Choice book 4: Disrupting Class Reflection

I have to say that this book was not was I expected to read. I was hoping for help on how to use technology disruptions in class to help teach. Instead, the book was filled with information about the job of a school and a possible computer based school.

Christensen explains four key jobs of schools when educating students: 1. Preserve the democracy. 2. Provide something for every student. 3. Keep America competitive. 4. Eliminate poverty. Right now, American is not achieving all of these jobs because schools in this country are focused on standardizing the way teachers teach and test (p. 29). The book goes on to explain how the structure and class sizes of schools may be part of the problem when differentiating instruction. Also, the structure of the school is outdated and needs to change. I agree. Student motivation is also a problem. To add some of my own problems would be that teachers are not given enough time to differentiate a lesson 30 different ways, the resources, or the help. Also, the public education system has too many opinions about how it should work and what teachers should teach from people who are not necessarily qualified such as the government and businesses.  

One solution is to teach to Gardner’s multiple intelligences that include: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. The book also offered definitions for each and examples of famous people each style fits, which was a nice review.

Another way to solve the problem would be to turn schools into a computer based learning environment. This is scary because a computer could someday replace me and my job. I recently was told that my team taught 101 class might be using a program called Reading Plus instead of following the 101 curriculum. First, I have not been trained on the program so I don’t know what it has to offer. I am, however, against taking a group of students out of the 101 curriculum and sticking them in front of a computer. I fear that these students may lose out on important discussions, vocabulary, grammar skills, interpersonal skills, literature, etc. It comes down to that I don’t think a computer can teach these students better than I can. Students need encouragement and to see improvement. Can a computer program offer this? As of right now, I think and hope the program will be used in the study halls of these students. I know that I need to differentiate my instruction for these students, and I am prepared for that. I don’t think a computer is the answer. What I would love to happen is to use a teacher and computer program together. I would like the 101 class to become a block again. One block they have 101 class with the teacher, and the other block, they are on the program with the same teacher. The teacher can assist and view results right away. This allows the teacher to save time in looking at the results and using the results in his/her teaching methods.   

All in all, this approach is nice for some students but not all. I think the best thing a teacher can do is to find out what motivates his/her students and create lesson plans from that. 

Choice book Productive Group Work Reflection

Productive Group Work is filled with many suggestions, rubrics, and ideas for teachers who wish to use group work daily. The ideas were not new to me, but it was nice to have a refresher. Sometimes, mostly because I time, I forget to explain how to function as a group. I just assume students know how. I also just count students off for time sack. I like changing my methods to keep the novelty of group work. 

There are many approaches teachers can take to make sure that all students participate in group work. I will briefly explain the approaches by the authors. The first is called down and up or Cube it. On page 17, the authors explain the method as students “going around the table to give each student a chance to speak. Each member of the group folds a piece of paper into six sections and takes notes as others speak. The discussion leader creates a bulleted list of notes that captures the key ideas and main points for each question. These notes become visible record of the group’s collective thinking and also provide each member of the group with a record of his/her own thinking and the thinking of other group members. The students know that after their group discussion, groups will be asked to participate in a while-class discussion of the topic, during which any member of a group may be asked to answer any of the six Cub-it questions.”

Another approach, that most of us use, is jigsaw where “Students meet in their home group to discuss overall goals. Then they meet in their expert group to focus on one specific aspect of the content” (27). Students then return to home groups to report.

A third approach is called reciprocal teaching that asks members to take on roles such as:

1.      questioner-ask a question that can be answered in the text, ask an opinion question, show your teammates where you find answers.

2.      

      Clarifier: ask if anyone got stuck on a word or an idea, help team by using resources.

3.      Predictor-tell your teammates what you think the author will tell you about in the next section.

4.      Summarizer- tell your teammates the main ideas of the passage and the important supporting details. (30-31)

In order for a group to function, each member needs to know what to say. The authors suggest having students use quickwrites to first gather their thoughts and then share. A graphic organizer might also help. Another method that might be new to students is to create role playing or simulations such as mock trials.

None of the above approaches are new to me, but I forgot about them. I plan on using them next year right away hoping that my students will work well together for the semester.

The book also suggests having students practice listening skills, provide peer feedback, and consider having a group discussion from different perspectives-much like the five minute conversation activity we did with Dr. Parks.

Many teachers, including myself, sometimes veer away from group work because it may create problems. I especially do this with my LA 201 students because the work usually ends up on one person’s lap. To avoid this, the authors suggest and supply rubrics for grading and checking in with groups. I cannot share the rubrics, but I plan on using them so stop by my room if you would like to see them this fall. Also to help with accountability, the authors suggest:

1.     

       Design tasks that emphasize larger learning goals (like a driving question)

2.      Give students experience with small tasks before asking them to tackle longer projects.

3.      Establish timelines

4.      Create steps

5.      Self evaluations (56-57)

The book also stresses the importance of setting expectations first, observing students, and providing feedback on how the group functions. Another idea is to make the role of a group checker who is in charge of keeping track and explaining each member’s thoughts and roles in the group.

Another check point that teachers can have for students to make sure every student is doing his/her part is to have students write one paper, but change colors when writing. At the end of the project, the teacher would then interview each student individually to explain the content of the entire paper, not just their part.

The last stressful part in grouping students is how to group students. On our Moodle page, Keith supplied us with a list of ways to pair students. I have printed it out for my class next year. I would suggest that you check it out. The book suggests that teachers do not group by ability.

Overall, this book made be excited about incorporating more group work next year with a refresh of ideas. I especially like the rubrics that will help me make my students more accountable in groups.   

Choice book How to Assess Higher Order Thinking Skills Reflection

I was eager to read this book, but am left with an empty feeling that I cannot explain. I think I expected more, but I found this book to mostly be a review of what I already knew. To summarize the book, Brookhart suggests that higher order thinking includes transferring information, applying critical thinking skills, and being able to problem solve. When planning an assessment, a teacher needs to:

1.     

      Specify clearly and exactly what it is you want to assess

2.      Design tasks or test items that require students to demonstrate this skill

3.      Decide what you will take as evidence of the degree to which students have shown this skill

She also suggests making blueprints for higher order thinking based on Bloom’s levels to make sure that a teacher is assessing his/her target points and goals. What I took away from this book was that a teacher should supply feedback that “is important to apply criteria about the quality of thinking” (30), hold conversations with students discussing their thinking skills, use rubrics that assess targets, not tasks, focus on one idea, separate the grade for thinking and writing, have students self-assess, make sure students and teacher understand what the results of an assessment means about the students’ thinking skills, and to use Bloom’s taxonomy or some form of it. This stuff I already knew and I think I do pretty well. I guess I was hoping for a perfect rubric, but I guess that does not exist because of different assessments, standards, classes, etc.    

Brookhart also suggested making test questions that are deductive and inductive and to have students on an assessment identifying assumptions and premises, reasoning from data, and reasoning by analogy. I appreciated the example assessments and have a better idea on how to write tests. I appreciated the idea with multiple choice tests. For time sake, I cannot also provide feedback and assign papers. With a multiple choice test, though, I can have students prove their thinking skills as part of the grade.

I personally struggle with assigning a grade to creativity. Brookhart helped me with this. According to some, creativity shouldn’t be part of a grade, but instead be graded through critical thinking. I realize now that I was thinking that creativity is something pretty and interesting to me, but not to everyone. I was wrong. When and if grading creativity, one should think of creativity as new ideas, reflective, reasonable, and productive practices. I also like how the author suggests the creativity needs to:

·       

             Recognize the importance of a deep knowledge base and continually work to learn new things

·         Open to new ideas and actively seek them out

·         Find materials for ideas in a wide variety of media, people, and events

·         Look for ways to organize and reorganize ideas into different categories and combinations, and then evaluate whether the results are interesting, new, or helpful.

·         Use trial and error (128-129).

The last thing I took away from this book was the acronym, IDEAL. I think I will teach my students this with my first unit that is project based the ideas of solving the problem in these five steps:

IDEAL-

1. Identify the problem

2. Define and represent the problem

3. Explore possible strategies

4. Act on the strategies

5. Look back and evaluate the effects of your activities.

I also like the idea of solving problems backward, which is something I can have my students do with Speak once they know the whole situation. They will be able to come up with alternative ways to handle the situation with different outcomes.

Overall, this book was decent. It sparked some new ideas for me with assessments. 

Reflection on Catching Up or Leading the Way

Zhao makes a good point in his afterword: “We all want to provide our children with an excellent education, but what that looks like divides us” (p. 199). Unfortunately, the United States is running backwards toward standardized testing, while the Asian countries are moving forward with less pressure on testing and more rigor on creativity. The United States is decent at embracing creativity at the younger ages. Zhao shares a story of a talent show that is “inclusive…encourages imitative and responsibility…sends a strong message to the community, the public, and the parents that our schools value different talents, that their children are all talented in different ways…last, the activity helps all the children to be proud of their strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses” (48-49). Asian countries want more of this, while the U.S. wants less and more testing. The talent show can be compared to project-based learning in that projects show creativity and embrace the talents, not the weaknesses. It showcases what each individual is good at, not what each individual is behind at. The current trend in the American educational system is that we cannot teach this method because it cannot be assessed on a standardized test. No standardized, fill in the blank test can assess creativity, which is a sought after skill in the 21^st century.

According to Zhao, some of the challenges in the 21^st century include: securing job in global market, teach students how to interact with other cultures, and help students become global citizens. Students are no longer competing for jobs with people from the same area. The 21^st century really makes the world flat in that anyone can be hired from anywhere with what technology has to offer today. In order to get the high paying, stable jobs, we need to also teach and embrace creativity, which a standardized would receive a mark of ‘beginner.’ Again, this proves that the U.S. is following behind, not leading the way.  

Although the current American educational system does provide room for some creativity, there are problems. Some problems with American education system include: “inequalities between the rich and the poor; the outdated, irrelevant, and America-centric curriculum; the lack of qualified teachers; the disengagement of students; and the increasing faith in testing” (58). I think that some of these problems can be solved with project based learning. I think the government also needs to take a step back and let teachers lead students into the 21^st century. The outdated curriculum is still being taught because of NCLB and 

standardized testing. Testing needs to go away because, according to Zhao, standardized testing:

1.     

      Does not produce creative and innovation talents

2.      Produces an economy built on cheap labor instead of technology

3.      Creates low ability

4.      Creates high demands on students may result in low self-esteem and suicide

5.      Produces unhealthy children both psychically and mentally

6.      Can cause cheating in order to achieve high standards

In conclusion, I fell that we as a country are far behind in that we are turning the clock backwards. “American education has been moving toward authoritarianism, letting the government dictate what and how students should learn and what schools should teach. This movement has been fueled mostly through fear-fear of threats from the Soviets, the Germans, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Chinese, and the Indians” (Zhao, 2009, p. 40). We are not catching up because we are devoting more money and recourses into standardized testing that clearly does not test every element that a student needs in the 21^st century. We are going back into time, which is proven by the Asian countries, that excel at standardized testing, are completely revamping their curriculum by 180 degrees. “While the United States is moving toward more standardization and centralization, the Asian countries are working hard to allow more flexibility and autonomy at the local level” (63). It seems to me that the United States and the Asian countries are flip flopping, which would conclude that we are not only behind but behind while running backwards into the 21^st century…  

Done with final presentation

I finished my final presentation using glogster! I have to say, I had fun creating the online poster. I was able to upload music, images, and videos to add my personal touch. I am excited to share it with all of my classmates!

Now on to reading books.

Final Presentation

I am no longer using Pixler for my final presentation. I am only using Glogster. If anyone wants  to use Pixler somehow, you can :)

Unit plan for EDL 719

Here is my link to my problem based unit. Please let me know if something does not open.

http://hollfergunitplan.pbworks.com

Best Online learning games of 2011

Here is a list of the  best learning games so far this year found online. I am following Larry Ferlazzo's blog, and I am finding it very useful :)

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/07/15/the-best-online-learning-games-of-2011-so-far/

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/

Anyone else think this way

Does anyone else find this interesting...? As I am reading many books on the 21st century this summer, I keep finding myself asking, why are we in 2011 finally discussing how to teach 21st learners eleven years too late? Isn't this something that should have been discussed in the late 90s early 2000s? Also, shouldn't colleges be teaching this style?

Maybe I am wrong and schools have been discussing this since the 90s, and I only have been teaching since 2008. I just think this is backwards...

Curriculum 21 book question

As I was reading the book, I am across an interesting quote right away: “As [students] cross the threshold, do they feel as if they are entering a simulation of life in the 1980s? Then, at the end of the school day, do they feel that they have returned to the 21^st century?” (Jacobs 7). 


I was wondering how others feel about this statement, and if you feel that we are teaching students like it was 1980? If so, what are we doing like the 1980s? What are we already doing that is like 2011? Lastly, how can we change and get others to change?  

EDL 719 Choice Book Reflection and Questions

Choice Book: Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges by Larry Ferlazzo


I’m not even sure where to start. This book is full of goodies that can easily be adapted at any level. The book is written by Larry Ferglazzo who is a high school English and social studies teacher. The book is structured into thirteen questions that educators would often ask themselves. I appreciated how the book offers lesson plans, templates, and free downloads. The book does not only talk about what needs to change and why, the book tells one how to implement these changes. For example, he explains a two day step-by-step lesson plan on how to incorporate goal setting into the classroom. Not only does Ferlazzo provide the easy step-by-step, he provides templates for goal worksheets and outside sources for students to read with the links. It certainly makes any job of a teacher easier.  

I think one major reason that I loved the book so much was that many of his examples were taken with an English approach that would work with any class. Some of the lessons are: first week lessons, goal setting, self-control, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and the brain is like a muscle (Ferlazzo 2011). I am very appreciative of these lesson plans. I often ask my students to write discussion questions with a quick review on what makes a good question. I never thought of teaching them Bloom’s Taxonomy, but I should. Now, I have an easy lesson that I can adapt in the first few weeks of the school year.  I especially appreciate these lessons because I think they will be beneficial to my team taught LA 101 class. The class will be filled with about 25 students who are not yet at the appropriate reading level for their grade. I think by incorporating some of these lessons will motivate students to realize they can read and they will see improvement. I’m hoping that these lessons will make them excited about reading and happy to be in my class.

Other ideas that Ferlazzo writes that will motivate students are to not use rewards, praise effort and actions, set high expectations, build relationships, use cooperative learning, prove to students that doing well in school will better them in the future with economics and health, create opportunities for students to make decisions, and help students develop a positive self-image (2011). Along with these suggestions, he supplies lesson plans and ideas on how to do this on a regular basis in any classroom.

The book would also be good for any new teacher or teacher struggling with classroom management. He offers ideas on how to deal with the kid that will not work and/or listen. One of his ideas came from a principal at his school. The idea is to use points to immediately reinforce positive behavior and to immediately punish negative behavior: For example, a teacher may say: “John, I want you to keep 50 points.” “John, I want you to keep 45 points”, and so on. Ferglazzo suggests that at about 30 points, student needs to be removed from the room. Students can also gain back points (Ferlazzo 2011). This idea may seem elementary but for a class or student that is problematic, it might work. I can see myself using this with the freshmen, not so much with the seniors. One question that ran through my mind, though, was how would we in the Howard-Suamico School District use this method with grading reform with the 90/10?

Another method he offers with dealing with classroom management is to handle the problem immediately and with positive diction. Some of his ideas include: Reflection cards, positive framed messages, tell what students can do, call parents about good behavior, be polite, remain calm, provide stress balls, get to know your 

students, and many more (2011).

The whole idea behind the book is to get students to find intrinsic value for themselves and for teachers to show them how.  Ferlazzo also brings up the idea that was discussed in Cognitive Surplus with Deci’s experiment with the Soma, which finds that people are more likely to work hard if they work toward intrinsic rewards vs. extrinsic rewards. One quote that struck me and I plan to use next year is from Gandhi when he said, “Look at every problem as an opportunity, not as a pain” (p. 68). We as teachers need to teach this valuable lesson, so students can start to motivate themselves for the right reasons.

Ferlazzo, L. (2011). Helping students motivate themselves: practical answers to classroom  
    challenges. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

   

Ahead of schedule

After staying up into the early morning hours to finish my part of the team paper, I am up early to take two puppies to the vet. I am happy to report that I am ahead of schedule with my goals. I suppose I should go back and proofread my work (who knows what kind of typos I made at 2 am :). I plan to write my thoughts on my choice book today for EDL719 and write my goals. I also plan to take a nap :)

Super Excited

As I am reading Helping Students Motivate Themselves as one of my choice books for EDL 719, I am finding myself smiling and really excited to apply some of Ferlazzo's techniques with my freshmen team taught class. I am still planning to turn that class into project-based and this book offers lesson plans that I think will motivate all students, but especially students who are labeled as 'slow.' I just wanted to share that I am super excited as I am reading this book. Finally, a book that not just tells and explains why teachers need to change but tells HOW to change and offers lesson plans and templates :)

EDL 755 Reflection #5 on Cognitive Surplus

Cognitive Surplus: Reflection Five

            After reading Cognitive Surplus, I feel like I should use my innovative juices to create the next big thing in social media with an emphasis on participatory features. I feel like this text was a help guide to take an original idea to develop a site that offers a place for people to conjugate to feed their intrinsic motivations while creating an online community. The problem: I do not currently have the next awesome idea such as Facebook, YouTube, etc. Instead of asking myself what is the next idea, I think I need to dig deeper after reading this text and ask myself why do I not have the next big idea?  The answer is simple, according to the text: it has to do with how I spend my cognitive surplus otherwise known as free time.

            The text was interesting in that Shirky compared an addiction to alcohol or gin to the problem of social media. Gin is not the problem, and social media is not the problem. The problem is the “reaction to… social change and the inability of older civic models to adapt (Shirky, 2010, pg. 3). This text made me realize that the gin today for my students in not the problem of social media such as texting, or skyping on cell phones in class. Instead, the problem is the structure and traditional model of education. This text has me questioning my pedagogies as an English teacher such as do my students really need to read Shakespeare, learn the plot diagram, etc. in the 21^st century? The gin today for my students is that they are bored with the current educational structure because the current structure is not accommodating to their needs. The message that I was able to take away after reading this text was that students are no longer engaged in 19^th and 20^th century ways of learning. Students need to be taught how to become responsible individuals on the internet.   

            The gin is also how students and adults are spending their free time. Shirky points out that Americans watch over twenty hours of television each week (pg. 5). Twenty hours of staring at a screen with, for the most part, fictional characters and fictional lives. Television is the gin for many people in my generation. This shift is changing, however. “Young populations with access to fast, interactive media are shifting their behavior away from media that presupposes pure consumption. Even when they watch video online, they have opportunities to comment on the material, to share it with their friends, to label, rate, or rank it, and of course, to discuss it with other viewers around the world” (pg. 11). The current generation that we are teaching wants to spend their free time on the internet being participants, not just viewers. Students want to produce and want to share their ideas. I found myself asking if I am embracing and teaching to my students’ needs.  

            Shirky points out that his idea is that free time should be spent sharing ideas through social media. He proves that there is the mean, motive, and opportunity for people to spend their free time engaging on participatory sites and creating real life human connections through such sites instead of sitting and watching a television. I agree. Students obviously have the means with such sites as Facebook, Wikispaces, Google, etc. There are other sites that even provide needs for people to sell items or find a buddy to ride to work with. Sites such as Craigslist, PickupPal.com, Open.Salon.com, PatientsLikeMe.com, and Meetup.com are all participatory sites that allow people to engage in discussions. I found myself again thinking that having online discussions are great, but lose interpersonal face-to-face interactions. Shirky debunked that idea with that it doesn’t affect interpersonal face-to-face interactions because it “coordinates human contact and real-world activity” (pg. 38). This argument is not developed and weak. I wish he would have elaborated but that was it. I would counter his argument by simply referencing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and that human beings need touch that computer screens cannot produce.

            Students have the means to use their cognitive surplus as well as the motive. This was an interesting part in the text in that he proves that people will try harder to satisfy their intrinsic needs instead of their extrinsic needs. He proves this with the experiment by Deci with Soma. Once Deci offered people money for currently putting the puzzle together, the motivation level went down. One would think the opposite. I was able to link this notion to my class. I often give students extrinsic rewards such as grades to complete an assignment. Deci, on the other hand, proves that notion wrong. “Doing something because it interests you makes it a different kind of activity than doing it because you are reaping an external reward” (pg. 72). Once something becomes work, people and students lose motivation. Grades are external rewards that are not working. I realize that students need to do well for themselves, but I wish the book helped guide an answer to how to teach students to work for their own benefit, especially without parent involvement.

            Students have the means, motive, and also the opportunity to use social media during free time. “Given the right opportunities, humans will start behaving in new ways” (pg. 100) seems simplistic. Students, however, are not always given the opportunity at school to incorporate social media. If teachers used social media, the idea is that the intrinsic reward of learning and creating values will motivate students to complete assignments. “People had the opportunity to behave in a way that rewarded some intrinsic motivation, and those opportunities were enabled by technology” (pg. 101). The problem is that technology is not always reliable or available. Also, students do not also have the technology at home. Instead, some students only.have a television, not a computer to use as fun for free time.

            A positive that social media is supposed to teach people is how to behave appropriately on the internet. The behaviors exhibited on social networking sites are important and teach students how to be civic and responsible human beings. Shirky points out that “how we treat one another matters, and not just in a ‘it’s nice to be nice’ kind of way: our behavior contributes to an environment that encourages some opportunities and hinders others” (pg. 135). Social Media can bring a group of people together from around the world and create a safe environment for people to share information and to provide honest feedback. This creates a group in the social world. This group will come together to share facts and emotions. The group will create communal values, public values, as well as civic values. Students, and people, will be open and eventually want to make the world a better place. I love the idea, but again I thrived for more. I wanted to know how.

            The text ends with eleven ways to create, launch, and how to start incorporating social media into one’s life, which can be easily adaptable to the classroom. I like the idea of embracing the change from watching television as only viewers to spending my free time to participatory sites where I can become a part of an online community that teaches me values and can improve society as a whole. Sadly, I found myself watching television tonight. The book focuses on how one should build up free time to share ideas through social media and why one should. I no longer ask why, though. I now want to know how to create a whole curriculum that embraces social media without computers one hundred percent of the time. I also need to take my cognitive surplus and flood my free time on social networking sites and web 2.0 websites, so I become more familiar and confident with using these tools in the classroom.  

Busy Week

I am coming to the realization that we all have a lot of assignments due next week. I am hoping that by writing this blog, I will stick to my goals and timeline. If I make it public, I think I am more likely to stick with it.  After a fun weekend of celebrating the 4th with my friends and family and playing the Sims 3 for the last three days, I am ready to get back to work.

My goal is to write my review of Cognitive Surplus tonight and finish reading Helping Students Motivate Themselves by tomorrow. I think the motivation book will help with the team paper. I then want to finish my part of the team paper by Saturday, which will leave me with the rest of the week to work on my unit plan.

Let's hope I stick with it :)

100 video websites teachers should know about

I received this in my email from my sister today, and I thought I would share it. I knew about some of the sites, but not all. Enjoy!

http://collegetimes.us/100-video-websites-every-educator-should-know/