The Hunger GAME: Time to Change Strategy?

To review my GAME plan, my goal is to incorporate one new activity and one new assessment for my students as they continue mastering the standards for The Hunger Games unit we are covering.  These goals will allow me to develop  my implementation of ISTE indicators that will customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources; and provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching (ISTE, 2008). My activity is to give students the task of finding a song that relates to one of the characters from the novel and creating a video, slideshow, or podcast that shows the lyrics and what they have to do with characterization.  My assessment is to challenge students to create a series of three six second video clips that highlight the novel’s significant plot events, use of symbolism, and characterization.

Life just got in the way.  Instead of being in the classroom where we could use laptops to finalize their group projects where they are creating an arena, I just lost a day due to testing that was added unexpectedly so we can collect data on my students’ reading levels.  Another factor that has them excited (read distracted) is the upcoming release this Friday of Catching Fire.  They are so anxious to see what happens next that they are making predictions instead of focusing on our content.  I am curious to see how the new movie sparks their interest and catches fire (pun intended) in the classroom when it comes to creating their vines. Add into that the upcoming Thanksgiving break, and six seconds of attention is about all I may get. 

The good news:  they are excited about their arenas and are impressed with using Google Docs.  Some of them are working on shared documents for the first time.  If I can model some Vines that I make this weekend, I think that I can reignite their interest in new technologies and get them to complete the projects if not before the break, then during their time off.

I will stick with my plan and use my resources.  My colleagues can help me make the Vine samples since we all dressed up as Hunger Games characters for Halloween (we had an amazing Effie, Madge, and Katniss – I was Greasy Sae).  Right now I am monitoring my progress and will make adjustments in the deadlines as needed to accommodate student motivation and practicality;  I will later evaluate my choice of technologies I have included (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010).  Their focus in on their current project and not the new challenges I have posed, so I am curious to see how this all plays out.  Back to the field!  Half time is over and it is time for the fourth quarter press!  Whatever the outcome, students are talking about the book, and that is a “win.”

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom

       use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for

            teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved fromhttp://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers