Learning is Change
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

09.08.06

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Cores 1-4:

  1. Introduce the process of commenting. (Model using Commenting Like a King or Queen.)
  2. Introduce Bloglines (optional account to set up using How-To)
  3. Go to the library and read and comment on your own core class first using the grazr navigator.
    • Guiding questions:
      • How/Why do you think this post is important?
      • How/Why do you think this post is entertaining?
      • How/Why do you think this post is authentic?
      • How/Why do you think this post is unique?
      • How/Why do you think this post is honest/true?
      • How/Why do you think this post is revealing (of the author, of the reader, of the character of life)?
      • How/Why do you think this post is connection maker?
      • How do you think this post can be expanded, changed, and made better?
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

09.07.06

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ELT:

  1. Write-Ons:
    • Why do you think that people act differently online then they do in real life?
    • How can we create a safe environment for everyone on our blogs?
    • What are the inherent risks of posting to a blog once a week?
  2. Explore the Discovery Blogging Rules websites looking for the following:
    • Creating a blogging environment without fear (of insult, of reprisal, of dishonesty).
    • Creating a scholastic blogging environment.
    • Creating a blogging environment based upon protection (of personal information, of identity, of unique thoughts).
    • Creating a creative, non-restrictive, tolerant, and sensitive blogging environment.
  3. Write down aprox. 5 Blogging rules in your category that you think should be a part of the Discovery Blogging Rules.

Core 1+3:

  1. Write-On: If you were to split your personality into two equal sides, what aspects of yourself would be on each side.
  2. Read “The Dichotomous Middle Schooler Part I”
    • Discuss which dichotomies are the hardest to deal with.
    • Find strategies for living with our own dichotomies of grades and parental pressure.
  3. Student presentations of more “Good Parts.”

Core 2:

  1. Discuss-On: With 2-3 other people, discuss your answers to “How can you change/question tradition when everyone else seems to buy into it?”
  2. Go over front side of “The Lottery” Handout.
  3. Discussion Questions:
    • What are the reasons for continuing such a heinous tradition?
    • Why are people reluctant to change? (Why was Old Man Warner so reluctant?)
    • What insight can this story give us into our own societal traditions?
  4. Student presentations of more “Good Parts.”

Core 4:

  1. Reflect-On: How did writing within Robert Frost’s style inform your understanding of his original poem (the theme, the idea of dichotomous change, the rhythm, etc.)?
  2. Share with at least 2 other students your rendition of a dichotomous change poem.
  3. Share with the class the most imitative piece you heard and/or the most unique.
  4. Discussion Questions:
    • How does reading and understanding this poem affect the way that we should think and act in this class?
  5. Student presentations of more “Good Parts.”
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

09.06.06

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ELT:

  1. Write-Ons:
    • Why do you think that people act differently online then they do in real life?
    • How can we create a safe environment for everyone on our blogs?
    • What are the inherent risks of posting to a blog once a week?
  2. Explore the Discovery Blogging Rules websites looking for the following:
    • Creating a blogging environment without fear (of insult, of reprisal, of dishonesty).
    • Creating a scholastic blogging environment.
    • Creating a blogging environment based upon protection (of personal information, of identity, of unique thoughts).
    • Creating a creative, non-restrictive, tolerant, and sensitive blogging environment.
  3. Write down aprox. 5 Blogging rules in your category that you think should be a part of the Discovery Blogging Rules.

Core 1+3:

  1. Write-On: What do grades mean to you?
  2. Take a look at your writing assessments:
    • Grade according to the six-trait rubric in your planner.
    • Compare your six-trait grades with mine.
    • Writing Question: If there is a difference, why do you think that we assessed the same paper differently?
    • Take one of the traits that we both think could be an area for improvement (Lower than your other scores or 3.5 and below). Writing Question: Why did you struggle (at least comparatively) with that particular aspect of writing for this piece?
    • How do you believe you will approach your writing differently

Core 2:

  1. Write-On: Every tradition presents a dichotomous choice: to change or not to change. Which traditions are beneficial and should stay the same, and which are detrimental and should be changed.
  2. Read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
    • Answer questions on theme and change (from handout).
    • Discuss the nature of this tradition, change, and dichotomous choice.
  3. On the back of the handout, answer the following question:
    • How can you change/question tradition when everyone else seems to buy into it?

Core 4:

  1. Write-On: What is the most difficult dichotomous choice (only two options) you have had to make in your life?
  2. Read The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
    • Answer questions on theme and change (from handout).
    • Discuss poetry analysis, dichotomous choice, and change.
  3. On the back of the handout, write a parallel poem about a major dichotomous change in your life.
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

09.05.06

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ELT:

  1. Write-Ons:
    • Why do you think that people act differently online then they do in real life?
    • How can we create a safe environment for everyone on our blogs?
    • What are the inherent risks of posting to a blog once a week?
  2. Explore the Discovery Blogging Rules websites looking for the following:
    • Creating a blogging environment without fear (of insult, of reprisal, of dishonesty).
    • Creating a scholastic blogging environment.
    • Creating a blogging environment based upon protection (of personal information, of identity, of unique thoughts).
    • Creating a creative, non-restrictive, tolerant, and sensitive blogging environment.
  3. Write down aprox. 5 Blogging rules in your category that you think should be a part of the Discovery Blogging Rules.

Cores 1-4:

  1. Ask for “Good Parts” from 5 students.
  2. Show the first fruits of The Weekly Authentic.
  3. Work on your own Weekly Authentic (adding pictures too) or work on book/web review.
Uncategorized

The Ning Interview

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Early last week I was asked by Yoz Grahame (a lead developer of Ning.com) to answer a few questions about how I was using web 2.0 tools (and specifically Ning) in my classroom to be used in a post for the Ning Blog. I was quite surprised and a little flattered that people are actually noticing what is going on in my own little digital bubble.

When he sent me the questions, however, I was impressed with the depth that they were calling for. So, I took on them as a challenge and answered them as completely and with as much cogitation as possible. The two questions that struck me the most (and produced a clear sense of focus for the year’s worth of teaching with technology) were about new tools that I want to use this year and new tools that I wish would be created this year. Because I found these two questions to be most illuminating for my own practice, I would like to challenge the greater Edusphere to answer them and share out all of the tools that they want to use and wish were available.

  • Are there new tools that you’re looking forward to using with students?

I’m looking forward to setting up wikis with my kids. I am also looking at geocaching as a way of exploring more authentic nature writing. More specifically I am excited about using the following websites to encourage content creation and a love of reading and writing:
1. Writely – For collaboration on writing dramas or stories.
2. Glypho – For collaboration on storytelling.
3. Quickmuse – To make poetry writing more transparent.
4. Trackslife – To track writing progress.
5. Standpoint – To create belief statements about reading, writing, and life.
6. Vaestro – To create an audio forum to talk about blog posts.
There are some others, but these are the ones I am looking forward to most.

  • How about tools that don’t exist yet, but should? Do you have any particular designs or wishes there?

1. I really would like rss to be more versatile. I would like to see any webpage that I want within an RSS reader and only see what has been changed since the last time I looked.
2. I would like my students to be able to create content in a fully functional word processor/video-editor/image-editor/webpage-editor and be able to post to any service that they wanted without having to log-in to their individual pages.
3. I would like blogs and wikis to become more like one another. (Blogs should be more editable, wikis should allow for more community.)
4. I want a way of controlling what all of my students see on their computer screens without having to buy remote desktop software. (In other words, I would like to have a live (and hopefully free) screencasting tool.)
5. I want podcasting software that uses voice recognition to create transcripts of each podcast to be read while you read.
6. I want a tool to discuss literature side-by-side with a digital copy of the book.
7. I want to be able to tag, put a sticky note on, or comment on/rate anything (pictures, videos, websites, blog posts) and have anyone with a browser be able to see these things without having to download anything or sign up with any service.

Yoz e-mailed me back about some of the items on my wishlist. He gave me a few resources (VNC, Coner.ning, and Castingwords), but none were really what I was looking for. If anyone who reads this knows about anything that would fill one of my wishes, please leave me a comment. More than that, however, I would love to see what you wish for in the coming year of creating classroom 2.0.

Uncategorized

What a man is…

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A former male 8th grade student of mine has been e-mailing me consistently ever since he figured out that I really love to read my students writing. He has been sending me a few stories a month for about six months now. I read these really crazy pieces and say that I want more, always more, and he obliges. However, last week he e-mailed me a little writing assignment for me to complete. It was to write down my definition of man. You see, he had to interview an adult male about the “nature of men” and then write a response to whatever he got. I’m assuming he chose me because he knows that I can’t resist talking about gender roles and equity (a theme that we spent quite a bit of time on in our study of 19th century literature). So, I thought that I would share what I came up with and see if anyone else would like to take on this very interesting challenge from his English teacher at his (private) high school.

A man is fully understands his biases, abilities and shortcomings. A Man thinks. A man never uses his strength to make others feel weak. A man knows that there are differences between himself and a women, but sees them only as the completion of everything he can’t do. A man can see the truth in everything. A man is confident enough in his masculinity to not have to prove it every chance he gets. A man is tolerant. A man works hard and knows how to play with every thing he “has to do.” A man gets what makes him unique. A man is always trying to make himself better. A man is the manifestation of hope. A man is honest about personal needs and emotions. A man, from time to time, wears a devilish grin. A man is aware, both socially and personally. A man cares about what is important.

This is what he wrote in response for his English class:

As always Mr. Wilkoff gives an answer that makes me feel stupid in comparison, I really liked his. I think I agree with just about everything on his answer. I did note that he did not say a man has to have a penis or testicles, which maybe was just implied. I do think that most things stated could be done by a woman, but maybe that shows that men and women aren’t so different. Men and women obviously aren’t the same but we have our similarities. Really the question is really hard since it is so vague and everyone really has different and correct opinions. By definition all it takes to be a man is to have the biology of a man, but just looking back at our day shows us that men act different then women and it’s probably not a coincidence. Maybe it is just nurture over nature and we act like men because we were taught to, but it would take a hell of a experiment to prove that right. And lawsuits would come through your ears for trying to do a social experiment on a kid and give him make-up and purses.

I really like the fact that this teacher has now turned writing into a conversation. It strikes me as incredibly authentic and fun. I hope to do something like this when I come to my Study of Race and Gender.

Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

09.01.06

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Cores 1-3:

  1. Introduce the blog safety resources that we will be using to create our own Discovery Blogging Rules.
  2. Go over a few of the minor points of Posting to your blog with pictures.
  3. Explore the Weekly Authentic ideas and begin writing your first one.
    • If you haven’t set up your LearnerBlog yet, I will help you one by one to do that. Please come to see me at my computer.

Core 4:

  1. Model The Good Parts.
  2. Introduce the blog safety resources that we will be using to create our own Discovery Blogging Rules.
  3. Go over a few of the minor points of Posting to your blog with pictures.
  4. Explore the Weekly Authentic ideas and begin writing your first one.
    • If you haven’t set up your LearnerBlog yet, I will help you one by one to do that. Please come to see me at my computer.
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

08.31.06

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Cores 1-4:

  1. Introduce the ELT reading strategies assessments (not shown here because we use them from year to year) and talk about the importance of extending advanced students and engaging struggling students in the “action” of reading. (Show CSAP Reading Growth 05-06).
  2. Introduce and model “The Good Parts” as a way of continuing to create a community of readers and writers in the classroom.
  3. Homework: Find a “Good Part” to share for next week.
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

08.30.06

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Core 1-2:

  1. Share-On: Share your Authentic prompts with 2-3 others and select the best one or two to be included in the online resource for student generated authentic prompts.
  2. Discuss the great prompts as a class.
  3. With a partner and a laptop, sign-up for your learner blogs using my demonstration and this how-to.
  4. Explore your blogs and watch 2 videos on using WordPress blogs.
  5. Homework: Change your LearnerBlog password.

Core 3-4:

  1. With a partner and a laptop, sign-up for your learner blogs using my demonstration and this how-to.
  2. Explore your blogs and watch 2 videos on using WordPress blogs.
  3. Homework: Change your LearnerBlog password.
Lesson Plans, Uncategorized

08.29.06

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Cores 1-4:

I was at a G/T Langauge Arts meeting for most of the day, so here are my sub plans.

Core 3:

  1. Discuss any great reading that happened in the library today.
  2. Share your Authentic prompts with 2-3 others and select the best one or two to be included in the online resource for student generated authentic prompts.

Core 4:

  1. Discuss any great reading that happened in the library today.
  2. Show my first Weekly Authentic taken from one of Core 4’s thought heavy initial responses to “the worst prompt of all time.”
  3. Share your Authentic prompts with 2-3 others and select the best one or two to be included in the online resource for student generated authentic prompts.