A TECH ODYSSEY by Tracey Ryan

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2016-2017 school year.  I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

My tech journey this year has taken a variety of paths - not all of them planned, not all of them repeatable.  My focus was (and remains) narrowing the achievement gap between the regular and honors students.  I see technology as the last great hope to engage reluctant learners and help them produce final products that at least resemble their peers. While the differences between the honors and non-honors students are myriad - my focus this year has been on helping students find their voice in writing.  And while that goal is lofty enough - I also hope to allay their fears of writing - reducing their angst when faced with a blank page.

I dreamed that technology would make me superfluous -- that programs and apps would seamlessly teach my students to be better readers and writers. (I even dreamed that grading programs would provide feedback making my job significantly easier.) However, the truth is that technology is just a delivery system. I still had to design the lessons, engage the students and grade the assignments. The biggest impact was in organizing writing lessons; Google Classroom provided a place where students could actually see each step in the writing process. They also had access to models and samples from their peers. Technology didn't make the process easier, but having access to technology and a learning coach allowed me to keep scaffolding the writing process until all of my students showed significant gains.

MODELING QUOTE ANALYSIS

In order to increase student writing proficiency and help them navigate this complex process, I began the year by providing models to help students recognize their responsibility as a writer. When a reader reads - he/she has certain expectations that the writer needs to meet.  I teach my students in writing a response to literature that they first must provide context for the quote, then quote the relevant portions, before providing close text analysis and finally provide the significance or what I call the so what.  Follow the link below to see the EdPuzzle video that I produced to help students understand the terminology that I use and my model commentary.

Click here for link

VERSO ACTIVITY

Once they can identify the various elements that go into commentary - we work on building that analysis. When they had master the rudiments, with (lots of) help from my tech coach - I set up a multi-day Verso activity in which I supplied the quotes and students responded to them.  Students then provided feedback to their peers before they together wrote the "perfect" close text analysis.

Models and directions for the initial assignment (posted on Google Classroom):

Quote from A Tale of Two Cities:  “The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled.  It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes.  The hands of the man who sawed the wood left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees – BLOOD” (32).

Teacher Written Model of Close Text Analysis (CTA):

Dickens uses anaphora and visual imagery to describe the symbolism of the spilled wine and foreshadow the violence of the coming Revolution.  Dickens introduces the passageways of Saint Antoine, home to working-class Parisians, where a cask of wine has spilled outside the Defarge’s wine shop, flooding the streets and staining, “many faces and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes” (32).  Here, Dickens uses anaphora through the repetition of “many” at the beginning of each consecutive phrase, emphasizing the prevalence of the red wine that drenches “the ground of the narrow street” and soaks “hands,” “faces” and “naked feet” of the people.  Dickens’s choice of “many” hints that the future will include not just a few dissatisfied peasants, but instead an entire class of revolutionaries – the end result is a bloodbath.  In addition, Dickens employs visual imagery to describe “those who had been greedy” and have “acquired a tigerish smear” of wine “about the mouth” to heighten the tense atmosphere and portray the peasant’s feral thirst for the very thing “scrawled upon the wall” by the “finger dipped in muddy wine” – aristocratic blood”(32).  The chaotic suburb of Saint Antoine that Dickens creates in this passage foreshadows the inevitable Revolution in which the streets and peasants will no longer be stained with wine, but will instead be drenched with the blood of those who have been massacred.

Initial Assignment

Directions:  For your assigned quote, provide context, analysis and significance.  Significance can be to develop character, support theme, establish setting, create tone, or cultivate atmosphere.  Use the present tense when writing/talking about literature.  For this assignment focus on breaking down the lengthy quotes.

• Include an assertion that includes the topic to be discussed.
• Provide context(what is happening at the time) and the speaker
• Embed a concrete detail – you don’t have to use the entire quote provided but make sure you include enough to prove the validity of your analysis.
• Provide the analysis/commentary  

Student Written Example

After students write their responses - I asked them to evaluate their peers' responses.   

DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT RESPONSES:

Sample response:

Once students had written their own commentary and responded to their peers’ commentary, the group used their experiences to write the “perfect” analysis. After their collaboration - students analyzed their quotes in front of the class before they presented their written commentary. Their classmates took notes, and each student wrote a second analytical chunk on the quote of their choosing.

Flow Chart (via Crystal Kirch)





REFLECTION: Using technology - students were able to practice their writing skills in multiple ways. What I appreciated most about this Verso assignment was that students got immediate feedback on their own writing. They had an opportunity to share their analytical knowledge and work collaboratively. Too often writing happens solo without an audience and with delayed feedback. Using Verso allowed (forced an immediacy)that afforded students an opportunity to ask questions, to respond to writing, to showcase their writing prowess (or get help to reach some semblance of writing prowess). Yes, this all could have been done without technology, but what made the lesson most effective was that students had to share and had to talk about writing. The more we as teachers can engineer these kinds of conversations the more we can help students internalize the process. The hard part for me was allowing sufficient class time for students to complete the assignment. Part of the reason that writing is such a solitary experience is that it's typically assigned and students can efficiently complete it at home - freeing class time for other activities. However, if I was serious about improving student writing - I needed to skip some of the other activities and devote sufficient class time to helping students master the writing process.


PADLET ACTIVITY
While the Verso activity provided an opportunity for students to practice their writing and receive valuable and immediate feedback - it hadn't really addressed my goal of reducing the achievement gap. With my non-honors students I continued to provide models and frames and practice. Lots and lots of practice. And still, the difference remained stark. As we approached the last response to literature essay before the summative assessment, I again pulled quotes and my students participated in a Commentary Clash. As with the Verso Activity - students were grouped to write collaboratively, but this time they wrote on the same quote with their analysis available for all to see. After all the analysis was completed, the class selected the commentary that best analyzed the specifics of the quote. The competition engendered some adrenaline but the real learning came with the discussion of why some commentary worked better than others. The quotes I selected were all appropriate textual evidence for the essay prompt to be assigned the following week.

Commentary Clash Directions:

1. Quote is displayed on screen.
2. One member selected as leader
3. Group collaborates to write an analytical chunk (Context, CTA, Purpose)
4. Leader copies and pastes chunk on Padlet wall (Period 1, Period 2, Period 3, Period 4, Period 5)
5. Read other groups’ chunk, pick the one that provides the best adheres to the analytical conventions. You may not select your own analysis.
6. Process continues.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Note that I included the link to the Padlet walls for all of my classes. Students, in my non-honors classes, had access to the analysis of their peers. All students had written commentary for the same quotes and now had examples available for them to read, discuss, and imitate.

Sample Response to Commentary Clash




REFLECTION:
While the hope was that by second semester all students would be writing proficient essays - I still had reluctant writers who couldn't/wouldn't produce any writing. Working collaboratively allowed for even the most intentional non-learner to produce something, and when they sat to write their essay the following week - they had pre-written commentary ready to go. The ability to use technology afforded my students the best opportunity for them to complete a proficient essay. Unfortunately, technology is only a tool, and so not all students completed the essay but those who did showed significant improvement.



WHAT'S NEXT:

This year as a tech fellow, I often felt like Sisyphus pushing that large boulder up the hill. And every time I felt like I reached a plateau - some kind of tech breakthrough - there came another hill. My learning curve was long and slow and sometimes painful, but my coach kept encouraging me and asking questions and helping to make connections. I gained a modicum of courage and self-sufficiency. Instead of running through the lesson endlessly and making my TAs log in to help me address any unforeseen problems - I started just to experiment with lessons, to steal ideas from peers and apply them into my own lessons. Nothing bad happened which strengthened my confidence, With this new-found confidence, I hope to continue helping students find their voices and reach some level of writing proficiency. However, writing alone does not make a writer; there's a reading - writing connection. Next year, I plan on adding a focus on reading using Actively Learn, EdPuzzle, and Kami to help students read more analytically.

This journey has been tough, but the rewards were well worth overcoming my own insecurities and tech phobias. I thank and appreciate my coach and my students for their patience. Whenever I got stuck - there were scores of people willing to help. This is not a journey I could have embarked on by myself. Thank you to all who made it possible.

My Year of Looking Through the Lens of Technology

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2016-2017 school year. I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

As I reflect back over the past ten months, I would have to say that being a part of the TUSD Connect Fellowship has been one of my favorite things about this school year. It isn’t just that technology has reinvigorated my teaching  practice and made the content more engaging for my students, which it has, but rather it is what I have gained through the process of having an instructional coach. In September, when I began this process, my expectations were simple:

I will know the fellowship has been successful if feel more confident about integrating technology and if my students are ready for what’s next because of what they've done this year.

Oh, how far we have come. I have to say “we” because I truly believe that it was having the opportunity to have purposeful, one-on-one coaching that has made this such a transformative process. If someone had asked me last year what tech I consistently used in my classroom, I would have replied “Powerpoint, books, pens, and highlighters. Those are all technically tech, right?” My greatest fear with infusing technology into my curriculum was that it would cause my students to become disconnected from each other and from me. I had horrifying visions of a sea of forty heads all zoned into computer screens searching for answers on Google, rather than thinking aloud and arriving at conclusions with another human being. Perhaps I had been reading too much dystopian literature, but I worried that technology would somehow suck the life out of the content and the process of learning--I couldn’t have been more wrong.

How Technology has Helped my Students Stay Connected

Despite my many fears, this year has taught me that tech can enrich student discussions. Two of the new discussion activities I created this year that I am most proud of are a Four Corners Discussion, which focuses on how to move online discussions into classroom discussions, and a Six Person Panel Discussion, which focuses on using technology to increase student independence and talk-time. My belief that the increased use of technology in my classroom would cause a decrease in their When I polled my students, both of these discussions were ranked as their favorites for the year.

How Technology has Encouraged my Students to Become Lifelong Learners

I am always searching for ways to encourage my students to “wonder” while learning. As I mentioned earlier, one of my main concerns with technology is that it would students to search for answers online, rather than actually engaging in the critical thinking required to arrive at their own conclusions. My Adobe Spark Blog is about a three-part project using the video slide show technology to encourage students to explore essential questions over a lengthy unit of study.

How Technology has Inspired Creativity in Me and My Students

One of my biggest revelations about technology in the classroom is that it won’t drain humanity out of my curriculum. The projects I have designed this year that make me proudest are the ones which reflect both how technology has inspired my creativity, and my student’s. My Student Podcast Blog on students podcasts is a perfect example of how technology can be used to make a richer learning experience.

Participating in this tech fellowship, and working with an instructional coach, has been the best thing I could have done for my teaching practice. As I look forward to the next school year, my main goal is to build on what I have created this year. While I have specific ideas about new ways to use technology (hello, Google Sites), what I am most focused on as a professional is continuing the cycle of reflection that has been established by my coach this year. I never thought that I would grow as much as I did, and I certainly never thought that I would be as excited about what technology can bring to the classroom as I am.

This year has been a journey for both me and my students. As I have grown, they have grown, and I am looking forward to what is to come next year.

Happy Summer!

Erin Thomas has been teaching English Language Arts in Tustin Unified School District since 2005. She received her B.A. in English, teaching credential, and Master's in Education from Concordia University, Irvine. Erin grew-up in a house filled with books, in fact every room contained its own bookcase, which instilled her a life-long passion for reading and a love language. As a teacher, Erin hopes to foster that same love of literature in her students by giving them opportunities to read deeply and often, and by encouraging them to share their understanding of what literature reveals about the human spirit.

Getting Detailed with Tech (Guest Post)

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2016-2017 school year. I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

I see technology as a tool to enhance the skills necessary to tackle an English course, rather than a new skill to be taught. I often ask, “What technology enhances the skills I am already teaching?”. As a fellow, I was able to explore a wide variety of tech tools that help build writing skills. Most of the technology that I’ve grown to appreciate and value were tools that helped my students understand the key components in an essay. One such example is Verso. Verso allowed me to hone in on skills, such as introducing evidence, writing topic sentences, and developing analysis. In addition, the feedback was quick. Categorizing student’s answers by grade level allows students to see how they would be graded, what quality of work they were producing before they actually earned a grade. This form of formative assessment gave students the space to ask questions about their writing, which fostered more individualized conversations about their writing. In addition, the anonymity provided students with a wide variety of examples. This fostered good conversations about writing quality. As a result of several Verso activities, students asked questions and evaluated their own writing in a way I was not able to see before.

The second tool I found beneficial in the classroom was EdPuzzle. I used EdPuzzle in a variety of ways: reading assignments, writing scaffolding, mini lessons. I found the most success using it as a reading tool. I uploaded the audiobook of Romeo and Juliet (scene by scene) and then inserted my reading check questions in the video. I found this useful for both my strong students and struggling students. The strong students were then able to move onto analysis during class discussion. The struggling students were given a scaffold and important parts to focus on while reading. Students the next day were able to focus on analysis and close reading, as opposed to plot-based questions. In addition, EdPuzzle kept my CP students accountable for reading, which is a common struggle.   As the teacher, I could go into EdPuzzle and look at student responses to the questions and open up class discussion with questions students struggled to answer. I was more clearly able to see which areas of the text my students needed to discuss.

My goals for next year are to improve class discussion. I want to foster a stronger sense of community in the class so students feel safer to discuss their ideas without judgement. In addition, I want to provide stronger annotation/close reading instruction. I hypothesize that if students feel confident about their reading skills they will more likely discuss their ideas in class and in front of others.

The technology that I used this year helped me scaffold writing structure, but next year I’d like to focus on refining students understanding English Language Conventions. I hope to use EdPuzzle in order to create interactive lessons featuring important grammar concepts.

The number one benefit of the Tech Fellowship was the reflecting I did. I felt that I had to think more critically about what strategies I was using in the classroom and if those strategies were really meeting my goals. The fellowship forced me to change some of my teaching practices because I was recognizing some students’ needs were not being met. On the other hand, it also helped me stay confident in some of my current teaching practices.

Turning Online Discussions into Meaningful Class Conversations

Post by: Erin Thomas, High School English Teacher

I am not a techy person by nature. The latest gadgets, fancy apps, and social media aren’t really my thing, so when I decided to commit to being a tech fellow this year, I was nervous about how things would go. One of my biggest concerns was that the technology I brought into the classroom would become a distraction from the actual learning I wanted to take place. My tech coach vehemently assured me that we would only bring in technology when it made sense and would serve to enhance the lesson I had planned.

A couple of weeks ago, I put her assurances to the test. I told her I wanted to find a way to take an online discussion and push it out into the classroom. I was curious if I could find an effective way to make a online discussion meaningful to their person-to-person interactions in class. The lesson series took a total of three days: one day for the online Verso discussion, one for the in-class 4 Corners discussion activity, and one for miscellaneous post recap and reflection which I wanted them to do. More information can be found about this style of discussion in Catlin R. Tucker's Creatively Teach The Common Core Literacy Standards with Technology

Verso Activate Learning

I decided to keep the online discussion fairly broad. I had them respond to two questions about the reading, with the goal being to simply get them warmed-up for their in-class discussion. They were asked to make both an initial post with their response to the question, and then one response to one of their peer’s responses.

That night for homework, I had them respond to a Google Form survey HERE which required them to write two open-ended questions based on their online discussion. My plan was to pull at least a few of their questions and use them in the Four Corners discussion in class the following day. This extra step really increased their buy in the day of the Four Corners activity. They were excited to see their questions from the form form filtered into the different rounds of discussion.

The in-class discussion took a fair amount of set-up to get everything into place, so they could participate in the in-class discussion I had in mind. My goal was for them to participate in four different, ten minute discussions, each with its on focus and questions. Each round they would move to a new table and would meet with a new grouping of their peers.

With the help of my amazing tech coach, we set-up a Google Sheets which organized them into groups, rounds and discussion roles. Students were given the Google sheets the day before the in-class discussion, so they could come to class prepared to make the numerous transitions as smoothly as possible. One adjustment I made to this portion of the lesson when I did it the following week with my CP students was to have them write down their assigned roles and rounds on a handout I created. This eliminated some of the issues my honors students had with forgetting where to go. CP Handout

The day of the discussion went great! It was so exciting to see them moving around and interacting with so many of their peers in one class period. My honors students tend to be really strong in discussion, but I had the same level of participation from my CP students a week later. As a teacher, I want to create opportunities for my students to think critically about a text and to articulate that thinking through meaningful discussions. The online discussion, partnered with the in-class Four Corners activity, did just that.

I did do a twenty minute recap of the information covered during the discussion with my students the following day, but it was mainly just a way for me to solidify what I observed them talking about in class. Additionally, I had them complete a final Google Form reflecting on the process HERE , their participation, and the relevance of the online discussion. The feedback they provided was enormously helpful when I went to set the same lesson series up for my CP students. In addition to the adjustment I mentioned earlier, I also chose to eliminate the role of “time keeper”, it felt fairly irrelevant to me during the discussion, and their responses confirmed that thinking.

The vast majority of my students indicated on their Google Form that they preferred this lesson series to the typical Socratic Seminars we have on a fairly regular basis in my class. Many of them shared that they felt more confident participating in this type of discussion, and that having the online discussion in advance of the in-class activity helped them to feel more prepared.

On a purely pedagogical level, I was really pleased with how this lesson turned out. While it was a bit labor intensive to complete all of the set-up required to make the Four Corners discussion run smoothly, it was completely worth it. I was so happy to see my students show how independent they can be of me while having a sophisticated, academic dialogue with their peers. And I was even more excited the following week to watch my CP students find the same success.

I still wouldn't say I am the most "techy" person, but I have learned to really enjoy it. I have seen how it can make a lesson I have planned more dynamic and engaging, while also allowing me to be creative and innovative as a teacher.

Scaffolding Reading Comprehension in a Foreign Language Class

I wanted to share a lesson from one of my fellow's classes.  Helping students in Spanish 3 to get comfortable with reading their first novel that is fully in a foreign language requires a lot of support and scaffolding.  Not only do they need to understand grammar and vocabulary used throughout the novel, but they also must be able to piece everything together enough to comprehend the storyline. 

To facilitate this learning, we decided to utilize several instructional strategies (both with and without tech) that would allow students to process their reading.  As students worked through the novel, we tried to utilize different strategies (matching with each of the four goals below) to keep students on their toes and to keep things fresh.

The goals for the novel & strategies to help meet each goal.

STEP 1: Prepping for Comprehension + Working with Vocab / Verb Tenses

Before reading the first couple pages, students read a summary passage that one of last year's students had written. Using GoFormative, they edited the passage for grammar, verb tense, and agreement. In addition to exposing them to new vocabulary and helping them build their skills around using the correct verb tense, reading the summaries helped to prepare their minds for what they would see next.

STEP 2: Reading & Annotating chapter (supported with TPR)

While students could have used Google Docs or Kami (PDF annotation) to read and annotate the novel, we wanted them to do this on a hard copy so they wouldn't have to be navigating between multiple screens for the upcoming activities.  In addition, because this is their first exposure to reading a novel completely in a new language, we wanted to keep the "comfort" of being able to read and annotate with pencil & highlighter.  After reading and annotating the first 4 pages of the novel individually, the students reviewed the events they had just read about through a TPR "Total Physical Response" activity, where Mr. Miranda guided the class in "acting out" what had happened.

STEP 3: Sequencing Key events together

Students then got in collaborative groups to put together a sequence map of the events in the novel. Utilizing Google Drawing's Explore feature, they were able to bring in images that helped to communicate what was happening in the story.  The goal of building the Google Drawing was to ensure students had a level of comprehension of the key events in the novel.

STEP 4: Writing about the key events in the chapter & Analyzing vocab / verb tenses

Lastly, they used Verso App to write their own summary, taking what they learned from the sequence map and putting it together in complete, comprehensible sentences, focusing on the vocabulary and appropriate verb tense. Once all students submitted their summary, they were assigned another student (Verso App keeps student names anonymous) to critique, evaluate, and make recommendations for how to improve their writing.  Because all posts in Verso are numbered, it was easy to give each student a number corresponding to a different post to evaluate.

One of the challenges is getting students to summarize in their own words and not just take key phrases from the novel.  To overcome this, we had to make the Verso response a "closed text" response (can't have the novel out).  Students could still access their Google Drawing sequence map to help with their writing.

alternate STEP 4: Speaking about the key events in the chapter

Using either Let's Recap or Adobe Spark, students summarize the key events in the chapter orally rather than in writing.  With Let's Recap, Mr. Miranda just saw their face via webcam, which allowed him to watch their pronunciation.  With Adobe Spark, students brought in images to aid in telling the story of the chapter.  You can see a sample Adobe Spark here.  The students recorded them in class, so there is background noise.  However, that does not take away from the goal of the activity.

Overall Reflection:
Students found most of the activities helpful (either "a little" or "a lot").  They were most uncomfortable with activities that forced them to speak (using Adobe Spark or Let's Recap), but that is a goal they are working towards and should get more comfortable over time.