"Is it possible to design lessons that sacrifice neither content nor engagement, given the time constraints?"

Mr. Hong was gracious enough to act out a brief skit with me, to introduce the importance of bibliographies:
He enthusiastically told me about the plot and characters of a book he read; but when I inquired about the title, author, date of publication, etc., he unfortunately could not remember. If only he wrote down those key details, then we could both go back to read the wonderful book again! That is one reason why we write down our sources when doing research- so we/others could go back to the same sources if necessary.  

The meticulous details and punctuations in bibliographies could be cumbersome for students- unless some friendly competition is involved! Students worked in groups to write down the bibliography information for a particular website, and then each group was responsible for writing on the board one piece of bibliography information. Other groups had to keep their eyes pealed for mistakes, as both correct answers and corrections for other groups earned the group points!

Lesson Reflections:

• Group activities are a lot of fun, but it took longer than anticipated (could only cover bibliographies for websites; did not get to bibliographies for images). Is it possible to design lessons that sacrifice neither content nor engagement, given the time constraints? Or does one have to try to balance both and sometimes sacrifice one for the other?
  
• Getting students to speak about key points they have learned in the lesson would be a good way to review and wrap up the lesson
  

Do you love hamburgers? But would you eat it in ONE big bite? Of course not! You would not be able to fit everything in your mouth with just one bite. When you write, do you try to cram all your ideas into ONE sentence? I hope not! Your reader would definitely not be able to digest what you are trying to say. Do yourself and your readers a favor- take manageable bites and use manageable (correctly constructed) sentences in your writing.  

How do we use EdTech to facilitate student feedback and participation?

Students were equipped with iPads and asked to use the Google Form here to submit in-class comments, questions, and practice exercises (exercises were explained in class, and based on the "Sample Blog Response" below). Live submissions from students enabled instant feedback and adjustments to lesson.

"Sample Blog Response" (with run-on sentences, to be corrected)

        I think that Mack will explode he will be losing money and getting a bad reputation. Reporters will find out about the claw stick, they will be too scared to talk to Mack directly. Customers will find out about how Stella died, and they will ask the police to start an investigation in honor of Stella, and people will stop coming to the mall. They would not want to spend their money in support of animal cruelty they will walk away. Although everyone will be against Mack, at first he will continue in his ways.

        Mack will discover that he is going bankrupt, he will finally realize that what he did was wrong. Could he change though? I think he can change, anyone can change. Mack will feel very guilty because of what he’s done, and he will want to apologize to all the animals and he will realize that the zoo is really the best solution for them and for him. Selling the mall business is probably a good idea too, it should have occurred to him earlier. Maybe he should become a car salesman, he does have a lot of experience with attracting customers.