Destiny Carpitella

Cultural Lesson Reflection

Please answer the following question about your virtual culture lesson.  Please be specific and
provide examples where necessary.

1. Since the culture lesson was in a virtual environment, what was your biggest
challenge while planning the lesson?
The biggest challenge while planning the lesson was trying to find ways to have the
students be engaged with an online lesson. Since we did not directly speak to the class,
our group had to create a word document to record the students’ understanding of the
lesson. Our cultural lesson was based on Madagascar and we had students use Venn
Diagrams to compare and contrast the United States of America to our chosen country.

2. In the planning the lesson, how did you accommodate for students since they were
going to complete the lesson independently?
As stated in the previous question, our group has created a word document that allowed
students to input their answers and reupload onto Edmodo. The PowerPoint was user
friendly and contained various visuals and videos informing the students about
Madagascar.

3. What are some advantages to having a lesson in a virtual environment? 

Disadvantages?
Some advantages to having a lesson in a virtual environment is that we did not have to
worry about the timing of out lesson. Usually when we stand up to present, we are being
timed. In this case, all we had to do was upload our PowerPoint along with a word
document and instruction. The disadvantages of this lesson included the lack of social
interaction. I believe that especially in an ELL classroom, it is imperative that students
should be physically in class. It allows them to see the gestures and lip movements when
teachers or students talk. Although we had some videos, it is not sufficient enough for
ELL students to practice learning their targeted language.

4. How different would your lesson have been if it was taught live in the classroom? 
What is at least one aspect that would have been completely different?
If our lesson would have been taught live, we would have created groups of 2 or 3
students to complete the individual work that was assigned online. This would have made
creating a Venn Diagram a lot easier for ELL students to complete, while having a social
interaction with their peers.

5. If you were to plan this lesson again for a virtual environment, what is one thing you
would do differently?  Why?
If I were to plan this lesson again for a virtual environment, I would have created a
screencast of the PowerPoint. After viewing some of the other students’ presentations, I
thought that watching their screencasts made learning about the topic more enjoyable. It
brought the visuals and text to life.
6. Did you achieve your objectives?  How can you be sure?  Looking back, was your
assessment effective?  What is one thing you would do differently with assessment if
you had another opportunity to teach this lesson virtually?
Ae have certainly achieved our objectives. Our word document assessed the students in
the information that we provided throughout the slides. However, we have not included
any slides about the United States of America, because we “assumed” that students
already had some prior knowledge about the content area. I believe that our assessment
was still effective regardless, because we included information from all aspects ranging
from culture to education systems in Madagascar. If I had the opportunity to teach this
lesson virtually, I would have had students work in pairs to complete the assignment. I
would also have had more interactive activities that made the students motivated to learn
more.