Bye, bye summer: UDL Now!, EdCamp Malden, curriculum units, new tech, Twitter chats, fun!

Hi, all.  It's the end, my friends.  We go back on August 25, so this post will be the last blog for a while.  Although my professional reading did not get completed as scheduled, I did poke around a lot of books and get some ideas for this coming year.

What I'm loving right now is UDL Now! by Katie Novak, from right up the road in Chelmsford, MA.  I've studied UDL a bit in the past, so this book was an excellent refresher.  Universal Design for Learning is a philosophy of providing learners with multiple ways to access information and multiple ways to show what they know.  It's based on brain science but also on common sense!  Good teaching provides kids with a classroom that is high engagement, low stress.  I'd definitely recommend this book--it was written in a refreshing style that really appealed to me as a learner!

I also did a lot of planning for EdCamp Malden this summer.  The event is Saturday, October 18 at Malden High School (free parking and an easy walk from the Orange Line!).  All are welcome, and the theme for 2014 is ELL Success.  With the advent of RETELL and the increasing number of English Language Learners in our district and nearby districts, we decided that this theme would give the day some focus without limiting it too much.  Please get your FREE ticket today at edcampmalden.wikispaces.com.  I'm really proud of my colleagues and administrators for giving this PD model a try and offering so much help to get it started.  It will be a great day.

I got to work on two curriculum units this summer: Technology Synthesis for 10th grade (with MT Anderson's Feed as an anchor text) and a high school unit on argument writing with editorials from The Boston Globe.  First drafts, but it's good to get something down on paper and really think through a long-term plan!  The 2011 Frameworks (CCSS) are truly awesome.

I learned how to use HootSuite, Tweet Deck, Canva, and Storify.

I also made a LOT of new friends this summer at an AP Summer Institute and on Twitter.  Here's a menu of Twitter chats I enjoy.  If you have no other time for PD or just want to find some thinking partners, check these out!  All times are EST.  If any of the info is wrong, please let me know.  Some chats were on summer vacation, but they're going now.  Click on the links for more info.

#edchatri is Sundays from 8 to 9 pm
#ellchat is Mondays from 9 to 10 pm
#elachat is first and last Tuesdays from 8 to 9 pm
#aplitchat is Sundays from 9 to 10 pm
#aplangchat is Wednesdays from 7 to 8 pm.  Check out our FIRST EVER chat: https://storify.com/abbeydick/aplangchat-august-13-2014.
#nctechat is the third Sunday of every month, from 8 to 9 pm
#edchatma starts August 19th and will be 1st and 3rd Tuesdays from 9-10 pm
#engchat is Mondays from 7 to 8 pm

I did a lot of non-teaching stuff too.  Saw friends and family and just chillaxed.  Traveled locally.  Read all of Rainbow Rowell's novels.  Remarkable!

Happy back to school, everyone!  Have an awesome fall!

How to participate in a Twitter chat (for beginners!)

Hi, folks.  Can't believe it's August.  I'm freaking out.  I'm so excited for the new school year, but August came quickly!

#aplangchat starts Wednesday, August 13th from 7-8 pm EST.  Here are some notes for people who want to give Twitter chats a try.

How to participate in a Twitter chat

(either just read along or share)

To find a Twitter chat you might be interested in:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiftIdjCeWSXdDRLRzNsVktUUGJpRWJhdUlWLS1Genc#gid=0 

If these times don't seem right, search for the hashtag and see when people were using it the most.

Sometimes people use a hashtag in a chat.  Sometimes they just use it to share ideas that pertain to a specific group of people.  For examples, if I'm tweeting about the CCSS for ELA, I might add #engchat, #nctechat, #aplitchat, #aplangchat, or another hashtag.

Here are the general chats by state: https://sjunkins.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/state-twitter-chats-001.jpg

Find out what time the chat is and the hashtag (#aplangchat is Wednesdays from 7-8 pm EST, starting August 13.)

Open your Twitter account. 

In the search box on top, type the hashtag you want to follow.

Then click "ALL" so you see all the posts made during the chat.

Just watch the conversation.  Depending on how many people are reading/writing, it will go quickly. Don't freak out.  You can always go back and read what you missed.

You may want to follow people as the chat goes on.  That way, you'll be friends for life!  Or you can unfollow them whenever you want to.

If you want to say something, open "compose new tweet" box.  

Type the hashtag (#aplangchat) into your comment before you send it.  That way, everyone following will see your idea.

You might have to toggle back and forth between the chat itself, notifications (if someone favorites or retweets your tweet), and messages (if someone sends you a direct message). 

Notifications will also tell you if someone has replied to one of your ideas, leading to a conversation.  Make sure you keep using the hashtag in your posts if you want everyone following the chat to see it.

There are sites to help you manage multiple Twitter actions at the same time, such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck, and TweetChat, but don’t worry about those sites for a while.  Get used to Twitter chats first. 

If the chat is an hour long, and you are late or only want to stay for a while, that's cool.  If you only want to read and not contribute, that's also okay.  High engagement, low stress!

It's totally okay to get involved in a conversation with one or a few people on the side and lose track of what's going on in the bigger chat.  You can always go back and read what you missed. 

That's it!

A Midsummer Night's Read

Hi, all.  Predictably, my summer reading fell off the rails a bit, but it's okay.  Time to catch up!

First, here's a book I said I'd read this summer that I actually read.  This cool book from 2009 explores the many studies on homework and its impact on learning.  Oh, what a complicated issue.  It is a learning strategy that dares to cross "the boundary separating school and home" (158).  Every school has its own culture and norms about homework (our department has a mandatory 15% chunk of the grade), and every teacher has his/her own expectations.  But ideas about homework are changing, just as schools have changed.

Here's what I know: when I assign less homework, my students seem to do better grade-wise, and the classroom experience is less jumbled and confusing (it's hard to plan for the next day when my data shows about 25% of my kids did the homework).  While I don't think I can assign NO homework (especially in AP and honors-level courses), I can make an effort to be thoughtful with what I assign outside of school.  The more engaging the assignment, the less difficulty students have with completing the homework, and I have fewer instances of plagiarism ("Blindly copying is NOT 'working together,'" is a phrase I used a lot).

This chart popped up on Twitter (from this blog), and I like it.  I'm going to work on varying the types of homework I give (right now, it's mostly reading) and how I assess students' efforts.

I'm now changing my summer reading focus to class participation, which goes by many names: speaking, listening, conversation, dialogue, speech, response, oral language, presentation, etc.  I'm presenting on the topic at NEATE, and I am tackling the subject for my SMART Goal again this year.  It's always been a part of my practice I felt needed help (or just never felt satisfied with), so I'm trying to read up.  Amazon to the rescue!

I finally got a chance to read The Power of Protocols, which seems like a staple for administrative teams, not necessarily teachers.  Protocols are challenging because the roles and rules feel stifling, but at the end of a protocol, I often feel that I was a better listener and that other people listened to my ideas more thoughtfully.  Protocols seem to change the accountability of everyone in the room.

This book features fairly traditional protocols (jigsaw, last word, hopes and fears) and some new ones I'd love to try with my students: analyzing a problem with a "consultancy" and examining a student's draft with a revision protocol.  In short, this was a great guide to why protocols are useful, and I definitely see some ways I could use them for many idea exchanges in my classroom.  

Next were two books I picked up at NCTE in November.  This text identified my main problem in leading discussion; I want "an open exploration of ideas rather than a simple recitation" (xiii).  This book proposes a curriculum of moral dilemmas that the students explore by positing ideas and supporting them.  I like this idea, but I'd need to connect the strategies to texts I already have, not hypothetical ethical scenarios.  I'd need my students' ideas to be much more text-dependent (this book was pre-CCSS).

There's a mention of online discussion in this book, but Twitter wasn't around when Talking in Class was written.  I have used Twitter for a few tasks this year--advertising their independent reading books was the most successful (look for #t3reading).  Maybe I could use Twitter for reading notes and discussion more often?

Great books!  Looking forward to reading about more practical strategies I can use to have my kids talking more in my classes (in a good way!).

Make sure you register for EdCamp Malden at MHS on October 18: http://edcampmalden.wikispaces.com/.  The theme is "ELL Success," so hopefully I can get some ideas on getting my ELLs to talk more in class.  All are welcome to this, our first EdCamp!

Three big announcements

Hello, all!  I am working on my summer reading.  In the mean time, here are three announcements for you.

Malden High School will host its first EdCamp on Saturday, October 18, 2014!  Please come for a free day of learning and community.  I swear, you'll love it.  See this link for details and tickets: http://edcampmalden.wikispaces.com/

AP Language is getting its own Twitter chat!  #aplangchat will happen on Wednesdays from 7 pm to 8 pm EST.  We'll probably start sometime in August.  Please feel free to join!  If you've never done a Twitter chat before, check out this list for hundreds of opportunities for free PD: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiftIdjCeWSXdDRLRzNsVktUUGJpRWJhdUlWLS1Genc#gid=0

The New England Association of Teachers of English's (NEATE's) annual conference has been announced for October 24 and 25.  Check it out: http://neate.org/.  I'll be presenting on Saturday, October 25 on speaking and listening.

Please feel free to email me with questions: abbeydick1@gmail.com.  Hope everyone is enjoying summer vacation as much as I am!

Summer Reading #1

            It's summer, and I'm already falling behind on my summer reading tasks!  I just finished Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them (2008), and it was a great way to start the summer.  So many good ideas for next year!

            I have been to Penny's school in New Hampshire, so that experience, combined with her stories of real students and authentic classroom challenges, really helped me imagine her teaching situation.

            She explains that to be a good writing teacher, you have to write.  This idea seems obvious, but I needed to hear it.  Many of us (myself very much included) are guilty of assigning writing, not teaching or modeling it.  She writes that in her teaching past, "My teaching was all tell, no show" (7).  One day this past school year, I did a draft in front of my students, and I offered watching me as a station (kids could select their task based on where they were in the process).  I was fumbling and stammering, and kids were spellbound—fully engaged.  Because they saw my struggle, they had more confidence.  They shouted out tips. 

            One of the qualities she features in her room is choice: "Choice has to be taught: I needed to learn how to help students discover their topics" (33).  Later, she describes how, without choice, "students become topic dependent.  Students who write their way through high school from one book to another forget that their entire lives are topics.  They sit and wait to be told what to write" (157).  I have been telling myself that I don't have time for personal, “touchy feely” writing, but I need my students to do more of it.  How can I sacrifice engagement?  I need to take advantage of my kids' experiences.  I can do Common Core rigor and let students pick their own topics and write personal narratives; these two priorities are not exclusive. 

            The book includes details on how Penny's instructional routines.  One key idea on revision is that students need to learn how to revise in their own time—they need feedback from a reader, not corrections from the grader.  Penny explains that sometimes we "kidnap the first draft" (213).  I laughed out loud when I read that because I am guilty of it.  I'm doing the hard work of writing, while kids sit there, waiting for me to tell them what to do next.  That’s not an authentic process.  As Sharon Taberski says, "The brain that does the work is the brain that learns."  

            All in all, Write Beside Them is a great read, with lots of ideas for lessons and a philosophical framework.  I can definitely build on some of the concepts here.

            I'd also like to give a shout out to Meenoo Rami’s new book Thrive.  She gives an apt survey of the profession right now and why it's such a struggle for teachers trying to do their best.  Then she identifies five ways to "(re)invigorate" teaching: finding mentors, building networks of teachers who inspire you, finding new challenging work, using your intuition, and empowering students to lead in the classroom.  She features stories of real teachers and real assignments to illustrate her ideas.

            Thrive is a short book, under 100 pages and an easy read, but it really hit me.  It was the perfect time for me to read this book.  I have twelve years in education under my belt, but while many aspects have gotten easier, some old challenges are still there.  This book identified many of my feelings and gave me confidence to keep growing.  

Materials from MRA #4: Verbs Writers Do

Hello, all.  Waiting at Logan Airport for my plane to the AP Reading in Louisville, Kentucky.  This is the second time I've been an AP Reader for AP Language and Composition.  Friends think I'm crazy to travel to grade essays for seven straight days, but I enjoy it.  I get to read student work from all over the country and learn what works and what doesn't.  Plus it's fun to be in a city of English teachers for one week!

I am well on my way to reading my first book of the summer: Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle.  I promised myself I'd blog about it in a few weeks.

One activity I shared at MRA in April was the list of "Verbs Writers Do."  I try to teach all of these verbs: what they look like and what they accomplish in a paper.  Students read a model text and label what the writer is "doing" in each paragraph.  It's a kind of simplified "says/does analysis" or "says/does/because" analysis.

I hope to do this classroom routine with more regularity this new school year.  My kids need me to explicitly model the verb and examples of it.

describes

explains

develops

states a proposition

supports

narrates

contrasts

compares

provides history

introduces

conveys

lists

categorizes

notes

refers

itemizes

predicts

reflects

elaborates

reasons

focuses

asserts

traces

illustrates

posits

defends

provides an example

attacks

argues

evaluates

cites

proposes

comments

synthesizes

elaborates

demonstrates

exemplifies

deepens

expresses

offers a hypothesis

characterizes

presents

assumes

reveals an opinion

states a fact

reveals a bias

evokes

rebuts

Enjoy!  Let me know if you come up with any good lessons on this idea.

Materials from MRA #3: Close Reading Activity for Poetry

Hi, all.  I have found a lot of success with this close reading activity I started using a few years ago called SPIT.  It requires the students to read a poem at least 3 or 4 times before getting to theme.  Its sequential nature builds in difficulty as the student builds knowledge and confidence with the poem.  It encourages learning how to annotate before trying to get to meaning.  Enjoy!

THE FOUR STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING POETRY (SPIT)

Write anything on the poem (or on a Post-It) that you want to remember to think about.  You must read the poem actively if you want to understand it.

Step 1:  SURVEY.  After you number the lines of the poem, read the poem at least two times.  Look up any words you don’t know in the dictionary.

Step 2:  PARAPHRASE every stanza (or line, if it’s short) of the poem.  Write what you think it means in your own words next to the poem.  Write what is literally happening.

Step 3: IDENTIFY at least ten of these terms in the poem.  Analyze what they mean.  For example, find a metaphor and write a few notes explaining it.  Be prepared to discuss what you found.

« speaker

« alliteration

« assonance

« rhyme

« rhythm

« repetition

« point of view

« style

« stanza

« characterization

« mood

« irony

« form (patterns)

« metaphors

« symbols

« tone

« similes

« imagery

« onomatopoeia

« setting

« subject/topic

« hyperbole

« diction

« the meaning of the title

« use of punctuation

« paradox

« audience

« meter

« allusion

Step 4: THEME  Write a one- or two-sentence theme for the poem that sums up its meaning.  What is the overall message of the speaker?  Remember that a theme is a sentence.

If you want, your sentence can start: “This poem is really about . . .” or “This speaker is saying that . . .”