0 Starting the Year with Persuasive Writing

What makes a classroom community strong?  How can students and teachers work together at the start of the year to build a classroom community?  I decided to combine the beginning year's writing genre focus, persuasive writing, with the classroom goal of building a happy, caring, engaging, and successful classroom community.

Each student in the class will be asked to propose one activity, event, routine, structure, or material to make our classroom a wonderful community.  Students will follow these steps to make their proposal:

1. Brainstorm ideas with the class.
2. Each child will choose one idea that he/she feels strongly about.
3. Each child will brainstorm reasons why his/her idea is a good idea.
4. Students will gather evidence and examples related to their proposal. 
5. Students will draft persuasive essays to convince the class that the proposals are ones that we should adopt.
6. Students will read, edit, and revise each other's essays.
7. Students will read their proposals to the class, and perhaps make an online version as well using PhotoBooth or iMovie. 
8. The class will decide which proposals to adopt, and which ones to put in the "parking lot" for more consideration.

If I'm asking students to do this, I thought I'd take a first crack at the assignment. Hence, I've drafted my classroom community proposal below. At the start of the year, I'll read my proposal to the students, and let them give me editing tips. In the meantime, I may return to this post to do a bit of editing myself. Feel free to send me your ideas and considerations as well.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Vote Yes!
 Friday Picnics!
Ms. Devlin, 2013

Every class needs time and space to relax, be together, and have fun--noisy, happy fun, not quiet, sit-in-your-seat, restricted fun.  Friday picnics offer a great way for our class to eat together on our large, green, grassy playground.

Every other day students have to eat in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is a good place to sit with your friends, talk, and eat lunch, but the small, rectangular cafe is not as free and fun as the baseball-field size playground.  In the cafeteria, you have to stay seated on your hard plastic chairs until the lunch monitor says you can stand up, but on the playground you can get up from the soft grassy, blanketed picnic spot whenever you want.  Further, you may only talk with quiet voices in the lunchroom, but on the playground you may holler, shout, sing, and laugh as loud as you want.  When you're in the cafeteria, there's no chance at any extra recess, but out on the playground if you finish your lunch early, you have a few minutes of extra recess to play with your friends.  More play, no need to be quiet, and getting up whenever you want are three good reasons why Friday picnics are a positive change from the usual cafeteria lunch.

At Friday picnics you get to relax with the teachers too. Typically teachers eat in the classrooms or the teacher's room, but during Friday picnics you're able to stretch out on a blanket and eat with your teachers. Teachers are very relaxed during Friday picnics because there's hardly any rules to enforce, and it is not a time when they have to teach. Therefore they have the time to talk to you, listen to your stories and questions, and perhaps even play a game or two.  That's another good reason for Friday picnics.

The Friday picnic is like a celebration, and celebrations are great at the end of the week. After a long week of doing your best, the Friday picnic is like the frosting on the cake--sweet and delicious. Sweet because you're with your friends, and delicious because you're eating your lunch outside.  Friday picnics are a bit of a celebration for the lunch room monitors too.  They work hard all week encouraging students to follow the rules, clean up, and use quiet voices, but on Fridays when most students are picnicking outside, they get a big break--less kids, less lunches, and best of all, less clean up!  So Friday picnics are a gift to the cafeteria staff too.

I propose that our class, Team 15, has a Friday picnic every good-weather Friday this year. The Friday picnic fun will help to make our class a happy, close-knit, caring community.  Do you agree? If so, when it comes time to vote for our community routines, please vote for the Friday Picnic.  I promise, you won't be disappointed.


Helpful Links:
Persuasive Writing Strategies
More Strategies
Wikipedia Persuasive Writing
What is an anecdote?
LearnZillion Anecdote?

0 Launching the Writing Year: Details

As I consider the multiple standards and initiatives at play, I find myself lamenting, "There just isn't enough time!"  Yet, I'm not advocating for more time on task for classroom teachers since we're already working multiple hours after school, early in the morning, and in the evenings to keep up with the changes, initiatives, and potential related to teaching children well.

Hence, once again, I promote thoughtful prioritization asking the question, "What's essential?"

As I look ahead to the new school year, I know that teaching children to write well is essential.  In a past post, I assessed last year's writing program finding that we taught the essential elements, but we didn't give enough time for practice.  Hence this year, I will make time for practice (And yes, next year I'll lament that another area didn't get it's fair share of time because simply put, there are more standards to reach than time or energy in a day.)

The way you start the year impacts the entire year greatly because you set the routines, expectations, and structures at the start of the year.  Hence, I'll carefully begin the writing year with students in the following ways.

First, I'll ask students to write me a letter that tells me who they are, what they hope for in fourth grade, and what advice do they have for me when it comes to teaching them well.  I'll use these letters as an initial writing assessment.  As children write, I'll observe how they embark on the task and the stamina they show.  Later I'll read the letters to get a quick assessment of their craft, grammar, voice, and fluency.

At the beginning weeks of the school, I also start regular keyboarding practice probably at the start of most days.  Keyboarding proficiency will help out when it comes to fluid and facile writing.

Next, I'll help students create their online Google writing book and their offline writer's notebook(s).  We'll take the time we need to carefully craft these writing books.  Then we'll make time (a week or so) to practice writing in the books.  I'll start by inviting students to write about anything they want both in school and for their expected 15 minutes of writing each night at home.  We'll share what we write, and talk about the way we write, the topics we choose, and writing challenges we face.

After that, I'll begin to create our writer's workshop routines and goals with the students.  I'll make time to conference with each child.  During the conference I'll survey their writing interests, questions, and challenges.  I'll also let them read to me from their writer's books.

Once we've established the writer's books and the workshop routine, then I'll start using some of the writer's workshop for our first genre focus: persuasive writing.

Our initial PBL of the year will involve creating "I AM" Animoto videos.  That will be a fun way to get to know each other, learn a great tech tool, and possibly have something to share with families on curriculum night or during the first set of parent conferences.

How will you start your writing year?  What ideas or questions do you have for me?

As I look ahead to the year, I like to plan the first units in a "loose-tight" way--"loose" leaving room for response to students' needs, interests, and passions, and "tight" so that I meet the standards for the grade-level.

0 Fletcher: Breathing Life Into Words

All writers want to "breathe life into words" and Ralph Fletcher provides insight into that process in his book, Live Writing, Breathing Life Into Your Words.

Fletcher writes, ". . .every writer has a toolbox," then he proceeds to provide practical strategies to make us better writers. Below I've outlined his main strategies and used several quotes from his book. I plan to read specific chapters of the book to students as they employ his craft. Hence this post is not a replacement for buying or reading the book.

Read Like a Writer
". . .reread the writing to figure out how the author managed to pull off the effect." and learn how to "create your own kind of writing magic." (p.13)

Build Characters
Start with what you know.
Use all five senses to describe a character's physical traits.
Describe active characters with strong verbs about physical, emotional, and psychological actions.
Use dialogue and conversation.
Every character has "good" and "bad" so introduce a well rounded character, a realistic person.
Name your characters with intention--names should reveal a trait, personality, role.
"Too many characters confuse the reader," so choose a few.

Voice
". . .give the narrator a compelling voice."
Voice="a sense of the author's personality that comes through the words on the paper."
"Think of writing as chatting on paper."
"Follow your passion," "Think audience," "Be Honest with the Reader," and "Experiment with Different Kinds of Voice."

Conflict: "In a good story something happens."
"Person Against Person"
"Person Against Nature"
"Internal Conflict"

Setting: "It's important for a writer to know a place and know it well."
The setting helps you develop characters, shape the plot, and create a mood."

Time: "When you write you need to be actively involved in cutting, editing, reordering, and slowing down" time.

Leads: "A lead gives the reader important clues about what to expect in the writing that will follow."

The Last Word: "Endings matter in writing too."
"I usually try to give the reader something at the end: a memorable quote, statement, or idea that will linger in the mind."

Small Important Things: "Details are the lifeblood of writing."
"Select odd details that will stick in the reader's mind. "
"Use details to make complex ideas understandable."
"Pick out details that create vivid pictures for the reader."
"Select details that make your writing sound authentic."
Important details are often repeated in the story.
Invent details.

The Golden Line: "Golden lines. . .do at least two things: they breathe instant life into any piece of writing, and they work as a wake-up call to your reader."
"Use strong verbs."
Surprising comparisons.
Don't overwrite.

Putting it Altogether: "It's important to know when to end a piece of writing."

Magic: ". . .there's still an undeniable magic in the air when a person puts pen to paper."

As I think about teaching fourth graders, and all the wonderful strategies Fletcher shares, I wonder how I can relay this work without overwhelming them. As with any new, enlightening information, Fletcher's strategies make me reconsider the efforts I've planned for the year.

Since, I'm starting the year with a short, wonderful fourth grade read aloud, "The Gold Threaded Dress," I think I'll now use this book first to introduce reading comprehension strategies, story elements, and the culture unit, and then the students and I will reread the book, as Fletcher suggests, as writers.  When we reread the book, we'll focus on the practical strategies above and discuss how the author utilized those strategies in The Gold Threaded Dress to capture the reader's attention, understanding, and heart.

This first read and second read will serve as a wonderful vehicle for tying the reader's and writer's workshop together as a literacy studio, and for providing students with a wonderful start-of-the-year example of what it means to read like a reader and read like a writer.

As always, I open to your ideas and suggestions as I embark on embedding Fletcher's work into students' fourth grade program.


Related Document
Related Lesson Plans

0 Writer's Workshop: "Quiet. . .Authors at Work!"

Ralph Fletcher outlined the Writer's Notebook effort recently at The Wayland Literacy Institute. Now, I'm reading his book, Ralph Fletcher, Author at Work, to build background and specific strategies with regard to my own writing and student writing.


Similar to Fletcher's recent presentation, Author at Work provides us with an inside look at Ralph Fletcher's writing life. Fletcher writes, "I don't write for fame or money, either. Honestly, I do it because writing is fun."

That comment brought me back to Leo Lionni's book, Frederick, which tells the story of a young mouse who loves to write. In the book, Frederick uses his gift of writing and drawing to lighten the dark days of winter for his mouse friends. I'm going to begin the writing year by reading and discussing Frederick with my students. I'll also show wonderful videos of Lionni describing his writing life.

I don't want to clutter Writer's Workshop with too many routines, structures, and formalities. I want to give students the time to write, imagine, draw, and explore their own ideas, experiences, and stories. Fletcher remarks at the Literacy Institute and in his book support this. He writes, "I believe having so much freedom contributed greatly to my becoming an author."

At the start of the writing year, the students and I will spend a lot of time getting to know one another as well as building a strong foundation for writing. Fletcher notes, "It's common for authors to produce something autobiographical when they write their first work." Hence, we'll share stories and artifacts of our lives as we develop our writer's workshop routines and community. We'll also spend these first weeks developing "writer's eye" as Fletcher describes it--an eye for observation as we carefully observe classmates, playground activity, courtyard beauty, and the sounds, sights, tastes, touch, and smells at home.

Reader's Workshop naturally connects to writer's workshop--the two overlap again and again, and that's why mentors such as Ellin Oliver Keene call reader's and writer's workshop, literacy studio. Fletcher's world of reading increased his desire to write.  He remarks that the author "Jack London built a whole world out of words!. . .I felt jealous when I realized that--I wanted a nice fat slice of that fun for myself."  Similarly I tell the students, writer's are magicians who create pictures, movies, experiences, and emotions in the reader's mind with words--amazing!  Recently a local author, Juliette Fay, shared a New York Times article with me about the positive brain effects of reading fiction. Hence, reading, as we always suspected, is good for us in many, many ways including its effect on writing.

Multiple writing tools are available to students today, so I won't let handwriting get in the way.  At the Wayland Literacy Institute, Fletcher pointed out that handwriting gets in the way of writers, particularly boy writers. A skilled colleague and writer, Kristin Murphy, noted that research has shown that keyboarding rather than handwriting has been proven to effectively develop writing skill and fluency. Hence, multiple tools such as keyboarding, speech-to-text, handwriting, and the use of a student or teacher "secretary" will be available during my classroom writing workshop.

Plenty of positive reenforcement will also be available as I play to students writing interests and strengths. Fletcher demonstrates the power of positive support when he tells the stories of the many relatives who encouraged his writing. Fletcher writes, "Writing at home was fun because there was no teacher around to tell me what to write about, grade it, or correct my handwriting."  Hence, there's a need for the classroom to be a "home away from home" where children feel comfortable exploring, practicing, and following their passions and interests.

Fletcher shares the strength and wonder of the writer's notebook. Similar to Fletcher, my love of writing began in high school when my wonderful English teacher, Ms. Habestro, demanded that we keep a daily notebook, one that she didn't micromanage, but instead a notebook that she responded to with positivity and encouragement. Fletcher describes the categories of writing he includes in his writer's notebook including fascinating facts, quotes, trivia, descriptions of people and places, bits of conversation, artifacts, goof around writing, projects, and feelings.  I think I'll use these descriptors to craft individual lessons for students, times when students are able to try out Fletcher's writer's notebook ideas.

As the writing days get established for my class, Team 15, I'll pause to read Fletcher's chapter 1, "My Missing Manuscript" to students as we begin to discuss editing, conferencing, and revising.  In that chapter, Fletcher describes his dismay when he notices that ". . .on every single page my editor had attached an electric-pink sticky note containing a question or suggestion about how I might make the story better, clearer, stronger."

In chapter five, Fletcher describes "Drafting" and "what works for him." As I work with students I'll regularly circle around to the question, "What works for you as a writer?" We'll discuss that as a class too as we talk about writing routines, times, clothes, and spaces."  After Fletcher lets us in on the structure of his writing life, he describes drafting as ". . .the fun part, generating ideas, learning about the story, finding its shape, fleshing it out." Unlike Fletcher's recommendations, our ELA program still requires us to focus on specific genre at specific times.  I'll separate my writer's workshop into two threads: the "free-write" thread and the focused, genre thread.  Each week we'll spend time on both threads. I plan to read "Drafting" to students as we embark on the drafting stage of our personal narrative unit, then I'll reread that chapter again when we work on fictional narratives as well as MCAS prep.

Only in my later years have I had the patience for revision. Blogging and posting on the Internet have led me there. Knowing that my work is read by many has made me much more conscious of the intent, craft, and meaning of my prose. Hence, one way to invigorate revision for students is making sure that you've chosen an audience at the start of a project, and ensuring that student work is published and read regularly by a much larger audience than the teacher and parent.  "Bottom line: revision can be a painful process, but it's necessary," Fletcher writes. Similar to "Drafting," I'll read this chapter multiple times to students as they learn about and embark on revision with each genre and the "free-writes" that they want to publish.

I have read Fig Pudding by Ralph Fletcher many times. I will read the story again as the students and I embark on the personal narrative unit. At that time, I'll read Fletcher's paragraphs, "Fig Pudding" and "A Conversation with Ralph Fletcher" to students.  The chapters are short and succinct.  Each chapter serves as a fine start to a reading/writing focus lesson.

Ralph Fletcher avails himself to budding authors young and old in his book, Ralph Fletcher, Author at Work. I recommend this book as a great mentor text for writing workshop, writer's notebook, and students' writing year.  Next, I'll read his book, Live Writing, Breathing Life Into Your Words, to support students' and my craft with greater intention and detail.  Stay tuned.

0 Consider Writers: Boys and Girls: Notes from Ralph Fletcher Presentation

Ralph Fletcher gave amazing presentations at last week's Wayland Literacy Institute.  On the first day, he reminded us of many valuable considerations as we teach young writers, especially young boy writers.

0 The Wayland Literacy Institute: 2013

The Wayland Literacy Institute, Wayland, MA

I appreciate the efforts of so many leaders and educators who made this year's Wayland Literacy Institute a wonderful learning endeavor. The keynote, Ralph Fletcher, brought a sense of humor, care, and story to his multiple presentations throughout the Institute.  Teachers from Wayland and nearby districts shared their expertise with creativity, focus, and skill.  I now have many, many new ideas that I want to incorporate into school year 2013-2014 .

Rather than write plans now, I have chosen to share the links and main ideas of my experience through a storify for today's events, and a couple of blog posts related to yesterday's learning.  I welcome your thoughts and questions with regard to this wonderful experience.

Related Posts:
Ralph Fletcher Inspiration
Why Story? My Presentation

Storify Twitter Notes (Storify takes a few seconds to upload.)

0 Why Story?

Student's Paper-Cut Design Created to Inspire Story Writing 

At the The Wayland Literacy Institute  I presented my thoughts, experiences, and "how to" with respect to digital storytelling. I synthesized many notes, experiences, and research related to the topic of story over many years.

I focused the presentation on the rationale, process, and considerations related to creating digital stories with young children.

I offer the presentation and rationale below as a guide for student/teacher digital story creation.



Rationale

What is a story? 
Dictionary.com defines story in the following ways:

Why Story?
Story is a thread that brings us together as people.  Through story we relate, connect, understand, question, and see.  We introduce ourselves to others through story, and we learn about life through story. Story is also an inviting, engaging, and brain-friendly way to begin a lesson or presentation.

What makes a good story?  
I'm sure that answer differs amongst individuals, but there are some essential elements that contribute to a story's value--elements such as a good beginning, wonderful words, beginning, middle and end, writer's craft, characters, plot, big moments, setting, and catchy content.

When do we tell stories?  
We tell stories when we meet people for the first time.  We share stories with family members and friends to deepen our relationships, remember the good times, and gain strength. We tell a story at the start of a lesson or presentation to capture the audience's attention and interest.  A story is also told to teach a lesson, learn new information, and develop understanding.

How is a story more powerful than a list, 
informational text, or document? 
A story enlists the senses. A good story awakens us with smells, sounds, tastes, sights, and touch.  When we read a good story we are taken into a new place, time, and experience. A good story is like a beautiful weave while a list is similar to a section or thread of the weave. Wonderful stories change us.

Why digital stories? 
The digital story is a powerful medium to create and partake.  When creating a digital story the author is crafting text, music, sound effects, and imagery to tell a story with care.  When listening to a digital story, the listener is immersed in a multi-modal experience of story, one he or she may listen to again and again. Further, today digital media is as accessible as books. Students are interfacing with this media regularly to gain information and learn. The experience of creating their own digital stories brings students understanding, respect, and the ability to manipulate this medium--an important skill in the tech age we live in.

In this short Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge film, author David Pilkey compares typed texts with television and film.  He states, "When we read a book there aren't any special effects.. . . . we have to fill in all the details ourselves by using our imaginations.  The simple fact is that the more we read the more we have to use our imaginations, and the more we use our imaginations, the more powerful we become." Although digital stories fall in between a typed book and film, stage, and television, his words challenge this medium, and makes one wonder if the digital story leaves enough room for the powerful development of imagination and reading skill.  This is an important consideration. Students should be exposed to film, stage, television production, digital stories, and text--they should have the chance to create, understand, and experience all the mediums that will make up their future as readers, writers, and learners.  Hence it's not one or the other, but instead how much of one medium versus how much of another as we strive for a just right balance.

Where does digital story fit into today's curriculum?  
I believe that digital story should be built into the curriculum at all grade levels.  I suggest the following efforts:

• Turn Literacy Studio or Reading Workshop into a multimedia effort making digital story and film creation options.
• Balance students' use of digital and nondigital literacy throughout the day, units, and year.
• Think carefully about how you want to fit digital literacy in--let the decision be a student/teacher decision, one that responds to the learners' needs, interests, and passions.
• Embed standards into digital story units--meet the standards through digital story design.  Digital story is an exceptionally good medium for meeting standards in reading fluency, reading/writing voice, story organization, content share, and speaking.
• Teach digital story with project/problem base learning workshops. Create a beginning to end timeline for the project with students then embark on the creative endeavor leaving room for students' creativity, personalization, and choice. 
• Partner with younger students to create digital stories.  My first classroom digital story project was a fourth grade-second grade collaboration: "The Homework Excuse Book," a take-off of a book the second graders had been reading. 

How do I create a digital story? 
There are many tools for creating digital stories today. Tools such as storybird, Kid Pix, iMovie, Garageband, Google presentation, PowerPoint, VoiceThread and more.  Specifically my class used the following process:

1. Learning Design: Review the standards and curriculum. Decide on the goals, overarching timeline, needed support, space, and project efforts.
2. Choose audience and organize. Students and teachers create the specific project time line, objectives, efforts, and focus together with backwards design.  
3. Story brainstorm and creation with multiple story starter tools such as drawing, paper-cut design, time lines, story sharing, story boards, story mountains, and modeling.
4. Story draft online or offline, with images and without.  Draft the story words and images using the writing process. 
5. Publish the story words and image. We used Google Presentation--students created online storybooks with Google.
6. Move the published story to digital.  We downloaded our Google Presentations to Powerpoint and saved as individual pictures, then we moved each picture into iMovie.
7. Create beginning, middle, and end slides for story titles and more. 
8. Record voice. We record right on iMovie by lengthening the picture time, recording, listening, and rerecording when necessary until we were satisfied. 
9. Design and add music that matches the mood and tone of the story.  Add sound effects too.
10. Add finishing touches. Publish to YouTube.
11. Share, Celebrate, Reflect, and Assess. 

Story is a classic medium, one that will never go away--it is the thread that connects us as people and learners.  I'm sure that my understanding of story will grow as I work with colleagues tomorrow.

In the meantime, what is important to you when it comes to the theme of story?  When you teach reading and writing story to young children, what do you emphasize?  How can we best effect this study as we teach and coach students today?

0 Writing: Practice Makes Perfect

As I look ahead to next year, I want to build in more time for students to practice writing. This year students were introduced to many genre as well as specific skill, organization, and craft.  They did well.

Next year, I want to structure home study and the classroom routine to include more time for practice.  To do that, I'll start the year by helping each child create an online composition book.

Rather than an ePortfolio for fourth grade, children will add to their Google site composition book daily with the following routine:

• Nightly Journal Writing
• Regular Craft, Grammar and Organization Exercises.
• Vocabulary Practice
• Genre Writing
• Reading Response Writing

Similar to all workshop structures, our regular writing workshops will include a short focus lesson, time to write, and time to share.  

Similar to mastery in any area, skillful writing depends on practice, and a steady daily diet of writing will move students towards success.

Note: After listening to Ralph Fletcher today, I decided to also have students keep paper/pencil writer's notebooks as a collection place for ideas, verse, words, and short stories. 

0 Topic List Gadget: Assess Your Year's Considerations

Blog Topic List

If you're a blogger who wants to assess your year, you can simply use the "topic links" gadget to essentially organize all of your posts. When the "topic links" gadget lists your main topics, the size and weight of the font is related to the number of posts you've written about that topic.  It's similar to taking an entire post, then making a word cloud of the post.  The word cloud highlights the main idea or primary emphases of the post, article, or story by making the most used words big and powerful.

Hence if you look at my topic list just below my blog's header or at the top of this page you'll note that collaboration won first place for my consideration this year.  I'm sure this was due to the fact that our school is embracing greater collaboration in all that we do both with students and colleagues through the use of structures such as PBL, RTI, and PLCs.  This increase in collaboration is a shift that's both challenging and rewarding. Also social media streams, edcamps, and the Internet are broadening our concept of collaboration to the action of working with colleagues online from near and far all over the world to better our craft and teach children well.

I haven't linked all of my posts yet.  That's something I'll do in the weeks to come, and as I link, I'll pay special attention to the topics that come out on top, and those that are written with tiny, thin letters at the end as that tells a story about my focus and intent for the past year as well as shedding light on the changes, goals, and pursuits ahead.

0 Celebrating and Witnessing Accomplishment

This weekend I am having the chance to both celebrate and witness accomplishment--accomplishment far beyond the walls of my fourth grade classroom.

It's imperative that educators have the opportunity to be in the midst of accomplished folk outside of the school house--real world movers and shakers, the people who make a difference in ways other than the grade school, high school or neighborhood context.

To witness this accomplishment through celebration, conversation, and convocation will fuel the day-to-day work you do each day, and remind you that you're preparing your students for a big world of promise and opportunity.

Part of the accomplishment I witnessed yesterday was a speech by Newark's mayor, Cory Booker.  Booker used humor, storytelling, and wisdom from the past and present to relay a message that our cynicism serves to hinder our collective ability to do the impossible and make positive change in our country and world.  He discussed virtous works, and how those works are less effective without connection and collective effort.  He talked about the good days and the bad as he leads Newark toward greater strength with the help and partnership of others.  Booker left me with enthusiasm, insight, and encouragement for my work as an educator.

Then throughout the day I conversed with individual after individual about their accomplisments, dreams, and next steps with regard to their education, careers, and personal pursuits. All stories served to motivate my own work with young children each day.

Hence, take some time during this long weekend to think about the long road ahead of students, and how we can focus our efforts and energy to empower these children away from cynicism towards personal and societal success and positive change. As educators we are the ones that help to lay a foundation of dreams and possibility for our schools, communities, and most importantly the children we serve. Witnessing and celebrating accomplishment is one way to energize and direct our efforts in this regard.

0 Extraordinary Edcamp Boston 2013

In so many way edcamp Boston was extraordinary.

First, how often do a number of individuals volunteer countless hours in an effort to bring people together in conversation to better the work we do?  That's what happened at edcamp Boston. Dan Callahan, Karen Janowski, Laura D'Elia, Liz Davis, Steve Guditus and Tracy Sockalosky contributed significant time, talent, and experience to run the day with ease and excellence.

Then, many organizations and individuals contributed time, money, materials and space to make the event a success. We gathered at Microsoft in Cambridge. The space was well suited for approximately 400 educators representing all levels of education. Dan introduced the day with a clever Star Wars theme. After that the edcamp Boston team led us in an ice breaker. Next we started a day of multiple choices for discussion and share.

I found myself seeking answers about forward movement in education as I engaged in conversations related to gaming, coding, Minecraft, the new science standards, and learning design.  There were many valuable takeaways from the day.

Gaming is here to stay. As explained by Shawn Rubin, gaming and coding are apples and oranges. Jason Garzone further added that making games is a terrific inroad to coding. During that discussion I was led to the following resources for coding and gaming: Scratch, StarlogoTNG, Pixel Press Game, Gamemaker, Kodu, Gamestar Mechanic, hopscotch, Learning Games Network, civilization, codable, Hakitzu, APK generators, hackasaurus, playforceorg, Bootstrap (teaches algebra) and Minecraft.

Why gaming?  Gaming is engaging. Creating games develops systems thinking, an important skill for all learners in all disciplines.  Gaming is one way to learn skill, concept, and knowledge in both independent and collaborative ways.  Games like Minecraft and others build creativity and problem solving skills. Gaming and making games create paths to an interest and a desire to code, and coding provides students with an essential literacy for today's world.  Rubin supported the notion of a scope and sequence for coding in schools today. The Learning Games Network is one place where teachers and students can access professional development in this area.

Edcamp sharing made me think a lot about the tech tools in schools today as well as access to those tools. At the end of the day, I believe that schools should support multiple tools for student learning. Schools will need to purchase and welcome (BYOD) tools that respond to testing requirements since new tests will be taken online, hence those parameters need to be met.  Tools should also include tools that are mobile, able to serve as content creation resources, and app friendly. Systems for tech access in schools should be streamlined, efficient, and responsive to students' needs.  Systems that are too cumbersome or slow will not be responsive to today's quickly changing educational landscape and students' ready attitude and ability to learn. At my level, I believe the ideal would be for two classrooms to share a class set of laptops (macbooks since that's what we have) and a class set of iPads (with keyboards).  Then I believe that we should welcome Kindles, mobile phones, Galxies, and other devices that student use regularly at home to access apps, books, and other learning resources.

During the second session of the day I was involved in a conversation about the new science standards and science education led by Sean Musselman. Musselman felt that the standards were moving in the right direction.  Others involved in the conversation expressed a hope that the MCAS test in science would turn to a hands-on type of assessment of science thought, problem solving, knowledge, and skill.  During this session we discussed the science classroom including "take apart" and maker stations, choice time, 3-d printers, inquiry based learning, letting students struggle, and science equipment such as goggles, lab coats and exploration supplies. Many commented that the Magic of Reality book and app was a must-have resource for science teachers and students at all levels. We discussed thematic science study and noted resources such as the Einstein's Workshop, The Maker Faire in New York City, and Gary Stager's Constructing Modern Knowledge Summer Institute. This conversation led me to the idea that every school system should create and/or continue to develop science student/teacher teams to investigate, explore, foster, and implement state-of-the-art STEAM (science, tech, engineering, art and math) teaching.

After a delicious lunch of deli sandwiches and cookies, we started the afternoon sessions. My colleague, STEAM savvy educator, Susan Cherwinski, and I led a discussion on learning design.  We gathered on cozy chairs in the Microsoft reception area. During the discussion, the group of educators representing all levels as well as public and private education essentially created a collective list and description of essential learning design categories including essential questions, reflection, assessment, "more of them (students), less of us," blended learning (multiple tools, processes), design thinking/process, choice, differentiation of process and product, audience, relevance and meaning.  During this session I was also introduced to 30Hands, a terrific storytelling app which I plan to explore soon.

Hallway and lunch time conversations were just as informative and enlightening as the sessions. I spent a good amount of time with my Twitter colleague, Nancy Carroll, who I look to for great 4th grade ideas and teacher/student best practice. I spoke to Shawn Rubin about his start-up, metryx, a data tracking venue that I want to explore with regard to student data, RTI, and the new evaluations system. Hillary Ornberg introduced me to her student service start-up, Switchback Education Services, and I met Eric Esteves, Lesley College's Director of Learning Design and Instructional Support.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) was also well represented. Paul Toner, President of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association, attended.  His latest letter in the MTA newspaper demonstrated his interest and support for moving education forward with technology and other student-friendly processes and strategies.  He affirmed edcamp Boston's energy and effort by saying that the NEA would love seeing all these energized teachers gathering to learn and develop their craft during a beautiful Saturday in May. Meg Secatore, Director of MTA's Professional Learning efforts also attended the event. Last summer Meg was one of the leaders who led the MTA's wonderful Summer Conference which hosted an unconference (an edcamp-like event) during the early-August gathering at Williams College.  The MTA will offer this event once again, and I highly recommend that educators take a look at the offerings and think about signing up to jump-start the new school year with ideas and innovation. Sarah Nathan from the MTA was also at the event. Sarah is leading the ED Talks event this summer, and looking for innovative educators to share their education practice, vision, and ideas. Information about the summer conference and the ED Talks can be found via this link.

Thanks to the edcamp foundation, edcamp events occur all over the world serving educators in their efforts to innovate, educate, and serve children well.  Yesterday's event was a kaleidescope of ideas, educators, and connections.  My only regret for the day was that I didn't have the time to attend all the wonderful offerings, and converse with all of the invested educators there.  Thanks edcamp Boston for a terrific day!

0 A Simple, Imperfect Voice

I read an excerpt about pundits ridiculing a leader recently about his "voice."  They sought to minimize the leader's words and oration. I felt a pang as I read their critique because like that leader I am not always respected for my simple words, fourth grade teacher perspective, female lens, and at-times text with errors.

Yet, I continue to write.

Like that leader I'm on the front line each day. I don't have multiple support staff to edit my prose or review my speeches. I haven't had the luxury of lots of time to hone my skill. Yet, I have had substantial support along the way, enough to give me the tools, words and confidence to express my point of view, and I believe in the freedom of speech and the right for every American (and world citizen) to express his/her point of view with their best ability as well as the responsibility to be respectful and mindful of the potential powerful effect of words.

I encourage everyone to take the time to express their opinion. I especially encourage those who may be worried about their prose, grammar, and ideas to not stay silent, and instead try out voice to both broaden and deepen our collective lens as thinkers and decision makers.

When we ridicule others' speak, particularly those who are making a concerted, respectful effort to share thought, uplift a crowd, or create important debate, we serve to silence others around us.  Instead, I suggest that critical pundits focus more on intent with respect on local dialect, the speaker's history and his/her service. In the same regard, I believe that those who know more about oration should offer suggestions and direction rather than ridicule.

As an educator, this discussion reminds me that it is a new era for voice. With easy share, words are more numerous and powerful than ever. People are using words and oration in multiple new ways via the Internet and live presentations continuously. Pundits and critics abound. Multiple false words and hidden identities exist as well. Just last night a hacker took over the 60 Minutes Twitter Feed espousing all kinds of negative, angry speak, and throughout the Boston Marathon tragedy, both truth and falsehoods were shared readily.

How will we best teach our students about the importance of words, voice and speak?  In what ways will we allow our students to practice this skill? When will they have the chance to critically and respectively analyze text, prose, blogs, tweets and articles looking for truth, connection and impact? As we make this incredible turn in the education road, voice is a central theme to consider. I am wondering how you will consider and employ this theme in the work you do?  I am open to your thoughts and share.

0 Spread the Good News and Share the Challenge!

Teachers want to know what's working. We want to hear the success stories--the ways our colleagues are positively impacting individual students and whole classes. We want to know what makes a difference.

At times leadership and teachers are reluctant to share the good news. Perhaps they fear competition or discouragement if they share best practice and resulting student engagement, happiness, or success. If done well however, sharing the good news can serve to lift the entire learning community.

The good news cannot be culled from a walk-through or observation as those are more staged.  Yes, you can pick up some ideas that way, but you really can't understand whole story in that way.  The best way to learn the story is to hear the beginning-to-end tale of how a teacher or team took a teaching/learning problem, strategized, implemented, and revised repeatedly until that teacher or team reached success with a student or class.

As you think about this teaching year what would you regard as a significant success, and what would you regard as an area where there's still room for growth.  For me, the significant success lies in teaching the students "learning to learn mindsets and habits" as that effort served to empower and lift the quality of student investment, effort, and outcomes.  The area where there's still room for growth is differentiation in math instruction.  Due to the varied rate of math concept, knowledge, and skill attainment as well as time constraints we are still challenged by this issue. I would like to work with others to utilize RTI and other efforts to more strategically and consistently meet the needs of all students with regard to math.

I hope that educators in my school and educators in my PLN will share their good news often as I'm eager to grow from their successful research, investment, and efforts.

0 Thoughts on Writing

Lately I've been having numerous conversations with graduate students frustrated with the process of writing research papers.  Mainly they appear overwhelmed with how labor-intensive the process is, and how long it takes to generate much satisfaction.

When responding, I'm finding it helpful to talk about cooking.  I love cooking, always have.  My strong preference is for slow-cooking -- I like the art of braising, how flavors deepen and meld as meats and veggies turn golden. It never fails to amaze me how the results are even better if left to rest in the fridge for a day before serving, since that time allows the fat to congeal and thicken, and then to be skimmed off, leaving a sharper (and healthier) result.

In my experience, a good research paper requires braising.  I think many people don't anticipate this, instead expecting a stir-fry. Those are neat-- you simply do a bunch of slicing and dicing in advance, line everything up, turn the heat on high, and you're done in minutes.  Preparation pays off, and immediate satisfaction is guaranteed. But as anyone who's eaten stir fries knows, the feeling doesn't last-- you're hungry an hour later.

Writing a good paper requires commitment and patience.  Yes, you need a good idea, but you also need the good sense to put the paper down from time to time, and let it simmer.  I've been known to simmer my papers for as long as two years, before removing the lid to check and see how things look.  (Yes, it's because as a sociologist I'm not fearful of being scooped and my work usually isn't time-sensitive-- and yes, I did this pre-tenure too.)  The best part is that I inevitably find something new when I look-- my view is not only freshened, I'm wiser, more skilled, and excited again about the work.  I can skim the fat quite easily, since it's hardened. I may even involve a second cook in the kitchen at that point, to get the seasoning right.  But no matter what, every single time, the paper is better for the braise.

It's thoughtful, satisfying, and worth every minute.  Try it. And enjoy, along with a nice shiraz.