May the force be with you!

Throughout the force of my inquiry, a constant stream of questions rose anew just when I thought the battle won, the Sith overthrown. My questions about the role of technology in our society were not answered, but instead only magnified. While the journey of SI has now come to a close, I wanted to ponder the message imprinted on the force. Luke and I  continue to search for answers led by our fearless leaders Lacy, Steve, Sally, and Lil.

But in all seriousness, SI has revolutionized the way I view my teaching practices. I want to thank our leaders for all of their support through this process. Lacy has been wonderful at organizing our agenda and posting a record of our documents and research on google docs. Steve, poor Steve! I have constantly plagued him with questions about how to use various technologies, and he has patiently helped me to become successful with a variety of digital resources. Sally was a source of encouragement for both my demo and quiet thinking. She reminded the class it's ok to sometimes sit and listen to the amazing conversations that occur in SI. And Lil has challenged my thinking. I had the opportunity to partner up with Lil during many of our demos. She presented new ideas that counteracted typical standards for teaching and listened to my ideas for constructing new units. She quietly explained how and why certain thinking occurs and how we should approach teaching these ideas in the classroom.

Not only do I want to thank our leaders, I also want to thank everyone in SI. I can truthfully say that everyone in SI brought something special to the table. Without my writing group or any other member of the class, I feel like SI would have been missing something. My head is spinning with ideas of how to construct fair and individualized writing evaluations for students, how to bring in students' personal stories and backgrounds, how to build units with easy-to-use technology components in my classroom, and how to foster an environment that encourages creative and academic writing without any fear of judgment.

The end of SI is bittersweet. I've found a community of friends and teachers who are passionate about writing, who care about teaching both our students and myself, and most importantly, who will be there to support me this year when I try out all of my new ideas. It's a little terrifying to revolutionize my teaching, but I have a strong feeling that I am taking a step in the right direction. I believe that I have finally found a group of people who will support me if I fail and encourage me to try again.

Multi-Cultural Literature

After Robin's presentation today, I reflected on the intense need for including multi-cultural literature in our classrooms as a way to connect with our students. I teach at an IB school, which emphasizes international differences and multi-cultural literature. It is very important that I constantly add in multi-cultural literature because it is the basis for our school! Robin left me wondering how do we reach black boys and girls in our classes without stereotyping their interests?

I've found that usually I can connect to most boys through rap and superheroes, but young, African-American girls appear to challenge me a bit more. I find that often they care little about being a superhero, and it takes me at least a quarter to help my students understand that I want them to do well on writing assignments and projects. Why is it that students assume teachers are out to make them suffer?

However, this still hasn't answered my questions about connecting with my African American female population. Typically, I find that science fiction and fantasy are an absolute no go. I did notice last year when I taught New Boy that many of my female students who had previously been disinterested about superheroes and the Salem Witch Trials were suddenly all ears. So maybe teaching a book about Civil Rights earlier in the year would bring in more student interest? But I also want to bring in more current literature and not assume that slavery and Civil Rights are the only way to connect with my African American population. The problem is that I don't know where to find this literature! Thanks to Robin for all of her great resources on this topic!

I think maybe it goes back to the idea of giving students a voice to tell their own story. Maybe if I can relate students' individual stories back to literature, they would care more about what I have to teach. However, if anyone has some suggestions for connecting to my young African American females in terms of literature or class activities, it would be most appreciated.

Graphic Organizers Are the Devil

After participating in Sarah's demo on graphic organizers I feel like I am Bobby Bouche's mother in The Waterboy when she calls everything the devil. Graphic organizers are the devil. This is hardly this first time in SI when one of my previous teaching practices has been called into question. I look back over my two years picking out moments where I did exactly the things we criticize. However, I believe that's the point of SI.

I remember last year when Lil, Lacy, Sally, and Steve hosted a week long course for teachers about writing. This was my first experience with the Writing Project. That week changed how I set up my classroom last year. I introduced daybooks for the first time! My year went more smoothly, but I still felt like I had more to learn.

During SI this year, I have had so many aha moments that I can't even begin to count the number. All of the older teachers at my school told me that in your third year of teaching, everything starts to click. I believe that process has already started. I keep learning things on a daily basis that answer questions I have been asking for years. Somehow the other teachers had it figured out, but couldn't tell me how to create that same sort of writing atmosphere in my classroom. I'm so excited to take what I've learned and apply it to units and share with other teachers at my school. Here is my most recently inspired idea based off of our discussions about removing outlines from the writing process:

Step 1: Expose students to different forms of brainstorming. I plan to show students a variety of brainstorming techniques and encourage them to try one out that seems interesting to them. I want students to try to use a technique that seems natural to them.
Step 2: Create order! Based on previous assessments on multiple intelligences (most of our students are aware of these by 8th grade), I will group students based on different ideas on how to create order from a brainstorming. Groups might include strategies like circle and move an idea, highlight and rewrite, cut and paste, or using manipulatives to represent parts of the paper. Groups could then share what worked for them about the techniques and what didn't work for them.
Step 3: Rewrite/Create a strong first draft
Step 4: This might be the point where I introduce a required rubric or give students a list of things that need to be included in that genre of paper. Students need to compare their draft to the list and revise. They could use some of Cindy's strategies for revision if they are stuck.
Step 5: Write your final draft. This would be the place for a discussion/conference about editing and expectations for turn-in.

Assessment: What's the right way to do it?

Data notebook. I had been asked to keep a data notebook over the course of next year as one of my personalized goals to measure how students might score on our new end-of-grade testing. "I think keeping data notebook would help you to track your students' progress and plan lessons accordingly," says my vice principal.

I pause for minute. My vice principal has been instrumental in guiding both my first and second year teaching. She was not afraid to help me with anything from cleaning my desk and reorganizing(yes, this was slightly terrifying) to getting the mouthy student back in line. So when she asks me to complete a data notebook, I am more than willing to listen to her suggestions. She is a former math teacher so I reason that maybe she has a data-driven approach that will help me to raise my test scores. Because its all about test scores and teacher evaluations, right?

Thus begins the elusive quest for the mysterious data notebook. I begin asking numerous Language Arts teachers who have more experience than years I've been alive. How should I approach this data notebook? Most of my answers are highly opinionated leaning toward the idea that data notebooks were created by math teachers and administration to try and put a number on writing and this can not be done! Who knew I would spark such intense debate? Most Language Arts teachers had no idea how to approach this concept of a data notebook and were highly offended that we were asked to use one. I mean numbers and words don't go together, right? When I finally located a Language Arts teacher who had a successful data notebook, I discovered she had called on the help of one of our math teachers to design this notebook. This led me to question if the notebook reflected true student learning or only test scores and grades.

"I'm glad you kept a data notebook this year. I like to see data driven lessons," I hear at my end-of-the-year evaluation. "For the summer, would you mind talking with your mentor teacher about assessments? I think that if you two could collaborate on how to create accurate assessments for writing that it would be wonderful."

Here we go again.. I'm stuck. I used all my ideas for this data notebook! How do I create an accurate assessment for writing? No one seems to know.

Summer Institute to the rescue! Needless to say, I was pleased to discover that the lunch convo today would be on assessment. I found the articles interesting, particularly one that pointed out writing improvement takes well over ten to fourteen weeks! For the past two years, I found that parents' immediate need to know how their child is doing within the first progress report was a little unsettling. I thought that I had only started teaching. How can I give them accurate feedback about their child when I was still getting to know his or her personality and strengths? I found that other Language Arts teachers also thought this was a daunting task no matter their experience level.

It was refreshing to be able to ask these questions about assessment without administrators attempting to smooth over the need for data. Lil and Lacy mentioned how the best way to help a student is by giving them individual goals, a personalized editing checklist, and conferencing. Lil mentioned that if you do not have time to conference as much as you would like that you can create class experts on a certain grammar topic or literary feature. This way the class is learning to identify their mistakes and be confident that the student feedback they receive is helpful. I found the idea of comparing student writing throughout the year based on their individual struggles would be far more effective at helping students to understand and improve their writing long term than simply keeping track of their grades. I know that once I learned how to identify mistakes that I typically make, it was a lot easier to edit my own paper. I think this helps them see that writing is approachable and more like a dialogue than an hard and fast rule book. I even believe I could use Tiffany's idea of journaling to show students that brainstorming is just as important as the final piece. This concept of comparing their writing throughout the year so that both I and the student sees individual improvements appeals to me much more than simply slapping a grade on the assignment and entering it into NCWise. I think it dawned on me today, oh, this is the missing factor. This is how experienced teachers get their students to do things that I could only dream about accomplishing. Well, they do claim that the third year is the year of enlightenment for teaching!

Journals and Technology

Today's inquiry mapping brought me back to my original thoughts on the question of technology. Is technology a positive or negative social force in our society? As I started my inquiry and prepared for my demo, I tended to lean a bit on the side of technology devastating our social structure. Yet, as I recounted some of my experiences in SI, I hopped back on that fence of indecision.

Technology has contributed to much of my positive learning in SI. For example, the collaboration with my writing project via twitter and google docs helped me to discover new articles to include in my group folders for the demo! This made me reconsider how social media can be used positively with the right purpose. Our blogs and google docs provide a unique opportunity for us to receive positive, documented feedback that we can immediately reference. But this discovery also led me to another question: Would these social media tools have been as effective if the course was only online?

The physical daily meetings allowed us to work within a small group frequently. We learned one another's strengths and personalities so the online media seemed to be an extension of this collaboration. But what about more isolated collaboration?

During our group discussion after my demo, many people explored the idea of social media connecting the disadvantaged. Lil pointed out that her mother, who is in her 90s, would not normally be able to go outside of the house and see her friends. However, because both she and her friends are connected through social media they can still keep up with each other in their own homes! This example made my perspective shift a little because I had not considered that social media could be helping to link the elderly, sick, or geographically isolated. So much of the focus is placed on the negative aspects of social media that we forget about the positive interactions that come as a result of technology!

As I plan a unit to use in my classroom with this idea of technology in mind, I'm amazed at how many questions I still have about this topic. I think that rather than be the final word on the positive and negative nature of technology, I'm going to let my students know that the questions I ask them are questions I don't have an answer for. One powerful way to initiate this discussion would be using Tiffany's lesson on journaling.

As I started my preparation for my demo, I had a list of probably ten unanswered questions that I had about my topic. I found that the more I inquire into this topic, the more people's opinions generate new questions for me! My list is growing and not shrinking! Tiffany's idea of allowing students to journal all day on powerful prompts seems like the perfect way to start the unit. I want students to reflect on their own thoughts before they start that groupthink mentality on technology. I believe that if I present these provocative questions about technology and give them a whole day to write about this concept and then share, that it will begin the conceptual thinking that I want to see in my classroom. I found that a lot times when students learn that they will have some sort of formal topic to investigate, they just shut down. I think that if I make students feel like they already bring ideas to the table, it will encourage them to ask their own questions about the role of technology in our society. I would like to switch my teaching to a more inquiry-based approach that the typical argumentative writing stance. And I believe that journals would give students a voice in the classroom and help them realize that it is ok to explore and wonder and that I do value their opinions.

Creative Writing

During Ben's demo today, I was reminded of the connection between art and creativity. Earlier in the institute, we were asked about our sources of inspiration. I have always found that intense reading and looking at vibrant pictures inspires me to write. However, I know that everyone is not inspired in the same way. I found it interesting that Ben, who is also a creative writer, used a series of images to inspire writing. It worked for me! I was able to connect what I had been thinking about at lunch with the writing from this activity.

 I'm often faced with the problem of how to bring forth more from my students in their writing. Do I ask them the right questions? Do I need to create a safe space for sharing of ideas? Or are we simply reluctant to share our bad writing?

Writing creates a more personal judgment zone. We place a lot of thought and time into what we present as a formal piece. Yet, how to we muster the courage to share this piece with others? We share our work, almost holding our breath until we receive some form of praise from the audience. Then we feel as though we have accomplished something. I know if we still feel intimidated to share writing that is supposed to be bad as adults, how much more afraid are our students to share their best attempt with their teacher?

In middle school education, the concept of a teacher's opinion is important, but the opinion of their peers really holds the final say. Students want to be social and don't want their classroom performance to affect their relationships with their friends. Some students assume they have to fill certain roles in the classroom and are more concerned with these roles than with their grade. I've often wondered how we can encourage our students to forget these roles and just share. The demo that Ben provided would be a great icebreaker and hopefully lead to fostering a judgment free zone.

P.S.- I decided to publish the first draft of my blog today in the spirit of bad writing!

Writing with young children

I find that as we continue in the Summer Institute I'm constantly amazed at the benefits we can learn from kindergarten teachers. For the most part, after we learn to do anything we forget the process. We forget how difficult it is to learn how to use the internet because we have done it for five years. We forget our struggles of trying to drive a car. Now we just hop in and go! So something as far into our past as learning to read really does seem like a different life. We just read. We do not struggle to make sense of most words, and if we have vocabulary difficulty we know how to solve the problem. Google it!

Today, in Jenny's demo she took me back to my four-year-old self. How did I learn to read? Why did my early teachers focus on phonics and pronunciation? I found that as she refreshed our memories and explained the why and how, I discovered how complicated it is to teach someone to read. It's hard for the child because they don't know the process. And it's hard for us because we forget to identify with the child. This exercise definitely gave me some perspective. Now when my students struggle to pronounce a word, I can remember to help them sound it out instead of quickly reading it for them in a passage and moving on. I can even use this an opportunity to discuss our language and put vocabulary in context of our reading.

Additionally, I found my partner story creation to be interesting. Lil pointed out to me that we can write before we can read. I never thought which came first in this situation. It's kind of that chicken and the egg situation. I also had an opportunity to ask her about adults who don't know how to read. We have all heard the horror stories that a student made it to high school and still can't read. I asked Lil how this could happen and what were some signs we could use to identify student reading struggles.

She explained that as an adult, we have learned a variety of social cues. We know that the symbols on the Mountain Dew bottle say "Mountain Dew" from social situations. We can gather similar visual cues that can help an adult to survive in our world. However, the less visual cues that we give a reader, the more difficult the text. I thought this was a great way to determine if my students were in fact struggling with reading or with something else.