My Problem Statement:
What technologies can my digital native students use to create projects that allow them to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of Developmental Milestones for three or four year old children?
I should note that I changed the ages for my project because the preschool that is located on campus only services three and four year old children.
Here is the link to my prototype. I am looking forward to your feedback. I have gone back and forth on several aspects of this project and how to best reach my goals, so I am hoping that your feedback will help guide me.
https://www.haikudeck.com/working-with-children-uncategorized-presentation-locT9UlSRR
Tracy, your ideas are always so thorough and creative! On the 2nd slide there is one slight typeo in the first bullet (just forgot the "d" in development) :-) I have a ton of questions mainly because I am not very familiar with this class...
ReplyDeleteWill students be assessing the beginning of their age group or the end? In having my own children, I seem to notice a difference between a new 3 year old and almost 4 year old. Could your students do a beginning of the year assessment and then an end of year to see the true growth? When students are researching the different stages, what type of medium will be required or will it be up to the student? How will students go about choosing the right app? Will you demonstrate a few in class?
I really like how the student will have to meet with the preschool teacher afterward. What a great experience! Oh, one last question; will students be in partners or by themselves?
Thanks for sharing! Hope this helps :-)
Hi Jess,
DeleteThanks for finding my typo, Michelle called me just before I read your comment and told me the same thing.
Your first question is a great one. The students have been working on a semester-long observation project, so they are familiar with the chronicle age of children. However, the after the age of one, the CDC's charts do not break down by chronicle ages. The students will have the chronicle age of the child that they will be working with, so they can plan their assessment based around that knowledge.
I also really like your idea of doing the assessment twice. I will have to see if time would allow for that with this particular project, but it is certainly an idea that I would like to work on incorporating.
I am going to leave as much as possible up to the students. I want them to own their project and know the working of every single aspect. Sometimes being the "Guide on the side" is a challenge for me because my normal tendency is to jump right in and work right along with my students. However, with this project, I think it would be best if I try to let them follow their instincts.
As for choosing the app, I am hoping that they will choose one based on the set of milestones that they are planning to assess. If they have a difficult time finding the correct niche of apps, I will certainly assist them with that by directing them toward useful sights or information. I am not sure about demonstrating this for the class first. I keep going back and forth on this part. I don't want to put any preconceived ideas in their heads, but on the other hand, I think that modeling this practice for them may be helpful. What are your thoughts? Should I or shouldn't I?
I had originally thought that each child would work alone, but after looking at my prototype again with fresh eyes, I think they will work in pairs. This is going to be a new kind of project for my students and I feel that they could benefit from working collaboratively with a peer. I also feel that then videotaping the child being assessed, that it would come in handy to have a partner to take turns videotaping each other's work.
Thanks for the feedback Jess!
Tracy.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought is that each student should create the developmental checklist themselves using the information they got from their research. I am not sure if you give this to them or they do create it themselves, that wasn't clear.
Also, Have the rate the apps that they find as to how they fit as far as age appropriateness. They might also do their assessment using more than just one app and compare the results to see how similar they are.
I really like that they give the results to the teacher and receive feedback from the teacher. Perhaps they might do a reflection on what they learned from that and how they feel their overall assessment could have been made better as a result.
Hi Michelle,
DeleteThe developmental checklists are already used by professionals, so the students will need to research where to locate these checklists and then compare them. They will then need to choose what set of milestones they want to assess. There could be milestones in the area of physical development, emotional/social development, etc.
I really like your idea of having the students rate the apps. They may find apps that they like, but find that they are not age-appropriate for the child that they are working with. When reading this, you gave me another idea. I could have them share their ratings with the entire class in their Schoology discussion board. That would be another way of collaborating with the entire class. Maybe the app that they found didn't work for their child, but maybe it would for one of their classmate's children? What do you think?
I think I will have them do a final reflection paper. That is a good idea!
Thanks Michelle!