motivational video, students brainstorm adjectives that describe the main characters from the short film using Mentimeter, organize their ideas through student-teacher and student-student interaction by sharing their answers, and synthesize the new information by creating and recording five sentences in Flipgrid. During this class, the role of the teacher is to focus on scaffolding the students through their learning process by providing the appropriate resources, activities, and guidance if needed. Students can build knowledge through being active and engaged participants (Harasim, 2012).

Throughout the unit, as part of the face-to-face lessons, students will practice working as a group while playing various games, such as memory games, matching, error correction, etc. Students will have assigned partners in Flipgrid, whom they will provide positive feedback focusing on the 3Cs and a Q. This is an effective way to teach positive peer interaction while learning from each other.

In order to meet all students’ needs, I incorporated various assessment strategies. The formative assessment will include anecdotal records on student participation and assignments, quizzes on Mentimeter and Kahoot. As part of the summative assessment, instead of giving the students a quiz, they will create a culminating project to show their understanding of the material in the form of an assignment. The students will pick a family picture that they will describe by forming and recording eight sentences using adjectives in the correct order as well as regular and irregular forms of comparative and superlative adjectives. They will examine a sample in class as part of student-teacher interaction. Students can use the example given to create their own description using Flipgrid. I will also provide and link the assessment rubrics to the module. With the help of the online aspect of learning through flipped lessons, I am focusing on providing my students with a more flexible model of delivery in order to meet their needs in a digital age (Harasim, 2012).

10 thoughts on “Forms of student/student-instructor interactions implemented in my course prototype

  1. I really appreciate your explanation of how to implement different types of interactions in a blended environment. I’m sure your students appreciate the variety that you give them and this would definitely help them understand the content in different ways. Do your EAL learners enjoy using Flipgrid?

    • Thank you Shelby for your positive comment. To be honest, I haven’t had a chance to implement my lessons yet. I am just taking baby steps in developing them first. These past few months were so busy, I could barely keep my head above water. Can’t wait to be able to think things through.

      Thanks 🙂

  2. I think having asynchronous is great and having the ability to replay videos is crucial for EAL students. I like that you provide a variety of output methods by using mentimeter and Flipgrid. In addition, using 3 C’s and a Q is a great way to inform students and use positive feedback. Lastly, the use of Kahoot is another great element you have included. Kahoot can be simple or you can add a challenge so in your case I think that would work well to keep things simple for EAL learners. Well done!

    • Thank you Kyla for your kind words! I really wanted to try to use these various tools, because they were all new to me. Interestingly, every time I try to access my quizzes in Mentimeter, the code has changed. I guess because I am a non-paying member. I do find it quite annoying. I absolutely love the ready to use Kahoot quizzes. They certainly make my life easier.

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