ENGAGING STUDENT VOICES WITH TECHNOLOGY

DIGITALLY ENGAGED

ENGAGING STUDENT VOICES WITH TECHNOLOGY

James Forman

Presented at CAIS (California Assoc. of Independent Schools) Campbell Hall March 2014

(A version of this talk was delivered at NCTE 2013 in Boston.)

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
  •       How can we use technology to boost student engagement?

•       What new tech tools engage students AND make students better readers and writers?

•       Do iPads, apps, podcasts, student blogging, and digital literacy engage students AND support reading, writing, and thinking?

Why are students engaged?

Engaged because of:

•       technology

•       a wider audience than just the teacher

•       a kind of social media

•       pride in one’s blog

•       And eventually…

•       the habit of exploring ideas

What is VOICE?

•       In formal written essays what voice do students try to adopt?

–      Adopting professorial vocabulary and stilted, over-formal diction

–      What is genuine individual writing voice?

–      Can I use “I”?

–      How formal or informal do we want students to be?

•       Can we teach our students writing voice?

•       Can we assess voice?

•       In online discussion or blogging

–      The quiet students blossom online

–      The “ALL CAPS” voice online

–      The engaged voice of students interacting

•       Does writing online or blogging help students develop their voices?

•       Can technology help students find their less formal writing voices?

•       Can blogging develop students’ individual voice?

•       How about online chats or discussion boards?

•       Bloggers write more informally

•       Most write in their speaking voice

•       “OMG! Hamlet murdered Polonius! The way he talks to Ophelia!”

 If students blog and:

•       Don’t just do the minimum

•       Pursue their writing with passion

•       Don’t overuse a thesaurus

•       Write how they speak

•       Write lots of words each week

•       Don’t use a stilted style to ‘sound smart’

•       Write to communicate ideas

•       Think while they write and have something to say

•       Dig into texts

THEN, yes, blogging can help with voice.

What is ‘Writing to Learn’?

•       Usually students write:

–      to demonstrate proficiency

–      for a grade

•       Whereas writing to learn is exploratory

–      Freewriting, Journal Writing, Blogging 

•       Ungraded thinking aloud

By writing their thoughts down, students learn what they think

•       Teaching Channel video on WTL

•       https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/writing-to-learn

Blogging as discovery

•       Daily in- and out-of-class informal blogging

•       Low stakes writing

•       Not writing to demonstrate learning

•       Not writing for a grade

•       Blogging to discover, to think aloud, to get thoughts down

•       Blogging to reflect on one’s thoughts

How to use Blogging

•       Students practice crucial habits of thought

–      Daily blogging

•       Assessment on the fly

–      Immediate and rich feedback on what students are learning

•       Scaffold larger assignments

–      Step by step building blocks

Nut & Bolts of Student Blogs

1. Does blogging engage students?
2. Blogging Voice     (vs. voice in essays)
3. Writing to discover (vs. to demonstrate learning)
4. Blog =

–      Daily writing
–      Blended learning
–      Producing Content: Web 2.0
–      Design literacy
–      Blogger vs. Weebly

In September, every student creates his or her own blogspot (Google-based blogger)

o   (vs. blogspot, Edmodo, kidblog, Weebly)

–      Add instructor as co-author

–      Student chooses design (visual literacy)

–      All writing on blogs (except college essays)

Blog Cycle

•       Class discussion àContinue the discussion at home on the blog àOpen blogs in class the next day àContinue the discussion from the day before

–      Blended learning environment

–      Sustained focus

–      Development of ideas

Daily blogging results in more writing practice

•       “We must assign more writing than we can grade or even read.”  ~Carol Jago

•       Students write less than 1 ½ pages a week

•       Applebee & Langer in California English

Assessment of Blogs

•       Easy to give credit in grade book,

–      daily or weekly

•       Date and time stamp on every post

–      If it’s posted during class, it shows

•       Glaring errors are seen by class: “Jane Austin”

•       Grading blogs: daily or weekly?

•       How to assess blogposts

–      Letter Grade

–      Check or check plus

–      Just record that they did it

•       Write every day

–      Then select one to be assessed

•       Accountability for blogging:

•       start class with all blogs on the screen and read some

 
Vary the purpose

•       explore a text

•       compare two texts

•       respond to an in-class discussion

»      or an online discussion

•       write a poem

•       write a dream sequence of a character

•       start a college essay

•       write an alternate ending to a story 

When writing essays students worry about

•       Vocabulary

•       Thesaurus (with one click)

•       What does the teacher want?

•       How many paragraphs do you want? Five?

•       How many quotes per paragraph?

•       What’s another word for ____ to avoid repeating that word?

WHAT IF?

•       What if 6^th through 12^th graders blogged?

–      A portfolio of their writing

•       Would the novelty wear off?

•       Would they increase their skill?

•       What if other disciplines required blogs?

–      What about interdisciplinary blogs?

–      Blogging Across the Curriculum

Metacognition

•       Stop & blog to reflect:

–      End of every quarter

–      One of the best prompts

–      Students explore their blogging journey

Compare designs

Individual with Blogger

•       Every student has own blog

•       Class website links to all blogs

•       Autonomy

•       Individualized Design

•       Writing portfolio

Group with Weebly

•       One stop shopping

•       Resources, blogs, discussions in one place

•       Less autonomy

•       Teacher-designed

•       Teacher has full control

–      Built with Weebly.com

–      One-stop shopping

–      Organizes assignments, blogs, and discussions

–      Gathering Place:

•       A, B, C, D, and G periods view one another’s blogs

–      Not just consuming information but producing it: Web 2.0

Blogspot Blogs in Blogger

•       I make a different class blog for every class

–      Sports Lit blog

–      Sci Fi blog

–      Creative Writing Class blog

–      Chemistry blog

•       Links to individual student blogs

•       Every student has their own blog

–      About 20-40 minutes to set up blogs

–      Paperless (mostly) classroom

–      All homework on blogs

–      Add photos

–      Pick individual designs

•       Blogger is a stable platform

TEACHER BLOG vs. STUDENT BLOG

 

Kate Baker on Giving Students' Meaningful Choice

At #CEL13 (the conference for English leaders at #NCTE13 in Boston), I had the pleasure of moderating a presentation by Gordon Hultberg @pradlfan about student choice. I didn't know her at the time, but Kate Baker @Ktbkr4 attended and on January 4, when I had almost forgotten the session, she blogged her thoughtful and detailed responses to that conversation. Such is the power of connected educators who revisit conferences through blogging and Twitter and keep the conversation going. (Kind of like blended learning: discuss in class and continue the conversation online after school.)

Click Kate Baker's blog  or see my comments below in red

How often do we give students choice and how are teachers' own personal preferences represented in the choices we allow?
Good point, Kate! I allow limited choices to students that are within preset parameters: "choose essay prompt A or B." Do we ever give students authentic choices?: "By unit's end, design a project, paper, or presentation that demonstrates deep learning." What kind of rubric would we need for that? 
The session prompted participants to examine the ways in which we offer choice to our students: the texts they read, the assignments they complete, scoring, grades, participation.... The list goes on to encompass all facets of our classroom activities and procedures.
Even setting up classroom rules? How students should conduct themselves during discussions? Will students eventually be running the school? Would that necessarily be bad? (I digress.)

Aptly named, this session forced me to reflect on the choices I provide for my students and how I can transform the decision making process.  When I reflect on the choices I offered students during the first years of my career, I usually provided them with options that I would have wanted as a student, but here in lies the problem: I was providing the choices I wanted. I was not really walking in their shoes; I imagined myself as I WAS as a student.  My intentions with providing choice were sincere, but who I am now is much different from the student I was 20 years ago, and who I was then is much different from who my students are today.
How often do teachers really "walk in their shoes" instead of projecting the teacher's preferences? Such is the power of conferences with thoughtful presenters and open-minded educators.
In the past 2 years, attempting to offer my students choices that are not biased or preconceived, I offer a "Show Me" option instead of an assessment I design for unit tests. Students "show me" that they know the material by synthesizing their knowledge and skills into some kind of product. I want to see that they can be an expert in their own right. The students have complete choice to show me that they know the material, and I grade it using an OSU rubric (Outstanding, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory). Oh, okay, you answered my question about a rubric.
Instead of taking a test on the Trojan war, one of my students last year chose to write a multi-scene screenplay of the Apple of Discord episode. Her writing was captivating and she showed me she knew the origins of the Trojan War without ever selecting A,B,C, or D on a multiple choice test.
What a progressive vision of assessment! Not just in theory, but in classroom practice! I'm in awe (I mean, I'm inspired to try this with my second semester seniors for their last assessment).

Much like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the more we control internal and external factors, the more opportunity we have for choice and the more power we have in choosing for ourselves and others.
As we move up Maslow's hierarchy, we constantly make choices at every level and our circle of loci expands. If our needs aren't met, we won't move up the hierarchy and seek that opportunity for risk.
Students' lives are controlled by teachers and schools even after school, except students can choose when to do homework or how thoroughly. Kate's vision proposes giving students authentic, real decision making powers to promote more responsibility, more risk taking, more creativity, and more sense of individual agency. What a vision! (check out the graphic)


Did you make this, Kate Baker? Please retweet!

Kate Baker did make this graphic. (I did a google image search.) Kate, you inspire so many teachers. This needs to be re-tweeted until it goes viral!

Lessons learned:

• To thoughtfully engage after conferences extends conversations beyond the moment
• Student choice is not a simplistic concept, but has the power to transform our students' sense of personal agency and ownership of their learning
• Teachers everywhere should experiment with choice in their own classrooms and then report back on Twitter (with the hash tag #studentchoice) and in blogs.

Thank you to Gordon Hultberg for presenting in Boston and thank you to Kate Baker for continuing the worthwhile conversation beyond the conference. It just goes to show you, it's not always the size of the audience but quality of attendees that matters.

 

Comments welcomed here or also on Kate Baker's blog

Holly Clark's New Year's Resolutions

Here are some educator's New Year's Resolutions that I want to adopt!
                             Click here to see Holly Clark's blog
Holly Clark @HollyEdTechDiva has more than 5,000 followers on Twitter and she posted these resolutions  (and challenges to educators).

Holly's goals, with my comments in red:

1. As educators we will begin to give students more voice in their learning. (Let's give students voice in their writing, choice in their reading, agency in their learning, and options in demonstrating what they've learned.)

2. Teachers everywhere will make a pledge to teach without students in rows and without standing in front of the class for one month. (For only a month? Flexible furniture facilitates re-configuring classrooms, group work, circling desks, and other configurations.)

 

3. We will begin to re-evaluate the “data” we get from multiple choice tests and look to find more formative and imaginative ways to assess learning. (I'm reading Common Formative Assessment (Kim Baily & Chris Jakicic 2012). Admin has promised that we will talk about assessment this semester and I want to be ready!)

4. Students will be allowed to connect with other classes, and teachers and administrators will stop being afraid of YouTube and Twitter. Instead, teach kids how to critically think about these forms of media. (I'm using Chatzy.com as a backchannel during films and discussions and searching for other seniors that blog so we can comment on their blogs. Twitter is blocked by tech.)

5. In 2014, Digital Citizenship won’t be simply a discussion about cyberbullying, but rather about teaching students how to be savvy online learners and collaborators. (Yet to teach this, but I must.)

6. When using a computer in the classroom, teachers will find more ways to integrate technology other than online research or writing a paper – try a Mystery Skype, Google Helpout, or collaborative reading with Subtext. (Used Subtext last year. Trying to use tech for innovative learning.)

7. Students will begin to house most of their work in digital portfolios. This will help them build and understand the importance of their web presence and allow them to share their learning purposefully with a wider audience. (My student's blogs are like a one-year portfolio. But I'd love to organize multi-year digital portfolios school-wide.)

8. When designing lessons, teachers will ask themselves, how will this “impact student learning” and how will this get students “ready for their future?” (Teaching seniors, I design everything for college readiness. But is that enough?)

9. Educators will stop asking students questions on tests that they can google – and instead ask rich questions that require real critical thinking to answer or solve. (Love this! No more regurgitated answers! Only thought-provoking questions!)

10. Don’t give students questions to answer  -but allow them to ASK their own questions and creatively find the answers – even the wrong ones. (Click Right Question Institute and read Make Just One Change for a systematic way to have students generate their own questions. I observe a lot of teachers, and even Socratic questions have the teacher directing the conversation. I've tried Socratic Circles and student-led discussions with good success to make students less dependent on the teacher, make more eye-contact with other students rather than addressing all remarks to the teacher, and give students more responsibility, agency, and independence for discussions and their own learning.)

 

Let 2014 be a breakthrough year for all of us teachers!