Kelly Wheaton, literacy coach at Valley View, found a great website the contains links to a number of literacy strategies. Many of the strategies collected there are the same strategies that people have learned from NUA.
Click on the Adolescent Literacy website to check out their descriptions of a number of strategies.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Vocabulary Trifold and Essay Adaptation
At the last NUA site visit, Cohort 5 members learned the vocabulary tri-fold strategy. Here are the strategy steps:
The English 10 teachers at that NUA site visit liked the kinesthetic appeal of the vocabulary tri-fold strategy and wanted to try it with essay instruction, so we adapted the panels to reflect the parts of an essay. As synthesis after instruction on each part of the essay, students wrote a few key ideas about that topic on the appropriate panel of their essay tri-fold.
Here's how we adapted the panels for a literary analysis essay on The Odyssey:
The students ended essay week with a visual that we called "essay in your pocket."
One student emailed his English 10 teacher, Rachel Tholen, and had this to say about the tri-fold, pocket essay.
- Teachers create a list of words from the text that are somewhat familiar to the students but that need some elaboration for full mastery.
- Students select a vocabulary word from the list of words provided by the teacher.
- Students take a piece of paper and fold it hot dog (i.e. landscape) style. Then they fold the paper in thirds to create a brochure/booklet.
- On the front page of the booklet, the student writes the vocabulary word. (panel 1)
- Opening the booklet, the student writes a sentence defining the word on the left-most panel. (panel 2) If students need to look up their words in the dictionary, they cannot simply copy the dictionary definition here. Students need to make their own personal meaning and their own sentence.
- In the middle inside panel (panel 3), students draw a visual of the word and write a first person sentence using the word. This first person sentence makes the word culturally relevant to the student.
- On the right-most panel (panel 4) students write down as many forms of the word as they can to demonstrate their knowledge of morphology.
- On the two panels that would appear on the back of the brochure when opened up, students write synonyms on one panel (panel 5) and antonyms on the other panel (panel 6).
- Once students have finished their vocabulary tri-folds, they move around the room until the music stops. Then they pick a partner, and the partners take turns teaching each other the word.
- The teacher allows for several rounds of mixing it up during the music and teaching vocabulary words when the music stops.
The English 10 teachers at that NUA site visit liked the kinesthetic appeal of the vocabulary tri-fold strategy and wanted to try it with essay instruction, so we adapted the panels to reflect the parts of an essay. As synthesis after instruction on each part of the essay, students wrote a few key ideas about that topic on the appropriate panel of their essay tri-fold.
Here's how we adapted the panels for a literary analysis essay on The Odyssey:
- Essay topic and title
- Introduction with attention-getter and The Odyssey by Homer (so they remembered to include that)
- Thesis statement
- Body Paragraph structure including transition, topic sentence, 2 PIEs (point, illustration, explanation), and recap sentence.
- Conclusion with circling back to attention-getter and a reason for the reader to care about the topic.
- Modern Language Association (MLA) essay formatting, works cited, and in-text citation information.
The students ended essay week with a visual that we called "essay in your pocket."
One student emailed his English 10 teacher, Rachel Tholen, and had this to say about the tri-fold, pocket essay.
"I really like the way you're approaching this paper. I found the little "5 Paragraph Essay" booklet helpful, and also just the sort of "I'll hold your hand" approach, because myself, along with many other of my classmates are... well basically clueless when it comes to essay formatting. Okay, not clueless, just not very well educated. So, to sum things up, thanks."
Monday, November 10, 2008
Multi-flow Map for Character Change
Kristin Benson's student teacher Sean did a great culminating activity for The Crucible using the multi-flow map to uncover the central conflict for each of the main characters in the play. He assigned groups to focus on one main character like Abigail, John Proctor, Rev. Hale, Rev. Parris. Then kids were asked to find a quote from the beginning of the text as a cause, a quote from the end of the play as an effect and to write a paragraph of explanation summarizing their understanding of each quote. Then as the last step, kids filled in the central conflict for their character. He phrased it like this on his model map, “What causes your character to go from this person at the beginning to this person at the end?” The end products really yielded some higher level thinking.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A to Z Taxonomy
A number of English teachers have recently had great success with using an A to Z taxonomy to help students uncover the themes and symbols in a novel.
With Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver in English 10 the students went through the steps of creating a personal taxonomy, sharing ideas in a small group, reporting to the full class, and then composing with key words to get a start on their literary analysis essay.
To report a word for the taxonomy to the class, students used an oral speaking frame that stated: "I have a/an ____ to contribute to the "Search for Self Taxonomy" and it is _________ because Kingsolver believes ______________ about finding yourself, and this word represents _____________________."
The depth of the student reports when adding to the taxonomy were deeper than I have ever seen with the taxonomy, and many of the words that students shared were symbolic. In fact, the taxonomy finally allowed students to see symbols that they had been struggling understanding prior to the taxonomy.
The amazement with the taxonomy's success was reiterated by English 10 teacher Rachel Tholen, who reported: "The kids are creating their taxonomies. It’s amazing. It’s the best thing we’ve done with this book so far. I’m a total convert to the taxonomy."
Rachel emailed again after another successful class period, stating: "I know I’m a broken record on the taxonomy, but my sophs are finishing up our discussion on the search for self taxonomy today, and I can’t believe how well it works. It may be the perfect way to teach symbol. My second hour had some thoughtful things to say about the afghan, and how it represents comfort and safety for Codi, but also how it's woven together by Uda, and how the older women in the community weave together the relationships, past, and history of the town and the people in it."
Kristin Benson also reported that the taxonomy worked well to discuss the rebel theme in Catcher in the Rye.
With Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver in English 10 the students went through the steps of creating a personal taxonomy, sharing ideas in a small group, reporting to the full class, and then composing with key words to get a start on their literary analysis essay.
To report a word for the taxonomy to the class, students used an oral speaking frame that stated: "I have a/an ____ to contribute to the "Search for Self Taxonomy" and it is _________ because Kingsolver believes ______________ about finding yourself, and this word represents _____________________."
The depth of the student reports when adding to the taxonomy were deeper than I have ever seen with the taxonomy, and many of the words that students shared were symbolic. In fact, the taxonomy finally allowed students to see symbols that they had been struggling understanding prior to the taxonomy.
The amazement with the taxonomy's success was reiterated by English 10 teacher Rachel Tholen, who reported: "The kids are creating their taxonomies. It’s amazing. It’s the best thing we’ve done with this book so far. I’m a total convert to the taxonomy."
Rachel emailed again after another successful class period, stating: "I know I’m a broken record on the taxonomy, but my sophs are finishing up our discussion on the search for self taxonomy today, and I can’t believe how well it works. It may be the perfect way to teach symbol. My second hour had some thoughtful things to say about the afghan, and how it represents comfort and safety for Codi, but also how it's woven together by Uda, and how the older women in the community weave together the relationships, past, and history of the town and the people in it."
Kristin Benson also reported that the taxonomy worked well to discuss the rebel theme in Catcher in the Rye.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Who What When Where and How
The Who What When Where and How strategy engages students by tapping into youth culture and Hip Hop. Basically, students write a four-beat song to demonstrate their thinking on a particular topic.
Chorus: (all students sing)
Who, What, When, Where and How
Who, What, When, Where and How
Verse: (individuals or groups of students sing--see sample below)
In World Literature I employed this strategy to make their setting brace map come to life. Student groups were assigned a setting in The Handmaid’s Tale. They dissected the setting description to come up with people (cast), props (objects) and infrastructure (scenery). Those were the main brace map parts, and students dissected those main parts into the sub-parts of concrete nouns that would appear in those areas of the brace map if they were directing a play of the book.
From the brace map students easily wrote the Who What When Where and How song. Here’s an example of a verse hanging on my student Hall of Fame from The Handmaid’s Tale for Offred’s bedroom.
WHO: Offred Alone
WHAT: She lives simply
WHEN: Most of the time
WHERE: A Tiny Room
HOW: Forced to Remain
Each line has four beats. I lined up a singing volunteer from each group in front of the room so that the students could sing the story. The entire class sang the chorus between each verse. The chorus is just Who, what, when, where and how repeated twice. The entire class also did a call and response, calling out who, and letting the appropriate singer answer.
This day was met with mixed reviews from "one of the best classes ever" to "I am not going to sing."
Chorus: (all students sing)
Who, What, When, Where and How
Who, What, When, Where and How
Verse: (individuals or groups of students sing--see sample below)
In World Literature I employed this strategy to make their setting brace map come to life. Student groups were assigned a setting in The Handmaid’s Tale. They dissected the setting description to come up with people (cast), props (objects) and infrastructure (scenery). Those were the main brace map parts, and students dissected those main parts into the sub-parts of concrete nouns that would appear in those areas of the brace map if they were directing a play of the book.
From the brace map students easily wrote the Who What When Where and How song. Here’s an example of a verse hanging on my student Hall of Fame from The Handmaid’s Tale for Offred’s bedroom.
WHO: Offred Alone
WHAT: She lives simply
WHEN: Most of the time
WHERE: A Tiny Room
HOW: Forced to Remain
Each line has four beats. I lined up a singing volunteer from each group in front of the room so that the students could sing the story. The entire class sang the chorus between each verse. The chorus is just Who, what, when, where and how repeated twice. The entire class also did a call and response, calling out who, and letting the appropriate singer answer.
This day was met with mixed reviews from "one of the best classes ever" to "I am not going to sing."
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Organizing Writing
Sarah Burgess submitted the following information about recent NUA strategies in her classroom.
My English 10 students are working on analytical essays based on their reading of Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies. I differentiated the pre-writing process per my LINKS assignment this past month. After writing question papers and crafting thesis statements (that were differentiated per their ability levels), students were invited to select the type of outline they would most like to use. The choices included: a traditional written outline, an NUA thinking map (brace map), and a drawing for understanding outline (based on Linda Rief’s work).
Many students chose the brace map and completed their rough outlines of body paragraphs on large 11x17 sheets of paper. I was really pleased because those outlines are the easiest to share, and I was able to walk around with the thinking map outlines as models for other students.
Many students chose the brace map and completed their rough outlines of body paragraphs on large 11x17 sheets of paper. I was really pleased because those outlines are the easiest to share, and I was able to walk around with the thinking map outlines as models for other students.
In addition, I found that some students were using thinking maps as a brainstorming device before even beginning their outlines. Some were using bubble maps when trying to determine how they would characterize a particular sister. Others experimented with double bubble maps to compare two particular sisters in preparation for discussions of how they may have influenced each other.
One NUA strategy, “Read Draw Talk Write” technique, seems somewhat similar to the “drawing for understanding” outline that I have inserted below. Students have read the book, they are drawing their paper topics, they will talk me through the outline, and finally will write their papers.
I am also thinking about adding the 4-Square Writing graphic organizer as an outline option in the future. I like how this visual aid forces students to think about how their examples and supporting details relate to the topic.
--Sarah Burgess, English 10 Teacher
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Writing and Thinking
Jane Buckner in David Hyerle's Student Successes with Thinking Maps states that "writing is actually thinking written down." Buckner makes this claim because she believes that many educators feel "writing is just talk written down" (page 78).
That statement equating thinking and writing started me on my quest to explore writing connections in the books that I had received from NUA. Although I had used or seen many of the strategies modeled, I had not scanned the books with a "writing and thinking" lens. I got some great ideas that I could pass on to teachers who had specific questions about teaching writing. Below is a summary of my findings:
Student Successes in Thinking Maps
Buckner's chapter in Student Successes in Thinking Maps called “Empowering Students from Thinking to Writing” specifically addresses how to help students write a non-plagiarized, authentic research paper. Buckner advocates the use of the tree map or flee map for note taking. English 10 teachers had great luck with the flee map last year during the research paper unit to help students organize their research findings before writing their paper.
In addition to tree or flee maps for note taking, Buckner states that teachers can help students with disorganized papers through a process of “reverse mapping.” Basically, students cut apart their paper and try to fit their sentences into a flee map. Reverse mapping also allows students to see any holes that they have in their paper.
Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement
Denise Nessel’s book, Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement, has a wealth of writing strategies. Here is the briefest of summaries of writing-relevant chapters:
Cubing (p. 39): Chapter 5 describes this strategy which allows students to think about a topic from multiple perspectives (describe, compare/contrast, associate, analyze, apply, and argue for/against). This strategy increases students' fluency on a topic and helps them learn the cognitive clues that are often used in essay questions.
Freewriting (p. 67): Chapter 9 discusses a long-time favorite strategy for English teachers that involves students writing for a sustained period of time without stopping. This technique is a great tool for generating ideas and overcoming writer's block.
I-Search Reporting (p. 81): Chapter 12 includes a number of follow-up questions that teachers can ask students to make research paper topics relevant to their lives by having students formulate questions that are related to their concerns and pursuits.
Imitation Writing (p. 87): Chapter 13 outlines this strategy which involves taking a known work or famous quotation and substituting words while maintaining the text's structure.
Journal and Learning Logs (p. 101): Chapter 15 includes a number of journal writing prompts not only for English teachers but also for math, social studies, and science logs.
Key Word Notes (p. 109): Chapter 16 details this strategy that many Edina teachers use for lectures, readings, films and classroom discussions. Key Word Notes is a quick and efficient information gathering strategy if students need to write an essay after a reading selection as part of an exam. To learn about more applications of this strategy, click on "Key Word Notes" under "NUA Topics Discussed on This Blog."
Thinking Maps: Tools for Learning
David Hyerle's Thinking Maps binder has many ideas for prewriting and essay organization. The "Teaching" section of the binder shows how each map can be used for prewriting an essay, and an essay prompt is included. Also, pages 3-17 and 3-24 have writing starter patterns.
If students learn cognitive clues in essay questions, they will be able to select the appropriate Thinking Map for organizing their ideas. For example, Thinking Maps are associated with the following expository text structures:
1) sequence is flow map
2) double bubble is compare and contrast
3) multi-flow is cause and effect
4) circle map or bubble map for describing
5) problem/solution involves multiple maps (circle map to define, double bubble to compare to possible solutions)
Writing as Learning
Andrew Rothstein, Evelyn Rothstein and Gerald Lauber's book Writing as Learning includes a number of strategies to assist with writing across the curriculum. The book discusses how the A to Z Taxonomy can be used both to engage students and to help them organize their ideas for writing. Chapter 7 "Profiles and Frames: Organize Your Writing" and Chapter 9 "Reasons, Causes, Results--The Basis of the Essay" appear to be the most relevant chapters to assist teachers with high school essay writing.
That statement equating thinking and writing started me on my quest to explore writing connections in the books that I had received from NUA. Although I had used or seen many of the strategies modeled, I had not scanned the books with a "writing and thinking" lens. I got some great ideas that I could pass on to teachers who had specific questions about teaching writing. Below is a summary of my findings:
Student Successes in Thinking Maps
Buckner's chapter in Student Successes in Thinking Maps called “Empowering Students from Thinking to Writing” specifically addresses how to help students write a non-plagiarized, authentic research paper. Buckner advocates the use of the tree map or flee map for note taking. English 10 teachers had great luck with the flee map last year during the research paper unit to help students organize their research findings before writing their paper.
In addition to tree or flee maps for note taking, Buckner states that teachers can help students with disorganized papers through a process of “reverse mapping.” Basically, students cut apart their paper and try to fit their sentences into a flee map. Reverse mapping also allows students to see any holes that they have in their paper.
Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement
Denise Nessel’s book, Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement, has a wealth of writing strategies. Here is the briefest of summaries of writing-relevant chapters:
Cubing (p. 39): Chapter 5 describes this strategy which allows students to think about a topic from multiple perspectives (describe, compare/contrast, associate, analyze, apply, and argue for/against). This strategy increases students' fluency on a topic and helps them learn the cognitive clues that are often used in essay questions.
Freewriting (p. 67): Chapter 9 discusses a long-time favorite strategy for English teachers that involves students writing for a sustained period of time without stopping. This technique is a great tool for generating ideas and overcoming writer's block.
I-Search Reporting (p. 81): Chapter 12 includes a number of follow-up questions that teachers can ask students to make research paper topics relevant to their lives by having students formulate questions that are related to their concerns and pursuits.
Imitation Writing (p. 87): Chapter 13 outlines this strategy which involves taking a known work or famous quotation and substituting words while maintaining the text's structure.
Journal and Learning Logs (p. 101): Chapter 15 includes a number of journal writing prompts not only for English teachers but also for math, social studies, and science logs.
Key Word Notes (p. 109): Chapter 16 details this strategy that many Edina teachers use for lectures, readings, films and classroom discussions. Key Word Notes is a quick and efficient information gathering strategy if students need to write an essay after a reading selection as part of an exam. To learn about more applications of this strategy, click on "Key Word Notes" under "NUA Topics Discussed on This Blog."
Paraphrasing (p. 141): Chapter 21 discusses how teachers should start students with paraphrasing of texts that students can’t copy—e.g. videos, the teacher reading aloud. Then students can progress to reading, putting down the text, and taking notes.
Saturation Reporting (p. 171): Chapter 27 discusses this eye witness written report based on intense observations of a certain location and/or event. These reports become detailed, sensory descriptions.
Writing Frames (p. 187): Chapter 30 of Nessel's book summarizes the strategy of using frames (text structures with blanks to be filled in) that is detailed in Writing as Learning by Andrew and Evelyn Rothstein.
Sample Descriptive Writing Lesson: On p. 171, Nessel outlines a writing lesson that incorporates a number of strategies previously mentioned in her book.
Thinking Maps: Tools for Learning
David Hyerle's Thinking Maps binder has many ideas for prewriting and essay organization. The "Teaching" section of the binder shows how each map can be used for prewriting an essay, and an essay prompt is included. Also, pages 3-17 and 3-24 have writing starter patterns.
If students learn cognitive clues in essay questions, they will be able to select the appropriate Thinking Map for organizing their ideas. For example, Thinking Maps are associated with the following expository text structures:
1) sequence is flow map
2) double bubble is compare and contrast
3) multi-flow is cause and effect
4) circle map or bubble map for describing
5) problem/solution involves multiple maps (circle map to define, double bubble to compare to possible solutions)
Writing as Learning
Andrew Rothstein, Evelyn Rothstein and Gerald Lauber's book Writing as Learning includes a number of strategies to assist with writing across the curriculum. The book discusses how the A to Z Taxonomy can be used both to engage students and to help them organize their ideas for writing. Chapter 7 "Profiles and Frames: Organize Your Writing" and Chapter 9 "Reasons, Causes, Results--The Basis of the Essay" appear to be the most relevant chapters to assist teachers with high school essay writing.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Instructional Flow Map
NUA has introduced the Instructional Flow Map this year as a tool for curriculum planning. I have seen the presentation on the instructional flow map three times: 1) at large group with Carlton, Alexis and Norman, 2) at EHS's site visit with Alexis, and 3) at Cornelia's site visit with Stefanie. Each presentation has brought me closer to a full understanding of the power of this curriculum planning tool.
The boxes of the instructional flow map follow this order:
Teaching the lesson does not occur until a lot of priming has happened for the students. In the introduction stage students need to be informed explicitly at the beginning of the lesson what are the goals, standards, strategies, and assessment for this lesson. Lately, I have been more careful telling students the what, why and how of each lesson, and specifically, I write the "explicit strategy instruction" on the board when students will be learning a new strategy.
Another priming observation that I had with the instructional flow map is that teachers need to front-load vocabulary. When Scott, the math coach, and I were discussing ways to introduce the ray, segment, and line unit for geometry students, we kept the instructional flow map in front of us so that we realized that the time taken for vocabulary development before teaching the lesson would be time well spent. So Scott planned to have students create a tree map or use defining format for the terms.
Next week before my World Literature students read "The Infant Prodigy" by Thomas Mann, I will spend a lot of time on vocabulary development before reading since the short story includes a number of musical terms that will be unknown to many students. During the vocabulary development stage of the instruction, I will employ the "Possible Sentences" strategy in Denise Nessel's Thinking Strategies book.
Another part of the instructional flow map that I felt has been neglected in my lessons in the past is the student reflection component. Stefanie pointed out that students need to be included in the equation when deciding if they are ready for the assessment. The day after Stefanie's instructional flow map presentation at Cornelia, I implemented this student reflection step by using the red light/green light approach that Stefanie had discussed.
The red light/green light strategy is simple yet effective. I gave students three cards--yellow, red and green--to keep on their tables as they prepared for a group fishbowl discussion on an assigned sonnet. If the group did not feel that they were ready to discuss their sonnet, they had the red card displayed. If they felt that they were close to being ready, they put out their yellow card. And if they were 100% ready to have their sonnet discussion assessed, they put out their green card.
My seniors were sceptical at first because they didn't understand why they couldn't just tell me when they were ready to present. I informed them that the visual display of cards around the room would allow other groups to also keep an eye on the progress of others, and if they noticed that many groups were going "Green," they would have to pick up their pace. The other benefit of the red light/green light strategy was that on-task time seemed to increase. As I circulated around the room, if I heard a group with a red card displayed talking about something unrelated to the assignment, I could flip their card to yellow, saying, "You must be close to being finished." I only had to do that to a few groups to keep everyone focused.
The instructional flow map has immediately impacted my curriculum design in the ways mentioned above, and I am sure that it will have an even greater impact as I use the tool even more.
The boxes of the instructional flow map follow this order:
- Introduction
- Concept Development
- Vocabulary Development
- Skill Development
- Teach The Lesson (Guided Practice)
- Mediate for Mastery
- Teacher (self) Reflection
- Release the Lesson (Independent Practice)
- Review
- Student Reflection
- Concept Confirmation
- Assessment
Teaching the lesson does not occur until a lot of priming has happened for the students. In the introduction stage students need to be informed explicitly at the beginning of the lesson what are the goals, standards, strategies, and assessment for this lesson. Lately, I have been more careful telling students the what, why and how of each lesson, and specifically, I write the "explicit strategy instruction" on the board when students will be learning a new strategy.
Another priming observation that I had with the instructional flow map is that teachers need to front-load vocabulary. When Scott, the math coach, and I were discussing ways to introduce the ray, segment, and line unit for geometry students, we kept the instructional flow map in front of us so that we realized that the time taken for vocabulary development before teaching the lesson would be time well spent. So Scott planned to have students create a tree map or use defining format for the terms.
Next week before my World Literature students read "The Infant Prodigy" by Thomas Mann, I will spend a lot of time on vocabulary development before reading since the short story includes a number of musical terms that will be unknown to many students. During the vocabulary development stage of the instruction, I will employ the "Possible Sentences" strategy in Denise Nessel's Thinking Strategies book.
Another part of the instructional flow map that I felt has been neglected in my lessons in the past is the student reflection component. Stefanie pointed out that students need to be included in the equation when deciding if they are ready for the assessment. The day after Stefanie's instructional flow map presentation at Cornelia, I implemented this student reflection step by using the red light/green light approach that Stefanie had discussed.
The red light/green light strategy is simple yet effective. I gave students three cards--yellow, red and green--to keep on their tables as they prepared for a group fishbowl discussion on an assigned sonnet. If the group did not feel that they were ready to discuss their sonnet, they had the red card displayed. If they felt that they were close to being ready, they put out their yellow card. And if they were 100% ready to have their sonnet discussion assessed, they put out their green card.
My seniors were sceptical at first because they didn't understand why they couldn't just tell me when they were ready to present. I informed them that the visual display of cards around the room would allow other groups to also keep an eye on the progress of others, and if they noticed that many groups were going "Green," they would have to pick up their pace. The other benefit of the red light/green light strategy was that on-task time seemed to increase. As I circulated around the room, if I heard a group with a red card displayed talking about something unrelated to the assignment, I could flip their card to yellow, saying, "You must be close to being finished." I only had to do that to a few groups to keep everyone focused.
The instructional flow map has immediately impacted my curriculum design in the ways mentioned above, and I am sure that it will have an even greater impact as I use the tool even more.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Reading in Chemistry Foundations
The chemistry foundations class for sophomores includes reading about relevant, real-world connections to chemistry. In fact, their textbook, Chemistry in the Community, includes many stories about the real-world applications of chemistry.
In preparation for the sophomore state reading test, Chemistry Teachers Chad Nyberg, Dana Weiland and Mike Roddy used some NUA strategies in a lesson as part of the introduction to the heavy metals unit.
The lesson began with an anticipation guide listing statements that would be discovered in the readings that day. The lesson involved four articles for a group jigsaw, so a few statements were made from each reading. Upon reflection, however, the cumulative amount of statements was too large for the time allowed. Around five statements total would have proven sufficient to start the discussion of the impact of heavy metals on people's health.
After the students shared a few responses to anticipation guide statements, they formed groups of four, and each student read a different article. Two articles were on lead poisoning, and two were on mercury poisoning. As students read their assigned article, they completed a 4-Square writing that required the students to find three main ideas and supporting details for each main idea. The fourth square was where students recorded the author's purpose for writing the article. Although the fourth square is typically for a conclusion statement, we changed the box to purpose since we felt purpose was close to a student's final thoughts on an article and since the GRAD reading test often asks the question: What is the author's purpose.
After reading and writing about their articles, students shared the information with their groups, and then the groups re-visited their anticipation guides, discussing and correcting any of the statements.
The format for 4-Square Writing looks like this:
In preparation for the sophomore state reading test, Chemistry Teachers Chad Nyberg, Dana Weiland and Mike Roddy used some NUA strategies in a lesson as part of the introduction to the heavy metals unit.
The lesson began with an anticipation guide listing statements that would be discovered in the readings that day. The lesson involved four articles for a group jigsaw, so a few statements were made from each reading. Upon reflection, however, the cumulative amount of statements was too large for the time allowed. Around five statements total would have proven sufficient to start the discussion of the impact of heavy metals on people's health.
After the students shared a few responses to anticipation guide statements, they formed groups of four, and each student read a different article. Two articles were on lead poisoning, and two were on mercury poisoning. As students read their assigned article, they completed a 4-Square writing that required the students to find three main ideas and supporting details for each main idea. The fourth square was where students recorded the author's purpose for writing the article. Although the fourth square is typically for a conclusion statement, we changed the box to purpose since we felt purpose was close to a student's final thoughts on an article and since the GRAD reading test often asks the question: What is the author's purpose.
After reading and writing about their articles, students shared the information with their groups, and then the groups re-visited their anticipation guides, discussing and correcting any of the statements.
The format for 4-Square Writing looks like this:
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Tree Map to Organize Writing
Betsy's World History students created tree maps after completing research on a person of historical influence. The papers had to address three areas of influence for their historical figure, so a tree map with the influences as categories was a logical way to classify details to use in the paper.
Betsy provided her students with the following sample tree map as a model.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Character Development with a Double Bubble Map
English teacher Kristin Benson submitted the following assessment that her eleventh graders in American Literature will complete as the final test on a choice book that they read outside of class.
Outside Reading Quarter 1 -Young Adult Literature
One of the trademarks of young adult literature is that the protagonist or main character is typically a teenager who comes of age. That is, he or she is faced with challenges that result in some sort of change, learning or growth. Here is your chance to show what you’ve learned about your main character.
Part I: Create a Double Bubble Map
Create a double bubble map comparing your character at the beginning of the novel to your character at the end of the novel. (See board for example). Fill the bubbles with phrases or words that describe his or her attitudes, ideas and beliefs. You should offer a minimum of 3 similarities and 3 differences. You may also exceed expectations and do more.
Part II – Explain the ideas in your double bubble map
In a well-organized paragraph, explain how your character grows, matures or comes of age in this novel. You should provide at least two specific examples from the text to support your ideas. If you brought your book to class you may use it to provide direct quotations with page numbers. Remember to include a topic sentence, context for your quotes, examples from the text, analysis that connects to your topic sentence and a concluding sentence that sums up your ideas. (You may write on this sheet or on lined notebook paper, if you prefer)
Outside Reading Quarter 1 -Young Adult Literature
One of the trademarks of young adult literature is that the protagonist or main character is typically a teenager who comes of age. That is, he or she is faced with challenges that result in some sort of change, learning or growth. Here is your chance to show what you’ve learned about your main character.
Part I: Create a Double Bubble Map
Create a double bubble map comparing your character at the beginning of the novel to your character at the end of the novel. (See board for example). Fill the bubbles with phrases or words that describe his or her attitudes, ideas and beliefs. You should offer a minimum of 3 similarities and 3 differences. You may also exceed expectations and do more.
Part II – Explain the ideas in your double bubble map
In a well-organized paragraph, explain how your character grows, matures or comes of age in this novel. You should provide at least two specific examples from the text to support your ideas. If you brought your book to class you may use it to provide direct quotations with page numbers. Remember to include a topic sentence, context for your quotes, examples from the text, analysis that connects to your topic sentence and a concluding sentence that sums up your ideas. (You may write on this sheet or on lined notebook paper, if you prefer)
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Advanced Placement and Thinking Maps
Lonni Skrentner, retired AP history teacher, submitted the following information about using thinking maps with her advanced placement students.
Thinking Maps
Most folks see NUA strategies and maps as tools for use with struggling students. I discovered they were phenomenal for use in Advanced Placement. The maps can be used for analysis, review and essay creation. A useful idea is to allow students to choose a map to use whatever the assignment. It seemed that students had “favorite” maps that they used well.
For analysis, you choose the concept or question and the students (usually in pairs) choose a map. Most students are tech savvy enough to draw a map in Word, Paint or PowerPoint programs. The maps can be emailed to the teacher one day in advance of class use or brought on a memory stick to load. So you make the due date one day early essentially. Create a folder within your documents and save by hour or just as a jumble together. When you put the map up on the screen, students “present” their ideas.
Good questions to use with class are:
Is there anything on this map that is outright wrong?
Why is it wrong? Creators – what led you to put it there?
Are there things you would add to this map? What? Why?
You probably won’t have time to use all student maps, and some may not be worth using. To grade this type of assignment, make sure you use a student’s map sometime within a unit and grade them for that presentation – that way you are not grading everyone each time.
For review, the field is more wide open. The most thoughtful review I found, simply puts the Unit in the center of a Circle-Frame Map. Some students began dividing the descriptive circle into arcs and putting topics like “political, economic, social” in them with specifics. The most important piece was the presentation of the outer frame – with the following question:
What forces created the specifics of this unit? (Obviously, you would make the question more descriptive to the unit!)
I also told students that they could combine maps in order to describe the unit. Sometimes you could use “Mapmaker Man” (See Jackie Roehl if you haven’t met “him,” though I don’t think there is an electronic version.) Again, electronic submission is the key to being able to use them in class – you save the maps (a day early!)
Essays are the toughest “gig.” I created maps for the two types of AP World History essays and they really helped some students. I never really figured it out for APUSH, though. I had students map the topics for essays – which worked well. Someone needs to figure out the “stems" for APUSH essays and then map templates could be created.
Now – will this work for all students? – NO! Will all students do the assignments? – NO. Is there a way to differentiate so that students who benefit can get credit from this while others get review, analysis, and essay credit some other way? – YES! BUT, that takes some grading creativity on the teacher’s part. I’d create a Grade Quick assignment simply titled Review, or Analysis or Essay Review and make it worth a certain number of points. To simplify grading, I’d probably use the column for a unit or a quarter, thus having to think about each student only once.
Got questions? Want to brainstorm? Get a coach or colleague to sit down with you. Call Lonni Skrentner, retired EHS social studies teacher (952-946-1173, skrents@aol.com) and she’d be glad to come in on an off day during your prep.
Thinking Maps
Most folks see NUA strategies and maps as tools for use with struggling students. I discovered they were phenomenal for use in Advanced Placement. The maps can be used for analysis, review and essay creation. A useful idea is to allow students to choose a map to use whatever the assignment. It seemed that students had “favorite” maps that they used well.
For analysis, you choose the concept or question and the students (usually in pairs) choose a map. Most students are tech savvy enough to draw a map in Word, Paint or PowerPoint programs. The maps can be emailed to the teacher one day in advance of class use or brought on a memory stick to load. So you make the due date one day early essentially. Create a folder within your documents and save by hour or just as a jumble together. When you put the map up on the screen, students “present” their ideas.
Good questions to use with class are:
Is there anything on this map that is outright wrong?
Why is it wrong? Creators – what led you to put it there?
Are there things you would add to this map? What? Why?
You probably won’t have time to use all student maps, and some may not be worth using. To grade this type of assignment, make sure you use a student’s map sometime within a unit and grade them for that presentation – that way you are not grading everyone each time.
For review, the field is more wide open. The most thoughtful review I found, simply puts the Unit in the center of a Circle-Frame Map. Some students began dividing the descriptive circle into arcs and putting topics like “political, economic, social” in them with specifics. The most important piece was the presentation of the outer frame – with the following question:
What forces created the specifics of this unit? (Obviously, you would make the question more descriptive to the unit!)
I also told students that they could combine maps in order to describe the unit. Sometimes you could use “Mapmaker Man” (See Jackie Roehl if you haven’t met “him,” though I don’t think there is an electronic version.) Again, electronic submission is the key to being able to use them in class – you save the maps (a day early!)
Essays are the toughest “gig.” I created maps for the two types of AP World History essays and they really helped some students. I never really figured it out for APUSH, though. I had students map the topics for essays – which worked well. Someone needs to figure out the “stems" for APUSH essays and then map templates could be created.
Now – will this work for all students? – NO! Will all students do the assignments? – NO. Is there a way to differentiate so that students who benefit can get credit from this while others get review, analysis, and essay credit some other way? – YES! BUT, that takes some grading creativity on the teacher’s part. I’d create a Grade Quick assignment simply titled Review, or Analysis or Essay Review and make it worth a certain number of points. To simplify grading, I’d probably use the column for a unit or a quarter, thus having to think about each student only once.
Got questions? Want to brainstorm? Get a coach or colleague to sit down with you. Call Lonni Skrentner, retired EHS social studies teacher (952-946-1173, skrents@aol.com) and she’d be glad to come in on an off day during your prep.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Tree Map For Peer Review
At the English 10 meeting, KC discussed using the tree map for peer review for the student's first essay. Each branch would be labeled with the six traits of writing--ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.Under each of the six branches, sub-branches for strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) would be drawn. As students read each other's essay, they list details under the appropriate + or - branch.
To facilitate this process, students exchanged notebooks with their peer review partner. The peer reviewer created the 6 Traits tree map in the author's notebook. That way, the author not only had the information ready for revision of this particular essay, but also the author had the tree map record in the notebook to review when writing subsequent essays.
This strategy reminded me of the time that I graded blue book essays by simply creating a strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) tree map on the front of each blue book. I then listed a few ideas under the - and a few under the +. Assessing essays this way was efficient since I did not write comments throughout the blue book, and the tree map was meaningful to students because they could see a quick summary of their strengths and weaknesses. Students also liked seeing that they did get at least one positive comment.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Key Word Notes Update
After Chris, KC and Sarah reported great success with the Key Word Notes strategy, I wanted to try it. I was amazed both times that I have used the strategy this week. The students were able to synthesize the information being learned into high level summary statements.
The first time that students completed Key Word Notes was Monday during setting presentations. Each base group presented information on the details of a different setting in Brave New World. Those presentations also included information regarding Huxley's intent for including such a detailed setting in terms of character development, symbolism or theme.
While a group was presenting, all other members of the class had to listen attentively and come up with a one-word summary of the entire presentation. Not only was I amazed that the audience was practically on the edge of their seats to cue into a key word, but also the words that were chosen were usually at the symbolic or thematic level. Words like sterile, brainwashing, unnatural, inhumane and conformity were captured on the Key Word Notes page of their notebooks. After each presentation, I asked a few students to share their words and reasoning, and again students displayed a high level of thinking during this synthesis activity.
In fact, the summary sentence at the end of the Key Word Notes chart was often a thesis statement for an essay on Huxley's intent regarding setting details.
The second time that I used Key Word Notes this week was during a classroom discussion. The last time that we had a full day of classroom discussion on the novel, I noticed that many students were tuning out, and I was kicking myself for not providing some type of formal reflection activity. So today, which was slated to be another full day of classroom discussion, I had students create a Key Word Notes chart. After about seven minutes of an open forum discussion (where students pose questions for other students to answer), I would say, "Timeout! Summarize the past seven minutes into one word."
After each reflection minute, I had a few students share their word and reasoning. I was disappointed that the words chosen were not as high level as the ones earlier in the week during the setting presentations. There was no unifying theme for the seven minutes prior to reflection time because two or three unrelated questions were posed by the students. I feared then that I had misused the Key Word Notes strategy in this artificial task.
I feared that the words were so disconnected that the summary sentence would not make sense or be too difficult to write. Before I had students write the summary sentence, I told them that this sentence should capture their closing thought of the day; what they had gotten out of today's discussion. I was pleasantly surprised that the sentences shared were as high quality as the setting ones earlier in the week.
I've concluded that the Key Word Notes strategy gives students the framework to make personal meaning out of classroom discussions, even when a number of various topics and questions are raised.
The first time that students completed Key Word Notes was Monday during setting presentations. Each base group presented information on the details of a different setting in Brave New World. Those presentations also included information regarding Huxley's intent for including such a detailed setting in terms of character development, symbolism or theme.
While a group was presenting, all other members of the class had to listen attentively and come up with a one-word summary of the entire presentation. Not only was I amazed that the audience was practically on the edge of their seats to cue into a key word, but also the words that were chosen were usually at the symbolic or thematic level. Words like sterile, brainwashing, unnatural, inhumane and conformity were captured on the Key Word Notes page of their notebooks. After each presentation, I asked a few students to share their words and reasoning, and again students displayed a high level of thinking during this synthesis activity.
In fact, the summary sentence at the end of the Key Word Notes chart was often a thesis statement for an essay on Huxley's intent regarding setting details.
The second time that I used Key Word Notes this week was during a classroom discussion. The last time that we had a full day of classroom discussion on the novel, I noticed that many students were tuning out, and I was kicking myself for not providing some type of formal reflection activity. So today, which was slated to be another full day of classroom discussion, I had students create a Key Word Notes chart. After about seven minutes of an open forum discussion (where students pose questions for other students to answer), I would say, "Timeout! Summarize the past seven minutes into one word."
After each reflection minute, I had a few students share their word and reasoning. I was disappointed that the words chosen were not as high level as the ones earlier in the week during the setting presentations. There was no unifying theme for the seven minutes prior to reflection time because two or three unrelated questions were posed by the students. I feared then that I had misused the Key Word Notes strategy in this artificial task.
I feared that the words were so disconnected that the summary sentence would not make sense or be too difficult to write. Before I had students write the summary sentence, I told them that this sentence should capture their closing thought of the day; what they had gotten out of today's discussion. I was pleasantly surprised that the sentences shared were as high quality as the setting ones earlier in the week.
I've concluded that the Key Word Notes strategy gives students the framework to make personal meaning out of classroom discussions, even when a number of various topics and questions are raised.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Writing in Math Class
Scott's math students are writing their robot stories on his blog, http://www.woelber.blogspot.com/. I love that students are writing for math classes as part of their homework. Now if only I could figure out how to teach math across the curriculm.
For more information on Scott's work as the EHS Numeracy coach, visit his blog at http://www.ehsnumeracy.blogspot.com/.
For more information on Scott's work as the EHS Numeracy coach, visit his blog at http://www.ehsnumeracy.blogspot.com/.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Using Blogs
Many of our NUA CoP members have implemented blogs this year in the classroom. I have linked a few to this blog so that you can further see how NUA strategies are coming into the classroom. KC's blog even has photographs of the Thinking Maps on the white board. I need to pack my digital camera to start capturing class information like this.
Jim Hatten has developed this website to help students get started on creating their own blogs. Jim's site is awesome, and I'm sure it will help my students when they start creating their own blogs.
If you want to link your classroom blog to this site, just let me know the URL, and I'll add it as another way to keep our learning community going.
Jim Hatten has developed this website to help students get started on creating their own blogs. Jim's site is awesome, and I'm sure it will help my students when they start creating their own blogs.
If you want to link your classroom blog to this site, just let me know the URL, and I'll add it as another way to keep our learning community going.
Key Word Notes
The Key Word Notes strategy allows students to restate information from readings and lectures in their own words to increase comprehension and retention.
Strategy Step by Step:
- Students make a chart of boxes (see above) in their notebooks.
- The teacher divides the reading into four sections.
- Students read the first section of text and then stop to reflect. During reflection, teachers may want students to discuss the reading with a partner or base group.
- After reflection and/or discussion, students write just a few words in the appropriate box. Alternatively, students could write the key words first and then discuss with a partner about why they wrote those specific words.
- Students repeat the process with the next three sections until the top four boxes all have key words noted in them.
- Then in the bottom box students write a summary sentence (two at the most) about what they learned in the reading. Students may or may not incorporate the key words from the top boxes in this sentence.
The Key Word Notes strategy also works with lectures. Students may be taking detailed notes on one page of their notebooks, but then on another page they have their Key Word Notes chart. This chart will provide for summary and reflection as the teacher pauses four times during the lecture to let students jot down and discuss their key words.
Key Word Notes also works well for students during a research paper or project unit. Students simply record a few key words from each source in a box. In fact, this strategy was devised from a high school teacher concerned with plagiarism during a research paper unit.
The number of boxes can also be varied if a reading or lecture fits logically into 6 sections, etc.
Chris Dalki, KC West and Sarah Burgess (nee Striffler) have all reported great success so far this year with Key Word Notes. Enriched Sociology students used the strategy with a nonfiction piece.
Enriched English 10 students used the strategy to share information from their summer reading journals with a partner. Students wrote down ideas after their partner sharing in a Key Word Notes chart set up with boxes labeled: main character, other characters, images and big ideas. After writing their summary sentences, students then discussed the themes that they saw in the book. KC and Sarah reported that this was an awesome lesson.
I will try this strategy in a few days during a discussion of Brave New World to give students a chance to reflect on the discussion occurring in the classroom and to capture those key ideas.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Technology and NUA: A Perfect Fit
After Scott McLeod's staff presentation, the NUA CoP discussed the connections between Scott's philosophy of technology integration and the culture, language and cognition philosophy of NUA. The CoP decided that the two philosophies mesh well, and teachers working on closing the cultural and achievement gap would be served well by incorporating blogs into their courses.
Here's why . . .
KC West, who just finished her Master's Thesis on blogs in the classroom, stated that the current literature on the topic does not claim that the relationships transfer to face-to-face friendships. KC's article on the new literacies is being published next month, so stay tuned for more information on this topic.
Here's why . . .
- Students are engaged because they are happy to meet teachers in a communication forum very familiar to students, thereby closing the cultural gap between students and teachers.
- Students learn the ethics of the Internet and are able to police themselves.
- Students of all cultures have a voice on the blog, so students are more equal.
- Shy students have a place to express their opinions.
- Students can express opinions that they were afraid to bring up in class.
- Teachers are equipping students with a new literacy (language) for the 22nd Century.
KC West, who just finished her Master's Thesis on blogs in the classroom, stated that the current literature on the topic does not claim that the relationships transfer to face-to-face friendships. KC's article on the new literacies is being published next month, so stay tuned for more information on this topic.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Bryonn Bain: Hip Hop in the Classroom
photo from bryonnbain.comBryonn Bain, who has joined the National Urban Alliance as its Artist-in-Residence, is Brooklyn's Famed Spoken Word Poet. Bain currently teaches at Columbia University and at Riker's Island Prison. Bain first came into the national spotlight when he was falsely imprisoned by the NYPD during his second year at Harvard Law School. Following his false imprisonment, Bain wrote the article "Walking While Black" for The Village Voice, and that article earned him a Mike Wallace interview on 60 Minutes.
For more information about Bryonn, visit his website bryonnbain.com.
Bain proposes that it is important for teachers today to connect to teenagers through music, and since the music that many teens, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, listens to is Hip Hop, teachers should be incorporating Hip Hop into their lessons. In fact, Bain asserts that 70% to 80% of Hip Hop consumers are white, suburbanites. Bain, in a WMEP/NUA Reunion class on March 7, 2007, cautioned the teachers present not to be racist in their critique of Hip Hop.
During the NUA Hip Hop session, Bain briefly lectured on the components of Hip Hop--the DJ, the graffiti artist, the B-Boy or B-Girl breakdancer, and the emcee (also known as the spoken word poet or rap artist). Many people think of Hip Hop only as the rap portion of the Hip Hop culture. Bain claims, "Rap is something you do; Hip Hop is something you live."
Bain proposes that teachers use Hip Hop in the classroom not only as text to analyze, but also teachers should have students create their own Hip Hop. Creating Hip Hop works especially well in history classes because Hip Hop can tell the story of a historical event. Besides connecting to youth culture, teachers who employ Hip Hop in the classroom will be promoting creativity and discovery, using rhythm, rhyme and repetition to enhance memory and verbal skills, and they will be allowing listening and dancing to release student stress.
Bain's Hip Hop lesson ideas have been greatly influenced by Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For an excerpt of Freire's book and a look into his educational philosophy, click here.
James McBride, author of The Color of Water, would most likely agree with Bain's assessment because McBride discussed the importance of Hip Hop in the world today in the April 2007 issue of National Geographic. McBride's article traces Hip Hop back to its African roots and proposes that music is a great equalizer among people.
NUA Culture Consultant Augusta Mann holds a similar view that teen culture today has its basis in African American culture.
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