module 5 recap

Module 5 has been the most challenging module for me so far.

Creating the UbD unit plan was a frustrating yet rewarding experience. It took me a while to think of how I could take a unit in the classroom and adapt it for an online learning environment. After brainstorming ideas, I decided to create my unit around the topic of interviewing skills. Every student, whether it is in a traditional or online setting, must learn and practice the art of interviewing. This is an important life skill that must be taught to high school students.

My main struggle was figuring out how to take the "practice interviews" into an online setting. I like to have students participate in mock interviews because it allows them to feel the pressure of an interview. There are many ways that this can be done in a traditional classroom setting like bringing in community members or making them answer questions in front of a panel of interviewers. This would present a problem in an online class. After help from Alli, I came up with the idea of having the student’s video tape their interview so that I could view it and so that they could have it as a tool in order to reflection about the interview. I think this would be very valuable because they could not only listen to how they answered questions but could also view their gestures as they interviewed.

Overall, it took a ton of time and effort in order to create a unit completely online. Taking a class online would require numerous ideas and resources. Collaboration would be necessary. But I did appreciate how this challenged my creation of a lesson. It made me think about all of the elements of a unit/lesson and allowed me to create activities that would accommodate all learning styles.