Episode 6 - Grouping Students, (Not) Leveling Readers

Today's podcast contains some thoughts I've been tossing around regarding grouping students for reading and responding to Romeo & Juliet.  As I mention, I've got a longer post on how I'm teaching the play this year.

It's a Bud the Teacher style recording, done on my ride into work.  You can hear the mighty roar of my 4-cylinder Corolla in the background.  I'll have to play around with microphone placement for next time.

Also, I think I mentioned in the podcast that it's been two years since my last podcast.  This is incorrect.  It's actually been five years.  And what I thought was episode seven is actually episode 6.

Welcome February 2012 EdCampPDX Participants

Here are some links we can reference in our discussion - please leave more in the comments, at the edcampPDX wiki, or on Twitter @bleckley.

The books I used for my "What is Love?" unit:
How I Live Now
Son of the Mob
Upstate
My Heartbeat
Hard Love
Romiette & Julio
Street Love

Why?
Common Core Anchor Standards for Literacy in History, Science, and Technical Subjects

Where to Find the Books
Tagmash on LibraryThing.com
NoveList database at multcolib.org

For Example:
A science unit on genetics
A social studies unit on the Great Depression

Fostering Meaningful Discussions
"November"

The Brain Dance

At the beginning of this year I attended a new teachers academy, as I was a new teacher in Beaverton School District.  As expected, some information was a review, and some was valuable new ideas.

One of those ideas was the Brain Dance.  This was developed by Ginger Habel, a mentor-teacher in Beaverton, for her Master's thesis.  When students find out or enter the classroom to take a quiz or test, they are in a fight or flight mode, with most of the blood in their brain stem.  This does not serve them in an academic environment as all the information and analytic prowess is centered in the now oxygen-starved cerebrum.


The purpose of the Brain Dance is to move blood from the brain stem to the cerebrum by getting them active and making them laugh.  Which, as you can tell from the video of me leading the Brain Dance before a quiz earlier this week, is well accomplished by the dance routine.


I forgot some of the original moves when I first taught them the Brain Dance, and they have stuck.  But here's the original list Ginger Habel was kind enough to send me:


After the Sunrise: 3 big yoga breaths.  Start arms low and breath in while arms reach for the sky
Chariots of Fire:  Slow mo run
Staying Alive: Disco move- point left cross body (2) point right cross body (2) both arms (2-3)
YMCA: You know this one!
Hand Jive: Hit legs twice, clap twice, shuffle twice, pound it twice then point right then left
Billie Jean:  Moon walk
Thriller: Scary hands (right, left right) then walk, scary hands again, walk back finish with scary hands
Chicken Dance: You know this one
Ice Ice Baby: This is the running man or run backwards (The Jerk- some kids call it)
Mony Mony: Ride the pony!  Lasso in air, reins in hands and gallop around in a circle
Jump Around: Just jump up and down
The Rose: Butterfly hands up left, Butterfly hands up right, then swirl from high to low and end with right arm reaching toward sky (like it's growing!)
What is Love: Head bobs- 4 to the right, 4 to the left then repeat both sets
Cotton-Eyed Joe: Cowboy kick right and left or a variation of jumping around
Hey Ya: Shopping cart, Lawn mower start, Sprinkler then end with Yoga breaths as music fades.


And I will link to the CD track in this post next week - the CD lives next to my school CD player right now.

Update: 12/21/2011 - Sorry this took so long, y'all.  Here's the CD track.  I'm not sure how much bandwidth I have, so if you have trouble downloading it, come back and try again the next day.

December 5 Hike

I often find when I need to work out what I'm going to teach in the next week¹, a hike in Portland's Forest Park typically puts some grease on the cogs and get my wheels turning.

Today's is going to be a doosey.  I just posted the paper I wrote this week on teaching reading from a constructivist method for my Theory of Instruction class at PSU.  I'm a pretty sick² individual to post a graduate paper on my blog, but you are sicker if you take the time to read it.  Basically, here's the problem: at secondary schools, students are often forced into a one-size-fits-all remedial reading class if they don't meet benchmark.  They lose an elective and are not happy about it.  They take their anger out on the class and teacher by totally blowing both off.  The teacher notices they have little control of the classroom and plan their lessons around a direct instruction model because it gives them more control over the class.

Constructivist lessons would be more fun for teacher and student and might do a better job of teaching the skills. Constructivist lessons increase motivation, but require a certain critical mass of motivation to get off the ground; otherwise, students take the time to "socially create meaning" about the top ten list on Z100 rather than the reading strategies the teacher is asking them to practice.

How do I get my students to that critical mass?

On top of that, I have a colleague who gets her students to work by making their lives uncomfortable and unpleasant if they deviate from the assigned activity.  I used to be of the same mind until an administrator asked me to only punish students who disrupted class; student who choose not to learn have that right.  But my colleagues students all have "As" and know their reading strategies.  My students are receiving zeros.

Is my job to make them do the work³?  In the long run, what will be the greater benefit to the student?

1. Read "day."  [Go back.]
2. I mean sick in the conventional rather than the contemporary meaning.  [Go back.]
3. Can I really make them do anything?  It would seem my colleague does by making the alternative less desirable.  [Go back.]

Welcome OCTE Conference Colleagues . . .

. . . and future edubloggers!

Here are a few of the links I spoke about briefly:
Dan's Concept Checklist
How Dan Assesses

My Reading Skills Sheet

I also referenced a couple posts about why I blog and an example post for when I had a question rather than a great idea to share.  Feel free to read these if it is helpful.

Below are links from the handout. Feel free to continue the conversation we started today in the comments, and please let me know when you start blogging - I want to steal your ideas!

Great Edubloggers to Follow

Kylene Beers, Language Arts
Dina, Language Arts
Dana Huff, Language Arts
Bud Hunt, Language Arts / Technology
Clay Burell, General Education
Dan Meyer, Math
Kate Novak, Math
Karl Fisch, Math / General Education / Technology

An added bonus for blog visitors: to the left of this post you can find my aggregator and recent posts I've read and enjoyed.

Put Together a Reading List

Step 1. Choose a reader.

Google Reader is a popular web based reader that also has some social functions built in.

FeedReader I haven't used; I actually just found it with a Google search. You download it to the computer, connect to the internet, download your feeds and then can read offline.

Firefox, the web browser, also has a feed reader built in if you're not ready to dive into a separate account or program.

Step 2. Find a blog.

Some good ones are up top. You can also go to those blogs and see who they follow (look for a sidebar titled “Aggregator” or “Who I Read”).

Step 3. Find the rss feed.

Usually marked by an orange icon that looks like the one at the top left hand corner of this page labeled "Posts."
Right click on this icon and select “Copy link address.”
Paste this into your feed reader.

RSS feeds can be a pain sometimes. With many feed readers, if you can't find the rss feed, you can just enter the blog address. If you're using Google Reader, you can also look for an "Add to Google" button.

Step 4. Read regularly and repeat.

You don't have to read everything a blogger posts. You won't be able to once you build up your reading list. Just browse for the titles and authors that catch your attention.

Starting Your Own Blog

Step 1. Choose a blogging service.

Blogger is a completely free blogging service also run by Google.

Edublogs has a free account option, or you can pay for more features.

Word Press is a free blogging platform, but you have to find hosting for it. This offers more features, but the average individual will have to pay for a web hosting service.

Live Journal hosts your blog but puts ads on your site.


Step 2. Sign-up for a blog.


Step 3. Write your first post. You could just polish up the one you wrote today.


Step 4. Post a comment about it here so others from the conference can read your posts.