It's been awhile since I posted how I've been incorporating technology into my classroom. I thought I'd talk today about something I just started using this semester: BLOGGING.
cursivecontent.com
I have a Weebly page that I use for my website, where I post digital copies of handouts, as well as the agenda for the week. I have really enjoyed this platform more so than teacherpage.com because you have more design options to choose from, and it is so easy to input things like YouTube videos or embed documents. I'd highly recommend Weebly if you're looking for a place to host a classroom website. One feature they also have is a blog component you can add to your site. I have primarily used this with my juniors, but I also do some blogging with College English as well. Each week by Monday (I usually actually do this on the weekend), I will upload a new blog. Some days, it ties directly into a lesson we did that week. For instance, one week we learned three new tier 2 vocab. words, so their blog activity had them do some writing with those words. Other weeks, I have them read a current events article and answer some questions I pose. I think students need to learn how to read dense and difficult text more fluently, and I also think it's great to make them critical thinkers about things currently going on in our country/world. So often, the only "news" they get is what's on their Facebook or Twitter feed. Both can be used to garner information about the world, but we can't be sure students are actually using them for that purpose. My favorite place to find articles is Kelly Gallagher's website. If you are unfamiliar with him, he is an English teacher from CA who is "dedicated to building and sharing his knowledge about literacy" (from his website). The link I posted above takes you to his article of the week. He picks a lot of great, relevant pieces each week for students to read and ends with a few follow-up questions. It's a great resource to use if you don't want to have to scour the Internet for just the right article for your classes. So, students have until that Friday night at midnight to post their blog response. I do moderate comments, so no comments get posted without my approval first. I have had absolutely zero issues with inappropriate content doing it this way. We occasionally work on them in class, but 80% of the time, this is an outside-of-class assignment, so they are doing some critical reading/thinking outside the classroom as well. The following Monday after I've had the weekend to grade their responses, we talk about it in class. I will sometimes have students read and respond to other students' comments as well to get a discussion/conversation going on the blog. Since we are going to 1:1 in the very near future and also getting some sort of Learning Management System (like Canvas or Schoology, etc), blogging and online discussion forums will be making their way into more teachers' classes, I'm sure. I've loved experimenting with it this year and will definitely continue blogging as an extension of our classroom activities.
Well, only one snow day last week, and hopefully none this week. We are up to 7 so far, and our last school day (to date) is June 4. We normally are out before Memorial Day, so this is late for us :( It has been hard getting into a routine with my students, and I hate that my lessons seem disjointed because we have not been in school regularly. I kicked off January with my juniors studying Transcendentalism and we studied works from Thoreau and Emerson. We would get two days here, three days there. So I decided in lieu of a big test, I wanted a culminating project that still allowed students to show they understood the main tenets of that field of thought. I found the idea of having them create a Transcendental society in my searches online. I wish I could point to the original source, but I found this project on multiple sites, so I don't know who originated it. I will link to one source here. http://www.madriver.k12.oh.us/webquests/2002-09/kclark.pdf Again, I found this exact project elsewhere, so who knows who originally started it. I decided to not have my students do task 7, designing a brochure, since I only wanted this to be a two- to three-day project. I let students work with partners or alone, and they had to design a Power Point or Prezi showcasing their society. All their decisions--name, monetary system, legal system, etc.--had to tie in to Transcendental beliefs, and they had to explain why they chose everything based on Transcendentalism. We started presenting these Friday, and I am really pleased with the outcome so far. Instead of just memorizing facts about this movement, it required them to understand it well enough to apply it to a society of their own. I would definitely do this project again.
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 :)
I think one thing we probably all have in common, regardless of the subject or age we teach, is cell phone problems in the classroom.
At my school, the students are not supposed to have phones out in the hall or in class, unless approved by a teacher. They are supposed to be completely out of sight. Students can only use them at lunch.
I have a policy in my room of "first time's a warning, second time's a referral" for things like texting, a phone ringing/vibrating, or using phones for non-approved purposes like getting on FB.
I DO allow students to use phones in a couple circumstances. One is to use an online dictionary to look up unknown words in pieces of writing. Honestly, it has never been an issue because if we're not doing vocab., they shouldn't have them out. When we are, I roam the aisles and can tell if they are actually using them to look up words or not. Once we're done, they go away.
I also will allow them to listen to music through earbuds when writing papers in the lab, as I know that helps some students. I tell them they need to pick a playlist and stick with it and the phone goes in the pocket--they can't keep looking for songs every two seconds or they lose the privilege.
I know even in college this is a problem--I had a college professor who would dock you an entire letter grade if your phone rang in class.
I don't think there's a best or worst way to handle it, but I'm always looking for ideas, because even with my policy and even with allowing usage for classroom things, I still have students trying to text or "going to the bathroom" to use their phone.
So I think next semester, I am starting a new policy that another teacher in my school uses and that I have heard of working elsewhere. I'm going to require students to place phones upside down on the corner of their desk while in my room. That way, they have control over it and it's not out of their possession (some teachers collect phones and give them back at the end of the hour), but it's obvious to me when a phone is being used. They also can't go spend five min. in the bathroom just texting under the pretense of having to use the restroom--I will see if they grab their phone when getting up from their desk.
The teacher who uses this says it's works wonderfully and she has no texting issues anymore. Because it's right there and upside down, the students don't feel the need to compulsively check it and/or they know they will easily get caught. I am so tired of kids trying to text through their pockets, in their hoodie pouches, in their pencil bags, or at their sides and playing the game of catching them in the act. I don't think cell phones are altogether a bad thing in the classroom, which is why I approve usage at times. But there's no reason students can't learn to go 50 min. without checking FB or their text messages!
So what do you think? What's your cell phone policy and does it work? Do you use phones for educational purposes in the classroom?
I haven't done a technology tidbit in awhile, so I thought I'd share something I showed to my juniors in American Lit. this week.
We are about to read an excerpt from Of Plymouth Plantation, and to supplement it, I found a couple more modern articles that discuss the REAL first Thanksgiving, not the stuff many little kids are fed about top hats, buckles, turkey, and a friendly meal. The real first Thanksgiving involved half the Pilgrims not even surviving the trip over to the New World, no top hats, and most likely, not even any turkey. They probably ate seafood like mussels, as well as wildfowl like duck.
The two articles I found were this one from history.com that is a more serious, factual account of it. And this one from Parade magazine, which is a humorous account of one man who decided to host Thanksgiving with his family like the real first Thanksgiving. The students will write an analysis comparing and contrasting the two articles looking at things like author's tone, content, etc.
But anyways, to kick off this unit, I had the students brainstorm what they think of when they think of the first Thanksgiving and I wrote a list on the board. As I expected, most said turkey, pumpkin, Pilgrims, top hats, cornucopias, etc. So then I showed them this humorous (but factual) rap video on YouTube that gave them some inkling of what really happened, and afterwards we talked about how that was different from our list on the board.
Horrible Histories actually has a ton of YouTube videos that range from William Shakespeare to Rosa Parks. I have only checked out the Shakespeare one briefly, and it was funny as well.
The kids found it silly and goofy, which I expected, but they also picked out a lot of the facts that they hadn't known before about the first Thanksgiving. I thought this was an excellent way to get into our Pilgrim/First Thanksgiving literature unit.
And, since the real first Thanksgiving most likely happened in Sept. or Oct. and not November, this is the perfect time of year for it, too.
Pretty soon, my school is implementing a 1:1 program, which means every student in our school, and eventually the district, will have an electronic device of some sort. It could be a laptop, a tablet, an iPad, etc.
We are piloting next year with our Freshman Academy [boo, I don't get to pilot :( ] so this week, they have four devices in the mail room that are up for debate and we can take a survey on them. I won't describe all four devices for brevity's sake, but the one I liked the most and that I voted for was a Lenovo Hybrid (it's called a Yoga).
It can be a tablet OR a laptop. This pic sort of shows all the ways it can twist. You can bend the keyboard back to just have a tablet (it is touchscreen) or use it like a laptop with a keyboard (my preference--I hate typing on a touchscreen).
I tried using it for a bit and really liked it, so I HOPE that's what we go with. Our other options were a Chromebook, a regular Lenovo laptop, or an actual tablet that we could purchase a separate keyboard for (HATE!) I am old school and like having a keyboard.
Do any of your schools have 1:1? I'm honestly excited about it because I can do so much more in class, don't have to worry about getting into a computer lab, students who don't have computers at home can take these home, we plan to go to online textbooks, etc. I know there are drawbacks and concerns with 1:1 but I feel the pros outweigh the cons. Some of my students that I have asked off-handedly have not been in favor, though, which kind of surprises me.
What has your experience been with a 1:1 classroom? Is your classroom flipped or traditional? Any cool things you have done in a 1:1 school?
Our community and school always participates in The Big Read. It's a really cool endeavor, and the community members get super into it by organizing 10-15 activities each fall that coincide with the book or author the committee chose to study that year. At the high school, we try to study the work in some capacity at various grade levels.
This year, the committee in town chose the works of John Steinbeck from The Big Read. I am teaching 3 sections of juniors again this year, and while we don't have time to study a second entire novel (we already do Gatsby first semester), I decided to start the year with a little mini-unit incorporating the first chapter of Grapes of Wrath, as well as some supplemental materials.
I have to admit; I've never read GOW before! So today, I sat down and read chapter 1 (it's only three pages). Shorter is better for going in-depth like CC wants, anyhow. As I went through, I picked out 4-5 Tier 2 words that my students would work with that week and put in their word journals.I also circled tier 3 words, which are words that are not used often in conversation and are content-specific, but ones that they need definitions for in order to understand the passage. These I will just provide definitions for.
Common Core is big on tier 2, or cross-curricular, common vocabulary, higher-level thinking and providing textual evidence as support. The way I am structuring the lesson is as follows:
-Distribute the book GOW and assign students to read chapter 1 for homework. -The next day, I plan to read an excerpt aloud (CC actually suggest always reading the selection aloud after the students read it silently, but I just don't think that is feasible for everything we do, and may not encourage students to actually do the assignment of silent reading if they know I will always read it to them anyways). -I will pass out a worksheet that has the following on it. Notice I define tier 3 words for them at the top already. The tier 2 words they are putting in their journals and that will go on my Word Wall and that we'll do activities and play games with are incorporated as questions.
Rivulet: a small, quick-flowing stream of something
Bayonet: a blade that can be attached to the end of a rifle and used
for stabbing
Avalanches: a rapid downhill flow of a large mass of something
dislodged from a mountainside, especially snow or ice
Emulsion: a suspension of one liquid in another, e.g. oil in water or
fat in milk
Bemused: to be confused or puzzled
Vocab. words to be added to your vocab. spiral: dissipated, sluggish, cunningly, perplexity
1. What is the
definition of the word “dissipated” (page 1)?
2. What is the
definition of the word “sluggish” (page 2)?
3. Why was “sluggish”
the best way to describe the smoke? What other things do you think of when you
hear the word “sluggish”?
4. What does
“cunningly” mean (page 2)?
5. Why do you think the
author described the wind as digging cunningly? Why is that a better choice
than one of its synonyms, such as cleverly or resourcefully?
6. What does
“perplexity” mean (page 3)?
7. Make an inference:
How would the conditions described in chapter 1 affect the livelihood of the
men and women living during this time?
8. Quote material from
the chapter to support your answer in #7. Please include page numbers.
9. What was the
relationship between women and men like during this period?
10. How do you know
this? Quote material from the chapter as support.
For every "content" question I ask, I also ask for support from the text to back up their responses. I also don't ask simple comprehension questions. This is the way Common Core is moving. Much of this I used to do anyway, but now I am working on going this in-depth with all the selections we read (within reason).
So I will have students work on these questions in small groups or individually, depending. Then we'll go over as a large group.
For this one, I think I will hand it out and have them silently read right in class. After, I plan to have some questions similar to the types I have on the worksheet above, but this time displayed in a PP presentation on my Smart Board. I don't want to just always give worksheets (though I am not opposed to worksheets as a whole, like some people are. Maybe that discussion will be for another day).
I picked up a discussion technique at a CC conference last May. I went in and numbered all my desks 1-4. I will post a question up on my Smart Board and let all students have time to think about it. Then I will randomly call a number, and all students with that number on their desk stand up. This encourages ALL students to participate (we all know we have 3 or 4 kids in class who would gladly lead every discussion, but then many others who are content never saying anything). Sometimes, I will have them share with a partner before this step or write down a response before this step as well.
So, let's say I have 4 kids with #1 and they stand up. Then I will ask them and only them to respond to the question. Sometimes I'll ask all four, sometimes I won't. It's meant to keep all students on their toes (there is always a chance their number will be called), BUT they can feel safe because they are not put on the spot (they can see the question ahead of time and have time to think/write/share with a partner before sharing out loud).
On the last day of this mini-unit, I am showing a clip from the Ken Burns film entitled The Dust Bowl. Below, I have included the preview to the film on PBS (you should be able to also find the entire film on YouTube).
Then we'll bring it altogether and discuss its implications today. The article I posted above from Smithsonian discusses how it was partially caused by humans and how it's very possible something like that could happen again in our lifetime. I don't think my students know a whole lot about the Dust Bowl past that it happened, so it'll be interesting to discuss some of the lesser-known causes and if we are headed in that direction again today.
Do you have any other cool resources you use with Grapes of Wrath? What about with the Dust Bowl? Or have you come up with any cool CC-aligned units?
I opened a store on Teachers Pay Teachers! For more project ideas like this, visit my store here.
One of the literary devices (now known as Tier 3 words in Common Core) we teach is irony. I usually teach dramatic, verbal, and situational irony in relation to whatever literature we are reading. Sometimes, it's hard for kids to grasp irony. Verbal irony is pretty easy, because it's basically sarcasm, but the other kinds, not so much. It doesn't help that many of them hear irony and automatically think of this song:
Unfortunately, as you have probably heard, many of the "ironic" statements in this song are not actually ironic at all. BUT that doesn't mean you can't use the song to teach it; you just make the kids get involved. I'll usually play the song and video, which many have heard before, and ask them to explain the ironic examples. It's kind of a trick question because many aren't. I usually have one or two students who will point that out, but if not, I will just take the incorrect examples they give and ask them to explain how that is ironic. Many times, they will then catch the mistake. So after we discuss the fact this song is really a misnomer, I pass out the lyrics and in groups, have them fix all of the incorrect examples of irony and make them ironic. To get them started, I show them an example. I will pick one or two from this College Humor list. For instance: An old man turned ninety-eight. He won the lottery and died the next
day… of chronic emphysema from inhalation of the latex particles
scratched off decades' worth of lottery tickets. (The part before the ellipses is what's originally in the song; the students would need to add something to it like they did in the example to make it ironic). I also just came across this video this weekend that I am going to show after my students come up with their "fixed" version. I think these girls' take on it is pretty funny.
I would hold off on showing this video or the entire College Humor list until AFTER the students have at least attempted revising the lyrics themselves; otherwise, you may get a lot of copycats! Just a fun, comical way to teach irony, bring in some videos, and maybe school some kids on 90s music who have never heard of Alanis Morissette ;)
