Using Edmodo to Enhance ELA Instruction

Creating an account on Edmodo was rather simple as was navigating the site.  For this reason alone, I think this is a great resource as a teaching tool.  Another benefit is the look and layout of the site.  Edmodo uses a format very similar to Facebook, which most students are familiar with.  In addition, parents can have access to the class site, which provides real time communication of assignments.  Students can use this site as a way of communicating questions for homework assignments, blogging with classmates or small groups, and can also provide a meaningful way to collaborate with other classes for a multi-disciplinary approach to education.  Students who need differentiation can benefit as reminders can be provided individually or via the groups.  Another benefit of the site is that students can practice appropriate online communication.  Finally, one issue we have been discussing constantly this year at our district conferences is the importance of documentation of student work when the new APPR goes into affect. Through Edmodo we can create student portfolios, track group discussions, and have immediate access to it all.   

Shared Article on Technology and Adolescence

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

By MATT RICHTEL

Published: November 21, 2010

Review:

The New York Times has a series entitled, “Your Brain on Computers.”  Columnists contribute stories highlighting the identification of negative implications on the constant use of technology.  In the article, “Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction,” Matt Richtel describes students at Woodside High School, a high school located in Silicon Valley.  This school is committed to full integration of technology in the classroom through the use of texting, I-Pads and apps, and teacher/student communication via websites which teachers build themselves.  All of these tools appear to help enhance the 21^st century learner on the surface.  However, the crux of the article is the identification of the distraction 21^st century learners are facing.  Without boundaries students are meshing their educational and personal computing experiences with negative effects.  The author notes, students don’t simply use their home computers for homework or educational purposes, they are used for entertainment and by in large are not supervised during these endeavors.  Students are trying to manage blogging for class, searching YouTube videos, collaborating on websites, and playing video games all while trying to write their English essays.  Students are having a hard time compartmentalizing their experiences and therefore their school work is suffering.  The article highlights one student in particular, Vishal Singh, who is identified as one of the smartest students at Woodside High School.  However, his grades have dropped from A’s to D’s as a result of his technology interests.  He is having a hard time managing what is required with his personal interests because he is often distracted while trying to complete homework.  

I recommend this article because it allows us as educators to reflect on the technology experiences of our students.  The focus is not on the use of technology for technology sake, but making sure students are making the most out of their experiences.  We will need to consider the pros and cons and comparisons of technology use inside and outside of the classroom.

Game Based Lesson Plan - Understanding the Games People Play

Understanding The Games People Play

Grade level: 9^th Grade

Common core standards:

Text Types and Purposes: Standard 2

Production and Distribution of Writing:  Standards 4,5 and 6

Learning Outcomes: 

Recognize the need for rules and regulations in games as well as in life.

Explore the concept of contracts and identify their importance in promoting the common good.

Identify characteristics that lend themselves to social contracts.

Identify ways to promote the common good by entering into social contracts. 

Identify attributes and benefits of the game of Scategories

Brainstorm projects that promote the common good by entering into social contracts that revolve around the playing of the game of Scategories

Deal games pieces according to game-playing etiquette.

Use mental arithmetic to count points for a round.

Practice interpersonal communication and collaboration following game rules.

Reflect on new learning from the game Scategories.

Instructional activities

Students will explore how game rules and strategies apply to life and what it means to play the game and contribute to the common good. Students will learn about concepts of contracts and make an analogy between civil society and the "game of life" which includes rules and relationships.   Small groups will create their own board game using Photoshop and Illustrator to create and design the game elements such as cards, game pieces, and the board itself.  They will also have to establish rules and a system of rewards and punishments. The overall goal is to create their version of an idealized society.

Assessment:  In small groups students will play each other’s newly developed game.  They will evaluate the games based on a provided rubric as well written feedback about the overall experience. 

Debriefing

How do games rules and strategies apply to life?  Learners explore the role games play in enhancing the common good, and can identify those characteristics.  Students need to be able to define the concepts of contract and social contract and make an analogy between civil society and games people play (includes rules, trust, and relationships). Through learning and playing the game Scrabble, students learn and practice life/social skills (problem solving, good character, interpersonal communication, collaboration, and discipline). They also learn valuable study skills of concentration and critical thinking. 

What cognitive skills and new literacies do this game help to cultivate?

New literacies addressed in this lesson are proficiency in use of technology tools, as well as critical thinking, problem solving and evaluation skills.  Throughout this lesson students are using higher order thinking in order to create a new game considering identification of a goal or problem, establishing rules in a clear and informative way to help inform the players how to navigate their game, evaluate their game’s effectiveness, and communicate their ideas in a written format. 

Gaming Literacy

Gaming Literacy

Game:  From Shockwave – Super Text Twist

1. What gaming elements provide users the learning content and how?

• Text:  In game playing, students need to be able to read text in different formats such in dialog boxes, story narratives, in conversation with other players, or in the understanding of the rules.  Students will need to identify the main themes and respond accordingly in the playing of the game for meaningful play to occur.  In Text Twist the text is found in written rules and students need to rearrange 6 letters to create words consisting of three to six letters. 
• Visual-graphic elements:  Students will need to identify and detect the visual elements in a game in order to better understand the perspectives from which they are playing or interacting with the various players, for example first person versus second person perspectives.  The graphics are rather simple in Text Twist, just a series of boxes to help the viewer identify where to shift the letter tiles to and from to create the words.  In addition a time clock is running which adds to the level of excitement in trying to achieve as many new words as possible. 
• Audio elements:  The audio elements add another layer of information in the gaming experience whether it is through realistic depictions of a scene which will help inform the viewer about the settings or through chatting capabilities that provide an interactive component to the gaming experience.  The audio elements are what I consider a duck like sound to indicate when a word has been successfully created.  

2. What is the goal of the game?

The goal of Text Twist is to rearrange six letters to make as many words as possible in a two-minute period of time.  If you successfully complete each round (make the six letter word) you move onto another round to accumulate points. 

3. What are rules of playing this game?

You can only make words found in a dictionary.

There is a two-minute time limit during each round.

Newly created words have to be between three and six letters long.

You have to drag the tiles into the appropriate boxes in order to indicate that you are creating a new word and have to click submit.

Points accumulate through rounds by the number of words you create as well as the number of letters used.

4. Does this game have any scenario design? (Refer to the journal article page 5.) If yes, is this a fabricated or embedded in curriculum-related content?

This game has no embedded scenario design.  It is similar to other puzzle games like Tetris where strategy and reasoning help to achieve the intended goal.  For example, automatically making a six-letter word will grant you access to the next round and you don’t have to make any of the smaller words. 

Hands on Helping ELA Teachers

Tool:  Graphic Organizer – Inspiration

Grade level: 10^th Grade

Topic: Persuasive Writing and Organization of Research

Standards addressed:

1 : Language for Information and Understanding

3 : Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

ISTE:

Communication and Collaboration

Research and Information Fluency

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

Learning outcomes:

Students will use Inspiration to organize research for a persuasive essay.

Students will compare and contrast information.

Students will visually present information.

Students will be able to identify 3 reputable websites to use for research.

Students will write a persuasive essay on a controversial topic.

Students will upload graphic organizers to class blog as a class resource. 

Technologies needed (equipment or software or internet connection):

Laptop computers or access to a computer lab with Internet connection

Microsoft Word

Inspiration

Smart Board or Projection screen for presentations

Timeline for implementation (how many classes needed): 6, 42 minute classes

How can it be integrated and implemented in the lessons:

Students will use Inspiration to organize and present research for a persuasive essay.  Students will use visuals to link to the websites used for research.  Students can access Inspiration at home as well as in the classroom to complete assignments.  Students would need to download a free trial version on their home computers to do so. 

Assessment (on writing skills and technology skills):

Students will present their graphic organizers to the class. 

Students will write a follow-up reflection on the research they completed.

Students will peer critique the presentations.   

Student’s graphic organizers and essays will be graded with rubrics. 

Video Response

1. Which ideas from the video reflect what the ELA teachers you interviewed are currently doing to integrate technology with their literacy instruction?

The ELA teachers I have interviewed utilize the Internet for research and cover the evaluation of sources for factual information gathering.  In addition, the teachers use software such as PowerPoint for students to present findings or research to the group.  They have not made the leap of utilizing other multimedia presentation systems such as movie makers.  The majority of information sharing is done in a traditional format utilizing whatever technology is available through Smart Boards or projectors.  Real time communication using technology is not something that is being utilized.  Access to technology for an entire class is limited and needs to be planned in advance.  Spontaneous student usage is not utilized at all.

2.  How can you help change their instructional practices to include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area curriculum?

I could help introduce ways of streamlining the communication process between students, teachers and parents through blogging or social bookmarking sites to promote ongoing communication through technology platforms for things like homework, assignments, notifications, and resources used in the classroom. 

3.  What professional development and/or resources will they need in order to make these changes?

In terms of professional development, it seems to me that teachers have a willingness to incorporate new technologies in the classroom, but are not receiving content specific resources.  When a teacher is already hesitant about their mastery of a technology tool, presenting a more clearly defined way of using the resource, I believe will have greater impact on the potential for it to be used.  Teachers will also need training, time for collaboration with other teachers, support from administration for funding if necessary, and adequate access to technology are all critical to making the changes needed to implement technology effectively. 

4.  What ideas do you have for grouping students so they will have equal access to technology in the classroom?

If a 1:1 ratio cannot be met for technology usage, then working in small groups could be beneficial if the projects/assignments encourage technology usage to be shared amongst all members.  Additionally, homework can be assigned to encourage student technology usage outside of the classroom.  If students don’t have access at home after school arrangements can be made to use a computer lab.   

Summary of Articles

As digital and media technologies continue to advance at a rapid rate, students will need to be prepared to change with these demands.  The critical role of the teacher is not to simply encourage technology usage, but to establish an educational environment that changes and is flexible, just like the technology that is now a part of the human experience, not an extension of it.  New literacies will change just as quickly as the technology does.  Preparing students to evolve with the changing environments is crucial.  New literacy experiences include how to evaluate and locate information on the Internet, how to evaluate sources, how to appropriately communicate through e-mail, text, and real time chat platforms.  Teachers need to utilize resources in order to adequately shift the way in which literacy is approached in classrooms.  Administration, funding, teacher flexibility, scheduling, and continuing education are all critical to ensuring proper implementation of new literacy practices.  As the technology divide decreases and more individuals use technology as a form of communication, the definition of literacy needs to shift to meet those demands and therefore we must address this through shifting goals of how literacy is approached in the classroom. 

Technology Tools

Reading

ReadingPen2 - Portable scanning translator to improve reading fluency and comprehension.          

http://www.wizcomtech.com/eng/catalog/a/readingpen2/

Writing

Inspiration/Kidspiration – Graphic organizers

http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration

Speaking

VoiceThread - VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways: using voice with a microphone or telephone, text, audio file, or video.

http://voicethread.com/

Listening

Podcasting - using a computer to create digital audio for speaking and listening tasks for students

http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/tech-tools-for-teachers/podcasting/

Language

Visuwords – an online graphic dictionary, which shows users the definitions of words and the connections between words.

http://www.visuwords.com/

Interview with an ELA teacher

I interviewed an 8^th grade ELA teacher.  She is very frustrated with the technology platforms provided by the school meant to help and assist instruction.  Her feeling is that these programs prohibit/limit effective use of classroom time and often provide students with poor feedback.  The school subscribes to a web based writing assessment program called MYAcess.  Its selling point is that it provides students and teachers with real time feedback on their writing.  Students receive scores on their writing based on the ELA standards, which include focus, meanings, organization, content, mechanics, and language use.  Some of the issues mentioned by the teacher using the program was that access to the site for the first month and half of school was so poor that days of instructional time were lost in the computer lab due to various reasons which included compatibility/upgrades that were not made.  In addition, throughout the year after these initial kinks were worked out, students were finding ways to “out smart” the system and found that if they copied their essays twice, one right after the other, the computer give them a higher score then what they deserved on the original essay.  I could easily see the frustration on this teacher’s face.  She was trying to implement a system that was mandated by the school to use, however the assessment data was so often flawed that she couldn’t use the site as a reliable source of data. 

Reflections of Understandings of ELA Instruction

There are five main components to the standards for ELA Instruction.  These standards include, reading, writing, speaking, listening and language.  There are two categories of teachers who are responsible for implementing these standards, ELA teachers, as well as other content area teachers, which include social studies/history, science and technical subjects.  In addition to the five specific ELA standards, two other standards, Common Core and NCTE/IRA also provide a framework for how ELA should be taught in terms of scope and sequence, performance, strategies, and technology integration.  These include, but are not limited to a focus on the results rather than the means of ELA standards, preparing students who are college and career ready, establishing an integrated model of literacy, the inclusion of research and media as a component driven through all models of instruction, shared responsibility to address ELA standards amongst school faculty, a focus on instruction and assessment, and the implementation of accommodations for students who require them when necessary either through assistive devices, time extensions, and other technological resources.  Theses standards do not dictate the way in which a teacher covers the material and curriculum, it is a guide for what should be covered over a period of time with a strong emphasis on what should be achieved within the given time period to ensure students are career and college ready.