Rationale Statement
Standard 1: DESIGN
This 2 hour online workshop is an indication of this standard because of the frontloading and research that went into its creation. I incorporated what I knew of the learners into the initial design phases of the module. Taking multiple learning styles and multiple intelligences into consideration helped me to create targeted activities, assignments, and resources to reach a broader pool of participants. After all, “to teach effectively, you’ve got to know how people learn and in particular you’ve got to know how they think.” (Ormrod, 2010) Interestingly enough, the topic of the workshop is differentiation. As a result, the module itself models the topic by providing lessons and assessments that incorporate differentiation in its design. Images, videos, text, links, and interactive activities make up the bulk of the content, and each tab brings in different strategies to reach different learners.
Standard 2: DEVELOPMENT
The instructional materials for this website indicate a wide variety of modalities. I have shot and embedded videos of subject matter experts, included interactive multiple choice quizzes, as well as developed discussion threads to allow participants to work together. Using what I know of the skills highlighted by the Partnership for 21st Century Literacies, I incorporated assessments that ask learners to collaborate, to analyze readings and photos, and to synthesize their findings into writing. These skills are ones teachers need to use, sure. However, since the focus of the workshop is to help teachers teach students, I believe it is vital for any professional development to model these skills as well and ask teachers to interact with the skills they will also expect their own students to utilize.
Standard 3: UTILIZATION
I believe it is very important to allow learners flexibility in this workshop’s implementation. Knowing the schedule of the target audience, the secondary teacher, I decided
This 2 hour online workshop is an indication of this standard because of the frontloading and research that went into its creation. I incorporated what I knew of the learners into the initial design phases of the module. Taking multiple learning styles and multiple intelligences into consideration helped me to create targeted activities, assignments, and resources to reach a broader pool of participants. After all, “to teach effectively, you’ve got to know how people learn and in particular you’ve got to know how they think.” (Ormrod, 2010) Interestingly enough, the topic of the workshop is differentiation. As a result, the module itself models the topic by providing lessons and assessments that incorporate differentiation in its design. Images, videos, text, links, and interactive activities make up the bulk of the content, and each tab brings in different strategies to reach different learners.
Standard 2: DEVELOPMENT
The instructional materials for this website indicate a wide variety of modalities. I have shot and embedded videos of subject matter experts, included interactive multiple choice quizzes, as well as developed discussion threads to allow participants to work together. Using what I know of the skills highlighted by the Partnership for 21st Century Literacies, I incorporated assessments that ask learners to collaborate, to analyze readings and photos, and to synthesize their findings into writing. These skills are ones teachers need to use, sure. However, since the focus of the workshop is to help teachers teach students, I believe it is vital for any professional development to model these skills as well and ask teachers to interact with the skills they will also expect their own students to utilize.
Standard 3: UTILIZATION
I believe it is very important to allow learners flexibility in this workshop’s implementation. Knowing the schedule of the target audience, the secondary teacher, I decided