Evaluation on Implementation of Thematic Unit

Prepared by Karen Lisonbee

What was the main objective?

The main objective was to create an EBook that would showcase events of one decade from 1940 to 1990. Initially, the students were shown the EBook below to generate excitement. (Click

on the graphic below; once open, the pages turn by clicking at the top or bottom of the page.)

Integrating U.S. History Objective

The students researched one decade between 1940 and 1990 and the impact it had on society. Students were allowed to choose the decade they wanted to research. They really liked having that freedom. Notice which decade was the most popular. When asked, students felt it seems like it would have been such a fun decade with big hair and all!
Decade 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 Number of Students 2 2 3 8 4

Conducting a Boolean Search

Before the students were allowed to begin research for their EBooks, they were shown how to do a Boolean internet search. They then wrote down ten words for their decade. As you will observe from the table below, 84% of the students either felt neutral about this activity or didnt like it.
Greatly Disliked 2 Greatly Liked Disliked Neutral Liked

Activity

Boolean Search

10

Comments Boring; easier to just put in the words instead of using Boolean operators; a hassle

Creating a Wordle Puzzle

After the students came up with words for their decade, they made a Wordle puzzle. As you will see from the table below, 89 percent of the students either liked or greatly liked this activity. The other two students were neutral.
Greatly Liked

Disliked

Activity

Wordle

12

Greatly Disliked Comments I love to be creative. I want to do this for my locker. LOVED IT!

Neutral

Liked

Vocabulary Concepts
Vocabulary concepts were introduced through a PowerPoint presentation. To reinforce those concepts, the students found examples of the concepts in magazines. Eighty-nine percent of the students either liked or greatly liked this activity. One student felt neutral, and the other student disliked the activity, as indicated by the table below.
Activity Greatly Liked Liked Neutral Disliked Greatly Disliked Comments This was fun, but the requirements were too hard. Ive never noticed the way color is put together before! My favorite was finding contrast. This will make me pay more attention to my surroundings!

Magazine Activity

10

An example of the magazine activity and the rubric are on the next slide.

Magazine Example and Rubric

Instruction on Using InDesign

The students were given directions on preparing an InDesign document, including how to set it up with number of pages, orientation, and other particulars. The students also learned how to insert text and graphics.

How well did the learners meet the objectives?

The students met the objectives very well in certain areas, not so well in other areas, and the jury is still out in other areas.

For example, 100 percent of the students submitted ten words about their decade, which were supposed to be obtained from a Boolean internet search. This was a pass/fail activity, and they all received a pass. However, based on an informal observation, it is my opinion that not many of them used the Boolean search appropriately. Im not certain this particular activity lends itself well to a Boolean search and next time, I will not specifically require a Boolean search. Another activity that was pass/fail was the Wordle puzzle, which was a group activity and was based on the ten words found by each student in the group. This was a group activity, and all groups presented a high-quality puzzle. Based on an informal observation by me, the making of the Wordle puzzle led to discussion of the different words and how they had shaped that decade. (continued on next slide)

How well did the learners meet the objectives?

(Continued)

The magazine activity that reinforced concepts learned was not a pass/fail and had a rubric applied to it. (The rubric and an example of the assignment is shown on Slide 7.) Initially, students struggled with understanding this assignment; however, once they understood how to do it, those who wanted to succeed were able to succeed. The breakdown of the scores is shown below:
Score 20/20 17/20 14/20 11/20 Number of Students 10 5 3 1 Percent 100% 85% 70% 55%

Evaluation from the perspective of the Facilitator

From my perspective, a lot of things went well.

For the most part, Desktop Publishing is a hands-on class, which makes it easier to keep students engaged. The students really liked the idea of making an EBook. I choose to introduce the example of my EBook immediately to generate interest, but then I had several activities leading up to the students actually working on their EBooks, and that was somewhat frustrating for the students. They wanted to immediately begin working on their EBooks.

Evaluation from the perspective of the Facilitator

(continued)

I also tried to incorporate too many State objectives. In evaluating the State objectives I used, many of them could have worked just as well as stand-alone objectives and then the students could have started working on their EBooks sooner. If I would have done the objectives beforehand as stand-alone objectives, I would have then just done a basic review of the concepts before having the students embark on this project.

Evaluation from the perspective of the Facilitator

(continued)

With the exception of the Boolean search, I feel all activities went well, and I will repeat them next year. However, Im not sure they flowed appropriately within this thematic unit.

What I believe makes more sense within this thematic unit is to incorporate the making of the EBook, the U.S. History objective of learning about a decade and the impact it had on society, the Library Media objective regarding requiring students to define a task and identify information needed, and the Art Foundations objective of creating expressive works of art including color relationships and emphasis.

Evaluation of the Environment

The classroom is also a computer lab. The setup is good, although improvements can be made. Currently, the monitors set on top of the towers, making it difficult for students to see the screen in front of the room. The plan is to order brackets and place the towers on the floor to improve the field of vision.

Conformity to the Design Plan

I obviously did not understand the concept of a Design Plan when I made it because I left out many parts. However, in hindsight, looking at the whole cycle, it makes sense. The Development Plan was very difficult for me and took many hours. Had I been more diligent with the Design Plan, I believe it would have flowed much better. I believe my implementation very closely aligned with the Development Plan but not with the Design Plan.