Educational Video: Intro to Poetry Slam

This coming spring the seventh grade English teachers at Red Mountain Middle School are going to be attempting a new project for our poetry unit.  Each unit we teach is six weeks long.  For the first four weeks of our poetry unit, we will be teaching all of the basic knowledge students need to know for the curriculum, standards and testing, but for the last two weeks, the students are going to use all this knowledge for a creative project.  Each teacher will be teaching a workshop featuring a different creative project that students can sign up for.  I would like to do a poetry slam for my portion of the workshop project, and I would like to create a instructional video introducing poetry slam to the students attending my workshop.

The objectives of my instructional video will be to introduce the concept of poetry slam to my students who have probably never encountered it before and to give them the basic fundamentals of what a poetry slam is.  The second objective will be to show examples to model what poetry slam looks like in its true form.  The last objective will be to create excitement about the creative potential of poetry slam.

The target audience of this instructional video will be seventh graders (12 and 13-year-olds) in a language arts setting. 

Because this slam project will take place at the end of our poetry unit, students should have the necessary knowledge of poetry that they will need to take it one step further.  Other prerequisites will be a knowledge of the writing process (how to brainstorm, prewrite, and edit), a basic understanding of audience and tone and the experience or at least desire to speak in public.

I would like this video to first give a description of what poetry slam is and its brief history.  It has its roots in hip hop, so I would like to show that connection.  Then I would like to cover what the major requirements are to create and perform a poem for poetry slam: free verse, under three minutes in length, must be memorized, often about important emotions or issues.  Lastly I would like to give examples of what poetry slam looks like in practice.  I could do this one of two ways.  I would like to show an example from the Albuquerque public schools who won an award for this art, or I could film someone locally.  If I used the Albuquerque example, I would be incorporating a part of a you tube video, which may not be okay for this project.

In my classroom, I would like to use this as part of the creative poetry workshops we will be doing in the spring to introduce the poetry slam project.  It would be helpful to have as a reference video if students needed a refresher course before writing or performing their pieces.  I would like to record student creations during the workshop and maybe expand the video to include them for future classes.

Google Docs

My Google Drawing:  Doodling for Googling


My classmates and I created a collaborative drawing using Google Docs, a program that allows you to create documents, presentations, and drawings in an online space that can be viewed and edited simultaneously from several different people in different locations.  In a previous class, two students and I wrote a collaborative poem using Google Docs, and it was a great experience to be able to see your group members' thoughts and ideas when we were all in our respective homes.  In this class we created a two-voice poem to highlight the growth in a character in a book we had read.  I think I could do a similar project in my classroom.  Collaborative 2-voice poems are fun to write because they require deep thought into multi-faceted characters.  Doing one on Google Docs allows students to contribute ideas, edit each other's work and feed off of what other students are creating.

Digital Photostory

My digital photostory tells a brief history of my life thus far and how I became a teacher.  For this project, I used iMovie, importing photos, music and recording audio to create it.  This was a really fun project once I got the hang of how to use iMovie.  I think it would be useful in my class in a couple ways.  As a teacher, I could use this technology to introduce myself to the class.  If I created a class blog, I could embed a "meet your teacher" video like this one, so students and parents could get to know a little more about me.

Students could also use this technology, and I think they would really enjoy it as well.  In my class, we do an entire unit on short stories, and part of our focus is on the elements of short stories: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.  It would be a great project if students demonstrated knowledge of these elements by writing their own short stories.  They could then present them to the class using something like iMovie or Windows MovieMaker on the school's computers.  It would be a fun and creative way to present information, but it would also show me how well they grasped these short story elements.

Web 2.0 Presentation Special Tools

Web 2.0 Presentation

Web 2.0: Specific Tools on Prezi

Wikispaces

My Wikispace


The above link is to the wikispace I created to potentially use for my classroom.  One of the main purposes of wikispaces is to create an area for students to collaborate on school projects to create the best work possible.  I started to set up this wiki with three basic areas I think would be great fodder for collaborative work: research projects, short stories, and poetry (there is also a page that describes how I could use the wikispace in my classroom).  An added benefit is that students' work is displayed for parents, administrators, peers to see as well as a global audience.  This is something I think would be very helpful in my classroom, although I am still deciding if I should create a separate space for each class or have students from all classes collaborating with each other.

Prensky's Assessment Strategies

One of the assessment strategies I am going to use in my classroom this upcoming year is ipsative assessment in the form of electronic portfolios.  I like the idea of having students continually competing against themselves to improve their writing skills especially.  I have such a wide range of skill levels when it comes to writing and reading that I don’t really like the letter grade system because I feel that it doesn’t do a good enough job rewarding students who are improving on their best.  For example, I had students this last year who came into my class not knowing how to write a sentence, and I had students who could skillfully navigate a five-paragraph essay.  I think it would be a better system to measure individual progress rather than measure the students against each other.  This year I am going to have each student keep a portfolio of their work, particularly writing assignments.  My comments and corrections will be how I grade future assignments as I judge how the student is making steps to improve his or her writing.  This way I am rewarding effort and improvement not just measuring against one standard of how it should be.

The second assessment strategy I am going to use this year is real-world assessment by having students publish their work (particularly writing assignments and projects) on blogs, wikis or some online format for the world to see (I haven’t picked one for sure yet).  I think this is an effective strategy because students will be more careful about their work if they know that their peers, parents, administrators and an global audience can view, comment and critique their work - not just their teacher.  I also like this strategy because it is a great way to get peers, parents, administrators and community members involved in what my students will be doing.  This way it will never be a secret what I am doing in my class, and students can receive instant feedback from people other than myself, which I feel is a powerful motivating factor for the best work to be created.

My Avatar

I used Voki.com to create this personalized avatar.  This website is really cool because it allows you to change every aspect of your avatar from hair and eye color to clothing to even a background location.  After you create your avatar, you have four options to record audio for it.


I think this would be a fun source of technology for students to use to represent characters in my class.  Last year we did a character monologue project; students chose a character from a book, wrote a monologue that brought that character to life, and presented these characters to the class.  They could do the same project and use an avatar for the presentation that would add the element of what that character looks like, talks like, where they live etc.  They could then present their character avatar to the class when completed.

Using Technology in Partnering Pedagogy

Question 1
The difference between searching and researching is that searching is an informal process of just looking for information.  In contrast, research is cross-checking information from multiple sources to find high quality, accurate information.  It is using primary sources (original documentation) to ensure that you are presenting the real story, and it is citing those sources.  Searching is just where you begin to look; research is where you find the real answer to your questions.


Question 2
One way I would like to use cell phones in my classroom is using a site like polleverywhere.com, which allows students to text in responses to a poll or a short answer question.  This is a great tool for several reasons.  For one, students love using their cell phones to text in answers, so they are more engaged in the learning.  Secondly, it is an excellent way for all students to answer the given questions; you are able to see exactly where they are in the process of learning what you are teaching that day.  Thirdly, it is a great classroom management strategy.  If they are using their phones for classwork, then they won't be texting other students in their pockets.


Another way I would like to use cell phones in my classroom is to create an account with Remind101.  This site allows you to upload your syllabus, and students can then sign up to have assignment deadline reminders texted to their phones.


Question 3
One game I could use is Bookworm, which gives students points for spelling words correctly (more points for longer, more complicated words).  This would be great for all my students but especially for my Spanish-speaking students who struggle with spelling words in English.  This would be a fun way for them to practice spelling, which is generally not fun for them.

Presentation on Chapter 5 (Prensky)

Planning: Content to Questions, Questions to Skills on Prezi

This chapter was about the new planning under the partnering pedagogy, which is instead of creating traditional lesson plans, you are turning content into guiding questions to lead students on a hunt for information.  The chapter focused on creating good guiding questions: questions that are tied to curriculum, open-ended, requrie complex answers, tied to real world context and problems and student passions, and require student action.  The chapter's second focus was on planning "verbs", the skills students learn and practice while they are answering guiding questions.

There were a couple ideas I really found appealing in this chapter.  The first was creating guiding questions that would encourage investigation and exploration rather than me simply telling students what they need to know.  I think using open-ended questions are a great way to have studens practice criticaly thinking and to show them that having the "right" answer is not always the best approach.  There isn't always just one right answer in life, and it would be good for students to get into practice of searching for possibilities.  I also like the idea of tying what we are learning in class to real world situations.  For example, instead of just reading short stories, students could create their own to submit to magazines for publication, etc.

The one idea I found great in theory but difficult in practice is tying every lesson to individual student passions.  I'm sure students would be more engaged if they could all relate to every lesson, but in practice it sounds like an overwhelming amount of work and planning.  Students can relate schoolwork to their passions in the books they choose to read, short story they choose to write and maybe type of project they choose to work on; there are many possibilities.  But, on an everyday basis, it is great in theory but difficult in practice

100 Ways to Use Facebook

One way I would like to use social networking in my classroom is as a literary response.  I like the idea of having students create Facebook (or other social networking pages) for characters from a novel we have read in class.  Students could create profiles detailing interests and basic personal information for each character, could add friends for the character that are plausible, and also add pictures and video to supplement each literary person.  You could also have students comment on each other's pages as if they were the character they are representing.  The benefits to this I think are that it would be engaging to students because they love and are comfortable with social networking.  The literary benefits are that it would require that students have a deep understanding of the character in order to represent them on a page and communicate in character with other students.  In addition, it would be a social activity since the students would be communicating with each other while they are "in character".

Another fun way to include Facebook would be to use the weRead application, which sounds like an online book group.  This would be a fun way for students to keep track of books they read in and out of class during the school year.  It would also be a good place for students to discuss these books and recommend the interesting ones to each other.  This might motivate reluctant readers to try books since recommendations from peers carries more weight than a teacher's does.  It would also give me a chance to see what my students are reading and what they like, which will give me insight into their interests and help me suggest books that they might enjoy.

podcast

Introduction to Book Group Project via Podcast

This last spring I did a trial run of a book group project for my students instead of reading the required novel, which I don't really care for.  Instead my honors students were divided into small groups, and each group was given a different topic (bullying, teen suicide, racism and prejudice are just a few examples).  Each student within the group read a different young adult novel that dealt with the topic in some way and brought that perspective to their discussion groups.  At the end of the project, students wrote a letter to the student who would read the book next year, introducing the novel and highlighting their individual experience with the text.

For my podcast, I decided to create an introductory podcast for one of the group topics (teen suicide) using Garageband.  The podcast  introduces the book project and briefly describes the four novels I have selected for the group (including pictures of the book covers).  This would be something the group could listen to when choosing which book to read if I created one for each topic.  I think it would be a more interesting way to introduce the books than just printing book reviews, which is what I did last year.  It would also be helpful for absent students to be a part of the choosing process. 

In addition, I would like to extend the activity at the end of our book projects.  I would still have students write a final letter as a script, but I would have each group recreate my podcast with their own to introduce the book and their engagement with it for students who are entrusted with the same topic the next year.  I think it would be an excellent way to use technology to sum up the book groups and gain a student perspective on the experience.  I also think they would find it more interesting because it is more than just letter writing, and they would be creating a real class tool.

EDUC 518 Blog Discussion Questions

Question One
The assessment points I thought were a good place to start but a little vague.  Depending on what we were writing about and/or covering in class, I would probably tweak them to make them more specific to what we were learning in class.  As an English teacher, one thing that I would add as an assessment for student blogs would be evaluating on grammar, punctuation and sentence structure.  Since it is an online tool, I would want to make sure students didn't treat it as a Facebook page or a text message.  I also might evaluate it on creativity or originality of thought to hopefully encourage students to think beyond the box when writing.  To encourage constructive commenting, I also might ask students to find at least two positive comments and one constructive criticism of other students discussion points and to be very specific about what they like and didn't agree with.  In other words "That's awesome" wouldn't be enough.


Question Two
I would definitely like to incorporate a blog in the classroom as a something creative, fun, different and easy to accomplish.  One way I could do this is to create a blog for my class where parents of students could keep tabs on what topics we are covering in class and major assignments that are due soon for their children.  I often have parents ask me to let them know when a deadline is coming or when their child has homework.  This would be a lot simpler than writing a dozen emails.  It would also give students access to assignments due dates and an idea of what they missed if they weren't in class.  Another way I could incorporate it into class would be to have individual student blogs instead of a journal.  We kept journals this last year, and this would be a fun alternative.  Also, it would give students a chance to see what their peers were writing, not just me.  I think they would enjoy reading their classmates thoughts as much as I did.