Team Education 2.0 - Weekly Post by Katie Petty

Week 10 - Module 6 - Weekly Post by Katie Petty

Big Concept & Sub-Topics

Elements of Drama in Macbeth

1.     Understand basic dramatic elements found in the play

2.     Recognize tone, diction, imagery, and mood through interpretive reading

3.     Compare and contrast modern day situations to themes in literature

Relationships that Constitute the Important Dimensions of Understanding & Relationships Which Have Not Been Taugtht

Learning, or more importantly, understanding is something that has a growing knowledge base. In our reading, we learn more about how Ausubel’s theory of meaningful learning is extended by the Schema theory, which Don Norman has amplified with his proposal of accretion, tuning, and restructuring. Our reading defines out various dimensions of understanding that have been derived from Norman’s tuning phase. I felt our reading left a little to interpretation in regards to answering this assignment. However, I found an online interview with Don Norman that really clarified how I can outline the relationships that constitute the important dimensions of understanding. In the course of this interview, Norman expounds upon the need for external motivation (tied to the material), problem-based learning (action-solving and work load tangibles), as well as experiential-based learning. He shares the final thought by saying, “I'm learning a number of things, including the fact that the affective system is a very powerful information processing system that places value judgments. It makes rapid value judgments, plus-affect and minus-affect. And those value judgments affect the way the cognitive system processes information (Norman, 2002).

In this particular learning experience, students work to establish relationships of understanding of tone, diction, imagery, figurative language, and mood through inferential and interpretive reading, listening, and viewing. Most of these items will be new concepts for the students as they delve into higher level literary analysis. Throughout the reading of the Shakespearean Play, MacBeth, students also build upon previous learned elements of drama such as figurative speech, literary devices, use of paradox, and storytelling elements. After building new knowledge and expanding on previous knowledge, students solidify the knowledge by putting it to practice in developing their own story involving comparing and contrasting the modern world with thematic literary elements.

Best Practice of Multimedia

An online article expounds upon the appropriate use of multimedia in education. It states, “There are a number of different models of learning styles. One of the most popular identifies visual, auditory, and kinesthetic as the three ways in which people take in information. We know from experience that students respond well to the use of images to stimulate their interest in a subject. For about 65% of the population, this is their preferred style. Photographs, maps, paintings, graphs/charts, drawings are just a few of the types of visuals that can be used to engage students who are more visual learners. About 30% of the population prefers to receive information in an auditory manner. Some ways that you can incorporate sounds into your class include readings (poets reading their own works, you reading important passages from a book, etc.), music, specific sounds (bird calls, ocean waves, etc.), and language tapes in foreign language classes. Finally the 5% of the population that prefers a kinesthetic approach would enjoy “doing” things as a way to learn information. This could include participating in labs, demonstrations, and various kinds of simulations” ("Teaching effectively with," 2012). Thus, I hope to engage the students by having them read the play and then create a media collage of their understanding of the various elements and literary devices. The second part of the lesson is to watch a modern Macbeth movie and then have the students generate video trailers of Macbeth for distribution. The first part of the lesson deals with teaching new knowledge and reinforcing old. The second part of the lesson deals with the application of this new knowledge. By the end of the overall unit, students should have a good understanding of Macbeth, literary & dramatic elements, and compare vs contrast activities.

References:

Norman, D. (2002, August). Interview by L. Neal [Web Based Recording]. Q&a with

don norman a freewheeling exchange with a true visionary of interaction

design. E-learn magazine, Retrieved from

http://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=569069.

Teaching effectively with multimedia. (2012). Retrieved from

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0

CCkQFjAA&url=http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid

=87&ei=H_OMT5aIBKKg2gXdq-z-Cw&usg=AFQjCNH0-

dRw2_RyWWPn6Yd_u-Hiev-bbA.