WebQuest Link!

Check out my WebQuest on the hunt scene (Part III) of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight!

msluongo.weebly.com

Digital Story

Check out my digital story above! It's on historical connections and literary allusions in The Hunger Games. I wish I could have included the music from the movie, but it's still under copyright.

Week 8: Field Service Interview

Welcome to the Technological Jungle

Using Technology Outside of the Classroom, too

The Preface

My very first year teaching at AMSA (Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School), I was given a mentor to help guide me through the new-ness of the school and the curriculum. He was a colleague who taught the other half of the sixth graders, and he was old enough to be my father. In fact, he had two sons around my age. I was intimidated to say the least. Pushing my fear aside, I decided to view my mentor, Mr. V, as a friend and resource. I had no idea, at that time, the impact he would have on me as a young teacher, especially in regards to technology.

Mr. V was an obvious choice for the interview and was the first teacher who came to mind. I remember three years ago in August when we first met. We were sitting in my very first classroom, which was unbearably hot at all times and resembled a very narrow Swiss Chalet.

The opposite wall is literally just out of view on the right.

After handing me a business card that proudly displayed his profession and contact information, Mr. V opened up his laptop to show me his website. I was in awe. I had previous spent six months student teaching with a teacher who still used carbon sheets to make copies. (I wish I was kidding). And here was Mr. V, who was the same age as my student teaching mentor, and he had his own website! That he designed himself! And not only was it useful, but kids actually used it.

However, as the years went on, my enthusiasm for using technology in the classroom wavered. Although we are far more blessed than many school districts, we still don’t have computer labs available for students to use during the day. We don't have laptops or iPads. Additionally, we have a small population of students who don't even have computers at home. The task of incorporating technology into the classroom seemed so daunting to me, so I avoided using it. Sure, I utilized PowerPoint and my overhead projector, but for the most part, students in my classroom weren't interacting with the technology themselves. I really thought I couldn't do it, and to be honest, I wasn't looking for any ways to do it either.

The Interview and Observation

Before meeting with Mr. V for the interview, I took a look at his website again to get some ideas for questions. 

The first thing I noticed was that he has a welcome podcast for parents and students to view. This was a great way to introduce himself to parents if they're unable to make it to parents' night. It shows just how accessible Mr. V is as a teacher, and the technology is there to highlight that.

CLICK HERE to view the HowStuffWorks article on how to make a Podcast!

Clearly, Mr. V is even more versed in technology than I thought. The website also includes Portuguese and Spanish translations, links to a student discussion board and interesting, inspirational videos that connect to the curriculum. 

This really impressed me. I knew the website existed from my experience being his mentee three years ago, but it was truly more accessible than I imagined or remembered.

 This led me to my interview, which I conducted before observing him. Through the interview, I learned about some new technological techniques that Mr. V was trying out this year. The first and most notable one was his use of Podcasts to give feedback on student papers. In order to make this work, Mr. V creates a 3x5 note card that has all the grading criteria (bulleted) for the assignment. This ensures that each individual podcast includes all the same grading criteria. As he reads the paper, he talks out loud, giving feedback by recording on a Podcast. This allows him to correct each paper in half the time by simply reading it once and “hitting” each of the criteria. In addition, the audible learner can connect better with the feedback, as it must be listened to first before they receive their grade. According to Mr. V, it is also easily accessible for future reference. He showed me an example of one, which I can't post here because it includes student names, but (to use Mr. V’s words), “they’re incredibly cool.” When I observed Mr. V’s AP Psychology class, I noticed some students were discussing feedback he had recently given them through a Podcast. Clearly, it sticks.

            Mr. V also uses Turnitin.com for grading. If you don’t have Turnitin and you teach English, you need to convince your school to invest in it. Not only does it check students’ papers for plagiarism based on a database of hundreds of thousands of student papers and literally the entire internet, it also offers an amazing electronic grading system as an included feature. After learning that Mr. V grades using Turnitin, and since I learn by doing, I had him give me a little tutorial on the basics. You can find a page with webcasts on it that explain how to use certain features, as well as showcase teachers' different uses for the website HERE! I even downloaded the grading app on my iPad and am in the process of grading a set of papers using it.

It lets you upload and build rubrics too!

            During the interview I also learned that Mr. V recently had his sixth grade students complete a Wiki using wiki-spaces on a non-fiction book they read in class. Students worked in groups and made changes to the wiki outside of school. It helped teach them collaboration over the internet, which is something I never even thought of doing. So many of our interactions today are not face-to-face. By creating this assignment, Mr. V addressed this in a realistic and applicable way. I can’t even count how many times in my professional career I've had to collaborate with a colleague without ever meeting face-to-face. Mr. V’s sixth graders, as a result, are already far more prepared for the 21^st century work environment than I was when I graduated college. This is saying something.

            To close out the interview, I asked Mr. V to share his opinion on completely, unabashedly integrating technology into schools. Specifically, I asked him how much technology is too much. Here’s how he responded: 

“Too often we do not implement sound practices because we fear that a few idiots may act irresponsible. I say, lets educate our students with proper practices and policies with technology integration and punish those who abuse the policy. If we assign individual sign-on passwords for every student, it would be so easy to find abuses and to punish them.” 

I think this is incredibly powerful, and it connects with my personal struggle to integrate more technology into my classroom. Just recently, I asked the IT department if we could perhaps invest in a laptop cart, since our computer labs aren't available for students to use during English classes. I was immediately shot down because “it’s too much work to maintain” and “students would abuse it.” Unfortunately, this is how it is in many schools. Why should, like Mr. V said, a few idiots ruin it for everyone else?

Conclusions

Mr. V is such a great example of a teacher who goes above and beyond to incorporate technology in a school that (to use his words) “barely has enough bandwidth to allow two teachers to stream YouTube at the same time.” However, I do question the reason why he uses technology the way he does. In hindsight, this is something I wish I asked during my interview. For instance, I love the online discussion boards, but they aren't graded, and they aren't frequently monitored. The accountability aspect makes me skeptical about whether or not this particular use of technology is effective. A teacher should never use technology just to use it; technology should truly increase the learning of the students. It’s hard for me to say whether or not some of these outcomes actually increased student learning. Does an online discussion accomplish anything more than an in-class discussion would? On the other hand, using a podcast to give students feedback on their papers seems to be an effective use of technology. It addresses different students’ learning styles by giving an auditory response, as opposed to a written. If I were to implement this in my classroom, however, I would probably do both. Some students need the feedback on paper in order to be able to go forward with the next step in the writing process. Mr. V only uses podcasts.

            In the end, Mr. V proved to me that one doesn't need in-class access to every technology on the planet to be able to successfully use and incorporate it. Although he did not actually use technology within the three classes I observed, it’s clear that it’s an everyday part of his routine. The podcast feedback system, the utilization of Turnitin.com for grading, and the weekly online discussions that students engage in: these are all excellent representations of Mr. V’s proficiency in using technology. I definitely see how some of his techniques could apply to what we've learned in class as well. For example, Mr. V’s Wiki assignment aligns perfectly with what we've learned about Wikis in class. His students use Wiki-spaces, and some of the outcomes he showed me were wonderful. In thinking about my current eighth graders, I wonder if having students create their own webquest on a Wiki in groups would be feasible.

In the end, the implications of this field service interview on my teaching have been outstanding. I’m looking forward to implementing some new techniques, all thanks to the inspiration of my old mentor. I feel it’s best to leave you with his words:

“We must integrate technology, not only because of the standards that we have, but more importantly to prepare our students for college and future employment. Technology enhances a lesson, making a strong curriculum even stronger . . . Technology reaches out and stimulates thought.”

***

In case you're interested, here is a list of internet tools (some mentioned above, others not) Mr. V and I discussed during our interview:

• Podcasts
• Turnitin.com
• Wikispaces
• Edline
• Animoto
• Forums/Discussion Boards

Integrating Technology: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Introduction Lesson Plan

Danielle Luongo

8^th Grade English

Lesson Plan

Adapted from the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Signet Classics teacher’s edition (translated by Burton Raffel).

“Big Idea”: Understanding the historical context of literature and the role history plays in epic poems of different cultures. In this case, students will focus specifically on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Exploring Historical Context: Introduction to Culture in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Common Core Standards:

•      CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and idea efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
•      CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.5: Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

NETS Standards:

•     1. Creativity and innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

                 b. Create original works as a means of . . . group expression

•     2. Communication and collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

a.  Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a

variety of digital environments and media

b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats

                          d. Contribute to project teams to produce original works

Lesson Objectives:

   Students will be able to:

• Recall prior knowledge of the Middle Ages & Arthurian Legend
• Locate information regarding an assigned Medieval cultural element through online research
• Create a Digital Story that demonstrates new knowledge of the Middle Ages
• Connect & apply new knowledge to Part I of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Materials:

• Deck of cards, split so the class ends up in at least 6 groups of 2-3
• Copies of KWL Chart - enough for each student to have one
• Copies of Assignment Sheet and Rubric - copy together (assignment sheet on the front, rubric on the back); enough for each student to have one
• Copies of Notes Sheet - double sided; enough for each student to have one
• Laptops enabled with internet access - enough for each group to have at least one
• Projector or Smartboard
• Student access to reliable primary and secondary sources (for example, create a teacher compiled PortaPortal for this purpose. Here is mine!)
• Students must have prior knowledge on how to avoid plagiarism and cite sources, as well as conduct an advanced Google image search for images that are free to use, share, and modify.
• Copies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Burton Raffel

Anticipatory Set: 10-15 Minutes

Upon entering the room, students will be given a card from a deck of cards. This is how they will find their group (2-3 in each group, at least 6 groups total): by matching card number/face. For example, all students who end up with a Jack will be in a group together. Once settled into groups, each student will receive a KWL chart. As a group, they will discuss what they already know about the Middle Ages and what they want to know about the Middle Ages, filling out their chart as they go.

After 3-5 minutes, focus students’ attention back to the front of the classroom. Create a GoogleDoc spreadsheet, and as students call out answers, type them into the spreadsheet. Accept everything, even repetitions. After collecting the responses, paste the contents of the spreadsheet into a word cloud program such as Wordle. This will allow students to see the words/ideas that repeated the most, as well as connect to the closing activity.

Here is an example of a Wordle that I created, which is what you might be able to expect from students.

Procedure: This activity should span the course of 3 class periods, with presentations on the last day.

After reviewing the Wordle, show students an example Animoto, then pass out the assignment sheet. Review each component of the assignment sheet, then ask if students have any questions. Students should already have familiarity with the Animoto interface.

Once all questions have been answered, assign each group a different cultural element of the following six:

1. The Code of Chivalry
2. Knights
3. Religion
4. Hunting
5. Food
6. Feudalism

If there are more than six groups, it's fine to repeat topics.

Pass out at least one laptop to each group. Students should begin by gathering research based on the links on Ms. Luongo's PortaPortal, as well as conducting their own supplementary research. Circulate the room frequently, offering help to groups and making sure they stay on task. Give them time warnings based on how much time is left in class. By the end of class, each group should have most, if not all, of their research completed. Remind them of this at least once.

Day 2

Students should begin working immediately. They should use the entire class period to work on finishing their research and creating their Animoto digital story. Once 10 minutes have elapsed in the period, make sure all groups have moved on to the digital story aspect of the project. As with the previous day, circulate the room frequently, offer help where needed, and give an occasional time warning.

At the end of class, assess whether or not more class time will be needed to finish digital stories. If so, adjust Day 3 to allow for more time.

Day 3

At the beginning of class, have students all save the link to their Animoto digital story to a shared GoogleDoc. After every group has done so, collect the laptops and pass out the notes sheet and go over expectations for the presentations. Students who are not presenting are required to take notes based on the presentation. These will be their notes on Medieval culture for the unit. Answer any student questions at this time.

Begin presentations. After each digital story is shown, students can ask the group questions or give positive comments. This should take about 5 minutes per group. While groups are presenting, fill out the rubric for each group. If anything is missed, go back to the GoogleDoc and re-review the digital stories after class.

Once all presentations are completed, go back and address any other questions students might have. This is also a great place to clear up any misinformation from presenters, and check to make sure students were taking notes. Any students who failed to take notes during the presentations should be penalized independently of their group.

Closure:

To reflect, students will fill out the final column on the KWL sheet, “What I have learned”, independently. Once students have silently reflected, repeat the same Wordle activity from the anticipatory set, but with the “L” column, and compare the two. This will show students how their perceptions have changed since the beginning of the unit.

For homework, assign Part I of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Remind students to connect the readings to the cultural aspects they studied through this activity.

Assessments:

Students will be assessed as a group on their Animoto digital stories, based on the rubric.

In future classes, students will also be assessed on their ability to connect the cultural elements they learned through this assessment to the readings. These assessments will range from graded in-text annotations, class discussions, quizzes, and tests.

Below, see a "student" example of the digital story assignment that I created:




Modifications/Accommodations:

Specific modifications and accommodations will vary based on student IEPs / 504s.

Check Out My Diigo!

Diigo is this awesome social bookmarking website that I'm using in my grad class. I've pretty much only been posting educational technology related websites, but I plan to post more Language Arts related blogs as well.

Check it out!

Is that Bigfoot?! Reflections on My Digital Footprint

Yesterday's class gave me a lot to think about in regards to my digital footprint (the traces of yourself you leave behind on the internet). Writing down all the websites that I have accounts with really put it all into perspective for me. I can almost guarantee there are some websites that I missed. I'm sure I have an extraneous web account with a store I ordered something from one time ten years ago, but I just can't remember. That in itself is incredibly scary.

So, here it is: my digital footprint, which I'm sure is missing a variety of toes.

Really, the thing that scares me the most is the number of websites on there that have my credit card information. I should really use PayPal more (which, incidentally, I forgot to include on my Word Cloud).

As a teacher in today's digital age, we have to be increasingly aware of what we post on the internet. This teacher just recently got fired from her job in a Fitchburg, MA school for modelling on the side. She argues that she just doesn't make enough money, but as teachers, shouldn't we reflect on what we put out into the world, regardless of the potential income? She could have chosen a weekend job at Target or a tutoring job, especially because everything we do on the internet is so accessible today. I understand the struggle, but the ends don't justify the means.

Attached to Books, Bound by Technology

Week #3: Literature Review 

Is there anything better than cracking open an old book—one that has been loved by so many people it’s hanging onto its faded spine by a ligament of thread—and breathing in the vanilla-scent of the aging pages? To me, there’s nothing better. The tactile experience of holding a book and turning the yellowed pages is something I’ve found can’t be replaced.

Except in today’s world, it needs to be. The books I’ve come to love have been replaced with much more efficient e-readers and tablets. The slight swishing sound of pages turning has been replaced with the clicks of a keyboard, or the non-sound of a tap on a touch screen. The worst part is that instead of hating it like I thought I would, I absolutely love the new technology. I know, I know, I’m a hypocrite! I have a Kindle and I’m obsessed with it.

Best friends!

In my classroom, however, these new technologies seem to take a backseat to more antiquated methods. We don’t allow our students to use their e-readers for books we read in class. Instead, we force them to buy paperback copies. This has been a topic of much debate within our department. Most of us are pushing for hard copies of books as opposed to Kindle versions because it keeps consistency within the classroom: something that’s incredibly important for middle school kids, but hard to maintain. It’s also very difficult to control what they’re doing when you can’t see the screen. Multiply that by thirty, and I’d potentially have an entire classroom of eighth graders playing Angry Birds instead of reading Beowulf.

"We're Beowulf's thanes! We swear!"

But does that mean it’s not worth it? According to Naomi S. Baron’s study, “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media”, e-readers and tablets are great for recreational reading, but not so great when it comes to deep reading. The study cites “difficulties in annotation, a reader’s tendency not to reread or remember digital text (compared with hard copy), and the overwhelming likelihood that people reading on digital devices will be multitasking, thereby dividing their attention” as reasons to steer clear of e-readers and tablets in a classroom setting (Baron 199). These are all outcomes that upset me as an English teacher. I spend so much time in my classroom emphasizing the importance of annotations and rereading; apparently, embracing this particular technology would diminish all of that.

This has given me quite a lot to think about as an educator who is struggling to find ways to incorporate technology in a basically tech-barren school setting. My school doesn’t even have a computer lab available to students during all class periods, despite being named #22 out of the top 500 STEM schools in the country. What happened to the “technology” aspect of STEM? Where do I go from here?

I found an article that put this into perspective for me. It reminded me that teaching isn’t about finding excuses to not do something, it’s about finding new ways to do everything. If every teacher in history let excuses hinder their teaching, we’d all still be writing papers on rolled scrolls using quills made from seagull feathers. In the article, Richard Jester—a sixth grade English teacher from Texas—discusses the development of students’ writing and analytical skills through multimedia presentations. In the history of forever, students have been learning how to write based on a very limited set of skills: put paper to pen, fingers to the keyboard, write a thesis statement, and go from there. Five paragraph essays for everyone! Excuse me a moment while I inwardly cringe. Although teaching kids how to write something rote is a useful skill, it doesn’t necessarily come easily to them. These are kids who have grown up in the age of infographics and smart phones. They’re not used to reading large blocks of texts, let alone writing them. So why don’t we just feed into this as a way to reach a wider variety of students? Jester answers this question with a resounded “yes!” and offers a unique project that I could easily see transferring into a more formal paper: a book analysis through PowerPoint.

Jester first suggests that the division of the slides helps students organize their ideas. In thinking of my students, who are not leveled by ability, I could see this being incredibly useful. The natural separation of ideas into slides would help even the lowest level kids organize their thoughts. It’s almost like a giant, interactive graphic organizer. Jester further says that “the ‘concreteness’ of the division provided by the slides helps students to visualize how their ideas must develop” (86). This is something I see a lot of students struggle with on a day to day basis in their writing. Ideas develop slowly and in steps; separating them into a PowerPoint—which is so easily “malleable for revision and editing” (86)—helps students figure out that flow without the permanency or anxiety of pen and paper or the giant-block-of-text in word processors.

Did a cat step on this person's keyboard?

Another point I found particularly compelling was the graphic and visual nature of presentation software. Jester states: “using multimedia will allow students to differentiate between important words and ideas through the use of color, text size and font, and position on the page” (87). Giving them the license to play around with different visual aspects of the presentation is such an important skill to have in our technological world. Almost everything they experience outside of school is visual: television, the internet, graphic novels, magazines. The list goes on and on. Here’s a project that not only hits all the major points of an analytical essay—for sixth graders! How awesome is that?—but it also plays into adolescents’ interest in media and technology. To put it in Jester’s words, it really “raise[s] words off the black-and-white page and brings them to life” (88), and as English teachers, isn’t that what we’re all trying to do? Bring words to life?

At the end of the day, there's so much technology can do for us if we just think outside the box a little bit, even if that means letting go of all those bookshelves filled with old novels. That being said, there’s good news for people like me (people who love the smell and feel of books, but are also a little attached to the new gadgets): Amazon now sells a perfume that smells like freshly printed books! The internet is such a wonderful place.

Resources

Baron, Naomi S. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA. 128.1 (2013): 193-200. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

Jester, Richard. "If I Had a Hammer: Technology in the Language Arts Classroom." English Journal. 91.4 (2002): 85-88. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.