LiterateLife

A class wiki can be used by my class as a receptacle for examples of various literary elements from students reading. There could be a page for foreshadowing, figurative language, turning point or climax of a story, and other things I want the students to be on the lookout for as they read. Also, I’m thinking a page for cool words.

Format of posting will be important, and for grading purposes I can set a daily or project grade based on number of posts.

I found a really interesting article in the Journal of Educational Technology and Society that really explained constructivist learning theory.

 What I read here follows what I have been reading about acquisition of literacy from Calkins, Atwell, Fountas and Pinnell, and other prominent literacy teachers/authors.

 Intuitively, I am drawn to constructivism. I certainly find I learn best through hands-on exploration into a topic that interests me and with support from an expert who can help me along (much like my current self-immersion into edtech!)

But, I am NOT providing my middle school kids with much of this kind of learning, and I feel that it’s still not well-accepted in my school with a mostly low-SES ethnic population.

My main problem: Finding topics that inspire my students to practice the language arts in meaningful ways. Everything seems to bore them beyond social interactions and the people of popular media culture.

I would love to have a mentor on whose expertise I could rely to help me create the constructivist classroom I envision.

I believe those mentors are what I’m searching for in this foray into web 2.0.

So, let’s consider what “authentic” reading experiences. What do I mean by that? I think personal choice is what I mean. Most of my students just don’t like to read. Honestly that’s the hardest thing for me to get, because reading is my lifeline, my ultimate pleasure, and how I explore the world we live in and it’s ideas and offerings.

My first thought is that it must be that my students possibly just haven’t found “that book” that opens the door to pleasure reading.

I have access to a good school library, but my classroom library is weak. I want my students to have at least one day a week of free reading in my room, and everynight to read for at least 30 minutes for homework.

I had that schedule going pretty well for the first semester of school. My students earned tickets for free computer time, a homework skip night, free tardy, etc.

For some reason I abandoned it after the holiday break. I had a tough time keeping up with the reading logs of my students. That is the assessment/organizational piece I need to think through. Can technology help in that area? Can the students keep and online reading log? What program is suited to that? A spread sheet? a blog? I only have 4 computers in my room for student use. Most ofmy students do not have online access at home; many don’t have any computer at all.

I’ve been thinking about 1) providing authentic reading experiences for my 7-8 graders

                                           2) how to assess those experiences

                                          3) how technology applications can help/support both goals 1 and

                                              2 above

I have been reading Seeking Diversity by Linda Reif, and have already read In the Middle by Nancie Atwell. I have also read Strategies That Work (Harvey/Goudvis), The Art of Teaching Reading (Calkins), and Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency (Fountas and Pinnell).

 Add to those objectives the fact that I teach English As a Second Language in a Title 1 school that is 80% Hispanic. I also have a pretty limited classroom library of books for my kids to self-choose. We do have a good school library and a great librarian, though.

I believe my students should be

1. Choosing their own books.

2. Trying new genre periodically to see how they like it.

3. Keep a log of what they read (daily? when a book is finished?) This is not necesarily authentic. I personally don’t keep a readng log. Some people do, though. If it was online, in the form of a wiki or blog, maybe it would be more authentic?

4. Respond to what they read (but how is the question? Again, blog/wiki posts and comments to others in the class/school/greater online community? Art? Digital art?)

Just some thoughts for me to mull about in planning for next year.

Also: I need to develop a check out and cataloguing system for classroom library

Here we are back after a 3-day weekend. I was playing alot in Second Life, as I have joined a Star Trek role-playing (RP) group. We actually attend Academy classes and I am really curious to see an example of how virtual classrooms work! Unfortunately I am working with a school laptop that has a video card not quite powerful enough for  smooth running of SL. I keep crashing! Not a good way to try to take a class.

I may just have to bite the bullet and get a better computer myself.

I also had ordered Seeking Diversity by Linda Reif last week from amazon.com. It came Saturday, and I read the first chapter where Linda explains that she had been teaching 10 years. Nancie Atwell also wrote her book after about 10 years. I have been teaching 14 years and don’t feel nearly competent enough to write a book about my methods! How do these people feel get so good? I guess they are just “born” with it. Maybe I just haven’t found my “niche” yet…using technology in the classroom may be it, since I LOVE it!!!

I went to a technology inservice yesterday and found out that our district has chosen dotnetnuke as our blog provider. Now I have to figure out how to merge this blog with that one…if I want to at all.

Still administering state tests today.

 Colleague Discussion

I had a reassuring discussion with a colleague this morning.

Understand that I am a veteran teacher…14 years behind me.

 Tomorrow I will be having my appraisal observation from my assistant principal. I was telling my colleague that I am embarrassed by my lesson plans as documentation of my teaching through the year. My principal requests references to the TEKS covered in the lesson, a reference to what AVID methodology is used (writing,inquiry, collaboration, reading-there is a chart of AVID strategies under each of these headings), and what level of Costa’s questioning is used.

Both my colleague and I know we don’t consistently include all of this information in our plans that are to be turned in every grading period. Because of this embarrassment, we don’t always even turn in the plans (and worry about being called out on it). We both strive to use workshop methods in our classrooms, offering authentic reading and writing experiences and some choice to the students we teach in our Title 1 school. This often has me writing post-lesson plans about what occurred in my room on a given day.

I searched the web for online lesson plan templates/services that allowed me to maintain my plans online. I found and purchased Lesson Plan Locker, but have not been real happy with it. I have had printing issues (like it prints a blank form even when on the desktop it’s filled and saved). The collaborative elements promised are not there (because no one has used them, I assume).

We want to be GOOD (no, GREAT) teachers. We feel bad about our shortcomings. Is this a PD issue? A motivation issue (am I just lazy???) Am I overwhelmed by all I have to teach and how many choices I have that planning seems impossible? Is planning in a workshop model so different from traditional planning that I’m stymied?

It was reassuring to know I am not the only one who feels this way. I am on a personal search to resolve this issue and proudly have lesson plans that serve my and my administrator’s needs.

I would love comments about other teacher’s feelings about lesson planning!

Lots of time to think while actively monitoring my students today during the test admin. How do workshop teachers structure their class so that students choose reading or writing each day? I have such a hard time creating structure! (Um, am I in the wrong career here????) Finding structures that work for me and that aren’t too complicated to maintain over a year have been elusive.

I have a 45 min block of time where I want my students to be authentic readers and writers. How do I structure that time for me to mentor them and for them to practice what they know?

 I need to re-visit In The Middle and get Linda Reif’s Seeking Diversity.

I also have to include AVID Strategies as our school is working toward being an AVID demonstration school.

Plus, I go to district inservices every year to show me how to improve student scores on identified weak objectives on state testing where I am given activities that might take one or more class periods to complete.

How does one take all of this and put it together?

Objectives

I will feel successful when:

           My students come to my class feeling like readers and writers.

           Each day they should know what is going to happen when they get to class because

            I have a predictable structure in place.

           My students have personal reading and writing goals that are celebrated when they

            are reached.

           My students are reading and writing for authentic purposes.

           In my classroom students work collaboratively using technology in the forms of

           blogs, wikis, and email, as well as use these technologies to publish.

Right now, I know this has not happened in my room this past school year. After this first full year in junior high, I feel like I am familiar with the curriculum and how to manage this age of students.

     Still, after 9 years teaching 3-6 graders, (and changing positions every 3 years) I never felt I had my teaching under control. The year was a series of disconnected learning experiences- I felt pulled in multiple directions by various methods that I couldn’t seem to put together into a seamless whole. 

I was not pleased with the products and attitude of my students with the career exploration project I tried. The first problem was that the Bureau of Labor Statistics website was to difficult for my 8th grade ESL students to access. It is text dense with high-level vocabulary.

 I did a search for careers on yahooligans, and found that the BLS has a site for kids 4-8 grades!

I didn’t think the students had a truly authentic reason for writing a letter to me describing what they learned about the career and if they still wanted to pursue it. The letters were not good at all. I also offered for a higher grade that the students create a brochure in MS Word that explains the career. Only a couple of students were interested in doing that. The info probably wouldn’t be that great because of the difficulty the kids had with the BLS website.

My idea is to have the students create a wiki. Each student (or pairs interested in the same career) create a page on the wiki.

I have gone to pbwiki.com and begun the creation of a wiki for us to use, but I am lost on how to really use this!

 I have posted onto the classroom 2.0 forum to see if I can get some help. I’m crossing my fingers that I get some help!!!

I followed a link today explaining web 2.0 technology being used in Australia. It looks great. I need training on how to take a unit of study and create web 2.0 activities to move the students through the unit. My 7th graders are reading Where the Red Fern Grows. What do I want them to bet from this book? Mostly I want them to engage in the story of Billy and his love for his dogs. I want them to relate to Billy.

We are reading this book together because it is above the independent reading abilities of my students; it is also part of my district’s 7th grade curriculum. There are maybe 2-3 of my students who could handle this text alone.

I could set up a page on my blog that outlines activities for the students to do. The primary one would be responding to the text in a forum, to engage in discussion that requires writing. Possibly personal response posts in their own blogs would work, with a requirement to respond to a specified number of blogs.

I would love to see examples of classroom applications of web 2.0 technologies on the web.