Writing to Learn

Writing to learn in an English classroom is probably much simpler to implement than in others. I use a variety of writing methods to engage students in both high and low stakes writing experiences. There is this really cool photo blog presentation that Ms. Payseur and I (and several other English teachers in the county) use for warm-ups (here's the link). Some of these journals, which I evaluate purely on completion, have led to hilarious stories and deep conversations in my class. I love the ones that require students to make up a story based on a picture because everyone interprets it differently and the stories are so diverse. One of the lessons I try to impress on my public speaking students is that speeches are very much like writing and to apply the organizational and research skills we develop in class to English 10 in the spring. I've found that many students are much better speakers as a form of communication than writers, so I try to use their strengths to help them bridge that gap. While we do not do much high stakes writing in public speaking, I make them adhere to organizational structures (outlining) that they can then apply to future writing assignments. It is really cool to see how they develop as communicators over the semester.

Silent Reflection

For my silence activity, I borrowed an idea from the presentation and had students complete a silent gallery walk. We are studying "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" in public speaking. For one of the chapters, I created questions based on the reading students had completed the night before. Each student was given a marker and instructed to circle the room and answer the questions quietly on chart paper. It's never an easy feat to keep teenagers from talking the entire writing period, but they did pretty well. I made sure to include around 10 questions so there would be a variety of questions and to keep students from crowding around one question. As facilitator, I clarified questions and kept students moving. After all students had answered, I distributed the chart paper to different students and we discussed the answers provided as a whole group. I found this activity was a great way for students to all have input on questions and it didn't take a lot of time to do. The responses on the papers gave way to in-depth classroom discussion that I think would be lacking if we had discussed the chapter in a more traditional fashion. This is an activity that I would definitely try again.

Writing to Learn

I have found that, like myself, many of my students write for three primary reasons: to communicate something, to clarify thinking, and to learn new concepts and information (or at least to make notes when attempting to do the latter). When Common Core and Essential Standards came on the scene, it was made clear that every teacher, no matter the subject, must include writing in the curriculum. Great! I already do that since there are discussion questions on every assessment I give. The writing I was "including" in my instruction did little to benefit the learning taking place.  One significant challenge in my classes is how to move students from thinking about science as a collection of facts to be memorized toward a deeper understanding of concepts and scientific ways of thinking. Having students complete essay questions was just another way for them to regurgitate information they had simply memorized for the sake of testing. Something had to be done about that...enter Pinterest.

Though I resisted the it's lure for several years, I finally gave in to the Pinterest craze last year. How I ever found novel ways to teach concepts prior to that remains a mystery! I found that neon dry erase markers write beautifully on my lab tables because they are made of a nonporous substance. My classes thought I had made the short trip to crazy when I had them clear their tables, take a neon marker, and write ON THEIR TABLES! Several times, we've used them to brainstorm and generate prior knowledge about a particular topic. One student took a picture of the destruction to public property and sent it to me via e-mail so I could use their ideas for discussion starters the next day.

As we began the heredity unit in biology, my students did the brainstorming activity. I've included one group's results here.

The following day, we discussed the results of each group. As students asked questions, I made a list...why can brown-eyed parents have blue-eyed children? Are dominant traits always the most common traits? If a dark skinned African-American person marries a light-skinned person, what color would the children be? What do mutations have to do with genetics? Lots of questions from inquiring minds. And, for the most part, they weren't asking questions to be funny. They wanted legitimate answers. I went on with the remainder of the lesson.

When class resumed the next day, it was time for writing to learn. Instead of using the large post-it papers, the writing took place on the tables. I crafted some genetics/heredity problems from the list generated in the previous class. Students wrote responses to the questions or problems I posed. Some were hesitant for fear of being wrong until I reminded them that this is a risk-free assessment. I can't fix flawed thinking until I know where the broken parts are. In the end, students did a final survey to see what additional comments had been made to their initial statements and that served as some powerful reinforcement for them.

Writing to Learn: Portfolio Reflections

Some of my Spanish teaching compatriots would be scandalized that I take 15 minutes out of class  to have my students write in "the L1"--6% more than the recommended allotment--but it's what we do each Thursday to reflect on the week's activities and how they fit with the three modes of communication: interpretive reading & listening, presentational speaking & writing, and person-to-person communication.

I created a Google Sites template last year for all students to assemble evidence that they could perform in all 3 modes (5 skills) at appropriate levels as the semester progressed. I also added a page in the template for weekly reflections though, set up blog style, where they not only address the modes, but also their overall proficiency levels and the personal goals they set for themselves each grading period.

Here's what their instructions look like:

Since I have implemented this practice, students have had less trouble figuring out what to use for evidence on their portfolios and how to demonstrate their proficiency. They also have an overall clearer picture of what they should be able to do, and I think it has been a contributing factor in the decrease in struggling students relying on translators to complete their work, since they recognize that they should be using familiar words and phrases.

Writing to Learn - Lesson Launch

I am still working to find what works for our freshmen in Math I as many of them are still struggling with how to learn math.  For our unit on Exponential Functions, I decided to start their introduction with a self-guided, on-line lesson.  I had students work individually to complete their lesson.  They were provided with flow-charts and info-graphics to fill in as they progressed through the lesson.

The following day in class, I had the students do a free-write to tell me what they felt were the most important "take-aways" from their on-line lesson.  I gave them about 10 minutes and allowed them to use their notes to guide them in their writing.  I did not give them any guidelines as far as length or structures.  I simply asked them to tell me what they knew.

I used what they had written as a launch for our lesson.  I asked each table to pick out what they felt was the most important information from their free-writes and we formed, as a class, a "Need to Know" page about Exponential Functions before we began our exploration.  I found that the class discussion that day was much easier.  Some of my quieter students were more eager to participate.  We were able to use some of the information in their individual notes as talking points for our exploration activity.  I felt that class that day started with a big topic and seemed to narrow as they asked more and more questions.  It seemed students had the opportunity to build on their own understanding rather than on a set of introductory notes or a foldable that we complete together.

From a grading standpoint, I picked out a list of about 5-6 key terms from their on-line lesson and looked to see if each student had at least 4 of them present in their explanation.  As a math teacher, I was not super-excited about grading a writing assignment, but I think that ignoring grammar (as was suggested in our PD) and looking for key terms/content made grading much easier. It was very easy to tell who actually completed the lesson versus who just clicked through the slides and videos. I could also see patterns of misconceptions students had.  Some students wrote from the lesson verbatim while others translated into their own words which, of course, demonstrates a greater understanding.  I think this allowed for me to get a better glimpse into how each student processes even the notes in class...I'm just not sure what to do with that, so I definitely still have some work to do!   We take our test on this unit tomorrow and I am extremely anxious to see if this strategy made a difference!

Writing To Learn.. In Math

I'm going to start out by saying my students write to learn with every quiz or test and every homework assignment  without knowing it. With every quiz and test they have to make corrections and explain why they missed what they missed or how they know the new answer is correct. They were given the expectation that they will complete corrections this way, or they would not get credit. Just an answer with no explanation does not get them credit. My Pre-Calculus students are better at explaining themselves than my Advanced Functions students. Sometimes the AFM kids try to get away with "I forgot how to do it." or "I plugged it in the calculator wrong."

In Pre-Calculus we are learning about Vectors. This Physics related topic always has at least one question on the NC Final Exam but with Fridays gone and the personalities of our lovely juniors, it's going to be a struggle to get through this in the time allotted. Vectors have many fun applications and there are many different things that can be done with them. The past 2 days, we've done Vector Stations. One station, they were a human vector. They had to walk the path of a vector, draw it out on their paper, then discuss if the order in which they followed the directions mattered. In another station, they had to follow directions in order to find "treasure" on a pirate treasure map. In another station, they had to solve some word problems that dealt with airplanes and wind and swimming with water currents. In the last station, they watched a video dealing with vectors in the NFL and read an article with some applications. In this station, they filled out the chart in this packet while they watched the video. Then, they read the article and made comments (the directions were "If you think it, write it. Even if it's "Oh! That's pretty cool."). They switched papers and made comments on their comments (like we did in our PD). Some students did really well, while other students were saying things like "I didn't know what to write." or "I didn't think anything about this." My response was "Did you really read it and try?"

I think it's still hard for students to understand why there is writing and even reading in a math class. I just had to get up to explain something they could have found out by reading the directions. They've had that problem a lot lately. That and "I don't know how to do this." Okay, well have you even thought about it? No. Hmmm...


I'll admit, the article didn't have a lot of content in it, so maybe they didn't think a whole lot about it. Even when I read the article and even the book, I don't have a lot of comments to make. I can definitely relate with them in that they don't like to read in math. This group also thinks way too much into things. I was just asked "What do you mean make a comment on their comment?"  I mean exactly what I said. There's constantly heated "academic discussions" on who is correct in solving the problem. It usually ends up in they're both right.. they're just not listening to one another and fully understanding one another. Sometimes they're too smart for their own good.....

Save the Last Word Activity - Interpreting Data

I gave a CFA on constructing and analyzing graphs to display data.  An overwhelming majority demonstrated that they could calculate statistics and construct graphs given a data set; however, several seemed to struggle when they were asked to use graphs (primarily box and whisker plots) to compare and interpret data.  Through questioning, I found that most could recall that a box and whisker plot split data into 4 sections, but could not use that to form sentences about a set of data (For example: At least 75% scored a 75 or higher on their test).  I thought the "Save the Last Word" activity would benefit students who were struggling by letting them get input from their peers to help them create better sentences to describe data rather than by simply saying "The median is..."

Here's how I framed the activity:

For their warm up, a set of two box and whisker plots comparing sale prices for two stores were displayed.  Students were given approximately 5 minutes to write down anything they could read from those plots with regards to determining which store was the "better" buy.

At the end of the 5 minutes, I put the instructions for "Save the Last Word" on the board.  Students were already sitting in groups of 4, so I kept them in these groups.  Each group numbered off 1-4 so that I could identify who was speaking at which times.

We then went through a round where Person 1 would state one of their findings from the box and whisker plots. Then, the rest of the group had 1 minute to respond to the initial person's finding.  After the group responded, the original person could keep their sentence the same, or could edit their statement based on what the group said.

We went around until everyone had the chance to make one statement and receive as response from their group.

At the end of the activity, I asked every one to write down something new that they learned about box and whisker plots or data in the activity.  I was pleased to see that the majority of the class felt they learned something.

Reflection:

"Silent Time": My freshmen are really going to need some "training" on what is expected during silence.  Their instinct is to respond immediately.  When a student or group did not have much to say, they had a tendency to want to start discussing anything and everything.  It took a couple of stern looks and re-directions to guide groups to participate in accordance with the guidelines.

Did they learn?:  I was happy to see that most had something they felt they took away from the activity.  Some learned "new" things like the fact that a box and whisker plot divides data into 4 sections (I know, we had already discussed this!). Others stated that they had a better understanding/visualization of what it meant to split data into 4 sections and how to use that to interpret two graphs.

What Now: For the first time, the activity was awkward.  The students wanted to talk, I wanted them to be quiet.  Why weren't they using this time to think???  But, in retrospect, I should have expected awkwardness. Students are often expected to respond immediately so it is going to take some getting used to for them and me.  In the future, I want to provide a little more structure for what is expected during the quiet time.  If there is time left over, students should write down comments and questions so that they have more to discuss in the "group discussion" time.  It is definitely going to take some practice, but I look forward to trying the activity again!

Silence is Hard

Today, I began my unit on cyberbullying.  Rather than continue the way I have taught it before, I decided to have students watch a video on a news report about cyberbullying, and read 1 of 2 articles.  I chose two different articles in order to differentiate for reading levels.

Resources: (hyperlinked)
News Article Video
Article #1
Article #2
Questions posted around room for carousel
PPT w/Directions for Group Work


We first watched the news clip about two girls being charged with involvement in a bullying case that resulted in suicide.  Before allowing discussion, I then gave students their articles and explained how I wanted them to annotate, leaving the directions on the board. I set a timer for 5 minutes. That was not enough time, so I added another 5.  A few students (my stronger readers) were finished within the first 5 minutes, but I wanted to give enough time for everyone to annotate fully.

I will allot 10-15 minutes for the articles in the future in order to encourage students to stay focused and help with timed reading training for final exams.  (4th block had the most difficulty staying quiet after completing their initial reading.)

Students had to remain silent after completing their annotations which was easy for most of them in 3rd block.  4th block however had some issues. Although, some will have to remember not to write or play with materials while listening to others speak. The most trouble I had came from the sophomores in room 123 because they don't know how to not act like idiots when no one is watching them.

In the future, I will add to the instructions for the members to direct the rest of the group to the passage before reading in order to help those who need to read the section for better comprehension.  I will also direct group members to be thinking about what their response will be when it is time for their discussion during the rest of the minute from the original speaker.

3rd block: I had students get out their phones and set a timer for 1 minute.  That person was then in charge of resetting the timer for each speaker.

4th block: I tried to have students keep a timer.  They could not handle this, so I had to be the one to maintain the timer for other member responses.

For the original member to respond, I will set a class timer in order to keep better timing on the group as a whole. I kept the timer hidden so students would not stare down the clock.  I noticed many students stopped speaking way before the timer ran out.  I was surprised that my big talkers and those who dominate the conversations definitely did not utilize a lot of their time.

3rd block: When having to sit in silence for the rest of the minute during response time, students were really good about monitoring the other students for speaking when they weren't supposed to. Overall, students discussed the material in a mature manner without much intervention from me on maintaining a respectful mien.

4th block:  Had issues following directions in allowing only 1 person to speak at a time and waiting in silence.  I had to stop and explain twice what I meant by not talking unless you were the person assigned to speak.

Silence is hard.

4th block: I had to have students clear their desks because they wanted to play with papers, read books, move notebooks around, just do anything else besides sit still and think.  After repeatedly explaining that they just had to sit and listen, I still had some students trying to mime to one another, play with scarves, and write notes.  There were a few girls that had some serious attitude issues and could not handle the silence.

Generally, 4th block finished with at least 1/2 the time left for each discussion piece, whether it was 1 minute or 2 minutes.  3rd block generally used more time for their discussions.

I love that each student was able to get a chance to respond without anyone else interfering their moment.  This also gave students time to consider their responses without pressure from more vocal and outspoken students.

There were a few students I noticed that did not pay particular attention when other people were speaking.  Coincidentally, these are also my lowest students.

My 3rd block had some issues reestablishing their focus with lunch interrupting their discussions.  It took some time getting back on track. Students were writing notes on paper to each other, among other things, and I had to redirect their attentions.

Consistently, students used only 1 of the 2 minute response times that they were allowed in order to respond to others' points and explain why they chose their particular passages.

Because I ran out of time 3rd period and could not do the Gallery Walk, I decided to take the comments down and assign numbers for each question.  I am going to give each group a question and the corresponding post it notes and have the students organize and share their findings in class.
____________________________________________________________________________
After the silent group work, I asked for students' feedback.  Some feelings were (and these come from my outspoken students, the ones who always raise their hands and want to speak):

Cons:
"It's too hard to remain focused when it's so quiet."
"It's easier to think when everyone is talking."
"I didn't have enough time to give my opinion."
"It's hard to wait and remember my ideas when someone else is speaking."
"I couldn't congratulate someone when they had a good idea."
"Couldn't respond immediately to another person's thoughts."
"Silent time felt awkward."
"Didn't get to have a class discussion. Made it boring not involving the whole class."
"If you did agree and have the same answer, not much to add."
"Repeated same answers in small group so ran out of things to say."
"Got fidgety during silence."
"Misunderstandings and couldn't fix it until it was your turn to speak again."

Pros:
"It gives everyone a chance to speak without being interrupted."
"Learned how to listen to others."
"Able to hear how other people felt on the subject."
"Learned what other people are thinking and compared to your thoughts. See different opinions/mind sets."
"Kept on task w/specified times."
"Able to share your thoughts w/out fear of judgment."
____________________________________________________________________________

Side note: My 4th block came in and said my 3rd block felt as if the discussion activity was so boring they wanted to sleep. Coincidentally, students are afraid of silence and having to speak their opinions.  Additionally, I want to use a chart to diagram length of responses from students to record general response times and compare them to whole group discussions.

I will also assign a "talk monitor" to help dissuade others from speaking during silent moments.

I definitely got frustrated with the students during this activity.

Post-It notes do not stick to the walls.

Discovering The Unit Circle

In Pre-Calculus, a HUGE HUGE HUGE chunk of the curriculum is trigonometry. With this, students must know and understand the unit circle and how it applies to the trigonometry we are learning. When I was in high school, the unit circle was put on the board and we were told to copy it down and memorize it. Over the years, I've tried different activities.. paper plate unit circle, colored pieces of paper, and so on. It seemed to me that still telling them the circle and what to write down was not allowing the students to truly understand the unit circle and all of the patters associated with it. So, I decided to try something new with my lovely group of juniors.

I first split the students up into groups based on where they are sitting. I placed 3 students in a group and had them circle up so they could see one another. I then gave each group a blank unit circle in a sheet protector along with a dry erase marker. Then, I explained the modified version of "Save the last word for ME" that we used.

"I will be the timekeeper and 1 student in each group will be the facilitator. Students will number off 1, 2, 3, etc. Person number 1 will have a set amount of time to start labeling what they know of the Unit Circle. They will have to explain why they labeled what they did, however the other 2 members may not speak. After the time is up, the other two members have a set amount of time to discuss, agree, or fix what the first member added. Then, we will go to member 2 and follow the same protocol. This will be done through the following key ideas.
*Label Degrees (1 minute; 1 minute)

*Label Radians (1 minute; 1 minute)
*Label 1st Quadrant Coordinates (2 minutes; 2 minutes)
*Label 2nd Quadrant Coordinates (2 minutes; 2 minutes)
*Label 3rd Quadrant Coordinates (2 minutes; 2 minutes)
*Label 4th Quadrant Coordinates (2 minutes; 2 minutes)

*** COORDINATES MUST BE EXACT! NOT ROUNDED! ***
** Students should look for trig function relationships during this time **"

These rules were displayed and each task was displayed on the SmartBoard one at a time. 

At first, students freaked out when they saw they had to complete the entire unit circle. They felt better when I told them they would fill it out piece by piece. Students were great in the silence and focused on watching what the writer in their group was doing. I could tell it was hard for some students to just sit without being able to correct their group mates right away. Some students got ancy and were dancing in their seats when they had to remain quiet. The labeling of the degrees and radians went well overall. Students noticed the patterns easily, especially since we had discussed the quadrant angles before. The coordinates were a little more difficult. Some groups had absolutely no idea, and they didn't know how to find the exact coordinates (the coordinates are irrational... they can't easily be converted into pretty fractions). I had to guide the groups along a little bit (by giving them hints about drawing right triangles and do a mini-lesson on simplifying radicals), but again they quickly saw the patterns and were able to continue with the process.

I really liked this process for students discovering/learning the unit circle. It really required them to think about how the things we had learned applied to the unit circle. They were tired and had headaches after, but that means they really worked hard in class that day. A few of them even said they liked that better than just seeing and copying the unit circle.

Silence

I was so excited to try the "Save the Last Word" discussion in Film & Literature today! I was sure it would result in deeper, more personal conversations than our slated whole class discussion. They had read two chapters in the memoir we're just starting about Paul Rusesabagina (of Hotel Rwanda fame), and I showed them video from Jane Elliott's blue eye/brown eye experiment with third graders while they commented on the class back channel on TodaysMeet.com.

Instead of an article, students were responding to the video above, doing their "note taking" on the back channel. I also switched out Agree, Disagree, and Aspire to for more textual focus:

• connections to the memoir
• connections to their own lives (including friends/family)
• connections to other texts

I split the class into groups of four and five, though in retrospect it should have been groups of three, as there was still room for students to tune out in the groups of five, and it would have been useful for everyone to have to take a turn with this group.

I also should have done more scaffolding of what the silent reflection time should look like, and I wonder if silent reflection can (or should?) include writing to keep them focused on the subject at hand. I do know now that I need to specify that silent reflection does not involve touching each other or playing with whatever is in front of them. I felt they were distracting themselves instead of spending the silence to reflect.