The following two quotes are on the 12th grade Common Core Colorado Academic Standards document for Reading, Writing, and Communicating:
I have spoken with several English teachers in the past who are adamant about having their students read several novels throughout the year and write essays regularly. Is this a must? This is a great way to assess and develop writing skills, critical thinking skills, etc., but is this really engaging and relevant for our students. I used to be that traditional English teacher who was very adamant about writing essays and reading novels. These days, with my alternative school students, my methods are different. In my classes, students write one essay a term that they improve on throughout that term; and they read one novel of their choosing. Don't get me wrong, my students still read and write every day, but I try to find other forms of assessment to strengthen their skills, that they can then apply to their writing and elsewhere, that is more engaging, relevant, and often times even more rigorous. In my critical theory class, for example, we tend to do more analysis through poetry, song lyrics, television shows, movies, and other forms of media. I find that the students are far more engaged by the discussions we have surrounding these texts/media as opposed to novels and such; often times disappointing my students because I have to cut the discussions off in order to move on and complete other tasks in time. We dig deep into what we are analyzing, elevating critical thinking and reasoning, discussing various perspectives, comparing and contrasting, and reflecting on our thinking and others' thinking regularly. A lot of what my students do for assessment purposes, rather than essays, are individual, partner, or group projects, enhancing valuable communication and collaboration skills. Currently, I have some students creating murals to elevate social issues that exist in our society from their perspectives as well as others, striving to inspire change. I have other students doing the same thing through the creation of escape rooms, board games, video games, children's books, clothing designs, etc. Their critical thinking, arguing and reasoning, information gathering, and writing and reading techniques all still apply. Let's be honest, how many people have to write essays after they graduate from high school or college? We definitely still have to teach students all the skills of writing, as well as different applications, but do we have to constantly require essays as assessments to develop these skills? Some might still strongly believe this is necessary, and I respect that; but there truly are so many more options to teach the same concepts that might actually reach more students and enhance more of those essential reading, writing, speaking, listening, and work readiness skills. I would love to hear your thoughts and more ideas that I might be able to use in my classroom.
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I decided to check out Padlet this week. I heard about it from a peer, and I'm really thrilled about this tool and using it with my students. This app is great for collaborating and presenting work. Padlet users are able to "Make beautiful boards, documents, and web pages that are easy to read and fun to contribute to." Some of the features are that Padlet is "easy and intuitive," allowing for a novice tech. skilled person to participate; "universal and inclusive," allowing anyone to collaborate from anywhere; "perfecting the art of collaboration," allowing users to invite others to contribute and/or modify templates for their own use; supporting several diverse file types; "private and secure," and so much more.
I feel like Padlet is a more creative and interactive way for students to collaborate with their peers and share what they are doing throughout their projects each term. There is so much going on in our building lately with PBL that even we, as teachers/colleagues, don't get to have fun checking out other classes. Padlet would be great for us to share the experiences we are having with our students and other staff. Geez, I am getting excited just thinking about it. I realize most of our kiddos are already social butterflies and all over their phones, but this space seems so much more productive, creative, and valuable. I was browsing through templates and found all sorts of ideas: creating a scavenger hunt around our school or having a field trip photo contest in order to build more of a community feel, a podcast or poetry space for my English kiddos, a favorite recipe space for my cooking class, and the list goes on. How neat! What other apps have you found valuable for your students in the classroom? I love finding out creative ways for my high school kiddos to use technology in a more productive manner and for me to entice students in my classes. George Siemens states, "Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking."
I rather prefer the words "refine", "adapt", or "grow" our thinking, but I guess that is just semantics. I do, however, agree that technology is altering our brains; it is opening up so many more opportunities to learn and grow, from the technology itself and from others we experience it with. In addition, I believe that as new generations form and old ones are lost, certain skills, abilities, and techniques, thus, wiring connections are lost with them. There are certain things humans are forgetting how to do simply because of technology. For instance, a silly example, a rotary dial phone; many kiddos these days have lost something from the advancement of technology; there are certain things they can't figure out that may seem very simple to us. Stick a rotary dial phone in front of them and see what they do. Is this really the rewiring of human beings' brains or something else? I feel like certain connections are lost as others transpire. Kop and Hill mention in their Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? report, "...the way in which global networks and communities of interest are currently being formed through emerging technologies is encouraging young people, in particular, to develop new, creative, and different forms of communication and knowledge creation outside formal education." Are our brains still benefiting from this rewiring that may be occurring because of the advancement in technology, or is there something to also be sad about losing? For the most part, social networking has mostly been a nonstarter for me. When it comes to the use of media in general, I do participate a tiny bit. In my professional life, I find myself using YouTube quite often, whether it is to find a new video to improve my curriculum or to actually create my own novice videos for my students. I also have my students post the videos they create to my YouTube channel for others to view, learn from their stories, and to use as student exemplars. I have also found myself on Pinterest for activity ideas in class for PBL.
My personal life doesn't bring that much more excitement, in fact probably less, as I already mentioned not participating much in the adventure that is social media. My family plans our huge gatherings that way, which is why I sometimes find myself taking at peak at my husbands Facebook account; but other than that, it is just to feel connected from afar since we are so far away from family. Pinterest has also been helpful personally because I was able to get ideas and the plans for a huge play structure I built for my kids over the summer. In addition to the insight into awesome ideas for appetizers and treats, of course. On the complete opposite spectrum, there are my students. As each year passes, I notice that my students get better and better with technology and communicate more and more on social media, definitely more so than me. I have also found their creativity and confidence growing as a result. Since we know that many of them thoroughly enjoy social media, as I watch them constantly checking their phones between passing periods, I would like to find more ways to incorporate that into my curriculum some how. I want them using social media safely, productively, positively, and to their advantage. So far, I am exploring the ideas below: Using social media to... ...raise awareness about social issues that exist in our society and strive for the change they want to see. ...build their professional network through their internships, other jobs, etc. ...gain a more diverse audience for research project survey data ...present their projects/creations/products ...gain feedback and further develop work readiness skills I know this isn't a lot, and I am looking for as many ideas as possible that I can share with my students and help foster their skills in this process. Are there any ideas you may have for how I can incorporate social media into their lives educationally? |
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Angelina Valvona-Herndon: a high school teacher, blessed to work with at-risk students striving to succeed in academia and the real world. Archives
October 2019
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