Quizlet was introduced to me from a student in my class last year. She created online flashcards for every assessment that she had coming up - science midterm, biweekly vocabulary quizzes, social studies map tests - and her study method helped her ace every one of them.
Quizlet is available by going to www.quizlet.com, through the Google Chrome Web Store (seen below), and as an app for iPhones and android phones.
With midterms quickly approaching, I plan on working with my students to create study sets for all of their classes. Quizlet offers an alternate way to study, and students can use it anywhere that they have internet access. I hope you find Quizlet as helpful as I have!
Developing Digital Literacies: Teachers in Transition
My third conference was "Developing Digital Literacies: Teachers in Transition," hosted by Dr. Kristen Turner. Dr. Turner worked with four teachers from NYC to create a Digital Literacy Collaborative, in which the teachers worked outside of their comfort level to change traditional writing lessons to digital activities. The session goal was to show the results of the professional learning community that focused on developing digital literacies.
The conference began with this video, explaining the mission and expectations of the DLC:
The purpose of the DLC is to bring together teachers who are interested in developing their own digital literacy in an effort to improve literacy instruction in K-12 schools. The group of teachers worked together to become digital writers themselves, which they believe is essential to teaching digital literacy. The DLC created a Twitter account, a Wiki, and a blog where they could share their success and activities with one another.
Dr. Turner discussed the importance of moving from a "Yes, but..." mindset to a "Yes, and..." one. It is important to not think about what is preventing us from incorporating technology in our classrooms, but instead to think about what we can do to overcome these obstacles. One thing said by many teachers is "Yes, but my students don't heave access to the internet at home." After looking into this, Dr. Turner realized that most students actually do have access to the internet in one place or another. She created this infographic to show her findings:
The conference then went in to the stories and findings of four teachers who were part of the DLC, all of which teach at urban schools in New York: Emilie Jones, Lauren King, Ivelisse Brannon, and Rebekah Shoaf.
Emilie's Story
Emilie's main concern was that her students don't have the newest and best technology. She had always thought that "good writing" was just following the writing process: brainstorm, prewrite, rough draft, edit, final draft. She believed that writing was either done as a narrative or an essay, and once you're done, you're done - she would grade the papers, and them back, and they would never be touched again.
After participating in this project, she learned that good writing can take many forms, that the audience of a piece of writing can change, and that after you write something and think you're done, you can always go back and add more!
Emilie had her middle school students create podcasts on the topic, "What do you think high school will be like?" The students interviewed others and created videos, and Emilie and her students learned the many benefits of podcasts:
Can be done on a cell phone or computer
Can be used cross-curricular
Multigenre - narratives, informative, argument
Teaches students real-life skills
Emilie concluded her segment by challenging teachers to change something in their curriculum, by asking, "Where can you control-alt-delete in your classroom?"
Lauren's Story
Lauren decided to help her 7th grade students create visual arguments using just the technology in their pockets - their cell phones. Her students were required to choose a social justice issue, create a storyboard explaining the issue and their opinion, and record their argument. Lauren saw her students become independent digital learners. They were now excited to use their phones for more than just texting, and they now had ownership over emailing and sharing information using professional information.
Ivelisse's Story
Ivelisse read "Pride and Prejudice" with her junior and senior language arts classes, and wanted to incorporate digital literacy into her instruction by helping her students become creators of media. Instead of giving her students a traditional writing assessment (an essay analyzing the book), she incorporated digital writing components into the assessments. The students were each responsible for creating a lesson to teach part of the book, along with blogging their analysis, and completing a reflection of the project. The activity was self-directed and made the students' learning public. Ivelisse stated that her students came up with dynamic and creative projects as they became more familiar with digital literacy.
Rebekah's Story
Rebekah wanted her students to collaborate with one another outside of the school day, so she created a historical research wiki and independent reading blog for her students to participate in. Some of her students posted inappropriate comments on these public forums, but Rebekah saw the rest of her class hold each other accountable, ask questions, and make connections. They had mature discussions that would have never taken place, and her students learned what to do in all situations. She learned to trust her students, and learned that she should have a plan in place before starting assignments, where she thinks about the worst-case scenario and what she can do to if any problems arise.
Implications and My Classroom
After watching this conference, I've definitely been thinking about moving outside of my comfort zone. I am very comfortable with Kahoot, Padlet, and Google docs, and use those pretty regularly in my classroom. But there are still many activities that I've been doing for years on paper, that could easily be change to use more technology. Some examples include:
Current Paper-and-Pencil
New Technology-Infused Lesson
Reading logs where students write a 2-3 sentence summary of what they've read
Write the summary on a blog, and respond to one anther's summaries and opinions of the stories
Go over math homework on the board or around the room
Each student becomes an "expert" at one problem and presents it in a podcast or Google Slides
Traditional 5-paragraph analysis on an independent reading book
Blog post that includes a book recommendation
Traditional 5-paragrpah informative or argument essay
Create a wiki or podcast that includes links, interviews, pictures, and other resources that help students support their ideas and opinions
I'm definitely going to be busy updating my lesson plans for the next few weeks!
It's the Process - Not the Product: Improving Student Research with Digital Organization
Overview
"It's the Process - Not the Product: Improving Student Research with Digital Organization" was presented by Rachelle Wynkoop, a former library media specialist. The purpose of this session was to connect the common core standards to note-taking and research projects.
Wynkoop began by going over the purposes of note taking, which are included in Purdue OWL: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing. We need our students to know why they are taking notes, so they understand the type of notes that they should be taking.
A strong emphasis of Wynkoop's presentation were the three ways to take notes - summarize, paraphrase, and quote.
Summarize - "if you want to include the overall gist of a lot of information." Students should summarize when they need to identify the key points of an article or source.
Paraphrase - "more detailed notes." The key difference between summarizing and paraphrasing is that paraphrasing requires students to take notes in their own words. This eliminates students copying and pasting all of their information.
Quotes - "record direct quotes that will be used as evidence."
All three types of notes will need to be explicitly taught to students. Wynkoop suggested modeling each to your classroom by using an article, and included this Sample Essay in her presentation.
Wynkoop concluded her presentation by showing how to move from the traditional analog note card to a digital note card using Google Slides. Digital note cards help out the students who lose or forget their index cards, and eliminates the disconnect between digital work (typed research papers) and paper and pencil (index cards).
Some of the benefits of digital note cards include:
Easy access to the cards from the "cloud"
Easy to link your source
Instant graphic organizer
Able to share cards with others
Helps students collaborate on projects
To create digital note cards, you simply open a new Google Slides document and create a slide with a title and two text boxes. It's easy to then duplicate slides, move slides around, and link resources. Students are able to access their cards from anywhere they have Internet, and don't have to worry about losing information.
Personal Reflections and My Classroom
Just like a classroom blog, digital note cards were something I never even considered for my classroom. This conference showed how easy and convenient it is to create note cards using Google Slides, and I can definitely see the benefits of using this with my class.
Before beginning, the three types of notes and the research process would have to be modeled. I would have to show my students how to create a slide using Google Slides, such as this one:
We would have to spend several days practicing together and discussing which types of sources are relevant, and which we should avoid. I believe that with help and practice, my students will become sufficient note takers and will be able to take this skill with them as they enter the high school next year.
Creating digital note cards also allows students to "carry" these cards with them in all of their classes and as they progress from grade to grade. They can look back to their digital note cards as an example and duplicate the format for other projects.
Another huge benefit of using digital note cards is that the students don't actually have to write! I have several students who's handwriting is awful, and this would eliminate the "I can't read what I wrote" excuse. Students are also able to copy and paste links that they've used, instead of writing down every letter and symbol of a URL. Then, when the want to go back to a website, they can simply click on the link on their note card.
Google Slides (as well as Docs) includes the "Research" feature, making it easy to insert links and look up information. Research is found under "Tools," as shown here:
After clicking Research, you are able to search for your topic, preview information, and insert links.
Overall, I found the conference on digital organization very useful. My students would benefit from learning the different types of notes, creating digital notes, and incorporating the research tool into their writing. This is something that I will be trying in my classroom within the next few months as we move into informative writing.
For this assignment, I watched "Blogging in the Classroom: Purpose,
Planning, and Perseverance" by Erica Beaton and Beth Rogers. The
presenters represented both elementary and secondary schools, as well as
a variety of subjects. Rogers focused on the purpose, benefits, and uses of blogging in the classroom. She began by discussing the "Triple E Framework": when creating a blog with your students, you should think about how you are going to use it to engage your students, enhance their learning, and extend their knowledge. Blogs allow your students to become excited about their learning and move from being passive to active learners. They allow activities to be more sophisticated, as students experiment with different fonts, sizes, and styles. Blogs also give every student the chance to demonstrate his or her understanding, and to make connections between school and their everyday lives. Blogs are a beneficial part of the classroom. They build a classroom community, as students are able to connect and collaborate with one another. Blogs allow teachers to see the strengths and weaknesses of all students in the classroom. Teachers can monitor student work to see how they grow over the course of the school year, and can also see the individual areas where students need assistance. Students can use blogs in every subject area in school. They can use it as a portfolio to post their best assignments and demonstrate growth. Students can write book recommendations to share with others, and can leave feedback on each others' posts. While working on a project, students can document their progress, ask for assistance and suggestions, and reflect upon their learning.
Personal Reflections
Blogging is something that I never even considered for my classroom. I've seen blogs by teachers posting lesson plans and teaching tips, but never before as a way for students to post their work. It is definitely something that would take a lot of time to set up at the beginning of the year, but would become easier with time. I would have to spend more time modeling and monitoring as we set up the blogs and could give more freedom as the year goes on. It is important to remember that the blog belongs to the students. Rogers stated that it is ok for the students to make mistakes, and to keep in mind that this is the students' work. Before starting, I would have to think of the purpose of the blogs - would it be a portfolio of only their best work, or would it be a way to show growth throughout the year? To figure this out, I'll need to think of what is best for my students, and think about all of the benefits of creating a blog and the ways I could use it in my room.
My Classroom
"Blogging in the Classroom" offered many ways that to incorporate blogs into my classroom. Blogs in the classroom could be used to:
Monitor IEP writing goals throughout the year
Leave positive feedback and suggestions on assignments that are easily accessible for students throughout the year
Keep track of progress on projects - students can post their progress, ask for suggestions, and reflect on their final product
Talk through thinking - why students answered a certain way, especially when solving math problems
Post from the perspective of another person or character to learn more about point-of-view and character traits
Allow students to view and post on each others' blogs to gain new ideas and incorporate new skills into their own learning
Make book recommendations
After watching "Blogging in the Classroom," student blogs might just have to be something that we try out this year!
