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. 

-------

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."

-------
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.
-------

Week 26: Socratic Seminar

I am a little embarrassed by what I am about to say... in my 7 years as an English teacher, I had never held a Socratic Seminar until this past week. Sure, my students engage in class discussions, similar to the Socratic Seminar, but I had never held an official Socratic Seminar. Why? I had never taken the time to really figure out how to run one because, above all else, I didn't think there was any way I'd be able to form a circle of 40 desks - or even an inner and outer circle of 20 desks each - in my classroom. However, it was always something I felt a little guilty about; after all, the Socratic Seminar is a regular activity in most English classes.

This last week, my 11th graders finished reading The Great Gatsby. In my 1st period class, I really focused on making the unit as student-driven as possible: I had the students focus on finding "difficulties" in their reading (as I discussed in my Week 23 post), and our class discussions centered on students sharing out those difficulties, figuring them out in small groups, and then discussing their thoughts with the entire class. All of our discussions were driven by what the students determined as key ideas and questions in the text.

As I thought about preparing my class to write a literary analysis on the text, I was faced with a couple dilemmas: 1) I had to figure out exactly what I wanted my students to write about, and 2) I had to figure out what I could do in 1 or 2 class periods to prepare my students to write.

Originally, I planned for the class to write the analysis on Thursday, but, as I began planning out the details of the week and thinking about some of the things we still had to complete (such as a reflection for a study we are part of), I realized that it would be better if they wrote on Friday. I knew I could put something together in regards to structure of the essay or give them the prompt early and have them create an outline, but, since we've done a lot of writing practice and preparation throughout the course of the year, I didn't really think they needed either of those things, and, more importantly, I felt we still needed one more day to discuss the novel as a whole. As I was planning, I decided a Socratic Seminar made the most sense, and we would just make it work.

I did some research on how to run a Socratic Seminar, and the very first link I clicked on provided me with an entire packet on setting up the Seminar, including questions to ask and handouts for students; it was perfect! (Isn't the Internet wonderful?)

I decided it was probably best to try for inner and outer circles, as opposed to one large circle, so what I really liked about this particular packet was the handout included for students in the outer circle called "Socratic Seminar Discussion Partner Evaluation." Prior to getting into the circles and starting the Socratic Seminar, you have students partner up. (I did this based on where they were sitting in their original table groups.) Then, when you form the 2 circles, 1 partner sits in the inner circle, and 1 partner sits in the outer circle. The students in the outer circle are tasked with paying attention to their partners' participation in the discussion taking place in the inner circle and evaluating that participation using the handout. Halfway through the time allotted for the Seminar, you have the circles switch, so the students in the outer circle have a chance to discuss the topic as well. After both groups have had the opportunity to have a discussion, the partners meet and talk about their participation in the discussions. This type of reflection is extremely beneficial for Socratic Seminars that are held early in the year, because it will help students improve upon their participation in the discussions as the year progresses. Despite the fact that we only have 3 more weeks of school, I still felt as though this particular component of the activity would be useful for my students.

My class finished reading the book on Tuesday, and we discussed the difficulties from the last chapter on Wednesday. At the end of the period on Wednesday, I gave them the handout called "Open-Ended Questions for a Socratic-Seminar," and I asked them to complete the sentence starters to help them prepare for the discussion the next day.

On Thursday, when the students got to class, I went over the norms for the activity. Then, I confessed to them that I had never done this particular activity before because I didn't know how we would make the desks fit. However, I told them I believed they could make it work. I gave them 1 minute to move the desks, and they managed to move the desks into 2 circles in that amount of time; it worked!

I sat in the outer circle with my Chromebook, and I kept notes on the main points and questions that were brought up. The first group in the inner circle was dominated primarily by two voices, but other students were able to contribute as well. Halfway through our time, I had the circles switch, and the second discussion featured more voices than the first discussion. It also ran more naturally than the first discussion; there were a few times during the first discussion when I had to ask them questions to promote further discussion, whereas with the second discussion, I never had to speak up, because the students propelled the discussion along themselves.

In the last couple of minutes of class after we wrapped up the second discussion, I reminded the students that they would be expected to write an analysis the following day. I told them I would post my notes from the Socratic Seminar on Google Classroom, so they could look over them if they wanted to use them in preparing for the writing assignment the next day.

In constructing my writing prompt that evening, I struggled. I wanted to phrase it in a way that would promote student thinking, rather than just a regurgitation of information. I wound up asking them to write an analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald's message in the book, but, beyond that, I left it up to the writers. I offered some guiding questions and some reminders about what to include, but I did not go into specifics. Here is what I came up with.

On Friday, in assigning the analysis, I told the students that I wanted them to try to write for the entire period, as opposed to saying I wanted them to write X number of paragraphs and/or pages. Usually, when I tell them I want at least 5 paragraphs, I get only 5 paragraphs, and some students turn in their assignment within about 20 minutes. Yes, they structure their essay well, but they don't really progress in their thinking. Since I am really interested in their thinking on this assignment, I decided I didn't want my students to worry too much about structure or length. As it was, the first student to turn in his assignment did so only 10 minutes before the end of class, which means he worked for a good 45 minutes prior to turning it in. As I walked around the room during the period, all students seemed to be working the entire time. I have only had a chance to skim a few of the essays they turned in yesterday, so I can't really make a judgment on the final product; however, I was pleased with the process.
-------
Ease of use: Implementing the Socratic Seminar actually wound up being very easy. If you don't know where to start, I highly recommend that packet that I discovered online. If you don't like the packet I shared, you can just Google "Socratic Seminar" and look through the resources for something you do like.
Would I use this again: Starting next year, I am going to try to incorporate Socratic Seminars on a regular basis - at the end of each unit or even more frequently.
Downsides: You need to make sure students have read and understand the text. By holding the Seminar at the end of our unit, I knew my students already had a good grasp of the text. Also, it takes an entire period, and even then, you might feel as though you have to cut off the conversation because the bell is going to ring. (But, then again, I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing...)
Applications: I feel Socratic Seminars are most appropriate in English classrooms and with higher level students. However, I might just be biased because those are the only places I've seen them take place. If implemented properly, with an appropriate text or topic, I think they could be beneficial in history, science, and even math classes. I also think they are possible with younger students; it might just depend on the group of kids.
-------
Do you have any resources that you really like to use with Socratic Seminars? If so, please share them in the comments; I'd love to get more material to use in the future.

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.
-------
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.
-------

Week 17: Sentence Wall and Cognitive Strategy Snowballs

Sentence Wall

On February 19th, I attended an all-day professional development workshop at Cal State San Marcos, as part of an on-going grant that Fallbrook High School is involved with. The second half of the day focused on grammar instruction, and as a side note to the strategies she was walking us through, the woman presenting (whose name I can't remember!) mentioned that, when she worked in high school, she had a "sentence wall" in her classroom. She explained that, while students were writing, she would walk around the room with a purple highlighter. When she saw a really well-written sentence, she would highlight it. Her students knew that if she highlighted one of their sentences, sometime during the period, they were supposed to go write the sentence and their name on a strip of paper and post it on the sentence wall. 

Her mention of the "sentence wall" was probably no more than 1 minute during her 90 minute presentation, but it stood out to me more than anything else she said that afternoon. It wasn't that the other strategies she gave us weren't good (they were actually extremely useful, and I look forward to implementing them in my classroom over the next few weeks); it's just that this was something I could do immediately, without much planning, especially since I had some unused bulletin board space in my classroom. Also, I really liked the idea of doing this with my ELD 2 kids because they work so hard to write complete sentences in English that it would be nice to do something to publicly recognize and display their hard work. 

So, at the beginning of the week, I tasked one of my TAs with cutting strips of paper, and I stole about 20 pushpins from another teacher. (I left her a note telling her I would repay her, but she emailed me to let me know I didn't need to.) I made a sign that says, "Super Sentences," and I stapled it up between 2 medium-sized bulletin boards; I labeled one of the bulletin boards for ELD 2 and the other bulletin board for English 11. When I got home that afternoon, I raided my desk for highlighters. (I didn't have any good highlighters at school, and we aren't allowed to order any supplies right now...) I found 3 green highlighters and 3 blue highlighters that were virtually brand-new, so I packed them into my school bag. I was set. 

I decided to start the strategy with ELD 2, and then I will roll it out with English 11 next week. Why? I don't know; it's just working out that way. Anyway... I told my ELD 2 students about it one day while they were working on writing their vocabulary sentences. I just explained to them that I would walk around with a highlighter, and if I saw a sentence that I really, really liked, then I would highlight it. Then, they would be responsible for writing it on a strip of paper and putting it on the wall. I demonstrated this with a sentence a student had written the day before - "At the sea, there is a considerable number of fish." ("Considerable" was the vocabulary word.) Is this sentence absolutely perfect? Not quite. It would be better if it said "in" instead of "at;" however, the student wrote it completely on his own after I explained what "considerable" meant, and he used the word perfectly. 

For the most part, the students seemed to like the idea. One student said, "Aw, Ms. Lewis, why are you doing this? Now we will feel bad if we don't write sentences you highlight." Another student, throughout class, kept asking me when he was supposed to write his sentence on the wall; I had to explain to him that I would let him know. I told them that all of their sentences were good, but the ones on the wall are just ones that I really, really like. He understood and went back to his work.

Here are a couple pictures of the bulletin boards:

-------
Ease of use: Since I already had the wall space, this was really easy to implement. It doesn't take very much thought or instruction to get the students used to the idea either.
Would I use this again: I am going to continue to use this throughout the year. My goal is for each of my ELD 2 kids to get a sentence up on the wall at least once (which shouldn't be difficult since I only have 13 students in that class).
Downsides: As my one student said, the students whose sentences you don't use may feel sad, that's why I'm going to make an effort to highlight a sentence by each student sometime during the remainder of the year. The woman who presented the strategy said that you could even highlight a sentence that you help a lower-level student construct as a form of scaffolding; the important thing is that each student eventually gets a sentence on the wall that has his/her name on it. Another downside... I am going to have make sure that I actually remember to keep doing this! Sometimes, that is the hardest part...
Applications: You could do a "sentence wall" in almost any subject area, especially now that with the new ELD standards, students are supposed to be getting language instruction in all subject areas. However, you could also tweak the strategy and call it a "problem wall" or "formula wall" or etc. and have students write down math problems that they were able to solve. The point is just to get good examples of student work up on the walls.
-------

Cognitive Strategy Snowballs

Ok... so since I used to train teachers in Advanced SDAIE, the snowball is not a new strategy for me. In fact, I used to use it All. The. Time. In fact, it used to be one of my go-to strategies. However, I realized that I have not used it at all this year, and I can't remember if I used it at all last year either. :( My poor students. 

To be honest, I didn't create this activity so that my students would get to make snowballs; I created it because I was getting bored with out reading routine. I've been having my students practice using different cognitive strategies (like making predictions, asking questions, etc.) to help them understand the texts we are reading. Sometimes, I would read out loud to them, stopping at different points in the text and asking questions that they would answer following the "think-write-pair-share" model. Other times, my students would read in groups, and at the end of a chapter, one student in the group would choose a cognitive strategy and ask a question, and everyone in the group would discuss the question and write down the answer in their notebooks. It was working well, but, as I said, I was getting bored. 

While they were reading in their groups on Wednesday, I went over to my computer and created a simple graphic organizer that looks like this:

I had the graphic organizers copied on two different colored papers - yellow and purple. On Thursday, after I read Chapter XXI of The Awakening out loud to the class, I passed out the graphic organizers, alternating between the two colors. I told them to fill out the first 2 boxes of the graphic organizer. Then, I asked them to crumple up their paper and throw it toward the front of the classroom. After everyone had thrown their papers, I told them to get up and pick up a "snowball" that was the opposite color than they had originally. They unfolded the snowballs and answered the questions. 

I didn't let them have an actual "snowball" fight this first time around, because I usually graduate them to this once I know that they aren't going to abuse the snowball fight and try to get away with throwing other items around the classroom. (I also usually play the intro to Van Halen's "Jump" while they are having their snowball fight; it is high-energy and about 30 seconds long.)

After the activity, there were exclamations from the class: "That was so fun!" "Can we do that again?" "Ms. Lewis, you're so creative!" So, again, to be clear, all I had them do was write a question, crumple up the paper, throw it at the front of the room, and then go pick up another paper. 

When 2nd period started, one of my students, who is notoriously pessimistic and sarcastic, said something along the lines of, "Can we please do something fun today?" I told him that 1st period really liked what we did, but he was still skeptical. After the activity, he said, "That was fun!" I'll admit that I did not stop myself from saying, "See? I told you so!" 

-------
Ease of use: The snowball strategy is really easy to implement, which is part of the reason why I used to use it all the time. I don't know why I stopped... maybe because we do so much in notebooks now, that the kids don't have papers they can easily "snowball."
Would I use this again: Yes. It's a great strategy, and, as I mentioned, the kids loved it even though I didn't let them have a real "snowball" fight.
Downsides: I actually printed 3 of those graphic organizers on each paper. We read 2 chapters, so we only did the activity twice. However, that was a good thing. If the kids had crumpled up those papers one more time, they probably would've started falling apart. It turns out you really shouldn't snowball the same paper more than twice. Also, some of the students were slightly appalled when I told them to staple the pages in their notebooks ("But... they're all crumpled up!"). I told them it was okay, but they were still annoyed by it.
Applications: What I really love about this is that I can use this same graphic organizer in a number of different ways. I can snowball it; I can have students trade with a partner; I can use it as a reading quiz; I can use it with fictional or expository texts; and the list goes on...
-------

Week 14: Walking In My Students' Shoes

I am pleased to inform you that our independent reading program continues! Today, my students met for the third time with their partners to discuss the books they are reading. While some pairs discussed their books and then quickly moved onto other topics, many of the students were engaged in discussions about their books for a good 10 or 15 minutes. As I wandered around the room asking students about their books, I was happy to find that most of them are enjoying what they are reading; they might not be reading quite as much as I would like them to be reading, but they are reading nonetheless, and they are enjoying it.

Last week as I walked around, one student was very eager to tell me about the book he was reading - The Celestine Prophecy. In fact, when I first introduced the reading program the week before, he immediately asked me if I or the school library had the book; we didn't, so he wound up buying the e-book on Amazon. He tried to explain to me what it was about ... something about "a manuscript which tells us the purpose of life, but it's an adventure, and they're trying to find the manuscript, and I can't really explain it that well, but you should read it." It didn't sound that interesting to me, but I decided to order the book myself and at least try since this student was so enthusiastic about it.

At the end of the class, a few students shared out with the entire class what they were reading. Provoked by his partner, one student, who did not want to talk about the book he was currently reading, informed the class that his favorite book of all time was Dune. "Doom?" I asked. "Dune," he said. I hadn't heard of it, so I asked him what it was about. He explained a little and said I should read it. I told him I probably wouldn't like it because I am not very "big" on sci-fi. I am just not a sci-fi girl. Sure. I will admit that I love some sci-fi movies, especially superhero movies. (Do those even count as sci-fi? I don't even know.) However, I do not enjoy reading sci-fi. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. I like my books grounded in reality. I like to allow myself to get wrapped up in the world of the book I am reading. I am sure plenty of people can do that with sci-fi, but it is just too... fictional for me.

When the bell rang, the same student approached me with an old copy of the second book in the Dune series. He told me it included some information on the first book, so I should read it to see if I thought it would be something I would enjoy. I skimmed the page and reported that it "might be something I could get into." "Might be something you could get into? It's only one of the best sci-fi books of all time!" he exclaimed. "It is on par with The Lord of the Rings!" I flinched at this and then admitted, "I've never actually read The Lord of the Rings. I just can't get into it." He looked at me, with a mixture of disgust and disbelief on his face, and walked out the door. I sighed to myself, walked over to my computer, opened up Amazon, and ordered both Dune and The Celestine Prophecy. I decided that since I, as an English teacher, often force my students to read books they don't necessarily want to read (like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby) and try to get them to open themselves up to the possibility that these books could actually be good, that I should probably force myself to step outside of my comfort zone and read these books that my students recommended to me.

The books were due to arrive on Sunday, February 1st (thank you, Amazon Prime), so I took home The Fault in our Stars to fill the two days before they arrived. Why The Fault in our Stars? Well, I actually really wanted to read it. A student had just returned it and said it was really good. A lot of the other girls wanted to read it, but since nobody asked to take it home that day, I figured it was my chance. And while it was bit of a let-down, it served its purpose perfectly, and I finished it in those two days.

As of February 1st, since the start of the reading program, I had read 3 books - a total of 964 pages - in 15 days, which averages to 64 pages a day. Not too impressive, but not bad either.

And then I started reading The Celestine Prophecy. Why did I start with that one? Honestly, I was getting ready for bed on Monday night and asked my husband to go grab one of my new books. He asked if I had a preference; I didn't. I really didn't have any desire to read either of the books I'd ordered, so I just told him to choose one for me; that was the one he brought upstairs. Right now, I am on page 150, which means I have read an average of 30 pages a night this week - less than half of my average from before I started reading this book. It's not that the story isn't interesting. It is. But it is not go-upstairs-and-pretend-to-go-to-the-bathroom-but-actually-read-on-the-bed-and-then-quickly-go-to-the-bathroom-when-you-hear-footsteps-coming-up-the-stairs interesting. And I am not trying to sneak glances at the pages while my son is playing nor trying to convince him to read one of his books while Mommy reads her book (which never works from more than 30 seconds anyway). I just didn't feel any urge or impulse to read it at the beginning; I wasn't dying to read this book. (And don't even get me started about how not dying I am to read Dune...)

Now that I am 150 pages into The Celestine Prophecy, I am getting hooked and starting to read more, but it took me at least 100 pages to get to this point. What does that mean for my students? How many of them have the stamina to read a book that I (or anyone else) am telling them to read for at least 100 pages before they start wanting to read it on their own? Especially when they have so many other things they would much rather be doing and that they find much more interesting? No wonder I (we) lose so many of them when we try to get them to read something for class. Even when we read in class, it is difficult to hold their interest because the reading is broken up so much by everything else you are trying to accomplish in those 56 minutes, not to mention weekends, holidays, testing, etc. Despite the fact that I was able to effectively hook my students into the topic of the book before we started reading, I am dying right now trying to get us through The Awakening because I lost one instructional day this week and will lose five more over the next two weeks. At this rate, it will be at least two, maybe even three, weeks before (*spoiler alert*) Edna kisses Robert, and most of my students probably won't even care when it happens because they'll just be thinking, "Man... we're still reading this? I thought Ms. Lewis said this would be a short unit."

I would say that The Awakening starts to get really good about half-way through, when Robert leaves for Mexico, and Edna realizes she loves him. When I read the book in college, for a college class, I think I read it in a day or two because I read it on my own time. Yes, I had to read it for school, but really, I chose to read it. We all know that every college student picks and chooses what reading to do and what reading can be skipped; we do it to survive, but since we signed up for a class we were interested in the first place, what winds up happening is we read books and articles that we actually want to read. I wound up loving The Awakening so much that I decided to convince my boss to order a class set, so I could share it with my students. Have some of them wound up loving it? Yes. But some of them have also wound up hating it, and, unfortunately, since they hated The Awakening so much, they definitely weren't too enthusiastic about reading our next book - The Great Gatsby. And this is how we create non-readers. It isn't that my students don't read in my class. They absolutely do. And we have great discussions about the books. But the problem is that they don't all love what they read in my class, and since those books are the only exposure some of them have to any books at all, they think they just don't love books in general, and they don't even bother going out to look for a book that they do love. And I guess that's why I started the independent reading program in the first place.

The problem is that when we tell our students what to read, we are imposing our own interests onto them. We are saying, "I really like this, so you are forced to read it because I like it," which is essentially the same as someone saying, "I really like Brussels sprouts, so you are forced to eat Brussels sprouts because I like them," which is absurd. Why would you force someone to eat something they may not want or like just because you like it? You wouldn't, especially because you probably know that that is almost a sure-fire way to make the other person hate Brussels sprouts. Why, then, haven't we realized that this is also a sure-fire way to may students hate reading?

What do we do about this? I don't know. I am happy with the way my independent reading program is going, but I am not about to up and abandon teaching some of the classics. I think the key is to find a happy medium. Figure out a way that works for you to encourage independent reading outside of what you read in class. And figure out a way to only teach books you really love, because if you are teaching something you don't even want to teach in the first place, the kids will pick up on that. (It's like saying, "Here, I hate Brussels sprouts, but I am going to force you to eat them anyway even though they are the most disgusting thing that you will ever put in your mouth." That is obviously not a good idea.) If you start from a place of love, and you are encouraging the students to find things that they love too, while they may not wind up loving what you love, they will at least be able to respect and appreciate what you love. And I guess when it comes down to it, that's why I'm going to try to read Dune.

Week 11: A Paperless Week with Google Classroom and Google Drive

This week, I was extremely thankful for technology, because, due to unforeseen circumstances which lead me to being in and out of doctor's offices every day either before or after school (a story worthy of its own blog entirely), I had very little time outside of class to do very much planning and absolutely no time to submit papers for copies. Luckily, my 11th graders were wrapping up the project on the different American literary movements that they started last week. I had already planned on having them share their presentations digitally with each other, as opposed to giving a live presentation to the class, but I knew that I needed to create something in order to hold them accountable. The projects were due on Tuesday, so on Monday, I began making a note-taking guide that the students would fill out as they went through each presentation. I created a chart with rows for each of the movements and columns with the questions I wanted the students to answer. With the requirements for the project open in another window, I began creating the questions. Those requirements were:

• The name of your literary movement (5 pts)

• The dates of your literary movement (5 pts)
• Any important historical events that influenced your literary movement and an explanation of how they influenced your literary movement (10 pts)
• The defining characteristics of your literary movement (10 pts)
• The names and brief biographies of the most important and well-known American authors of your literary movement (10 pts)
• An example of at least one text (a poem, short story, or excerpt from a longer text) from your movement, with annotations pointing out the characteristics of the literary movement (20 pts)
• Pictures and/or any other relevant information (10 pts)
• Ex. Artists and musicians who were also part of the movement; pictures and paintings that represent the movement; texts we’ve read in this class (or you’ve read in other classes) that are part of the movement; etc.
• In-text citations for anything you quote or summarize (15 pts)
• A works cited at the end including every website you referenced while conducting your research (15 pts)

My questions started out quite basic:

• When did this movement take place?
• What is one historical event that influenced this movement?
• Who is one famous author from the time period?

I stopped there. I wasn't happy. Essentially, I was just asking my students to copy down information, but I wanted them to think. So I did a little thinking of my own, and then went back to work. I wound up with this note-taking guide, including these questions:

• When did this movement take place?
• What is one historical event that influenced this movement? How/why did it influence this movement?
• Which of the famous authors from this time period stands out the most to you? Why?
• How is the literature from this movement either similar or different from the literature in your movement?

In creating these new questions, I ensured that my students would be forced to actually think about the information they were reading because the questions cover all steps of Bloom's taxonomy. Here's how:

• When did this movement take place? 
• This is level 1 on Bloom's taxonomy, "Knowledge," because the students simply have to find the information the the presentation and copy it down. They aren't doing anything with it.
• Why include a question like this at all? Some teachers like to just jump into the higher-level thinking, but I like to guide my students there. I usually find that by starting with an "easy" question and gradually building the difficulty, the students are more likely to complete an assignment. If I just immediately started with a "hard" question, some of the students would just give up and not bother doing the assignment at all.
• What is one historical event that influenced this movement? How/why did it influence this movement? 
• This is level 2 on Bloom's taxonomy, "Comprehension," because the students should be able to find all of this information in the presentations, but they need to understand it in order to complete the box in the note-taking guide.
• Which of the famous authors from this time period stands out the most to you? Why? 
• The first part of this question is level 3, "Analysis," because the students are reading through the information and analyzing the information and determining which author stands out the most. The second part of the question - the "Why?" - is level 5, "Evaluation," because students are being asked to explain and support their opinion.
• How is the literature from this movement either similar or different from the literature in your movement? 
• This question is level 4, "Synthesis," because students are asked to either compare or contrast two of the movements.

The point is that I created a basic graphic organizer which asks the students to do more than just copy down information. A lot of time handouts and worksheets get a bad rap because some teachers argue that they are all just "kill and drill" and don't require students to think at all. However, it really depends on what the worksheet is asking the students to do. Could I have made this worksheet completely pointless and mind-numbing for my students? Yes, and I almost did. But instead, I created a worksheet that forced the students to think on multiple levels multiple times. (Was it still mind-numbing for some of my students? Probably, but not in the same way.)

Now, I know what you're thinking. "You said this was a paperless week! Why are you making worksheets???" I made this worksheet because I wanted to take advantage of a particular feature in Google Classroom which automatically creates a new copy for each student who opens the document and links it back to classroom. This allows the students to start typing immediately in the document, without having to "Make a copy," AND it puts a "Turn in" button in the top right-hand corner of their document, right next to where it says "Comments" and "Share." All the students have to do is type in the information and then click "Turn in" - they don't have to worry about changing the sharing options, getting the shareable link, or anything like that. For students who don't always remember to do all the steps involved with sharing a document with their teacher, this is wonderful! Also, once the students turn in the assignment, it becomes "view only" on their end, meaning they can't make changes after submitting the assignment. In the past with Google Docs, I always wondered when the students would figure out that they didn't really have to be done with an assignment before they turned it in since they were always able to go in and edit it after sending me the link or turning it in through Edmodo; now, they don't have that option.

The students finished reviewing the other groups' projects on Wednesday. On Thursday, I introduced www.turnitin.com to my English 11 classes, since I hadn't done so yet, and I had my students write a one-paragraph comparison of their literary movement to one of the other movements of their choice. I had already planned on doing this, which was the reason for the last question on my note-taking guide; I am a big believer in backward-mapping. The reason I had already planned on having them write this one paragraph was because I know that we are going to start a unit on The Awakening in the next week or two, and at the end of The Awakening, I like to have my students write a comparative analysis on the novel and either the short story "The Feather Pillow" by Horacio Quiroga or "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. (On a total side-note: another reason why I love Google - because I just accidentally closed this tab, and when I opened it back up, Blogger had automatically saved my work. Love.) Why do I have my students write a comparative analysis? Common Core doesn't say our students should be writing comparative analyses! Well... as I pointed out earlier, asking students to compare and contrast is asking them to think critically about more than one subject. It helps students make connections... (Hmmm... I'm getting an idea for something new... you can expect to read about it in probably about a month or two...) Plus, the essays my students turn out on these topics are usually really good! I don't know... there's something about a person who has everything and yet has nothing at the same time that they can connect to and are drawn to. Or they just wind up really hating Edna and like to tell me why.

Anyway, after the writing on Thursday, that left me with Friday. We had just wrapped up what we were doing, and I didn't want to start the new unit the Friday right before a holiday weekend; therefore, I decided to take the opportunity to introduce our new reading program. Now, I will be perfectly honest - I had every intention of not going digital on Friday, but, as I mentioned earlier, I found myself planning on Thursday night without any copies ready to go for Friday morning. "No problem..." I thought, "I'll just walk them through the information with a Google Slides presentation..." No. I quickly realized that that was a terrible idea because what student wants to be talked at on the Friday before a holiday weekend (or ever, for that matter)? No. No Google Slides. I knew I could use Peardeck to do whatever I wanted with Google Slides, but I didn't really like that idea for this. Instead, I decided to make a couple of linked forms to present the information.

The first form included a letter I wrote to my students explaining the new program and asked them to check a box stating: "I have read and understand the independent reading assignment." After students completed this form, they were automatically given the link to the next form. However, in between both forms, I asked them to stop while I explained the program in more detail and answered some of their questions.

I developed the program based on the article I shared last week - "Seven ways schools kill the love of reading in kids - and 4 principles to help restore it." Basically, I wanted to encourage my students to read by imposing as few restrictions on them as possible and creating a culture in which independent reading is a thing everyone does and talks about in the classroom.

First, I decided that I could not tell my students they had to read for a certain amount of time or read a certain number of pages every day. As Alfie Kohn explains, when teachers do this, students will often set a timer, read for that much time, and then stop. Furthermore, when I started thinking about it, if I am able to help my students find books that they really want to read, I don't think there is any way that they can only read for 5 minutes a night; anyone who has ever found a really good book knows that this is true.

Instead of telling my students how much to read, I simply told them that I want them to read every night. Am I going to hold them strictly accountable to this? No, because that, again, would make the reading seem like a chore. Therefore, I developed a reading log that I am going to let my students use as they best see fit - they can fill it out daily or weekly - and I will check for a parent signature at the end of each week. Will my students be able to "fake it?" Yes. I'm sure they will, which is why I am not the only one who is going to be holding them accountable.

As I mentioned, I will involve their parents. I am going to send a letter home next week informing parents of the new program. Also, I am going to have students meet with a partner every Friday to discuss what they've been reading. (The purpose of the second form was for students to tell me who they want to work with and what types of books they enjoy reading.) On Fridays, a few students will also share out with the entire class. I told students that they will be able to share with the class on a voluntary basis, but I expect each person in the class to volunteer at least once throughout the semester. Furthermore, I told them that I will be participating in the program with them, because, as a teacher, I often get so involved in my work that I don't make time for my own reading (unless you count reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to a 2-year-old a million times a day); just as they will, I will share with them what I'm reading and why I'm excited about it. I am hoping that by including these opportunities to talk about what we're reading, that the students who aren't as enthusiastic about the program will start to get hooked and drawn in by the other students. We will see. As I wrote at the end of the letter to the kids, "This could be the most awesome thing we do all year, but it could also be a horrible, terrible, failure. It is really all up to you. Please make it awesome."