Submitted by: Christen Tulli
Collaborators:
School: Pocahontas Middle School
Summary
: This interactive project caters to four distinct learning types: mathematical/scientific, linguistic, visual, and interpersonal. Intended to correlate with “Flowers for Algernon”, the story about a mentally challenged man who undergoes an operation that triples his IQ, this allows students to choose a learning style to examine the text through a digital presentation. For instance, students who choose the “mathematical/scientific” option charted the protagonist’s progress before and after the operation and examine the moral objections to this surgery. They used a range of media to achieve this, from Active Inspire to Movie Maker. Students with an appreciation for art chose the “visual” option and created presentation that incorporated symbols from the story and music that fit with the story’s tone, utilizing programs such as Microsoft Paint and Movie Maker. Students that selected the linguistic option created a musical word journal and presentation where they examined significant words that showed the protagonist’s progress. They had the option of implementing a variety of media, from Wordle.net to Active Inspire to Movie Maker. The “social butterflies” who flourish when working with others could choose the “interpersonal” option where they had to speak from the point of view of other characters in the book. They were given access to a variety of media to achieve this presentation, including Flip video cameras.
Each option challenges students to use a variety of technological media as well as their analytical and evaluative stills. Moreover, this project offers freedom of choice, ensuring a truly 21st century, student-centered learning experience.
TIPC Ratings
All option in this project were examples of “authentic tasks” because they not only had cross-curricular opportunities, but also challenged students to trouble-shoot issues that came up as they used different programs. Students used a variety of tools to display and interact with information, such as the Active Inspire presentation analyzing the main character’s progress.
Students were given opportunities to collaborate with one another on this project. They completed Quia surveys after the lesson to set goals for future growth and reflect on the project.
Students were given a choice in the media they used, and were challenged to trouble-shoot issues that came up as they used different programs. Students used a Quia survey to assess one another, and after each presentation gave feedback on the strengths and areas for improvement, helping their peers to grow as critical thinkers. They completed Quia surveys after the lesson to reflect on their roles as critical thinkers and what they had learned through using these new programs.
Students were able synthesize what they had learned through the story by acting, selecting songs to represent the theme, sifting through art, and even posing as scientists. Again, they reflected on their use of creativity through a Quia survey at the end.
Student Artifact
Flowers for Algernon Sample from Mike Renfroe on Vimeo.
