A couple of months ago I asked my Language Arts department to each share 5 strategies they are currently using in their classrooms to help teach their ELD students.  After all, I knew that if we combined our strengths, we could all learn from each other.  So in that spirit of collaboration and variety, I wanted to share the list that we made.  After weeding out some repetitions, we ended up with 40 different strategies: some obvious, some not so obvious.

Lists are awesome resources.  They are easy to write and, more importantly, easy to use.  As a reader you can check out a list, highlight what you might want to use, and ditch easily what you don’t. We each wrote a list of 5 strategies that we use to aid our ELD students.  It can be a particular way we assess, like a project that we have found that really brings out the best in our kids, or it can be a way we teach a particular skill.  It can be a strategy we use to ensure that they are “with us” or a way we help to assess gaps or bridge them.

Perhaps you are already using some, but it’s possible that there’s one or two in here that are new.  I hope you not only can find a new strategy to use, but that you encourage your own department to generate its own list down the line.  Next steps?  Distribute your department’s list to the teachers in other departments and have them add their own strategies.  Create a list that owned by all.

But make sure you come back and post your list so that we might also learn from your department too!

Pick and Choose: ELD Strategies

Main Theme for this school year’s focus: The strategies that are good for teaching English Language Learners are good for every learner.

1. Identify them– Step one.  Know who the EL students are in your class.

2. Give them ways to show understanding in different ways that count– Sure, we assess on writing essays, but can we also assess a skill based on a 1-3 sentence submission like an exit card, blog post, or caption? ?How ‘bout as a sound file?  How about as a discussion, debate, or formal conversation?  We can make rubrics for just about anything, so why not try something that isn’t just writing-focused?

3. Keep them close– Try to put as many EL students as possible in the tables closest to you or the front of the room.  If they can’t be right next to the teacher, at least put them in a functioning group, surrounded by achievers plus hopefully a person they would like to sit with. (see strategy #14)

4. Notice the top 3 errors they all share and teach to those– It’s hard to individualize attention for every kid, but if you can identify the top 3-5 errors they all tend to make and then weave lessons around those into your class lessons, then at least you will have some targeted lessons in the bag.

5. Blog– Blogging means they don’t have to raise their hand in public.  In addition, a teacher can create a prompt easily based on responding not only to a piece of reading, but also to a picture or a video.  What’s turned in can be anywhere from 1 sentence to 5 paragraphs.  It’s up to you, but it definitely seems to demystify participation for many of them.

6. Give Students Choice– Let them choose the book they get credit reading.  Let them choose from a few prompts to answer.  Let them choose the question they respond to.  Etc…

7. Give them Accessible Scaffolds– Have them glue scaffolds into their writers note books to give them ownership of their resources.   These can be sentence stems for oral discussion, definitions, sentence stems for leveled questions, outlines, etc….

8. Have them work with partners- Working with partners develops their oral communication skills and comprehension. Talking about what we are learning about or sharing what they have written helps them retain information and get better in communicating their knowledge.

9. Have them use T-T-W- Use?the think, talk, write strategy to prep their brains.

10. Create opportunities for “small responses”- Use “Think Marks.” These are book marks where they can write questions, thoughts, vocabulary in a non-threatening, short and sweet format.

11. Use the “Say Something” strategy– This is where the students are given sentence starters to help them comment on what they are reading before, during, and after.

12. Use cloze paragraphs to help scaffold writing – Create paragraphs structures that ask them to fill in the blanks with content. ?That way they learn organization and structure through modeling while still showing their knowledge.

13. Review Key Vocabulary- Model the correct pronunciation and have the whole class repeat it chorally (this is good for our EOs as well, since sometimes they don’t know how to properly pronounce the words either).

14. Use Heterogeneous Grouping — Mix them up. ?Seat an English learner next to another student who speaks the same language.

15. Modify rubrics for our ELD students– Develop modified rubrics that reflect mastery of content rather than perfection of grammar, syntax, mechanics, punctuation, etc.  Assess what’s most important.

16. Use a word of the day to teach high-level content words-  Be sure to use these words on a regular basis and to remind students of the meaning and simpler synonyms we often use to mean the same thing. ?e.g. “The exposition is the word we use to describe the beginning of a story. So, what happens in the exposition of “Seventh Grade?”

17. Use BrainPop to review concepts – Have students take notes from the video, as needed. Use the close captioning option so students can hear and read the words as the video progresses.

18. Use Listening and Reading Simultaneously – Use the audio CDs or downloads to listen to the story as students follow along in their texts. ?

19. Give them choice, but limit their choices – Unlimited choices are overwhelming for anybody. ?Limit their choices of presentation so they aren’t hit by a a wall of possibilities. ?That way, they are also choosing from possibilities that reflect the level you expect and it doesn’t freak them out.

20. Provide first sentences or paragraphs for writing assignments – Having that first part done already for them to tack onto can defeat the blank-white-paper-phobia.

21. Allow students to parrot the teacher’s answers – If they can do that much, they’ve likely been paying attention.

22. Find time to teach grammar explicitly – Principal parts of verbs is an area that deserves special attention.  When we hear someone say “the car is broke” or “I should have went” we ask whether he paid attention during English class, yet many of the errors adults make involve similar problems with verbs. Be the model and target what you want them to know.

23.  Provide Model Pieces – Post correct examples of work, color-coded when possible.  It’s a great time saver when kids say they don’t know how to do an assignment or are confused about your level of expectation.

24. Provide a Print Rich Environment- Have a classroom library with a wide variety of reading materials.  Picture books, Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Young Adult Novels, Classics, Poetry, Weird Science, etc. etc.  Bring in a daily newspaper and subscribe to student friendly periodicals such as Sports illustrated For Kids. Encourage them to read whatever strikes their fancy even if it seems that it is not challenging them.  Once you get them hooked on your library, then you can direct them to more challenging materials.

25. Teach How to Use Dictionaries- Don’t assume kids know how to use a dictionary or any other kind of informational resource. Teach them how to use them and that they are not all created equal.  Have several types in the classroom-picture dictionaries, collegiate dictionaries, English-Learner dictionaries.  Show them some reputable online dictionaries. Encourage their use. Create a homework assignment that requires dictionary use. Model using them yourself regularly.

26 Color Code- Use color and shapes to locate text structure, find verbs, adjectives, literary techniques at work.  “Cloud the similes and make the descriptive adjectives green.” Use color to get them interacting with text.

27 Utilize Props and Visual Cues- Point at things, use the document camera; get props from a yard sale.  A giant ear for “listen”, a golden key for “this is important”, a pirate’s hook for narrative attention getters.

28. Speak idiomatically- Use idioms and figurative language in your speech and draw attention to it when you do.  “Metaphorically speaking, we need to get a fire under us to finish this assignment before the bell rings.”

29. Give them a heads up –  Don’t “require”  EL students to talk on the spot.  Instead,  give them fair warning.  Tell them that tomorrow we’re doing this and that, and then let them know that you will ask them two questions about it.  Or ask a stronger student to answer, and then ask the EL student to repeat what that student said.  Ask the EL student if he agrees.   This way, you can indirectly get the student to participate in discussions without all the anxiety.

30. Let them use their expertise - Encourage Spanish speakers to use their knowledge of the language in figuring out meanings of new vocabulary.  There is a lot of correlation and similarities that they don’t realize.

31. Utilize role-playing – Role playing is great to use and it doesn’t have to take a lot of class time.  It’s fun for everyone and EL students can “see” what they just read.  You can also ask for students to illustrate on the board.

32. Encourage parental involvement – Many EL parents still don’t understand the American educational system.  Something as simple as reading a report card or grade sheet is new to them.  They may not even know what classes their children are taking. Find ways to get parents involved. ?Send home a sheet in the home language that specificially explains how to email or call you. Encourage parents to write notes to you in their own language (student will translate, and they usually are very honest).  This bridge in communication makes students more accountable because now they know that their parents are involved and parents have a better understanding of what’s going on.

33. Compare their learning to what they recognize – When teaching the grammar/mechanics of writing, ask students to compare it to their native language.  Sometimes if they are aware of the differences or similarities, then English grammar will make more sense.  Teachers don’t have to be bilingual necessarily, but if they are aware of some of the common rules of their students’ languages, it might help.  Just ask them something like, “Well in Spanish, would the verb go here or there?  How would you make this verb past tense?  In English, most of the time, you just add ‘ed’, but there are some exceptions.”  Then ask them to think about it in Spanish.?

34. Have them think and write in their first language to fill in gaps – If there is a word or phrase that must be used to enhance the writing, but the student can only write it in her native language, let her do so.  We want to develop fluency of thought.  We don’t want the student to give up because she’s stuck on a word or phrase.  This is true for using the bilingual electronic dictionaries.  Tell students to only use it the last five or ten minutes of an assignment.  Write whatever they can in English and leave blanks for the words/phrases they don’t know.  Then they can look it up later.  Otherwise, they’ll look up every other word!

35. Have them create samples on/at the board – Using the new activeboards or using a document camera/computer, students can come up and write, click/drag, label, color, highlight, etc. on the board. This helps check for understanding and its FUN!

36. Find small group/one-on-one time – After teaching a lesson and sending off the kids to break out into small groups or work independently, pull  the EL’s and make sure they understand the lesson, and, if not, find out what they didn’t understand.   By working with a small group, even if it’s only for a few minutes once or twice a week, you slowly gain an understanding of how much they understand from your lessons and what things you need to go through more thoroughly.

37. Use visuals – By having students draw pictures to represent vocabulary or key terms it helps them visualize the word or the concept better. For some EL’s they can express themselves better through pictures than words.

38. Provide student samples – we can give kids directions and rubrics and tell them what a 5 paper looks like and the components that are necessary, but showing  them samples of a real 5 paper from former students and comparing  it to a 2, 3, or 4 paper has real power.   Let them dissect it to help them become better writers. It is also a good model for them to refer back to and compare their own writings to.

39. Use academic vocabulary – Even if it seems like it would be above their heads, ELD students won’t learn higher levels of word choice unless we use those words daily. ?Don’t hesitate to use the word analyze or synthesize. ?Just make sure you use easier synonyms too while talking about what the words mean. ?Academic vocab is hard to understand on context alone.

40. Don’t assume… – Finish this sentence however you want. Don’t assume that just because they don’t speak our language the student isn’t capable of greatness.

In the end, it’s really all about ensuring that we are doing everything we can so that they understand the content and produce evidence of that knowledge in the most engaging way they can.

Please feel free to comment and add to the list!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Common Core Instruction, ELD, ELL, English Language Learners, Language Arts, Strategies for ELD

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It’s like the trashy news mags have taken over our factual existence. ?You can hear the whispers over the water cooler:

What will be the name of the new baby?

What trends will we have to follow to be considered “in?”

Where is the hip spot to get the latest dish?

The problem, however, is that those who are creating the assessments are moving at a pace as if the only deadline they need to be concerned with is the one dictated by the actual testing date of 2014-2015.  However, if schools are to prepare the kids for those tests, we need to plan and prep now.  (It’s the ole tail wagging the dog all over again).  We need facts, not gossip.

But what’s out there is merely hypotheses, and the ability to get as close to the inner circle of those in the know has become a growing industry of prediction, not knowledge.  And these predictions will be marketing those guesses to the vulnerable teachers concerned about student achievement and learning.

But there is a movement afoot of teachers taking control of their curriculum in this age of uncertainty. ?For without a clear path, sometimes opportunity blooms, creating one’s own path. ?And many districts and teachers are doing just that.

For what it’s worth, here are a couple of things that I’m choosing to focus on without losing my cool too much in what has lately gone from “test prep” to “guess prep:”

1. In order to address the CAT (computer adaptive technology) component, I’m going to mimic some of those kinds of assessments in my own classroom.  It might be fun to fool around with leveled questions.  There are websites out there that can help you design your own CAT classroom assessments too.  Sites like:

www.quiztron.com

www.quibblo.com

www.quizmoz.com

www.gotoquiz.com

CAT is about differentiating assessments and also using assessments formatively.  I figure as long as I’m doing both of those things, I’m ahead of the game.  One of the ways I differentiate my assessments is by teaching students about Costas Levels of Questioning and then having them design Levels 1, 2, and 3 questions and use these questions as the basis of my own informal assessments. I also teach them about closed-choice questions, rank order questions, and open-ended questions. ? In addition, I use student choice whenever possible so that a student has the opportunity to show me what he or she knows in the method in which that student is most comfortable. ?After all, if the goal is to see how well and deeply they learned, why not give them the chance to show off their knowledge in the best way possible?

2. To address the writing component and the performance-based assessments, I have become deeply dedicated to project based learning this year.  I’ve been writing about it throughout this past school year, but my use of collaboration, technology, inquiry-based instruction, and project-based writing has increased significantly.  What was once something I only took time to do during 4th quarter when the assessment pressure had subsided, has become something I do despite assessment pressure.  And I’ve been rewarded greatly in student enthusiasm and even test scores.  See my Edutopia post here.

My doodle I thought of this morning in the shower.

We know that writing is back in style due to the Common Core.  In fact, and frighteningly to some, it wil be back in style across the disciplines.

If you read the SMARTER assessment information, for instance, you’ll notice peppered throughout the document are words like “translation”, “argument”, “analyze”, and “interpret.”

And from what I understand, Math students will be asked to write about why they selected a particular equation or how they came to a particular conclusion.  It’s all about informational and persuasive writing, and all classes will have to use writing in both assignments and assessments in order to comply.  Frankly, that doesn’t sound unreasonable to me because writing in unavoidable in “real life.”  No college bound kid or career bound kid (white-collar or blue or grey or chartreuse) can avoid it.

I want to end by saying that I’m not against having standards.  I’m also liking a lot of what I’m seeing in what’s out there about the Common Core.  Really I do.  It’s this blindly searching in the dark for what’s going to prepare these kids that I resent.  It’s the private industries making money off of our fears and lack of knowledge of what’s to come when in fact many of them don’t know themselves.

The districts and schools have been left to fend for themselves, designing lessons and assessments that they THINK will address this new chapter of standardization.  I’m just waiting a bit for the other shoe to drop. Teachers and administrators are on the same page here, designing and developing and evolving their curriculums based on rumor, but I don’t doubt that their stuff is good.  Really good.  Better than most privatized companies could design because these lessons are created with deep learning at heart.

I only hope that what turns out to be fact doesn’t squeeze out the efforts and creations of all those proactive educators.

Nevertheless, sometimes where there’s smoke, there’s fire.  And if the rumors are true, this country will have their students prepared by the amazing troops of educators who didn’t wait around for answers, but instead ran out on the field to meet their fight headlong with pens, laptops, Interactive boards, podiums, iPads, and even #2 pencils a-blazing.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CAT, Common Core Assessments, common core standards, education, k12, middle school, performance based assessments, project based learning, SMARTER

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I presented on the topic of Project Based Writing, and while this keynote may not make sense to many of my readers, it will to those who were in the room and emailed asking to have it.  So I’m posting it here.

Feel free to download the Quicktime of my keynote here. It’s sans sound, but you’ll get the idea.

 In addition, I’ve included links to my handouts (sorry, we ran out that day!) because I know some teachers are looking to start jumping in right away.

CATE Handouts (10 Reasons to Teach Using PBW, Great TED speeches, Advocacy and Executive Summary Outlines)

Problem Statement

Teacher Created Resources Internet Literacy Handouts

Checklist for TED

Checklist for Career Quest

Checklist for Teach the Teacher

Many of the documents here I have been developing and tweaking for some time, and in 2013 some of them will become a new workbook from Teacher Created Resources called Project Based Writing. ?Check back next year for news on the book’s release date.

Hope these all help, take care, and if there’s anything else you guys need, let me know!

-Heather

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authentic assessments, cate, internet literacy, project based writing, Teacher Created Resources, writing project

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You can read the post, “Using Technology to Model Lifelong Learning Beyond the Bell,” here.

I am always happy to lend my voice and words to support the Writing Project.  Don’t know what I”m talking about? Looking for the best, life and practice-changing professional development out there?  Get thee to a Writing Project near you!

Happy Digital Learning Day.

-Heather

aka Tweenteacher

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: digital writing day, educational technology, virtual classroom, writing project

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Guess what?  I’m going to be facilitating a class for Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s Powerful Learning Practice.  The six-week course is on Project Based Writing, a strategic way to bring in authentic assessments and meaningful learning into any Language Arts program, elementary through secondary.

If you know anything about my teaching style, it’s about reciprocal learning, engaging instruction, and breaking down the walls between school life and real life.  But it’s always easier to jump start into a new unit if someone has tried strategies out already, which is where this class comes in.  Throughout the six-week series, I share what’s worked, provide downloadables, and help guide the participants to create Project Based Writing units that cater to their own classroom.  By the end of the class, the participants will come away with lessons created by and shared by everyone to adapt and use in their own practice.

To find out more about this new class, you can read here for an interview I gave to online awesome guru, Sir John Norton Esq.

What I like about PLP is how they combine both asynchronous discussions using ning with synchronous weekly webinars using Elluminate.  It gives a texture to virtual professional development that I’m proud to be a part of.

So check it out, and I hope to see some of my readers there!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authentic assessments, authentic learning, education, PLP, professional development, project based learning, project based writing

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In my Edutopia post, I challenge teachers to do the same and even list 5 new habits I’m thinking of adopting as well.

So think about it: what new instructional habit could you try on, if only for 30 days?

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: edutopia, k12, middle school, TED

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I’m basing this blended unit on TED.com, and the plan is to host a middle school TED-esque conference, combining it with a book drive for our media center. So, in a series of posts, I am going to describe some key steps I’m using with my 8th graders in order to scaffold our way towards our TED conference. On my Edutopia.org blog, I will describe how I introduced the concept of the project and the development of our student-created resource library, a tool that helps everyone to research more deeply.

On this site, you can learn about how students chose topics and you can download the worksheet that I used to guide them towards their choice. So follow me as I describe real-time writing in a real-world classroom. Hope this helps in your own possible blended genre unit.
______________________________________________________________________
As a Language Arts teacher, I don’t think my role is to teach my students how to fill an essay, but it is my responsibility to teach them how to recognize a great topic, how to research that topic, and how to present that topic. It’s called teaching something you know nothing about, and it permits me to learn from them as much as they learn from me. That way, I’m not the only teacher in the classroom and they aren’t the only learners. My job, as I see it, is to also model a joy in learning.

We started by watching some key videos throughout the first quarter on “TedTuesday,” and I’ve been asking simple questions like:
“What’s the theme?”
“Where did she get this idea?”
“What is the call to action he is asking his audience to do?”

In other words, we’ve been casually analyzing the speeches that we have watched. But now, with persuasion being the focus of this quarter and having just finished narrative, I feel we are able to jump in further.

What I needed to do was scaffold a way for the students to be able to choose their own topics. Furthermore, their topics had to be stated in such a way that the statement itself aided in uncovering the research the students would need to cover the topic.

I first threw together a checklist of assignments and key deadlines that the students would be responsible for this quarter as we lead up to our presentation days. Deadlines for responding to videos posted on my classroom website, when bibliographies were due, rough draft deadlines, etc…

Then we started full-force exploring possible topics about which to research, write, and speak. I told them that it was their choice to be excited by their topic because I wasn’t assigning topics to them; they got to choose. Now, this option, while it can bring out the highest quality in the end product can also shut some students down if not given some guidance. So to do that, I had Jr. Scholastic magazines, newspapers, and printed out articles strewn in duplicates on every table. In a timed activity, the students would grab a resource and skim for headlines and topics. After 3 minutes, they were told to switch resources, and so on. Additionally, we also had the classroom computers on the Ted website where students could skim through the titles of the speeches to be inspired by the names, many of which are clues to the themes, problems, or solutions posed by the speaker.

Then we created five posters and stuck them up all over the room with the following titles: School Site, Local, State, National, and International. We brainstormed lists for each of the posters with students going up to the papers and writing a topic for all to see. In the end, we had a list of around 200 topics.

Nevertheless, just listing a topic like “Animal Abuse” is not enough to begin writing a great speech and it isn’t enough to begin an efficient research necessary to inform an audience.

We needed a problem statement. A problem statement is a paragraph that explains what they wish to write and speak about, and by following the paragraph outline, it also helps them narrow down their topic to sometime manageable, more specific, and ultimately easier to research. When we think about college and career readiness, a problem statement is used to prepare for a doctorate dissertation as well as with business proposals. So the trick for me was in scaffolding it down to the middle school level. In a sense what they did was write an abstract from the get-go rather than a summary after the fact.

The end result was a guided worksheet that you can download here.

It breaks the Problem Statement into 4 parts:

1. States the broad problem/topic about which you are interested in researching

2. Defines the problem you will be solving by narrowing the issue

3. Describes why it needs to be investigated by giving background information and context

4. States the goals in writing and researching this problem (I will…., I plan…., I would like…, I propose…, etc…)

Then after writing the initial paragraph, they also developed 3-5 questions to help hone in on more specific research. After all, there’s no way a broader topic can show expertise. It would just cover things in too shallow a manner. Instead, honing in on a particular aspect of a topic and diving in deeper will undoubtedly make for a more interesting and more educational speech. And remember, these speeches are meant to inform an audience of a problem that exists and propose a solution to that problem. Advocacy: it’s a 21st Century Skill.

Next up after Thanksgiving vacation is to examine the various visuals TED speeches use as inspiration for our own. Will the students chose to use a digital camera like Terry Moore, produce a Powerpoint like 12 year-old Adora Svitak, or weave in video clips like Derek Sivers? We’ll see what the students chose and I’ll report back soon!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: college and career readiness, narrative, persuasive, problem statement, Speaking and listening, ted.com, thesis, writing genres

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Instead, we need to embrace more fully mobile technology. The big clunky forward facing, whole class method of lesson delivery via Interactive Whiteboard, I believe, is the Laserdisc of educational technology. The overpriced fad of Interactive Whiteboards (whether Smart or Promethean) is imperfect in their current incarnation. Sure, we all imagine classrooms with “Iron Man2”:-esque 3-D touch sensitive lessons, but inherently these pieces of equipment do not illustrate the spirit of technology in information delivery: all-access, collaborative, open, interactive, etc…

Currently, they are only as engaging as the lessons created, and those lessons are tedious to create and time-suckers in their efficiency. The prep time to create charts that utilize any effects over-and-above what you would already do with a laptop and LCD projector feels clearly developed by those with a disconnect to the precious time we have in education and the many hats we already wear. Additionally, while these boards were initially meant to help less-tech savvy teachers to embrace technology use, their hefty training time and prep time serves as its own gatekeeper for more than just tech tentative teachers.

I believe an online colleague of mine, Bill Ferriter, said it best when he wrote,

“I’m willing to argue that even with time and training, interactive whiteboards are an under-informed and irresponsible purchase. They do little more than reinforce a teacher-centric model of learning…make presentations, give notes, deliver lectures…I ask you: Do we really want to spend thousands of dollars on a tool that makes stand-and-deliver instruction easier?”

Instead, I believe mobile technology, that truly frightening technology the schools would rather spend money on avoiding than really examining, is really the silver bullet (if there is such a thing.) Smartphones, for instance, have the potential to be the great equalizer.

Mobile technology caters to individualization and differentiation, which is the present and future of student-centered learning. Mobile technology is cheaper and also represents the concept of “democratization of information,” the openness of high levels of information to the masses. The Interactive Whiteboard is still locked and loaded into the antiquated philosophy of “sage on the stage” rather than “guide on the side.”

Yes, the remote clicker technology gives the very important immediate feedback, but gaining access to remotes is not dependent on the purchase of the boards themselves. The fact is that 99% of all students carry their own remotes right there in their backpacks.

In fact, my students interviewed a young scientist from JPL earlier this year. She had just returned from rural Africa where she helped establish Internet access to remote areas throughout the continent. When asked by one of my students what the future of Internet Access was, she said that it, frankly, didn’t include computers. After all, many people in these remote areas don’t have Macs or PCs, but they do have iPhones right there in their pockets. In other words, the future of Web 2.0 tools is already being defined by global availability.

As for the future of educational technology, we must guide our purchases to reflect the world around us. We must support the learner on the go. We must support individual use, not teacher-only use. We must support inexpensive options that give us access to the most information, easily accessed and easily presented. Smartphones, (and, I believe, eventually iPads or other tablet options) permit us to assume more and more that learners have access to the same information and opportunities.

The real question is How can we spend the money saved on Interactive Whiteboard purchases in ways that really propel education into the 21st Century?  What tools or training do you think are more to the point of education’s future?

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: educational technology, interactive whiteboards, iPads in education, k12, middle school, smartboards, smartphones

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In it, I’ll be sharing what I have learned about the upcoming Common Core standards and how they will be assessed. It’s pretty interesting stuff and, in theory, far more aligned with authenticity than the bubble tests of yore. Nevertheless, there are challenges in making the transition to these tests that districts need to be prepared for. Despite these hurdles, however, teachers and districts can begin making the transition by identifying the skills students will need and by using more authentic methods of assessment in their own classrooms.

I’ll share some of what I’m doing in my classroom and some of the writing that’s on the wall with the tests to come.

Come join me! Like a birthday party, you’ll leave with goodies: a couple of download-ables and a slew of resources to help you in your practice.

Hope to see you Monday.

-Heather

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 21st Century assessments, common core standards, education, k12, middle school, professional development, standardized tests

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So began my schpeel on writing an Executive Summary for this DARPA/NASA Project I’m doing with my students (see earlier posts, “The Power of Teaching Something you Know Nothing About” and “DARPA project con’t: Research and Questioning.”)

I have decided that even though the NASA/DARPA video conferencing event is on Friday, Sept 30, there should be one last period at the end of this sentence for all students involved, not just those who were selected as panelists to speak on camera. So the following week, each of the small groups will be presenting in their own panels to their classmates. The classmates will be given mock checks in the amount of 1 million dollars, and at the end of the week, the students need to give their check to the group that they feel most deserved their funding.

It’s incorporating business with education, the reality of funding with Project-Based Learning. After all, while we may not run education lock step like a business, there is no reason not to be teaching some elements of business as we prepare our students for their future.

The most substantial part of my students’ writing contribution for their overall project is the Executive Summary. Yes, they also incorporated the science they learned into a science-fiction narrative. Yes, they have been doing research and taking Cornell Notes. But their end result must be presented in the form of an Executive Summary.

The Executive Summary is an interesting writing genre in that it hits many marks that make it applicable to life outside of school, which is why I’m choosing to teach it this year. For one thing, students can find examples of Executive Summary that exist in many industries. Can you say the same thing about the 5-paragraph essay?

Also, to prepare for it, I still teach the standards that are necessary for test scores. The genre, however, applies to both masters: meaningfulness and standardized performance. It uses Summarizing, Persuasive Writing, Research Skills, and Computer Literacy.

It also demands rigor in the form of simplicity, which can be uber-challenging, because it insists on concise writing and the role-play it connects to a real life scenario. In our case: our real-life scenario is speaking to a ballroom of scientists to convince them of our findings (Friday) and presenting in panels in front of our philanthropic peers (the following week.)

Yet the true rigor of this unit is the fact that it mashes so many genres of writing together. After all, life is not categorized. Scientists applying for a grant must summarize their findings and recommendations and still Persuade in order to receive it. Small business owners looking to present at a conference must Summarize their session, create a bio, and Persuade a committee to select their topic. A graduate student ready to venture out into the world must create both a Cover Letter and a Resume: both of which are versions of summaries using different methods of summarization (prose, bullets, numbers, headings, subheadings, paragraphs, bolded text, etc…) in order to Persuade potential employers to hire him or her.

So it is not surprising that presenting this writing unit is more rigorous than a more traditional unit. It is, in fact, more real. Which brings to light a question about our tendencies in education: if categorization of topics is easier to understand, but isn’t as true to life outside of education, are we really preparing our students for the expectations of real life by breaking our writings down into simple blocks of learning?

Look, the fact is that categorized, linear teaching is easier to comprehend. I get it. But it’s not life. So the best we can do to help each other is perhaps break down the components of the complexity of the job that we do as teachers every day. For it is complex.

To help break down a little about this particular writing genre, I thought I’d provide a brief outline that might help simplify what is far from simple. If you are interested in teaching Executive Summary, a simple order of the writing might be:

I. Why is this issue important?
II. Give a little background of the issue
III. Present some evidence of past/current methods
IV. State your own recommendations.

Remember with Executive Summary that the goal is short and sweet, max 3 pages. A person who knows nothing about the topic shouldn’t be slammed by a wall of dense text. The student needs to break up the information using Headings, Sub-headings, bold text, bullets, etc…The student can insert graphs, charts, and other simple visuals as well. It is a combination of fact-based, irrefutable evidence presented with no voice. Let the facts do the talking. Then, in the recommendations section, that’s where students can throw in more persuasive language and opinion. Of course, the whole piece takes a clear stance, which is opinion in itself. But it uses the strength of fact and summary to do the heavy lifting.

Overall, an Executive Summary should be positive, persuasive, and punctuated by simple and visual text design elements.

So here’s a snapshot of where we are in the whole project: I collect their Executive Summaries this Monday. Their multi-media presentations are also due on that date. The websites or PowerPoints are a collaborative, visual-based version of their Executive Summaries combined into one presentation where each panelist provided 2 slides to represent the main ideas of their research. The students will begin practicing this week for next week’s panels in order to earn the blank checks. In the meantime, the students will also be developing high-level questions using Costas and Blooms in order to grill their peers who were chosen this week to speak on the Sept. 30 panel to Florida. This way, the selected students can practice recalling their research and citing evidence on the fly when the time comes for the Q & A portion of our session.

Oh, yeah, and somewhere in all of that, we have to read the assigned short story in the textbook for a reading assessment bubble test the following week.

How’s the old Sesame Street song go? “One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn’t belong…”

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authentic assessments, darpa, education, k12, middle school, NASA, project based learning

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Need advice?  Check out my post at Edutopia titled, “20 Ways to Model Technology.”

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Post tags: Ed Tech, education, edutopia, k12. middle school

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In this case, my students have applied to sit on a panel in an upcoming DARPA and NASA conference in Florida. It was a mythical session at the time I designed the unit, but the amazing thing, as many of you may know, is that we were actually contacted by NASA in order for my students to Skype in as a session to the actual conference.

In preparation of this event, we are doing a lot of research. To frontload for this, we talked a lot about Internet Literacy. Some of the topics we have discussed are:

1. Google Advanced Searches
2. Recognizing biased Websites
3. Citation of various online sources
4. Norms of blogging and video conferencing
5. Tracking down more resources using the bibliographies of current resources

We’ve also begun a classroom resource library broken down by the strands of research each student is conducting. The students bring in their bibliographies and selected articles copied or printed out, and put them in their corresponding files. This library then becomes possible resources for other students assigned to that strand.

So the bulk of this past week or so has been research, and as a component of that, my students had the opportunity to interview some professionals in the field. JPL (Jet Propulsions Laboratory) found some very kind and willing volunteers who offered to be interviewed by email. This then blossomed into a full-on Skype session last Friday where my students could interview, face-to-face, scientists who are actually involved in the development of interstellar space missions.

My students, clipboards in hand, took Cornell notes as the scientists listened, answered, and even asked their own questions. Needless to say, it was cool.

I was particularly proud of the questions that the students developed to take advantage of these scientists who were willing to donate their time to share their expertise. We’ve talked a bit about the Levels of Inquiry and developing high-level questions. We’ve talked a bit about asking questions in an interview that are not easily answered with Google. We’ve talked about how asking great questions is an indicator to great comprehension. The result was great, and the time spent with the professionals gave us some richly researched, primary resources for our DARPA arguments that are due on Sept 26 as final drafts.

Here is the list of questions my students developed and agreed upon to send:

1. Do we currently have the technology to create an atmosphere?
2. What would be the most efficient way to generate electricity?
3. Where would we store waste?
4. How can you prevent contracting diseases from other planets?
5. What importance is there to human life suspension?
6. What ready and reliable fuel sources already exist that can be used to get off the surface?
7. What speeds, with today’s technologies, are we able to accelerate up to? And how will we maintain that speed?
8. If possible, are we going to use the properties of black holes/wormholes to our advantage? (sling shot-ing, portal traveling, etc.?)
9. In your opinion, would it be better to first send probes to new destination options, or take journeys of faith with real people?
10. How do you think we could fit all the materials (food, water, etc.) in the star ship?
11. How can we keep the public interested in the project throughout the course of time?
12. What use of media/ technology is best to project the endeavor throughout the US and the entire world?
13. In terms of selecting a planet, what would you look for as required qualities of a habitable planet?
14. What type of people should first try to colonize on the planet? EX: researchers, scientists, athletes, or regular humans/civilians?
15. What are the mental ramifications of being at/in one place (i.e. planets) for too long?
16. Would it be more economical to change the environment of the planet that we may find habitable or create an artificial area to inhabit?
17. How do you get knowledge of the new scientific discoveries out to countries that don’t have the technology we have?
18. What kind of environmental toxins are in outer space that we already know we need to plan for/avoid/utilize?
19. Is there another source of energy besides solar power that can be used on a planetary colony?
20. What are the most important qualities that a colony needs to be self-sustainable?
21. Do we currently have any technology that makes it possible to prevent bone loss?
22. Which medicines (from over-the-counter to powerful anesthetics) will be needed to carry on board to the starship?
23. Please describe a sleeping chamber on a starship and the process of waking up and going back to sleep with daily check-ups in between.

One can clearly see that while they are asking questions, they needed to have a level of research conducted and a level of understanding before asking these levels of questions. Wouldn’t you want to know the answer to some of these? Well, I tell you the responses that came back were as detailed as the questions asked and fascinating. As you may know from my last post, I am learning along with my students.

I’ve given them the scaffold of writing necessary to mimic those found outside of school. From there, the universe is theirs to discover.

I’ll keep you all in the loop as it happens!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: curriculum integration, darpa, education, k12, middle school, NASA, PBL, project based learning

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Publishing Release Form. Check.

PG-13 Video/Clip Release Form to cover me for the whole school year. Check.

Set up YouTube Channel even though I have no idea how to use it yet. Check.

Purchased a Blackboard Collaborate account for a 100-person room. Check.

Tried out said room and can’t seem to figure out how to load a darn PowerPoint, but figured out how to remove a student from the room if he or she chats inappropriately. Check.

Sent off Book Spines templates to get copied for kids to use to show how much they are reading. Check.

Set up Weebly website. Check.

Designed first three weeks of lessons for all three different classes. Check.

Began email discussion with ELA department about digital portfolios. Check.

Set up bulletin board for opening days’ activity of agreeing on a classroom constitution and norms for online and offline behavior. Check.

Purchased 150 feathers to make quills and ink to sign said classroom constitution. Check.

Dusted off classroom library and set up realia props to lure kids in. Check.

Shoved around desks and chairs into position. Check.

Labeled chair names at each table group: Skulduggery, Prince Hal, Katniss, Mr. Darcy. Check.

Labeled table groups by colleges and universities: Harvard, USC, UCLA, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Connecticut College (mine), Lewis & Clark, Vassar. (Note to self: Allow students to do research and choose their own group’s college name during persuasive writing in second quarter). Check.

Broke into file cabinet that somehow got locked over the summer. Check.

Rigged a bookshelf that collapsed while being moved for carpet cleaning last month. Check.

Found all wires to set up Internet, LCD, and laptop at the front of the room and began yearly search for the rubber strip that allows me to walk over said cordage without breaking my neck. Check.

Air-blasted all tech equipment and set up the three classroom computers (rescued from being eRecycled a few years back). Check.

Made a list of supplies I need to purchase from Office Max, Staples, Office Depot, or whomever has the best deal this weekend: pencils, pens, post-its, highlighters, etc… Check.

Cleaned out cubbies to receive textbooks when they get delivered from the library on the first day. Check.

Killed 3 black widows. Check.

Sprayed for ants. Check.

Put up posters. Check.

Decided I’d rather have the students design the room as we go so I took down posters. Check.

Washed down the tops of cabinets and shelves that hadn’t gotten cleaned this summer. Check.

Designed opening day PowerPoint of results from my 8th grade surveymonkey activity at the end of last year. Check.

Spoke to NASA and JPL representatives to solidify their involvement in the culminating activity of a project-based learning unit that begins the third day of school. Check.

Set up phone. Check.

Cleaned out fridge. Check.

Looked inside my own desk, saw it was still a disaster, decided to just keep the drawers closed for another full year. Check.

There’s a lot that happens at the beginning of a school year before school even begins. Things are constantly happening behind the scenes, off camera, and, incidentally, out of contract. But it’s all necessary to do the job and start the year off right.

We’ve got PD days and department meetings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. During this time, we also meet our new principal for our first faculty meeting of the school year as well. We’ll get our final class assignments, schedule, and class lists to learn for sure what we’re teaching and to whom. Despite the official returns to work date, many of us have actually been working for a while, setting up our learning environment and setting up for the arrival of our clientele.

Good luck to everyone this year. May your own checklist help the start of the year begin smoothly, and may the rest of your year follow suit.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: digital portfolios, education, first days of school, k12, middle school, virtual classroom, weebly

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For that reason, when I find something that makes my heart sink a bit with that familiar feeling, I have to remind myself of the teacher I want to be and of the philosophies I deeply believe in. It seems that just because I believe in something, doesn’t always mean it is where I default.

Case in point, creating a class website. For whatever reason, I had not jumped into the pool with the “cannonball!” gusto that one would think. Until now.

I have tried my district’s eChalk program. Too clunky. Sure, it seems to do it all, but it just isn’t simple or sexy, and the results are too generic. I tried a .mac account, which then became a .me account; a switch that ticked me off like Weight Watchers changing their plan right when I started seeing results.

But this year, my colleague turned me onto www.weebly.com. That’s it. Done. I’m sold.

Because, let’s face it. Technology integration should allow for teacher differentiation. After all, just as there are different learners, there are also different teachers. Not every tool is for every educator. And a teacher won’t use what doesn’t speak to him or her. So it’s vital that there be some freedom of motion to chose the tools that work for you. I knew I needed a classroom website. I bought into the fact that I had to have a way for parents and students to get information about class 24/7 (an inevitable fact that many teachers still fight). But the tools I’d used to make websites up until now meant adding so much work or energy to my already consuming job that I didn’t enjoy their use. And that’s the key, isn’t it? To enjoy what I do.

Frankly, if I don’t enjoy the job, then I will get all smoggy inside and it’ll huff and puff out my ears, and kids know I hate it, and then, well, they can’t learn ‘cuz they’ll hate the smoggy teacher.

I use Wordpress for this website, and I tell you, the backend is really simple. But it’s nothing compared with the ease of Weebly which can easily be used for student-created sites as well. For one thing, it uses drag-and-drop to customize your pages, and better than that, it uses pictures to help you design each page’s elements. Pictures = Good.

I want to show you what I’ve done so far, but PLEASE DON’T LEAVE COMMENTS ON MY WEEBLY SITE. Feel free to click around and come on back here to give me feedback if you’re so moved. But the site itself is meant for my students and their families.

If you’re interested, please go to www.wolpertworld.com.  The first thing I did was buy a domain name through Siteground. You don’t need to do that. You can get a regular Weebly URL instead. I just figured I might need one later in the school year for other projects. Probably overkill, but it’s done.

You’ll notice right away that it’s got a few tabs at the top. What I liked about the template I chose was that you could see them all. I figured a parent, especially one that didn’t navigate a site often, wouldn’t click a “more…” tab.

The homepage is where I’ll post the results of a collaborative class activity that I plan to do in the first couple of days of school. Actually, it will represent the collaboration between all of my ELA classes as we design a list of general norms that will represent our behavioral and academic expectations both online and offline.

Then there’s the Expectations tab. It’s basically my first day of school classroom handout that students have to get signed at the beginning of the year.

If you click to the Agendas tabs, you’ll see the M-F class work and homework posted (everything due is color coded in red so a student can’t miss it). I set these agenda pages up as blogs so that the information can be archived. (They are also posted up in the classroom for the week).

If you then look at the individual periods’ blog pages, these will be where some assignments are posted and students will be able to comment on uploaded videos, discussion posts, etc…I’m thinking I’ll post the first couple, but from then on, I’ll assign a small group of students to post a discussion question or prompt per week for classmates to comment on. We’ll see. I haven’t worked out the kinks yet. But I do think it will be really important for the students to know that their work will be transparent for everyone to see…after being moderated by me in the backend, that is.

And speaking of moderation, I am hoping that by giving some advice on the Norms and Guidelines page, it will inspire students in their level of content. I also posted a reminder in the margin that texting is to be left to note taking and socializing, not for an academic assignment. Besides that, however, I am hoping that I won’t have to disallow too much from making it live. I think it’s important that there is transparency in the quality of job that all students are producing.

My Speech & Debate electives are represented too. Their pages include upcoming tournament information as well as password protected pages where my students can upload videos of speeches they are working on. We’re also starting a repository of resources that model great examples of different styles of public speaking.

Besides that, there is a “Contact Me” page as well as a “Calendar” for key events throughout the school year. On the calendar I’ll post district and classroom assessments, big project turn-in dates, and something new this year for me: virtual evening “office hours” hosted via Elluminate. I figure that’s when students are generally most likely to be up doing work and may have the most questions. I’m also planning on using Elluminate in other ways this year, but that’s to be shared in a later post.

Setting up so much ahead of time helps pump me up for school again. We start up in two weeks, and my goal this year is Joy. I want to find it again. The last few years have been full of drama, and the joy will ebb away unless I do something to stanch the flow.

Inserting new technology, trying new techniques, testing out new tools, all of these help me to find that Joy in teaching. I only hope it will also help my students and families find joy this year in their own learning as well.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: classroom website, middle school, technology integration, weebly

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It was a great ideal, but an imperfect tool to use for those purposes. I’ve since discovered Todaysmeet.com, a similar social networking tool whose limitations are actually its strengths.

How It Works
Go to www.Todaysmeet.com. Name a room, and give it a set time for how long it is to remain open. That’s the glory of Todaysmeet. It’s only as transparent as you want it to be for as long as you want it to be. You can close up shop for the night and the conversation goes away. Once you create your room, you can give the URL to anyone you want and you can have a real-time backchannel conversation.

Ways To Possibly Use It

• Students can ask questions as you teach
• Students can answer each other’s questions when they arise
• Classrooms can collaborate by giving each other advice on different topics: test prep advice, grammar tips, etc…
• Students can summarize larger pieces of text in 140 characters or less
• Classrooms can share rules for specific subjects
• Students can ask questions/answer questions from students in other rooms, schools, states, etc…
• Students can use it as a publicly written Think Aloud
• Teachers can invite community members and parents to view a window into your classroom during a specific time
• Teachers can open up a room for after hours tutoring
• And so much more…

You can also use Twitter to promote your open Todaysmeet room. Just tweet out your room name and times it will be open, and see what other classes take the bait. Close the room when your conversation is over.

Now, as cool a tool as Todaysmeet is, you still can’t assume kids will use it responsibly without some instruction and scaffolding. Don’t forget to go over some norms. I’ve developed norms to use with Skype and other video conferencing formats, but norms for backchannel discussions is an entirely different beast. After all, the purpose is so that it’s going on WHILE you are working with students, and this requires a different kind of expectation and direction.

Backchannel Norms

1. Always have the backchannel open in a public place (LCD projector, public monitor, etc…)

2. Have students use their initials to identify who said what. For instance: HW-When preparing for a test, make sure the lesson is the last thing you read before bed. (89 characters)

3. Make sure to set expectations for topics of what students can backchannel about. Some basic ways to participate are as follows:

Questioning something that was said/read

Relating to something that was said/read

Comparing a topic with a metaphor or simile

Predicting where something is heading

Visualizing a topic

Evaluating/Giving your academic opinion on a topicAnswering a question that was posed

4. Have them first practice backchannel chatting in 140 characters or less on a piece of paper (in other words, offline). For instance, you can give them a subject-specific paragraph and have them squeeze a summary down to 140 characters on a piece of paper. You can ask them a content-related question to answer in 140 characters or less as an exit card. You can have students develop 140 character questions to ask each other.

Can you think of any others that belong on this list of norms? Please comment below and share your ideas!

Good luck with your backchannel discussions. May they be as rich as those in the forefront of the conversation.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: backchannel discussions, Social networking, todaysmeet, twitter

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It all started with a survey I conducted of my readers and those who follow me in my various social networks. I asked folks which were the Top 5 Skills (based on a list of 13 from the book) they felt students most need to know in order to be prepared for college or career.

Based on the results of that survey, I presented a number of strategies and lessons that could be used Monday and Someday in the participants’ classrooms. We also sent participants home with a shwag bag of handouts that they could use with their students and as future resources.

If you want to check out the archived webinar, you can find it here.

http://bit.ly/lkn7v5

Enjoy!

-Heather

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: building community in the classroom, colllaboration, education webinar, eye on education, independent learning, k12, questioning

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I’m teaching a couple of them and I wanted to share one now with my readers. I actually presented this module to a small group of teachers a few weeks ago, and depending on the focus, I think the strategy can be used for many different purposes.

The main objective of the workshop is to make data analysis exciting. I know, you’re probably asking yourself: Is that even possible, Heather? Hey, whatever floats your boat. The fact is, however, that tracking data analysis doesn’t have to be a static representation of figures. It can be more dynamic, animated even.

In education, we use data tracking for any number of reasons as we all know. Now, for some districts, this means tracking their test data. For some classes, this means guiding students in presenting their researched data in a way that is closer to storytelling. For that is what animated data over time is: a narrative.

The best way to show you what I’m talking about is to introduce you to the perfect example of sexy data analysis. The guru of animated data is Hans Rosling. Founder of Gapminder.org, Hans Rosling takes data from public access sources: the World Health Organization, International Labor Organization, The World Bank, etc…and uses his program to track data over time and animate it so that we can better visualize the changes from year to year.

Here is a snip-it from his 2007 TED speech where he describes, using animated graphing, the correlation to life expectancy and number of children per family from 1962 – 2003.

So as an English Department Chair I was wondering if I could track my department’s increase in test scores over the course of the school year, from assessment to assessment, and realized that while I may not have the cash to ask ole’ Hans to crunch my numbers, Google Docs can do it for me.

To create your own motion chart, here’s what you have to do:

Step One: Make sure you have a Google Account.
Step Two: Open up a spreadsheet.
Step Three: Type in your data. To create a motion chart, don’t think of it as the X-axis and Y-axis, just type columns. See my screen shot below, and type in my made-up data so we can do this together. I tracked some mythical data of comic book sales over time between the ever popular “Invisa-girl” and “Macro-man.”

Step Four: Highlight the data you want to see animated over time.
Step Five: Go to Insert.
Step Six: Scroll to Gadget
Step Seven: Click Motion Chart

From here, make sure that you have clicked “Unique Colors” so you can see each variable move more easily. Also, make sure that the X-Axis drop down says “Time” so that that span of time is at the bottom of the graph, if it applies.

You can fool around with the bar graph feature, the line graph, etc…If you watch the dots move or the bar graphs, you can even devise comprehension questions without looking at the data itself.

For instance, “In what year was a cross-over comic produced that starred the two superheroes?” You can see that when the two dots overlap is most likely the answer.

Lo and behold! Animated comic book data over time. Wouldn’t Hans Rosling be proud?

I’d be really interested to hear about how you use this technology this year. Check back in and share!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: animated graphs, data analysis, gapminder.org, google docs, hans rosling, motion charts, test scores, tracking data over time, VAM

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© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 21st Century assessments, 21st Century skills, teacher professional sourcebook

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OK, so I’m only teaching first semester this year, my testing period during the spring is in the hands of a sub that I have no control over in choosing, and I care deeply about my students’ achievement.

What do I give up and what is lost in the answer?

I’m going on maternity leave this year, leaving the students I am slowly growing to love to the random lottery that is the subfinder system. There’s a lot to be concerned about, not the least of which centers on my own child.

I believe that there is a gradual build up that should happen over the course of a school year. After all, a first semester 7th grader vastly differs from that same kid 10 months in their future, and there’s groundwork to be laid for that to happen. Not so this year.

I’ve started making a list of my beloved go-to lessons and units, the ones I have never lived without since learning or developing them, the ones that seem to catch more of them in the nets of learning. And I’ve started looking at this list critically and sadly.

* I teach them how to develop high level questions in order to create their own quizzes that, if done properly, are 10x more rigorous than a standardized test.

* I teach young authors how to think critically online, evaluating the validity of websites, linking their essays to richer resources so that their readers can dive deeper into the research it took to construct their reasoning. Despite my dedication to teaching this future skill, Internet Literacy isn’t tested. Is this the unit that goes?

* We work on community building so that the students are comfortable with each other, so that each student can feel pride in something they are academically good at and no shame in that which they still need to learn. This allows for deeper differentiation because giving students choice and students advising students (two very powerful tools of differentiation) can’t happen without building community.

Are these the lessons that I need to chuck out the window this year due to my own time constraints?

And what of my own district assessments? As it is, we give a fall benchmark writing test and a spring benchmark-writing test. We give a standardized reading test that mimics our state tests once a quarter. Do I want them to show growth or do well when I’m there? And what if they don’t show growth under the sub’s tutelage? As value-added assessments grow in popularity, will I be defending the scores of this year for years to come? Will I be accountable for a year of learning with only 5 months influence on these students’ progress?

I also started thinking about the duration of a teacher’s career in this Brave New World that so many are wishing our schools reflected. The world I mean is the one seen before, where the teacher’s sole priority was to her students, where on each paycheck, the stub read, “must be unmarried.” For despite my own dedication to the profession and to my students, I can’t deny that I committed far more time to other people’s children before having my own. Frankly, I think being able to see both sides of the teacher’s desk makes me a better teacher, but to many, they wonder why I can’t give more. My job has become to balance what once I never had to.

So that got me thinking about the issue of charter schools. Many clearly are getting a lot of press these days as being staffed with dedicated teachers willing to stay late, come early, work 6 days a week, etc..Despite the fact that many charters can’t boast any more success than a regular public school can, I wondered what that level of dedication meant in regards to a teacher’s shelf life. Recently, I spoke to a doctorate student about her study of 4 charter schools. Two were remarkable, she said. One was “fine,” and the other “not so good.” She shared some details of her research, but said that even the two best charters she studied, the ones with the teachers who spent the most time committed to working with the students, suffered when the teachers begin to reprioritize their lives.

So according to the charter system, to the media, and to those wanting this Brave New World of education, do they believe teachers are “over the hill” when work can’t be their primary focus? In their ideal world, save for a few veterans kept around to help the youngins’, should teachers’ careers be shorter than that of a professional athlete?

I mean, athletes can have a family and still play until their bodies play out, but in society’s ideal educational world are teachers done when their priorities shift? Can we be permitted lives and still retain the title of Superman? Or is Superman less super if he moves in with Lois and has a kid?

That being said, I am trying, as many in my case do, to make it all work. My first priority is my growing family, but I have a responsibility to setup this school year the best I can.

So what do I cross off? Do I go deeply hitting fewer standards? Or, do I cover as much as possible in a more shallow way? Do I pick the best of my lessons from each unit? Or do I progress as I do, trusting the system and hoping that my unknown counterpart for second semester will fill in the gaps that time would not allow me to fill?

My doctor enters, smiling, and I put down my lesson plans for now…

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: education, k12, maternity leave school, middle school, teacher career, value-added assessments

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The discussions are rich, organic, and run themselves. All I needed to do was have the patience to set it up right. So I’ve pulled together some steps that I’ve been working on for the past couple of years that help introduce students to the art of blogging without neglecting the science of building community and collaboration.

1. First give them a technology survey. After all, you need to know who has access and who does not. That way, you can strategize options for students who are not online at home. I do not believe that we can hold classes or schools back, creating an ever-widening gap, by holding out for students who do not yet have access. It is our responsibility, however, to provide options. I offer lunchtime or after school computer use in my classroom. The local library is willing to reserve computers at certain times. And our school media center has a couple that are available as well.

2. Show them what a blog is. I first show them the little video by Commoncraft.com, “Blogging in Plain English.
Then I show them examples of other blogs. I might show them one of my own book reviews or an author’s blog or even look at the give and take in some Amazon book discussions. (I, of course, scout ahead for appropriateness. I never assume the link or the content from one year is able to be used again the next year without previewing it first.)

3. Hand out a simple list of the basic rules of Netiquette for How to Comment on a Blog. I use the ones for a middle school workbook I wrote for Teacher Created Resources. I have them here with their permission. Even just going over rules helps to set a tone of expectations.

4. We do offline blogging first. I think offline blogging is an important step because it demystifies the process and breaks it down into a more tactile activity. Basically, I print out 4 different online book reviews (one for each kid at a table group to read.) I attach a template that includes user name, subject line, and comment field to the end of the review. It’s just three boxes of differing sizes to mimic what they will see online. (I actually attach multiple templates so that multiple students can comment.) The students read the review, then fill in their user name (their first name + last initial), the subject line (which is the main idea of their upcoming comment), and their comment. Then they rotate their review to the next person in their group for that person to comment on. After the first student, the kids have the option to comment on the initial review or comment on another student’s comment. By the time a few students have rotated their reviews around, the list of comments has noticeably grown, and the students get the idea of blogging by creating the visual themselves. Here’s also a hint: use books from your own classroom library and they’ll be checked out by the middle of first period. This year I used Uglies, Shiver, The Hunger Games, and Everlost.

5. Have the students choose their own book club groups. I say no more than 5 kids in a group, and I believe that student choice, whenever possible, is key to middle school buy-in. These students won’t be working together face to face, only online, so it won’t be a classroom management issue to allow them this treat.

6. Hand out Guidelines on How to Write a Discussion Post. You can get a copy of mine here that is based on a version first designed by my awesome colleague and fellow Writing Project mentor, Liz Harrington. This gives students a sense of your expectations regardless of the book they are currently reading or where they are in their book. Incidentally, if you teach a subject other than Language Arts, it’s a good idea to hand out guidelines about what you want them to be posting about: what to base their topics on, where to find concepts, etc…just to get them started. They can blog about how they discovered the solution to an equation or predict the outcome of an upcoming experiment. Anything with guidelines can be used to begin an online conversation.

7. Still working offline, I have them turn in a final draft of their first discussion post on paper before we go to the computer lab. This will be the only time they turn this in to me other than as an online post. It’s just a format they are used to and it allows me an easy way to make sure everyone’s prepared before going up to the lab for the first time. Everyone needs to be on the same page to learn the skill.

8. Once in the lab, introduce them to your blogging program. I use www.kidblog.org. It can be a little buggy, but it’s safe, fantastically user friendly, and forgiving. It takes 5 minutes to learn, and 5 minutes to set up. Show them a post that you’ve created already on the same subject that follows their same guidelines. Model, model, model. Have the students log on and comment on your post. This way, you can give quick feedback on their commenting quality before they comment on each others’ posts.

9. Have them type their discussion post into a new post entry and teach them to link a piece of their text to a website or image as a further resource for their readers. I think linking is a vital skill that students in this digital age should learn. It’s an added layer of comprehension that the author shares with you and an added dimension of information to which a reader has access. Once their post is typed and a piece of text is linked to an online resource, the students can click to publish (which actually goes to you for approval first on many programs.)

10. Skim for appropriateness and publish their first discussion post. Then spend some time privately commenting on each of their posts, give them a score, whatever, while the kids begin publicly commenting on the published posts from the members of their book club group. Eventually, however, you’ll notice that students will start commenting on everyone’s posts. They can’t help it. Blogging’s addictive.

I have no doubt that there is a more efficient way to frontload blogging in your classroom. But this is what’s worked for me, especially with kids who have no freaking clue what I’m talking about when I first approach them the the “b” word.

Middle schoolers love to talk, so give middle schoolers the opportunity to talk using technology. Blogging gives them the chance to exchange ideas and discuss, but with eloquence, guidance, and the rules of netiquette. It taps into their chatty tendencies, creating greater buy-in, and it gives them a 21st Century skill that will move with them beyond their year with you.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2010. | Permalink | 33 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 21st Century skill, blogging, education, k12, middle school, Netiquette

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