Open-Ended Responses for Plickers

One of the biggest drawbacks of student response systems is that often in ELA I want my students to do more than just answer multiple choice. How to get students to write answers while still taking advantage of the data these response systems have to offer? Simple: don't put answer options down!

I create the questions like above where A is a, B is b, C is c, and D is d. In groups, have students answer the question (or in the case of the above, finish the sentence) on a sentence strip. While the view is NOT on bar graph, have students put their sentence strip next to a letter. Students can then vote on the best answer. When done, flip it over to the bar graph view. Have students talk in groups about the results and then share out.

Feature Writing as Summary

There are a hundred ways I could use the newspaper feature on www.fodey.com, but one of my favorites is the idea to have students respond to a chapter by writing a news article over it. I think it is great because it adds a creative aspect to retelling events. For my 8th graders, I would require that the headline needs to hint at a thematic issue or message.

I love how the website (1) lengthens the page so the end product can be short or long, (2) creates a downloadable image file that can be easily uploaded to Edmodo, Padlet, or incorporated into an appsmash, and (3) super authentic! It looks like the ink print from other newspapers has been left on it. This could create some really cool "historical" documents. I used to do a research project where students wrote diary entries from fictional or real characters in WWII. Wouldn't it be neat to have the end product of a research project like that be a fictional online archive?

For my example, I used The Outsiders. I had to research where the country may have been that the boys ran off to and what a viable date would be for the book, including the day of the week for that date. I had to imagine quotations from characters that seemed authentic to what we know about those characters.

Directions:
1. Think of what event happened in the book/chapter/story that would be front page worthy
2. Use the newspaper function on www.fodey.com (make sure to pause add blocker if you have that on your computer) to write a newspaper article that reveals the events
3. Use a maps website to come up with an accurate name for the newspaper and locations
4. Research the day of the week for an accurate date
5. Make sure your headline acknowledges a thematic component
6. In your summary, include a quotation from a character. This quotation should not be dialogue lifted from the text, but rather dialogue you create based on what you know about the characters and who a reporter would interview about this event

Lit Analysis Gamifiction with Make Dice Lite

What is Make Dice Lite?

Make Dice Lite in an iPad that allows the user to customize dice and use up to 6 at a time. To roll the dice, students can tap the screen or shake the iPad.

Lit Analysis Set Up

In groups of three to 4, students use 1 iPad to create two dice. The first die is whatever literary elements you want your students to analyze. I use character, conflict, symbol, theme, connect two topics, setting.

The second die is one about thematic topics. Examples from The Outsiders: violence, family, loyalty, redemption, social pressure, equality, etc. (Students can choose their own).

Roll the Die

Students roll the dice and create a question with those two things. Provide question stems or example for the different literary elements. EX:

Theme: What is the lesson we are supposed to learn about ______?

Symbol: What object in the text represents _____?

Setting: How does the setting contribute to the lesson we can learn about ______?

Two topics: How are _____ and _____ related?

For character and conflict, it so much depends on the topic I encourage my students to come up with their own way of asking. 

Gamification

Students number off A, B, and C. Students then complete to answer questions. Students take turn answering the question and give text support. For each question, 1 participant answers it and gives support. The other two people then rate the answer with evidence and explanation on a scale of 1-3. The person who answered the question get the combined score. The other group members can each get 1 bonus point for providing approved additional evidence. 

EX: How is setting related equality?

Student A: Tulsa is divided east and west in the novel. The rich Socs are on one side and the poor Greasers on the other, which keeps them separated and continues the idea that by being separated, they aren't able to take down the walls that divide them. If they got to know each other more, the inequality may not create hate. 

Student B: that was really good, I give a 3 out of 3.

Student C: I'm not clear on the theme you think Hinton has about equality so I say 2.

**Student A gets 5 points**

Student B: another thing that supports what you said as an answer is the setting of the dive-in. At the drive in the Socs get to sit in their cars while the greasers have to be out in the elements of the bleachers. 

*** student B gets a point ***

Student C: The school setting also supports that. Remember when Ponyboy talked about how he was in the more advanced classes? He pulled out a knife to dissect a frog and a Soc girl who was his lab partner was horrified. The way there is that divide in the classes at school also makes there be a divide int he social classes. 

*** Student C gets a point. It is now student B's turn to answer a question and try to get the three points ***

Text Smash/App Smash

With commonlit.org, creating a project-based learning experience is easy in that the website is organized by PBL questions! This makes it perfect for across text comparison and an opportunity for students to examine two texts answering the same question.

Thinking of across text comparison got me thinking of App Smashing - combining apps to make a project. So why not a text smash/app smash?

My instructions are specifically for The Outsiders, but check out my lesson flow on graphite to get a generic lesson that can fit no matter what whole class text your students have read.

Building a Better Webquest

Start with the Skills

Prior to a thematic unit or novel study, many teachers prefer webquests to build background over lecture. By providing students with links and questions, students are able to pace themselves and explore resources instead of being passive participants during lecture. However, with the increase of rigor and what feels like not enough hours in the day! Webquests must then serve two functions at the same time: prepare for the coming unit while building skills. 

Evaluate what skills I like to have my skills for the grading period written out. If there is a poetry standard, I know I’ll try to find a poem or song. Vocabulary and dictionary skills also tend to be TEKS for each grading period. I also try to use technology skills. Using the review feature in work for students to annotate the song “Imagine” for my Utopia/Dystopia webquest or using turnitin.com’s discussion board features or the synonyms feature of Word. 

Search for Varied Genres and Sources

When creating a Webquest, I want to take advantage of the media sources on the internet both audio and visual so I like to include things like YouTube/TeacherTube videos, a poem on Poets.org with an audio recording of the poet reading his work, and PBS LearningMedia pictures and videos. I also think that a Webquest opportunity is wasted if students are not participating in an interactive or Web 2.0 activities. To me, if a Webquest could be completed with library books, what is the point? PBS has some great resources like putting students in the shoes of a African-American man trying to vote during Jim Crow, or analyzing how advertising tries to trick the viewer, or learning about Edgar Allen Poe by investigating his death or interacting with his texts or exploring the nature of self-segregation with the Parable of the Polygons (my personal favorite!!!!) . 

Web 2.0!

Taking a couple days in the computer lab just to have students write answers on a Word document is a crying shame of the plethora of easy Web 2.0. Students can use the snipping tool to grab evidence. Some easy Web 2.0 to use:

• Read, Write, Think: Student Interactive
• Message boards and collaborative groups like Edmodo, Titan Pad, or Google Slides
• Make Beliefs Comix

Organizational Patterns with Video

Did you know there are goats with spider DNA? That little bit of info is the easiest hook for a student to be instantly engaged in introduction to text structures. After a matching activity using the handouts here , students practice applying the patterns to this video on spidergoats!

a.   2:30 – What organizational pattern was just used? (compared advantages and disadvantages of spider silk) What are the benefits and disadvantages of spider silk?

b.   4:30 – What org pattern has been used thus far? (problem solution) What is the problem? What is the solution?

c.    7:26 What org pattern? (sequential.) What are the differences between chronological, listing, and sequential?

d.   8:00 Looking at image, how do the graphics help you?

Graphite Lesson:Sentence Combining with Simple Wikipedia

Students practice syntactical complexity with Simple Wikipedia articles. See lesson HERE! 

Graphite Lesson: Counterargument Smackdown!

With ProCon.org, Edmodo, and Socrative, students categorize major points and evidences on given topic in a lesson easily customizable to your goals and curricular needs. See the lesson here!

Creative Writing with Substance

Giving students an opportunity to write fiction is an important and empowering experience. Too often personal narrative, persuasive, and expository trump all other forms of writing in our classrooms. Meanwhile, we read multiple short stories and novels – all examples of creative narratives that we analyze and exalt. Having student analyze fiction, but not create it runs the risk of sending students a terrible message: the fiction they could write is inferior and not worth creating.

In order for students to really understand why authors do what they do, students must take on the role of the author. Good readers read as writers. When deciding the parameters of a creative writing assignment, I look to my reading standards, not just writing.

Pre-writing plays a key role:

Theme: Get short stories with substance by asking students to find an inspirational quotation on http://www.quotationspage.com/  and then create a plot that proves the theme to be true. Model an example, create plot charts, and let students conference just on the plot charts and ideas so they can refine and get feedback.

Character: By creating innovative and realistic characters, student practice characterization. Character profiles, like the one over at National Novel Writing Month’s teacher resources packet, gives students the scaffolding they need to flesh out their ideas. Use my lesson on the coronation scene from Frozen to help show students the versatility of dialogue.

Symbol: My students were really struggling with analyzing symbols. I wanted them to see symbols from the other point of view, as the author. I modeled with my own story – a stunning narrative that involved Brad Pitt buying me flowers.

Stage directions: This year, our district moved drama unit into the same grading period as our narrative reading and writing units, so I took this as an opportunity to change the short story to a script. Capitalizing on the standards for our grade level that asks students to analyze stage directions, we looked at models and students used them to establish characterization and symbols.

What’s more, the kids have fun! The creative process is engaging. Students are energized. The testing genres are killing our kids. They have voices and characters and worlds ready to be unleashed! Creative writing opens the doors to those worlds and lets kids speak through their characters.

Poetry and Tech Unite!

Inspired by the Color Splash that Jonas sees in The Giver and this lesson on ReadWriteThink.org,
students analyze and create imagist poetry. You by no means need to do The Giver to do this lesson, but it is a nice companion lesson.

How to use this technique for Adobe Photoshop (or iPads):

1. Students analyze “The Red Wheelbarrow”. This website is my favorite collection of commentary on the poem and a wonderful resource for upper level students to see there is no one correct way to view a poem. Personally, I tend to analyze it as the poem itself depends upon the image and therefore the role of the poet is to take note of things we might otherwise ignore.
2.  Open Photoshop or Get a free color splash app. I have used the one from Kite Games Studio which let me get rid of the watermark after I reviewed it. 
3. After showing them what a finished product will look like, help students download a large image that allows for use with modification or take their own images using the iPad camera.
   
4. Open the image in Photoshop or upload the image into the app and have students select the focus of the photo by selecting one object to have color. The easiest way to do this is put a black and white layer of the image over it and use the eraser to erase that back and white layer so the color original shows through.
   
5. Once complete, students save the modified photo.
6. Students then write a vivid sentence describing the focus of their image AFTER the teacher has MODELED.
7. Using the handout on ReadWriteThink.org  as a guide, I put students into small groups to answer those questions. When students are able to receive feedback on their writing and hear the writing of others, everyone improves! Students use an app like Pic Collage to put their poem on their image. Don’t forget to have students add name and class period if you need. If you plan on sharing the images online, make sure students use only first name and last name initial.
8.  My favorite way to upload these types of media rich items is to also publish it at the same time. Create a Google Slides with blank slides – I like using a black background on all of them – and then have students upload the image onto a blank slide. (There are some issues with students not being able to access Google Folders on an iPad app. Ugh! I get around this by having students upload and submit their work via Edmodo and then have them take turns on the back PCs to upload on Slides. It is annoying, but I prefer it over me having to take the time to pull them off Edmodo! This year we are switching to Office 365 for the entire district, so I see if we can upload it onto the 365 version of PowerPoint. While putting the finished work on a presentation is not a necessary step, I do feel is rewarding and important part of the publishing process.) 
9. Change the usage rights of the presentation to view only and send a link to parents, Tweet it, and/or show the presentation in presentation mode while parents file in for Open House!
   

How to modify for PCs:

Instead of using color splash app, students can use Photoshop. There are a lot of YouTube videos and websites that feature multiple ways to do this. They can add the text on Photoshop as well!

The Only Way You Will Need to Teach Symbolism

I finally got around to making and posting this video!

Use Technology to Make Exit Tickets Easier

If you’re like me, closure activities can easily fall by the wayside. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of debriefing. I know exit tickets can provide important reflection for students as well valuable feedback for my own teaching. All the research points to the importance of this part of the lesson cycle, but it also my own area of weakness. The three biggest roadblocks for me can easily be solved with technology:

Roadblock #1: We Forget!

I tend to teach until the bell interrupts me. Why not set an alarm 4 minutes prior to each bell to give students a chance to do the exit ticket? Set alarms on Outlook, cell phone or even your FitBit! FitBit vibrates on your wrist which lets you know you need to wrap up without the students thinking an alarm is the thing ending the lesson.

Roadblock #2: The Mountain of Paper!

With over 180 students, giving each student a Post-It creates a mountain that – admittedly – I usually hardly even read. Why not take advantage of a BYOD classroom? Use Padlet for groups or partners to post the exit ticket. Use the QR code already created within Padlet to share, create a shortened URL with a Chrome extension like bit.ly, or post a link to the class Edmodo or similar service. Keep exit tickets open like:

•           Each group posts the thing they feel they most understand and then the least
•           Post a picture - pile of rocks, a leaf, a bunch of puppies - and ask students to relate it to the day’s lesson.
•         Groups post their own question and answer. For example, working on character traits? Students create a character trait of a common text all the group members know (class novel, Disney movie, etc) and write the character’s name, a trait, and a piece of evidence.

 

Left side: My exit ticket prompt of a logical fallacy with various groups responding.
Right side: Setting to "lock" the padlet to "Can View" so people can't add to finished Padlet.

Roadblock #3: Accountability for students AND teacher

Nothing holds me more accountable than having an outside audience. Create a class Twitter account, encourage parents to follow - even for parents who do not have Twitter accounts, knowing that you are inviting people into your classroom digitally is a great way to leave a strong impression on parents! - and at the end of the school day Tweet out a selected response to your closure activity or the Padlet but make sure to CHANGE THE PRIVACY SETTING TO VIEW! Hashtag your school district when you have a particularly strong example, especially if there is a cute picture with it. Just be aware of privacy laws and don’t use students’ faces.

Shakespeare's Globe App

Stop lecturing about Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and instead have your students participate in a walking tour. Not able to make it to London, you say? Enter the app Globe 360. Students can use the marker - downloadable from the website - or use it without a marker and students can still explore the globe, watch video, and tour the building.

By using ipads, students will be able to look up at the bright blue sky by lifting the ipad above their heads and make a complete 360. So much fun to incorporate into a webquest (appquest?)!

5 Ways to Help Reluctant Writers

Reluctant writers will fight, flight, or freeze when confronted with writing. The same system the brain uses to deal with the threat of the saber-toothed tiger is the same system that tried to protect them from the threat of writing. But we as teachers can show them that writing doesn’t have to be scary!

Model

First and foremost, modeling writing helps students understand that writing A. isn’t the easiest thing. It takes thinking. My student love to try to “help” me by telling me what I should write, but when I say, “This is my essay, let me think!” it shows the reluctant writers in the class that writing isn’t magic. It is okay to pause. Additionally, you are using also sorts of positive brain theory – like mirror neurons – to help bypass anxiety. I usually write for about 5 minutes with my students when beginning a rough draft and then circulate around the room.

Empathize

Brené Brown has a wonderful explanation of what empathy – as opposed to sympathy – is and how to express it. If you have a student with acute anxiety, it is a perfect time to tap into your own experiences with writing anxiety or writer’s block. My go to story involves my BFA thesis. Once I’m able to say, “I know how you feel. I felt the same way when X, Y, Z happened. Do you want me to show you some of my tricks to overcome it?” it usually makes them way more open to some of the other tricks below. I think it is very easy for teachers to make it look like writing is easy. Showing we go through the same emotions and struggles shows that anxiety is actually totally part of a writer’s process!

Change up the paper

“I know sometimes when I need to write the scariest thing about it is the big white paper and me filling out how to fill it up. Want me to give you some special paper?” It is amazing how much giving a child a smaller piece of paper can help. These are my absolute favorite Special Papers. They combat the two scariest things about a piece of notebook paper: color and size. And the lines let my students write neatly and in an organized fashion.

Aromatherapy

You can find sprays, gel beads, and even car fresheners that have lavender scent. Finding your class as a whole a bit stressed? Breakdown the word parts of aromatherapy, explain science has shown lavender is a calming scent, and spray a bit (make sure you know if any of your kids have allergies or are sensitive to strong smells). Don’t want to spray the whole room? Put a bit on a Kleenex and give it to the kiddos who need it. No lie, I have sprayed lavender scented air freshener on the paper mentioned above.

Be flexible

When dealing with a students who fight you on writing, have no mistake they are scared. I’ve had the students before that would instantly become highly confrontational anytime there was writing. One child in particular, read at a second grade reading level and was fourteen in 8^th grade, sported tattoos, and had some rather dubious older friends. He would turn from “kind of a smart alec” into “get out of the chair confrontational with me” when writing would come into play. When he really wanted was for me to kick him out of the room so he wouldn’t be forced to write. In the fight, flight, or freeze response, he picked the fight. This is where private conversations with the kid that are very honest and the teacher being flexible are very important. Over the years I’ve had quite a few of these private conversations that began the same way, “I am totally open to being flexible with you. Tell me what you need from me or what your concerns are and I will work with you.” Concerns and my flexibility have been the following:

Concern: Grammar and mechanics are weak  

Flexible: “I’ll work with you one-on-one when we get to the editing stage, but for right now you don’t have to worry because grammar and all that stuff isn’t the focus with a rough draft. Yes, author’s try to use proper grammar on their rough drafts, but if they aren’t sure how to spell something or were the comma goes, they don’t let that stop them. They know they can come back to it after all their ideas are on paper.”

Concern: Peers may make fun of writing/grammar (this is especially a concern for workshop style classes)

Flexible: In conferencing, my students read their essays aloud so this is easy enough to explain this. However, I have allowed students not to conference their work with peers. I still ask them to give feedback for the other students’ works and then offer to conference with them one-on-one. But most of the time once the kids start conferencing and the reluctant writer sees how supportive the other group members are they are willing to go last. I reinforce this bravery with positive feedback.

Concern: I don’t want to write about myself. (for personal narratives)

Flexible: This is a biggie for some of my kids who have hard lives and learned early on to internalize those feelings instead of expressing them. I do let these kids make up realistic stories of themselves, tell a well known family story of a family member, or write a story about a fun time they had with a friend.

Concern: I can’t write that much (for length requirements)

Flexible: I tell the kids I won’t deduct points for short essays. That my length suggestion is just a suggestion.

Digital Tools Review Site with Lesson Plans: Graphite.org

Looking for tech savvy lessons? Found a new app or website and not sure how to use it for your class?  Need to know if an app or website is right for your students? Common Sense's graphite.org to the rescue!

Reviews 

What I like the about the teacher-created reviews is the way you can use buttons to easily narrow a
search depending on needs. So if you have iPads and know you need a free app for your fourth grade reading class, reviews will show up for that. Or if you have a computer lab and need a website for high school history students, results are easily narrowed. You can even combine elements if you want to widen selections. Then the reviews written by educators in the field give authentic reviews to help you explore what suits your needs.

Lesson Flows

Graphite's term for lesson plans! Flexible in what technology tools you will be using? Use the lesson flow search feature to see lessons written by educators. 

Common Core Explorer

Want to search by standard? They have English and Math (with Science coming soon!) Searches will provide you with a list of technology resources that have lesson flows with those TEKS listed.

Check out my lessons and reviews!

Adobe Voice - Hero's Journey Analysis for Full Tilt

I love apps that are versatile and Adobe Voice does NOT disappoint! It is one of the easiest ways to digital storytelling. Use it in science to create a digital record of a lab or in history class to explain important events or a foreign language course to practice pronunciation.

Why Adobe Voice?

It offers little options – just 5 layouts and a dozen themes, with no ability to alter things like locations of text boxes or transitions – students weren’t as bogged down with selecting visual effects. The focus was able to be on the content, while the technological components kept kids engaged.

How did I use it?

To analyze Hero’s Journey in Full Tilt! Students enjoyed themselves and it was great to see them try to think metaphorically about the colors and images used.  

Issues with Images?

When adding images, students can add from their camera roll or use the search function in Adobe Voice, which in turn searches the internet for images marked Creative Commons and labeled that search term. Issue is that images are not vetted for appropriateness of children, so in an effort to ensure inappropriate images would not appear, I asked students to only use the icons that were uploaded. It gives the presentation a very polished, clean look. Problem is there are some icons that are not appropriate either! Images “love” had some raunchy results. Solution? I think that a teacher would need to consider the age of their students and the way they would want images to be searched and collected. It would be absolutely perfect for having students act things out or draw their own images. 

Tech Tuesday!

vi hart (I love this woman! One day I will be able to make videos as well as she does....I just need to be able to doodle!) teamed up with Nicky Case to brought to life the 1971 paper that examines the issue, not just of bias, but of tolerance in a post-biased society. Playing the challenges on the interactive website, some major themes appear. Themes, which, as a teacher who uses a novel set in the Jim Crow Era South in 7th grade and Holocaust literature in 8th, I saw instant applications to ELA.

I wrote up a lesson on graphite.org.  See the lesson here! Or go directly to Parable of the Polygons to play!

Kahoots, PowerPoint Jeopardy Games, or the traditional Q&A paper review requires a good amount of prep on a teacher’s part. But what to do when you don’t have time to set up a review game? Create a review that is student-centered and fun without having to do more than give instructions and use a few supplies! The following are all inspired by getting to know you activities or party games.

Character Analysis Who Am I?

Materials: note cards

Students sit in groups. They secretly write the name of a character from the book on a note card and pass it facedown to the person on their right. They can hold it on their foreheads or just show the rest of the group and then put it facedown. Students take turns asking hypothetical questions. They way it becomes analysis is not that they are asking comprehension questions (like the traditional game), but creating hypothetical scenarios and asking what the character would do. Example:

Student with Romeo on forehead: What class would my character like in school?

Other student: Your character would probably like English. He’d probably enjoy writing the poetry.

Two Truths and a Lie

Materials: note cards

My middle school kids love this and I find it hilarious because it is just a true false quiz but they think it is so fun! (Note: there are two ways of doing this. One where they do it in groups and pass the cards with an answer key and one where they walk around and find people in the classroom.)

I assign chapters. Students get three index cards each and have to write two truths from the chapter and one lie. I review how best to get away with a lie (it should be partially true and specific). I request they put the page number down in case someone needs to check for accuracy. If groups, I divide the kids up in the amount of chapters I have and have them coordinate the answers and then create and answer key card after the number. They then pass the groups of cards from group to group, checking the answer key, and only using the book if they get them wrong. If my kids are doing this individually, I have them number the chapters on the back of one of the cards. Then I have them walk around the classroom, trying other people’s cards in pairs. They sign off on the chapter number. I require them to get two signatures per chapter.

Whole Book Heads Up!

Materials: note cards

Every Student has 5-8 note cards. Have students write words and phrases on their cards that have to do with the book. With the right prodding, students can do analysis ones. “Try to make it where one card is a symbol, one a character, one a theme, one a plot point, one vocabulary word, one a literary element, etc.” Have students in groups of three collect all the cards facing down in a stack. The students place the card on the forehead. The two other members have to give clues. The person with the cards on the foreheads have to figure out what is on the card. If they get it right, it goes in the “correct” pile. Give students 3 minutes and have each group report how many cards they got right. Switch by having the groups rotate cards and the next person in the trio be the one with the cards on the forehead. NOTE: a rule needs to be established that they slues need to come from the book. Students should not use rhyming or outside references to do the clues. Example, if a student has the word allusion for Full Tilt. The group mates should no say “rhymes with confusion” or “an example would be if I said ‘My hair is so crazy, you could call me Medusa”. It would need to be, “the literary element when Blake called another character Quasimodo.”

Whole Book Bingo

Supplies: Blank bingo cards (or just have the kids make their own by creating a 5x5 grid on notebook paper

Students fill in Bingo cards by requesting they write certain concepts for each letter. For example, B will be character names, I will be themes, N vocabulary words, G literary elements, O is objects from the story. As you walk around, glance at the cards to draw inspiration and call out elements where the BINGO blanks are the answers. Example from The Outsiders, “This a symbol of violence.” Or “This is the protagonist” Or “When Ponyboy tells Cherry about the night Johnny was assaulted and we are able to see what happened.” OR “This is a theme that would be supported by the actions of Johnny when he went in to save the children.” Because it is more about the review than the actual winning of the bingo, I like to let the kids discuss in groups with the directions to ask me if they seem unsure. After you have a kid win Bingo, inform the class that you will be doing a second Bingo for someone who has a filled up board or double bingo. That will keep the game going. I pass out little treats for the kids who win.

Student Led Socrative

Supplies: smart phones/ipads/laptops

Don't have the ability for every child to have a device? Have student partner up using phones! Divide the class up into small groups. Have groups come up with questions for the book. I like the rules where the team that creates the question get a certain amount of bonus points for every group they stump. This encourages them to create deeper, thoughtful questions. You can give them parameters as needed since Socrative lets you use multiple choice, true/false, or short answer. Open up a socrative session that is quick question. Each team presents their question, have students keep their own score, each team gets a point for every questions they get right.