Reflections on Reading: What is our goal? What influences students?

By Kim Miklusak

Often we hear people bemoan a perceived or real decrease in sustained reading in our students.  Teachers express frustration that students don't read outside of class or are not reading at a level that teachers feel they should be at.

This year our Senior English students were doing independent reading choices for 20-60 minutes a week in class, and I know more classes have added this across all grades.  So as the Senior English teachers prepared for our Independent Reading Book Circles, I asked my students to do a brief journal entry on successes and barriers when it came to their reading.

In the words of Paulo Freire in Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach, he says, "As a practical-theoretical context, the school cannot ignore the knowledge about what happens in the concrete contexts of its students and their families.  How can we understand students' difficulties during the process of becoming literate without knowing what happens in their experiences at home or how much contact they have with written words in their sociocultural context?"

I want to share some of their responses here.  They certainly caused me to step back and reflect as we set our goals and targets for our unit: was our goal a quiz at the end?  Was our goal just to finish a book?  Was our goal to inspire a love of reading?  In the end our goal was to have sustained dialogue about a reading both within one book circle and across books.

Making Sure They Are Really Ready: Collaborating with EIU to help our Dual Credit Students Succeed in College

By Emily Mikuzis

Last week we had our first taste of warm weather, stirring up all those spring feelings: the hope that we may have shoveled snow off our car for the last time, the anticipation of shedding our winter coats & commuting during daylight, the excitement & anxieties we share with our students over the springtime rituals of AP testing, and the bittersweet acknowledgement that we will be letting our seniors go to pursue their various academic and career paths. Each year around this time, I look at my senior composition students, reflect on how tremendously they have grown in their writing and how delightful they are as young adults and wonder have I done enough to get them ready for the next step?

In the Dual Credit and English 101 courses, the question at the forefront of our planning is how to blend challenge and support so that our students can have as seamless a transition into their college coursework as possible. The new partnership with Eastern Illinois University has been instrumental in providing us with the insight we need to continue to do this better. On February 23, we were delighted to host Dr. Timothy Taylor, Director of Composition at EIU to speak with College Composition, Speech 101, and English 100 classes.

Dr. Taylor’s Presentation

Dr. Taylor began his presentation by defining growth mindset for our students. By sharing highlights from Carol Dwek’s research and using student responses to model examples of growth mindset, Dr. Taylor presented the following keys to success in reading and writing for college: 

(1) Students must have a growth mindset. They must believe they can and will improve their writing through practice and study.  

(2) Students must work hard -- they must seek to improve their skills. 

(3) Students must practice discipline -- completing writing assignments on time and with quality. 

(4) And finally, students have to care. When students care about improving their work, they will take feedback, apply it and see improvements.

Growth mindset is a concept that is familiar to many of our students. We discuss it in our classes, model it when we show them how to use feedback, and use language that supports growth and improvement. Dr. Taylor engaged students in a real-time critique session of an essay from a student in the on-campus section of College Composition. As students commented on the model, they identified some of the errors they are making in their own papers. Students were able to identify weaknesses in thesis, organization, and analysis in the model essay that correspond to the weaknesses they are seeing in their own essays. As Dr. Taylor then presented elements of the revised paper, students were able to see growth mindset at work - what was once an average essay (students graded the original a C) became an A essay with a complex thesis, well-argued points, and strong analysis of supporting details.

Implications for our Work

Dr. Taylor’s presentation echoed the messaging we pass on to our students as a course team. Writing is a complex set of skills that requires practice, attention, and revision. We strive to give them clear and timely feedback that focuses on the big picture - how well they are articulating and supporting complex ideas in writing, rather than on the specific - particular constructions for paragraphing or rules of grammar. Above all, we strive to make grades a benchmark for improvement, not an assessment of a student’s worth as a writer. Through our portfolios and student reflection processes, the team is working to improve students’ metacognition and integrate growth mindset in their writing.

Amazing Things Happen When Students Lead Their Own Learning!

By Linda Ashida

That is exactly what English teachers Kristen Guth and Jackie Randall discovered when they gave up control and used literature circles to let students lead their own learning in a month-long unit reading memoirs. They created conditions for students to enjoy success in driving their own learning and the results exceeded their expectations! Kristen and Jackie noticed increased student engagement and motivation, as well as deeper understanding and insight in analysis. After the month was over, it was hard for them––and their students––to go back to the traditional teacher-controlled instruction!

Prior to the start of the unit, Kristen and Jackie took took time––very intentionally–– to create conditions for their students to connect with their peers and support one another in meaningful learning. They established and clearly communicated the purpose of the unit, the learning goals, the assessments, both formative and summative, and the process the students would engage in each day. All students would work on the same literacy skills, but they would have choice in their groups and the books they would read. Students would rotate leadership roles throughout the course of the unit.

Kristen and Jackie generously gave their time on Institute Day, and again on a recent Teaming on Tuesday, to share their work with their peers. Participants Matt Snow and Kim Miklusak also shared a variation of literature circles that they used in their classes with similar success. While their examples are from English classes, they all agreed that the process could be easily replicated in any discipline that involve reading and analysis of text. Quinn Loch concurred, sharing possibilities to use the same process in science to engage students in inquiry labs.

Check out Kristen and Jackie's presentation below to learn more about how they created the conditions for student success, and to see the feedback from students.

Check out this video clip below for insight on how the teachers gave feedback to students and their reflections on giving up control.

Check out this video clip to hear some "Aha" moments the teachers had and what they learned from their students!

Spring Brings New Collaborations

Written by Linda Ashida

In all of the professional learning that the Collab Lab facilitates, we always look for opportunities to expand our collaboration across schools, both in person and virtually, using Periscope, Facetime or Skype, and Google Hangout.

We have written about some of these collaborations in previous posts:

• Persicoping our way into classrooms in D214 and Beyond
• 2 Schools Collaborate in Professional Learning with Periscope and Google Hangout 

In this post we'll highlight new collaborations we are enjoying this Spring.

April 2017 In-Service Day

Our April In-Service Day gave us the chance to connect with our colleagues at The Academy at Forest View.

The Collab Lab team planned a kind of hybrid EdCamp, giving all staff the opportunity to offer input on their needs and interest several weeks beforehand.  We used the feedback from staff to pre-plan some of the session offerings, and we also gave staff the opportunity to suggest workshops the morning of the In-service day.

Prior to the In-Service day, we got to thinking about the possibility of inviting some of our colleagues from the Academy at Forest View to join us, since, from prior collaborations, we knew that our staff had a shared interest in learning about, and/or sharing our practice, regarding social emotional learning and instructional technologies.

We weren't sure if the logistics would work to bring teachers together from two buildings, but we figured it didn't hurt to try! We thought it would be great, even if just a few of the teachers could join us, and if not in person, via Google Hangout or Periscope.

So, we presented our idea to Kara Kendrick, the Director of The Academy.  Not only was she open to the idea, but after sharing the idea with some of her teacher leaders involved in planning their day, we were able to work out a plan that would allow for the entire staff from the Academy to join us at Elk Grove for the morning EdCamp!

Staff from both schools facilitated sessions, and even student teachers and students joined in and presented too! As always, we documented our learning in each session using Google Docs so that we would all be able to access the notes for future reference, including for sessions we were interested in, but unable to attend.

Feedback from the day was very positive, with some great suggestions for future In-service days.  Almost all of the EG staff who completed our feedback form indicated how great it was to have this opportunity to get to know our colleagues from The Academy, and to learn with and from each other.  We have already discussed plans to continue our collaboration with them during the coming school year!

The visual below gives you a glimpse of some of the sessions.  Check out this link for more details.

 




Collab Lab Book Chat Series in May

A literacy research project done by our colleague, Katie Winstead, as part of her year-two Mentor Program project, inspired the Collab Lab to partner with Katie to host a book chat series.

We will meet on Tuesday mornings in May from 7:40-8:05 in the Collab Lab and we will read and discuss the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher.

Each week we will share our key takeaways and questions. We will also reflect on our practice and, looking ahead to the coming school year, plan specific strategies that we can embed in our lessons to improve student literacy.

All EG staff are welcomed to join us, and we have extended the invitation to our colleagues across District 214 as well who will be able to join us via Google Hangout.

Look for future Collab Blog posts with updates on our Book chat series to see what we learn!

Using Metacognitive Strategies to Increase Student Reading Engagement

By Jackie Figliulo 

Whether asking students to engage with class-assigned texts or books of their choosing during independent reading, I’ve always struggled to get students interested in being readers.  And why should they be interested?  Because-the-teacher-said-so works for very few students.  Then when a text challenges students, its subject matter is “boring,” or their cell phones are mere inches from their itching finger tips, because-the-teacher-said-so just simply won’t cut it.  

Enter metacognitive strategies.

Telling students to think about their thinking piques their interest as we start our class each year.  Showing them that we all approach and experience a variety of texts in our own way allows them to understand there is no one way to be a reader and a thinker. Showing students it’s ok to not know everything and to ask questions is a valuable part of being a reader.  Promoting metacognitive strategies in class also tells students that their individual experiences matter and are valuable.  
     

In my English classes, I most intentionally employ metacognitive strategies during independent reading.  Students bring a book of their choosing to class on Fridays and are instructed to read for a given amount of time (25 minutes in quarter one, 30 minutes in quarter two, etc).  Once they’ve read, they complete a metacognitive reflection, answering five out of seven questions that applied to their reading experience that day.  Each quarter we make improvements to the reflection sheets so that students can use them in ways that make most sense to them as critical thinkers.

Now, how can I assess students’ thinking and reflections in a meaningful way? The metacognitive conversation.  

Each quarter, I return the students’ reading reflections all at once.  They get to look through their reading experiences from the last ten weeks and reflect on their progress, problems, and evolving thinking.  Using their own reflections as evidence, students prepare for our summative assessment:  the metacognitive conversation.  

Students must prepare for the metacognitive conversation by answering six to seven questions about their reading for the quarter.  They must reflect on what they did throughout the quarter and then set goals or propose solutions to their reading road blocks for the following quarter.  The day before our formal conversation, we review the procedure, expectations, and evaluation [see assignment sheet], then choose two student facilitators to guide the discussion the next day.  In order to participate, students must have their reflections and admittance slip (completed questions).  During the conversation, students discuss their thinking, approaches to the text, problems they encountered, and make recommendations to each other about text choices or methods.  At the close of the conversation, students complete a self assessment of their performance during the discussion.  Their reading reflections, admittance slips, self assessments, and my notes make up their final grades.  
The metacognitive conversation is a valuable, focused evaluation of one of my overarching quarter learning targets: students will be critical thinkers of texts and their own thinking.  It allows students of all reading levels to show growth and be measured on their own personal progress.

Another benefit of using metacognitive strategies and this method of assessment is the community it builds in our classroom.  I come to know how my students think as individuals and can use that to inform and differentiate my instruction.  Additionally, students get the chance to relate to one another as academics, not just as peers sharing the same space each day.  

I continue to struggle with intentionally embedding metacognitive strategies in all parts of our curriculum.  I hope to create a classroom where individual, critical thinking becomes the class norm, not just something we do on certain days.  However, the metacognitive conversation days give me hope that my students and I are at least on our way!

Please feel free to come observe a metacognitive conversation at the end of May (exact date, TBD) periods 2, 3, 6, 7, 8! :)

Are Creative Projects a Dying Art?

By Kristen Guth

Lately, as I reflect on my unit plans, I find myself continually coming back to the same questions. What is the purpose of this activity? Is this going to help my kids master the learning targets? Is this going to give me the information I need about where they are currently at with regards to mastery? When I answer these questions truthfully, it sometimes means that I no longer see any justification for some of the “fun activities” that go along with novels I am teaching. As much as we have a good time creating funny Facebook profiles for Lady Macbeth, I’m not totally convinced that the activity provides anything more than just a few laughs. But, does that mean that I should cut out all opportunities for creativity in my classes? I sure hope not.

I recently gave my Honors World Literature students (sophomores) an opportunity to demonstrate in a creative way their understanding of Chinua Achebe’s important African novel, Things Fall Apart. I asked them to focus on important themes, character development, cultural significance of the novel, and/or metaphorical and philosophical analysis of the text. They had a lot of freedom in designing and implementing their visions, but the learning targets were the same for everyone:

1. I can thoughtfully evaluate and explain important themes, characters, and significant events in Things Fall Apart.
2. I can understand the point of view of a particular culture presented in a work of literature.
3. I can provide formal, written analysis to explain my creative project, including textual evidence (quotes + page #s).
4. I can speak with enthusiasm and expertise when presenting to my classmates.

It might sound cheesy,  but watching these students really pour their hearts into their projects was nothing short of inspiring. I was truly blown away by their creativity. More importantly, I was thoroughly impressed by their insightful commentary and meaningful conversations with classmates regarding the novel. So, was this creative project a worthwhile assessment? I’ll let you be the judge.

For more information on each project, please leave a comment or contact Kristen on the Twitter link above!

Argumentation Skills Using Current Events & Gatsby

By Kim Miklusak

This year I have decided to flip the order of how we access The Great Gatsby.  In the past we have read texts that center around the idea of whether The American Dream is accessible to all people at all time and have used supporting text as analysis and comparison.  This year I have decided to start with prior knowledge of The American Dream and wait until the end of the unit to analyze whether it exists today and for all people, using this information to analyze Gatsby rather than applying it to Gatsby as we go.  To begin the unit, students brainstormed and wrote a 1-page response that I hung up on the walls for them to read now and return to later.

Then for 3 weeks (3 days each week) students will work in groups of 3-4 to analyze an article about a given "right."  Some of the rights are more "traditional" such as the right to arms, freedom of religion, freedom of speech.  Other topics are less traditional like the right to select your own gender label, the right to clean drinking water, and the right to quality literacy education.  Each group pulls a random envelope with an article--all recent, all from various political leanings and sources.  The students read and annotate and look up any other information they may need.  They then state the author's argument and analyze the limitations, applications, and implications using sentence starters and guiding questions.


Finally, students randomly drew defend/challenge as their stance.  Their task was to respond to the argument and provide convincing evidence and analysis as support in a 1-page written argument.  I was pleasantly surprised at how engaged students were in these discussions: some partners separated their groups to work in secret before sharing their work with "the other side."  Some groups worked together with "the other side" to talk about complexities as they worked.  At times students argued stances other than their own beliefs to respectfully challenge their peers verbally and in writing.  We pushed each other to look at other implications such as states' rights, identity, laws, etc. They also discussed the best ways to frame the argument and how to be most convincing in a short amount of space and time.

We will be broadcasting this lesson via Periscope on Tuesday, February 7th.  Check out our @EGCollabLab Twitter account if you're interested in tuning in.  I will write more about the assessment for the unit and reflections later!

"Math Teachers Don't Read!"

By: Rachel Barry

"Very funny, Ms. Barry.  Math teachers don't read!" 

This was a comment made by one of my students in response to a new campaign at EGHS.  At the beginning of second semester, some English teachers decided to start promoting reading in our building by having any staff member post a sign outside their room or office displaying what book he or she is reading.

As a reader myself, I was taken aback by this student's comment that math teachers don't read.  I understand their logic, however, as I never get the opportunity to have discussions with my students about what they are currently reading.  Honestly, I have always been jealous of the other content areas that get to read essays students have written about their lives or create discussions with students picking sides on a topic.  Not that I don't build relationships with my students and get to know their personalities and interests outside of the classroom, but I have learned a great deal more about a student when talking with English teachers about some of the powerful essays that a student has written.

Therefore, I decided to make it my mission to read all of the books on the summer reading list, prior to our Summer Reading Kick-Off.  As mentioned in the blog post, ten minutes of each day in the month of May would be dedicated to reading through Stop, Drop, and Read.  By reading all books on the summer reading list, I could then throughout the class period, I engage in short discussions with my students about the book he or she is reading, it's themes, and how it relates to real life - essentially engaging students in content from another discipline.  In my other classes, many students carry the book with them and leave it on their desk, so I can still foster a conversation with them regarding the book they are reading.   

Not only are these conversations helping to strengthen my understanding of my students, but the books themselves have given me more insight into what our students go through outside of school.  The Summer Reading Committee chose a range of books that all center around the theme of Overcoming Obstacles.  These books, both fiction and non-fiction, helped me to gain perspective of some issues that our students are working through that I can't personally relate because I haven't experienced them myself.  

As a math teacher, it is also really cool to see my students in a different light - some love to read and others struggle.  I'm so used to focusing on their strengths and weaknesses in our math content, that sometimes I lose perspective of their skills outside of class.  I also find it to be a powerful message for students to understand that reading is lifelong skill, regardless of what content you find most interesting.  As a teacher in general, however, it has been really awesome to hear students say "Aw man, already?" when the bell rings for the ten minutes of reading to end.  

Book Recommendation for English and Reading Teachers

By Kim Miklusak

For a while now people have been recommending the books Book Love by Penny Kittle and The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller to me as I continue to work through the purpose of reading in our classrooms and, more specifically, how we implement independent reading.  For those of you in the same situation, I can't stress to you enough that you should pick up both books now and buy some copies for your friends.

What I appreciated about these books was how much they stress the disconnect between our goals of reading and what we implement in the classroom.  We frequently use punitive measures when what we really want is for students to improve in reading skills and--ultimately--appreciate reading as much as we do, so they can apply their skills to diverse and complex texts independently.  Both books supplied not only theory and anecdotes, but also clear strategies to implement immediately in the classroom.

My strongest takeaway from Book Love was the idea that we assign challenging texts to students whose skills may not allow the book to be accessible to them.  Yet at the same time we frequently undervalue independent reading.  Kittle argues that we should help build reading stamina in accessible books in addition to building in reading strategies in order to help students access books they may see in the classroom.  

One of my many takeaways from The Book Whisperer was the differentiation between the Developing Reader vs. the Dormant Reader vs. the Underground Reader.  The developing reader is one who we would more commonly refer to as a "struggling" reader, and Miller argues, much like Kittle does, that these students do not read as much as they need to in order to develop their skills--especially in remedial or test-taking focused programs.  The dormant readers by contrast are the ones who float through class "unmotivated and uninterested in reading," the ones who actually enjoy reading but the minimal demands of a classroom or the "reading hoops of a typical classroom" cause them to lose their interest and focus (28-29).  Finally, the underground readers are gifted ones who prefer their own reading to that done in school.  These are the readers who we as teachers frequently don't design lessons for because they have already surpassed most of their peers in this area.

In the end, both authors stressed two main points.  First, students must read: read more, read often, read books of their own choosing, and read books in their ability level!  This will help open doors to more complex texts.  And finally they stress that we as teachers have to share our love of reading with our students.  We need to talk about books with them, be honest with them about what we do and don't like in books, when we give up on a book and why, and how we find new books, etc.  Most adults aren't reading, so how else can we create this culture of readers if we ourselves don't model it for them!

It's not a waste of time--it's the foundation for everything we hope for in readers in our classrooms!

Graphic Novels: Teaching Shakespeare in Prep English

By Sandra Lee

It’s definitely challenging teaching a Shakespeare text to a class with such diverse needs and demands. The graphic novel (with its fascinating illustrations) helps students visualize the scenes in the story; since there are so many characters and plot twists, the illustrations help them understand the plot and tone. However, don ’t be fooled by the vivid images; the graphic novel follows the original Shakespearean language, which makes the text that much more complex.

Despite the barriers of Shakespeare’s language and a Middle Ages setting, my co-teacher and I try to create a means for students to apply self-monitoring skills as we read the graphic novel. Nonetheless, we did feel overwhelmed with how much we had to build a schema for our students; some of them had never even heard of Shakespeare. After immense pre-reading and previewing the text, students began to come up with questions, predictions, and comments that reveal their thinking and learning. They have two colored post-its: one is to answer the questions we ask during each scene and the other is used for their own thoughts and observations.

My favorite comment is when a student stated, “Macbeth is so annoying.” Immediately, I became ready to explain once again the importance of reading the story, but then she continued by saying, “He keeps changing his mind. Like one minute he feels guilty, and the next minute he doesn’t.” This comment was a game-changer. The fact that a student was able to make a critical comment with his/her own evaluations about the character made us feel like there was value in this process.

We try to engage our students even if the language itself is unattainable to them. In the end, we are finding that students are still working on the literacy skills that are important and that they critically thinking about the text.

Here are some examples of their work:

 




For an additional blog post about teaching Shakespeare through standards-based learning, check out this post!

To Read or Not to Read? Can Shakespeare fit in a Standards-Based English Curriculum?

By Kristen Guth

Recently I have been involved in a lot of conversations about Standards-Based Grading and what that looks like in an English class. These meaningful conversations have also forced me to ask myself a lot of difficult questions. If I am working to implement SBG, does that imply that I should only be teaching skills and not the content? Is the text we are selecting an appropriate vehicle for helping students access, learn, and master the skills? Can the average, non-AP student practice and demonstrate mastery of reading skills while reading Shakespeare?

In having these conversations with colleagues and friends, I have discovered that many schools have removed Shakespeare from their English courses, at least at the regular level. This realization makes me incredibly sad for those students and those teachers. Not only will those students be missing out on the cultural relevancy of Shakespeare’s works, but they are also missing an amazing opportunity to see that reading skills are the necessary key to unlocking and appreciating the true meaning of a text.

We are currently reading Macbeth in my Sophomore World Literature & Composition classes, and I believe that it has been an amazing text to use for a skills-based curriculum. Because the text is difficult and the comprehension does not come easy, students are forced to closely analyze the language, literary devices, word choice, themes, etc. in order to have any real understanding of the play. 

One of my colleagues, Matt Snow, shared with me an entirely skills-based scene analysis activity that he uses at the honors level. Students are required to read for conflict, sequence of events, cause and effect, key quotes, literary terms, symbols, themes, inferences, and predictions. The first time I showed it to my regular students, they were pretty scared. Even though we had practiced all of these skills with other texts, they thought there was no way they could possibly be successful when the same practice was applied to such a difficult text. I am not going to lie, it was not easy for them. I had to do a lot of facilitating and guiding the first time through, but I have gradually been able to pull away and put all of the responsibility on the kids. They really had to work together with their groups and grind through some of the tougher questions, but it was amazing to watch. By repeating this practice with several parts of the play, their mastery of the skills has grown in conjunction with their mastery of the content.

I have rarely seen students as proud of their work as they were with this skills-based activity, and it provided me with some really clear formative feedback on their reading skills. More importantly, it gave my students such a great sense of accomplishment knowing that they could use their reading skills to tackle the subtleties, nuances, and deeper meanings of a text that they could not even begin to comprehend on the first read. There is a reason that Shakespeare has been read in English classes for so long, and I think his plays definitely still have a place in a Standards-Based Grading curriculum. 

Student Samples: 

       

 









For an additional blog post about teaching Shakespeare through graphic novels, check out this post!

Pre-Reading

By Mark Heintz

In human geography the students are learning about population density and distribution. After going through several days of effects of populations density, the students did an in-depth look at Bangladesh and the effects of population density.  The lesson included an article on the effects of population density on Bangladesh.  Almost all of my students have never heard of Bangladesh. The make the article more approachable, I inundated them with images, maps, videos, and discussions that built their background knowledge.

I first gave them the location of Bangladesh and its relative size to the USA.

Then, I gave them a map of Bangladesh. The class discussed the impact of the water on the population.  

After looking at the maps, the students watched a three minute video clip on the population growth and water problems associated with the rapid population increase. Finally, the students looked at several images of Dhaka. Again, the class discussed the visuals.  

The process took thirty minutes.  The students read and annotated the article.   It was great! The students were engaged the entire time they read. The post reading discussion was high level and their comprehension was fantastic! It just shows the power of building their understanding before they read. 

  

  

Shifting the Focus of Class: which skills do we teach to which students?

By Kim Miklusak

Last year I read this blog post by Kylene Beers.  I definitely recommend taking a moment to read and reflect upon it.  In it she highlights the difference between "who is taught what?"--that is, what reading skills do we teach to "struggling" vs. "highly skilled" readers.  Not surprisingly, most teachers report that they focus on paraphrasing and comprehension with "struggling readers," yet author's purpose and logical inferences with "highly skilled readers."  While she specifically focuses on the term "readers," I believe the skill difference she highlights crosses subject areas.  See the two charts here.

I've been reflecting upon this difference in my own English class this year as we continue to revise our curriculum at the regular and AP levels and as we have interdisciplinary conversations in our school.  Our "struggling readers" are those who would thrive on these higher level conversations.  Too often (and I am grossly overgeneralizing here--obviously not everyone is like this) we bemoan the completion rate of tasks and passing rate at the regular level.  Students are bored--of course they are!  We have heard on Twitter and elsewhere, "Would you want to be a student in your own class?"  Would we be motivated to read if we focused only on vocabulary and paraphrasing?  Even we as teachers have "more fun" in our engaging classes.

How then do we have struggling readers complete the comprehension portion of activities, so they are able to move on to the higher level skills and the engaging activities?  One way I am trying to work on that this year is by moving toward a system that I discussed at length with Mark Heintz in our history department and have seen Linda Ashida do in her Spanish classes: make the comprehension a requirement instead of a grade.

Students cannot participate in the higher level portion until they complete the foundational activities.  First we must ask ourselves: are the tasks I am having students do required to help them understand the text?  Do they practice skills that we could practice in other ways?  Or are they filler?  Instead have the bulk of class time be the engaging portion, and more students will want to do the activities to move along. 

Easier said then done, perhaps. Foremost, it is easier in a less linear course like English, History, or foreign language.  Next this requires giving up some control in your class: large group work and discussions are easy for the teacher, and they are easy for the student.  But do we know where each student is in terms of skills and content?  Shifting more easily between required work, large group work, and individual work allows teachers more flexibility in shifting the learning into the students' hands.  In a large group there are students who are not participating; those same students may not be following along in small and individual work, but in this case we know who they are, where they are, and we can remediate to help move them along.  And, ideally, the motivation is beyond the grade to move more students forward.

I will post more again another time on the actual practice of this once we are moving through our next full unit, and I will provide screen shots and student samples to let you know how it's going!  Right now it's slightly more theory than practice!

Book Recommendation: Teaching with Poverty in Mind

By Kim Miklusak

I've been reading a lot lately...This week's book recommendation is Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About it by Eric Jensen.

So often we as teachers can get wrapped up in the day-to-day of curriculum and assessment.  Sometimes we can overlook that what happens in the students' home lives--and, in fact, what has happened for their entire lives--plays an enormous role in not only their ability to accomplish the tasks we give them but also in their ability to function in class and process information and emotions.  This book serves as an excellent reminder in both theory and practice.

One of the most interesting concepts to me was the chapter on emotional challenges, stressors, cognitive lags, and health and safety issues and their effects on academics.  Jensen covers the how and why of these effects, but he then offers specific action steps for individual classroom teachers and whole schools.  This includes the graphic below that highlights the idea that while most people are "hardwired" for certain emotions, other emotions like those on either end of the "emotional keyboard" are ones that need to be taught--in this case, at times, by teachers.  This is partnered with the importance of a mindset of change, a concept also echoed in Mindset by Carol Dweck. 

A graphic from the book

Finally, Jensen closes with a chapter on schoolwide success factors and a chapter on classroom success factors.  At a schoolwide level, he suggests focusing on Support of the Whole Child, Hard Data, Accountability, Relationship Building, and an Enrichment Mindset.  At the classroom level, he focuses on Standards-Based Curriculum and Instruction, Hope Building, Arts/Athletics/Advanced Placement, Retooling of the Operating System, and Engaging Instruction.  He goes into great detail on each of these factors, including suggestions for avoiding common mistakes.

What makes this book so accessible to administrators and teachers alike is not only Jensen's approachable explanations of theories but also the tangible and manageable set of factors for helping to guide entire schools in better teaching students in poverty. 

Library Books on Your iPad!

By Kim Miklusak

As a disclaimer, I've only started playing around with the OverDrive App this past week.  There are so many things I'm still discovering, but it's such an easy app, and it will be great for our Summer Reading books (#EGSR2015) and for reading more throughout the year, so I wanted to share!

OverDrive is a free app that allows you to access books, audio books, and videos from your local library.  It's available for iPhone and iPad (as well as other formats).  It's simple to sign up for an account.  Then you just add your local library or libraries.  In our case, when students search Elk Grove High School, our district libraries come up.  You can check out books using your library card number or ID depending on the library.

The books are searchable by level, by topic, by recommendations, etc.  You can even search for more than one category at once to narrow down your choices.  There's also an extensive section for recommendations based on books you like or have read.  Once you find a book, it's as simple as clicking "borrow" and "download."  Then the books are listed on your bookshelf to read whenever you want.  They can be downloaded or read off the web browser.  If your book is on hold, you just click "hold," and you will receive an email telling you when it's available.  Renewal is simple, too!  Either click "renew" when you receive your 3-day notice.  When you are finished, you click "return book," and it disappears from your bookshelf.  The app also tells you how many more days you have left before your book "expires."  No worries about overdue fees!

Do you have any experiences with OverDrive that you can share?  Leave them in the comments below!

Timelines Apps & Student Engagement

By Kim Miklusak

Traditionally I have had my AP English Language students create a timeline for the plot of Slaughterhouse-Five.  The book is written out of chronological order as the main character, Billy, is "unstuck" in time.  Students often struggle with this fact; not only do they frequently have difficulty seeing the events in order, but they also have difficulty partnering up events to analyze why Kurt Vonnegut would structure his novel this way.  After the students brainstormed their timelines, we would create one master timeline on the board and use it as a jumping off point for broader discussions and clarifications.

I wanted to try this same technique on the iPad; however, I was debating with myself whether this was simply a matter of substitution of iPad over paper.  I ultimately decided to go ahead with it and see what else I could do with it.  What I ended up finding is that the individual yet public nature of the assignment helped students to more personally connect with the ultimate goals.

On the suggestion of my coworker Kristen Guth, I had my students download the RWT Timeline app.  It is free and very easy to use; I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to work with timelines in class.  Students could organize their timeline by event, add short and long descriptions, and add pictures if they wanted.   It was interesting to hear students work through the timeline with their partners.  They engaged in debates on placement of events, which led to them making individual connections between relationships.

Student sample

In the end I had students upload their timeline into a Schoology Media Album, so everyone in class could review them.  We then shared them on the screen and discussed the differences between one timeline and another.  While I can't claim that it's completely transforming through technology, I'm still happy with the way it turned out and the increase in individual student engagement.