Testing fun... and rigor

It’s testing time again. 

My Indiana Writing Project colleagues and I have been holding workshops for teachers who are giving ISTEP, Indiana’s current version of high stakes testing.  My area of expertise is the English 10 End-of Course assessment or ECA because I taught sophomores for 16 years and through several incarnations of the graduation exam.  I'm proud to say we had some great success together.

Not much has changed in terms of how to prepare students over the years, even though the stakes and the content has evolved:  It really begins on the first day of class, when teachers build students’ confidence and create high expectations for their learning.

But in the short haul, in these days before the test, sometimes even the best teachers are tempted to cram one more fact or approach in hopes that students will score just a little higher.  It can get out of hand and burn out kids before they even see the test, despite teachers’ good intentions.

To maintain everyone’s equilibrium in the noxious atmosphere of education these days, I encourage you to balance fun and rigor.  Play a game for a few minutes during class.  Construct a healthy competition between teams of students as you review.  Encourage students to write questions for each other using satire from The Onion or some nonsense poetry.  Get students up moving as they bowl for literary terms or answer conventions questions.

And start planning now to set the tone for testing day.  Last year at my school, we created a PowerPoint presentation for students to view as they enjoyed their protein breakfast funded by local businesses.  The content was the generic test-taking tips that we hoped all students would remember to use when they opened the test booklet or turned on the computer.  But to up the engagement, we created some buzz beforehand. 
 

We elaborately staged photos of the student-testers themselves a week or so before the test and were sure that no one saw it before test day.  One student had climbed on a desk to point to the clock for the reminder about budgeting time in his photo shoot.  Another looked as if he were shivering on the slide with a reminder about wearing layers.  By featuring the students themselves, we were assured an attention factor of almost 100% on test morning.

So, insert a little fun in your test prep.  You'll see the payoff in more engaged students.

Find some of my fun and rigorous test prep materials at
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Second-Classroom-On-The-Left/Order:Most-Recently-Posted

What Is success?

For the past seven or eight years,   I have taken my students to the local university library.  They enter, awed at the four stories of books available to them as they begin their academic writing careers.  By the time their instruction session has finished, and they have become intimate with databases, the electronic card catalog, academic journals and Boolean searches, some I have found weeping in the stacks on Third Floor, East, hopelessly confused about how to locate a particular title; others I have seen stumble down the steps looking dazed, their eyes unfocused and their voices not quite coherent.

Even so, most tell me later, sometimes years later, that this field trip is one of the best they have taken.   They have been challenged to find what academics have written about their research topics and have used it to create their own arguments.  They have conquered the various types of scholarly media that a university offers and supports.  And they have seen firsthand the rigor and expectation of the post-secondary education world – as well as the hundreds of college-age hotties they failed to impress, properly putting them back into their place in the pecking order of academia.

Sadly, this field trip has dwindled from including all my sophomores to only a few AP Language students.  The number of students being exposed to this academic world has decreased from two buses filled with eager students of all backgrounds and capabilities to only the few high ability students who have hung in there for the second semester of a challenging course.  It has become difficult to take students out of their classes with high stakes tests for field trips. Other teachers complain.  After all, their students' tests results impact their performance reviews.  I get that.

But if all students truly must be college and career ready, they all should be given the chance to see what  college expects of them.  Shouldn’t the students who claim in their writer’s notebooks that they want to be doctors and lawyers, nurses and physical therapists, teachers and computer designers, video game designers and vets see what will be expected of them if they choose to pursue these paths?  Isn’t that a large part of making them college and career ready? 

What a shame that "success" is more frequently becoming created from sitting in a classroom, memorizing facts and working practice sets to pass a standardized test, instead of experiencing the challenges of conquering higher level inquiry.

Would you rather…?

Would you rather swim in a pool filled with frogs or bathe in whipped cream every day?

No question. I’d take the whipped cream, even though I’d smell like a carton of  warm sour milk by the end of the week.  I hate frogs.

Yesterday at the Indiana Writing Project’s workshops “ISTEP: The Write Strategies,” my colleagues Kathy Flatter and Lindsey Thompson shared several fun ways to make the writing to a prompt genre more engaging.  One of them was the “Would You Rather…” game.     You may remember the concept:  Two equally difficult scenarios are juxtaposed for players to consider... and defend.  In the board game version, you might have to predict the response of another player or the consensus of the group after discussion to earn a point.

But there are also websites devoted to these ethical and silly conundrums.

Here is an example from nicka who submitted a proposition to the sometimes inappropriate for school website http://www.rrrather.com/ :  Would you rather… go way back in time and meet your ancestors OR go way into the future and meet your great grandchildren? Interestingly, the website actually breaks down the total 289,452 votes by gender and country, which could be a great tool for prediction exercises and higher order thinking…. but that’s an idea for another day.

I agree with Kathy and Lindsey that using these questions IS a super way to engage kids in creating argument.  Some of the choices can be really wacky and appealing, especially for kids who are learning to create and support written argument.  But I am in the throes of trying to help ninth graders respond to multi-part prompts about Shakespearean text, and these questions seem too simplistic at this point in my unit.

So, I’ve decided to write a few of my own, two-part challenges.  “Would You Rather… Double Dips” I will call them, or  WYRDD’s.

Here’s one that I am going to use in an online discussion next week: Would you rather… Pick a fight with someone you hated and be terribly wounded, OR defend the honor of someone and be beaten in public?

Here’s another:  Would you rather… Marry your true love and never see your family again, OR marry someone rich and retain your family’s love and support?

Okay, so maybe these prompts aren’t as engaging as the whipped cream  or time travel ones, but they do meet my academic needs.  They connect to the themes of Romeo and Juliet, and they provoke a moral or ethical responses, a sure hit with teenagers.

But they are also more than that: Students will need to discuss BOTH elements of their choice, not just one and justify themselves. That’s the part that will help them with the multi-layered prompts they will see on their state tests, the part they are currently struggling with in classroom writing.

So this week we’ll do a couple of WYRDD’s together and then students will create their own WYRDD’s from their independent reading books and post them for their peers. By Friday, I 'm hoping they'll be ready to take on a double- dip essay prompt about Romeo and Juliet, without any overt help from the whipped cream or frogs. 

Snow days, anyone?

My calendar is so messed up!  We’ll never get through this unit on the Civil War!  How am I going to get my kids ready to pass ISTEP? 

Over the past few weeks of snow days and weather delays, teachers have been moaning about how to cover their curriculum.   Facebook posts, text messages, and the few hallway conversations we have had revolve mostly around whether we will be in school tomorrow, how to cover material in a 30-minute class period…. and what tasty recipes someone found while at home surfing Pinterest.

Even administrators are wringing their hands, mostly because we are missing days that prepare students for the state tests looming ever near.

A few schools in Indiana have been permitted to make up their missed days through a pilot e-learning program, where students work at home if school has been cancelled.  I’m trying to head in that direction, although my school is not on the pilot program list.  My classes that use My Big Campus and Google Sites are allowing students with Internet access to keep working, if they are so inclined.  In class, they use the school laptops; at home they use their own devices. 

And e-learning certainly has advantages. 

Students have access to supporting videos and resource material that can be individually viewed as many times as needed for scaffolding, or ignored if they aren’t needed.  Groups can work together remotely in discussions that also support learning; students can work when they are able and interested- even at 2 AM.  Teachers can provide feedback from home, and make adjustments or new assignments as needed.

In many ways, the winter weather has given us a chance to jump into the flipped classroom concept informally.   We can see what works, and what doesn’t, and why.

With the kind of engagement that e-learning offers, I’m thinking that filling those extra days in June won’t be such a challenge.

Just a drive... or a click... away

August 11, 2013

There’s nothing like an impromptu weekend jaunt to boost your spirits.  Especially after the first, exhausting week of school.   After a whirlwind trip to northern Indiana Amish country and back through the lake region, I realized the treasures that Indiana holds, not only for rejuvenating my mind and body, but also for teaching writing.

The Mentone egg, a symbol of the livelihood of this north central Indiana region and possibly the largest egg in the world, albeit concrete, is listed in several Indiana tourism books. Now that I have its image in my iPhone, I can use it as a relevant visual for teaching symbolism.

Our drive through the little town of Shipshewana was a visual lesson in juxtaposition.  Black buggies and horses lined up next to RV’s and vans outside quaint stores, as Amish and Mennonite locals purchase staples, and out-of-towners bargain for antiques.  A Google Image search of “Shipshewana” is a delight with its white houses and tidy red barns, bonneted girls, and rows of buggies. I can share these images and challenge my students find others to juxtapose with them. 

Next, we traveled south and east to find conservationist writer Gene Stratton Porter’s “Cabin at Wildflower Woods.”  This 125 acre- state historic site offers visitors a secluded stroll both in the woods and history at Sylvan Lake in Rome City, Indiana.  Stratton’s persuasive narratives combine story-telling and argument, a Common Core Standard for writing. Her passion for saving the Limberlost swamp and its inhabitants may inspire young people who are concerned about today’s environment.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vu0tdgIAs0

Heading farther east toward I-69, we discovered the National Military History Center outside Auburn, Indiana.  This massive building provides an opportunity to study the historical use of rhetoric in its home front propaganda posters from World War II. The posters are filled with excellent examples of rhetorical devices and the three appeals.   Boys and girls alike will find plenty of inspiration and opportunity to conduct research for writing historical fiction in this museum that houses military vehicles of all types.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP2fzTsygsI   

In another section of the structure, a traveling exhibit featuring German Eugenics program would solidify the unfathomable cruelty of the Nazi mentality in any visitor’s mind.  The graphic depictions and artifacts could build strong background knowledge for any high school study of The Holocaust, and provide inspiration for narrative as well as argumentative writing.

I’m guessing that with a little research, most every teacher can find local attractions that they can use to inspire a new generation of writers and thinkers.  And with the accessibility of the Internet, a field trip or lesson is often just a click away.

Let's swing, baby!

Today I was surfing Pinterest for some graphics on the process of writing.  

All I found were lists.

Don’t get me wrong, the lists had appropriate components, and some were lovely. But they were lists, and the lists included each element in its proper place and in a specific order.

Fifteen years ago when I was just learning to use computers and finishing my master’s work, a class assignment required me to create a visual that would represent some aspect of writing.   After spending an intense five weeks in class, it seemed to me that computers had changed the linear way I was used to writing.  I realized that when I composed on a computer, I no longer brainstormed and then drafted and then revised and then proofread and then published. Instead, I swung back and forth between all the “steps” in the process as I rethought and rephrased, edited and proofread, sometimes multiple times and in alternating ways. With the freedom of word processing, I could copy and paste, delete and replace as I wrote. I didn’t let the limitations of having to type another draft dissuade me from improving.  Neither did anyone else.

That notion of swinging got me thinking about my assignment.

With my very limited computer graphics skills, I created several lines and dragged them around to draw a stick figure on a swing.  Underneath the person in scattered text boxes were the former steps in process writing. It was pretty crude, but it was profound.   This simple graphic illustrated how “process writing” really didn’t even exist in the computer age. Instead, writers use a kind of fluid writing that swings back and forth between those traditional elements before the final product is complete.

Today, a common gripe I hear among teachers is that their students hate to revise.  But maybe if we acknowledged that as writers today we revise as we draft, they might have less distaste for it. 

As evidence of “drafting,” maybe students should explain their processes in teacher/student conferences, instead of having to submit artificial drafts to prove that they have invested thought and time in revising.  They just might emerge with better work... and a better attitude about revision and the true nature of writing. 

How about modeling that fluid writing process for your students?  Show them how you compose, rethink your phrasing or content, go back to edit or proofread, and then continue composing.

Then ditch the “Process Writing” charts and use your own metaphor that shows that writing is a journey, a winding path that sometimes switches back on itself, or a pendulum on a clock that swings as it ticks off its progress.  

Or challenge your students to invent their own metaphor for fluid writing.  

Whatever we do, let’s finally move past writing as a linear model.   

Let’s swing, baby!

Let's share the blessings

I've been pretty blessed as a teacher.

Almost every single time I have asked to attend a workshop or conference, I have been granted professional leave time from the classroom.  At my new school last year, I attended the IAGC conference for high ability education, as well as NWP's annual meeting and NCTE's national convention... in Vegas, no less.  I met some fascinating people, helped greet attendees, gave a presentation about writing camps, and soaked up new ideas that sparked my creative energies.

I came back with a different eye for engaging my students. I started thinking about video games as narrative.   That was an enormous leap for this Pong player but also a blessing.  Because I get bored teaching in the same old way.  And I have to believe that my students get bored learning in the same old way, too.

Many teachers aren't as lucky. They are stuck in their classrooms teaching the same old material year after year, without getting a chance to shake it up and learn something new-  such a mistake by administrators who are tight fisted.  The best educational ideas I have ever had were ignited by reading a professional book or attending a conference.

So with the encouragement of new and old friends and colleagues, over the course of the school year I'm going to share more of my work from the past fifteen years.  My files are bursting with ideas I've tweaked to teach seventh through twelfth grade language arts.   

I will be sharing some of them through my blog and a wonderful Internet resource called Teachers Pay Teachers. Some materials will be free; others will be for sale.  I invite you to browse. See what other teachers are doing.  See how you might save time by using someone else's great plans or ideas.  Maybe you have some ideas to share, too.

Here's a sample of what I've been working on this week.    The Best Reading Strategy I Ever Used- FREE

Let's get posting!