Blog Post #5 for 7/30/2016

The readings this week in essence functioned as support for the idea that making accommodations for students with learning disabilities or other factors is akin to planning lessons based on your students like normal. Many of the suggestions were not specific to one type of student, but applicable to any lesson. That said, there are certainly some themes to keep in mind. Empowerment is probably the biggest common ground: at-risk students need to see that they are capable of succeeding, gifted students need opportunities to attempt more challenging tasks, students with physical disabilities need us to trust that they can handle school work, and ELLs need to know how to use any tools they can to overcome their barriers. 

In a few of the articles, I struggled to find an overall point or walk away with a concrete idea that was usable. For instance, in Cheryl McLean's "A Space Called Home: An Immigrant Adolescent's Digital Literacy Practices," much of the article is spent focusing on how the student interacted with friends on social media and demonstrated fluency, but it felt more like a study of ELLs than anything else. If, for example, I assigned my students a project involving using Facebook as a means of synthesizing information, in my mind the student using non-academic lingo is doing them a disservice when it comes to preparation for future writing. Yes, I could assess their knowledge of the ideas, and there would be no problem with them discussing said knowledge in a non-academic manner, but they do need to make that leap. Perhaps it is easier for ELLs who already have trouble speaking standard English to do this, but it feels like a case where giving the student special treatment or allowing the other students to write journal entries on Shakespeare in texting language is lowering the standards they are capable of reaching. Accommodations do have to be made where necessary, of course. If having this freedom to write in a comfortable format is engaging, it could work out.

Though I would be loathe to build a unit around Twilight, Carol Smith makes many interesting points in her article "I Can't Believe We Read This Whole Book!" The idea that allowing at-risk students to make big choices about the curriculum is an interesting, if idealistic, one. There is a definite carrot on a stick appeal to drawing interest with a film, transitioning to synergistic texts, then getting to the actual text. It isn't far off from a typical Reader Response to High Blooms trajectory lesson format. I think it's always good if one can find common ground with students. I would probably aim for a text with less of an offensive perspective on relationships and sexuality than Meyer's, but the idea is sound. I particularly liked the project involved Remember the Titans, in which students wrote on the Titans' message boards and got responses. This obviously can't be done with every text, but it's a great method of encouraging inquiry if there is an author or subject willing to participate.

The last article that I felt particularly moved by was Patricia Dunn's "EJ in Focus: Re-Seeing (Dis)Ability)." This article encourages teachers to have a positive attitude concerning accommodations, treating them as challenges or useful tools for oneself and the students instead of band-aids. All students can benefit from audiobook access, not just sight-disabled students, for instance. Dunn also makes the point that having a wider variety of assessment types naturally acts as a form of accommodation, while also encouraging students to learn in many different ways. Her point about taking the direct approach and simply asking special needs students what helps them learn is also quite valid (24). In most cases, these students are not new to their disabilities. They are the best resource available to us for learning how to accommodate. 

Blog #4 for 7/24/2016

The readings were lighter this week as we transition into working more heavily on our unit planning; the majority had practical applications and ideas for creating specific writing assignments. I think writing might in some ways be the easiest of the English disciplines to adapt to new technology, as the option of having students write in a new medium is always there as a default. 

I chose to reading Chapter 9 of our main text, which was "Interactive Fiction" by Gerald Aungst. This is a subject I have actually studied extensively, or did about ten years ago anyway. Aungst's idea was basically to open English classrooms up to playing and creating text adventure games. I played these types of games frequently in my youth, and they were probably the earliest type of game that tied the medium to literacy in a significant way. These days, the Japanese have pulled way ahead of Americans in this genre in terms of production, and they tend to market toward an adult audience, but that doesn't change the basic mechanics and usability of text adventures in classrooms. These games are fun, and can certainly test a student's reasoning or critical thinking skills in their specific scenarios. However, the old model of having contrived scenarios demanding a text input that Aungst's article suggests feels like it comes from a player mostly familiar with 80s text adventures such as King's Quest. These days, parsers are mostly out of fashion and a bank of choices tend to left available to students. All excitement aside, I am very hesitant to incorporate adventure games into classrooms unless the topic of the game supplements a core text. Often, these games are more about general puzzles than puzzles relevant to language. The suggestion of having students create text adventures I found more compelling. My biggest problem with doing this is it takes a lot of time to make (quality) games, and many students are probably not game or programming-minded. However, as an alternative project I could see a lot of value here. Students like me who enjoy these experiences could thrive if given the chance to create something they would have found engaging. Perhaps I’ll incorporate this into my Unit plan project as one of the things a student could create. I like that it can also be used for publishing experience, and it would be a good creative outlet for some, but the standards addressed by Aungst are skimpy otherwise. Perhaps this works better as an interdisciplinary tool with Computer Science.

Troy Hicks et al.'s "Same as It Ever Was" provided a good philosophical background for the rest of the readings. Essentially, we must see technological evolution as a development that has been happening for all of time, and English lessons have had to adapt at many different points as a result. However, the article suggests that teaching for the current time is more feasible and useful than trying to predict trends. I think this is an important point to keep in mind. We may fear our lessons become outdated at some point, but as long as students are able to navigate their current environment, they will be ready for change. The most difficult thing is for teachers themselves to stay on top of changing times, especially once we have built a repertoire of lessons from experience. A great example of this in action is found in the "Using Online Role-Play" article by Candace Doerr-Stevens et al. Online forum technology and role-playing games have led to a form of drama that is relatively recent and quite similar to classroom theater. Students can be instructed to take on roles during a debate or discussion. This has the benefit of letting them experiment with different perspectives and also take a turn at modifying their language for a context. These are both practical, relevant applications of communication, and if the idea can be made to work I believe we could get some great writing out of students. However, we need to remember through all this that students have different strengths, so allowing options could be of benefit in many cases. For instance, Jesse Gainer's "Remixing Old and New Literacies" article suggests having students remix videos, literature, and other forms of media to express some conclusion. Her example of a student mashing up Twilight and Buffy to demonstrate a feminist critique is cute and interesting, but that student probably had an exceptional eye for that type of expression. As I mentioned in regards to interactive fiction, I think it may be better if students can select many different types of high-Blooms creation exercises. Having a simpler option like editing text in a comic strip would also be a good gesture.

Blog #3 for 7/19/2016

This week's readings focused in detail on the incorporation of internet tools like social media and wikis. There was also a large focus on multimedia. The idea that these technologies are important in keeping the language of an English class relevant in today's world seems like a given to me, so it was a little funny reading all these articles treating it like cutting edge, high-level stuff. That probably has more to do with experienced teachers and established practices ruling the day than anything else. I think we can learn from both sides, though; it is always good to err on the side of caution when implementing some of these technologies, especially if they potentially come at the risk of compromising classroom management. As an example, though Elizabeth Edmondson makes a strong case for using the wiki as a group project (one I may steal for my unit plan this semester) in "Wiki Literature Circles," we do need to watch out for students horsing around while editing the wiki, or worse, plagiarizing from the multitude of related wikis and other sources they are likely to reference while composing the wiki. With all that said, the wiki project does a particularly great job illustrating the benefits of working in a group and how much simpler it can make certain tasks. 

Chapter 7 of Cockrum's  Flipping Your English Class dealt with some methods of applying the flipped model to reading instruction. This chapter makes the good point that in some sense English teachers have always flipped reading lessons, as there is simply not time to read all of a book in class. Mostly, this chapter was useful for lesson plan references. Splitting the reading between class and home is naturally quite effective, especially for schools with short classes of 40 minutes or so. There are also a variety of reading supplements available that cannot fit in a class period, like different readings of poems from oral to graphic (78). While the argument still exists that we are depending on students to actually do this work independently, this was in fact always the case. Adding technology adds more possibilities.

P. L. Thomas's "Adventures with Text and Beyond: 'Like Reading' and Literacy Challenges in a Digital Age" delved further into the subject of the evolving classroom. This article discusses how English classrooms were slow to adapt to changing technology, and that the basic communication students have throughout a day is now more similar to writing and reading. As such, listening and speaking are becoming more challenging, unique tools for them. I thought this was a fascinating point, which begs the question of whether or not focused speech classes ought to be made part of the curriculum in high school. Robyn Campbell's "The Power of the Listening Ear" advocates teaching listening skills by using audiobooks and the creation of podcasts, as well as modeling active listening for students; since I did not have the internet at my fingertips during grade school, I remember it was much easier to sit through lectures and the like without distractions. Today's world moves much faster, and a listening competency needs to be expected from teachers; we can only foster that through modeling. Due to this diverse set of competencies students need to acquire, we may find it helpful to make use of many types of multimedia when reading single texts. For instance, Thomas's article details how different methods of absorbing Eliot's “The Waste Land” are now possible, such as an audio reading with sound effects added in. Multiple competencies and learning types are all at play in the decisions we make about how to present lessons. 

In Chapter 6 of "Teaching Literacy in the Digital Age," Debbie Shoulders discusses the use of various social media applications in classrooms. Shoulders uses a program called Ning, which is like a more private version of reddit or 4chan. This platform allows for an interactive discussion through the use of threads, which is of course something I am fluent in since I have been using web forums since the 90s. I believe this is useful tool for provoking class discussions, possibly n the form of bell work, but it can also mimic a blog or journal entry, just with the additional feedback from other students. Shoulders also advocates a rubric-sharing program called Rubistar to help front-load students. Transparency in rubric planning has been supported in all Education training I have received so far, so it does make sense to capitalize on this. Speaking personally, I really dislike rubrics as a student and almost never pay attention to what is in their text, but as rubrics seem to be typically expected in the modern classroom, I hope technology like this can help me simplify the language in my own rubrics and make everyone happy, myself included. 

All of these types of programs make sense to use for meeting communication standards. However, multimedia is always practical in reading and writing lessons as well. Jonathan Ostenson's "Making the Classics Matter to Students through Digital Literacies and Essential Questions" concerned a fairly typical conundrum in developing a unit plan. The challenge of communicating the relevancy of texts like The Scarlet Letter exists whether multimedia are used or not, and lessons must speak to a carefully selected theme. Ostenson suggests develop unit around a central, big question and not just a general idea. For instance, in The Scarlet Letter: “what is worth risking everything for?” (38). The article then describes a range of lessons in which this question is applicable and describes how students were engaged with the theme. I enjoyed reading about the lesson on gambling and searching for symbolism, as well as the final video construction project in which students distill the themes of the novel into short slides of pictures with audio. These are ideas that are both traditional and technologically-based, but they have synergy with one another. Money/risk lesson, looking for symbols in film, then a video making project based on notes student took about the risk-taking. Essentially, this structure lets students find “their own meaning” in the text through inquiry (42).

Blog #2 (For 7/10/16)

This week's readings were primarily focused on approaches to teaching communication skills, oral and written. This is an area I am fairly weak in myself, but the readings provided many strong recommendations and perspectives to draw from.

But first, Chapters 6-8 of Troy Cockrum's Flipping Your English Class offered more specific suggestions for the flipped model of English teaching. Chapter 6 focuses on grammar instruction, and unfortunately seemed to have the same attitude (even if not intentionally) that grammar instruction is something nobody wants to do on either side. Regardless, there was some interesting material here. The lesson on page 64 does highlight one issue I foresee in the flipped model. It asks students to watch a video describing eight parts of speech (at home) then to (in class) identify words of these types in student writing samples. While the lesson itself seems valuable, at least on the lower levels of Bloom's, there is a question of retention here. Students will either need to already know the parts of speech, take good notes from the videos, or rely on their partners in class to complete the assignment. If they do not even watch the video, the assignment is basically dead in the water. Perhaps a handout (or print reference) should be distributed during the class meeting. Videos are nice for a lot of things, but a list of eight concrete materials cannot easily be cross-referenced from them on the fly. I think it is better to err on the side of caution and have a backup when trying this assignment.

I appreciated the vocabulary lesson on page 66, in which the teacher presents a few words for the assignment in the flipped portion of class and students essentially become individual experts and teach one another. This seems like a practical application of the flipped model, as students can focus on just a few new words instead of digesting a lecture (or similar) in isolation. Even if the students miss out on the videos, they will have a trial by fire in class that seems realistic for them to pull through. On a similar topic, Kinlock and Faulkner's "Innovative Writing Instruction; Reducing Vocabulary to Increase Vocabulary" had a unique perspective on vocabulary lessons that fits the flipped model to some extent. Essentially, they suggest reducing the number of words taught to students, but having students do more elaborate activities with their assigned words. I like the idea of fishbowling or jigsawing the words a lot; I can recall vocabulary lessons being mostly mindless and forgetting all of their content by the end of the year, but assigning short presentations or simply giving students a responsibility to some words does make the work more meaningful. Realistically, people are always learning new words over time, so clumping tons of words into a single year is not as important as making sure they are actually understood.

Chapter 7 presents a method to the videos that I liked for use in reading instruction. The students are asked to watch a segment of the video, then read a chapter from their book and stop at a particular point, returning to the video for further details  (74). This more interactive approach seems like it would get students more immersed and also help them break up the reading assignment. The next lesson suggested having poems or songs be read in the flipped portion as well, which seems like a good strategy since they befit the video/audio format neatly (78). Cockrum was realistic in this chapter, acknowledging the challenges in assigning independent reading and coming up with what appear to be strong solutions. Even in a classroom that has not committed to flipping, these seem like good models for assignments. Similarly, Chapter 8's ideas about using flipped portions to prepare for speaking assignments seem valid, especially since those assignments usually require students to prepare outside of class in the first place.

I scanned the first five chapters of Teaching in the Digital Age, but specifically read B.J. Neary's "The Digital-Age Booktalker." Essentially, Neary gives an overview of a book trailer assignment, in which students use tools such as Animoto to create short clips that summarize or try to sell peers on books. This looks like a good assignment for a reading class, and probably for middle school as well. Over the years browsing internet discussions, I have learned that many humans are terrible at summarizing stories without revealing any spoilers. The Booktalker assignment gets students thinking about how to get the point of a story across without ruining it for others, and can be used as an assessment as well, particularly for book clubs or other lower-stake readings. Other articles suggested ideas I have come across in other courses, such as the creation of comics seen in "Language Learning between the Panels" by Christopher Shamburg. Shamburg's focus on the gap of time between panels makes a good point that we often fill in the lines of texts we read. Struggling readers often have problems with visualization and other reading strategies, so studying comics makes a lot of sense for them. The medium of study will always depend on the class's needs.

Many of the writings focused on context, particularly audience. Kristen Turner's “Digitalk as Community” was a curious read, but not too surprising to someone studied in linguistics. Turner hits the nail on the head by pointing out that teenagers' proficiencies with digital language demonstrates they are comfortable with an experimental, complicated variant of English that many studied adults can barely read. If there ever needs to be proof that teenagers can meet high expectations, look no further. The assignment Turner suggested is a code switching exercise, in which students identify which variants of the language should be used in different social situations. I have seen this idea championed a lot in my studies, but I do question using class time on it to some extent. Unfortunately, Turner does not cite any relevant standards, but a case could be made for Meaning and Context standards. I think the important thing is for students to walk away from the lesson seeing why it applies outside of the lesson, perhaps even more so than in other assignments. The way they choose to communicate throughout school and professionally is a nontrivial matter.

Blog #1 (For 7/3/16)

This week's readings covered a range of subjects, but the primary focus was on alternative methods of running an English classroom, either through innovative usages of technology or using technological innovations as a subject. During every one of these readings, I found myself questioning the validity of the content, not for the purpose of criticism, but as a means to understand how I (or any teacher) could successfully use the methods and philosophies described. In several cases, my own experience and classroom observation informed my response. At present, I am quite skeptical about some of these readings, as is my nature, but I am curious to see the subjects develop as class continues. 

The first of the primary texts, Cockrum's Flipping Your English Class, confused me at first, as it did not define flipping, but through internet research I was able to put the pieces together. I think my reaction, one of initial disbelief, was probably shared by many of my peers. Conceptually, the idea of a flipped classroom is sound: students do assignments at the bottom of Bloom's before coming to class so that we can focus on more challenging material. technology is obviously a large factor here, and is what makes such a classroom possible these days. Realistically, I am deeply skeptical about this concept. I believe that many high school students are simply not ready for the level of independent learning expected of this model. I can recall my sister flunking through a similar online Algebra class, as well as the constant warnings from my instructors that many students will not do any work away from class. How does one begin to ensure that students 'attend' the asynchronous class sessions? The narrative of such a classroom almost reads like "students do the boring stuff alone, while I do the fun stuff with them in class." The independent assignments would have to be extremely engaging to motivate most students doing them in isolation, and the teacher is limited to very few methods of assessment. In fact, the book claims that flipping leads to more individualized assessment, but it lists no examples of why this is the case (17). From a time management perspective, I have to imagine that the process would lead to an increase in the amount of time spent on assessments with only comparable value to the students. My own experience with online courses has also mostly been negative--I struggle to learn from reading, and tend to learn the material "for the test" instead of learning practical applications. I suspect many students share my learning type, and I feel this environment does them a disservice. I am not entirely opposed to the idea of a flipped classroom, but I need to see more real-life examples of it being successful with data supporting it is the move to make before I consider its incorporation in my own classes.

Most of the other readings were more descriptive and practical in their content, which was appreciated after reading the Cockrum text. I had read about news cast projects similar to the one described in Teaching Literacy in the Digital Age, but it was nice to see a fairly direct description of how such an activity works. From past coursework, I know this type of practical assignment can be very rewarding for students and help prepare them for careers. Similarly, the Cyberbullying article suggested having students make real efforts in facing a social problem in their generation. These types of assignments should raise engagement while 'stealthily' addressing several educational standards. 

"An Alternative to Teaching the Research Paper" contained an idea that I think would be hugely beneficial for many students: replacing the research paper with something akin to a wiki format (the FAQ). This writing model is more versatile and easier for audiences to digest, so I agree that it is in many ways superior to the essay, which has its roots in rhetorical practice rarely seen today outside of academia. However, as teachers we must face the reality that our students are going to be tested on their ability to write in the essay format, and will in fact require it in college. I think replacing the research paper entirely is out of the question in our present environment, though the strategies used to write the FAQ could certainly make an effective pre-writing strategy. Similarly, the article on multimodal research had students thinking outside the box using many different forms of media. The internet has made various mediums far more accessible than they once were, and students are generally ready to engage and make comparisons. In order to keep English education current, I think it is important for teachers to incorporate the different forms of media and show how they are all forms of human expression instead of telling students "TV is bad" like they did when I was in grade school. 

The "Keeping it Current" article was the most fascinating read to me. The idea of using games in the classroom is somewhat close to my heart as a game designer, and I yearn for the day when enough of society has accepted games as a storytelling medium to be able to help students deconstruct this form of media. The use of Darfur is Dying and games like it specifically is something I am conflicted with, though. On one hand, I like that is has a particular relevance to the course’s subject and that students are having a reader response based on their interactions in the game. This does demonstrate the unique power of games to involve the player. On the other hand, well, Shakespeare didn’t write his plays specifically for the purpose of education. "Romeo and Juliet" does not teach an educational concept, yet it is still studied in schools. By saying “only these types of games are usable in the classroom,” we are restricting one of the most current, growing methods of storytelling and saying only games that were made for education have value in the eyes of the establishment. Furthermore, the example used (Darfur is Dying) is a flash browser game with no critical backing. Flash is a format that browser developers are desperately trying to remove support for, as it is an insecure language that has been improved on by HTML5, Javascript, Unity, etc. This means the lesson will probably only be usable for a short amount of time. All that said, if playing the game raises student engagement, then it is clearly a useful tool in some capacity, but I hope we can do better in the future. This assignment as it stands is functionally equivalent to playing Oregon Trail in computer lab in the 90s: it's a distraction meant to get kids to concentrate, delivering an educational 'experience' to justify its place in the school day. I think this type of activity rides a fine line between being effective and missing the point. As an example, in my classroom observations in EDSE 547, I witnessed students playing a geography game where they needed to guess where something was based on a picture using Google Earth. While the students were invested in the game, the only thing they could have actually been learning was how to use Google Earth. There is certainly value in that, but the teacher could have found a game that more directly tested a measurable understanding of geography (which seemed to be the purpose to begin with). Even a simple trivia quiz with students in class might have been a more effective tool. I have gone on way too long on this subject, but in short: I think teachers should only incorporate an innovation with a clear purpose and an understanding of the innovation.