The pages that bind

Ten times this past weekend I read it: “Moo moo buzz buzz pop pop pop!”  Even so, I’ll never get tired of reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss to our one-year-old granddaughter. There’s something about reading aloud and sharing words with other people that creates a mighty bond.

My Language Lab students know it.  We’ve been reading aloud a book called The Afterlife by Gary Soto.  They are captivated by this story about a teen who is randomly stabbed and killed in the first chapter and then narrates the entire story after his death.  In class, we never seem to have enough time to read it aloud. Even though these kids say they hate to read, our discussions are rich.  Everyone has an opinion.  We are bound together by this book.

I guess I have my family to thank for loving to read.  

Some of my best kid memories involve reading with others:  Sharing the latest Archie and Richie Rich comic books with my sister.  Inheriting a set of The Happy Hollisters when my older brothers were too old to care about the family of seven who solved mysteries On a River Trip and At Snowflake Camp. Listening to my mother read James Whitcomb Riley’s “The Bear Story” to us on a summer night, in a perfect old-time Hoosier dialect.

Even before I was an ELA teacher, I new I wanted to foster reading experiences for my own kids.  It started with Mr. Brown, but escalated as the kids developed their own interests.  In 1998, Great Aunt Connie started them on the first Harry Potter book, and we all were hooked.  Several times, we stayed up until midnight for a new release and shoved our way through the crowded Walmart to get at least two copies, so no one had to wait for more than one other reader to finish.  And then the debates began: Why couldn’t Voldemort be named?  Was Snape secretly a good guy?  Would Hermione and Harry end up together?

As they grew older, we read The Kite Runner and Outliers and The Know-It-All.  We read classical literature and self-help books and philosophy and humor.  We shared anything that we read that was provocative or amusing or quaint.

And so it still goes. Even though my kids are grown, we continue to share reading experiences. 

These days, I’m more likely to see a satiric piece from The Onion or a provocative essay from Slate pop up in my email than an actual book review, although that does happen occasionally.  But no matter what the genre, we still keep reading… and talking or texting… together.

Times change.  Our interests shift.  But it’s not too late to start sharing reading with your kids, no matter how old they are. 

Share a sports page, a funny comic strip, a daily devotional.  Share a news story, a home renovation blog, the latest best seller. Keep reading and talking or emailing or texting.  Reading together creates shared experiences that our busy lifestyles today often can’t.  Reading together creates lasting memories and irrevocable bonds.  Reading together keeps us together.

One way or another, let's get organized!

As I debated about buying Valentine candy for my students last week at WalMart, I noticed something out of place.  It was a board that had sticky notes of different sizes and colors attached to it.  And they weren’t even pink with hearts or flowers on them.  How did they find their way into the Valentine’s Day section of the store?

My practical side pushed away such heady matters.  This was exactly what some of my students needed to help stay organized.  

When I saw that it cost only $3.97, I immediately snatched it up and began to examine it.   Then, as my mind tends to do, I began wondering.

Calendar, reminders, lists... this sticky note organizer has it all!

How could my students could produce their own sticky note portfolios?  What kinds of notes would they need most?  What sizes and packaging would be most helpful?  

There used to be a special glue available to make your own tablets.  Is that still being sold? How could we make the papers sticky? Would students enjoy designing their own sayings and organizational forms to suit their own needs?  Which students would really use the notes?

It was definitely a project worth pursuing .

In class, we have created digital sticky notes for their laptops, but some of my students aren’t as comfortable in a one-to-one electronic classroom.  A few of them frequently have issues with technology.  Their devices won’t boot up.  They lose connectivity at random times. They cannot access documents that are loaded.  They try to upload their work to the assigned drop, but it disappears.  Sometimes it’s their lack of knowledge, but often their trouble is inexplicable.  

Those students could use more physical tools for organization like the portfolio I found.

Use Trello to set up boards and reminders you and your student can access.

For the others, there are many digital tools that will support being better organized.  Trello is an Internet-based program that allows users to create boards that have cards on them with notes users create.  It looks like a bulletin board with index cards.

Two of Trello’s best features are that it is shareable and free.  That means that parents and students can share an account and help each other keep track of their chores, school assignments, and projects.

Using a calendar or alarm on a cell phone is one of the best ways I have found to stay organized. Many successful adults use their phones in this way.  How about encouraging students to set an alarm to remind students to read twenty minutes each day?  Many of my students do not know how to use the calendars or alarms on their phones.  This would be a great time to learn together.

Google has it all.  Check out is many options.

One last way to stay organized is by using a shared Google Calendar or even a simple Google Doc.  If both student and parent create free Google accounts, they can share a calendar or document that includes activities for the week. Both people can access and edit it, so keeping each other accountable and supporting each other is easy.  

So whether it’s using an old fashioned calendar, a set of actual or digital sticky notes, or using an Internet program, keeping organized can be easy this semester.  Find the best way for your student to be organized ... and more successful.

With a little help from … your kids

Okay, this display is still on my table.

It’s time to take down those holiday decorations!  

Newspapers suggest safety tips for removing greenery, merchants are hawking organizational tips (and their wares), and one blog even advises that we might have bad luck if we don’t promptly take down our Christmas trees.

This year was the first Christmas that I didn’t have a kid at home to help me bring down the tubs from the attic, unpack them, and purposefully place just the right piece in just the right place.  And no one was there to help me tear down the decor and stow it back in its plastic tubs.

Without another set of hands this year, I knew I had to be efficient. I had about sixty essays to mark before going back to school and was determined not to spend the whole break grading. With such motivation, I tore down the tree and its holiday pals in record time.

How do holiday decorations connect to English/Language Arts?

Last semester, my high school freshmen wrote an essay that evaluated their own progress in a variety of ELA skills. One of the first questions my students asked was the inevitable “How long does it have to be?”

To impress upon them the gravity of this assignment that would count as their final exam, I deviated from my usual “long-enough-to-get-the-job-done-right” response.  Instead, I told them it would likely be five to six pages, double spaced.

They all gasped.  A few were on the edge of a total freak out.  Even though I told them that we would be writing it in chunks in class, some students just shut down at the news.  They weren’t capable of hearing the details of my plan.

As I put away my Christmas decorations this year, I wondered if my students who had freaked out had helped decorate their homes for the holidays. Or tackled any big project with an adult who helped them break it down into smaller parts.

If they had, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so unnerved by their final exam essay project.

My grandmother confided to me once that her mother never allowed her in the kitchen while she cooked.  No doubt it was easier and faster for her mother to can green beans without a little girl helping.  But what a shame!  My grandmother not only missed the bond that comes from cooking together, but also the planning and  problem-solving skills that are developed.

My kids' and my new herb garden

So here is my challenge to parents, guardians, and grandparents, really to all people who work with kids: This year, create opportunities help your student develop the so-called “Executive Function Skills.”  

Even though it isn’t always easy or quick, involve kids in some of your next home or outdoor projects.  Talk  about your end goal.  Let them help you break it down into smaller chunks with mini goals. Decide together how you will know if the job is coming along well, and revise the plan together when needed.  Create a timeline to work on the project. And above all, talk about the skills that you are building together and brainstorm ways these skills will help your student at school.

You will be helping students  build the skills that many psychologists say are critical for success, not only in school, but also in life. And you’ll be creating wonderful memories.

Now, how about taking down those holiday decorations… with a little help from your kids?

Barb

Next time: Tech tools that will help you and your student be organized for success.

The countdown begins with fun

The countdown has begun.

Not for the end of school.  For high stakes testing.

Whether it is end-of-year state testing, graduation exams, or Advanced Placement tests, teachers everywhere are scheduling their last-minute crams to make sure that their students have every bit of information they might need to bump up their scores.

It can get intense.  Especially in many places, like here in Indiana, where there is more at stake than ever: evaluations and next year's paycheck.

How about lightening the mood a little in your classroom and reviewing at the same time?  After all, students learn more when they have fun.

Incorporating games to review the literary terms that pepper language arts test questions can be fun and still provide appropriate review.  Especially when they are not those contrived video games that kids get to play when they have accomplished another boring set of review questions on their computer review program.

Group games and activities also build your classroom community. And after all, we are in this together.

Using popular culture examples for more advanced review can engage students, too. What student doesn't like discussing The Simpsons or Katy Perry in class without getting in trouble?

And if you can spare the time, let the kids create their own review games to share. Either way, students will be having fun, using higher order thinking skills, and reviewing at the same time.  That's a sure-fire way to testing success.

If you don't have time to make your own games and activities, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers Store for literary term review activities for high school students.

Above all, make it fun whenever you can.  Your students and your blood pressure will thank you.

Flipping success... or not...

                In our faculty meeting, my new principal mentioned a study hall goal sheet that one teacher had brilliantly devised.   I decided to use that idea, too.  At the beginning of class, my study hall students in grades 9-12 must fill out a goal sheet for that day, so they are focusing on their homework during our time together and also building time management and organizational skills. At the end of the period, they check if they accomplished those goals and set new ones for that evening based on their leftover goals.   

That leads me to consider the number of my students in my other classes who did not do their flipped assignments last week.  Two students completed the flipped assignment in one class of sixteen students, and only 58% completed it in another. In contrast, in my Speech classes that are open to all students in grades 9-12, three-fourths of the students completed the assignment. 

Those numbers make me wonder about the correlation between students’ success in a flipped format and their executive functioning skills.     If students are not organized or cannot manage their time well, I am thinking that the “engagement value” of a YouTube video, a SurveyMonkey  survey or choice-related activity, no matter how engaging, will not magically create students who complete and submit all of their work. 

Granted, one reason so many did not complete the work could be because our delivery platform had changed over the summer, and I constructed a couple of tasks in a way that might have confused students who were not inclined to click several times.  But I am wondering if another is that these basic students may have rarely been engaged or successful in the past.  So, they may think, why should I be now  just because the assignment is posted online.

Many years ago when I began teaching general education upperclassmen, I quickly eliminated most homework other than long-term projects.  I found that these students, so used to little success in school anyway, simply did not do homework.  Rather than my failing them all and having them learn nothing, or my trying to swim upstream to create a completely new set of values for them, I simply switched my instructional model to be deeper with less homework.  We worked in class on chunks of text, instead of attempting to tackle it all- which most weren’t reading anyway.  Then we analyzed and interacted in class with the text we had read, and I left the remainder of the text as dessert for those who wanted more.

This morning, I posted a discussion on http://flippedclassroom.org/ to see if there is any research taking place about the success of flipped formats with basic education students.   I think I will also administer an anonymous survey on Monday and Tuesday to find out why some of my students didn’t complete their work on time.  If my survey reveals what I suspect- that they just didn’t care about doing the work for any number of reasons, then next week, I will have to entice them into the flip. If they don’t have the organizational or process skills, that’s an easier fix.