I'm not sure my feelings toward technology have really changed since the start of the class. I still feel that technology can be a timesaver, helpful and beneficial, but I also can still see it being a hinderance and distraction. I am very grateful for technology when it comes to my students writing papers. It helps them with the editing process and it also helps me be able to read their work. Feedback and digital rubrics are nice too. I'm so glad I don't have to have a stack of 100+ papers on my desk when I'm grading! But, trying to use technology in my 7th grade ELA classroom has been a nightmare some days. The students struggle to focus anyway and it makes me hesitant to use it in my room more.
However, this course has exposed me to some new ways to at least share information with my students. Doing a screencast or something to post to Google classroom with instructions etc. that they can view as many times as needed could be beneficial and free up some time in class of me having to repeat myself.
The screencast stood out to me because I think it's a practical way to share instructions or give directions, especially if using a piece of technology. I'm just thinking about how in my placement we just had our students do a brochure. In it, they had to include a map of their Holocaust survivor's journey in the Netherlands and this required students to use the drawing feature in Google Docs, but most students didn't know how. It would have been a lot easier for me to know that ahead of time and post a video or share one in class telling them how to do it. I had some kids that used Google Draw and wanted to paste the map in their document, but it required them saving it as a JPEG or PDF first so it made the map super small in their brochure when it was a lot easier to use the draw feature in Google Docs.
I'm most excited about using screencasts, I think. We just finished a unit where it could have been a great resource for the students to use. In their Holocaust survivor brochure there is a map of the Netherlands and they were supposed to draw their survivors route. My CT didn't know about the option to draw on an image and one student showed her. We were just going to have them draw it by hand on their printed copy. But we had students teaching each other how to do it in our honors classes. In our gen ed classes, the kids didn't know how to do it so I had to go around and show them all and a couple were teaching, but they knew of using Google Draw and it made the image really small, where using the drawing tool in Google Docs worked much better. If I had known that they would be doing it digitally, I could have made a screencast for my CT to post to Google Classroom and students could have followed along and gotten to it after everything else was finished. It would have saved me a lot of time showing everyone how to do it.
I mentioned it to my CT and she's not very tech-y although she thought it would have been better than the way we did it though.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Sunday, November 27, 2016
TILP: Choices & Revenge // Personal Narrative
For my TILP, I am creating a unit similar to one I actually taught, just making some changes to eliminate a massive amount of writing which our students complained about. I didn't want students to do over a weeks worth of only writing, but it's what my CT wanted and that was largely because of the district. And hindsight is 20/20.
So, to start out, we'd read our 3 texts: 2 short stories - "The Lady or the Tiger" and "No is Yes" and a poetry page with 2 poems and a verse and a Chinese proverb. All of the pieces deal with choices - revenge and forgiveness. Something that my students are familiar with.
As an ELA teacher, I have to teach personal narratives. They're usually easy, but sometimes teachers approach them in a way where this is a dreaded assignment when it's one of the easiest.
My formal summative assessment would be the students actually typing up a personal narrative telling me about a time they had to choose between revenge and forgiveness or some second option. For those who can't think of anything, they can respond to this prompt: "You really want to try out for [insert school club, sport, etc here] but you don’t want to do it alone. You ask your best friend, [insert best friend’s name], to try out with you. Your best friend makes the cut and you don’t. What are your two choices? Which do you choose?"
I'm looking for students to relate the 3 texts to their situation. I'm looking for something similar to: "Like the Princess in The Lady or the Tiger, I'm in a lose-lose situation. She had to choose if her lover would die or marry a woman she hated. I have to..." as proof in their story.
When we taught this unit in my placement, students had to actually write a practice narrative for a couple days. They were burnt out. Not only where they writing for over a week in our class between the practice and the actual narrative, but they were writing papers all week in their other 5 classes. So, that gave me the idea for this assignment. With ELA, I think it's hard to incorporate technology, especially when my 7th graders can't handle it. They abuse it and it distracts them and derails class more than not. But, instead of them writing a practice paper, I would have them create a visual representation of the main elements of what I'm looking for in the summative assessment to be sure they know what they should do, draw strong conclusions and relationships from the text and learn how to use voice and dialogue. I'd have my students create something like a paper-slide presentation or comic or some sort of presentation they could post to a class blog. Then, I can assess their basic understanding a lot easier than reading/skimming 100+ papers and it gives the students practice outlining a narrative and planning connections. It also allows students to comment and view their peers work. And most importantly, it's not more writing.
Then the summative assessment is the narrative that needs to include dialogue, relationships to the 3 texts, figurative language, organization, point of view and all of the other good things narratives need. Throughout the process of writing their summative assessment, students would have workshop days where they share the link to their narrative with a few peers and use the comment feature in Google Docs to comment and make suggestions. Then, they use the feedback to edit and revise their paper.
So, to start out, we'd read our 3 texts: 2 short stories - "The Lady or the Tiger" and "No is Yes" and a poetry page with 2 poems and a verse and a Chinese proverb. All of the pieces deal with choices - revenge and forgiveness. Something that my students are familiar with.
As an ELA teacher, I have to teach personal narratives. They're usually easy, but sometimes teachers approach them in a way where this is a dreaded assignment when it's one of the easiest.
My formal summative assessment would be the students actually typing up a personal narrative telling me about a time they had to choose between revenge and forgiveness or some second option. For those who can't think of anything, they can respond to this prompt: "You really want to try out for [insert school club, sport, etc here] but you don’t want to do it alone. You ask your best friend, [insert best friend’s name], to try out with you. Your best friend makes the cut and you don’t. What are your two choices? Which do you choose?"
I'm looking for students to relate the 3 texts to their situation. I'm looking for something similar to: "Like the Princess in The Lady or the Tiger, I'm in a lose-lose situation. She had to choose if her lover would die or marry a woman she hated. I have to..." as proof in their story.
When we taught this unit in my placement, students had to actually write a practice narrative for a couple days. They were burnt out. Not only where they writing for over a week in our class between the practice and the actual narrative, but they were writing papers all week in their other 5 classes. So, that gave me the idea for this assignment. With ELA, I think it's hard to incorporate technology, especially when my 7th graders can't handle it. They abuse it and it distracts them and derails class more than not. But, instead of them writing a practice paper, I would have them create a visual representation of the main elements of what I'm looking for in the summative assessment to be sure they know what they should do, draw strong conclusions and relationships from the text and learn how to use voice and dialogue. I'd have my students create something like a paper-slide presentation or comic or some sort of presentation they could post to a class blog. Then, I can assess their basic understanding a lot easier than reading/skimming 100+ papers and it gives the students practice outlining a narrative and planning connections. It also allows students to comment and view their peers work. And most importantly, it's not more writing.
Then the summative assessment is the narrative that needs to include dialogue, relationships to the 3 texts, figurative language, organization, point of view and all of the other good things narratives need. Throughout the process of writing their summative assessment, students would have workshop days where they share the link to their narrative with a few peers and use the comment feature in Google Docs to comment and make suggestions. Then, they use the feedback to edit and revise their paper.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Gifted Learners
1) What is something that surprised you or that you learned from the videos? What myth or prior belief did you find out was false and what is the reality?
I never thought about giftedness with a disability and what that might look like in the classroom. A lot of times throughout my education we've discussed students who are gifted or students with learning disabilities, but never connected the two or thought about a gifted person having a learning disability.
I don't think there was a myth that I believed that I found was false that was addressed in the videos.
2) How can you use what you learned in your present and future classrooms? How can technology play a part? Be specific.
Since gifted students tend to want to work individually rather than in a group so their grade rests on them I think making group work optional when possible a good thing or planning the project in a way where they're graded on their portion of the group work rather than the group getting the grade.
Also, I can find ways to incorporate accommodations for gifted students that have learning disabilities in my lessons. And some of those accommodations may be good for other students as well. Sometimes students with dyslexia have an easier time reading digitally because they can make the text size bigger which helps with the dyslexia and something like that can be beneficial for other students as well. Also, finding ways to allow students to create projects or show understanding in other ways than writing could be good for every student.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Intelligence - changeable or fixed?
Intelligence is one of those hot button topics in education. With all of the testing we do to students and the emphasis on grades, many students get the impression their intelligence is fixed; therefore if they are unable to grasp a concept or prove mastery over it, they say, "I'm stupid," or, "I'm not smart." Many teachers buy into this idea as well and put their energies into helping students that meet or exceed their expectations excel further and let those who don't apply themselves or struggle fall behind.
But is intelligence a fixed trait or can it change? There is a growing body of research in the field of neuroscience that shows the brain has more plasticity over time than we originally believed. This means that we are able to learn more and grow our knowledge base throughout life. Findings suggest that depending on how a teacher encourages a student, it determines how the student views his/her intelligence and, thus, their performance in the classroom. If a teacher praises a student for their intelligence, it leads the student to adopt a fixed mind-set toward intelligence; they start to think they're smart because of genetics and nothing they do will make them smarter. They either excel at something or not. If a teacher praises the effort, the student tends to remain confident and eager to continue to do well and work harder (Ryan and Cooper, 58). In light of this research, teachers have the power to change a student's relationship with education and even more the potential to change the trajectory for the rest of his/her life.
Most students are aware of IQ and some may even take the test. As AP Psychology students in high school, my friends and I were curious to know how we would rank on the IQ test. I remember a few teachers commenting on one student in junior high and talking about her high IQ and we wanted to know what her IQ was and how it compared to ours. We never got to test that, but we also had a common misconception about IQ and the test that's administered. Most people know that IQ test or Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, fourth edition/Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fourth edition tests intelligence and assigns a person a number as representation of their intelligence. What isn't as commonly known is that these tests are more about the process of taking the test than the test itself. If a child/adult answers a question on the test wrong, the test is designed in a way to help the clinician gain some understanding as to why it was answered wrong (psychologytoday.com). The tests tell more about the people than their intelligence, so to speak. Using data from individuals who have taken the IQ test multiple times throughout their lifetime, researchers have determined that intelligence remains relatively stable; there is no evidence to support intelligence as a fixed trait.
If teachers view intelligence as a fixed trait, it's easy to give up on students who don't seem to grasp concepts right away in favor of helping those that have an easier time. This also sends a message to students about intelligence and typically reinforces what it is they already think - if they can't get this now, they never will. Students buy into the idea that working hard to learn something equates to low intelligence, so if they don't immediately understand a concept, they check out and accept that they'll never be good at it or know it. Research is showing that students who need to put effort in to learn can actually learn from even "sheer conviction" of adults (learningandtheadolescentmind.org). Students who see their intelligence as something that can grow with a little effort tend to "have more positive attitudes, greater enjoyment of academic tasks, and stronger learning goals," (learningandtheadolescentmind.org). So, for teachers, it's important to help students to understand that intelligence isn't a fixed trait; with some work and some guidance, students can continue to grow and learn new concepts.
So, as teachers what can we do to help our students improve their grades and become better learners? For starters, we need to put an effort in to help our students realize that intelligence isn't fixed. This might seem crazy; I'm not sure how many students actually think about whether they're smart because of their genetics or because they work hard to understand the material, but I do know that in my 7th grade classroom I hear a lot of my minority students say they're not smart and they never will be. We need to let our students, especially those pegged as incapable of being as intelligent as another group (such as Blacks and females), know that intelligence isn't fixed. Social psychologists Aronson, Fried, and Good determined in their study that there may be a way to combat the intelligence conditioning of minority groups. They taught African American and European American college students to think about their intelligence as changeable, not fixed. The control group didn't receive this lesson. The students who learned that intelligence is changeable improved their grades more than the control group. They also found that their African American students benefited greater than their White peers of learning this (apa.org). Another group of scientists applied the same idea with 7th grade students and found similar results; girls benefited more from the intervention and performed as well, if not a little better than the boys in math. Girls who didn't have the intervention performed below the boys (apa.org). This intervention doesn't take long and it has some serious return on investment! Lastly, we can also work to make sure we encourage our students and praise their effort, rather than their knowledge in completing a task.
Ryan, Kevin, and James Michael Cooper. Kaleidoscope: contemporary and classic readings in education. 13th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Engage Learning, 2010. Print.
But is intelligence a fixed trait or can it change? There is a growing body of research in the field of neuroscience that shows the brain has more plasticity over time than we originally believed. This means that we are able to learn more and grow our knowledge base throughout life. Findings suggest that depending on how a teacher encourages a student, it determines how the student views his/her intelligence and, thus, their performance in the classroom. If a teacher praises a student for their intelligence, it leads the student to adopt a fixed mind-set toward intelligence; they start to think they're smart because of genetics and nothing they do will make them smarter. They either excel at something or not. If a teacher praises the effort, the student tends to remain confident and eager to continue to do well and work harder (Ryan and Cooper, 58). In light of this research, teachers have the power to change a student's relationship with education and even more the potential to change the trajectory for the rest of his/her life.
Most students are aware of IQ and some may even take the test. As AP Psychology students in high school, my friends and I were curious to know how we would rank on the IQ test. I remember a few teachers commenting on one student in junior high and talking about her high IQ and we wanted to know what her IQ was and how it compared to ours. We never got to test that, but we also had a common misconception about IQ and the test that's administered. Most people know that IQ test or Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, fourth edition/Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fourth edition tests intelligence and assigns a person a number as representation of their intelligence. What isn't as commonly known is that these tests are more about the process of taking the test than the test itself. If a child/adult answers a question on the test wrong, the test is designed in a way to help the clinician gain some understanding as to why it was answered wrong (psychologytoday.com). The tests tell more about the people than their intelligence, so to speak. Using data from individuals who have taken the IQ test multiple times throughout their lifetime, researchers have determined that intelligence remains relatively stable; there is no evidence to support intelligence as a fixed trait.
If teachers view intelligence as a fixed trait, it's easy to give up on students who don't seem to grasp concepts right away in favor of helping those that have an easier time. This also sends a message to students about intelligence and typically reinforces what it is they already think - if they can't get this now, they never will. Students buy into the idea that working hard to learn something equates to low intelligence, so if they don't immediately understand a concept, they check out and accept that they'll never be good at it or know it. Research is showing that students who need to put effort in to learn can actually learn from even "sheer conviction" of adults (learningandtheadolescentmind.org). Students who see their intelligence as something that can grow with a little effort tend to "have more positive attitudes, greater enjoyment of academic tasks, and stronger learning goals," (learningandtheadolescentmind.org). So, for teachers, it's important to help students to understand that intelligence isn't a fixed trait; with some work and some guidance, students can continue to grow and learn new concepts.
So, as teachers what can we do to help our students improve their grades and become better learners? For starters, we need to put an effort in to help our students realize that intelligence isn't fixed. This might seem crazy; I'm not sure how many students actually think about whether they're smart because of their genetics or because they work hard to understand the material, but I do know that in my 7th grade classroom I hear a lot of my minority students say they're not smart and they never will be. We need to let our students, especially those pegged as incapable of being as intelligent as another group (such as Blacks and females), know that intelligence isn't fixed. Social psychologists Aronson, Fried, and Good determined in their study that there may be a way to combat the intelligence conditioning of minority groups. They taught African American and European American college students to think about their intelligence as changeable, not fixed. The control group didn't receive this lesson. The students who learned that intelligence is changeable improved their grades more than the control group. They also found that their African American students benefited greater than their White peers of learning this (apa.org). Another group of scientists applied the same idea with 7th grade students and found similar results; girls benefited more from the intervention and performed as well, if not a little better than the boys in math. Girls who didn't have the intervention performed below the boys (apa.org). This intervention doesn't take long and it has some serious return on investment! Lastly, we can also work to make sure we encourage our students and praise their effort, rather than their knowledge in completing a task.
Ryan, Kevin, and James Michael Cooper. Kaleidoscope: contemporary and classic readings in education. 13th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Engage Learning, 2010. Print.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Classroom Blog
In ELA we cover so much material and not all of it is coherent and lends itself to easy access. Having students organize a blog to keep notes could be beneficial. For example, on one page or using hashtags, students could write their grammar notes, even keeping punctuation separate from things such as there/their/they're for easy access when studying for a test. They could write about books and summarize chapters or sections as they go to search their blog for where in the book a particular section might be if they can't readily find it.
Another section could be free writes to help students type to discover their thoughts and beliefs on a topic and even opens the door for peers to ask questions and encourage more in-depth thinking.
I saw a teacher one time create a class blog and he had a class of at risk students who hated writing. He set it up like a news paper and each student or pair of students had to write a portion, but it could be about what they wanted within reason. He was encouraging students to learn about their community, interview shop owners, grandparents, etc. and report on a wide variety of topics that you'd see in a newspaper. I thought that was a really awesome idea to get kids to discover their surroundings, but the assignment isn't as daunting as a 5 page paper. The students workshopped their papers, took photographs and posted their articles throughout the year to generate traffic on the class blog. If I remember correctly, the teacher even found a way to make some money off the blog to put back into the school.
I also like the option to have a portion of the blog dedicated to the parents to keep them updated on upcoming projects and to post rubrics for students, etc. It could be used as an excellent communication tool between parents, students and the teacher. The only downside is if the teacher requires students to use a blog and the student doesn't have access to a computer or internet at home and can't stay after, special accommodations may need to be made; this is true of the demographics that I will be likely working with.
Another section could be free writes to help students type to discover their thoughts and beliefs on a topic and even opens the door for peers to ask questions and encourage more in-depth thinking.
I saw a teacher one time create a class blog and he had a class of at risk students who hated writing. He set it up like a news paper and each student or pair of students had to write a portion, but it could be about what they wanted within reason. He was encouraging students to learn about their community, interview shop owners, grandparents, etc. and report on a wide variety of topics that you'd see in a newspaper. I thought that was a really awesome idea to get kids to discover their surroundings, but the assignment isn't as daunting as a 5 page paper. The students workshopped their papers, took photographs and posted their articles throughout the year to generate traffic on the class blog. If I remember correctly, the teacher even found a way to make some money off the blog to put back into the school.
I also like the option to have a portion of the blog dedicated to the parents to keep them updated on upcoming projects and to post rubrics for students, etc. It could be used as an excellent communication tool between parents, students and the teacher. The only downside is if the teacher requires students to use a blog and the student doesn't have access to a computer or internet at home and can't stay after, special accommodations may need to be made; this is true of the demographics that I will be likely working with.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Learner Analysis - Will Smith
I decided to take a look at Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire.
Will doesn't really excel in school. It's not that he's not smart, he just doesn't apply himself as much as he should. He is easily distracted by girls and often gets into trouble because of his immaturity and inability to anticipate consequences. He goes to school, but seems to be more interested in picking up girls than academics. His grades are lower and he receives a lot of detentions.
Will was raised in situational poverty by his mom after his dad abandoned them. He later moved to live with his Aunt and Uncle Banks in Bel-Aire who were wealthy.
Will is interested in basketball and girls. He appears to need to stay active and is distracted easily. He isn't so much a homebody, but prefers to be out socializing with others. He also values his family and will do anything to help them out - especially Hilary and Ashley.
Will appears to be college ready since he received a high score on the SAT, higher than Carlton even. He was also offered a scholarship to Princeton, which he turned down. Will did attend college in season 4 with Carlton. When the series finished, Uncle Phil helped Will find an apartment so he could stay in California to finish school. However, along the way, like most college students, Will lost direction, almost dropped out to be a car salesman, dabbled in publishing and struggled to figure out what he wanted to do.
Will doesn't really excel in school. It's not that he's not smart, he just doesn't apply himself as much as he should. He is easily distracted by girls and often gets into trouble because of his immaturity and inability to anticipate consequences. He goes to school, but seems to be more interested in picking up girls than academics. His grades are lower and he receives a lot of detentions.
Will was raised in situational poverty by his mom after his dad abandoned them. He later moved to live with his Aunt and Uncle Banks in Bel-Aire who were wealthy.
Will is interested in basketball and girls. He appears to need to stay active and is distracted easily. He isn't so much a homebody, but prefers to be out socializing with others. He also values his family and will do anything to help them out - especially Hilary and Ashley.
Will appears to be college ready since he received a high score on the SAT, higher than Carlton even. He was also offered a scholarship to Princeton, which he turned down. Will did attend college in season 4 with Carlton. When the series finished, Uncle Phil helped Will find an apartment so he could stay in California to finish school. However, along the way, like most college students, Will lost direction, almost dropped out to be a car salesman, dabbled in publishing and struggled to figure out what he wanted to do.
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