Literacy 8 Journal

Migration

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:43:01 -0400

As of today, I am migrating the Literacy Journal to Blogger. The new address is: http://eskymaclj.blogspot.com/

This archive will remain available until January, 2010.

Looking Ahead - Paper or Digital Journals?

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:23:53 -0400

For most of the year, most of the time, the answer is a no-brainer: we are a laptop school, I am an experienced and highly trained (also Highly Qualified) teacher, and I am a believer in laptops for the middle school.

But I am also a reader and course-taker (30+ graduate credits with a 4.0 average, and proud of it). The last few courses have had me reading in the non-tech world of reading teachers. On the whole, reading teachers would benefit from being more-tech, but also on the whole they have a consistently powerful message that resonates with me (and my students): We need to fix the reading.

It is interesting to me that evidence-based practice from the elementary classroom applies equally well to 7th and 8th grade. I have included children’s books and read-alouds in my teaching as a result of these courses. Literature Circles are going to happen in my class. It is, of course, going to have to be different - more tweenie. I will perhaps use downloaded .mp3 audio books to replace some read-alouds, and Kindle book readers to replace some paper texts. We will talk about style and language as much as prediction and plot. We will reread more for evidence than to develop reading skills. But the classroom strategies and processes will be the same.

And that means during and post-reading writing. Even Nancie Atwell, from here in Maine, agrees with the value of some sort of written response to reading. I reject endless “reading comprehension” HW questions. Discussion is a better check, perhaps with a “heads up” or specific questioning roles within a Circle. But because I will be expected to teach key laptop techniques, skills and applications next year in grade 7 (key be word processing), I will want to weave writing-about-reading into tech instruction. That will make for some creative projects!

What I am struggling with is the reading journal. What exactly is the purpose of a reading journal, anyway?
For students to keep track of their daily reading, at home and/or in class
For students to demonstrate comprehension, through pictures, plot lines, short summaries
For students to keep track of their thoughts about their reading, using prepared guiding questions or their own questions
For students to build a list of vocabulary from the reading
For students to keep track of their own reading skill goals and progress
For teachers to check up on student reading
For sharing at parent conferences
For students to get necessary practice hand-writing

I don’t find this list a compelling case for students to have a paper, classroom reading notebook, with the possible exception of the last item on the list. The preponderance of hand-written, limited-space, constructed responses in the upcoming NECAP testing does point toward the need for more practice-for-improvement in handwriting.

I have clipboards, hanging folders and boxes to keep them in. Lined paper is less expensive than ring binders. The school is over-stocked with colored copy paper. It seems to me that a simple A-Z in-the-box filing system will work better than notebooks. For the times that paper is necessary.

If I keep a large ring binder for each class’ reading progress, containing records of readings, targets, groups, and discussion questions/progress, more of an organization system for reading would not be necessary. Students would select from their hanging folders representative work to demonstrate progress on goals, and this would be added to the reading notebook. Which then also becomes a writing notebook - and I like this idea!

In terms of handwritten response practice, I have learned that students do not learn to self-edit except through the Mrs. S method, the S standing for Sweeney and Sullivan, master teachers from my past. Mrs. S demanded correction - not perfection, but stepped correction. Her students wrote, and wrote over, and wrote over again. As the skills were conquered, the writing effort decreased. This would be punishment for students with dysgraphia, but I have never had one. Remember: one or two skills to correct - not all. And constructed responses, not essays. A practiced LA teacher can determine which skill to work on in what order. In other words, what works for reading works for writing. Same teacher notebook would do.

I’m glad that’s decided! For the rest of the year’s work (grammar, lit study, research, essay prep), I favor a digital notebook for students. It has drawbacks: many students will be re-imaged and some will delete the notebook or its contents by mistake. For me, these are object lessons in using our backup server, not reasons to avoid the digital.

This year, I have worked with using a NoteShare notebook to guide student independent work through a series of units. There is resistance to this - most students seem to prefer to be lock-stepped with their classmates, rather than to be responsible for their own work ordering, prioritizing and reporting out. I’m not giving up, however. If the students in largest district in Alaska can progress through middle and high school with relative independence, so can my 7th and 8th graders.

I envision a straightforward NoteShare notebook given to students during our first real laptop class. It will have links to the major thread-sites (blogging, wiki, VoiceThread, etc.) for the year, and sections for grammar, Lit Terms, major papers, organizers, and a section for our first lit. study. Adding sections and pages will be part of 1st-year laptop skills development.

That leaves vocabulary. One idea I like comes from an elementary reading teacher. Students are responsible for keeping new word discoveries in a 3” x 5” notepad that can go home and inform family at the dinner table (also fits in the laptop case handily). Another idea is to use a classroom bulletin board - best practice, really.

I feel more prepared for next year’s move and challenges. Now all I have to do is development yet another new curriculum. Luckily, I am replacing a master teacher who leaves tons of resources and ideas.

All a-Tweetter

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 18:55:56 -0400

I have become somewhat compulsive about filling our bird feeders. We had to move an entire perennial garden last fall when we decided to expand our kitchen. We stuck it in the lawn, for convenience, and stuck our best feeder pole into it. For all of the fall and most of the winter I looked out on nothing, our view blocked by white plastic sheeting. Religiously, filled the feeders. I experimented with seeds, noting what seed was left in the tray, what was flicked onto the ground.

One day, I saved the life of a chickadee that got entangled in the ribbon on a seed wreath. Many days, I scooped snow and sleet out of the feeding holes. I taught Dodger the words “squirrel” and “chipmunk.” I set up small feeding stations for little birds, dug out feeding tunnels for ground feeders, and added real suet to the menu. The birds came, but unless I broke the barricades, I could only guess at them. On a calm day, in the early morning or late afternoon, I would go outside to listen and watch. I now know the chickadee greeting, the whoosh of their wings, the morning dove’s lament, the jay’s complaint.

As soon as the new space was completed, I staked out my space: left window, allowing me the view both to the remaining garden and to the temporary garden. Both with feeders. Who will come?

Everybody is coming. Birds beyond my listening are coming. I can see the finches change colors, the chickadees divide into sub-species, the doves pair up. I sit in my left window with coffee and bird books every morning. Weekends are a special treat because I can sit for hours, waiting for the Gulp, Gulp of the brown-headed cowbird. Every morning is spent in anticipation of learning.

Birds feed as a collective. Impatient chickadees flick seed to the ground for the doves, juncos, and wrens. Small-beaked species drop as much as they gather. The satisfaction for me is in watching the whole dance; for the birds, satisfaction is increased with the variety and amount of food in the feeders.

Am I a bird expert? Hardly. But I am loving learning about birds.

This is how I imagine Twitter used in the classroom. Students tweet (a reading and writing experience like no other) about a text or a topic, read and respond to tweets, collect tweets. Sometimes a flock of tweets will result; sometimes a solitary student will find new insight. Taken together, the tweeting will bring us to a new understandings - new levels of learning perhaps.

I don’t know when or how we will Twitter yet. Right now, we are crafting This I Believe essays, an intense experience that should not be interrupted. Perhaps next week, before vacation, I will put out the seed.

NECAP

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:35:53 -0400

NECAP reaction:

I hate knee-jerk reactions. I have been known to suddenly jerk my knee up under a laptop desk in response to a thoughtless response voiced by a student. I tell my students what my Marine dad told me: you need to take a good long breathe before you make your opinion response - or swallow it. Mine is a good demo; I get over the bruise - the kids remember the message.

So, I have needed the last few months to take a deep breathe before responding to the announcement that the MEA for Reading/Writing (Maine Educational Assessment, for which I have spent endless hours building and teaching curriculum addressed to standards) is gone next year, replaced by the NECAP.

How unjust to switch standards on teachers! How unfeeling to leave middle schools (e.g. 7th grade teachers) adrift mid-year - with new and different standards to “get taught” by October 2009. There - that was knee-jerk, and bruise-free.

After spending two hours Saturday, listening to and questioning the Maine DOE Director of Assessment, I have a greater understanding of the testing decision. I have a greater understanding of the test itself. I have more released items. I have a copy of the assessment standards for ELA. I have a copy of the Maine standards revised to show overlap (and lack of it) with NECAP.

Knowledge is power.

Change can be powerlessness, however. And although I understand the change, and I therefore feel empowered, I do not like the powerlessness.

Teachers in this position need some strategies. Let me share what I have learned. First and foremost, we need to remember the basics: is about the learning, not about the teaching. A test is not a curriculum or a curricular guide. It is not, in the end game, the goal. Second, we can and should simplify the learning focus (the curriculum, the units, the homework, the variety of products, the complexity of products, the processes) so that the basics are covered, sometimes. Third (my favorite part) we need to be creative. Think of this as creating a casserole from ingredients on hand. These are often the best dishes. Their uniqueness makes them memorable. Their freshness makes them delightful.

Feeling the power yet?

Fourth, we need to remember that our students are living their world, every day - not our “in the past” world. We need to pick and choose from each world when we select readings and assign writings and create projects. We need to value both resources for their information, viewpoints, language, and (above all) interconnectivity.

Last, we need to share with each other, teacher-to-teacher.

This last is where our DOE is weakest. There is no forum or Ning for Maine’s middle school teachers, dedicated to subject-specific discussion of what is going on in class. If I made one, no one would come (unless I put a lot of effort into it). The state needs to prioritize the creation of this discussion, not to continue the practice of feeding out decisions to small and disparate groups.

There is a way to put power into change after all - isolation is a tool of powerlessness.

Tools for Simplification

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:22:10 -0400

My principal e-mailed me from a tech conference this week, inspired by the latest k-12 Wesch-style video.

The Dept. of Ed. social studies specialist, leader of our Native Studies Curriculum Committee, discussed with me and interested others the distribution/publication format of our work [read my U&D blog] and totally, fearfully misjudged the tools for web-based networking.

I viewed Goomoodleikiog on the English Companion Ning.

What do these experiences have in common? They show me that there are good educators out there who believe in magic.

Don’t get me wrong: I do believe in all of the messages of all of these digital (and non-digital) experiences. But as I e-mailed my principal immediately: Remain Critical!

Advertisers are great at KISS. Administrators and teachers are not. The result has been great products ABOUT products, but the loss of the steps necessary to create great products.

I actually like the Goomoodleikiog video because it ends with a wiki showing the steps all of the steps students took to get to an end product that probably took at least a month in a self-contained classroom. Great idea, but unrealistic. My students lose the process because most of the time because it is not stamped “VALUABLE.”

Better to build into a product UPFRONT the value of the process.

I have looked at lots of tools for process, tons of tools, and read about or subscribed to tons more. Here is my focus tool: NoteShare.

I am using shared notebooks to provide continuity for my students. No, we don’t do work entirely in the notebook, but I am using it now as my digital assignment book, communication tool, and sharing tool. The web-notebook always contains current due-dates and extensions to assignments that develop as the result of student interest (or lack of).

From the current notebook, and/or within the notebook, students can branch out to write (on their laptops) or create/collect/outline (in an upcoming unit) in multiple ways. This is a tool for providing guided choice.

I also use the notebook to thread students out to other Web 2.0 apps, such as ed.VoiceThread, StudyWiz and blogging. I don’t need Moodle or Google tools to present my course materials or to enable collaboration. Students can view, download and share notebooks of files within our network. I am using a wiki; I can share student-team notebooks through our Noteshare server (will be doing so in May), accessible from home and school.

And I do let students just talk about their work, face-to-face like. Then we capture the gists of conversations and the great writing in voice memos for archiving or sharing.

So - KISS and don’t tell anyone else about Goomoodleikiog or A Vision of K-12 Students Today - you might send a very good teacher, or a very gullible principal, on an unnecessarily complicated journey.

I am actually making my own little “in plain language” video about what I do and why. Look for it on TeacherTube. But I warn you - it will be simple.