mrsfrench

Magic School AI Part 1: For this assignment, I explored the Magic School AI site. This is a really resourceful site that I appreciate getting familiar with. I wanted a kindergarten lesson, so I chose phonological awareness as my focus. I used the Lesson Plan Generator to design a lesson aligned with the Oklahoma Kindergarten English Language Arts standard K.PA.2, which targets phonological awareness skills like recognizing and producing rhyming words (Oklahoma State Department of Education OSDE, 2021). The objective for my lesson was for students to identify and verbally produce rhyming words using picture cards during a small-group activity. I also connected the lesson to ISTE Student Standard 1.1 (Empowered Learner) by using a digital tool to support learning and practice with teacher guidance (International Society for Technology in Education, ISTE, 2016).  The lesson Magic School generated was a helpful starting point. The objective matched the standard, and the lesson included...

(Chapter 4) Processes that Support Learning  Chapter 4 of How People Learn II , "Processes that Support Learning," highlights how attention, self-regulation, and memory influence student learning. These ideas remind me that strong curriculum design must support both how children think and how they engage. The infographic below summarizes key concepts from the chapter and connects them to creative learning and ISTE Standards.  Infographic Image: Key learning processes that influence curriculum design and support creative, student-centered learning (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018).

Part 1: Authentic Intellectual Work/Authentic Instruction & Assessment  As I worked through this week's readings, I kept coming back to the idea that Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) really describes the kind of learning many of us wish school could be more of. To me, AIW is about students doing work that requires them to think, make sense of ideas, and apply learning in real ways, and not just completing tasks to earn a grade. It shifts the focus from "getting through the assignment" to actually understanding and using what is being learned.  What makes Authentic Intellectual Work different from more traditional instruction is the purpose behind the work. Traditional approaches often rely on worksheets, memorization, or assessments that check whether students can recall information. AIW asks students to construct knowledge, dig deeper into ideas, and create work that has meaning beyond school. That distinction feels especially important because students can usually ...