Assessment

We talked in class the other day about the differences between assessment, evaluation and grading. Ben and I are collaborating on a reading/writing unit plan centered around the coming of age theme. I am focusing more on the writing component.

Students will be assessed on their writing every day. Some assignments will simply be checked to make sure they are completed it while other times I will walk around the classroom while they are working to discuss their writing with them one on one. Writing activities are a great way for students to assess their own writing and can be taken into account when I begin to evaluate how much they have learned.

The culminating project will be a written narrative about the student's own "coming of age" story. Students will complete self-evaluation based on a rubric. The students will exposed to this rubric throughout the entire writing process, and will therefore have a guide for quality work. Following this self-evaluation, I will perform my own evaluation, and one-on-one conferences will be scheduled to talk about the student's work.

The Unit Plan

The time is approaching to explore and create a unit plan to be used in a mid-level classroom. I will not be student teaching until Fall 2012, so this unit plan will be more theoretical until I will be able to put it to future use. Five lessons are to be fully created within the context of an entire unit.

I constantly go back to the first day of our Language Arts Pedagogy class and our carousel of defining an "adolescent." I was disturbed by the stereotyping and broad classification that we instinctually agreed upon.  We looked at a website, then, of adolescents using their artistic talents to create a voice for themselves - a unique, original, individual voice. These students are individuals, with unique stories to tell. What's more, they have a voice that they want to use - a voice with more power than they might even realize.

Coming of Age stories are common and popular in literature. Students today, I feel, want to "grow up" faster than ever before; however, it is difficult for them to find their voice and escape the realm of childhood that adults continually place them in. Yes, they are still children, but they have more potential and talent than I think we give them credit for. It is for this reason that I plan to incorporate the "coming of age" theme into my unit plan. Using short stories (and/or perhaps a text?), we will explore this theme and incorporate what we learn into our own writing. This transition from childhood into adulthood happens at different ages for everyone, so no two stories will be alike. Perhaps many students will still be anticipating the shift into adulthood. This lesson plan will be created for 8th graders to teach them to analyze and understand a recurring theme in literature and in an effort to explore their experiences and empower them to use their potential.

I will give more detail as more details work themselves out.

Watch and Learn

Writing is both deeply personal and meant to be shared. It is tiring and rejuvenating. It takes effort, but the reward is well worth it. Do students in the classroom today view themselves as writers? Is writing something that they engage in outside the context of nightly homework assignments? The possibilities of writing are endless, but I do not remember being introduced to these endless possibilities in school. I remember learning the 6 traits of writing and applying them to essays and research papers. This writing was completely separate and non-associated with the writing that I did for pleasure: journaling. Hence, I never took what I learned about writing (6 traits, writing process, etc.) to any writing outside of the curriculum.

When it comes to writing, there is not THE process, but A process to guide you. Good writers make this process their own and produce writing that they feel proud to take ownership of. When asked to reflect on my writing process, I was surprised to realize that I had never genuinely reflected on it before. Good writers know their self and their writing preferences; they know what works best for them. To learn good writing, what better way is there to look at how good writers write? Fortunately, writing is not something that the fortunate are just born with and the unfortunate will never be able to attain to. Good writing is something that is learned and developed through observation and practice.


A great place to begin teaching students good writing is by showing them good writing. Students need examples of good writing and need to be taught how to look at others' writing in such a way that influences their own writing. This can be done in mini lessons, giving the students plenty of time to practice and manipulate the methods in an effort to make them their own. Writing should not be a product of a machine. Good writing is compatible with human emotions and reflects the author behind the work. Students need to know who that person is before they can create the writing that reflects that.

Calling for Media Literacy!

Media pervades every aspect of our students' lives. Awareness of this fact is the first goal of media literacy. Spend 24 hours keeping track of the ways that you come into contact with the media and you will be amazed at what you find. The scary thing is, even though students encounter the media consistently throughout their day they are ill-prepared to evaluate it. This is the second aspect to media literacy: we must teach our students to recognize what values the media conveys and how these values and ideaologies are constructed.

Our relationship with the media is recursive. The media shapes us and we shape the media - which came first is anybody's guess. Media representations have the capacity to influence the viewer's attitudes and beliefs about the real world. Our students need to be prepared to analyze the message it is carrying in order to make an accurate evaluation.

Engaging with media can be both motivating and engaging for our students who have grown up around technology their whole lives. Most students will feel compelled to interact with the lesson because it is dealing with something that they understand and spend a good portion of their lives around. Students who do not do well with reading and writing have an opporunity to find success with the media...and the options available with the media are endless. Giving students a chance to find their voice through media outlets, while utilizing the critical elements that they have learned, can be exciting and inspiring. For a media literacy hub of information about literacy, I reccommend checking out Gateway Media Literacy Partners.

Advertising in Schools?

There are currently 52 million children in the United States today, and it is estimated that they influence over 700 billion dollars spent each year. This means that adults make consumer decision based on the wants and needs of their children. From the car that parents buy to where the family goes on vacation, the child's demands and interests influence consumer spending. Thus, children have become the number one market that advertisers want to appeal to. Their motto? Get them in the cradle and you will have them until the grave. Hook kids while they are young and they will be loyal to your product for life.

This is a naturally savvy move on the end of the advertisers, but it raises many ethical questions, such as how far can advertisers go to study the wants and needs of children? Some have gone as far as to follow them into bathrooms to observe how they wash their hair, play in the tub, etc - all so that they can make their product more appealing. With more and more ads being centered around food and drink, recent years have seen a dramatic increase in childhood obesity. The question I want to raise today is, should advertising be allowed to enter the schools?

It is a typical response that parents should be held responsible for the advertisements that reach their children. Parents, however, are not always with their children, particularly during school hours. While their children are at school, parents have no influence over what reaches their child's ears and grabs their attention. There are many types of advertising that takes place in schools: direct advertising is found on school buses, in textbooks, on the football field or in the cafeteria (usually via a poster or traditional ad). Some schools, however, air Channel One on 90% of school days in 80% of the classrooms. Channel One is a 10 minute "informational" newscast that designates 2 minutes to advertising. Schools sign a contract with Channel One, promising to deliver them a "captive audience"in exchange for a satellite dish, VCRs and TV sets.

But it doesn't stop there - advertisements come in all sorts of forms within a school. Public relation materials are designed to look like classroom activities and contests, samples and incentive programs offer advertisers a way to subtly promote their product to their valued customers. Some companies go so far as to host "slumber parties" where a child is supposed to invite his or her friends and subtly promote a product and gather information on that demographic. Schools are in need of more funds and sponsorships through programs may seem like a smart move. However, when it comes down to it, profit, not education, is the advertiser's priority. Should it be allowed to continue? If so, where should the line be drawn?

Professional Learning Networks

Blogs, RSS Feeds, Twitter - these are the PLNs we have worked with this semester, and there are still so many more out there! Last week I attended a session at the Minnesota Education Conference titled "Becoming a Web 2.0 Leader." I was amazed by how much technology has developed and how advantageous it can be when used wisely. It even goes beyond tools for teachers to those that students can take advantage of, such as Googledocs, Ning, Screentoaster, Diigo and Bibme.

When used wisely. Professional Learning Networks are tools that can be very advantageous. Unfortunately, for those who have not grown up around technology, these new tools can look very intimidating. I have grown up with technology and I am still challenged by discovering everything that these tools have to offer. It is important for educators to know that these are out there! They can offer a lot, but time must be invested in learning how to use them efficiently.

I have found blogs and twitter very useful; I only wish I had more time to explore them. I try to balance all the interesting information I have at my disposal with the responsibilities I need to complete in my day. With more time, I might be able to use these tools for the purposes that they were intended, but at the moment my life is consumed with seemingly more immediate realities. One of these days, when I can take the time to adequately learn what these tools have to offer, I hope I will be able to efficiently apply them and integrate them into my life.

The blogs I am subscribing to are:
1. Free Technology for Teachers: this blog is useful to keep up to date with ways to bring technology into your classroom
2. Two Writing Teachers: Two teachers collaborating to bring attention to writing as a passion and an art
3. Write Out Loud: A teacher giving writing prompts to his students - interesting and sparks ideas
4. The Scholastic Scribe
5. The Book Whisperer: Author of "The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child"

Critical Literacy

Critical literacy initiates a discussion between the author and the reader and focuses on the power relation between the two. No longer is the author the sole authority of the text, for the reader is invited to question, examine or dispute what the author puts forth.  Critical literacy transforms the passive reader into the active reader, inviting him to reflect on what is missing from the work of literature and to take action to transform the inequalities.

Critical literacy appeals to me because it engages the reader in a discussion and holds the reader accountable for the meaning that is derived. It calls the reader into action to confront the text, ask hard questions and argue the topics that are percieved as the norm. Critical literacy "disrupts the commonplace" - it challenges and has the ability to transform ideas into radically new ways of thinking! It's exciting! For the reader to hold the power to actively engage in a written text adds a whole new layer to the possiblities of reading! To teach critical literacy is to teach students to actively participate in the development of their world perception. It places power and authority in the hands of students.



Critical literacy involves active participation. It is challenging and requires an effort to be put forth. For the already active student, critical literacy will be like a splash of cold water, waking them up to the possibilities that lie hidden in the text, waiting to be uncovered. For a low-achieving or uninterested student, critical literacy might be huge obstacle to climb after they already feel drained from the hill they've been climbing. I am confident that the teacher can present critical literacy in a way that excites students, but the particulars of this are not clear. How can we teach critical literacy in such a way that students feel challenged but also completely capable? This is an overarching question, as well as a specific one. How do we teach our students to feel so confident in their abilities that they are willing to try new things?

Talk It Out!

Many problems with teaching literacy arise from students' unwillingness or inability to interact with the text. Reading is an interactive process - you cannot absorb the meaning of a text by staring at the words - you must construct meaning through interaction.

During reading strategies offer structure and guidance for interacting with texts. There are two reading strategies that we have read about this semester that particularly excite me: Beers' "Say Something" approach and Atwell's Dialogue Journals.

The Say Something strategy interrupts students' reading of a text and gives them a chance to think about what they are reading. This is done in pairs, and each student takes a turn "say something," which can mean making a prediction, asking a question, clarifying a confusion, making a comment, etc. The other student responds to what was said, and they both continue to read until the other student stops to "say something." I think that this is a very effective strategy because not only does it require students to find some sort of meaning in the text, but it also exposes them to different connections/questions/etc. that they might not have thought about before. It is important for them to observe their peers engaged in constructing meaning as well - it shows them that all readers must interact with the text they are reading in order for it to make sense.

Atwell's Dialogue Journals are similar to the "Say Something" strategy, but gives the students the opportunity to put their thoughts, ideas and questions into writing. In this approach, each student owns a bound journal in which they are required to write every week. They may write a letter to a classmate or to the teacher, but a letter to the teacher must be written at least once every two weeks in order to evaluate their progress. They give the journal to the person that the letter is addressed to, and that student must respond to the letter with a letter of their own within a determined amount of time. This creates a reading community in which the students are exposed to a variety of genres, authors and topics. Ideally, this is done within the structure of a reading workshop, where the students are reading literature of their choice. This is an excellent way to enhance writing and reading skills, as well as encourage the reader to reflect deeper on his or her understanding of a text.

These are only two of many reading strategies that would be beneficial for middle school readers. During reading strategies are necessary for the student to grasp all of the meaning that is to be gained from a text. Once they realize that reading is an enjoyable, interactive process, they will become more motivated to explore the world of literature outside of the classroom. This is key to developing lifelong, independent readers.

Middle School Centers

In school, children participate in two worlds: the official school world and the unofficial social world. The official school world consists of school work that is evaluated by authoritative figures and scrutinized by administrators of standardized tests. The unofficial social world is created by peers. Caroline Maurer describes the advantage of merging these two worlds together: "When children are put together in an official school world, they use peer talk to share ideas, exert power and gain control over an unofficial world... an unofficial world that exists under the radar of adult influences" (Meeting Academic Standards through Peer Dialogue at Literacy Centers).  Although Maurer's article focuses on centers in an elementary classroom, I believe that there is great insight to be gained and tailored for middle school students. At an age where peer approval is prioritized and active engagement is desired, I find the use of centers to be developmentally appropriate in a middle school Language Arts classroom. Centers provide physical movement in the classroom and intellectual stimulation as the students work on things that are important to them, and develop social skills while allowing time to building relationships with peers. In addition, centers encourage the students to take on responsibility for their own learning and help to develop a level of accountability.

It is more than likely that a teacher will run into management problems with the use of centers. What if the students get off task? What if they need extra help? How can you, as the teacher, be facilitating every group at once? It is important to plan to avoid these problems all together. The teacher should have explicit instructions at each center instructing the students on what to do. Each student should be assigned a particular role to rule out the chance that one or two students will emerge to carry the rest of the group. For struggling readers, it might even be necessary to have the instructions and activity recorded in order to guide them through the process. The teacher should rotate through the groups to answer any additional questions or help where difficulties arise, or work with a specific group individually. A question I would like to pose, however, is how the groups should be determined. Should students always work with the same groups to build a level of camaraderie with group members or should the groups be scrambled every so often? Should the groups be assigned according to ability or should each group have a mix of strong and struggling students? And how much time should be alloted to each center?

I think this approach would be extremely effective in a reading and writing workshop, with each center focusing on a specific skill. In a reading workshop I might assign students to the center that they are struggling the most with, encouraging them to develop in one area and move onto another. In a writing workshop I might allow a little bit more freedom, letting the students choose a particular station. Each workshop would benefit from the use of centers, because both reading and writing are skills that can continually be developed at the pace of the individual. There are so many aspects to reading and writing, it would be helpful to break it up and allow room for discussion with peers.

The National Middle School Association Conference in 2007 published a helpful guideline for establishing centers in a middle school classroom. Launching Learning Centers in the Middle Grades is great place to begin brainstorming ideas for centers in your own middle school classroom.

Fun With Words

If there is one thing I have learned in class this week, it is that learning vocabulary is an ACTIVE process. And it can be fun!

The English language is incredible when it comes to its ability to adapt and mold to the things and ideas it needs to describe. Have you ever wanted to clearly get a thought across, but you just could not think of the right word to use? For example, for the past two weeks I have been dancing around the word "finesse." Every day in soccer practice, it's at the tip of my tongue and I just wanted to shout out "Finesse! You need finesse on your touch!" But for the life of me, I could not find that word. So my instruction went a little like "softer! smoother! no...just tap it through nicely!" When the word finally came to me, it snapped my mind into sharper focus. I had a word to accurately describe my thoughts. Middle schoolers, in a world of chaotic change and self-discovery, can find peace at least when it comes to being able to voice their thoughts and opinions. Vocabulary plays a major role in this ability - it separates the mature, successful student from the struggling student. The need for vocabulary knowledge comes into play across the curriculum...so play with vocabulary and set your students up to be successful!

Learning vocabulary is an active process. You cannot just hand your student a list of words and a dictionary and say "write the definition for each words 3 times, and I expect you to begin using them on a regular basis." This is especially true when it comes to the definitions that contain the word you are trying to define (courageous: having or possessing courage). The teacher must talk the students through the definition and engage their minds in finding concrete examples of the word. A funny thing about the English language is that there are so many nuances to different words that cannot be explained by a single, written definition. For example, what is the difference between "to question" and "to inquire"? If you look at a dictionay, "to question" means to inquire and "to inquire" means to question. So why are there two words? Yes, English is a funny language and your students can have a blast playing with words and definitions!

Every time I read I come across words I do not know. I have learned to recognize this and take appropriate measures to find out for myself. I believe that we need to teach our students to do this as well. I love the idea of providing each student with a bookmark that they can write new words on when they come across them in a text. Then, in class, we can discuss some of these stumpers. What are some other ways we can excite our students about words and teach them new vocabulary in an active, fun way?

Independent, Lifelong Learners

This is the purpose of teaching: That my students won't need me anymore.

This is one of many statements that Lindsey Anderson made last spring during a discussion led by herself and Professor Mike Borka. Lindsey Anderson is a recent St. Bens graduate and now teaches at Orono. She teamed up with Mike Borka to explore reading and writing workshops in elementary schools and led a discussion about what they had discovered. The above statement is one that has stuck with me.

Ask any teacher what they love most about teaching and many of them will tell you that "seeing the lightbulb turn on" is what makes everything else worth it. They love working diligently with a student to the point where "it" finally "clicks." As future teachers, I think we are all excited to be the person that the student can count on. We like to call the shots, give information and watch the students soak it in. What happens, though, when the teacher is no longer there? Where will students turn to get their questions answered and who will stimulate deeper thought on a given subject? As teachers, we need to give our students the tools to know how to learn and to know that they are capable.

I think that the most important learning goal for middle level students is to develop the skills needed to become independent, lifelong learners. Middle level students are very impressionable and teachers should use this to the students' own advantage when considering teaching in a middle level school. Elementary years are for laying the groundwork; high school years are about honing those skills for future use in settings outside the high school classroom. Middle level years should be used to ignite a love for learning and to develop the skills needed for success in every area of their lives: reading, writing and thinking. We should develop avid readers, reflective writers and curious thinkers. After all, the future of our world is in the hands of our youth... we need to prepare those hands to gently handle this precious burden and mold it into a beautiful place welcome to all.

So how does a teacher embark upon this journey of molding independent, lifelong learners? She demonstrates that she, herself, is one of those, too. This teacher is passionate about learning. She is knowledgeable about her subject but willing to learn more. She is a student as well as a teacher. And this is demonstrated by her eagerness to show her students why and how that happened. Within the context of a language arts classroom, she reads from a variety of genres and frequently talks about the books she is reading; she questions aloud about the author's intentions and wonders to her students about the plot, argument or theme. She writes constantly and shares her work with her students, inviting them to offer their thoughts and criticism; she praises the solace and comfort she finds in giving her thoughts a voice on paper. She does not tell her students how to learn and sit back and watch; she explores the many ways to learn and ventures down the path with her students at her side.

I am proud to say that I am an independent, lifelong learner. I have learned the skills and strategies necessary to question my world and find answers in unlikely places. My groundwork has been established, my skills honed, and now education is able to originate internally rather than externally. I have yet to develop, however, the skills and strategies for externalizing my behavior. My curiosity and thirst for knowledge comes from a bottomless well within me - I need to find a way to raise the bucket and let my experience overflow and influence the minds of my students. That being said, my goal for this course is to reflect on why learning is so close to my heart and experiment with ways to externalize my findings. This class is an opportunity to explore and practice - after all is said and done, I want to look back at my experience and know that I left my students with more than a few nuggets of knowledge; I want them to have found a new place in their heart where their love for learning has taken root and will continue to grow throughout their lives.

Intentional

I have a new favorite word that really stands for a whole mindset. Intentional. Be intentional with your time, be intentional with your words, and be intentional with your actions; in the blogging world, be intentional will your posts and with your comments.

When creating a new post, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, harbor an open mind! Do not weave an opinion into an absolute fact. Not only can this be misleading but it also distances yourself from your readers. Be careful also not to generalize. Pose your ideas concisely in such a way that allows others to enter the converstaion and turn it into a explosion of thoughts and ideas!

The feedback offered on collaborators' posts should be contructive and well-thought out. You must consider the author and the purpose of the post and respond accordingly; that being said, whether you agree or disagree with what the author is saying, agree or disagree with the IDEA, not the person. Feedback should also be relevant to the content contained within the post - new ideas, meaningful insights and answers to posed questions are welcome. Personal connections to the post are interesting and welcome as well. However, when the comments veer off track it takes away from the original purpose of the post. Respect the author's space and ideas.

As Pete said in his blog, blogs can "quickly devolve into the online equivalent of grunting apes." Let's keep our blogs clean and classy. And remember, use the writing process - blogs are a published piece of writing so consider your purpose, support your ideas and polish it off with some pretty spelling and punctuation.

New Adventures!

Observing, learning and teaching in a middle school setting are exactly what the name of this blog and this title suggest - new adventures! As is writing this blog. I have always toyed with the idea of creating a blog and now I have begun to explore the realm of possibility that blogs provide. Upon browsing blogs from various bloggers I decided what I want my blog to be. I want my blog to be a place of self-discovery, an avenue for opening conversations and a whirlwind of thoughts, ideas and discoveries I make in the classroom and in the world around me.

That being said, there are several things that intrigued me when I stumbled upon some blogs and saved me from the boredom I felt while reading others. These are things that I will try to incorporate into my future posts. They include such things as:

• the title - first, naturally. Titles should set the reader up for what they will read/be significant to the text.
• images... are inviting and visually support the text. They break up the story and offer the reader further information.
• stories! When the writer of the post brings me to a ceratin place in time, introduces me to the subject of their post or takes my hand and guides me to the place that his or her heart is at, I am immediately grateful and pleased. How much more fun it is to be involved in your reading!
• reflective questions. I plan on using this blog to hold myself accountable for the questions formed through this experience. I will pose my questions and try my best to answer them, whether it be through research or personal reflection. My questions will be archived so I have no excuse to let them slip away.
• thoughts and ideas...are a great avenue for opening up converstaions. So often I have had a thought or an idea and I think "there must be someone else who thinks this way too." Now the conversations will begin!
• updates, news and discoveries...I fully anticipate running into things where I think "Oh my goodness, this is exciting/tragic/confusing/awesome/inspiring...", and I fully anticipate on sharing them with my readers.
• harboring an open mind...I know I will have opinions that could open up avenues for debate. I hope to voice my opinions in such a way that does not close off my mind to other possibilities; that being said, I have no problem supporting my opinion and standing up firmly for what I believe.

Writing this post, my first as an official "blogger" (what a funny word), makes me excited for the experiences to come. They will be new, exciting, challenging, humorous, and probably often times frustrating, but I am looking forward to drinking them all in and taking all that I can from them. I hope that my passion for reading, writing and teaching remains strong in my heart and that each day I willingly and intentionally embark on the adventures in store and waiting for me.