If there is one thing I have heard as a consistent worry from colleagues in Common Core states, it is that fiction may get crowded out by the request for more non-fiction in the English Language Arts classroom. Personally, I am not worried about that happening because I know enough English teachers to know that there would have to be a lot of dead bodies before fiction became an inconsequential part of our everyday teaching lives. We love fiction because it is what helps us relax, take a step back, and examine our lives in light of a compelling story. Don't get me wrong, some narrative non-fiction is just as compelling, but answer me this: Which assassination is more surprising? Lincoln's or Gatsby's? We know Lincoln's story and we cringe, breath stopped, as we wait for Booth to squeeze off the fatal shot. The first time we dive into Gatsby's pool, we are just as unaware, just as oblivious to the danger lurking behind the pillars of patio, nestled in the barrel of Wilson's gun. The fictional compels us because it becomes part of us, as we become part of it. This metonymic power of literature to stand in for and represent our lives makes narrative, especially fictional narrative, personal and powerful.
So, when given the choice between learning with fictional or non-fictional texts, why should we choose? Some people might not see the way to incorporate both, but this month's Engage Now! submission from Amy Magnafichi Lucas incorporates fictional texts as models for writing non-fictional essays. Not only does she use fictional text to teach writing, but she dares to use Shakespearean text (cue gasps).
There are a lot of gems to be mined from this clearly aligned sequence of 3 lessons. The first is a concise method for writing crisp and pithy prose. Using a couple example passages from equally challenging writers, students discuss the nature of "the economy of language." Students are then asked to revise Shakespeare. Like the Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie sketch, they are asked to revise Hamlet. Specifically, students look at the soliloquy from Act I, Scene ii about Hamlet's "too too sullied flesh." They are asked to keep track of and justify each decision in the revision process based on the discussion from the presentation. The key step comes after the second class period when students apply all of the techniques they have developed in terms of revising for the economy of language to the peer review of each other's work. Knowledge without action is useless; however, the instant application of skills gleaned from literary analysis and critical thinking to the writing process builds retention and relevance. The conversations in peer groups coupled with the revision of the initial draft provide the framework for a lesson of enduring value.
Check out the full lesson plan complete with presentation and handout here. The next time I go to teach a novel or play and then have students write a literary analysis essay, I plan on using a piece of the text as a model for a portion of the writing process; maybe I'll use that scene where Nick enters the Buchanan residence for the first time to teach about the value of powerful and vivid language. I can think of no other scene in literature that so readily calls up the whirlwind of the 1920s: all of that elegance and class caught up in the violence of a summer wind. The first time I read that scene, it stood out as picturesque and calm; on my second visit, the spectres of Wilson, Myrtle, and Gatsby reared up, reminding me of the fact that these elegant, yet careless people will be responsible for the suffering of so many others. The words didn't change; I did. As I developed greater understanding through multiple readings of that passage, perhaps my students returning to that passage to explore a new writing skill may gain some new insight. In the study of the words, they get a chance to revise their original impressions and engage the text more deeply: economy of language and economy of instruction time.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
This is not an Argument: Helping Students Develop Argumentation Skills in Writing
by Daniel A. Bruno, M.Ed., NBCT
One of the greatest lessons I ever learned about classroom teaching came from a short Italian man who looked, I kid you not, like Mario (as in the one with the brother named Luigi). The resemblance wasn't helped by the deep red that adorned everything in the building and all of our faculty shirts. He took the comparison in stride, as was his nature, making light of it as much as we did. He was especially popular with his self-contained emotionally disturbed classes because they could relate to him via the magic of Nintendo. What Frank understood about his students is something we could all use whether we teach emotionally disturbed students or not (although, one could make the argument that being a teenager in our lightning fast culture may qualify one as emotionally disturbed from the beginning). Frank knew that sometimes teenagers just want to fight; in particular, they want to argue. Frank had a simple solution. He would always respond with "This isn't an argument."
Have you ever seen a kid who is in self-contained classes for BEATING on others try and make sense of this type of behavior? Priceless. If you haven't seen this expression, do the following:
- Assign an argumentative research paper.
- On the due date, find one of your weaker writer's work.
- Read through and notice how expository the argument seem to be.
- Look in the mirror.
Arguments by their very nature are dialogic. When someone shuts the dialogue down, the person not in on the trick becomes very confused. Arguments should call out for response, should challenge the audience to remain silent. Oftentimes, high school students aren't comfortable with the role of expert author, so they head down the road of passive bookworm; after all, better to get a wedgie than to have someone ask a question. Steven Heller's research project is brilliant in its slyness. Students will have no idea, unless you tell them, that they are writing argument because of the way he formulates the research question. Rather than prompting them to take a stand, Heller asks students to answer the following prompt:
What factors of _____________ (selected issue of a general topic) must a citizen be aware of in order to make a more informed decision? [emphasis mine]How much less stressful is it to write a response to this question than to take a stand on an issue of which you may only just be developing knowledge. What seventeen-year-old really knows what he or she personally believes about Immigration, Health Care, or Education (outside of the let's-abolish-schools-and-hang-out platform)? With this prompt, the student is simply researching what a citizen must know. Where's the risk in that? Expository setup for an Argumentative paper.
Students are also encouraged to consider the dialogic side of argument because they must analyze the rhetoric of their sources and turn in annotations demonstrating their engagement with the text. If I had a penny for every time I go over a brief nonfiction piece with a class and I have to badger them into taking out a penny, the state could keep my pension. To add another layer to the dialogue, Heller places students in research teams. John Donne would be proud; in Mr. Heller's class, no student is an island.
What makes this lesson handy for teachers is the inclusion of evaluation criteria for the paper and the integration of various pedagogical checkpoints. I can honestly say I have never seen a teacher include vocabulary drawn from student research before.
As I write this post, I am eyeballs-deep in Huckleberry Finn research papers. I am done with expository writing masquerading as argumentative analysis. Next year, I am incorporating some of Mr. Heller's methods: maybe he can help me turn some of my "Yep." statements into "Wow" insights.
Again, if you wish to get the complete lesson from the NCTE connected community, you can follow this link to access Steven Heller's wonderful research unit.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Di-Verse-ify Your Instruction
This post is about the most recent submission in the ENGAGE NOW! lesson plan series from the Secondary Section Steering Committe. You must be an NCTE member to view the full materials at this link.
Poetry can be maddeningly hard to teach and even more difficult to fit into our evolving curricula. Not long ago, I was teaching in another district here in Virginia where they had public noted that the Standards of Learning no longer focused on poetry because, and here is the kicker, there were no poetry questions on the state test. Truly!? So, being me, I taught more poetry. I taught it to freshmen and sophomores. I taught it to standard level students. I taught them Dante's Inferno.
I found that to be an appropriate selection given my feeling at the time. When we abolish poetry, we abolish the soul of our written work. Essays can speak to us, novels can grip us, but only poetry can make us feel. Reading and reciting Taylor Mali with my students is one of my favorite ways to introduce poetry because of how easily he invites us to feel what he has felt. My go to poem from Mr. Mali, a teacher by-the-way, is "Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh Grade Viking Warrior." I read that poem multiple times every year and I still have to keep my voice from breaking as I get to the final lines. I'm a fan of great literature, but Charles Dickens, try as he might, cannot get me to choke up.
The important, and dare I say functional, thing to remember about poetry is that the experiences we inhabit in those lines from our favorite bards do more than fulfill an emotional need. Poetry, as a history teacher colleague of mine used to comment, is just plain hard. We must read into everything. So little guidance is given that we must engage personally with the work and dig meaning from its fertile lines.
At the first NCTE conference I attended, I stayed for a Monday workshop hosted by the Folger Library. Shakespeare came alive for me that day and I have never looked back in teaching Shakespeare work that way. I came back so enthusiastic about teaching Shakespeare that I insinuated a Shakespearean play into my Standard American Lit course. We read the Antonio and Shylock storyline from The Merchant of Venice as a lead in for The Great Gatsby. We read and performed as much of the play as possible in five class meetings, focusing a lot on the relationship between Antonio, Shylock, and Money. Then we hit Gatsby. That is probably the only standard American Lit class I have had that didn't complain about how flowery Fitzgerald's writing is; they even seemed to like it. They had engaged so heavily in the themes of wealth, power, poverty, etc. in Merchant that Gatsby became another perspective to fuel their discussions, a fuel easier to analyze than Shakespearean verse. Poetic thinking had changed their minds; they were open to the ornate and powerful language Fitzgerald employs.
Anna Roseboro-Small's ENGAGE NOW unit also uses poetry in the service of multiple ELA skills. In her unit, students read poetry in order to analyze character and develop sharper writing skills. On top of this, students respond to poetry using multimedia, building on those 21st century literacy skills. My favorite portion of the unit has to be the way Roseboro-Small has students develop sharper writing skills in play writing. I can honestly say that I have never thought of combining the reading and comprehension of poetry with the development of young playwrights. If you love poetry and are looking for ways to have it help you meet the standards needs of your classroom, head over to the NCTE Connected Community and check out Anna Roseboro-Small's unit "ENGAGE NOW! Poetry: Characters and Settings."
Poetry can be maddeningly hard to teach and even more difficult to fit into our evolving curricula. Not long ago, I was teaching in another district here in Virginia where they had public noted that the Standards of Learning no longer focused on poetry because, and here is the kicker, there were no poetry questions on the state test. Truly!? So, being me, I taught more poetry. I taught it to freshmen and sophomores. I taught it to standard level students. I taught them Dante's Inferno.
When we abolish poetry, we abolish the soul of our written work.
I found that to be an appropriate selection given my feeling at the time. When we abolish poetry, we abolish the soul of our written work. Essays can speak to us, novels can grip us, but only poetry can make us feel. Reading and reciting Taylor Mali with my students is one of my favorite ways to introduce poetry because of how easily he invites us to feel what he has felt. My go to poem from Mr. Mali, a teacher by-the-way, is "Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh Grade Viking Warrior." I read that poem multiple times every year and I still have to keep my voice from breaking as I get to the final lines. I'm a fan of great literature, but Charles Dickens, try as he might, cannot get me to choke up.
The important, and dare I say functional, thing to remember about poetry is that the experiences we inhabit in those lines from our favorite bards do more than fulfill an emotional need. Poetry, as a history teacher colleague of mine used to comment, is just plain hard. We must read into everything. So little guidance is given that we must engage personally with the work and dig meaning from its fertile lines.
I'm a fan of great literature, but Charles Dickens, try as he might, cannot get me to choke up.
At the first NCTE conference I attended, I stayed for a Monday workshop hosted by the Folger Library. Shakespeare came alive for me that day and I have never looked back in teaching Shakespeare work that way. I came back so enthusiastic about teaching Shakespeare that I insinuated a Shakespearean play into my Standard American Lit course. We read the Antonio and Shylock storyline from The Merchant of Venice as a lead in for The Great Gatsby. We read and performed as much of the play as possible in five class meetings, focusing a lot on the relationship between Antonio, Shylock, and Money. Then we hit Gatsby. That is probably the only standard American Lit class I have had that didn't complain about how flowery Fitzgerald's writing is; they even seemed to like it. They had engaged so heavily in the themes of wealth, power, poverty, etc. in Merchant that Gatsby became another perspective to fuel their discussions, a fuel easier to analyze than Shakespearean verse. Poetic thinking had changed their minds; they were open to the ornate and powerful language Fitzgerald employs.
If you love poetry and are looking for ways to have it help you meet the standards needs of your classroom, head over to the NCTE Connected Community and check out Anna Roseboro-Small's unit "ENGAGE NOW! Poetry: Characters and Settings."
Anna Roseboro-Small's ENGAGE NOW unit also uses poetry in the service of multiple ELA skills. In her unit, students read poetry in order to analyze character and develop sharper writing skills. On top of this, students respond to poetry using multimedia, building on those 21st century literacy skills. My favorite portion of the unit has to be the way Roseboro-Small has students develop sharper writing skills in play writing. I can honestly say that I have never thought of combining the reading and comprehension of poetry with the development of young playwrights. If you love poetry and are looking for ways to have it help you meet the standards needs of your classroom, head over to the NCTE Connected Community and check out Anna Roseboro-Small's unit "ENGAGE NOW! Poetry: Characters and Settings."
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
A Convention Carol: Keeping NCTE All the Year Long
By Dan Bruno
In Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Scrooge awakens after having had his transformative experience declaring that he will honor Christmas all the year long. As a representative body of secondary teachers, the Secondary Section Steering Committee (SSSC) will be doing something similar with the transformative experience of the convention: we will be honoring NCTE all the year long with new "Engage Now!" lesson ideas beginning next month. In 21st century learning, engagement refers to the active participation and ownership of one's learning; a process by which students and teachers transform the classroom into a space dedicated to the development of their own learning. These lessons are designed to be discrete, adaptable pieces of instruction that any new, mid-career, or veteran teacher seeking to increase this engagement could adapt and implement in his or her classroom.
The scope of these lessons is national. Tied chiefly to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), these lessons will take a specific topic, outline a lesson, provide a list of resources, and build stable links to online materials and activities in and outside of the NCTE community.
The first of these "Engage Now!" lessons will be available on the Connected Community on February 1st. Check back monthly to see what new lessons are being posted.
The first lesson is from SSSC chair Jocelyn Chadwick. This lesson is part of a larger 11th grade unit on identity and voice in a variety of selections from Cisneros, Hurston, Lipsyte, and Shakespeare. These lessons are not limited to these authors and can be applied to any pieces on identity. The skills in focus include: critical reading, collaborative-critical inquiry, collaborative and independent analysis, collaborative research, and whole-class sharing/discussion.
We hope you enjoy these new "Engage Now!" lessons. Feel free to respond to any of these "Engage Now!" posts with feedback so that we can hear about how you are using these lessons.
In Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Scrooge awakens after having had his transformative experience declaring that he will honor Christmas all the year long. As a representative body of secondary teachers, the Secondary Section Steering Committee (SSSC) will be doing something similar with the transformative experience of the convention: we will be honoring NCTE all the year long with new "Engage Now!" lesson ideas beginning next month. In 21st century learning, engagement refers to the active participation and ownership of one's learning; a process by which students and teachers transform the classroom into a space dedicated to the development of their own learning. These lessons are designed to be discrete, adaptable pieces of instruction that any new, mid-career, or veteran teacher seeking to increase this engagement could adapt and implement in his or her classroom.
The scope of these lessons is national. Tied chiefly to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), these lessons will take a specific topic, outline a lesson, provide a list of resources, and build stable links to online materials and activities in and outside of the NCTE community.
The first of these "Engage Now!" lessons will be available on the Connected Community on February 1st. Check back monthly to see what new lessons are being posted.
The first lesson is from SSSC chair Jocelyn Chadwick. This lesson is part of a larger 11th grade unit on identity and voice in a variety of selections from Cisneros, Hurston, Lipsyte, and Shakespeare. These lessons are not limited to these authors and can be applied to any pieces on identity. The skills in focus include: critical reading, collaborative-critical inquiry, collaborative and independent analysis, collaborative research, and whole-class sharing/discussion.
We hope you enjoy these new "Engage Now!" lessons. Feel free to respond to any of these "Engage Now!" posts with feedback so that we can hear about how you are using these lessons.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Shifting the Gresham's Dynamic or Reclaiming our Voices
This post has been eight years in the making. It is the result of one of those crystallizing moments where someone provides the something you didn't know was missing, focusing the chaotic blast of life into a steady, clear beam of light. To truly understand what I mean, I must go back to the beginning of my career.
I switched major programs halfway through college, abandoning the world of oncology I had for so long known as my future. I stopped science classes and math classes, left behind the triple variable calculus of certainty, jerked violently toward the humanities. I went from double majoring in Biology and Chemistry to double majoring in English and Ancient Greek (you tell me, I was 20). I was in uncharted territory, but it felt good.
I couldn’t stand the embarrassing certainty of science anymore. I enjoyed (and still do) studying the nature of life, the ways chemicals worked together, the intricate mechanics of the human body—all of it. The problem was the certainty of findings, the way my professors worshipped things that were set in stone, but were only waiting for time and understanding to wash them away. Scientists thought they had the human body figured out—until Watson and Crick showed up and twisted our understanding on its head. I needed something more human to examine; something so complex in its design that no one had any answers. So, I picked up literature and began plumbing its depths. I was right, no clear answers.
Why had I done this? Why had I given up a career in medicine for whatever I was going to do with English? I had found a science that bridged my love of biology and chemistry with my need to explore literature: cognitive science. I became intrigued with brain physiology and how it helps us learn. Long story short, I figured the best place to study cognition was in a school (we can evaluate the logical fallacy of that at a later date).
The Hippocratic oath of do no harm was not enough anymore; I wanted to do the most good.
So. I became a teacher.
This is my eighth year; I guess that since I've taught seven years, the unease with which I began this year could be considered my seven year itch. The thing that bothers most teachers, and I know I am presuming but bear with me, seems to be the fact that teachers are a fairly educated bunch of people who are often treated like children. What I mean is that the expertise that teachers bring to the educational discussion is so often under or devalued by people from outside of education. Case in point: One of my professors for my Master of Education degree was a policy guy; he is now a higher up with SACS. In his mind, or at least as he presented it in the class, the last people he wanted to ask about a policy decision were teachers. Sadly, I do not always blame him.
If you are paying attention, there are probably some district-wide changes being made to your evaluation system. In every meeting I have attended about these, I have yet to hear a clear problem and solution from any one. Instead, I hear indignation and anger about the changes. By the time five minutes have passed, the atmosphere drips with the blood of lacerated conversation, phrases and explanations from administrators torn asunder and lying about the room like dismembered limbs. All anyone asks about is the percentage of the evaluation that this will count for, eerily echoing the cries of "what's my grade" emanating from our students. There are no questions about what is being evaluated, none about the practices that will make us better teachers. The practice of percentage counting has supplanted the practice of good professional talk; and the advantage is given to the administrators while teachers lose control of more and more of what happens in our classrooms.
My brother-in-law has an MBA so I often find myself asking him about how administrative thinking works. At his job, he meets cost and management bottom lines that keep his company profitable by finding and firing the inefficient managers, executives, and employees that threaten the company's profits; interestingly, this exact point is where the analogy comes alive for most people in the public: they want to compare teachers with low-level employees and not the managers with whom they are more closely aligned. Teachers cannot fire underperforming students. Rather, teaching is the only profession where managers are asked to identify weak performers and redirect their energy from the most effective performers in order to focus almost fanatically on students who may only be struggling because they resent the school system. Resistant or underperforming workers in a business are asked to leave; resistant or underperforming students are elevated at the expense of motivated or high performing students. There is never discussion of when a teacher has performed well but a student refuses to be taught. There is never discussion of when a teacher exceeds expectations. Some administrators even deliberately evaluate teachers as adequate so that their "egos don't grow." Accountability has become a gimmick designed to marginalize teachers and, more importantly, good teaching practices. The practice of humbling other adults has supplanted the practice of discussing effective teaching and learning. In with the bad, out with the good.
The problem with teachers and the policy decisions being made around them is the Gresham's dynamic. Gresham's Law states that bad "money" pushes good "money" out of the market. This law comes from the days when moneychangers would trade people for their gold and then keep it out of circulation. This hoarding devalued the system of trade by supplanting precious metals with lesser ones. The devaluing of good practice leads to teachers doing what good they can, but not the most that they are capable of doing. Instead of the complexity of working with and serving communities of people, we've reduced our practice to easily measurable data points, pushing realistic and complex measurements to the side. This shift mirrors the task we are asked to do; less qualified teachers are made to fit the mold by turning teaching behaviors into checkboxes and SMART goals. Meanwhile, the more creative and effective teachers are pulled back into the box. The certainty of the science of teaching has replaced the power of its art.
The power is inordinately out of the hands of educational practitioners. Many teachers feel like challenging the status quo leads to targeting by administrators and others in power. They stand by, watch the tide mounting against them, not moving until they have to outrun a tidal wave. Gresham's law holds dominion over all.
I am writing this while I fly towards Las Vegas, home of the 2012 NCTE Annual Convention. Getting ready to attend the conference, I had to fight tooth and nail to get some compensation to afford the tickets. I fight so hard for it because these conventions, and the organizations that host them, are the floating variable in Gresham's dynamic. They provide support and outlets for teachers despairing over the paucity of good practice in their home districts. I half-jokingly call the convention my yearly spiritual retreat, but it really is a place for renewal. While every teacher cannot attend, those that do have a special responsibility to carry back what they learn and share it with whomever will listen.
When I started working on this blog almost four years ago, I did so because I wanted to share the conversations I had at NCTE all year long. I still want to. So, even if all the sharing you do is to tell a colleague about this blog, the secondary section website, the elementary connected community, a Google+ group you find at the convention, some of the sessions you attended, I want to urge you to be the unpredictable variable in the Gresham's dynamic that has come to define our lives in education. Every missed opportunity to talk about best practices is a chance for the bad to push the good to the sidelines. When that happens, the ones who lose are the students; as a teacher, I cannot accept that.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I switched major programs halfway through college, abandoning the world of oncology I had for so long known as my future. I stopped science classes and math classes, left behind the triple variable calculus of certainty, jerked violently toward the humanities. I went from double majoring in Biology and Chemistry to double majoring in English and Ancient Greek (you tell me, I was 20). I was in uncharted territory, but it felt good.
I couldn’t stand the embarrassing certainty of science anymore. I enjoyed (and still do) studying the nature of life, the ways chemicals worked together, the intricate mechanics of the human body—all of it. The problem was the certainty of findings, the way my professors worshipped things that were set in stone, but were only waiting for time and understanding to wash them away. Scientists thought they had the human body figured out—until Watson and Crick showed up and twisted our understanding on its head. I needed something more human to examine; something so complex in its design that no one had any answers. So, I picked up literature and began plumbing its depths. I was right, no clear answers.
Why had I done this? Why had I given up a career in medicine for whatever I was going to do with English? I had found a science that bridged my love of biology and chemistry with my need to explore literature: cognitive science. I became intrigued with brain physiology and how it helps us learn. Long story short, I figured the best place to study cognition was in a school (we can evaluate the logical fallacy of that at a later date).
The Hippocratic oath of do no harm was not enough anymore; I wanted to do the most good.
So. I became a teacher.
This is my eighth year; I guess that since I've taught seven years, the unease with which I began this year could be considered my seven year itch. The thing that bothers most teachers, and I know I am presuming but bear with me, seems to be the fact that teachers are a fairly educated bunch of people who are often treated like children. What I mean is that the expertise that teachers bring to the educational discussion is so often under or devalued by people from outside of education. Case in point: One of my professors for my Master of Education degree was a policy guy; he is now a higher up with SACS. In his mind, or at least as he presented it in the class, the last people he wanted to ask about a policy decision were teachers. Sadly, I do not always blame him.
If you are paying attention, there are probably some district-wide changes being made to your evaluation system. In every meeting I have attended about these, I have yet to hear a clear problem and solution from any one. Instead, I hear indignation and anger about the changes. By the time five minutes have passed, the atmosphere drips with the blood of lacerated conversation, phrases and explanations from administrators torn asunder and lying about the room like dismembered limbs. All anyone asks about is the percentage of the evaluation that this will count for, eerily echoing the cries of "what's my grade" emanating from our students. There are no questions about what is being evaluated, none about the practices that will make us better teachers. The practice of percentage counting has supplanted the practice of good professional talk; and the advantage is given to the administrators while teachers lose control of more and more of what happens in our classrooms.
My brother-in-law has an MBA so I often find myself asking him about how administrative thinking works. At his job, he meets cost and management bottom lines that keep his company profitable by finding and firing the inefficient managers, executives, and employees that threaten the company's profits; interestingly, this exact point is where the analogy comes alive for most people in the public: they want to compare teachers with low-level employees and not the managers with whom they are more closely aligned. Teachers cannot fire underperforming students. Rather, teaching is the only profession where managers are asked to identify weak performers and redirect their energy from the most effective performers in order to focus almost fanatically on students who may only be struggling because they resent the school system. Resistant or underperforming workers in a business are asked to leave; resistant or underperforming students are elevated at the expense of motivated or high performing students. There is never discussion of when a teacher has performed well but a student refuses to be taught. There is never discussion of when a teacher exceeds expectations. Some administrators even deliberately evaluate teachers as adequate so that their "egos don't grow." Accountability has become a gimmick designed to marginalize teachers and, more importantly, good teaching practices. The practice of humbling other adults has supplanted the practice of discussing effective teaching and learning. In with the bad, out with the good.
The problem with teachers and the policy decisions being made around them is the Gresham's dynamic. Gresham's Law states that bad "money" pushes good "money" out of the market. This law comes from the days when moneychangers would trade people for their gold and then keep it out of circulation. This hoarding devalued the system of trade by supplanting precious metals with lesser ones. The devaluing of good practice leads to teachers doing what good they can, but not the most that they are capable of doing. Instead of the complexity of working with and serving communities of people, we've reduced our practice to easily measurable data points, pushing realistic and complex measurements to the side. This shift mirrors the task we are asked to do; less qualified teachers are made to fit the mold by turning teaching behaviors into checkboxes and SMART goals. Meanwhile, the more creative and effective teachers are pulled back into the box. The certainty of the science of teaching has replaced the power of its art.
The power is inordinately out of the hands of educational practitioners. Many teachers feel like challenging the status quo leads to targeting by administrators and others in power. They stand by, watch the tide mounting against them, not moving until they have to outrun a tidal wave. Gresham's law holds dominion over all.
I am writing this while I fly towards Las Vegas, home of the 2012 NCTE Annual Convention. Getting ready to attend the conference, I had to fight tooth and nail to get some compensation to afford the tickets. I fight so hard for it because these conventions, and the organizations that host them, are the floating variable in Gresham's dynamic. They provide support and outlets for teachers despairing over the paucity of good practice in their home districts. I half-jokingly call the convention my yearly spiritual retreat, but it really is a place for renewal. While every teacher cannot attend, those that do have a special responsibility to carry back what they learn and share it with whomever will listen.
When I started working on this blog almost four years ago, I did so because I wanted to share the conversations I had at NCTE all year long. I still want to. So, even if all the sharing you do is to tell a colleague about this blog, the secondary section website, the elementary connected community, a Google+ group you find at the convention, some of the sessions you attended, I want to urge you to be the unpredictable variable in the Gresham's dynamic that has come to define our lives in education. Every missed opportunity to talk about best practices is a chance for the bad to push the good to the sidelines. When that happens, the ones who lose are the students; as a teacher, I cannot accept that.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Applicable Apps for Apple's iPad
So, technology in the classroom is one of those big things we always hear about. Tied to differentiation! Tied to student success! Buy our software package! Ancillaries available! On and on the signs cry out for our attention and we, as the savvy 21st century educators we are, flock to the demonstrations and the booths, seeking out that technological tools that will reshape our practice.
Unfortunately, the reality often distances itself from the rose-colored posters of the vendor booths and brochures. In our schools, division or building specialists purchase technology, place it in the hands of some of the faculty, and then expects results. Sometimes the technology sits on a desk in a classroom, holding down papers, keeping the dust all to itself, mutating into a hairy monster that one should not get wet or feed after midnight. The end of the year comes, administrators call for results and examples, people make things up to justify expenses, and technology becomes another term thrown about to justify big bottom lines with very little substance.
One victim of this policy of technological salutary neglect is the iPad from Apple. In case there are people who think that Apple still only means Macintosh computers, the iPad is a friendly little tablet that is about a thin as a class set of quizzes and as broad as a text book. The processing power and display have gone through subsequent improvements; Apple is currently developing its fourth generation iPad. Since the dawning of the iPad day, teachers and administrators have sought ways to incorporate this stylish technology into daily classroom life for a number of reasons, some noble and others not.
The truth of the matter is that this technology presents a fair number of challenges and a fair number of rewards. These vary from subject to subject, class to class, and student to student. As part of my transition this year to the Commonwealth Governor's School, I have had the opportunity to work with one of these pieces of technology all year. My site has even been assigned a cart full of 30 iPads to engage students in classroom activities. As a result, I have been exploring some of the apps available for the iPad in order to make it a seamless part of my daily classroom routine. This is my top app list for this past school year, 2012-2013.
1. ThinkBook: Ever outline or teach others how to outline? How about teaching good note taking strategies? ThinkBook is your app. Intuitive and easy to use, ThinkBook has been one of the most easily adapted apps to my classroom practice. I have used it to teach research outlining and I have used it to outline my own writing. Most helpfully, I have used ThinkBook to organize lesson and unit plans. Beyond this adaptability, ThinkBook is affordable.
2. Essay Grader: As an English teacher, I can appreciate the company that created this app: Gatsby's Light. Essay Grader is the answer to the question: "How many times do I have to write this comment?" I will be posting again soon on this app by itself, but I wanted to include it here since I use it so much. In the app, there are pre-set comments and space for custom comments. After you have set your matrix of comments, all you need do is check the box next to the appropriate category and the app generates a detailed feedback report based on your pre-sets and custom comments. For those who want even more freedom, there are free write sections at the beginning and the end that allow teachers to personally address the student being assessed; these sections are also integrated into the final feedback report. Teachers can instantly send the feedback to the student via e-mail, or they can export them and print them off one-by-one. More on this one soon.
3. Remarks: There are a lot of annotation apps for the iPad, but the most seamlessly integrated one has got to be Remarks. As far as I have tried, remarks offers the best method for pulling digital copies of student papers and, forgive me, remarking on them. There are a variety of options for putting commentary on papers from handwriting to typing. My preference is to use the underlining/highlighting option because I can attach sticky notes to the underline/highlight that students can view by simply hovering over it with a mouse cursor.
4. Storyist: This app, endorsed by the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) program, allows students (and their teachers) to organize, develop, and write a novel. This function is accomplished in a variety of ways. The most exciting are the story sheets - individual "sheets" that allow for the development of setting, character, etc. These sheets are kept in folders within each separately named project file. I have found that this app makes discussing the process of writing very transparent as students can see their own and their teachers' processes at work. Using it in conjunction with the NaNoWriMo curriculum would be a great activity for any class studying the structure of stories.
5. iThoughts HD: iThoughts HD looks like a very familiar educational technology program, Inspiration. Beside the fact that it is much more affordable than its PC counterpart. The interface is clear and easy to use. The maps are uncluttered and easily manipulated. I've used this program to model essay outlining, to analyze characters, to map out plotlines, and to define problems. All of these exercises have been done through either an LCD projector or an Apple TV, making the development and final use of each map a whole class activity, and an opportunity for open class discussions. I've even labeled bubbles in the map with students' names to identify their contributions to the finished map. This both recognizes each student's contribution to class and makes grading whole class discussions easier and more justifiable.
6. Nearpod: Nearpod is a great app for presentations. Remember the last PowerPoint presentations you sat through. They usually drag on, each slide pounding you further into your seat, making you wish for any opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, we are usually forced to watch these in Professional Development sessions; sessions required by our employers. Students have the same frustrations. PowerPoint-based classrooms can be a grind that wear students down. This takes the computer-based presentation and makes them interactive with videos, quizzes, and other feedback mechanisms. For the teacher, there is a student list that instantly provides feedback on how much the students are learning from the presentation. There are even free response sections that allow each student to respond to open-ended questions. The best part of this app? The fact that it is free. The downsides? First, you need a full class set of iPads for this program to work. Second, the Nearpod "Store" (all of the lessons I've seen thus far are free) contains a limited number of lessons at this point; however, many of them are very interesting and engaging (see the one on Shakespearean insults first if you want to try one out). If you have the equipment, Nearpod is a worthwhile investment.
7. Socrative: A great feedback mechanism for any class because it is available through iPads and PCs. The program provides a template for taking tests and quizzes you already give to students and adapting them. The program allows for student- or teacher-paced administrations of the test. The student-paced version of the quiz allows them to move to each question as they complete them; the teacher readout allows for tracking of class progress by individual student, providing assessment data from first question to last. The teacher-paced version of the quiz allows the teacher to determine when each question will be available. This method, though it takes longer, ensures every student finishes at the same time. After the test is over, regardless of which method you've used to administer it, a report is generated which can be e-mailed or (if you are using a PC) downloaded directly from the site. This reports are then saved to the website and can be recalled at any point in the future. I've used this app on each type of assessment from simple reading check to complex free-response test. It is free and well worth the time. As I think about this coming year, I already have a bunch of quizzes and tests stored on the site that I only need to adjust and then administer.
8. ShowMe: I am going to end this rather lengthy post with this app. I will probably add to this list throughout this year as I find new apps that help, but for now this list should keep the curious engaged. ShowMe is a site on the internet accessed through either PC or iPad. The iPad helps with the writing functionality, especially if you have a stylus, but it is not necessary. A ShowMe is a recorded whiteboard presentation where anyone can listen to you speak as you write on the whiteboard. The benefit of the program is that this app allows for the generation of quick instructional videos that can be used to flip your classroom (see post from 5 December 2011 or 12 May 2012 for more on flipping). I have used this program to provide additional tutoring to students and to share strategies from my classroom with colleagues. ShowMe also contains a large community of people who have developed and shared their work for use in any classroom. Sign up and check it out.
If you have any apps you want to tell other members of the NCTE secondary community about, feel free to respond to this post. There are many apps out there, this conversation could help us identify some of the best.
Unfortunately, the reality often distances itself from the rose-colored posters of the vendor booths and brochures. In our schools, division or building specialists purchase technology, place it in the hands of some of the faculty, and then expects results. Sometimes the technology sits on a desk in a classroom, holding down papers, keeping the dust all to itself, mutating into a hairy monster that one should not get wet or feed after midnight. The end of the year comes, administrators call for results and examples, people make things up to justify expenses, and technology becomes another term thrown about to justify big bottom lines with very little substance.
One victim of this policy of technological salutary neglect is the iPad from Apple. In case there are people who think that Apple still only means Macintosh computers, the iPad is a friendly little tablet that is about a thin as a class set of quizzes and as broad as a text book. The processing power and display have gone through subsequent improvements; Apple is currently developing its fourth generation iPad. Since the dawning of the iPad day, teachers and administrators have sought ways to incorporate this stylish technology into daily classroom life for a number of reasons, some noble and others not.
The truth of the matter is that this technology presents a fair number of challenges and a fair number of rewards. These vary from subject to subject, class to class, and student to student. As part of my transition this year to the Commonwealth Governor's School, I have had the opportunity to work with one of these pieces of technology all year. My site has even been assigned a cart full of 30 iPads to engage students in classroom activities. As a result, I have been exploring some of the apps available for the iPad in order to make it a seamless part of my daily classroom routine. This is my top app list for this past school year, 2012-2013.
1. ThinkBook: Ever outline or teach others how to outline? How about teaching good note taking strategies? ThinkBook is your app. Intuitive and easy to use, ThinkBook has been one of the most easily adapted apps to my classroom practice. I have used it to teach research outlining and I have used it to outline my own writing. Most helpfully, I have used ThinkBook to organize lesson and unit plans. Beyond this adaptability, ThinkBook is affordable.
2. Essay Grader: As an English teacher, I can appreciate the company that created this app: Gatsby's Light. Essay Grader is the answer to the question: "How many times do I have to write this comment?" I will be posting again soon on this app by itself, but I wanted to include it here since I use it so much. In the app, there are pre-set comments and space for custom comments. After you have set your matrix of comments, all you need do is check the box next to the appropriate category and the app generates a detailed feedback report based on your pre-sets and custom comments. For those who want even more freedom, there are free write sections at the beginning and the end that allow teachers to personally address the student being assessed; these sections are also integrated into the final feedback report. Teachers can instantly send the feedback to the student via e-mail, or they can export them and print them off one-by-one. More on this one soon.
3. Remarks: There are a lot of annotation apps for the iPad, but the most seamlessly integrated one has got to be Remarks. As far as I have tried, remarks offers the best method for pulling digital copies of student papers and, forgive me, remarking on them. There are a variety of options for putting commentary on papers from handwriting to typing. My preference is to use the underlining/highlighting option because I can attach sticky notes to the underline/highlight that students can view by simply hovering over it with a mouse cursor.
4. Storyist: This app, endorsed by the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) program, allows students (and their teachers) to organize, develop, and write a novel. This function is accomplished in a variety of ways. The most exciting are the story sheets - individual "sheets" that allow for the development of setting, character, etc. These sheets are kept in folders within each separately named project file. I have found that this app makes discussing the process of writing very transparent as students can see their own and their teachers' processes at work. Using it in conjunction with the NaNoWriMo curriculum would be a great activity for any class studying the structure of stories.
5. iThoughts HD: iThoughts HD looks like a very familiar educational technology program, Inspiration. Beside the fact that it is much more affordable than its PC counterpart. The interface is clear and easy to use. The maps are uncluttered and easily manipulated. I've used this program to model essay outlining, to analyze characters, to map out plotlines, and to define problems. All of these exercises have been done through either an LCD projector or an Apple TV, making the development and final use of each map a whole class activity, and an opportunity for open class discussions. I've even labeled bubbles in the map with students' names to identify their contributions to the finished map. This both recognizes each student's contribution to class and makes grading whole class discussions easier and more justifiable.
6. Nearpod: Nearpod is a great app for presentations. Remember the last PowerPoint presentations you sat through. They usually drag on, each slide pounding you further into your seat, making you wish for any opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, we are usually forced to watch these in Professional Development sessions; sessions required by our employers. Students have the same frustrations. PowerPoint-based classrooms can be a grind that wear students down. This takes the computer-based presentation and makes them interactive with videos, quizzes, and other feedback mechanisms. For the teacher, there is a student list that instantly provides feedback on how much the students are learning from the presentation. There are even free response sections that allow each student to respond to open-ended questions. The best part of this app? The fact that it is free. The downsides? First, you need a full class set of iPads for this program to work. Second, the Nearpod "Store" (all of the lessons I've seen thus far are free) contains a limited number of lessons at this point; however, many of them are very interesting and engaging (see the one on Shakespearean insults first if you want to try one out). If you have the equipment, Nearpod is a worthwhile investment.
7. Socrative: A great feedback mechanism for any class because it is available through iPads and PCs. The program provides a template for taking tests and quizzes you already give to students and adapting them. The program allows for student- or teacher-paced administrations of the test. The student-paced version of the quiz allows them to move to each question as they complete them; the teacher readout allows for tracking of class progress by individual student, providing assessment data from first question to last. The teacher-paced version of the quiz allows the teacher to determine when each question will be available. This method, though it takes longer, ensures every student finishes at the same time. After the test is over, regardless of which method you've used to administer it, a report is generated which can be e-mailed or (if you are using a PC) downloaded directly from the site. This reports are then saved to the website and can be recalled at any point in the future. I've used this app on each type of assessment from simple reading check to complex free-response test. It is free and well worth the time. As I think about this coming year, I already have a bunch of quizzes and tests stored on the site that I only need to adjust and then administer.
8. ShowMe: I am going to end this rather lengthy post with this app. I will probably add to this list throughout this year as I find new apps that help, but for now this list should keep the curious engaged. ShowMe is a site on the internet accessed through either PC or iPad. The iPad helps with the writing functionality, especially if you have a stylus, but it is not necessary. A ShowMe is a recorded whiteboard presentation where anyone can listen to you speak as you write on the whiteboard. The benefit of the program is that this app allows for the generation of quick instructional videos that can be used to flip your classroom (see post from 5 December 2011 or 12 May 2012 for more on flipping). I have used this program to provide additional tutoring to students and to share strategies from my classroom with colleagues. ShowMe also contains a large community of people who have developed and shared their work for use in any classroom. Sign up and check it out.
If you have any apps you want to tell other members of the NCTE secondary community about, feel free to respond to this post. There are many apps out there, this conversation could help us identify some of the best.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Time to Flip Out
by Tara Seale
Dan Bruno, who also publishes on the High School Matters blog, wrote a post about flipped classrooms in December. Although I didn't explore this instructional method at the time (re-doing two National Board entries, taking a graduate class, teaching 90 AP Lang students, and trying to be a mom and wife - as teachers - you, best of all, understand why I didn't get around to it:) I recently found the time to explore the flipped classroom concept, and Tech & Learning has a great post explaining the positive effects of flipped classrooms.
Simply, a flipped classroom is one in which students watch a video lecture at home and complete classroom activities, or what would normally be considered homework, in class. This set up allows teachers to act as both a lecturer and a facilitator. I watched the Flipping the Classroom Tech & Learning video, and one comment made by a student really stuck with me.
He said that he didn't have to stop the whole class if he didn't understand. He could pause the video and re-watch what he didn't get the first time. We all know that we have students who will not raise their hand, and unfortunately, they miss out on important information.
A teacher comment in the video also stuck with me. When students come to class ready to complete classroom activities, the teacher is not the only one helping students. Students who watched the video and easily understood the lesson serve as peer tutors. Students who have additional questions can ask not only the teacher but also a classmate, and the students who understood the lesson reinforce the concepts of the lesson as they assist other students.
If you did not read Dan's post, he provides a basic outline to organize flipped instruction in an English classroom. I encourage you to read Flipping Out.
Several websites support teachers implementing the flipped classroom model:
Dan Bruno, who also publishes on the High School Matters blog, wrote a post about flipped classrooms in December. Although I didn't explore this instructional method at the time (re-doing two National Board entries, taking a graduate class, teaching 90 AP Lang students, and trying to be a mom and wife - as teachers - you, best of all, understand why I didn't get around to it:) I recently found the time to explore the flipped classroom concept, and Tech & Learning has a great post explaining the positive effects of flipped classrooms.
Simply, a flipped classroom is one in which students watch a video lecture at home and complete classroom activities, or what would normally be considered homework, in class. This set up allows teachers to act as both a lecturer and a facilitator. I watched the Flipping the Classroom Tech & Learning video, and one comment made by a student really stuck with me.
He said that he didn't have to stop the whole class if he didn't understand. He could pause the video and re-watch what he didn't get the first time. We all know that we have students who will not raise their hand, and unfortunately, they miss out on important information.
A teacher comment in the video also stuck with me. When students come to class ready to complete classroom activities, the teacher is not the only one helping students. Students who watched the video and easily understood the lesson serve as peer tutors. Students who have additional questions can ask not only the teacher but also a classmate, and the students who understood the lesson reinforce the concepts of the lesson as they assist other students.
If you did not read Dan's post, he provides a basic outline to organize flipped instruction in an English classroom. I encourage you to read Flipping Out.
Several websites support teachers implementing the flipped classroom model:
- Sign up for the online community The Flipped Class Network
- TechSmith has printable tutorials
- Best of all, TEDTalks has signed on to support teachers in facilitating a flipped classroom. Check out TED's Beta TED-Ed site. Read the press release here: TED-Ed Launches Groundbreaking Website with New Tools for Customized Learning.
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