End of Year Reflection

We have actually been out of school for a week now, but as soon as I turned in grades and finished cleaning my room, I immediately headed up to Santa Barbara for a bachelorette party and a mini-vacation. Now home, I finally have some time to write a post to wrap up this school year and reflect on some of the tools I have tried this year. Here goes...

Top 5 (in no particular order)

1. Google Forms (1, 2, 3) - I love Forms. 
2. Focusing on "difficulties" while reading - I love this method because it really allowed me to remove the scaffolds I had been using all year with my students. I plan on introducing this earlier on next year, because it really helps to create a student-driven and student-centered classroom. 
3. Socratic Seminar - I know... it's kind of funny that I avoided this for so long, but I really enjoyed it. More importantly, my students really enjoyed it. On my end-of-year evaluations, one student wrote that I should do more activities that force the entire class to interact together (as opposed to just working in small groups); I think this is a perfect activity for doing just that. 
4. Doctopus and Goobric - Oh my goodness, the amount of time Doctopus and Goobric saved me in grading essays this semester! I can't even begin to express my love. 
5. Google Classroom - This one doesn't excite me that much, but since it is so easy to use AND it allows me to easily use Doctopus and Goobric, it is in my Top 5. 

Definitely Using/Trying Again

• TextHelp Study Skills
• Group Thesis Writing on Mini-Whiteboards
• Allowing students to choose their method of "active reading" - I like this a lot. However, I will not rely as heavily on it next year because I will move more quickly into focusing on "difficulties." BUT I think I will give students choice in marking/noting their individual difficulties, which is why I kept this in this particular list.
• In-class 1-page summaries to hold students accountable for their reading
• SparkNotes Reading Quiz
• Problem and Solution Projects
• Attending and maybe even presenting at the CATE Conference - We have all been through professional development that is not at all applicable to our classrooms. The beauty about CATE is that it is comprised of English teachers talking about the best things they are doing in their classrooms, so I was able to apply what I learned at CATE to my teaching almost immediately. Also, I think I eventually want to go into teacher training, so making sure I keep up my resume by presenting at these types of things is in my best interest. 
• Stand-Up Quiz
• Cognitive Strategy Snowballs
• The UCI Highlighter - Helping students SEE just how much they were relying on summarizing in their writing was a game-changer. I will use this with almost every writing assignment next year.
• Refocus Form
• Teaching students how to apologize
• The 20% Project
• TED Talks as a form of presentation

On the Fence

• Peardeck - I liked this a lot when I first used it, but then the second time, it didn't go as well. I think you just need to really know what you are doing and be sure that this is the best method of presentation to match your purpose. Also, this isn't something I would do all the time anyway, because part of its appeal to students is its novelty. 
• Newsela - Newsela has partnered with some big names in news, such as the Washington Post, which I like. I just have to figure out a better way to use this and present it to my students. 
• The rhetorical précis - I need to be honest: I absolutely hate the rhetorical précis as it has been stuffed down the throats of both high school educators and students. I hate it. I do. I am not against the real rhetorical précis as it has been used in higher ed institutions, and I understand that, in some disciplines, students are expected to frequently write them. For example, when my husband was in a Master's program at CSUSM in History, he had to write them weekly. However, what he wrote (and always earned A's on) never looked anything like the 4-sentence ridiculousness we feed to high school students. Now... since I undoubtedly will have to teach the précis in the future, I will use the method I used with my ELD 2 students. But I will still hate it. 
• Independent Reading Program - Don't throw virtual tomatoes at me. I like having an independent reading program. I just need to figure out how to better implement next year. That's all. That's why I'm on the fence. 
• Sentence Wall - I kept this up for a few weeks and then slowly started forgetting to highlight student sentences. I like this. I just need to make sure that, if I use it again, I implement it with fidelity from the beginning of the year.
• Fiction Jigsaw - Eh. I like this when in a bind, but I would much rather have students read the entire text.  
• Virtual Question Box - Only 2 students made use of this. I can't decide if I want to bother next year or not. It's not really hurting me to do it, but... I don't know... I need to decide.

Won't Bother

• Google Docs Websites - These were extremely easy. However, I mostly teach 11th grade, and my students are fairly proficient with other forms of technology. Next year, instead of allowing them to use Google Docs, I am going to force them to use something a little more complicated like Blogger or Tumblr. 
• Teacherspayteachers.com - Don't get me wrong. The lesson I got off of teacherspayteachers was awesome. My problem is that I don't really have time to peruse the website to find other resources I may want to use. They frequently send me emails about 10 free downloads, but I haven't taken advantage of any of them. I think it can be helpful, but... like I said, I won't bother using the site in the future. 
• Turnitin - This was the BIGGEST disappointment of the year! I had been rooting for my school to get Turnitin because I really wanted something that would catch plagiarism for me and save me time in Googling suspicious sentences. Unfortunately, it didn't catch everything (or even close to everything), and I still had to spend my time researching on my own. I had my online class use it throughout the semester, but I didn't bother having my English 11 classes use it after the initial assignment. 

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Next year, I will be at Fallbrook High School again. I plan to continue this blog, but I may introduce some changes. For now, I will be on a summer hiatus. I will see you back here in a couple of months. -Annie :)

Week 28: Teaching the TED Talk

This week was the last week of instruction prior to finals at Fallbrook High School, so, naturally, all of my classes were winding down. My English 11 classes had their Gatsby party on Tuesday and worked on research papers for the rest of the week, and my ELD 2 class continued to work on their 20% projects. When I introduced the 20% project about a month and a half ago, I told my students that they would have to present their project in the form of a 5-minute TED talk; I told them I would go over this later, and I left it at that. Well, now is later. (When I said that in class, the kids repeated it, "Now is later..." trying to make meaning of this phrase and internalize it to be able to use in the future in the same way that they sometimes repeat some of the other soundbites they often hear me say.) Anyway, as I was saying, now is later, so now is the time I needed to discuss the presentations and explain what they needed to do.

Over the weekend, I watched a few TED Talks to get some ideas. While I really liked the messages in some of the longer talks, I decided that showing my students a few of the shorter, 3-minute talks would be more effective and efficient. With the shorter talks, it would be easier for my students to focus on the way the presentation was given without getting lost in the length, density, and intensity of the talk. Also, I could obviously squeeze in a few different shorter talks in the same amount of time that it would take me to show them one of the longer talks.

After watching a number of talks, I decided to use these 3 in class:

• Matt Cutts: "Try Something New for 30 Days"
• Terry Moore: "How to Tie Your Shoes"
• Richard St. John: "8 Secrets of Success"

I chose these talks for a very specific reason: the three speakers present in very different ways. For example, Cutts only uses a handful of pictures throughout his talk, while St. John has a PowerPoint slide for every point he makes. In contrast, Moore doesn't have a PowerPoint at all; he simply takes the stage with a simple prop - a black tennis shoe. I wanted my students to see that all of these forms of presentation are acceptable - they can use a PowerPoint, but they don't have to; they can use pictures, but they don't have to; they can use props, but they don't have to; etc. However, I also wanted them to see that ALL of these talks were memorized - the speakers did not have note cards or papers from which they read. Additionally, all of the talks were engaging in their own way. 

After deciding on the talks, I created a worksheet with 3 questions for each video:

1. What did you notice about this talk?
2. What did you see in this talk?
3. What did you not see in this talk?

On the worksheet, I asked the students to answer these questions for the 3 videos I showed them as well as for a 4th video of their choosing (one of the full-length TED Talks). Then, I included a t-chart to help them synthesize their ideas on what a TED Talk is and what a TED Talk is not:

After creating this first worksheet, I did a little more research. I googled something like "planning a ted talk" or "how to make a ted talk," and I came across a few help'ful resources. The first was a website titled "How To Make A Great TED Talk" which listed and explained 5 key features of successful TED Talks. I also found a website - teachingwithted - with a resource page that included links to different articles on how to create and prepare for a TED talk. From these sites, I created a second worksheet to help my students begin to plan out their talks. I took the 5 ideas from "How To Make A Great TED Talk" and adapted them into a form that I thought would be more helpful to my students. 

On Monday, we began our work on our TED Talks, which, of course, started with my first worksheet to help my students understand what a TED Talk is and what it looks like. We watched the first video, and I walked them through the 3 questions. Then, we watched the other 2 videos, and I had them walk me through the 3 questions. As we discussed each video, questions began to come up: 

"They don't use note cards. Are we allowed to use note cards?" 

"Nope."

"But Miss!..."

"You can do this! You will have all week to work on this and memorize your presentation."

"But it will be very difficult."

"Yes, it will be difficult, but this is your final. I know you can do it."

"How long does it have to be?"

"5 minutes."

"5 minutes?!? In English??? With no note cards???"

"Yep."

"Miss... it will be very difficult."

"Yes, it will be difficult, but this is your final. I know you can do it."

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 

One boy, who had not done very much to work on his project over the last few weeks, was very concerned about how he was going to speak for 5 minutes on his topic. I explained to him that this is what I'd been trying to get him to see the entire time. When I introduced the project, he choose to write his own album of songs; however, once he realized how much work that would entail, he asked me if he could change his topic to make a video with an app he frequently uses and knows very well. Since making a video wasn't anything new for him, I told him he could teach someone else how to make a video OR he could make a video, explaining how to make a video. He didn't listen to me, and the next day, he came in to show me the video he made for his friend's project. 

"Is this okay?" he asked. 

"No," I said, "because you didn't do anything new. You did this in one day, and while it is a very nice video, it isn't good enough for your project. You are supposed to spend 20% of your time between now (this was the end of April) and the end of the year working on your project. You should choose a topic where you can actually do that."

"Okay, okay," he said, but then he continued to not do much of anything for the next few weeks. 

So you can imagine his concern when Monday came along, and he realized just how much trouble he'd gotten himself into by trying to take the easy way out of this project... I explained to him that he had a choice: he could try to make his current topic work, or he could choose a new topic and work a lot on this new topic all week to make up for how little he'd done so far. 

Luckily, after watching a TED Talk on his own, he was hooked; he knew exactly what he wanted to do: create a presentation on what it takes to be successful. I steered him away from just copying Richard St. John's 8 ideas, and he came up with 7 ideas of his own. 

After all the students were finished watching the TED Talks of their choice, I had them talk to each other and fill out the t-chart. We went over the chart at the start of class on Tuesday, and from there, I introduced "Planning a TED Talk" and tasked students with writing out what they wanted to say. 

Over the next couple of days, they worked on what they would say and put together their presentations. I had them time themselves to make sure that they had 5 minutes worth of speaking. Then, they had to figure out how and when they wanted to include pictures, props, etc. into their speeches. One student, who had done research on depression and anxiety, wrote his speech and then created a brochure to hand out to the other students in the class that lists the warning signs of depression and anxiety. 

On Friday, I directed them back to the t-chart from the first worksheet. From what we filled in on the t-chart, we created the rubric for the presentation. Here are the criteria we came up:

• The speaker…
• speaks for at least 5 minutes
• has a good connection with his/her audience
• memorizes the presentation
• does not use note cards, papers, etc.
• explains the topic well
• speaks loudly and clearly with confidence
• does not speak too fast
• has good pronunciation, especially of past tense verbs*
• speaks in a professional manner
• dresses professionally
• The presentation…
• is interesting and understandable
• includes pictures, slides, examples, videos, etc. 

*We included the pronunciation of past tense verbs, because we've been working a lot on that over the last couple of weeks.

The students will present their projects next week, on Wednesday. They will have one block period on Tuesday to practice, practice, practice. I will admit that I am a little nervous, because there is a possibility that these presentations will bomb; however, I am trying to have faith in my students. Much like Jenn Roberts explains in her most recent blog post, "I'm cutting the cord, pulling out the rug, and letting them sink or swim."

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Ease of use: After I decided upon the videos and created the worksheets, introducing and implementing this with my students was fairly simple. The way I set up the introduction to what a TED Talk is, using the videos, made what I wanted my students to do very clear to them. They also knew exactly what was expected of them, because they came to the concept of what a TED Talk is (and is not) on their own.
Would I use this again: I am curious to see how this goes. I think the instruction went well, and I liked the 20% project overall, but, as always, there are things I will probably do differently in the future. Based on how the presentations go, I will know if I need to adjust my instruction on what a TED Talk is and how to plan a TED Talk. Next week, I will report back with a reflection on how the presentations went (and follow up on a few other topics as well).
Downsides: The main downside was that I have a few students who aren't very motivated students and haven't done much of anything. On Friday, I had to keep 2 boys in my classroom for detention at lunch because they had been goofing off in class and not getting their work done. Both kept complaining that this was a lot of work, but then they proceeded to do very little in class. I tried to be supportive, but when it came down to it, I had to put my foot down and forbid them from talking or doing anything else until their speeches were written. I think with projects like this one, you really see the differences in your students. My paraprofessional made a comment about whether or not the students saw the value of this project to their daily lives, and I pointed out that some of the students had taken it and run. The students who had chosen topics that were important to them - like learning to cook or depression and anxiety - were doing extremely well. One girl, for example, has close to 20 sources listed from all the research she did for her project. Unfortunately, there are a few students, as I've mentioned, who have not committed themselves to the project, so I am a little worried about how their presentations will be. But I guess that's how it goes with most projects assigned at school...
Applications: If you are having your students present something, and you want to move away from having your students reading everything off of a PowerPoint, Prezi, or Google Slides, you can use the TED Talk format.
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Week 25: ELD 2 and the 20% Project

A couple of weeks ago, I started the 20% project in my ELD 2 class, and my students are finally at a point where I feel I can write about what we're doing.

First, if you don't know what the 20% project is, you should check out The Tech Classroom's explanation. I had heard about the project at the GAFE Summit I attended back in October (the conference that prompted me to start this blog); at the time, I put it in my brain under "something cool that I should figure out and try sometime," and then, of course, I forgot about it. 

About a month ago, the teacher next door to me mentioned that she is doing this project with her 11th graders, and I thought, "Hey... I forgot about that! I should try it out, too!" I knew I couldn't do it in my English 11 classes right now because I already have too many on-going projects that my students are working on, so I decided to use it in ELD 2. My friend sent me her materials, and I adapted them slightly to make them work for my class.

Week 1: Introducing the Project

Now, I must be honest... I would like to say that I planned everything out, and I knew exactly what I wanted my students to do. I would like to say that I knew exactly how I was going to teach them everything I wanted to do. However, if I were to tell you that, I would be lying. The truth is that after my friend shared her materials with me, I had developed a vague sense of what I wanted my students to do. They would do the project, and they would blog on Blogger. I decided to force them to use Blogger because they all have Blogger accounts through their school GAFE accounts AND because I would be able to help them navigate through any technical difficulties they ran into while blogging. That's about all I had decided in advance. Then, two weeks ago, Friday rolled around, and I realized I had nothing planned for the second period of my ELD 2 block. I knew that I wanted them to do this project, so I decided I would introduce it that day. 

I quickly printed out the description of the project and sample project ideas. I figured it would take about a period to introduce the project, get them to choose topics, and help them set up their blogs - all of which I could handle that day even though I wasn't really prepared.

I passed out the descriptions and project ideas to my students before letting them get on the Chromebooks, because I knew that if I let them get on the Chromebooks first, some of them would be trying to surreptitiously watch videos on YouTube or check Facebook instead of paying attention to what I was telling them. 

After the students choose their topics, I had them get their Chromebooks and set up their blogs. As I assumed, this took the entire period, but I was happy by the end of it all. The students were all on board with the project and had chosen topics of interest to them. The topics they chose include:

• Learning to cook (a few students chose to do this)
• Learning how to draw (a few students chose to do this)
• Painting a mural
• Improving time in running the mile
• Learning how to crochet 
• Teaching someone how to swim/learning how to do the butterfly stroke
• Researching high school depression and anxiety (a few students chose to do this)
• Researching different types of music
• Creating a website about Messi's life and career
• Creating a "how to" video on making videos through a specific app 
• Creating different cakes and cupcakes out of Play-Doh

Week 2: Creating a Plan

The weekend after introducing the project to my students, I came up with a plan for what I wanted my students to do. I created a calendar, laying out all of the days that I would give students to work on the project, and then I created a version of that calendar to give to my students.

On Tuesday of Week 2, I assigned the calendar to my students through Google Classroom. I told them that I wanted them to use the calendar to schedule out what they needed to do in order to complete their chosen projects. I also created and assigned a document to help them figure out what materials they would need to complete the project and where/how they would get those materials. (I chose to create these both through Google Docs, as opposed to Forms, because then my students could easily print them out if they wanted.)

I thought these assignments were straightforward enough, but, unfortunately, I overestimated my students' planning abilities. The majority of my students opened up the documents and then sat and stared at their Chromebooks. My TA and I were walking around explaining and helping individual students, but even then, it was a very tedious process because the kids wouldn't do anything if I wasn't standing right next to them. In fact, this has been my biggest issue with this class throughout the year; when I introduce something new, they sit there, reluctant to do anything, and I literally have to force them to start working. It seems to be a state of learned helplessness. Since they are English Learners, most of them think they don't know what to do, even if they actually do know what to do, so they sit and do nothing. Additionally, they function under the assumption that we don't actually have anything important to do in class because they ask if they can have free-time or if we can watch a movie on a regular basis, despite the fact that I have never given them free-time and I only let them watch a movie once (when half of my class was out for testing). Sigh...

In any case, we got through the calendars and the materials, and, as a result, each student had a general idea of what they needed to do and when they needed to do it in order to finish the project by the end of the year.

In addition, I explained some changes to their on-going Current Event and Watching Television assignments. Throughout the year, they have done Current Event and Watching Television assignments and turned them in every Tuesday and Thursday. They were allowed to read any article they wanted and watch any show they wanted, as long as they were in English. Now that we are doing the 20% Projects, I told my students that I wanted them to use the Current Event and Watching Television assignments to help them do their research; they should be reading information and watching videos to help them complete their projects, and they should write about what they read and saw for their Current Event and Watching Television assignments. As I mentioned above, my students are not what you would call "go-getters;" there's nothing wrong with that, but this can be a problem when you have a long-term assignment you are expecting students to work on on a regular basis. Therefore, I tweaked a couple of our weekly routines to guarantee that my students are at least thinking about their projects on a regular basis. 

On Friday of the week, I had my students create a "Sources" post (I titled this "Sources" instead of "PLN" or "Personal Learning Network" just to simplify the language and the idea of what the post was supposed to include) and write their first blog post. We titled the posts "Week 1 Reflection." In order to support them in this, I put together a list of sample student blogs taken from Linda Yollis' classroom blog. I also created my own sample blog, based on what I want them to do on their blogs. It was a little difficult keeping them all on the same page as I was trying to walk them through creating a post, but, by the end of the period, they had all successfully posted their first blog post! I also managed to show them how to include links, pictures, and videos in their posts, and, most importantly, I had them add me as a reader to their blogs, so I can easily keep track of their progress.

Week 3: Working, Working, Working

This past week was Week 3 of the 20% Project. My kids seem to have fallen into the routine of working on their projects outside of school and doing research for them at least on Mondays and Wednesdays (to turn in on Tuesdays and Thursdays). 

Early in the week, one of my students (the one who is teaching somebody to swim) told me he needed to show me a video for his project. During the break between classes, I watched his video, which was essentially just a photo collage of pictures of him and his friends hanging out at the pool. I had to explain to him that, while it was a well put-together video, it did not show him doing what he said he was going to do for his project. I said that if he really wanted to teach somebody to swim, then his video and/or pictures should document him doing that and not just hanging out at the pool...

On Friday, I had my students do their second reflection post on their progress with their projects. I also showed them how to add information into their "Sources" post, and I walked them through creating an "About Me" section on their blogs. 

My student who is making cakes and cupcakes out of Play-Doh showed me a picture of her progress, which surprised me because she is the student that I have the most trouble getting to do her homework. I guess that just testifies to the whole idea and value behind the 20% Project... If you give them time to work on what they want to work on and what they are interested in, then you will begin to see a change in their work habits.

What We've Done, In A Nutshell:

1. Week 1:
1. Introduction to the project
2. Chose topics
3. Created blogs on Blogger
2. Week 2:
1. Created calendars
2. Created materials lists
3. Researched on Wednesday
4. Set-up "Sources" post on blogs
5. Wrote "Week 1 Reflection"
3. Week 3:
1. Researched on Monday and Wednesday
2. Wrote "Week 2 Reflection"
3. Added sites to "Sources" post
4. Set-up "About Me" on blogs

My Thoughts on The Project So Far...

Right now, I am really glad that I implemented this project with my ELD 2 students. I still have some components of the project that I need to figure out (like what, exactly, I want their final presentations to entail), but everything is going smoothly right now. 

As I said at the beginning of this post, when I first heard about the project, I was intrigued, but I didn't know how to incorporate it into my classroom. I honestly don't think I would have taken the leap if I hadn't gotten the materials from my friend, so kudos to her.

I love the freedom this project gives to students. Also, I love that it incorporates research skills and writing in a way that doesn't feel forced or contrived because the students are doing research that they want to do. The project also allows us to discuss topics like protecting one's identity online and presenting oneself in a professional manner.
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Ease of use: Well, since I just jumped into this project without much pre-planning, I would say it is pretty easy to implement because, once you get going, it is completely student-driven. You do need regular access to computers, laptops, or Chromebooks in order to keep students on track on a weekly basis.
Would I use this again: Yes. If I teach ELD 2 again next year, I will definitely start this from 1st semester. If I am teaching English 11, I will need to figure out a way to fit it in, but I do want to try to do so. I think I need to just say, "I'm going to do it!" and then figure out a way to make it work.
Downsides: You need to dedicate 20% of your class time to letting kids work on the project. If you aren't willing to commit to that, then you shouldn't start the project. Also, as I mentioned, you need regular access to technology.
Applications: Based on the origins of this project in companies like Google and 3M, I think this project could be incorporated in any subject area, at any grade level, and the results will be dependent upon the level of the students.
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