My Digital Classroom

A small team at school is working together on an issue that is not limited to our school- How do we teach so that we are reaching everybody in the classroom? As part of this focus, I have been reading Rick Wormeli’s book Differentiation: From Planning to Practice Grades 6-12. Below are a summary of the post-it notes I have placed in the book during the first three chapters as a quick reminder of the important ideas, examples and strategies. I have colour coded these for my own organisation as follows: Pink – concrete ideas I could use, Yellow- ideas and concepts about differentiation, Orange- planning, Green- preparations & formative assessment , Lt.pink – reflective processes, Blue – concepts and ideas to be mindful of.

P10 -

P11-

p18- Table of the 3 stages of planning for Differentiation.

p21- Questioning how the example in the book works when the learning is not linear.

p23- Planning the objectives for the unit. Two approaches- EEK (Essential and Enduring Knowledge) and KUD (What we want students to Know, Understand and Do).

p23 – Useful example for Year 7 Humanities.

p24- Timeline for proper implementation of differentiation.

p24- Create a learner profile for every student listing factors you discover about them which could affect their learning either positively or negatively.

p29- Give students pre-assessment on the topic about a week before starting the unit. Create your groups from according to their understanding of each outcome.

p34-5 – Brainstorm all possible activities for your unit. A sample is provided of activities in a differentiated unit on explorers & Cortez.

p37 – Role of homework. Not giving students homework assignments to practise something unless you’ve used a formal or informal assessment to make sure students completely understand the task.

p38 – The idea is to start small and build up.

p39 – Cluster ideas of activities for your unit in order of complexity (re: p.34-5).

p40- Make sure the activities you select match the interests of your class.

p.50- Must scaffold tasks for advanced learners too. Don’t just assume because they are advanced that they know how to proceed with these tasks.

p50- Don’t be rigid in categorising kids in different groups. “The goal is being attentive to students’ readiness levels, not limiting them to labels – high, low, or something in between.”

p51- Formative assessment. Need frequent formal & informal formative assessments to monitor the appropriate level of challenge for students.

p53-8- Ideas if the lesson doesn’t go to plan.

p61- Review of steps to take in planning for a differentiated lesson.

p62- Importance of reflective practices. 10 prompts provided to assist in reflecting upon the lesson. This process is extremely important in differentiation.

p66- For advanced learners, need to give them different tasks, not more. “Identify what students already know and help them to move beyond their initial understanding.”

p66- Concept of work load. Work load = time and energy required by each student to complete the task.

p67- Need to actually use the assessment data to change our practices. It’s a waste of time otherwise.

p68-9- Different formative assessment prompts to use with students.

p69- When to use formative assessment. “Daily, if possible. And every fifteen to twenty minutes ideally.”

p70- Quick formative assessment ideas.

p71- Broad categories for ways in which to differentiate: Content, Process, Product, Affect, Learning Environment. Content is what we have to teach (both skills and knowledge). Process refers to the pedagogy- how we teach the content. The product is the assessment- how students show they have learned the content. Affect is the socio-emotional factors which influence learning. The Learning Environment is the physical set up of the classroom to maximise student learning.

p73-4- Different models of instruction. Wormeli provides a summary of many popular models of instruction: Direct Instruction (Madeline Hunter), Dimensions of Learning (Robert Marzano), One-Third Model (Robert Lynn Canady & Michael Rettig), Concept Attainment Model, 4MAT system (Dr. Bernice McCarthy) www.aboutlearning.com.

p74- Try to learn one new model of instruction each year. “The single greatest tool you have as a teacher is your knowledge about how the mind works.”

p75- Useful questions to consider when planning lessons with different groupings.

p76- Interesting grouping idea is clock partners. Students have a blank clock-face and find 12 partners for the 12 numbers on the clock. P78 raises some potential problems with using clock partners.

P79- Importance of teaching students how to work with someone with whom they disagree or don’t like.

p80- Use of personal agendas of the lesson for some students who struggle to remain focused.

p83- Examples for teaching students how to infer by using both concrete and abstract examples.

p86-9- Strategies to raise or lower the level of complexity of an assignment for students.

p89- Respectful tasks. Tiering tasks related to the objectives of the lesson to give all students meaningful experiences.

p90- Example of respectful task for English teaching of irony.

p90- Compacting the curriculum. If students already know the content, provide extensions for the students to explore important details in more depth or breadth.

p91- Teaching a variety of levels at the same time. Football structure for lesson sequence: “a narrow, whole-class experience in the beginning, a wider expansion of the topic as multiple groups work at their own pace or in their own ways, then a renarrowing as we gather again to process what we’ve learned.”

p93-5- Anchor activities. “the teacher assigns a task for the entire class to complete autonomously. As students work individually, the teacher is free to gather small groups of students for mini-lessons based on their needs. After the mini-lesson [the teacher] sends the students back to the main activity and rotates to another small group.” You need three preconditions if the anchor activity is going to be successful: 1) Students need to know how to work independently, 2) Make sure the students understand the task involved, 3) Having multiple parts to the anchor activity.

p95- Ideas to give the students as to how they can resolve problems if the teacher is unavailable.

p96- Tips for having student experts in the class.

p98- Questions to ask yourself when planning for scaffolding in the class.

This concludes my notes for the first three chapters. Sorry to anybody who has stumbled across this post as I’m sure it holds no relevance for you.

Until this year, I had always relied on a combination of cds, usbs and external hard drives for backing up my school laptop. I didn’t see dropbox as a viable alternative for me because of the 2GB restriction for its free account. A workmate received an invitation to try SugarSync and asked if I also wanted an invitation. He sold it to me by saying that it was like Dropbox but with 5GB free!

I signed up for the free account and downloaded the software to be installed on my laptop and home computer. I selected the folders I wanted backed up and SugarSync did the rest. It took me a while to work out why there were all these green and orange dots at the bottom of each file and folder icon- this told me which files and folders had been backed up online. What’s really reassuring is that now when I make any changes to files, SugarSync automatically updates the copy stored online. It is such a relief to know that if your computer dies or is stolen then your data is still able to be retrieved.

This is not to say that I have abandoned my old methods completely. I am reminded of something I heard on Chris Betcher’s ‘Virtual Staffroom‘ podcast not that long ago. He mentioned the 3,2 and 1 of backing up data-storing your data in 3 places, two on-site and 1 off-site. SugarSync is my off-site solution but I still back up to an external hard-drive on a fairly regular basis (although probably not as often as I should).

In addition, the other benefit of any cloud-based storage solution is the fact that you can sync files from numerous devices and access them on each of the devices. I haven’t needed this thus far but it is handy to know and have that up my sleeve when required.

Well, NAPLAN is almost upon us again this year so I thought I’d share a couple of resources I’ve developed based upon the NAPLAN writing criteria. While I’m not the biggest fan of these tests, I still believe that they are of some benefit. Around the blogosphere, you often see the phrase ‘No matter how many times you weigh a pig, it’s still a pig.’ While I do agree that continual testing does not improve student learning, you do need some objective testing mechanisms in place to measure growth. In addition, the results of these tests can, if used properly, provide direction for future teaching. In its current form, the four to five month gap between when the tests are conducted and when the results are given to schools make NAPLAN less useful as assessment for learning.

What we’ve implemented at Nazareth College is a writing task given to all students in Years 7-9 which is based on the NAPLAN writing criteria. While the writing criteria is not student friendly (and some might argue not teacher friendly either) it provides a road map of where students are and exactly what they have to do to take their writing to the next level. When viewed as a whole class, teachers can see areas where the class is deficient and can plan activities accordingly. Once the work is marked, teachers are required to fill in the results of their students for each criteria so we can effectively plan our focus areas and activities.

In previous years, the NAPLAN writing test has been a Narrative but in 2011 the students will be asked to write a persuasive piece. This year, the NAPLAN writing test has the following  ten criteria: Audience, Text structure, Ideas, Persuasive Devices, Vocabulary, Cohesion, Paragraphing, Sentence structure, Punctuation & Spelling. I have created rubrics based upon the information provided in the NAPLAN marking guide. Each teacher is given the writing guide to assist them in marking the pieces of writing as the marking guide provides more detail, as well as numerous samples for teachers to cross-reference.

Below are the rubrics I have developed for both the narrative and persuasive writing tasks. Feel free to use these and adapt them according to your own needs.

Last year we decided to change one of our novels at Year Eight. We had been teaching Master of the Grove by Victor Kelleher as part of our Medieval interdisciplinary unit of work. The novel was more fantasy than medieval and it polarised the class. At the beginning of last year, we were advised that the novel was out of print so we quickly had to scramble around and locate enough copies of the novel for students. The decision was then made to look for another ‘medieval’ book which we could use instead of Master of the Grove in 2010.

We first found out that it wasn’t easy to find a lot of medieval books that other schools were using. Below are some of the books we considered and a brief comment on each one.

The Ruins of Gorlan (Book 1 of the Ranger’s Apprentice series)-  John Flanagan

As a read, this series is really enjoyable. Students have a likeable character they can follow and there is enough action to keep them entertained. As it is a series, students have the option of reading the sequels which are all of a high quality. Like Master of the Grove, the story is more fantasy than medieval, although it does include more aspects of medieval life. After consultation with a number of teachers, it was decided that The Ranger’s Apprentice was a bit too easy to study as a Year Eight text.

Girl in a Cage - Jane Yolen & Robert Harris

This novel is set during the reign of Edward I and tells the story of Marjorie, the eleven-year-old daughter of newly crowned Scottish King, Robert the Bruce. She is captured and imprisoned in an iron cage in the town of Lanercost. The story is told through the eyes of Marjorie and details her captivity and the events that preceded it.

This was a really enjoyable book and contained a lot of historically accurate details of the time. This is a text that we were very interested in using. Unfortunately this text was out of print. It is well worth a read if you are able to find a copy in your school or local library.

Pagan’s Crusade (Book one of Pagan’s Chronicles)- Catherine Jinks

This was a text I really wanted to like. From my research I had discovered that there were some schools which had or were still using this text at Year Eight. From the very outset, however, I did not feel any attachment to the main character. He was rude, sly and continued to make stupid decisions. Added to that, there wasn’t enough going on in the story to sustain the interest of thirteen/fourteen year olds. On the plus side, it does contain a lot of historical details about the Crusades which would add to the background knowledge gained in History.

The Seeing Stone (Book one of the Arthur series) – Kevin Crossley Holland.

To me, this book seemed like it was written to teach children about medieval life and as a vessel for retelling the Arthurian legends. It was an easy read and the main character is likeable enough. The existence of the obsidian seeing stone and presence of the mysterious Merlin add interest to a pretty mundane story. I read the second book in the trilogy, hoping that it would be more exciting but came away disappointed again.

Rosemary for Remembrance & Rue for Repentance (Books 1 & 2 of The Janna Mysteries)- Felicity Pulman

Rosemary for Remembrance follows 16 year old Janna who lives on the edge of Gravelinges forest with her mother, the local healer. Janna’s world is turned upside down following the death of her mother. Janna investigates the circumstances of her mother’s death while tending at the manor of Dame Alice but discovers that she too is in danger of suffering the same fate as her mother.

I enjoyed reading both of these medieval mysteries. There is enough in this series to appeal to teenage readers, especially teenage girls. The story is well paced and the author has also included two love-interests for Janna, which adds an extra dimension to the plot. One thing that did annoy me, however, was Janna’s tendency to jump to conclusions (usually wrong) about who might be responsible for her mother’s death. While it does contain a lot of medieval detail, we decided against using this text as there is not enough to sustain a novel study in sufficient depth. There were also concerns that it would not appeal to Year Eight boys.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead- Avi

This was quite a good read and had enough action to keep you interested. I was a little disappointed with the ending, though, as I thought it ended with a whimper rather than a bang. It contains a lot of historically accurate information and there are many potential links with both R.E. and History. We ended up selecting this novel towards the end of the year as any flaws in the ending were compensated by the links to other subjects. Unfortunately, just before we returned to school in January, we were informed that this novel was also out of print!

As we teach Medieval history in term one, we did not have time to select as suitable medieval replacement. We were free to choose a book based on its merits, not constrained by whether it fit in with any particular theme. We focused our attentions on three potential books: Claire Carmichael’s Ads R Us, Robert Newton’s Runner and Jane Godwin’s Falling From Grace. After much deliberation, it was decided that Runner would be our Year Eight novel for 2010. It is a great read and one that students loved- more than I anticipated. This whole saga begs the question- Should the benefits of interdisciplinary learning override the need for a quality novel?

Once again, we taught our inter-disciplinary unit on the Great Barrier Reef. Unlike last year, however, we added a few new things to make the unit more interesting, effective and authentic.

Lat term we were able to place a Skype call to marine biologist, former teacher and current charter boat captain, Matt McDonald. As it is really difficult to have new software installed on the computers on our school network, I ran a portable version of Skype from my USB. These USB apps are great and I’ve been able to get around a number of software issues by running programs straight from the usb. My favourites are the portable versions of Skype, Firefox, Audacity, Camstudio (screencasting), Virtual Dub (video editing) and VLC media player. These programs open up the possibilities in the classroom and enable you to do a number of activities which were previously prohibitive.

To minimise the potential for the Skype call to drop out, I made the call during recess. The students handled this remarkably well and I was surprised by how excited they got when the image of Matt appeared on the IWB. Tapping into the knowledge of an expert located on the reef was invaluable for the students and they got to ask a number of interesting questions and have them answered.

Proofreading and editing are essential parts of the writing process. One tool I have been using to help students with their writing is the online word processor, Google docs. One of the things I love about using Google docs is the ability to collaborate. Whenever students start writing their draft on Google docs, I get them to add me as a collaborator. I can then see the development of their work and give them instant feedback. I also get the students to invite three other students to be collaborators so that they can proofread the work. Students can all proofread the same document and are not constricted by time or the four walls of the classroom. I get each of the proofreaders to use a different colour when making corrections/suggestions to make it easier for the writer to identify who has made each change.

Pilot p-500 Uploaded on March 23,2005 by Mr. Wright Creative Commons Attrib., Non-Commercial, Share Alike Licence

Another way I’ve used web 2.0 tools to help with editing and proofreading is by utilising some of the free text-to-speech sites. Two I have used are Read The Words and Spoken Text. One important aspect of editing and proofreading is listening to how your work sounds. While those students with strong literacy skills can already do this successfully, getting somebody else to read the work really helps the weaker students. Using a text-to-speech application highlights to students some words which are commonly confused- the most obvious example I come across is were & where. Students immediately pick up those mistakes when they hear them and can make the necessary changes. While this does not pick up mistakes with homophones, I find it a useful part of the editing and proofreading process.

Today was another day at the Secondary Literacy Network. It is one day per term where a number of the Literacy leaders in Catholic schools in Melbourne get together for a day of professional learning. One of the things I really enjoy about these days is hearing from other literacy leaders about how they are trying to embed literacy across the whole school and some of their experiences. The personal journey of one such leader today was both eye-opening and refreshing. This was a person who had been teaching for 15-20 years (across both primary and secondary) and was experiencing the same sorts of problems that I, and many others, are experiencing in our own schools.

In the following session, Jo Ryan from Clonard College shared how she had been teaching her Year 9s about a year 12 issues unit. She has scaffolded the work to a high degree and provided the students with a framework to approach what can be a difficult part of the course. We were all given a copy of her unit and I think this is something that we could use back at school as a way of preparing our Year 10s for VCE English.

Listening to the Edtech crew podcast last year, I was trying to figure out what the point was of social bookmarking. Fast forward one year later and I have come to rely on one site in particular- Diigo, for keeping me up-to-date with all the new tools, sites and information available on the web.

So what is social bookmarking?

1. Basically, it means you can have all of your bookmarked/favourite sites kept online. Normally when you bookmark a website, it goes into the bookmarks/favourites folder on that particular computer. If you log in on another computer, you do not have access to any of your bookmarked sites. When you set up an account with Diigo (or Delicious), you can bookmark your favourite sites and that information is kept online. You just have to log in to the site to retrieve your bookmarks.
2. Bookmarks on Diigo & Delicious are organised by tags. Tags allow you to bookmark sites under a number of different categories at the same time. It is like placing the same piece of paper in a number of relevant folders in a filing cabinet.

So why do I use Diigo instead of the more popular Delicious? Simply, it is the ability to join groups. While I do spend a bit of time on the internet, I do not have the time to search for everything. By becoming part of a group, I can benefit from all of the links found by other members of the group by receiving emails periodically. By joining multiple groups, I can share and receive links in a number of different areas. Some of the Diigo groups I belong to include IWB Pedagogy, OZ/NZ Educators, English teachers, Ed Tech Crew. They all provide me with links on a daily or weekly basis.

The video below is another excellent tutorial from the people at Commoncraft and it explains the ins and outs of social bookmarking and how it all works.

This year we have been making great use of our headsets at school. We have been able to enhance our teaching (and student engagement) of the novel, Master of the Grove by Victor Kelleher by providing audio files to our students. Each of the teachers at year 8 have graciously given up their time to record the files and the students have been just as eager to get their hands on them. The files have enabled weaker students to access, what would otherwise be, an inaccessible novel.

We have also scrapped one of our previous tasks, chapter summaries, in favour of a comic strip. Instead of having to complete a summary of every chapter, students were allocated one chapter in which they had to summarise the main information in four frames of a comic. We completed the first chapter as a class on the IWB and I showed them one I had prepared earlier using Toondoo. Students presented their comics to the class at the beginning of each new lesson to recap what happened in the previous chapter. These comics were then pinned up at the back of the room in chapter order so that students had a constant visual summary of the text. Students were able to draw their comics by hand or use one of the many web 2.0 comic creating tools on offer.

We have found that these strategies, as well as summarising the information prior to reading, has greatly assisted those students with lower literacy levels in successfully completing the novel.

Our year sevens are studying Holes for the first time this year. One of the activities I got the students to do last week was to try to identify some of the links between characters and over time. I was originally going to get the students to create a mind map using a new tool I’ve found, called Webspiration. It is basically an online version of the concept mapping software, Inspiration. Unfortunately our network doesn’t have the latest version of flash so I had to think of an alternative. I then turned to bubbl.us and created the mind map below which contains most of the major characters. I started to create links between the characters but, unlike webspiration, I cannot write down why they are linked. I therefore had this up on the screen and the students had to come up with their own links for each of the characters. As the links were left blank, students could use their knowledge of the novel to come up with links of various depth. It was amazing to hear the range of different links that the students came up with for each of the characters.

Following on from this, I then got them to construct a timeline of the novel using 36 cards from the scholastic website. I had intended to use the website itself and the Holes Match ‘em up game, but we had the same flash issue. It was interesting to see the different strategies employed by the students to complete this task, some working systematically, some working in teams, while others seemed to have no particular strategy.

Both of these activities worked well with my classes and they were extremely motivated to get both tasks done. When studying next year, I would like to use webspiration as the students then have to create the whole mind map and have to link the characters themselves, rather than having links already made and then just working out what the links are. I could also use the IWB more in getting the students to come up and make the links between the characters, rather than having them already there.