Assure Lesson Plan Reflection

 Students today are so technologically advanced that sometimes a traditional classroom learning environment is not enough to engage them. They key to grabbing their attention is to appeal to something that intrigues them, usually anything they can do, touch, or interact with. Most of the time it is a daunting task for teachers. For effective instruction to take place, careful planning is required. The assure model will help effectively integrate media/technology into your lesson or presentation (Heinich, 2002) In the assure model, each step is detailed and there is a sense of accountability for the skills taught. It even includes a revision section where the teacher should go back and assess and ensure 100% participation and success.

When integrating technology into this assignment, I could easily see how a student would find this assignment interesting. Just being able to do an assignment on the computer breaks them away from the traditional and sometimes boring pen and paper routine. The NETS*T standards push to facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity (ISTE.org.,2011) and what better way to do it than with technology.
In this assignment, I was able to integrate several interactive ways to communicate and engage my students. First, was the use of the Google Document spread sheet. I uploaded it directly to the website and am able to email to them as a group or individually. Second, was the requirement in the assessment for students to post and respond to a class blog. They are free to express themselves and receive credit for participating.
And last but not least the contact page. Most times students do not have questions until they are actually doing the assignment and by that time they are usually home and can not communicate with the teacher.

Overall, I like the fact that the ASSSURE plan is very detailed. It minimizes the guessing to be done in the actual class setting. One of the down sides is that these plans may take a lot of time to compile, but I guess over time the collection will make the class and instructional time more efficient.



References: 

Heinich, R., Molenda, M., Russell, J.D., and Smaldino, J. (2002). Instructional media and technologies for learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.


NETST Standards (2012)  Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx