Hi Marcia,

Great start to your lesson plan and a good way for your students to learn about the Florida Consent Decree (I know it quite well having taught ESL in Ft. Lauderdale for many years). The link to Browse Aloud is not working so you may want to check it (I googled the site and it is an excellent choice).

Also, can you post the lesson plan ont he wiki instead of as an attachment? If you click on Edit page and then copy and paste to your Wiki page that will place the information. Thanks.
Sandy

Hi Marcia,
This looks interesting. What level is it aimed at?
Sand

The students are undergrads in the College of Ed; the course is a foundation introduction to TESOL course required for ESOL endorsement (which as you know, all elementary and Language Arts teachers in Florida need to have). The lesson above covers the legal issues they need to be aware of.

Sand, when you mention my "lesson's content," do you mean putting the entire Consent Decree in this page? This legal document would take many pages.

No, I just meant to past the lesson and not the file link to your document. You already corrected it, so I deleted those comments.

Sand

BTW, which assessment tool(s) do you plan to use?

Sand

I think I will avoid a peer evaluation of the group work as this is going to be a sort of practice run working in groups online (25-30% of my students say it is their first online course or that it is their first experience of a group collaboration online). My main objective is for them to 1. understand what their group's section of this legal doc says 2. to summarize the important info in the FL Consent Decree they need to know in an outline form (to facilitate study for exams and to use for future reference), and 3. to reflect on its implications for them.

Since they will get questions on the midterm and final on it, I'm thinking of a quiz immediately after the assignment is due, and maybe a rubric for the reflection. Do you think this is too much? Game? Maybe for the vocabulary? Or why not a game instead of a quiz - the content is heavy, so maybe its needs to be lightened up? What do you think? Are games ever appropriate for "serious" topics?

Hi Marcia,

If I may interject here, I think a game format is an effective way to promote retention of content. The more ways you have them interact the more they will understand the components and a game can include the important information..something like: So, What Have You Learned About the Florida Consent Decree. I dont know if you have seen FORPD (Florida Online Reading and Professional Development) but when I facilitated the course - online format - there were many games that served as process checks and provided alternate ways to view the content and make the course more interesting.

I like your idea of a reflection on the implications for students' teaching - making personal connections is good.

Sandy

I haven't been able to open the rubistar site to create my rubric, so I may have to resort to attaching a Word doc of what would go into the cells of the rubric. This bandwidth problem here is so frustrating!

It is always a good idea to have both the electronic rubric along with the hard copy, as many participants have tech access inequities.

:)

You are so right! WHEN I can access the rubric I will put it into Word. (That may not happen today or tomorrow, so I put the rubric in brackets). Have no idea why I was able to set up the Quia games, but not the rubric.