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 23: A New Approach to Developing Reading Comprehension

This week, my school started the first round of SBA testing, which meant we were on a different schedule every day of the week. Meanwhile, my students had just started reading The Great Gatsby the week before, and I had to figure out a way to keep the momentum rolling despite losing time to testing. I also wanted to find a way to put more work on my students' shoulders without having to assign them multiple chapters to read for homework. In other words, I wanted to have them reading in class, but I wanted to get them to do actual work with that reading, because we all know that if you simply tell students to read silently in class (or to read in groups or to follow along while you read), some of the students will pay attention while the rest of the students will: a) work on other assignments, b) fall asleep, c) try to sneak out their phones to check __________ (insert name of any social media app here), or d) all of the above. In the past, I have read or had the students read and:

1. told the students to take notes.
2. stopped to ask the students questions that they then answered in the "Think-Write-Pair-Share" method.
3. asked the students to come up with questions that they then answered in the "Think-Write-Pair-Share" method.

All of these methods work, and they do promote engagement and help students understand a text, but... I wanted to do something different. If you've been following my blog, you know we recently came out of a unit on The Awakening, during which I did a lot of options 2 and 3, and I didn't want to just keep doing the same thing over again.

Therefore, I decided to adapt a method from Inquiry by Design originally intended to be used with short (expository) texts. The method asks students to identify "difficulties" in the text they are reading and to use those difficulties to construct meaning collaboratively. What I like about this method is that it levels the playing field; it allows - and encourages - students to admit they don't understand everything they are reading and to talk about the parts they don't understand. 

In the past, in order to lower the affective filter for my ELLs, I would tell my students to not worry too much if they didn't understand everything and that I wanted them to try to focus on what they did understand. This is all well and good if you understand enough of the text to piece together the story or the theme, but what if you really don't understand anything, as some of my ELLs sometimes tell me in exasperation? And what happens if you think you understand everything, but you really don't? And what am I teaching my students - that they should just ignore things that are difficult for them? How horrible. You can see why I felt a need to change my ways.

I started by recording myself reading all of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 on my phone. I wanted an audio recording for a couple of reasons: 1) using the recording would allow me to walk around and watch my students follow along with the reading, which is something I can't do very well when I am actually reading out loud, and 2) the recording helped me figure out how I wanted to chunk the text because I decided that I would stop the reading approximately every 5 minutes. (Why 5 minutes? Because it wound up being about 4 pages of text. Also, it wasn't too short where I felt that I was making the reading too choppy, and it wasn't too long where I felt the kids would start to lose focus.)

In class on Tuesday, which happened to be a day where I had about 85 minutes with my 1st period class, as opposed to my normal 56 minutes, I explained to my students that I wanted them to focus on difficulties; I wanted them to follow along with the reading and pay attention to anything they had trouble with or anything that confused them for whatever reason; I told them that if they had no difficulties, then they were not reading very well because even the best readers have difficulties. I told them that they didn't have to worry about writing anything down while we they were listening to the recording, because I would give them 3 or 4 minutes at the end of the first chunk to go back, re-read, and write down their difficulties.

We read the first chunk. I gave them the time to silently look back over the pages we'd just read and to write down their difficulties. Then, I gave them another 3 or 4 minutes to discuss their difficulties with the person sitting next to them. On the next page in their notebook (after the page where they were writing down their individual difficulties), I wanted them to write down anything that they both thought was difficult and why they found it difficult. Essentially, in their discussions, they were filtering out some of the difficulties because they were working through what some of them meant, thus leaving them with only the ones that they couldn't figure out together. 

We worked through all of Chapter 2 in this manner. We were left with about 10 minutes at the end of the period during which I asked students to share out some of their difficulties while I compiled a list of class difficulties. At the end of first period, this was our list of difficulties:

• Who is Dr. Eckleburg?
• Why is Gatsby in West Egg? Is he really getting money from family?
• The description of Dr. Eckleburg
• Why does Tom get angry when Myrtle says, "Daisy?"
• Why was Myrtle upset about her husband borrowing the suit?
• Why don't the women make a big deal when Tom hits Myrtle?

As you can see, this list comprises some of the most important issues in Chapter 2 - many of the issues I would have asked my students about if I had used my old reading method. However, the beauty with this list is that it was entirely student created. They were reading carefully enough to pick out these issues, and they understood that these issues were somehow important in relation to the rest of the book. 

The following class session, I started by having the students try to figure out one of these issues in their table groups. I told them they should look back in their books and that they could also use their phones to help them look up anything they wanted to look up. Again, I gave them 3 minutes. I told them that if they figured one difficulty out completely, then they should move onto another difficulty. 

After the 3 minutes were up, we discussed these difficulties as an entire class. I just asked the groups to share out what they found. Even though some of the groups discussed the same difficulties, each group was able to add something to the discussion; by the end, they figured them all out, and we were ready to begin reading Chapter 3. 

-------
Ease of use: It took me a little while to figure out exactly how to do this, but once I did, it worked fine. Also, the students didn't seem to have any trouble with it, once they understood the process. I did have to walk around the room the entire time, encouraging discussion, but other than that, it was a very easy method to implement.
Would I use this again: I used this for reading Chapter 3 as well, and I think I am going to continue using this method throughout the novel.
Downsides: It takes time. I was blessed with the block period that first day because we were able to finish the chapter. When we read Chapter 3, we started in class, and I told the students to finish for homework, looking for difficulties as they read; it worked out fine, but it would've been better if they'd been able to do it collaboratively in class.
Applications: Reading fiction or nonfiction texts in any subject area. Inquiry by Design uses this approach with shorter texts, about 4 or 5 pages long, but if you chunk a longer text like I did, it works just as well.
-------

UPDATE: 

As the unit progressed, I transitioned from having students read with the recordings to having students read out loud in their small groups. I assigned each person in the group a number - 1-4 - based on where they were sitting in the group, and I would roll a die to determine who was going to read. If I rolled a 1-4, then the person with the corresponding number would read (i.e., if I rolled a 2, then person #2 in each group would read). If I rolled a 5, then I would just choose a number. If I rolled a 6, then the students were allowed to choose in their groups who would read. 

When they read this way, I would have the person read out loud for 3 minutes. Then, I would give the groups 1 minute to discuss what they read and determine difficulties. I changed from the reading time to only 3 minutes, since only 1 person in the group was reading during this time; I didn't want the reader to go on for too long and have the other group members disengage. 

I would also use the numbers and roll the die when I asked the groups to report out difficulties to the class. 

Week 18: Fiction Jigsaw

At CATE 2015, I attended a session presented by Daniel Reynolds on postmodernism. Reynolds gave us a number of strategies and resources for not only reading postmodern texts but also for teaching in a postmodern way. One of the strategies he mentioned was the jigsaw. (For information on how to "jigsaw" your classroom, go here.) He asked the crowd what types of texts we traditionally use with jigsaws; we mentioned nonfiction texts, texts that we just need to "get through," texts that help provide background knowledge for our students, etc. Reynolds explained that we typically jigsaw pieces of nonfiction because there isn't usually a story line those texts follow, and since there's no story line, we don't have to worry about our students missing something or not understanding something by only reading the piece that they are assigned. If we jigsaw a fictional piece, we are playing with the order of the narrative, much in the same way that many postmodernist authors play with the order of their narratives. (In fact, Reynolds told us about a book called The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson, which was published in 1969. It is a "book in a box" - all of the pages come, unbound, in a box, and you can essentially read them in any order you want.) On the handout he gave us, Reynolds noted, "This approach pushes into stark awareness for students how meaning is constructed, and how we understand plot, characterization, and other literary elements as steps in a process of meaning making." While I was sitting in the session, I immediately decided to use the jigsaw with The Awakening.

I'll be honest ... I have actually used the jigsaw with fiction during my student teaching with The Crucible; it didn't go very well, and I felt guilty when other teachers espoused strong opinions about how students need to read texts in their entirety and not in bits and pieces. Now, however, I have a new rationale behind the method - it is a postmodernist approach! It's perfect, especially since I am having them read "A Rose for Emily" soon after finishing the novel, and my students always have difficulty with the fact that the story isn't told in chronological order. Also... and, again, I will be honest... I am getting really bored with The Awakening because we have been reading it for so long! It is just over 100 pages, and we have been reading it since the beginning of February! If I am bored, there is no doubt in my mind that my students are bored. We need to finish this book, and we need to do so as quickly as possible.

I introduced the strategy Monday right after the conference. In groups of four, each student read a different chapter and then was responsible for teaching that chapter to the rest of the group. At the end, the groups were to write a one-sentence summary on what happened in all four chapters. By coincidence, my student teacher used the strategy again this past Tuesday and Wednesday in much the same way for a lesson she needed to videotape for her school. Her jigsaw got the students through chapter 28 out of 39. Toward the end of 2nd period on Wednesday, one of my students told me that he really liked doing the jigsaw because meeting in the "expert" group to hash out the details of his chapter helped him to really understand what happened in that chapter.

Wednesday afternoon, I had a decision to make: we could keep plowing ahead and take another week and a half to finish the novel, or I could use the jigsaw on a larger scale to finish the novel by the beginning of this coming week. I opted for the latter.

At the start of class on Thursday, before I even explained what we were doing, one of my students asked, "Ms. Lewis, why do we keep doing that jigsaw thing? Is it because we need to finish the book?" I smiled and, as always, answered honestly, "Yes, we are doing it to help us finish the book. However, it is also a postmodernist approach to reading because it forces you to read the plot out of order. Do you remember how in your project on postmodernism you learned that postmodern authors often play with the sequence of events?" He did. "Well, the jigsaw does that same thing. Also, it will help prepare you for a story we are going to read called 'A Rose for Emily,' in which the events are not told in order." He nodded. The rest of the class nodded. I introduced how we were going to jigsaw the rest of the book.

In my classroom, my students are sitting in groups of three or four because I often have them work in groups. In 1st period, I have ten groups, so I assigned each table group a chapter between 29 and 38; these table groups would become the expert groups on their assigned chapter and would report on their chapter to the rest of the class. I told the groups to read silently. Then, when they finished reading, they were to begin working on a poster, in the form of a Frayer Model, that should include the following information:


On Thursday, students read and began working on the posters. Yesterday, after their vocabulary quiz, they told me they wanted to keep working on their posters. (!) I will give them about five minutes to finish on Monday, and then they will "teach" their chapters to the class. During the presentations, I am going to force my students to practice their listening skills by telling them that they are not allowed to write anything down while the expert group is presenting. However, after each presentation, the students will be responsible for writing down notes on the chapter. (I don't want them writing during the presentations, because then they will just copy what's on the poster, which doesn't help them internalize the information.) At the end of all the presentations, they will write a 3-5 sentence summary of what happened in chapters 29-38. Then, on Tuesday, we will finish the book together.
-------
Ease of use: Honestly, the jigsaw is very easy to implement once you have a text you want to use, especially if that text is already "chunked" for you. The most important thing is to make sure students understand what they are responsible for.
Would I use this again: Yes. This isn't a strategy to use all the time, but in certain scenarios, it can be very valuable, especially in getting the students to work together.
Downsides: The students don't actually read the entire text. (Not all of them got to read the part in which Edna finally kisses Robert!!! I still feel a little bad about this...)
Applications: As Daniel Reynolds explained and as I've illustrated, you can do a jigsaw with fiction as well as nonfiction. The website I linked at the top of this post - The Jigsaw Classroom - gives detailed instructions on how to use the jigsaw in your classroom.

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...
-------