Whoa--I'm actually writing a content-based blog post! I finally have a lazy Saturday morning with nothing planned (our scheduled vet visit got rescheduled, otherwise I would have had to be out the door at 730 this morning!). I feel a cold coming on (boo), and it's a cold, gray day. What I have to look forward to is grading a stack of essays I brought home.
But for now, there's coffee and sweats and Christmas music (shhhh....don't tell on me! I do wait until after Turkey Day to put up decorations).
I wanted to write briefly about something I've started doing primarily with my College English writing course, but that I hope to do with all classes when they write an essay going forward.
Each year, I set aside some student essays that I could use as samples the following year. For us, it's even easier because we have access to our students' file on the network, so I can just go back in and print their essay off the computer, which I like best, because that way I can change the name and make it anonymous, rather than whiting it out on a hard copy.
I don't just find examples of "A" papers, but rather a variety of ability levels and grades. Before passing them out, I hand out the essay rubric I am using to grade the students' essays and we go over it and what it means to earn a certain score in a category. Then I pass out the anonymous student sample essays. Sometimes, the whole class gets the same one at a time; sometimes, I put them in groups and each group gets a different one. The key is, you DON'T tell them what grade the paper earned ahead of time.
Students (either alone or with partners) read and then analyze the essay. They "grade" it using the rubric you will use to grade their own essays. They come up with a final score, and then I typically have them write a brief paragraph explaining/defending the grade they assigned.
Here is what I have found after doing this probably 15+ times with different groups of kids: They can be BRUTAL graders! I have had student essays that earned a "B" for me failing some of my students' assessments! I usually ask them to sit in groups based on how they graded an essay and then each letter grade group defends their grade. Then I tell them what the essay earned for me and why and we talk about it.
I like doing this for a few reasons:
1) It lets them see MY thought process when assigning a grade to an essay, and they realize a lot of work actually goes into it.
2) They can see an actual student sample essay, rather than just the model essays we read in our textbook.
3) They can start to think critically about writing, pointing out strengths and weaknesses.
4) I always use this to segue into peer response. What usually happens in peer response, is that they don't want to give constructive criticism because they know the person, but they are not afraid to be honest when it's an anonymous essay. This has also made me consider doing anonymous peer review going forward. (Of course, I don't want them being brutally honest/harsh with peers, but too often the responses I see are "looks good" or the like).
It usually takes a couple class periods to do 2-3 student samples, and sometimes I assign it for homework if we're short on time. But I do feel like it helps students grasp what an "A" paper or "B" paper might look like, and they can better understand their own grades when they get papers back.
Do any of you do something similar in your classes? How so?
Showing posts with label College English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College English. Show all posts
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
How to have effective writing conferences
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| Source: social.rollins.edu. A Venn Diagram I often show my writing students. |
Teaching College Composition writing, I've done a lot of research through my MA coursework on the best and most effective way to teach the writing process. So often, my students--even my College students--don't like to go back and revise and edit their work. I try to impart to them how important this is, and that writing is a process, not a race to get the final draft done the fastest.
I often tell them that professional authors--people who get paid to write and sell millions of copies of their books--have to go through MANY revisions and edits before it is ready to publish. So if we are amateur writers, how can we expect to have a perfect piece of writing on the first try, when that isn't even possible for people who make a living doing this? Usually it sinks in a little when I say that.
But today I want to focus on one specific part of the writing process that I started doing last year and have had a lot of success with: writing conferences.
The key to having a successful conference is making the STUDENT in charge of leading them. I used to grow frustrated because I would have students come sit by my desk to "conference" and ask questions like "What are you struggling with? Where do you need my help?" and I'd get answers like "I don't know" or "I need help with everything," neither of which are helpful for me as the instructor.
So now, I make sure students are prepared for the conference and that they lead it. The day before writing conferences (this happens AFTER peer revision has taken place), I will give my students a short form to fill out with no more than 7-8 questions. I ask things like:
- What is the strongest part of your essay so far?
- What has been the hardest part of writing this essay?
- What are three specific revisions you plan to make before submitting this essay?
- Point out one or two specific places in your essay you'd like me to look at, as well as write out specific questions you have about those sections.
I will only meet with students who have completely filled out the sheet. I do let students fill them out later for partial credit if they decide they want to meet with me after all, but my perspective is that any given conference takes 5-10 min. depending. I have a LOT of students to get through. If you are not serious about preparing for it and actually asking me questions, it would be a better use of time for me to meet with someone else and for you to work on your essay then.
When a student comes up with the form filled out, I asked THEM to walk through the questions with me, pointing things out in the essay and asking me the questions they wrote down. This gives a focus to the conference so it isn't a waste of time. I can also hone in on what is bothering them about the essay instead of asking about a bunch of things they are not worried about.
I will not read an entire essay and "grade" it before the final is submitted for grading. I tell my students that up front. However, I WILL look at specific places in their essays that they struggle with and answer specific questions.
I get a lot of, "Can you read these three paragraphs and tell me what I did wrong?" when we first start out. I will not do that.
But if they ask, "Can you read this paragraph and focus on my transitions? I am struggling with those," that I WILL do.
I think it is SO important for students to be able to reflect on their own writing and pick out what they struggle with and what they excel at, instead of just having teachers tell them those things. It also helps me help them during our conferences, and I found a get a much higher quality of final essay coming in when I conference with them first, so it ends up saving me some time on grading because we hashed out some problem areas beforehand, and they fixed them.
Do you hold writing conferences with your students? What tips do you have to make them effective?
Saturday, January 11, 2014
A peek at my week {Jan 12-17}
I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin for a Peek at my Week.
Well I survived the first days back to work. I was so tired last night, I fell asleep on the couch around 10. On break I was staying up until 1 on the regular. 5:30 AM sure comes fast :/
I want to get back into some content-based posts once the semester gets more in full swing, but until then, just a quick peek at what's going on in my personal and school life this week.
Tomorrow we are meeting some friends for lunch at the winery. They have the BEST food and wine. And isn't it pretty? (Admittedly, it does not look this way in January. Womp womp).
But they have the absolute BEST homemade chili in a bread bowl and a raging fire to sit next to while drinking some vino and chatting. I am very excited. I'm also picking up a pair of boots I ordered two weeks ago because they weren't in my size. I hope they fit so I can wear them to school on Monday.
School-wise, we are kicking off our banned book project in English III. They are choosing a book to read this quarter that has been banned or challenged in the past. Then fourth quarter, we are reading Fahrenheit 451 and discussing government censorship, censorship in schools, and all that fun stuff.
To cap it off, they'll have to write an argumentative essay arguing for or against banning the book they read third quarter. They just chose books yesterday and blogged about why they chose them.
Which leads me to something else--I am trying out a Weebly blog for all my classes this semester. Some classes have weekly blogs to post; others may be a little less frequent. But I am posting prompts related to what we're doing in class and having them respond to the prompt and to each other to get some online and out-of-class convos going on between students. So far, so good, but it's only been two days, so we'll see!
In College English, we're seeing if we can define what "good" writing is and covering some of the important basics quickly. I made up a game in Power Point called "Plagiarism or Not?" so we'll play that and then get started learning about how to write summaries of critical articles! Fun stuff!
Well, we are off to see Her tonight--that movie with Joaquin Phoenix where he basically falls in love with a Siri-like person. It looks kind of weird, but I love weird/off-beat/Indie movies, so I'm excited! Have a great rest of your weekend :)
Well I survived the first days back to work. I was so tired last night, I fell asleep on the couch around 10. On break I was staying up until 1 on the regular. 5:30 AM sure comes fast :/
I want to get back into some content-based posts once the semester gets more in full swing, but until then, just a quick peek at what's going on in my personal and school life this week.
Tomorrow we are meeting some friends for lunch at the winery. They have the BEST food and wine. And isn't it pretty? (Admittedly, it does not look this way in January. Womp womp).
But they have the absolute BEST homemade chili in a bread bowl and a raging fire to sit next to while drinking some vino and chatting. I am very excited. I'm also picking up a pair of boots I ordered two weeks ago because they weren't in my size. I hope they fit so I can wear them to school on Monday.
School-wise, we are kicking off our banned book project in English III. They are choosing a book to read this quarter that has been banned or challenged in the past. Then fourth quarter, we are reading Fahrenheit 451 and discussing government censorship, censorship in schools, and all that fun stuff.
To cap it off, they'll have to write an argumentative essay arguing for or against banning the book they read third quarter. They just chose books yesterday and blogged about why they chose them.
Which leads me to something else--I am trying out a Weebly blog for all my classes this semester. Some classes have weekly blogs to post; others may be a little less frequent. But I am posting prompts related to what we're doing in class and having them respond to the prompt and to each other to get some online and out-of-class convos going on between students. So far, so good, but it's only been two days, so we'll see!
In College English, we're seeing if we can define what "good" writing is and covering some of the important basics quickly. I made up a game in Power Point called "Plagiarism or Not?" so we'll play that and then get started learning about how to write summaries of critical articles! Fun stuff!
Well, we are off to see Her tonight--that movie with Joaquin Phoenix where he basically falls in love with a Siri-like person. It looks kind of weird, but I love weird/off-beat/Indie movies, so I'm excited! Have a great rest of your weekend :)
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Course Evaluations
Is everyone enjoying their summer break? I am! I know some of you don't get out of school yet for another week or so, which is so weird to me. All the districts around here are out by the beginning of June. If you do have to go late into the summer, when do you return in the fall? We were out May 30 but go back Aug. 15. Not sure if I'd rather get out of school earlier or get to go back later in Sept.
So far my summer break has consisted of being outdoors as much as possible. The rain finally ceased and we had sunny days this week. So far, I've done a lot of reading outside (I took my Nook up to a pretty road that runs by the river and has some awesome views and read up there), went for a long walk on a bike trail we have that runs through some pretty countryside and spent some time writing. Yep, this summer I am working on my lifelong goal of writing a book, a novel to be exact. It's something I've wanted to accomplish since I was a kid and an avid reader, and since I have no major obligations this summer (last summer we bought our first house and two summers ago I got married), I decided this time is as good as any. So far I have about 15 pages, and I am trying to carve out a couple hours each day to write, usually on my patio while this girl runs around.
Anyways, I wanted to write today about something I have my College English kids do each semester that I am thinking of expanding to all classes: a course evaluation.
This is very similar to the course/instructor evals I'm sure we all filled out while in college at the completion of every course. I started it with College English, since it technically is a college course, and I wanted to format it like a college course as much as I could. Their evaluations were only for my purposes, though, and didn't actually get sent to the college we pair up with. Especially since it was my first year teaching these classes, I did want some constructive feedback and knew my kids would be honest but, well, not jerks about it. It was a short one but covered what I needed it to cover. The questions were:
1) What skills covered in ENG 101/102 do you feel most prepared you for future College English courses?
2) Which skills do you feel deserve the most time and attention in ENG 101/102?
3) Did you keep up with the textbook readings? How helpful did you find the textbook?
4) What are some ways you feel the instructor could improve student participation and interest?
5) Did you feel comfortable approaching the instructor for help? Why/why not?
6) What suggestions do you have for the instructor to improve this course in the future?
The key to doing this is that is has to be truly anonymous or you will never actually get good feedback; just what they think you want to hear. I always have them do this after final grades are entered just in case they have their doubts about this affecting their grade if I found out who said what (which I assure them would never happen).
In college courses, usually the instructor leaves the room when the students fill these out, but in high school, I can't really leave them unsupervised (well, they would be fine but I'm sure my principal wouldn't want me just strolling down the hall and leaving them unattended!). So I have them fill them out, fold them in half, keep them at their desk and then assign one student to collect all of them. Then I have him/her shuffle so they are in no particular order before handing them to me. If you REALLY wanted anonymity, you could have them type, so you can't tell handwriting apart.
I do get good feedback from them. They have given me some insightful suggestions for future classes, and I know that if I do get positive feedback, it's because that's how they truly feel and not because they are just writing what I want to hear, since it's anonymous and is not tied to grades. Pretty much everyone said they hated the texts and never did the readings lol. Unfortunately, text selection for these courses is out of my hands and I have to go with what the college sets up. But I will try to find ways to supplement the text next year that make it more interesting.
So anyways, I'm thinking of rolling this out with other classes. To do this, you need a thick skin and need to be able to let the non-constructive criticisms roll off your back (things like "You're stupid/This is stupid/You don't know what you're doing", etc.). I don't get that stuff from my college students, but probably would with underclassmen. They try and write that stuff on peer responses, so I have no doubt they'd also try it with me :) But it still might be worth it for the few actual constructive responses you might get. I always want to try to improve, and since my students are my audience, why not go to them for some suggestions as well?
Have you used course evaluations in your classes? If so, how do you do them to get the best results and constructive responses?
So far my summer break has consisted of being outdoors as much as possible. The rain finally ceased and we had sunny days this week. So far, I've done a lot of reading outside (I took my Nook up to a pretty road that runs by the river and has some awesome views and read up there), went for a long walk on a bike trail we have that runs through some pretty countryside and spent some time writing. Yep, this summer I am working on my lifelong goal of writing a book, a novel to be exact. It's something I've wanted to accomplish since I was a kid and an avid reader, and since I have no major obligations this summer (last summer we bought our first house and two summers ago I got married), I decided this time is as good as any. So far I have about 15 pages, and I am trying to carve out a couple hours each day to write, usually on my patio while this girl runs around.
Anyways, I wanted to write today about something I have my College English kids do each semester that I am thinking of expanding to all classes: a course evaluation.
This is very similar to the course/instructor evals I'm sure we all filled out while in college at the completion of every course. I started it with College English, since it technically is a college course, and I wanted to format it like a college course as much as I could. Their evaluations were only for my purposes, though, and didn't actually get sent to the college we pair up with. Especially since it was my first year teaching these classes, I did want some constructive feedback and knew my kids would be honest but, well, not jerks about it. It was a short one but covered what I needed it to cover. The questions were:
1) What skills covered in ENG 101/102 do you feel most prepared you for future College English courses?
2) Which skills do you feel deserve the most time and attention in ENG 101/102?
3) Did you keep up with the textbook readings? How helpful did you find the textbook?
4) What are some ways you feel the instructor could improve student participation and interest?
5) Did you feel comfortable approaching the instructor for help? Why/why not?
6) What suggestions do you have for the instructor to improve this course in the future?
The key to doing this is that is has to be truly anonymous or you will never actually get good feedback; just what they think you want to hear. I always have them do this after final grades are entered just in case they have their doubts about this affecting their grade if I found out who said what (which I assure them would never happen).
In college courses, usually the instructor leaves the room when the students fill these out, but in high school, I can't really leave them unsupervised (well, they would be fine but I'm sure my principal wouldn't want me just strolling down the hall and leaving them unattended!). So I have them fill them out, fold them in half, keep them at their desk and then assign one student to collect all of them. Then I have him/her shuffle so they are in no particular order before handing them to me. If you REALLY wanted anonymity, you could have them type, so you can't tell handwriting apart.
I do get good feedback from them. They have given me some insightful suggestions for future classes, and I know that if I do get positive feedback, it's because that's how they truly feel and not because they are just writing what I want to hear, since it's anonymous and is not tied to grades. Pretty much everyone said they hated the texts and never did the readings lol. Unfortunately, text selection for these courses is out of my hands and I have to go with what the college sets up. But I will try to find ways to supplement the text next year that make it more interesting.
So anyways, I'm thinking of rolling this out with other classes. To do this, you need a thick skin and need to be able to let the non-constructive criticisms roll off your back (things like "You're stupid/This is stupid/You don't know what you're doing", etc.). I don't get that stuff from my college students, but probably would with underclassmen. They try and write that stuff on peer responses, so I have no doubt they'd also try it with me :) But it still might be worth it for the few actual constructive responses you might get. I always want to try to improve, and since my students are my audience, why not go to them for some suggestions as well?
Have you used course evaluations in your classes? If so, how do you do them to get the best results and constructive responses?
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Today's Technology Tidbit: Using Documentary in the Classroom
This lesson is also included on Tried It Tuesday
Sorry it has been a whole week since I last posted. I really try to post at least thrice weekly. It has been a long, busy, and stressful week.
First we had my father-in-law's health issues going on and some nerve-wracking days with that. Then it was my birthday Friday (yay!) so my parents came down for a couple days and met our super high-anxiety dog (have I told you my dog hates people coming in the house, especially men? Yeah). Thankfully it actually went really well. Now today, we're getting 6" of snow! This does not sit well with me. It's spring for crying out loud!
So all of that led to my lack of posting, but I hope to get back on it this week, starting with a technology tidbit today.
I like to use film in the classroom when it's relevant. I look for high interest pieces that serve a purpose, and often times, show clips and not even the whole thing.
Today I want to talk a little about how I use documentaries in my classroom. I have Netflix streaming, and they actually have a TON of great documentaries on there that you can watch instantly. Of course, the one I wanted to use this week that I'm about to discuss is one that is NOT on there. Grr.
I am teaching the process of argument for my College English course. We discussed the parts of a successful argument (claim, support, assumption), different appeals of argument (ethos, pathos, logos--we did a Wikispace assignment where each student was assigned one appeal and had to post an example of it from modern-day media), counterargument and refute or concession, as well as discussed logical fallacies that we need to watch out for in argument.
Though they will be writing their argumentative essays, I wanted to show them a non-print example, so I decided to show clips of the Michael Moore documentary Sicko.
We do look at some written examples of argument too, but I like to get out of the textbook and bring in non-print sources whenever I can. For their next and final essay of the year, they are going to be writing an analysis of advertisements in social media, for example. They can still learn the process of writing an argument but apply it to something non-print. It holds their interest and makes it more relevant.
If you'd like more titles of great, school-appropriate documentaries, just let me know. I have watched many (or parts of many of them) on Netflix.
*There is a small amount of strong language in Sicko, so I wouldn't use it with kids younger than high school, and I'd probably use it for upper high school at that. I am much more lax with what I show my college-level seniors since it is a college course and I know they can handle it maturely. Honestly I think there may be a "bitch" and "ass" in the film, but nothing more than that.
Sorry it has been a whole week since I last posted. I really try to post at least thrice weekly. It has been a long, busy, and stressful week.
First we had my father-in-law's health issues going on and some nerve-wracking days with that. Then it was my birthday Friday (yay!) so my parents came down for a couple days and met our super high-anxiety dog (have I told you my dog hates people coming in the house, especially men? Yeah). Thankfully it actually went really well. Now today, we're getting 6" of snow! This does not sit well with me. It's spring for crying out loud!
So all of that led to my lack of posting, but I hope to get back on it this week, starting with a technology tidbit today.
I like to use film in the classroom when it's relevant. I look for high interest pieces that serve a purpose, and often times, show clips and not even the whole thing.
Today I want to talk a little about how I use documentaries in my classroom. I have Netflix streaming, and they actually have a TON of great documentaries on there that you can watch instantly. Of course, the one I wanted to use this week that I'm about to discuss is one that is NOT on there. Grr.
I am teaching the process of argument for my College English course. We discussed the parts of a successful argument (claim, support, assumption), different appeals of argument (ethos, pathos, logos--we did a Wikispace assignment where each student was assigned one appeal and had to post an example of it from modern-day media), counterargument and refute or concession, as well as discussed logical fallacies that we need to watch out for in argument.
Though they will be writing their argumentative essays, I wanted to show them a non-print example, so I decided to show clips of the Michael Moore documentary Sicko.
Many of the Michael Moore documentaries would work also. If you have never seen his documentaries, he is extremely liberal and is blatantly so. I emphasize to my students that I am not promoting his ideas on things and that that isn't what they should focus on; rather, they should focus on the process of the argument he makes, and they should watch to analyze and evaluate his actual argument.
We started watching this Friday. I gave them a sheet of questions to answer as they watched. Some of the questions were:
- What is his main claim?
- What different appeals does he use and what are examples of each?
- What type of support does he use for his argument?
- What assumptions does he make based on this support?
- Does he address the counterargument? If so, how? Does he refute or concede it?
- How successful is his argument overall?
We do look at some written examples of argument too, but I like to get out of the textbook and bring in non-print sources whenever I can. For their next and final essay of the year, they are going to be writing an analysis of advertisements in social media, for example. They can still learn the process of writing an argument but apply it to something non-print. It holds their interest and makes it more relevant.
If you'd like more titles of great, school-appropriate documentaries, just let me know. I have watched many (or parts of many of them) on Netflix.
*There is a small amount of strong language in Sicko, so I wouldn't use it with kids younger than high school, and I'd probably use it for upper high school at that. I am much more lax with what I show my college-level seniors since it is a college course and I know they can handle it maturely. Honestly I think there may be a "bitch" and "ass" in the film, but nothing more than that.
Friday, March 8, 2013
"Round Robin" Peer Editing
Well. It's Friday. Thank the lord. It has been a looooong week. Today I came home to a blanket chewed to shreds by my dog. First time she has ever chewed anything. So that was fun. And with the nice warmer weather comes people outside, walking dogs and working in yards, which brings me lots of barks from my little girl. Good thing I love her so much ;)
But I wanted to talk a little about something I tried today with my College English students. Every paper they write, we do peer editing/reviewing in class. I think this is so important because, for one, it teaches them to think of an audience besides just the teacher. They should realize other people will read their writing and try to write for a broader audience.
They also have to understand that just because something makes sense in their own heads, doesn't mean it makes sense to other people. We also have a tendency to think what we are doing is right and not realize what other things we may be missing or did not think of. I try to get at least 3 peer editors to read each paper, depending on time.
Over the course of this year, I have tried many different methods of peer response. It can become tedious for them and I know it's not their favorite thing to do, so I try to change it up. Today I decided to have them sit in a circle (I only have 9 in this class) and get out their essays and a sheet of paper. On the top of their own paper, they wrote "author: their name." Then they passed their essay and that sheet of paper to the right.
I made up 8 rounds of peer editing (I typed up a handout for them explaining each round). In essence, they would focus on something different for each round. So in round one, they simply read for the thesis. They highlighted it when they found it, and on the author's paper under Round 1, answered some questions I gave them about the thesis. After round 1 is complete, we passed the papers again. Now each student is looking at a different essay for round 2, where they focus only on topic sentences.
In total we had 8 rounds so that each student's essay made it all the way around the circle (well it should have. We had some absences today, but it still worked fine because even if they saw an essay twice, they were doing different things each time).
By the end of it, each author got a paper back with 8 different rounds and 8 different focuses, ranging from thesis to support to organization to mechanics and style. They also had a bunch of different students read their essays instead of just one or two, which is why I like this method.
We started this yesterday halfway through class and it also took all of today's class. Next time I think I will budget three days for this method and try to get each paper around the circle twice (so there would be two Round 1's, but two different people completing round 1) for even more feedback. Hopefully they got some useful revisions.
Over the weekend, they are filling out a conference preparation sheet in preparation for our conferences Mon-Tues. I ask them to do a variety of things to evaluate their own essay, I have them mark different things in the essay as proof to show me, and then I have them grade themselves using the rubric and explain the grade to me. I spend about 10-15 min with each student. I don't know how I will do this if I get bigger sections next year, but we'll cross that bridge later. I love doing them because it gives me a chance to touch base before I see final essays and lets them ask one-on-one questions. I do not read the entire essay and tell them what to fix; instead, it is student-led and they come to ME with specific questions and point out only specific sections for me to read and answer questions on. I like having it more focused this way.
Have a great weekend, everyone! My principal told me today that I will soon be receiving a SMARTBoard, so that was the highlight of my Friday :)
But I wanted to talk a little about something I tried today with my College English students. Every paper they write, we do peer editing/reviewing in class. I think this is so important because, for one, it teaches them to think of an audience besides just the teacher. They should realize other people will read their writing and try to write for a broader audience.
They also have to understand that just because something makes sense in their own heads, doesn't mean it makes sense to other people. We also have a tendency to think what we are doing is right and not realize what other things we may be missing or did not think of. I try to get at least 3 peer editors to read each paper, depending on time.
Over the course of this year, I have tried many different methods of peer response. It can become tedious for them and I know it's not their favorite thing to do, so I try to change it up. Today I decided to have them sit in a circle (I only have 9 in this class) and get out their essays and a sheet of paper. On the top of their own paper, they wrote "author: their name." Then they passed their essay and that sheet of paper to the right.
I made up 8 rounds of peer editing (I typed up a handout for them explaining each round). In essence, they would focus on something different for each round. So in round one, they simply read for the thesis. They highlighted it when they found it, and on the author's paper under Round 1, answered some questions I gave them about the thesis. After round 1 is complete, we passed the papers again. Now each student is looking at a different essay for round 2, where they focus only on topic sentences.
In total we had 8 rounds so that each student's essay made it all the way around the circle (well it should have. We had some absences today, but it still worked fine because even if they saw an essay twice, they were doing different things each time).
By the end of it, each author got a paper back with 8 different rounds and 8 different focuses, ranging from thesis to support to organization to mechanics and style. They also had a bunch of different students read their essays instead of just one or two, which is why I like this method.
We started this yesterday halfway through class and it also took all of today's class. Next time I think I will budget three days for this method and try to get each paper around the circle twice (so there would be two Round 1's, but two different people completing round 1) for even more feedback. Hopefully they got some useful revisions.
Over the weekend, they are filling out a conference preparation sheet in preparation for our conferences Mon-Tues. I ask them to do a variety of things to evaluate their own essay, I have them mark different things in the essay as proof to show me, and then I have them grade themselves using the rubric and explain the grade to me. I spend about 10-15 min with each student. I don't know how I will do this if I get bigger sections next year, but we'll cross that bridge later. I love doing them because it gives me a chance to touch base before I see final essays and lets them ask one-on-one questions. I do not read the entire essay and tell them what to fix; instead, it is student-led and they come to ME with specific questions and point out only specific sections for me to read and answer questions on. I like having it more focused this way.
Have a great weekend, everyone! My principal told me today that I will soon be receiving a SMARTBoard, so that was the highlight of my Friday :)
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Technology in a not Smart classroom
Browsing other teaching blogs, I get so envious of everyone who has any technology they could want at their fingertips. I don't have a Smart board in my classroom, and we don't have laptops for every kid. Those things will hopefully appear down the line, but in the meantime, how do you incorporate some technology into lesson plans?
I try to use it whenever possible and have so many different things I try, but below are some of my favorites and most common uses.
For one, I have my College English student use a Wikispace page.
It's basically like a class blog or message board, similar to Blackboard that many colleges use. I will post announcements, assignments, and hand outs on there, as well as host different discussion threads they have to respond to.
For instance, they may post a paper proposal and have their peers comment on it. I have also started doing online peer reviews with them where they post their rough draft to a thread and their peer reviewers write them a peer review memo and post it as a reply. It's easy for me to grade then because I can open up the post and see the original paper with both memos right below it. They enjoy doing things electronically as well.
This is the first year we have taken the school newspaper online (VERY new in fact, as we just transitioned last week), and after browsing online for hosting options, we settled on School Newspapers Online. This site is run by two high school newspaper advisers and is extremely user-friendly, which I wanted since this is an English class, and most of us don't have graphic design background. I have a very limited knowledge of HTML from a Grad school course I took and have no interest in revisiting that! Yikes.
It is $600/year for the first year and then $300/year for subsequent years, which is about $1000 cheaper than getting our paper printed in hard copy through the local city newspaper. This way we can also update content daily and run more up-to-date news stories instead of putting out an actual paper monthly.
For my sophomores, I wanted to try taking an assignment online that I did before. In the past, I would type up a handout that resembled a Facebook profile and have the kids make a FB profile for a literary character from a book we were studying or an author we read. It was fun, but I wanted something more interactive and more FB-like, without actually being on Facebook.
Enter Fakebook!
It looks almost like a real Facebook page and is interactive. If you type in a famous person's name, like Shakespeare, their picture will even pop up from Fakebook's database. You can add other famous friends, like statuses, post statuses, post pictures, videos, etc. and comment on others' statuses. I had my sophomores do this for Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea last fall and they had a blast with it! So much better than doing it on paper.
These are just a few ways I try to incorporate technology into my classroom, though there are many others. I will try to have one post each week where I highlight technology or online resources I bring into my class.
Does anyone have other ideas for a non-technology/non-Smart classroom?
I try to use it whenever possible and have so many different things I try, but below are some of my favorites and most common uses.
For one, I have my College English student use a Wikispace page.
It's basically like a class blog or message board, similar to Blackboard that many colleges use. I will post announcements, assignments, and hand outs on there, as well as host different discussion threads they have to respond to.
For instance, they may post a paper proposal and have their peers comment on it. I have also started doing online peer reviews with them where they post their rough draft to a thread and their peer reviewers write them a peer review memo and post it as a reply. It's easy for me to grade then because I can open up the post and see the original paper with both memos right below it. They enjoy doing things electronically as well.
This is the first year we have taken the school newspaper online (VERY new in fact, as we just transitioned last week), and after browsing online for hosting options, we settled on School Newspapers Online. This site is run by two high school newspaper advisers and is extremely user-friendly, which I wanted since this is an English class, and most of us don't have graphic design background. I have a very limited knowledge of HTML from a Grad school course I took and have no interest in revisiting that! Yikes.
It is $600/year for the first year and then $300/year for subsequent years, which is about $1000 cheaper than getting our paper printed in hard copy through the local city newspaper. This way we can also update content daily and run more up-to-date news stories instead of putting out an actual paper monthly.
For my sophomores, I wanted to try taking an assignment online that I did before. In the past, I would type up a handout that resembled a Facebook profile and have the kids make a FB profile for a literary character from a book we were studying or an author we read. It was fun, but I wanted something more interactive and more FB-like, without actually being on Facebook.
Enter Fakebook!
It looks almost like a real Facebook page and is interactive. If you type in a famous person's name, like Shakespeare, their picture will even pop up from Fakebook's database. You can add other famous friends, like statuses, post statuses, post pictures, videos, etc. and comment on others' statuses. I had my sophomores do this for Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea last fall and they had a blast with it! So much better than doing it on paper.
These are just a few ways I try to incorporate technology into my classroom, though there are many others. I will try to have one post each week where I highlight technology or online resources I bring into my class.
Does anyone have other ideas for a non-technology/non-Smart classroom?
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