To Do List

It is Memorial Day and I'm working. What is on my to do list? Good question.

• Processing receipts for reimbursement- I have an Excel spreadsheet to track all my school expenditures, but I like to double check.


• Reading 65 current event summaries- We had an in class reading/summary current event on the coming end of NASA's shuttle program. Now I need to read, comment, score, and enter into the online gradebook.


• Find a few more resources for some of the CBA topics- some kiddos are coming up empty on the research front, and not because they aren't trying.


• Re-map out this week- I typically map out my weeks a week or more in advance. In this case I need to re-evaluate where we are in our CBA, and what needs to happen in order to be sure we are successful.


• Re-map out next week- Stuff gets pushed around, so I need to see where some of the assessment work needs to be placed in order to make sure it ends up in the gradebook (and on the report card). Assessments include the district writing prompt for Spring, and our Spring Reading Assessment.


• Make a first pass at report card comments- I've got 16 days until report card comments and grades are due... knowing I have writing and reading assessments to score/comment, and CBAs to read/score/comment, I better get cracking.

Not too much. Just enough to keep me busy, right?

A Promising Start

Two of my three groups have started the CBA. I anticipate it taking until next Friday with a few extensions mixed in. For a few there will be some simplification- narrowing of topics, resources in order to help with problem solving. While a wide net allows for student choice, it does not help those students that struggle organizing information or getting started (a broad array of choices can be overwhelming).

For the two that started, so far so good. I have gone through discussing issues and possible solutions. I've had students collaborate on solutions, and discuss compromises since not all people want it solved in the same way. We got off to a slow start, but a vast majority of kids have workable issues and understand who some of the stakeholders are on each side. From there they had some freedom to search on their own prior to the guided research lesson.

Research and culling information from articles looks like it will be the most difficult piece. My experience has been that we (meaning those who are under the age of 35 +/- a few years) are not the most patient bunch. We see something and want the answer before us. What is with this writing to explain both sides stuff?! It is increasingly so the younger you get (I know, painting with a broad brush). Reading a 2 page article on recycling, particularly when I am not versed in the intricacies of the concept, is yawn inducing and difficult. Tomorrow we are going to take our issue and write it as a question, then look at keywords associated with that question:

Issue: Recycling
Question: Should people recycle more than they do?
Keywords: recycling, increase, decrease, amount, recycling program, garbage, trash, cities, people

From there I am going to model searching... We'll find an article that looks good, but doesn't work (by reading the first 2 paragraphs... then skimming for the keywords, since our search program highlights the keywords). Then we'll find one that does work (same process), and work to cull out 2-3 key sentences before bookmarking for future reading. My objective is that they can analyze sources for relevance to their topic, so it should be an interesting day of research.

Why I Like the Netbooks

We are three months into our netbook pilot. As with any tool, you need to exercise your professional judgement. I can see some teachers opting to pull them out at any opportunity with a variety of activities that don't necessarily further students' understanding of concepts, or don't utilize the tool effectively. An example of that might be simply sending kids to a website (that is technology use right?!). That isn't the way that I have, or plan, to use the netbooks.

What I'm really excited about is the ability to go paperless. I've mentioned this previously here. If you follow #edchat on twitter you'll often see mentions of dropboxes, and other paperless tools. We have those in district, cutting out the need for many outside tools or sites. On Friday I opted to have the kiddos do a current events summary of an article on the space shuttle Endeavour (by the way, 2nd to last shuttle launch from NASA). After firing up the netbooks, the kids went to our class wiki to find the article. They opened the article, and most read it on the netbook. Since I had it in Word instead of as a PDF, they were able to highlight information right on the screen (some opted to print, but that was about 10-15% of the kids; I know you could highlight in a PDF assuming you have Acrobat... we just have Reader). Once they finished reading they started typing their summaries, saving them to their network drive. After that they dropped it into a folder in our class dropbox, which makes grading a snap.

Next year I'll likely do two different lessons on finding main ideas. The first will involve printing an article (integrating the netbooks, adding a printer as well- which can be a pain!) and highlighting or underlining on the page. We'll look at the underlined work to see if it encapsulates the article, as well as taking the time to debate which information is essential to understanding the article. The second lesson will be entirely paperless. Once we've worked on the skill, we'll integrate technology through practicing highlighting information (and possibly using the strikethrough tool). I see the possibilities, but also the glaring need to ensure they have success as readers and tech savvy students.

Sidewalk Art

Got sidewalks? Parts of my neighborhood don't (as seen to the left... although that is from flickr and isn't me!). An image like that one to the left is going to be the opener for my CBA. As part of the guided release process we will do some visual discovery using 1-2 images from my neighborhood. From there we'll talk about questions we wonder about, and if there is an issue depicted. The natural progression should be: I see a place without sidewalks, the issue is whether all neighborhoods should have sidewalks. People need to be safe when walking around their neighborhood.

I really like the state CBA. It asks kids to ponder current issues by thinking about stakeholders, and how rights or the common good are impacted. The key is effective modelling. Kids need to see how to brainstorm different issues, research different points of view, and put it together in order to persuade others to see your position. We've worked at length regarding seeing multiple points of view, but it can be difficult applying it to a new setting that is more open-ended. I'll likely give lots of freedom, but enough structure that kids see where we are going. Graphic organizer? Yep, you need to use it. Presentation format? Yep, needs to be PowerPoint, brochure, or essay. Can you do any issue? Sure (although guns, death penalty, and drugs are out- those not school appropriate). Will some kids need more monitoring and guidance? Yep. You just need to know who those kids are.

CBA Launch

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are next on my list. Instead of some of the in-depth work that I wanted to do, I am doing more simplistic reading comprehension work. As I mapped out the final few weeks I saw how little time I really allotted for the CBA. I expected that the question formulation, research, drafting, revising, and completion would take 2 weeks. It should... but not when the 2 weeks have other odds and ends mixed in (like Memorial Day, Field Day, Talent Show, etc). Ugh!

The solution is to condense a few things in order to ensure enough time to finish the CBA in an appropriate amount of time. The goal is to go over branches of government and talk about rights, with a progression into particular issues that kids brainstorm. We'll start the brainstorming together, using a WCYDWT sort of thing. There are a few different approaches I am tossing around. One might be 2-3 images (something like the arrival of construction equipment, a map, and blueprint) and 1-2 questions for kids to wrestle with- how might this impact the community? what are the positives/negatives of this event?. Another idea is to have one image (something like open green space, or a wetland) and start entirely from scratch- what does this image make you think of? how is this image important to the community? I am not 100% how I want to approach it, but I do know that the latter was done (by me) and was successful in some ways.

The ultimate goal is to get kids wondering about issues around them. I want kids to ask questions that naturally lead them into research, and naturally lead them into supporting/refuting their opinion. I do know that I am going to restrict the presentation formats. Just because you have access to 8 or 9 different platforms doesn't mean you need to use all of them. I've got 7-10 instruction days left before it starts. Should be fun!

Making American History Current?

One of the things I struggle with is making American History applicable in 2011. Some students just can't identify with history. It ends up being boring, and lacking in some of the advantages of artifacts and things in present-day. To me, that is what draws me to things like WCYDWT and Dan Meyer's other math problem solving ideas. Using multimedia that is visually interesting, and inspires questions that you want to solve gets kids really involved in learning.

On a daily basis I teach reading through social studies (and with some novel study). Specifically, I teach American History pre-1800. My teaching includes the Stamp Act. It includes the redcoats. It includes US government in basic structure. In what ways can I integrate present-day multimedia beyond simply drawing analogies? That is the challenge I am going to wrestle with heading into the close of the year. I've got some ideas for the CBA (classroom based assessment) that I'll share tomorrow (hopefully).

Real Math

I saw this on twitter... quite funny.