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Writing on the Reading 2.0

Write on reading

One of my favourite teaching strategies for active reading is the tried-and-true method Write on the Reading, from the Project for the Enhancement of Effective Learning (PEEL) an organisation of teachers who promote good learning behaviours through strategies targeting poor learning tendencies. In this case, annotating readings with notes – questions, points of contention, and so on – is a strategy that helps students to avoid superficial reading. I’ve embellished my writings-on-readings with colours to represent styles of thinking and organising principles, finding that students comprehend much more than with traditional reading and can readily apply their own opinions more effectively to the ideas in the text.

Recently, with my Year 11 Advanced English class, we’ve been exploring the version 2.0 of this strategy – a writing-on-reading of critical literature on Jane Austen in preparation for our comparative study of Emma and Clueless. I wanted my students to really appreciate the historical context in which Austen authored her novels and thereby have a much better understanding than they would if reading Emma ‘cold turkey.’

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Google Docs makes conversion of PDF files, Word documents and other document formats easy, and we’ve found the comments feature really interesting for discussing the text in the margins. Here’s the start of a conversation about anonymity and female authorship in the early C.19th.

 

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I love the way that these comments are recorded for future reference, and have found that discussing the comments can often be more insightful than a discussion of the original text. As an English teacher, I believe that what we bring to our analysis of texts is just as important as the texts themselves and I find myself learning so much from my own analyses and those of my kids.

I’ve also really enjoyed exploring colours and fonts as a way of representing different thinking styles and organising principles. As a starting point, I recommend teachers consider simple approaches, like:

Red = points of contention

Blue = big ideas

Black = further explanation/elaboration of ideas and/or key concepts

Green = other examples from outside the text

Of course, the most exciting feature of this technology is the extent to which it enables genuine collaboration. For this activity, I shared the text with my entire class and was amazed to see how effectively we were able to read the text, discuss, annotate and apply the information all in one lesson!

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Re-thinking Mind Maps

 

Min map
I invented this cognitive organiser partly out of frustration with mind maps in general. I feel that in terms of the way they are most often used, simple mind maps promote closed, lower-order thinking that at best shows an ability to organise ideas into headings and sub-headings (or topics/sub-topics) and, at worst, a simple form of word association – which are easy enough to get from a thesaurus.
My four-colour+ style of mind map uses colours to show increasing layers of complexity and/or specificity. A legend to the right allows the student to demonstrate the types of thinking or organising principles used for each of the colours, with the idea that as the map builds outward, the thinking will become more sophisticated, progressing from individual words/ideas to more structured sentences (e.g. quotations, problems, solutions, own thinking, etc.).
Rachel's map
You can see this with the Iago example, where Rachel has started with character adjectives and then built outwards to include situations/events, key quotes, language features/techniques and even added her own colour (pink) to explain her synthesised ideas. Rachel made her own decisions about what the colours would represent as part of constructing the mind map, using mine as suggestions (and I would of course emphasise this all the more for brighter students). The PEEL strategy of “Challenge the organising principle” is an important one for effectively planning a good four colour+ mind map.
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Of course, the mind map works well on good old-fashioned paper – but the template you see here has been submitted by me to the my school’s templates gallery – so is fully customisable within Google Docs.

 

 

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With surveys, you learn what you teach…

Despite a fiendishly frantic term, I’ve been lucky enough in the past few weeks to benefit from my own technology lessons in the classroom. Teachers are both blessed and cursed with the realisation that sooner or later you learn what you teach.

No truer has this been than in a recent series of student and teacher seminars I’ve been involved in focusing on the use of Google Docs to generate online surveys and populate the results in a spreadsheet for analysis. I’d like to briefly mention two applications of this at relative ends of the learning spectrum: first, with my Year 7 Connected Learning class; and, secondly, with the staff at my school.

 

1. Student Success with Surveys: Ownership in the Real World

As part of a unit I’m teaching on self-esteem, I was keen to see my students become researchers in issues of interest to them, using surveys to find out what their peers thought about what mattered most in their lives at this point. Having formed hypotheses about all kinds of issues related to self-esteem (acne, older sisters, going to church, boyfriends and girlfriends, religion, sport and so on), my kids developed a series of statements to test their own hypothesis, survey others, gather the data and analyse the results. Throughout the whole process of survey design, construction and delivery, we’ve had focused discussions on what makes a good, ethically-grounded survey. As a class, we’ve worked out that anonymity, optionality and clarity in purpose and the use of the data are all  crucial to ensuring that a survey emailed to others is ethical and benefits both the surveyer and the respondents.

Tomorrow, they’ll write a 45 minute “letter to the editor” in which they promote a broader understanding of the issues and make detailed reference to their own survey findings. What makes me feel good about a summative test at this end of the term is that it’s informed by real choice, along with real questions on real problems.

If you’re interested in seeing/hearing more about how I promote survey design, construction and delivery for students, you might like to check out this video tutorial that I made, covering all the aspects that I’ve mentioned above.

 

2. Teacher Success with Surveys: Professionalism and Transparency

Over the past week, I’ve been extremely tense about what amounted to a very well-received, engaging and (hopefully) empowering presentation at a staff meeting yesterday afternoon. For many teachers, using surveys to evaluate our practice, the content of our lessons and the strategies we use is daunting in the least. In an age of high accountability, I remain concerned about how any whole-school initiative with course evaluation surveys will respond to issues around:

  • the wording of questions and how they are interpreted by students;
  • the focus of the survey – whether on the individual teacher, department or whole-school;
  • how the data is used and whether or not it is published;
  • the potential for surveyers to consciously or unconsciously connect names with responses and possible implications;
  • the levels of privacy for individual teachers and students; and
  • the overuse of surveys, particularly badly designed ones.

All of this said, I feel that surveys which ask genuine questions and express genuine interest in the opinions of students are extremely empowering, and as one colleague remarked at the meeting, success with surveys is ‘as much about how you “talk through” a survey with the kids as it is about the survey itself.’

Of course, course evaluation is now a tried and true tradition in many universities and perhaps it simply needs to become more a part of the furniture in secondary education for us to properly navigate what can at times be turbulent waters. At least if I’m showing what the technology enables, pointing out the steps, raising concerns where I need to and guiding teachers with advice from one professional to the next, I can say that I’m doing my job to the best of my ability.

Or can I? Maybe I should go and develop a survey to find out! 🙂

If you’re interested in teachers on designing, constructing and delivering course evaluation surveys with Google Docs, check out my teacher video tutorial.

 

 

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Head in the Cloud

Over the past few days, it’s been very hard to contain my excitement over Google’s recent moves to add all the applications from standard Google accounts to Google Apps for Education. While the core suite of applications – Mail, Docs and Calendar – are extremely useful and have put my school on the Web 2.0 map, I’ve been so disappointed that other Google apps like Reader, Picasa and Blogger have been off-limits for so long.

Sure, students can create their own Google accounts, you say? Having worked with frustrated teachers and students who all-too-easily forget usernames and passwords, I’ve really come to appreciate the ability to control accounts as the school administrator and have kids quickly online and using the tools they need to get ahead.

Now when all of my students log in, they get immediate access to an incredibly powerful set of Web 2.0 applications without the need to enter a single name or additional password! Exploring these is going to take some time, but it’s great to know they’re there for anyone to use.

Some of the new applications I’ll be running PD on are:

1. Google Reader

Call it the nerd factor in me, but I have to say that hands down, Google Reader is the most remarkably simple yet sophisticated piece of the Web 2.0 pie. While many educators have consigned RSS feeding into the too-hard basket of technology education (installing feed readers, locating RSS feeds, keeping up to date, etc.), Google Reader makes RSS reading fun, social and very easy to get started. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a valuable teaching doorway into the vast world of internet content. I’m really looking forward to sharing feeds/articles and helping my students getting started with organising their reading on the web.

2. Picasa Web Albums

Google’s extremely generous web storage allocation (I know it’s now in the several gigabytes but have lost count) is incredibly good news for Google Apps Education students making use of this photo management gem. However, it’s Picasa’s easy integration with other Web 2.0 services like Blogger, Reader and Docs along with mobile integration and a very powerful photo management application for Windows and Mac that wins hands down.

3. Blogger

While not my blogging tool of choice (sorry Google, WordPress has the edge for now), Blogger makes blogging very easy and hassle-free. It’s great to know that my kids can get started without the need for another username or password, and I’ll be incredibly keen to explore this as a platform for electronic learning portfolios.

Pieces in a Web 2.0 Puzzle

It’s easy to see that already, Google is bringing to the web the same kind of integration that Apple brings through suites of applications like iLife and iWork that easily “talk to” one another  without the need to transcode data or switch out of one app and into another (just think about the “Blog this” buttons in Picasa and Reader  or the Picasa Web functionality  in Blogger). As a technology expert/administrator, I see this as a level playing field for all teachers and students. While not all of the tools will be used all of the time, making them available is the first step to transforming the curriculum and the way we teach with technology.

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Scenario Learning with a Collaborative Twist

For the last few months, many of teachers at my school have been extolling the benefits of Google Docs with their students. There simply is no doubt that when we approach writing as a collaborative medium, there is a fundamental shift in the paradigm and both students and teachers are forced to rethink what we value and how we work.

As a technology leader, the question I often field is: “I can see how amazing the technology is, but what can I do with it?” While the counter-question – “how long is a piece of string?”- doesn’t work wonders for the imagination, the point is that many teachers will really struggle to think of ways of applying collaborative documents – quite apart from the rules, parameters and conditions in which it takes place.

I think that when we’re faced with daunting new technology, one possible approach that works wonders is scenario learning. This is why I’ve been exploring the value of hypothetical, imaginative and lateral thinking with my Year 7 Connected Learning class this term. I also cooked up this semi-real, semi-fictional scenario to get them thinking about the roles that historians, public relations experts, education consultants and ethicists play in important decisions where key stakeholders are required – in this case, with reference to the World Heritage arm of UNESCO:

September 11th Scenario

Ground Zero is a term that refers to the site on which the New York Twin Towers were built. On September 11, 2001, the towers were destroyed when two planes carrying passengers were hijacked and crashed into them.

Currently, there are plans afoot to build two new replacement towers, along with a multi-storey shopping complex, a local mosque and a number of other amenities. At the same time, the World Heritage Panel is considering whether or not to list the site as an important cultural heritage site. If the listing goes ahead, constraints will be placed on further development, but at this stage the nature of these constraints is unclear.

You are an expert (historian, public relations officer, education consultant or ethicist) sitting at the table for a FIVE MINUTE preliminary meeting to consider whether or not the site should be proposed for World Heritage Listing. In the event that it is accepted by the World Heritage Panel, arguments for or against further development around the site will need to be considered.

In your meeting, you may consider one or more of the following (start with one and add others if you have time):

  • should the new twin towers be built?
  • is it appropriate to build a mosque nearby?
  • is it appropriate to build a shopping complex?
  • what limits (if any) should be placed on further development?


You are to record your position as an expert in a group Google Document, which will be a TRANSCRIPT of the first five minutes of your discussion. NB – your discussion does not have to be resolved in any way at this stage. However, as you are working in groups of FOUR, your document will include experts from all of four fields we have studied this week.

As they began working, many kids struggled with how to get started: “who should write first?” “what should I say?” were among the questions asked by weaker-ability students. I encouraged kids to simply write something from the perspective of their role, irrespective of what other kids were writing or might write. In this scenario, starting with an introduction from the perspective of, say, the ethicist, students needed to simply get their main argument across into the document before reacting to the views expressed by other roles. The other key ingredient to this kind of task is imagination. “As the public relations expert, who do you know?” “As the ethicist, whose story have you heard most recently that has moved you to the point where you need to advocate on behalf of this person?” You might say that since the very core of scenario learning is the imagination of the scenario itself, imagination feeds imagination!

The results were qualitatively different to a conventional script or singly-authored piece of work, and I argue that it’s very important to discuss differences between collaborative authorship and single authorship with students. As a follow-up task, I had my groups email a published copy of their document to another group in the class. The outsiders then read the published version carefully and produced an ISVAPS on it (a scaffold that focuses on I)ssues S)peakers V)iews A)lternatives P)roblems and S)olutions). At this stage you have a whole range of learning and talking points:

  • which transcripts were resolved? which were not? why/why not?
  • who had the most unique alternative perspective on the issues
  • were there any “unexpected” issues that arose? why?
  • what have you learned about how you work in this kind of group?
  • what does this tell you about some of the problems that UNESCO needs to deal with?

At the end of the day, it’s great to see how easy this kind of learning can be with a good scenario. Hopefully it’s just a little bit closer to how things in the real world work?

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On Cloud-Computing 9…

For quite a while now, I’ve been keen to explore some of the ways that I could train teachers to move beyond the static online portal view of e-learning (the space where files are uploaded for students to later download). A long-time advocate of Web 2.0 for its emphasis on creativity, collaboration and lateral re-thinking of traditional media, I’ve tried to promote technologies that enable collaborative
writing, incorporate social networking and ‘remix’ information all in the name of learning that is fun.

At the same time, I’ve seen many a frustrated teacher give up on Web 2.0, having to juggle usernames, forgotten passwords and third-party email addresses – leaving aside the often steep learning curbs for what is, at the end of the day, just one more technology tool. This is why I’ve been interested in the idea of how enterprise cloud-computing technologies like Google Apps for education help to create scalable Web 2.0.

Re-thinking the Word Processor

At the staff PD day that we ran last week, I looked at how teachers can get started with Google Docs, canvassing some of the possibilities for using it in the classroom and providing the tangible example of the class set of topic notes. For many teachers struggling with the concept of collaborative writing, it’s a good idea to discuss the importance of structure when setting the parameters for collaboration
on a particular document. I use the example of topic notes on a novel and asked my students to think about the headings and sub-headings that might go into the document to organize ideas effectively as new stuff gets added.

Understandably, teachers and students get quite excited by this technology!

Tackling the Big Challenge – The Online Spreadsheet

I hate to admit it, I’m a recent convert when it comes spreadsheets. For most of my life, I’ve never really thought to organize information into cells, much preferring to think and write in sentences. Perhaps most people out there agree, which also might explain why the vast majority of teachers shy away from using spreadsheets in subjects other than Maths. Still – if we stop and think about it, spreadsheets can be used to organize, process and analyze data on practically anything – the trick is just thinking about situations in which we might actually want to generate some data.

Google Docs does a good job here precisely because it shifts the whole focus away from spreadsheets by letting users generate forms which can be emailed to users, filled out and automatically populate an automatically-generated spreadsheet. Could it get much easier?! Of course, if you do know a spreadsheet trick or two, you can always impress a few friends with some simple formulae.

It was exciting to see teachers exploring this through the vehicle of the unit evaluation, a feedback tool that many schools and teachers have moonlighted with over the years. I particularly liked the
observing the collective realization that beyond creating the form and sending the email, very little work is required by teachers who want an easy and effective set of feedback on their own teaching and on a unit they have taught recently.

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On Tipping Points and Working Collaboratively

I’m lucky to be an English teacher working in such a dynamic and vibrant time for the English language. Having obtained my English degree more than ten years ago, I’ve seen the way we read, respond and write change so much in so short a time. However, I suspect that like many of early (and now obsolete) IT degrees, my degree no longer says a whole lot about my ability to interpret the texts of the twenty-first century. Sure – it says that I’m a relatively astute reader and reasonably well-read. But is that enough to cut the mustard nowadays?

Web 2.0 – also dubbed the ‘read/write web’ – is powerful, not really because anyone can publish anything on a whim, but because the ways that we read, critique and write have all transformed, relatively speaking, overnight. Looking at texts like Wikipedia is a process that demands a completely new approach. The fact that so many teachers simply criticise websites like this as ‘unscholarly’ or ‘inaccurate’ misses the point, and says much more about their unwillingness to understand the way in which these texts are constructed, the values they represent and the potential they hold for the future. Perhaps this is why the illusive Web 3.0 is dubbed ‘the semantic web’? In the coming years, the focus will move beyond basic access to the information on the internet and much more towards how meaning is made, inferred and understood.

In my very small way, I’ve been gently pushing my school towards understanding the collaborative power of Web 2.0 through Google Docs as part of Google Apps Education Edition. We seem to have come a long way, too.

On Monday I ran a staff inservice on the potential of teacher-student shared documents to streamline study processes through the example of collaborative class topic notes. The following day, my English Coordinator launched full-force into using Google Docs with her Standard English class and became an instant convert. Less than two days later, she was teaching the rest of the English Department all about it and in my free periods before lunch, I had a steady stream of teachers coming to ask me how to edit tables, publish links, check revision histories and change text formatting.

Such lessons are probably still beyond me for the time being. Other teachers who take an idea, run with it and transform it into something their own will add immeasurable value to any basic explanation or demonstration I offer. They are my real teachers, and from whom I still have a lot to learn.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPjJK6LZdM]