Visual-Based Instructional Module

1. My name is Frances Syverson. This is my 18th year in education, all spent in high schools. I work currently as a Media Specialist. My focus this year has been to help teachers learn and integrate available technology. My client is Holly Robinson who has been in education for 23 years, all in elementary schools. She is a Media Specialist and is currently without a clerk (makes it difficult to teach students specific programs). Funds are extremely limited. The two areas I am focusing on is to teach a class of fourth and fifth graders the program, easel.ly, and to help fund fiction books for her Nooks.

2. Visual-Based Instructional Module To equip students with skills for creating infographics for projects within the school setting by: *Conducting a pre-assessment/questionnaire to a fourth grade and fifth grade class. *Teaching the concept of infographicsusing the on-line program, easel.ly. *Accessing the program whereby students can create his/her own infographic. *Performing a post-assessment/questionnaire to afourth and fifth grade class. *Providing examples of the students’ work as means of evidence of understanding. To help provide the opportunity to acquire the needed funds to purchase eBooks for the set of Nooks currently not being utilized due to lack of fiction eBooks by: *Providing support to create and to advertise a donorschoose.org account where donors could contribute (tax deductible) money to help fund the eBooks.

3. Each student filled out a 5-question survey with my guidance. The first question asked about what the students thought an infographic was. The responses ranged from “I don’t know” to “A picture that has a lot of information.” Students seemed very receptive to learning the program. When asked what information would they want to create an infographic on, students responded with, “Bullying,” “Sports,” “Veterans,” and more. The Media Specialist had tried the website, easel.ly, at home but forgot to try it at school. When I arrived, we discovered that even the usual “overriding” of programs wouldn’t work. We are working with the IT support at the school to ensure the programis no longer blocked before I travel to the school for my second teaching session. Students will be able to utilize this program when creating projects in class. The presentation will be given to the Enrichment Teacher to continue helping the students create more visual presentations.

4. FE E V A L U A T I O N DBACK “I want to make on one dogs; I have dogs.” “I want to make one about my grandfather; he was in the war.” “How about sports? I could make one on sports.” “I love cats; can I make one on cats?” “This is really a neat program.” he responses I received from the Enrichment Teacher, Media Specialist, and the students were all positive. The students had great ideas of what to do next time I visited, and the Enrichment Teacher and MS were excited to help get the filter issues worked out before I return.

5. Your client’s needs and resources will, most likely, differ greatly from yours. Be flexible and think “outside the box.” You may have to continue to remind your client when you need something from his/her end. Your client gets busy and may sometimes need gently reminding of a task. Technology is a wonderful thing, when it WORKS and isn’t being filtered. Be willing to change what your plan is when encountering issues. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the 4th and 5th graders. This was a departure from the “older” students I usually work around. The 4th grade class was a little antsy when they arrived, so I told them to put everything down and stand up (except the girl in crutches). We all stood (me in my boots and skirt) and did jumping jacks, toe touches, and jumping jacks again. They loved it and it helped keep them awake while we went over the lesson. The Promethean Board didn’t work and the program was blocked, so I had to improvise. However, the kids were great!!! I can’t wait to go back to help them create their own infographics.