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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My latest post for Edutopia just went live. It picks up where my post, “Choosing a Topic for our TED.com Speeches” leaves off. ?In this case, it follows the project to its end, sharing how it translates to the testing world.

“The Power of Project-Based Writing” discusses the fear I had ditching test prep in lieu of what I think is more important: life prep.  Would teaching what I know is more important still translate into their test scores?  Read my newest post for GLEF and find out!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: edutopia, project based learning, project based writing, test prep

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Talk to you all soon!  I’m prepping a new post on ELD strategies so heads up, it’s on its way!

-Heather

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Post tags: digital learning, edutopia, online learning, skills of distance learning

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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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Tony has been at my school for a while and no matter the cohort of students under his guidance, he serves them with the same support, kindness, tough-love, and wisdom year after year.

He meets the most challenging students with a smile before making them push themselves beyond what they thought possible.

He works with us all, pushing us all, asking for the moon and settling for a star. He asks the students to reach as high as the sky and then celebrates them for just reaching as high as they can. He asks the teachers to look at things from a different point of view, to see things through the student’s eyes, to try different tools, and to rededicate our hearts despite our daily frustrations. For it takes a village to educate our students. No teacher can do it alone, and Tony packs the punch of so many caring teachers combined.

He meets with a cadre of students in the morning, checking their backpacks for assignments due, keeping them accountable the minute they walk into school’s door. He meets with a different gaggle during their lunch, keeping them on track throughout the day. He runs our after school homework club, sitting one-on-one with students, giving them a safe place to work, to ask questions, and to succeed.

He knows every teacher’s expectations and assignments. He knows every student’s tendencies and saga.

In parent meetings, he supports all the stakeholders; he is straightforward with the parents, he is relentless with the students, and he is collaborative with the teachers.

Recently, I was in our front office, meeting with Tony about a student that was in my first period and that was a part of his caseload. A phone call came in as we were talking. It was from a parent whose student wouldn’t get out of bed and refused to go to school. To whom did the mother turn? Tony.

Apparently, there are students who have been awoken by Tony in their very bedrooms. He goes to their homes in the early hours of the morning, and convinces them to come to school. That’s right. He parents.

Yet, as special as our Tony is, I would bet that on every staff there are other Tonys out there: be they teachers, administrators, or counselors. Maybe they are recognized, maybe not, but they are there. The media doesn’t speak about The Tonys of our schools. The Tonys of our schools aren’t highlighted by our politicians. But they are there. These self-sacrificing, generous people can be found in every school and daily walk down every hall.

I don’t mean to diminish what our particular Tony does for our students by saying that his kind abounds in our educational system, but I do question why our media and policy makers hone in on this mythical 10% of “bad” educators and don’t acknowledge the literally millions of educators out there who have the angelic qualities of our Tony.

These Tonys are trying to desperately fill in the gaps created by well-intentioned families and misguided students who struggle to know what to do or how to do it. These Tonys work tirelessly to help students find a voice, find their motivation, find their meaning, and find their future.

So, who is your school’s diamond? Who is your school’s Tony?

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: achievement gap, education, k12, middle school, school counselors

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It is a community defined by our schools, our parks, our weekend activities spent watching AYSO and Little League. Every newsletter is highlighted by the activities available for families and for students. Every day, my kindergartner is sent home with information from the cottage industry of after school tutoring, Lego clubs, sports leagues, and more. The school choir sings at the local tree lighting. The high school band has marched in the Rose Parade more often than any other band in the country. It’s Norman Rockwell in a 21st Century world. In others words, our community, as with many communities in this country, is tied to our schools.

But this post isn’t about what I love about our area. It is, in fact, about a disappointment.

I recently received an informational brochure through the mail slot that gave an overview of an initiative that the school board is trying to pass as a funding measure to get on our local ballot. Fine by me. The goal is to educate people about Sacramento’s funding cuts and how they are chipping away at our schools. No problem there. They are seeking to “create a stable funding source that cannot be taken away” by the ebb and flow of cuts. Got it. I’m with them so far.

Here’s where they lose me:

“Senior citizen homeowners, aged 65 or older, can receive an exemption.”

Look, I’ve heard this before. The older generations in this country have raised their kids, and they no longer have a stake in our schools, so why should they continue to help pay for them?  This possibility of exemption is seen as a selling point for this measure, but I see it as a sadness in an increasing trend.

It’s simple. As the superintendent says, “we all benefit from living in a community with great schools….quality schools make [our district] a desirable place to live and creates demands for our homes. This keeps our property values strong, which is more important than ever.”

We are entering a very interesting time in this country as our citizens age and the next generation statistically will not be as well off as the one that preceded it. Since we all benefit from our schools, can we afford to exempt a growing population in this country from being held responsible for helping to support the students of this country?

Even printing the possibility of exemption sends a message that if it doesn’t apply to you, it is something you can overlook. Yet our schools do apply to us all. We can’t just hold the young parents of our students accountable for funding our school system. It is a responsibility of us all. Our public schools help neighborhoods to flourish. They help us all retain our sense of community, a sense that we all want as adults and one that begins at childhood with the sense of security, community, and neighborliness that is found in places like church, temple, and school.

How can we fund our educational system with only the aid of the generation that is currently using its classrooms? What message does that send to our students?

It sends the message that once a student leaves school that person can walk away from schooling and societal responsibility. It send a message that you can allow the current generation to fend for itself, but still expect that the community in which you live will be maintained without your aid.

If people live in a community, enjoy the benefits of that community, go to restaurants, events, break bread in that community, can they ignore the responsibility for helping to maintain that community? What will allowing an entire generation of citizens to opt out of educational funding do to our schools? That Norman Rockwell image would be a mere echo in this community were it not for our schools.

Does responsibility end at a certain age?

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: educational funding, Educational Policy, k12, middle school, public schools

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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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Life is persuasive. A lawyer persuades a jury. A job applicant pitches oneself as a potential employee. A scientist competes for a grant. A writer sells her idea in her query letter. Persuasive writing is a key that unlocks a world of possibilities. It is a skill that we see at every stage of life from writing the inevitable cover letter to one day hopefully writing a letter of recommendation.

School must reflect the world around it, and writing persuasively is a key skill for college and career readiness regardless of the path a student takes.

My question to all my readers is Should all teachers be held accountable for the quality of a student’s writing?  Is it the burden of ELA teachers alone or do other content area teachers have a role to play in this new CCS world of Persuasive writing?

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Argumentation, Common Core Assessments, common core standards, education, edutopia, k12, middle school, Persuasive Writing

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A couple of weeks ago, my school told the staff that they were going to roll-out the ability for parents to have access to our grade books online. Needless to say, many teachers grumbled and rumbled. As for me, it gave me pause, but I knew that the high school was already doing it, and it was merely a matter of time for the middle school. Besides, two of my four ELA classes this year are the 8th grade honors classes, and many times those parents have the expectation of access that goes hand in hand with being an active academic participant in their students’ lives. Keeping up on their student’s progress plays a part in that student’s success. Perhaps the thought is that if the grades are accessible enough, more parents of the mainstream and at-risk students will begin to play a greater role in their children’s learning too. I frankly deeply believe the writing is on the wall about such levels of access. It’s where we’re heading (and many schools already have), so it’s not a battle I’m interested in waging.

Besides, there are some pluses to this new transparency:

1. There is no longer such a thing as, “I had no idea how Little Johnny was doing. Nobody told me.” Wow. That’s really powerful stuff to be able to take Lack of Communication off the list of excuses as to why a parent has been inaccessible or not present for a student’s struggles.

2. It will light a fire under my tush to grade at a quicker pace. I’m not very sluggish at chipping away at that mountainous stack of essays, but I definitely appreciate the incentive to get things posted quicker. Sometimes those piles can really be overwhelming, and knowing that folks might be routinely checking for updates will aid in my own motivation to routinely get feedback to my students perhaps quicker than I do now.

3. No more progress reports. As of now, every Thursday, I get a stack of progress reports from my students at the start of each class. They come from the various AVID teachers or counselors. They’ve been set up for one reason or another, and I find the weekly communication very helpful to those kids. But it can be a dip in classroom energy to fill them out and get them back before the end of the period. Now, as my colleague Darlene has realized, rather than the student handing these grade sheets to each teacher, turning them in to the counselor, then to the parent to be signed, then back to school to their AVID teacher, a student need only be at home to compile their own grades, print it out, have it signed, and bring it to school. The missing of instructional time is henceforth cut out of the weekly process.

4. It reflects the time we live in. I can check my bank account balance 24/7. I can check my emails 24/7. I can watch the news 24/7. This is an extension of the reality of our world, and school must keep pace with the world around it.

But there are some concerns I have with this transparency too:

1. It leaves little room for a student to slip and solve their own problem before Mom knows about it. That is, you always get some kids per assignment who don’t turn it in or, of course, the many who turn it in at a lower level than you would like to see. Those kids, especially those in middle school, need to be able to approach the teacher and solve the problem. And many times they do. OK, so they get an extension or they turn their work in a day or so later. My final grade book reflects the kid they became. It doesn’t ding them for the process it took to get there. This portal gives parents a snapshot of the components of learning in a way that might take ownership away from the student.

2. It will light a fire under my tush to grade at a quicker pace. Oh, I already said that as a plus. Well, it’s a minus too. I think I keep up a pretty good pace with my scoring and feedback, but I fear it’s never going to be enough for some parents and students.

3. It will require all teachers to be on the same grade book program. I don’t necessarily think this is a big deal, but I have a modicum of fluency with technology that some teachers don’t have. Every so often, a district adopts a new grade book program and teachers learn the new fad. Eventually, a teacher tends to settle on one that appeals to him or her. Many teachers have learned the many grade books over the years, and stuck to those they felt best served their needs. They will have an even bigger switch to make, not only philosophically but also technically.

4. It will require educating parents in how to read the program itself. Teachers don’t have the time to answer all the technical questions about how to read the online grade book. Why isn’t this filled in? Because it’s a staggered due date for students. Why does the “completed date” say such-and-such? Because that’s the date the last student submitted their work. Why does the program call Quarter 1 “Y”? I have no idea. It confuses me too.

These concerns, however, are not grand enough to get in the way of progress, and I believe that this is progress. It puts more on the parents, more on the students, and fills a need every family has had since that little pioneer schoolhouse on the prairie. Hey, I watched Little House every week. Don’t you think if given the chance, Mr. Ingalls would want to know every time Laura ditched to go fishing? He’d use the portal as a way to make sure Laura and Albert were doing their jobs as students (he never needed to worry about Mary, after all). But I think the fear many teachers have is that the ones who are really monitoring these online grade books are the Mrs. Oleson’s of the world who are really there to check on the teachers.

Nevertheless, the fact is that this accessibility, whether we as educators believe in it or not, is the present and the future. As a parent, seeing my student reach for that TV remote instead of his homework, one day I’m sure I will also want to see how my kid is doing when he’s claims he’s doing fine in Math. Then again, we have a no-TV-during-the-school-week rule in my house.

Our job as educators is to prepare our students for their future. Communication plays a large role in that job.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: education, grading, k12, middle school, transparency in teaching

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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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Wonka has left us with questions about his miraculous factory and the wonders he has taken with him.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: apple, education, huffington post, k12, middle school, steve jobs

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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.”

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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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As a result of this shift, and mind you, it’s only been a couple of weeks since school began, I’ve found that not only do my students enjoy learning more, but I enjoy teaching more. The strange thing is, however, that it is mostly due to the fact that with PBW, I’m not limiting myself to only teaching what I know. I’m learning with them, and in so doing, am modeling how to learn. In other words, I am the writing authority, but not the content authority.

Let me give you the best example I can. Right now, as we speak, I am in the midst of a fantastic unit called The Darpa Project. It all began this summer when my husband told me of a cool symposium going on in late September in Florida for which DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was seeking presenters. They were asking scientists, futurists, ethicists, and science-fiction writers to apply to be a part of a forum to brainstorm ways to colonize a planet within 100 years. The project itself is called the 100 Years Starship Study. Incidentally, I can hear Star Trek music in my brain scoring that title every time I write or type it.

The conference would be segregated into 7 tracks, all focused on different aspects of what it would take to colonize: the time-distance issues, economic challenges, medical considerations, communicating and publicizing the rationale, etc…

As I read over the website, it occurred to me that applying to speak at a conference was a sort of a persuasive writing exercise. It also occurred to me that studying these different “tracks” and synthesizing one’s research into a proposal was a sort of an executive summary. And lo, a Project Based Writing Unit was born.

So I whipped together an iMovie introducing the concept with some dramatic suspense music thrown in. I threw together a pacing guide for myself and a packet with checklist for them. The packet gave details of how each small “professional community” of experts would be broken down into groups of 7 students. Each student would be responsible for becoming an authority on one of the “tracks.” The packet also contained various assignments and due dates leading up to a mock panel that would take place during lunch, where students from all over the school could come to our symposium to learn about colonizing the stars. And then I had a thought: hey, what if I called my friend in the CalTech patent office and asked if she knew of anyone who could come over during these lunchtimes to be an authentic audience for my students? Perhaps that person(s) could ask questions like a Q & A, or evaluate the presentations in some way? Wow, wouldn’t my students be excited, I thought.

So I sent out the email to my buddy, who responded and said she’d ask around and get back to me, and two weeks later I got a call…from NASA.

It seems that there is now an additional group added to the agenda for the DARPA 100 Years Starship Study: my students. It’s true. A small panel of my students will be presenting via Skype (or WebX, TBD) to an audience of those very same scientists, futurists, ethicists, and science-fiction writers my students will be researching. My students will be presenting not as scientists, but as experts with a unique invested interest in this project. After all, the adults in the room are planning for the generations that will come after the generation after us. My students, on the other hand, will have a hand in building the future for their own children. They will be leaving a legacy behind when they leave 8th grade.

But the import of what this unit has become is not what makes it so fun to teach. What makes it so fun to teach is how little I know about the content I’m asking my students to learn.

Sure I know a lot about writing and reading comprehension and research skills and internet literacy; and that’s ultimately what I’m responsible to teach. However, that’s not what the content of this unit is focused on. What that means is that we get to learn together. This is different than reciprocal learning, which is when I learn from them and they learn from me. This is going on a journey with my students, emailing and exploring and discovering and having head scratching moments and eureka moments along with them. We enter the classroom with ideas together, we sit and brainstorm together, and ultimately we will come away from this experience richer and more knowledgeable together.

I’ve got a few units already in the works for other genres later this year: Literary Analysis and Narrative to name two. But my goal now for this year is not to teach what I know, but to fold in what I know with what I don’t so that modeling learning becomes part of my job.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authentic assessments, darpa, education, k12, project based learning, test prep

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