Blendspace in the Classroom

Having watched Mrs. Davala's class when she has had a technology visit has made me very interested in Blendspace. I love that her AP students could still engage in really rigorous activities while she was outside of the classroom and they could also work at their own pace. I liked that students were using various tools and were able to have reflection which could be used to measure progress, both by Mrs. Davala and the students. Knowing that I will be going out of the classroom for about 7 weeks, I wanted to learn how to adopt a tool like Blendspace so that my students could still get resources and engage with me, even while I am out.

It has been a goal of mine, then, to learn how to properly use Blendspace. During Summer Institute I tried making a Blendspace, but it seemed to be a resource hub, rather than a meaningful way to deliver instruction. With help from my husband (the Technology guru), I crafted a Blendspace for my teaching of "A Modest Proposal" for my Honors IV students. We started by mapping out the end goal of the day's lesson: an assessment. Students would have a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer. I didn't tell the students this, but all of the questions were slightly modified AP questions rhetoric and composition questions. By using this as a guide for my assessment, I knew it would be rigorous. From that point I worked on building small tasks that would get students to understand the context of Swift's "A Modest Proposal" while also engaging in the text.

Below is a breakdown of my rationale behind the construction of my blendspace

First task: Review of Satire--Students defined satire in their own words

Second Task: Tackk background of Swift and "A Modest Proposal"-- This would be new information. I debated on whether or not to tell them the content of "A Modest Proposal" because to tell them takes away some of the shock value...but I figured I really needed to stress the satirical element of the piece. I also built in 2 padlet questions that did a basic check for understanding.

Third Task: Reading "A Modest Proposal"--Students can struggle with this essay. It is an 18th century piece of British/Irish literature. Therefore, I incorporated an audio version for students to listen too. I also gave them instructions on how to annotate while listening. One thing my students are still struggling with is their vocabulary. As a result, part of their required annotations were to look at complex words. I found a quizlet with the most commonly misunderstood words of the essay and provided this as a guide.

Fourth: After reading, students were to post questions/responses to a Today's Meet. Most students posted questions. I took these questions and created a "FAQ" handout in the Blendspace that students could use to review PRIOR to taking the quiz. It was because of this activity I realized most students did NOT pick up the satirical nature of the essay...they believed that Swift was serious about eating the Irish babies.

The Final Activity was the quiz. This did require students to understand persona/writer and diction. Most students struggled with the persona question (understandable if they didn't pick up on the Satire element). As a result, I reviewed this with students the next day and gave them a writing assignment for them to create their own satirical work. I also showed them another (more modern) example of Satire. Next time, I think I will still use the Blendspace activities for "A Modest Proposal" but I may give them the writing task BEFORE our reading.

On a side note, I had every technology issue possible with this Blendspace, but the students stayed with me. We found ways to modify, but I know now to be more aware of the possibilities of what can go wrong. I am a little worried about what could go wrong if I wasn't present, but I think I can keep working to develop ways around those glitches and I am currently building a review Blendspace for my AP students to work on when they return (without me) from winter break.