Interactivity #4: The Pedagogical Uses of Technology

Pedagogical Uses of Technology for English

This lesson plan caught my attention due to the unique way of understanding Shakespearean drama. Because Twelfth Night is not normally a play that is studied in school, the fact that there is such an interesting way to learn it was quite surprising to me. Also, I understand the importance of making drama and literature come to life in order to recognize the thematic plots and character relationships. Although the title of the lesson plan seemed trivial and clichéd, reading the work the students would be doing made me realize the benefits that will come out of this activity, including a better understanding of the text.
One significantly large gap in this lesson plan is the lack of pronounced standards. While the 8^th grade standards I focused on were applicable to the lesson plan, the fact that the plan itself did not have standards selected already was a little disconcerting to me. Additionally, the use of technology is very limited. As I added in my spreadsheet, there are many other forms of technology that can be used, such as DragonSpeak, a voice recorder that will help the students listen multiple times in order to decipher word meanings through their contexts.

Although there is not much technology listed in this lesson plan, what they do list is very beneficial and necessary for this project. The CD and CD player are needed for the initial project, but when they are used, it will increase the students’ understanding of the material. By using songs to determine character relationships, they will be able to analyze the reason for these emotions and encounters, and apply them to their understanding of the play.

While some aspects of this lesson plan are a bit limited, the activity itself is a great way to ensure the students’ acceptance and knowledge of the material that seems to have the consistent reputation of being incomprehensible. 

The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online

As I was researching for my Shakespeare term paper, I realized that even 16th century literature has an impact on technology. It didn't hit me until I came across several options for research materials that were in various different languages and applied to many different cultures. It would be extremely difficult to find these choices without internet and computer access. This online database is the best to use for Shakespeare studies because of its many materials and descriptions of them. The only problem is that it does not have the materials themselves; inconveniently, they just have the citation information and it is up to you to find it in your own library. This can be a challenge considering your library may not have full access to these articles or books.

In the past, when using this database, I have found information and titles that would be perfect and influential to my topic; that is, until I discovered the name of the journal where an article had come from. In other words, the journal was in a different language but the article itself was in English. Needless to say, after a couple of hours of desperate searching, I did not find the article in its entirety. Hence my many trips to Alexander Library in Rutgers-New Brunswick. There I was able to scour through the Shakespeare Quarterly journals and many volumes of the Shakespeare Survey. 

Now, don't misunderstand: I did find articles and books to use through this database as well. It was mainly an inconvenience to have to find them ourselves, especially when they may not have even been in this country or language. But alas, I did very well on my term paper from my last class, and am determined to do so again, so this is where I shall remain.

How to use this database:

Step 1: Go on to the Sprague Library Website and click "Databases"

Step 2: Scroll all the way down and find "World Shakespeare Bibliography Online"

Step 3: Once on the database, click "Advanced Search" on the top

Step 4: Type in a keyword regarding topic to search. For example:

Step 5: Click on a result that fits best with your topic and research! 

After finding a result, you need to search for it on the library website to see if they have it, and if they do, see if it is in stock. 

HAPPY SHAKESPEARE!

Interactivity #3: Generating a State of the Art Inventory

This interactivity introduced me to many forms of technology that I would not have even thought of using when becoming an educator; mostly this is due to the fact that a lot of it is new. Doing this research assignment, in addition to talking to cousins of mine still attending high school, has helped me realized the many options I will have with my students when the time comes for me to be in a classroom. In regard to my READ 411 class, there are exorbitant amounts of resources, especially for my English major, including Storybird and Book Builder.
   Both of these technologies, which are website guides, assist the students in creating their own pieces of literature. While studying other forms of literature is important, creating their own teaches them the art of creativity, and gives them an intellectual insight to the authors’ ideas and forms of writing. In my lessons, I could ask them to incorporate a form of writing that we are discussing specifically. This will help them not only learn to analyze an author's style, but it will also help them to create their own style. This idea is essential to grasp in CURR 314 because of the way assessments and standards can be regarded and brushed upon through these activities. If the students are assigned to make their own story based on published stories discussed in class, they can be assessed of their knowledge and understanding through these technologies.
This is also extremely beneficial to READ 411 because that class is all about incorporating language and literacy to lessons in all content areas (yes, including Math). By using Storybird and Book Builder, students are focusing on their reading, writing, and language skills, which they could be doing just as much in a Math class reading a word problem. These helpful websites, along with eBooks, and even smart pens for writing lessons and corrections, prove crucial to the classroom in order to enhance assessment and language and literacy.