Running Head: COMPREHENSIVE REDESIGN

Assignment 8 Comprehensive Instructional Redesign

Bonnie Goodheart
MEDT 7490
Fall 2016

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The client for this my comprehensive instructional design plan is my co-teacher, Kari
Strong (kstrong@gaca.connectionsacademy.org). We both teach 6th grade Earth Science during
a co-taught session each Thursday, but, as our special education teacher, she also has small group
instruction with the students on our team that have IEPs and are in need of more simplified
instruction on some of our most abstract concepts. Since the majority of her day is spent working
with the students on her caseload and holding ESE meetings, I thought the items that she needed
for her small group instruction would be a good place to start with implementing visual literacy
strategies.
We decided to use a lesson from our second semesters Earth, Sun, and Moon unit in
order to have time to discuss and update the materials when we were able to meet during our
weekly planning meetings. When it comes to our study of our planets seasons, students often
have difficulty identifying and understanding that there are a combination of factors that cause
these to occur. Many students believe seasons happen due to Earths changing tilt and that this
changes throughout the year as it orbits the Sun. While tilt does play a role in this process, it is
not the only factor and helping students understand the complex combination of Earths tilt, its
effect on changing the intensity of the Suns rays during its orbit, and our planets hemispheres
helps students understand why the seasons really occur.
To help Mrs. Strongs students get a better understanding of all of the reasons that
contribute to our planets seasons, I examined the presentation we currently use for this topic.
Since we work online with students, Powerpoint presentations are the primary instructional tool
we use for our teaching sessions. Each subject area has a total of four scheduled sessions each
week and subject area teachers plan the topics that are covered based on student progress, state
standards, and lesson assessment scores. Since these are not mandatory for students to attend, we

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often try to cover as much information we can in each session for those that do come and are
recorded and posted on our course message boards for students to review and watch for later use.
Since this may be the only time students hear a teacher explain and discuss a lessons concepts,
there is often little time during whole group sessions for activities and deeper digger into
understanding outside of teacher questioning or explanation when a student asks for clarification.
The small group sessions that Mrs. Strong has once a week serves as the opportunity for ESE
students to have more time for more targeted instruction as well as have time for practice and
clarification. Using the same materials didnt make sense given the expectations and structure of
the small group ESE sessions. Mrs. Strong still wanted concepts covered and explained but also
wanted it broken down into smaller, simpler chunks with additional visuals and videos included
with time for session assessment to occur.
I used the backwards design model of instructional design for the redesign of these
instructional materials. This model has users first identify the desired results that they want their
learners to exhibit or produce. Then the evidence that the learning has occurred must be
identified and, finally, the learning experiences and instruction are taken into account. For me, I
knew the outcomes that Mrs. Strong wanted for her small group instruction and the standards
that were required to teach in sixth grade Earth Science. Also knowing that there are many
misconceptions related to what causes the seasons to occur was also important to keep in mind
when doing this redesign since the overall goal was for students to understand what really causes
them and the be able to create a product that accurately explains and demonstrate this
understanding. Keeping these end goal in mind, I was able to then identify how I needed to get
students to that point. After the key terms and concepts were identified I could decide how I
wanted to present my instruction to my students. I used the original Powerpoint presentation that

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weve used for the LiveLesson sessions with the general education/whole group instruction and
began to edit the extraneous information and graphics that didnt fit Mayers principles of visual
literacy design. Since this redesigned presentation would be used by Mrs. Strong during her
small group instructional LiveLesson, I knew that she would be providing the explanation and
voiceovers for the lesson and that this would be recorded so I focused on following Mayers
principles by removing the graphics that werent being used to support the presented
information, color coding key terms and their definitions if they werent going to be presented
together, moving the most important and relevant graphics to their own individual slides so they
would be the focus of that part of the presentation, and, when necessary, moving necessary
graphics in proximity to the written information that it supported. I also added two videos in the
presentation as wrap ups to the sections of information that they followed to serve as both a
review and to present another visual way for this information to be presented. I feel that using
this instructional design model and following Mayers principles helped target what needed to be
kept or included in the presentation to support Mrs. Strongs goals and present this redesigned
information in a clearer, easier to understand format for her special education students.
For this lesson, students will start in their small group LiveLesson with the redesigned
instructional Powerpoint presentation. Mrs. Strong will review Earths movements through space
and explain rotation, Earths titled axis, and our elliptical revolution around the Sun. After this
initial section, a video was review these concepts and begin to introduce the fact that our planets
seasons are not caused by the axis being tilted but a combination of factors related to our orbit
and this tilt. The next section of the Powerpoint will build on the first videos concepts and go
into detail about how the Earths tilt causes the two hemispheres to be in different orientations to
the Sun as we complete one revolution. Information about how this causes the Suns energy and

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light to hit the curved hemispheres at different intensities; the longer the distance they have to
travel to hit the surface, the less intense and more spread out they are and the shorter the distance
to travel, the more intense and concentrated they will be. This is the reason that the seasons occur
changing intensities and concentrations of sunlight in the hemispheres due to the Earths tilt as
we orbit the Sun. Discussion of the seasons four starting points and their terminology is covered
next and students are introduced to the summer and winter solstice and vernal and autumnal
equinoxes. A diagram summarizing all of these concept comes next, followed by the second
video explaining and showing these in action. The presentation wraps up with a practice activity
where students will demonstrate their knowledge of the terminology and concepts by answering
Mrs. Strongs questions about the different phases shown in the worksheet. Student responses
will be collected in the LiveLesson rooms Poll Pod where students type in their answers. This
will allow Mrs. Strong to confidently assess each students response and use this information to
provide additional support to those students that do not answer correctly. The Piktochart will
then be sent to students as a resource to help them review and study these concepts after the
lesson is over. Students will also complete a webquest to find common misconceptions about the
seasons and then use this information to create their own original poster to show the Earth in the
four positions during its orbit around the Sun with the tilted axis, day and night represented
according to its position in its track, and a written explanation of how the seasons occur with an
inclusion of the common misconceptions and the correct explanation to refute each incorrect
idea. This project will demonstrate for Mrs. Strong each students true, independent
understanding of this lesson after her direct instruction has been completed.
Since we teach at an online school, visuals play an important role in our instruction.
Students spend most of their independent work time reading and clicking through occasional

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links to videos or practice assignments. What I learned through my research for assignment 7,
teaching students how to use and learn from science visuals is an important skill that is needed to
help them connect to and use the graphics that are routinely provided to support the written text.
Also, since many of the concepts we teach in science are either too small, too large, or too
abstract to understand, the inclusion and use of visuals and captions to explain what the pictures
show is also an important instructional tool to use. Our special education students need these
types of resources to help their understanding and to support their varied learning needs.
Showing helps understanding so I wanted to include as many relevant, yet easy-to-understand
graphics and videos to help Mrs. Strong support her students with this often confusing standard.
By simplifying the text and removing the extraneous graphics in keeping with Mayers
coherence principle, students can focus on the relevant information and have visuals that support
what they are leaning. Color coding key terms and their matching definitions within the slides
information follows signaling principle by providing cues to draw their attention to the important
content information. On the slides where there is just a graphic, Mrs. Strongs narration and
explanation help students by following the redundancy and modality principles. And since Mrs.
Strong will be using a conversational and friendly tone during the LiveLesson session, both the
personalization and voice principles.
By redesigning this lesson and including many of the resources that I have for Mrs.
Strongs ESE students I was able to include most of the ACRL Visual and Literacy Competency
standards. Standard one has students determining the nature and extent of the visual materials
that are needed. The webquest and poster cumulative project that students will complete after the
lesson is completed has students designing instructional posters that require them to decide how
they want to present their information and choose the visuals, typeface, and layout of their final

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product. Standards two, five, six, and seven are also covered by this project. Students need to
know how to find the images that they need or want to use to base their drawings on for their
poster and know how these can be used to meet the projects requirement to effectively design
and create their informational resource. The creation and use of their reasons for the seasons
poster must also use their chosen graphics and images in a responsible and ethical manner. We
spend a lot of time talking to students about plagiarism and having them practice how to meet
copyright and legality requirements. They need to adhere to these requirements when creating
and selecting the images for their project. Standard three is addressed during the instructional
presentation. The use of charts and graphics in the Powerpoint require students to apply what
they have learned to interpret, explain, and understand the concepts they support. I feel that this
redesigned lesson and its culminating poster project help students become better and more
proficient visual learners.
I enjoyed completing this redesign project since it helped me gain a better understanding
of how to edit and create new resources for students. One of the biggest challenges I had while
working on this assignment was making sure what I was doing best meet the needs and
requirements that Mrs. Strongs special education students needed. I tried to keep it as simple
and to the point as I could to prevent them from becoming overloaded but still get the required
information across. Ive always been of the mindset that more is better but have learned through
this course that doing this can often lead to confusing and overload. I also had to identify the best
resources to meet the redesigned lesson while following copyright requirements. While I created
the Piktochart visual and webquest/poster project on my own, there were many good resources
available that could summarize and support the presentations needs. By researching to find the
best visuals and videos to meet Mrs. Strongs requirements and then giving them credit and

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citing each ones source in the presentation, I feel that I was able to include relevant resources
while following the regulations of copyright.
I look forward to getting Mrs. Strongs feedback once she implements this project with
her students in the spring semester to see how she felt I worked in practice and how the students
responded and demonstrated their understanding of the presented material. I feel that I did a good
job and have learned quite a lot through this project.

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Original Seasons Presentation:

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