Integrating Piktochart, Smore and Tackk for Research Purposes

AP Language students are currently reading Barbara Ehrenreich's in depth study of the minimum wage called Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. The book has traditionally been one that I have enjoyed teaching, but this year it has been a real struggle. When I read this with my students last year, they were really fascinated by some of the details they learned about. For example, many of the students didn't understand how the tipping system worked. They genuinely didn't know that you had to tip because the waitress didn't earn minimum wage. They also didn't know that you had to have a full month's rent ahead of moving in to an apartment (or even more depending on circumstances). My students last year also seemed to be more in tune with Ehrenreich's point of view--that minimum wage does not enable one to move up in American society. This year students have all but revolted against the book. They don't perceive an injustice based on the class system and fundamentally disagree with each premise of the text. This would be okay, if they could counter her arguments with their own AND if they could clearly define her argument.

I have found that some students dislike her position so much, they won't even acknowledge the research. For example, Ehrenreich includes a person in her book who lived the life that she is "pretending"to live. This person (Caroline) reinforces what Ehrenreich has said throughout the entire book. I had some students who explained that Caroline's mention in the book just shows how Ehrenreich is wrong. This is troubling because it is a blatant misread AND they weren't able to articulate why Ehrenreich would include Caroline as a rhetorical strategy. They also overlooked many of Ehrenreich's footnotes, dismissing them as bias but they weren't able to explain why they were bias. I realized the discussion I used last year would probably be useless this year and that I would have to get students to analyze research, synthesizing and arguing a point.

With this goal in mind, I decided to move away from the book itself and think about what thoughts the book inspired. I had students choose an issue that Ehrenreich talks about (and there are a lot) and do some preliminary research. They read what they could find on google and wrote a brief blog about the topic they selected. Students selected a wide-range, which is a good thing. Afterwards, I instructed students to find as much research in terms of "hard" data regarding their topic and present their work on a visual medium: either Piktochart, Smore or Tackk. I have only used Piktochart in the past, but knew that students had experience working Tackk and Smore. Having options was great for students, especially since I hadn't put a lot of parameters on the task. Students conducted research and presented them in charts, videos and articles. I had a wide range of submissions, so I think next year I will add a few more parameters to push certain students who opt to take the road of least work.

Below are some steller examples:

Sample 1: Overprescription of Medication in Nursing Homes

Sample 2: Nutrition and the Workforce

Using this as a basis, students are moving towards writing a paper in which they talk about a social issues and create a podcast, discussing the issue with regards to the larger implications. Hopefully this will move students away from the idea that arguments are right/wrong and that to make a strong argument you have to recognize the complexities that may exist.

Blendspace in the Classroom

Having watched Mrs. Davala's class when she has had a technology visit has made me very interested in Blendspace. I love that her AP students could still engage in really rigorous activities while she was outside of the classroom and they could also work at their own pace. I liked that students were using various tools and were able to have reflection which could be used to measure progress, both by Mrs. Davala and the students. Knowing that I will be going out of the classroom for about 7 weeks, I wanted to learn how to adopt a tool like Blendspace so that my students could still get resources and engage with me, even while I am out.

It has been a goal of mine, then, to learn how to properly use Blendspace. During Summer Institute I tried making a Blendspace, but it seemed to be a resource hub, rather than a meaningful way to deliver instruction. With help from my husband (the Technology guru), I crafted a Blendspace for my teaching of "A Modest Proposal" for my Honors IV students. We started by mapping out the end goal of the day's lesson: an assessment. Students would have a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer. I didn't tell the students this, but all of the questions were slightly modified AP questions rhetoric and composition questions. By using this as a guide for my assessment, I knew it would be rigorous. From that point I worked on building small tasks that would get students to understand the context of Swift's "A Modest Proposal" while also engaging in the text.

Below is a breakdown of my rationale behind the construction of my blendspace

First task: Review of Satire--Students defined satire in their own words

Second Task: Tackk background of Swift and "A Modest Proposal"-- This would be new information. I debated on whether or not to tell them the content of "A Modest Proposal" because to tell them takes away some of the shock value...but I figured I really needed to stress the satirical element of the piece. I also built in 2 padlet questions that did a basic check for understanding.

Third Task: Reading "A Modest Proposal"--Students can struggle with this essay. It is an 18th century piece of British/Irish literature. Therefore, I incorporated an audio version for students to listen too. I also gave them instructions on how to annotate while listening. One thing my students are still struggling with is their vocabulary. As a result, part of their required annotations were to look at complex words. I found a quizlet with the most commonly misunderstood words of the essay and provided this as a guide.

Fourth: After reading, students were to post questions/responses to a Today's Meet. Most students posted questions. I took these questions and created a "FAQ" handout in the Blendspace that students could use to review PRIOR to taking the quiz. It was because of this activity I realized most students did NOT pick up the satirical nature of the essay...they believed that Swift was serious about eating the Irish babies.

The Final Activity was the quiz. This did require students to understand persona/writer and diction. Most students struggled with the persona question (understandable if they didn't pick up on the Satire element). As a result, I reviewed this with students the next day and gave them a writing assignment for them to create their own satirical work. I also showed them another (more modern) example of Satire. Next time, I think I will still use the Blendspace activities for "A Modest Proposal" but I may give them the writing task BEFORE our reading.

On a side note, I had every technology issue possible with this Blendspace, but the students stayed with me. We found ways to modify, but I know now to be more aware of the possibilities of what can go wrong. I am a little worried about what could go wrong if I wasn't present, but I think I can keep working to develop ways around those glitches and I am currently building a review Blendspace for my AP students to work on when they return (without me) from winter break.

Using Blogger in the Classroom

This post has been sitting in my drafts for sometime now. In October, around the time I started teaching the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I decided that I needed to incorporate a new piece of technology into my classroom. I thought that Blogger could be something really useful for my students, although I had mixed feelings about it.

As a teacher, I know it is important to have connections to professional teaching organizations. As a graduate student I was required to take one rhetoric course (looking back on it--I probably should have taken more). I was lucky that at UNC Charlotte, there is a rhetoric course for English Graduate students that is tailored for writing instruction. The class is led by the UNC Charlotte's chapter of the National Writing Project. This is a group that I am super familiar with, as 1 of my college professors and 2 of my high school teachers are now leads in the Charlotte program. My sophomore and junior years of high school English were molded by this program and I was eager to learn the pedagogy behind it so that I could better incorporate the tools in my own classroom. One of the biggest tools promoted by the National Writing project is the Daybook (not a journal or diary). The daybook is compared to the kitchen junk drawer--a place for all of your writing and ideas--no matter how good or bad. The idea is that students are building their own ideas and critical thinking skills by engaging directly with them in the daybook. The daybook is a messy place, full of random thoughts, drafts and other writings that provide inspiration. I love the daybook, and each year I keep my own where I write lesson plans, reflections on discussions, ideas that students share among other things.

Each student in my AP classes is required to have a daybook. They write in the daybook almost daily, although I realized that the daybook is coveted by them--they don't want people to look in it and when they share, students will opt to summarize their writing instead of actually sharing it. This is where I got the idea of blogger. With blogger, I could have students write in their own "digital" daybook and it would be shared with me. Students could also look at other student's writing after it was published.

When making this transition, I knew there would be some possible pitfalls. First, the daybook is a place for writing--both good and bad. I write really ridiculous things in my daybook, unconcerned about grammar structure, spelling or even if the idea fully makes sense. The idea is that the idea is there and I can revisit it and tweak it later (if it proves useful). When using blogger, the writing is public and published. That adds pressure for the the writing to be "good." I have tried to find ways around that, designating that some blog posts are purely for ideas and should be written as quickly as possible (so the ideas don't get lost). I have found that students have been receptive to this when they understand it is for a very specific purpose (like getting feedback on a potential essay topic).

As I reflect, I think next year I want to transition to a digital daybook exclusively. Students could maintain a blog for daily writing and for homework writing. I would like them to start embedding things into the blog as inspiration--something we haven't done yet. I am still trying to figure out how to integrate different types of writing, which will mean that tags may become useful. I am wondering too, if I could easily incorporate this for my 9th graders next semester? I would need to plan out the logistics of getting them to set up a blog but the more I think about it, the better it could be for my interaction with them while I'm gone.

Just thoughts here...no real purpose. I will need to revisit these ramblings :)