The Return of the Wiki--Part 1

I have to say, I love wikis. The love of a to-do list that is organized with its details, chronological agenda, focused with its goals, and aesthetically pleasing, flowers scroll along its top. Every year I return to the wiki, for my own writing, adding in new pieces from my summer journeys and also to find ways for students to share their writing with each other...and others beyond the classroom walls.

This year I have decided to use the wiki as a place to practice their writing as always, but to do so as a group. Group writing offers a less stressful way to practice craft, but with help from other students. I will do this is varying forms, but the first way I did this was to create separate pages on my creative writing class wiki. Today students worked on descriptive writing with objectivity vs. subjectivity. I gave students various objects and they wrote a thorough description of each object. The paragraphs were very diverse and are excellent examples of the 2 types of description.

Click here to get a free wiki for teachers.

Retake a Quiz? No problem!

I don't know why, but I changed the way I test for understanding with quizzes this year. In doing so, I found an easy way to get seniors to reread. I know, seniors, going back to the text and actually reading it again?!

We're reading Beowulf right now outside of class. Students annotate while they read and then I give them a pretty specific quiz the following class period. I tell them what to look for, give them focus questions, and share my notes that I took when I read it. Kids get frustrated every year with their low scores. They read the text, but because it's an epic poem, the students often miss much of the meaning...and certainly many of the details.

As every year, I put the reading quizzes in my Reading Applications and Analysis section, but have decided that they can retake a quiz anytime however many times they need to. It's amazing how interested they are because they know they can very quickly affect their grade. But, what I love is that they go back through the text, reread their annotations, and recount plot details as well as theme, symbols, etc. How cool!

Instead of the reading check being an 'I gotcha!' quiz, it becomes a tool for observing details and an exercise in close reading. So, when asked: May I retake the quiz again? I respond: No problem!

Making magic with or without technology

From CyberCamp, this quote really resonated with me: Budtheteacher writes, "Sarah, in her presentation today, said that the tools are still just the bells and whistles, the “magic” being performed by little elves somewhere. What I see in the CyberCamp presentations is that good teachers will be good no matter what the tool — a piece of chalk or thousands of dollars worth of technology tools. But, when you hook up a great teacher with engaging tools — that’s when magic happens. The tools become transparent."

I think that many folks get frustrated by technology, not realizing that it is the teaching that will carry the lesson, not technology. The lesson objectives, the focus on student learning, needs to be the primary focus; technology becomes the map that the students use on their drive towards learning. I have seen the "magic" in my classroom and know that it is the discovery that makes teaching and learning so wonderful.

I have felt at times, working with colleagues, watching colleagues, etc., we saw the "magic" of teaching, but so often in our offices, teachers get caught up in the I-can't-do-that without making a lesson, an idea their own. The technology becomes an excuse for not making their classroom more student-centered. I don't have computers in my class; I don't have time to bother with technology; I don't know how to do it and it would take too long to figure it out...etc., etc. The teachers in our school that are making a difference with students, connect with kids and listen. They observe the world and try to bring a piece of it into the classroom.

(Ahhh...it feels good to blog again. It's been so long.)

Motivation Check-In

Students, you have 2 weeks of your new semester behind you. I started class the first day, asking you all to write down a very specific list of things you are going to do differently (or the same) to ensure success this semester. Here were some of your responses:

• communicate better with my teachers
• do all homework
• turn in work
• actually study for test and particularly finals
• actually do the outside reading for class
• ask questions
• come in to see teacher during unscheduled hours

I was very encouraged to see your tool chest of ways to keep motivated in school and find success!

When I asked you all to discuss the question: why are kids failing, the overall message was that you were failing because many of you are lazy and unmotivated. I was surprised to see you 1) admit that and 2) have a pretty easy-going, resigned attitude about it...as if you know you won't change.

So here is what I'm wanting you to answer:

1. Do you feel you cannot change your level of motivation for school? If not, explain. If yes, explain how you have.
2. What is a teacher's role in student motivation?
3. How ARE YOU DOING so far with your TO-DO list for success this semester?

Be honest, but appropriate. Use proper SPELLING and grammar. See you Tuesday!
~Mrs. Davis

Why are kids failing?

This is a question that has riddled me all semester. I have changed my grades to reflect a "truer" grade. In my 9th grade classes, I have 3 categories: homework/responsibility where students can turn in late work for 50% of its worth; reading applications and analysis where students can do any assignment for 100% of its worth as well as the writing category where again students can do (and re-do) any assignment for 100%. This allows for penalties with day-to-day work, but allows for growth in the 2 categories key to English class. Out of my 49 9th graders, 21 students have low D's and F's. I have 10 F's in my 4th hour alone!

So what is the problem? I have contacted parents, written referrals, talked one on one with students, and have talked to my classes as a whole. A few minor assignments trickle in, but still the low grades remain.

One girl did take advantage of the grading and "opportunity to learn" (although I doubt she saw it this way since it was her mother's warning of being grounded the rest of the semester until her grades went up); she worked with me twice a week during school for 4 hours, and every day after school--for a consecutive 2 1/2 weeks. She was able to complete work, but more importantly, she re-did writing assignments and reading analysis assignments. We talked about her growth and improvement of her grade; "I'm so glad, Mrs. Davis. Thank you for all your help. I really thought it was impossible." This gave me insight, of course. Were others feeling deflated?

I visited with the class, explained about the success of one student who brought her grade up from a 17% F to an 80% B-. Two weeks have gone by and still no improvement. In fact, I had an assignment due yesterday that only 3 students out of 25 turned in...in 4th hour!

Is it this class? Is it my style? I personally feel I am teaching skills more than complacency, but then why are kids revolting? Is it that these students don't connect with me as a teacher? Overall from these kids I hear, "You're my favorite teacher, Mrs. Davis."; "This is my favorite class" from these folks failing and yet no work. Is it just how they are??! Are they lazy, apathetic, overwhelmed? Should I settle with the fact that almost half of them are failing, but that it's their issue?

When I started teaching, I taught at a private school; we could keep students who were failing after school for grammar class or writing workshops. Students really improved. Of course, they had the same conversations with their parents as my one student above had about being grounded for grades. Is it the extra demands of both the teacher and parents? Is that the only difference? Have my 9th grade parents today have given up?

Or...is it a scarier reality: I have made the grading seem too easy and thus, students feel they can just slide along, turn a couple things in and their grade inches up enough to get by? The first 9 weeks I thought this could be the case, but as I continue to talk to my students, they do not come in to get help.

I talked with our gifted/talented, at-risk teacher. She pulled grades related to middle schools students attended. Almost an even split. We did find out that out of our approx. 500 9th graders, 110 of them are failing at least one of their classes, if not 3 or 4. This too was shocking.

So, students, WHY are so many of you failing?

Another Google Use

Ok...so I wanted to join the live blogging, but have never done a fishbowl, so I was reluctant to do a fishbowl for the first time AND try live blogging. So I decided to try using Google Docs, but the spreadsheet. I used this format with my Creative Writing class in small groups as they were writing a multi-voice poem. It worked well in small groups and thought I would try it as a class.

What I love about the spreadsheet is the opportunity to have everyone responding at once without the document stalling. I also love that it provides a chat window on the side; I can prompt them to think further, explain more, etc. Plus they love being allowed to have a silly conversation while still doing serious work.

Here are the 2 classes and their thinking. These are the documents at the end of the hour. I had the questions at the top and they answered, read others' responses, agreed, disagreed, etc. Some did not finish, so they are adding to it before our next class. I am then, going to print out the page and give them a copy. We are going to hold a scored discussion on Friday to discuss even further their thoughts and find connections beyond the text.

1st hour
6th hour

Here's this year's wiki on Life of Pi.

The interconnectedness of what we do

Reading Karl's Fischbowl entry about the Rocky Mountain News article, I noticed a woman from my hometown of Rapid City, SD had commented. I clicked on her name and emailed her. The world gets smaller as we discovered that she has worked with my middle sister for the past several years! How fun!

I am excited to visit with her some more and to continue making the world a little flatter.

When technology knowledge finally creates a little autonomy

Ok...so I had emailed Karl Fisch, like we all do, in need of a response: help me with this, how do I do this, what happens when, etc. . . .


But today, I figured out something...on my own (gasp*)! I asked Karl how I could create a screenshot to put on Blogger. I made my Word document a PDF and placed it on my web page. That seemed easy enough, but I couldn't get the link off the PDF. So...I tried saving it as a JPEG or TIFF, but didn't have this option in Word (at least that I could find).

So...somewhere in the depths of my memory, I recalled that in PowerPoint you could save an image on a page and then save the whole page as an image. It worked and I was able to use that as an image that Blogger would accept.

Yeah me!

Finding Microsoft Word's Worth

I have the wonderful opportunity of not only teaching my writing classes in our new language arts laptop classroom, but I also have one of my 9th grade classes there as well. What I have found so incredibly useful is the comment feature. Students are annotating, commenting, questioning, and really connecting with the text.

With Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," I felt the text was too challenging to turn them completely loose with annotations, so we annotated the story together in class. I had students find vocabulary they wanted to know and we used our iGoogle page that has several dictionary options. The kids also made inferences from statements and descriptions. Through all of this, they learned how to use the Reviewing Toolbar (highlighting, adding comments) and the Drawing Toolbar (they drew Fortunato's carnival hat and used the text box to write additional notes).

Today, then, students are using the annotated notes to assist them in this next task. They are to read "The Story Behind 'The Cask of Amontillado'" and then decide which story (the carnival setting that is fictionalized or the army/card-playing setting of the real story) is more effective. Students will use their notes to compare and contrast the fictionalized story to the real story arguing which one they like better and proving it with textual evidence.

Now, I know that students could have used sticky notes, but Word allows them to very easily send it home to review and to even make changes or additions to their observations. Plus, they will be able to save the document, instead of losing the sticky notes or throwing them away, the students can reuse them for papers and future critical thinking.

Summation: Yah for Microsoft Word reviewing toolbars!

Request: I would love to hear how others have used Word to advocate critical thinking.

P.S. I have placed the documents for review on my web page here. Click on "The Cask of Amontillado" annotated and Poe assessment.

iGoogle, reading strategies, and silent reading

As always, I jump into using technology fearlessly. Karl Fisch talked to us about having our kids create their own personal learning network where they choose what information they need, what they want to read, and what will possibly affect their world. I have decided to see where this could go.

First of all, I had my students check out a fiction book to read outside of class. They begged me to give them time in class each week. So a certain Tuesday came and I gave them time to read--20 minutes worth. When I called time, they whined and pleaded to be able to read all hour. Surprising! I had the whole class vote to see if they really did want to dedicate time to reading. Yes, unanimously. So, every Friday, my students will be reading.

This lead nicely into my iGoogle questions: where would I fit this into my week? How could I assess their information-gathering quickly? And, how could they share what they learned? I decided Friday's would be the day.

We went the computer lab to set up their iGoogle accounts. The kids were so excited. I had them add a quote feed I had, a vocabulary grapher thesaurus I added, and a local news feed, a national news feed, and a world news feed. I have not had them add Google Reader, yet. I told them that on Thursday nights, they will practice the reading strategies they've been learning with short stories and apply them to non-fiction by choosing a news story that interests them. They will print the article, annotate it, summarize it, and then bring it in. Taping it into their writer's notebook, I will use these articles to practice paraphrasing, in-text documentation, summarizing, etc. Threee students each week will stand up to share what they learned, what was fascinating about the article and how it relates to our world.

Last Friday was the first day and it went wonderfully. The students who shared gave great summation of the news and got other students interested in the articles. I asked questions and soon other students raised their hands to contribute to the conversation. It lasted about 12 minutes or so and then the rest of the hour was spent reading. At the end of class, I asked for 4 minutes of feedback: what worked, what did they like, what was tiring, what should we do differently. Both classes agreed that it was hard to read silently for that long, but that it did force them to read and to focus on their novel for longer than 5 minutes at time. The students also said they liked the iGoogle...choosing their own story to read helped them be motivated with the homework.

Sidenote: I gave up a whole class period for the class that doesn't have laptops, simply to have every student come up and check their iGoogle accounts. Many kids had to activate their account by signing onto their email and most, if not all, were so confused on how to do that. I was glad I took the time since I didn't hear from any students about issues using iGoogle.

I did ask my students to give me feedback. Visit my site here to read their comments on their first week with iGoogle.

More to come...for now, my jumping in has paid off well.