Material Detail

The Area of 2D Figures StAIR was an exceptional presentation of materials. The immediate connection to real world examples actively engages the learner and builds motivation. There are multiple pedagogical strategies that include a clear definition of content, a well thought out overview, extensive visual cues, and audio prompts. The StAIR continually builds upon prior knowledge and clearly demonstrates the necessary reasoning to solve area for several 2 dimensional shapes. The presentation also allows choice for the learner based on similar objectives. The end of the StAIR offers a complete review of skills as well as multiple ways to reflect and assess area with appropriate feedback.

The content was meaningful, but I may change the length of the StAIR to target necessary skills and be more specific. It may also be beneficial to identify a target audience in the beginning of the presentation. Finally, the video in the StAIR was not accessible within the presentation or credits.

Technical Remarks:

I thought this stair did a wonderful job addressing the idea of area in a way I would have.  The stair did a good job of addressing several educational stratigies in an attempt to reach all students.  One of the stratigies that the stair incorporated was Instructional Design Principles.  Accoriding to instructional design principles, we need to let students know why it is important that they learn this information.  This stair did a good job addressing SEVERAL different carreers that would use this content on a regular basis.  Not only did the stair say why it was necessary for students to know this, the stair gave students its objectives and clearly stated what the goal was and how the stair would get you there.  Another part of Instructional Design, is the idea of continually showing students what we covered and where we are.  This stair creation did this in such a way, that it blended smoothly with the rest of the presentation.

Along with Instructional Design Principles, the stair inculded stratigies from the Universal Design for Learning ideas.  UDL is all about breaking down barriers so that students can learn better.  This stair did a great job breaking down barriers, by addressing necessary background information at the start and reviewing vocabular.  It also included visuals for the shape showing what was going on.  This woud be really helpful to keep students from being confused.  I also really liked the way the shapes related to each other and would build on each other.  This is a great way for students to learn about the area of different shapes and really understand where this is comming from.  The  stair also did a great job scaffolding and building upon what students already knew and were familiar with.

While I thought this stair did a wonderful job breaking down the concepts, formulas, and idea of area, I would make one change to it.  The stair only had one review question, and while the question was a good one, I feel more questions would be better.  I also would incorporate something (scaffolding maybe) to smooth the transition between the quiz question and the worksheet.  The worksheet was MUCH more challenging than the quiz, and I think that more basic questions would be helpful before jumping to that level.