April – 2015 – Ashley Bailey

Just because they AREN’T doing something, doesn’t mean they CAN’T do it.

You can take a look at my action plan reflection and summary here:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ToRjH3WuMdU[/youtube]

All that is Gold : The Plan

My Action Plan: Engaging students in deep reading of literature using digitally native technology.

Did it work? YES!

But how?

After my students and I co-designed designed study tools, coming up with: Crash Course-style Youtube video to treat T.S. Eliot Poems; Instagram scripts and videos to treat Hamlet (and make it 5 minutes long); and Student Led Critical question seminars through Google Hangouts on Air, they had familiar tools to work with and a real live audience to perform for. They also had to use deep literary analysis to produce these tools, which were (as they stated a need for) relevant to studying for their IB English exams in May.

After I switched my teaching and we started to perform first time read-throughs IN CLASS , they became more confident in engaging with the literature. They’re even preparing Google Hangouts on Air, after school hours, to create permanent video study-aids for their peers!

It went very well.

All Those Who Wander: Student Reflections

Yes, the students caught on that I was tricking them into engaging with the literature. One student wrote : “There should have been more time to develop the social-media study tools. But overall it was a good way to disguise our studying in a creative manner” – Hm. More time, eh?

Another student wrote: “Seminars after school are good because you are able to watch the answers to the essay questions at any time. Also, when presenting the answer to a question, you learn a lot more about a text.” – So, they want permanent tools to access to study for the exams, but they also appreciate the learning they had to do.

A third student wrote: “We were able to incorporate themes and motifs from the poem and the overarching information that people needed to know to read the poem and understand it.”, referring to T.S. Eliot, which they had previously deemed inaccessible.

But this fourth student really got me thinking:

“We managed to run a very funny condensed version of Hamlet via Twitter (90% complete). We worked hard to try to keep our group on task, but they seemingly did not care about both the project and the group.” Their version of Hamlet, arranged by ACT for ease of consultation, can be accessed here. It is hilarious. It served as the back bone for much of the Hamlet Instagram Script. As you can see, though, the whole group did not participate. This was the catalyst for my own reflection on the project.

Do Not Wither: My Reflections

Collaboration: While the students produced excellent results, the reflections which addressed group dynamics and participation caught my attention. Next time, I would scaffold authentic collaboration into the tasks. In fact, I plan to learn more about authentic collaboration through the summer in order to do just that next time.

20% Time: They wanted more time to perfect and complete their research and products. Next time, I plan to build in 20% time and have them create the tools throughout the year, so they’re not cramming last minute. Since I now have the answer to my action plan research question, I know this will help them engage deeply with the literature early on in the course.

Out-of-Classroom Experience: I was unprepared for the level of positive feedback I received for the Google Hangouts On Air tutorials. Students have requested more of these since we officially finished the project. Here is one I led going over the structure of their paper 2 exam. It took a lot of effort to go through the protocols to get their faces on the internet (one “I can be on youtube” waiver, and another “external image release” waiver) , but once that was settled, it was easy-peasy. I will certainly be preparing these tutorials from the beginning of the year as well next year.

Deep Roots: A LEARNING PARTY!

Cohort 21 is a build your own PD – we have a general focus (21st century learning) and a task (create an action plan, and execute it if possible), but other than that, we are free to design professional development, research, and projects that suit our own unique classroom needs.

Not only that, but the constant collaboration, from twitter chats, to Hangouts, to Project Tuning Protocols, to fellow “Cohorters” attending your PD sessions, there is a network of encouragement and support throughout.

Finally, seeing what others are doing is invigorating! It has really encouraged me to continue in my plan and to use the work of others to help me reflect on my own.

from “Where The Wild Things Are”, by Maurice Sendak, c. 1963

Wild times in Ms. Bailey’s Class, folks! But I’m eating them up.

Four things are happening in class right now:

1. My class has designed and is creating study tools for themselves and their peers.

2. My class is engaging thoroughly with literature they need to study.

3. They are using native (and somewhat native) technologies to do it!

4. Without even trying (almost), we’ve integrated the 4 C’s of 21st century learning – communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking! win, win, win, win.

Here’s how we’ve been doing it … .

1. Communication (or: A Wrinkle in Time)

“Experiment is the mother of knowledge”- Madeleine L’Engle

In case this is the first of my posts you’re reading, here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening. I’ve been looking to facilitate deep engagement with challenging literature in my students, through “digitally native” technologies- or tech that they’re already using. For my students, that means Skype, Youtube, and some Instagram and Vine – (because I haven’t figured out how to incoporate Snapchat in to lessons , although these people have).

But to go even further, I asked them to design study tools and tools to understand literature so they can succeed on their exam. I issued a survey to them the week before, which revealed that passing their exam was their number 1 priority (not surprising). They came up with great ideas, including a pill you can take to just know everything, and a website where I’d post tutorial videos, and a trivia game.

That’s where we were after my last blog post. Next, we decided on real projects.

2. Creativity, (or: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?)

I see an intimidating task looking at me.

From the design lab we came up with some workable projects – which the student seemed to be pumped about. The first was a “Crash Course”style video to learn Poetry. The second was a series of Instagram videos to summarize Hamlet (this will make Hamlet exactly 5 minutes long – take THAT, Branagh). The third was to translate greek tragedy to current times through Twitter. This one is the rockiest, as none of the students had twitter accounts beforehand.

We also explored some other ideas that came out of the lab. We debated “whether Hamlet should be taught in school”, and started some thematic T.S. Eliot discussions. That’s when I noticed this piece of one student’s design lab:

During the debate, the point that Hamlet is “too hard” or “confusing” came up more than once. The students are vocal about their frustration with The Wasteland – and I found this in an early draft of their Crash Course T.S. Eliot script:

Tall order!

They’re still working on the script, but I think they’ve found some exciting solutions to the difficulty problem – and their own assertion that Eliot is 1. Hard, and 2. Boring.

I also found this excerpt in a first draft Hamlet Instagram script (yes, (gasp!) a script for instagram vids)

They’re speaking in language they believe will be appealing/entertaining to their peers, and they’re getting some of the complexity of the text. Exciting stuff – it’s amazing what they come up with for an authentic audience!

But we hit a wall of sorts. While each group is becoming experts in their text, they all have to know both texts for the exam in May. So I underwent Cohort 21 -style tuning protocols to get some great feedback on our class project.

3. Collaboration, (or: How to Train Your Dragon)

Twelve days north of hopeless, and a few degrees south of freezing to death…

I love to collaborate. The project tuning protocol led by Celeste were no exception. After sharing the above with the team, I received some crucial feedback.

First, I shouldn’t be doing more work than the students. (THIS WAS A HUGE REVELATION). So, instead of doing “my” part – they asked me to create a website with video tutorials on it – I assigned them “critical question seminars” to record over Google Hangouts on Air (don’t worry, they signed a waiver). That way, the students are the ones leading the tutorials (though I’ll be leading one myself). And those who can’t make the hangout – unlike in a Skype call – can watch it later via the link provided. Another study tool down the hatch!

We’ve also been reading more together in class- that way the students can ask their questions about the lit as they come up. This is an obvious answer to my question about engaging them in the literature, but one I’d shied away from in the past.

Not did I get to collaborate with a number of insightful colleagues, but these insights allowed me to collaborate with my students to create knowledge-building, critical-thinking tutorials they can use as additional tools to study!

4. Critical Thinking (or : Where the Wild Things Are)

Let the wild rumpus start!

It’s time to reflect, revise, and remodel for the next phase of my project.

I learned something from the second project tuning protocol where Beth Nichols shared her exciting idea to Blog as reflection in Math class. In our Google hangout we discussed the importance of reflecting in general. I decided I need to do that more in my grade 12 English class.

How has this project affected their approach to learning literature? How has it changed their classroom experience? To what extent have they benefitted from this kind of learning? To what extent are they satisfied with their designs?

In one sense, this whole process has been a prototyping and testing phase of the design cycle. This week in class, we’ll be creating our final media and reflecting (thanks Beth!) on our experiences, setbacks, and growth through the process. I’m so curious to hear what they’d do differently next time, and how they’d revise their designs. They are excellent critical thinkers already. I’m really looking forward to the criteria they’ll come up with to assess their work, and how they plan to take this experience with them into post-secondary.

Personally, my framework and criteria was the Technology Integration Matrix. I think I’m right at the Infusion level – which is far greater than we were at before.

My personal next step is to get my classroom to the Transformation level of the TIM. But as a teacher, as we all know, I’m much more enthused about the students’ experience. I’ll be sharing that in my wrap up post on the 24th!

Any thoughts until then are very much welcome!

Monthly Archives: April 2015

Not all Those who Wander are Lost: The Action Plan Journey

The Four C’s : fostering 21st century skills in the lit class.