Thinglink to Annotate Tableaus

Inspired by the Royal Shakespeare Company's use of student created tableau to foster close reading, I knew it would be a perfect pairing with Thinglink.

Analyzes movement to connect to motivation

Students select a moment in time to create a freeze frame, snap a picture to create a moment in time from the text, and then annotate the decisions they made in body, facial expression, proximity, and movement. The app is stripped down compared to the website, but it is easy to use with a picture students take of themselves if it is all on one device.

Analyzes proximity to reveal conflict.

The trickiest part is actually on the teacher end. Thinglink limits the amount of groups - 3 - and students - 105. So if you have class sizes like mine and 6 classes, you can't make a group for each class or give every kid a login. I decided to have one student per group request I register. Because the registration produces a dummy e-mail, complex password, and then I have to have students insert the class invite code, there are some steps that the students must take logging in that would not be friendly for younger students, but once they were in and students got into the app, I had very few questions and students were able to work through it fairly quickly.

Citation of lines that show the moment in time.

I also like that this is a shorter assignment. Students did their first one about half a period. I think if we did a second one, we could probably get the kids down to 15 minutes now that they understand how to login and use the app.

Tagxedo to Analyze Diction

I'm a huge fan of diction analysis, and it is for sure an instructional emphasis in my classroom, which can sometimes make it feel redundant when we've been doing it all year long with every conceivable genre. That's the great thing about tech. You can have students do the same thing in tech that you've done in a very similar way on paper and the students don't even notice. The novelty makes the entire assignment feel fresh and creative. Gamification and tech, I've learned, are great ways to trick kids into practicing skills with renewed vigor!

My example created in the video. Super pretty, no? 

The end of the year we have fun with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. What better way to keep the kids engaged than by taking away the desks, putting on some fairy wings, and punning? 

The video pretty much says it all: add any text (I'm having my students pick a monologue from MSND) to Tagxedo , add the word cloud it into a presentation slide or word processor, pick out the 8-12 largest words, determine connections, write analysis for at least 5 of the words answering the question "Why?" - Why is this word being repeated? Why did the author choose this word and not ___?, save as a PDF and upload to whatever platform floats your boat!

Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen Come to App Smashing

Last year I used the Numbered Heads strategy and it was okay, but not the most engaging strategy.
Two weeks later, I decided to try it again but this time I came up with a completely arbitrary points system, added a stuffed monkey to be a place holder for what group spoke next, and referred to it as a game to m students. It was the EXACT same strategy just with some bells and whistles. Kids in third period walked in with "I heard we are doing something really fun today!" Minus the obvious insinuation that my classroom is not always amazingly fun ;), I found this comment hilarious. Turn something into a game and add a points system and all of a sudden something is "really fun!"

Our rewards system of our brain rewards the brain with little bursts of dopamine every time kids get points. Watching Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen got be thinking of App Smashing. What is app smashing besides taking a bunch of ingredients (apps) to create a dish (objective of the app smash). 

Principles of cooking competitions:

- throw in surprises that make the task harder (Chopped does this with an odd ingredient that doesn't go with the rest and Cutthroat does this with sabotages)  

- make a challenging time frame

- narrows pool down with each round (apps, entree, dessert)

1. Introduce the concept as App Chopping and build up excitement. Explain briefly for students who are not glued to Food Network (Foolish youth!)

2. Explain there will be courses (if you choose) each with a time limit. Each course could actually feature its own app, which when combined with iMovie or similar app, creates the app smash

3. Give student task  - example: analyze a character's traits - and the apps to be used.

4. Post timer for board 

5. At intervals, add in the twists! You can make each twist offer extra credit to the presentation, that way instead of causing undo stress, it is more of a fun suggestion. Twist ideas:

• put random props - stapler, inflatable shark, a set of plastic cups - in bags and have students randomly select. They can include prop in video.
• give everyone a silly word - "pineapple" or "boomerang" - that they have to integrate in their App Chop and those who do so in a seamless manner get bonus points.
• If using an app with backgrounds like Tellagami, have students pick the most inappropriate background and have it make sense
• Have students use a feature in an app and make it work for their video. For example, giving an iMovie filter like "aged film"

6. Students create videos and can post to edmodo, google folder, or wherever you prefer. 

7. For additional "courses" you can build upon the first course. In my example, course 1 is analyze character traits with evidence, course 2 is analyze how the character's traits contribute to a conflict in the story, course 3 is what lesson should we learn about the way the character's traits influences the creation or resolution of that conflict (aka, theme!)

QR Code Museum Pieces

Turn your classroom - or school library - into a museum.

Student created art

Students create museum pieces and museum placards that indicate the information required. Perfect for history, prereading for historical novels, or post-reading for self-selected texts where each child can share an artifact from a book.


I wish I could show the kids' faces. There were smiles all around!

Students learn about lutes

Here are the directions for it as I applied it to pre-reading for Midsummer Night's Dream in which students examined the Elizabethan Era - so much better than a lecture from the teacher, right?

How I used this:

Shakespeare Centers (set up in ability groups of 3-5 with two of each type of center runnign concurrently)
Center A: Students participated in Shakespeare Museum
Center B: Students explored The Globe with the Shakespeare's Globe 360 App
Center C: Card Sort - advanced groups paired Shakespearean insults to their 21st century prose versions while struggling students worked on literary terms matched to examples from All the World's a Stage

Abydos Conference 2016: Day 2

General Session: Sharon Draper (how am I so lucky?!?)
So many awesome affirmations and motivations,

• In regards to Out of My Mind: "I was writing something from my heart."
• Stella by Starlight is a tribute to Draper's grandmother, the "first writer (who couldn't write) in the family"
• Pro tip from Draper: One page first chapters are an excellent way to get kids hooked on a book. Convince the kid to read the first chapter because it's only a page.
• Mrs. Draper travels all over the world. On a trip to Africa, an African man came up to Draper to talk about America over testing. He explained, "In my country if we wish an elephant to grow, we feed him; we don't measure him."

Session E: Isabel Corona "Organization and Progression or Is This the Best Way to Organize My Essay"

• I chart
• Using what students know - their personal experiences - as support for reasons

Session F: Michelle Johnson "Welcome to the 21st Century Classroom"

Some of the free goodies available for tech

• Symbaloo
• Story Board That
• Blendspace
• Powtoons
• Google Docs Add-on "Draft Back" - creates a video of the construction. Could watch a student typing 
• rattle- poems created inspired by current events

Session G: Valerie Maclin "Shaping the Color of Our Learning: Using Mulicultural Literature to Unlock the Stories within Us"

Great book options:

• The Other Wes Moore - nonfiction; two boys with the same name and similar childhoods grow up to be completely different men
• The Secret Olivia Told Me - picture book
• Enrique's Journey - nonfiction
• Ball Don't Lie
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda - kid being blackmailed with the threat of outing him
• Beyond Magenta - follows 4 trans kids
• Mexican Whiteboy
• Separate is Never Equal by Mendez - picture book
• The Big Box by Toni Morrison

Session H: Michael Guevara "Writing SHort: Beyond Elements - the Atoms of Style
Love, love, love this. It reminds me of how when working on a poem every word and structural element is more closely considered and considered for a greater period of time because there are fewer words. Guevara too micro messages - Chipotle bags, the inside lid of a a yogurt cup, a fortune cookie, etc. and challenged students to create their own micro messages. The journey of writing balanced, unbalanced, and change of pace micro messages over the same subjects is a wonderful lesson in writing style and instantly make me consider syntactical decisions, focus, and thesis. Powerful stuff that can be done as mini-lessons.

I also deeply appreciate how he pointed out the long essay came from a time where a student's writing was mainly kept within the classroom and for that audience, but today, students are writing for a much broader audience using social media, but the messages are much shorter.

Session I: Emily Newton "Brene Brown, Shame, and the Writing Classroom: How Does Shame Impact Us and Our Writers?"
Emily Newton is phenomenal. I feel like I was just in therapy and made a breakthrough. Through defining and determine the difference between shame and guilt and then relating that to our lives, our students' lives, and then having us take on the voice of a child experiencing shame or guilt at a essay in which red has been bled all over it and marked with an F? Brilliance! Also, made me go out and buy the last two copies of Rising Strong by Brene Brown. One for me and one for others I love.

2016 Abydos Conference: Day 1

Opening General Session: Jeff Anderson

Anyone who has been so lucky as to sit in on a Jeff Anderson Abydos session knows he commands a room. His energy was absolutely brilliant for the large stage. Quick takeaways, connections, references:

• Jeff's entire introduction was organized in hero's journey. He examined his own tragic flaw, which I think is simply brilliant and has multiple classroom opportunities
• The Plot Whisperer - helped Jeff with his fiction writing
• "Manifesto of the Brave and Brokenhearted" by Brene Brown - what a powerful piece. I want to suggest it be read at the beginning of next year
• Ted Talk on Power Stances - want to make me instantly feel uncomfortable? Make me stand like Super Woman and repeat something en mass
•  Jeff Anderson quote of the day: "It isn't fake it 'til you make it. It's fake it until you become it."

Session A: Shanna Peeples...yes, that Shanna Peeples

There was so so so much in this session, but one of the biggest was I feel the Progress Principle from Harvard Business Review's Teresa Amabile paired with journaling (because, as Shanna says, "Writing is what is going to save us") to chunk what is her 10 minute reflection mentioned on her site. My favorite part? "Fear is cheap and easy, but what's hard is to be a creator, to take risks." and then she has us silence our inner critic and bring out our inner coach and write for 2 minutes about what went well.

Session B: Beth Egmon's Putting the "Draw" into Writing: Using Illustration Study to Nurture Young Writers

Beth is a-maz-ing! I was about to teacher my first institute with her. Even though the session was for primary, you can easily see how drawing as prewriting and studying illustrations to add details helps students create depth in their own writing. 

Session C: Malaika Easton's From Self to Story

Even though Malaika left our campus over the summer *sob sob* I was able to see this transformation of thought and reflection unfold and come full circle from last year until now. I simply loved how she took her role as a counselor to create a lunch bunch of 5 "bad boys" and through writing, examine their own stories and how they can be the authors of their own narratives. These boys will never forget Malaika and I have no doubt she changed their lives for the better. Insert plug for the three memoirs that were part of Malaika's reflection process and which are wonderful: Brown Girl Dreaming (READ THIS BOOK), Bad Boy, and Zlata's Diary. All three of those are musts if you ever want to do a memoir lit circle. 

Using ReadWriteThink to Simplify Differentiation

Instead of lecture on Shakespeare, I devoted two days to research of choice. Students researched 15 interesting things about Shakespeare and his time and got to choose the product they made. Students could make a crossword with Crossword Creator or the Timeline. Simplify the amount of info and make a Cube.

Instant Poetry 2: Beautiful Poetry App

Instant Poetry 2 is a great app for teachers - students can make a poem quickly and it is a very non-threatening app. Teachers not used to iPads will quickly get their students making poetry in thirty minutes or less. The finished products are lovely and the free "stripped down" version does not feel stripped down at all.

Graphite Blog Post: 5 Ways to Flip Shakespeare

Please follow this link to the blog I wrote for Graphite!