TPACK Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan for TPACK integration

Application
Describe an instructional activity (e.g. part of a lesson plan) where you can incorporate this technology. Consider an activity that can be conducted in 15-20 minutes.

First, provide some details regarding:

• Learners: Who are your learners? What learner/age group should this activity be designed for?
• My learners for this activity would be the advanced ag class. This class is generally made up of juniors and seniors. Genetics is often a very important class that college students majoring in animal science with have to endure, so there for I would like to give my upperclassmen a basic foundation.
• Learning outcomes: What will learners gain through this activity? Be specific regarding the focus of content. You should be able state something like: “At the end of this activity, students will be able to…”
• Through this activity learners will be able to complete an F1 and F2 genes using the Punnett square. Learners will also be able to explain the difference between dominant and recessive traits as well as the difference between self-pollination and cross pollination.
• Assessment: How would you know that students acquire the learning outcomes? How would you know that your activity is effective?
• During this activity there is a built in quiz that we will do together as a class so that I can see what they are understanding and what they are not. They will also be given a quiz where they have to know the terms and definitions and be able to perform F1 and F2 crosses, as well as explaining the genotypes formed.

Second, break down your activity into a timeline of planned events and procedures. Here you should describe what students and the teacher will be doing chronologically during the activity.

• The lesson will begin with introducing the topic. Which for today is genetics as well as introducing them to the father of genetics Gregor Mendel.
• The students would then be asked to take notes over 4 or 5 slides. Mainly writing down key terms and their definitions.
• Next there is a 8-10 question quiz that I will have the board for them to do as a class.
• Then I will move on to the Punnet square, showing them how it works, and how to do one on their own.
• Following the presentation I will give them the date of the quiz and the link to the quizlet that I created to help them study.

• Following this exploration the students would be given 5 minutes to complete the individual assessment.
• Then, while waiting on the other students to finish, the students that had already completed all of the assignment would then post on the class Edmodo site what new techniques they have learned about navigating the Internet and solving algebraic equations in order to help other students in the class.

Reflection
Considering your learning activity described above, write two paragraphs or three for each section below addressing the questions. It may be helpful to keep in mind the followings when reflecting:

1. How well the use of this technology may support your teaching strategies in this activity.
2. How effectively the use of this technology may enhance students' understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity.
• The use of technology for this particular lesson can really help my teaching activity as well as saving me a lot of time. It allows me to have several example problems and a practice quiz all in one place. This is a lesson that has the potential to be very boring, incorporation technology will allow me to give it some life and make it more engaging.

Also, using technology will allow me to bring students to the board and allow them to get a more hands feel for the punnet square. I know that some of my students will excel by just listening and watching me, while others need to give it try themselves. Overall I feel that technology will only make this activity more educational as well as more engaging.

--Pedagogical-Content:

Your pedagogical content knowledge refers to your understanding of teaching strategies that are specific to a content area. That is the knowledge about choosing appropriate pedagogies for teaching a particular content Example: Using drill-and-practice to teach math problem solving. This strategy however may not necessarily be effective for other content areas.

Now, forget about the technology for a while…..Just tells us about your teaching strategies that you employ in your activity (e.g., analogies, demonstrations, illustrations, examples, explanations, group work, drill-practice, simulations, role-play, lecturing, self-guided learning, inquiry-based learning, problem based learning or etc). Specifically:

• What are your strategies and why do you think your strategies are appropriate to teaching this specific content?  What makes you believe it would help your students comprehend this particular content? Give specific examples from your described activity.
• What would be some conceptions and pre-conceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them when learning this particular content? What would you be concerned about students' prior knowledge, experiences, motivation? Again focus on the content and your teaching strategy, not the technology!
• This activity will be one of the more challenging ones that I will present to my advanced ag class. There will be a bit of differentiation between the levels of prior knowledge that my students may have. Some of them are seniors and some of them are juniors and will have had a few different core courses up to this point. My main strategy for this activity is to break it down and make it as simple as possible before making it more complicated. Without a solid foundation this topic will be hard to grasp. When I have a full class time I plan stopping after every couple of slides and reviewing what we just covered, asking questions, and answering any questions that they may have. This will allow me to see that they have grasped where we have been before we move on any further.

--Technological-Pedagogical:

Your technological pedagogical knowledge refers to your understanding of technologies for particular learning tasks, your ability to choose technologies based on its fitness, your knowledge of pedagogical strategies, and your ability to apply those strategies for use of technologies Example: Selecting Edmodo/facebook for facilitating student generated debate. Edmodo here is the technology that supports the main pedagogy-group discussion/debate.

In the previous section, you talked about your instructional strategies. Keeping these strategies you stated in mind, now tell us how the technology is used in your activity.  Specifically:

• What main instructional strategies would this technology use serve in your activity? How would using the technology support the way you teach this activity? Please give examples and be specific to your described activity. Think about your main teaching strategies that this technology would support.
• What different classroom management strategies you might need to consider when using this technology in the activity? Give examples and be specific to your described activity.
• Without technology it would be difficult to use my previous strategy and keep my students engaged. The technology allows me to keep the content challenging, but also interesting. The technology is the only way that I can incorporate a quiz and premade examples.

When considering classroom management this is one way to keep my students attention and keep them involved. Allowing them to come to the board and give it a hands on experience will help keep them motivated and challenged.

--Technological Pedagogical Content:

Your technological pedagogical content knowledge refers to your understanding of how teaching and learning from content may change when technology used and is our knowledge about selecting technologies that suits, support, and enhances teaching strategies and learning activities in your particular content area. It is your understanding of teaching strategies to effectively teach the particular content and help student conceptual difficulties in this content by meaningfully incorporating technologies. Example: Using a flash card app on iPad as a means to aid students memorize words and definitions in language learning. iPad app is here chosen as a tool to support the pedagogy around instant feedback, quick repetition, and individualized learning. These are some of the strategies used in language learning content area.

Now, let’s focus on the content you’re teaching in your activity. Think about your decisions to incorporate this technology and the teaching strategies in relation to your particular content area. Tell us specifically about:

• How would using this technology enhance the way the content is represented in your activity (e.g. demonstrations, explanations, examples, illustrations, analogies, and etc.)? That is why you think the selection and the pedagogical use of this technology may enhance what you teach (the content in your activity). Give specific examples from your activity to support your answer and keep in mind the learning objectives that you stated previously. 
• In what different ways students practice or understand the content in your activity that would otherwise not be possible without the use of the technology? In addition to motivational benefits, what else can students do with this technology as they are learning the content?

Using technology would be the easiest way to enhance this content. Without technology I would be just giving a boring lecture that would ultimately lose the attention of my students. Technology allows me to have readable demonstrations as well as interactive activities. It also allows me to show illustrations and examples of what it is I am discussing. It also allows for those pictures to be accurate and the right shapes and colors. The technology will also allow me to keep the content challenging and easily changeable if it seems to be too easy. An example of this would be skipping past a few of the F1 crosses if the class as a whole has them mastered and moving on to F2 crosses.

Students can use the quizlet or even the slides themselves to review terms and definitions. I will also provide them with parent problems to work out using the punnet square and see if they can get the right answer. Also this will allow the students to practice their understanding of genotypes and phenotypes. Students can also take this content and create their own problems and even their own smartboard activities.