EDU 720 Discussion Director Reflection - Joan Robinson

This week the topic of study and discussion was "Instructional Models".  I will provide a quick synopsis of the points that came up in our discussions as well as reflect on the process involved in the discussions.

Here is the assignment:
Dear Colleagues,

This week we will have recorded Hangouts on air as the discussion format.  

• I will schedule one hangout at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, and another one on Friday at 7:00pm. 
• I will invite all to join each time so just accept the call on the night you wish to participate. 
• If you are unable to attend the hangout please post a written response in this discussion thread.  No need to let me know which option you choose.

You may want to refer to the discussion rubric which we agreed to use which can be found in your google drive, IT &DML Program Folder called Rubrics for the online discussion (we will use the 2nd one).

Here are a few of questions I will pose to begin our discussions..

# 1 from McVerry, Zawlinski & O’ Byrne (2009)

• This article discussed ways to teach online reading and research skills.  What new things did you learn from reading this article?  Which aspects of the C’s of change will take time to implement and and which ideas can you implement tomorrow?  

#2  From Leu, Coiro, Castek, Hartman, Henry, & Reinking (2008)

• IRT or Internet Reciprocal Teaching is an instructional model used to teach online reading comprehension.  This chapter covers online reading comprehension, instruction and assessment.  What key points “jumped out at you” from this article?

After the hangout I will post the video to you tube and your final task is to post a brief comment on either of the two ideas..

• What could have been done differently during the discussion to help us dig deeper into the question?

                                                                                or

• What is one question you wish we would have addressed in our conversation?

Please don't hesitate to ask any clarifying questions.  I look forward to the discussions.

Sincerely,

Joni

                                                       Quick Reflection

• The discussion began with a review of some Hangout protocol, such as muting the microphone.  I tried to use the question and answer feature on hangouts but was unsuccessful.. I needed to turn it on before initiating the invitations to the hangout.
•  We dove right into Elizabeth sharing how the articles moved her to engage in some substantial discussions with fellow teachers.  She was able to share the Phase 1 and 2 check lists with teachers and discuss how to use them.  I  shared the checklist with a committee of district level people who are looking at improving student achievement by more fully utilizing technology.  We all discussed how so much of the talk around technology these days is happening because of SBAC.
• Joe shared how he does technology "think alouds" with his students as a modeling strategy.
• Beth and Roisin shared about some of the  the obstacles of limited access to hardware
• All participants seemed fully engaged in the conversation and there was learning and teaching happening.
• The second discussion ended up being just Nancy and I and we had a very productive discussion, sharing many successes and obstacles in implementing the Internet Reciprocal Teaching model.
• Some people who were not able to attend the hangout posted very insightful responses to the guiding questions.

Overall the process was smooth.  I feel that all participants were actively engaged in a dialog where learning took place.  I enjoyed the role as discussion director and it was so very enjoyable because the participants were responsible and reflective.  Thank you all.