TIP Model Phase 4-Preparing the Instructional Environment

TIP Model Phase 4-Preparing the Instructional Environment

Esmeralda is having her students do a social studies project in which they do "virtual interviews" of experts on various periods in U.S. history. She schedules time in the computer lab and has them locate experts by searching Internet sites. She gives them an initial list of sites, but encourages them to branch out from there, looking for additional sites on their own. There is no lab manager and she has to go back to the classroom for periods of time as they work, but she knows they are competent Internet users and can be trusted not to leave the lab without permission. For their contacts with experts, she has them prepare a standard email with the school name; their names, ages, addresses, and personal email addresses, if they have one; and a description of what they would like to know.

1. Assuming she is correct that students will not leave the lab with permission, is Esmeralda's plan for having students use the Internet a good one? Why or why not?

Having the students us the Internet is a good idea but Esmeralda’s plan is not fully thought out. I appreciate her approach to giving the students the opportunity to “discover” by using a constructivist strategy. She is encouraging the student’s creativity in resolving the assigned task. But I believe that a more directed strategy will yield greater results and still encourage creativity. Too much flexibility in locating experts can lead to unverifiable information, wasted time and the likelihood of an uncompleted task.

2. Do you see any problems with the email she is having them send?

The email that Esmeralda is having the students prepare has personal information that could be used by others to make contact with the student. As a parent, this would greatly concern me because it places my child in a possibly dangerous situation. And to take this point further, the scenario above does not indicate that the teacher has gotten permission from the parents before attempting to contact the history experts. The process of obtaining permission would have prevented the emails from going out due to the effect of accountability on the teacher by involving school administrators and parents.

3. How would you change her plan to improve it?

I believe that Esmeralda’s plan can be improved on by foregoing the interviews with experts and instead have the student conduct their own research. By not requiring interviews, the teacher will no longer need the student to attempt to contact the expert. She could expand on the list of vetted web sites while giving the students some freedoms to find new ones. The new web site searches could be limited in time so that valuable lab time is not spent on “surfing” and not on production of meaningful research. And the new sites should be approved before the students invest time in meaningful research. Since there is not a lab manager, the teacher could divide the assigned task into increments and then monitor the time spent on each so as to provide structure and a timeline to keep the student’s work moving forward. To begin the project, it would be helpful if the teacher demonstrated what she was expecting from the student, provided an example as well as a grading rubric to eliminate misunderstandings and set expectations.