For three hours on Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of meeting about 36 of my new 9th-graders and their families at GW’s Freshman Orientation.
I have two advanced freshman English classes this year (1st and 6th periods) with almost 50 freshmen total on my rolls as of yesterday morning. So, including the student and mother I met on Friday, that makes about 3/4 that I’ve met already. Not bad. :)
At times C106 got pretty packed up front, with everyone trying to go over the materials list and complete the sign-in sheet. And then there was my “Parents’ Wall”:
I gave parents three sticky notes each, one for each section.
I can tell by the number of sticky notes on the board that some parents didn’t do it, and that’s okay. (I know Mr. Hawke would look at one of our kids’ teachers like she/he were crazy if they tried this on him. :P)
Overall, the experience was a very positive one. My students seemed very enthusiastic for the most part, and their parents seemed very engaged. I only wish I’d been able to talk with more of my students’ parents one-on-one.
This evening, we have our school-wide Open House. I may get to see some of my freshmen again, coming back to make sure they can navigate the hallways. And I hope to meet the other freshmen who weren’t able to come by Tuesday and my three classes of sophomores. . . AND all their parents!!
Thanks to Meredith Stewart for the great parent-participation idea. :)
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You can go to the Search Stories YouTube page to see a ton of examples of these. Many of them even tell a story, like last year’s Google Super Bowl ad, Parisian Love:
Isn’t that precious? It gets me all choked up and stuff. ;P
If you want to make your own, click on the button that says, “Create your own with the Search Stories Video Creator.” under the main video (right now, it’s a Toy Story search…very cute!), there’s a button that says, “Create your own with the Search Stories Video Creator.” Click on that.
Then, type in whatever search terms you want and choose whether you want to do a web, image, map, product, blog, etc. search on each.
Click “next” and choose the music you want.
It will take a minute to process, and then you can preview your video.
If you like it, it’s time to upload it to YouTube.
Here’s another one I just made as an English class preview:
If all goes well with the Promethean board setup, I’ll show these to my students day one. :)
Have you made one of these search stories? Link to it in the comments.
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Chances are you’ve already discovered these two amazing tools: Tagxedo and Wordle.
Both allow you to create word clouds with whatever text you choose, and both are free and relatively easy.
I made the top cloud using Tagxedo and the words of my poem, “The Hike.” I used Wordle and the same poem for the bottom cloud.
Wordle for my poem, The Hike
Very similar, huh? I didn’t try to create the same visual; I just played around with what I liked, what felt right for the poem.
Like a tag cloud on a website that allows you to see a visual representation of the posts it contains, a word cloud represents visually the words that make up a piece of written material.
Repeated words are usually “weighted” by an increased font size, while common words, like articles and prepositions, are often omitted.
Which to Use?
Both websites give you a lot of options in creating your word cloud. You can copy and paste text (like a short story or an essay or article), and then play around with the options. You can choose the layout, colors, and font.
Wordle is definitely the simplest of the two, which goes along with fewer options to choose from. One serious drawback in my opinion, though, is that there is no way to download your cloud from the website. You have to take a screenshot of the page and paste it into an image-editing program like Photoshop.
Tagxedo is more flexible but also more difficult to use. It has a lot of features that Wordle doesn’t, like the ability to upload your own pictures and a selection of clip art that you can use to create the shape of your cloud. And with Tagxedo, you can download JPGs of your work in a variety of sizes.
For this cloud, I uploaded a B&W image of an eagle and used my school’s alma mater. (We’re the George Washington High School Eagles. ;))
GWHS Eagles Alma Mater
I don’t think it really looks like an eagle, though. Maybe an eagle head would be better. I’d like to add the shadow of the image I uploaded behind the cloud, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that in the time I spent working with it.
Classroom Uses
If you’re wondering how in the world you’d use this in the classroom, check out this slideshow:
Tech Issues
And what do you do if you just don’t have access to enough computers for all of your students to use these tools? Well, there’s always the low-tech option: paper and markers. :P
Last spring, I had my freshmen make vocabulary posters for two of the novels we read. We used bulletin-board paper. I thought they turned out marvelously:
What About You?
Have you used words to make visuals in your classroom? Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
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Learning is no longer preparation for the job, it is the job. In a world in which information expands exponentially, today’s students are active participants in an ever-expanding network of learning environments. They must learn to be knowledge navigators, seeking and finding information from multiple sources, evaluating it, making sense of it, and understanding how to collaborate with their peers to turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into action.
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I’ve been teaching research since way back in student teaching when I chose “The Research Paper” as one of the two formal units I completed for my final education course. Even after all these years, though, it’s not been fun or easy to get through.
Last year, I changed up my approach a little, opting to take more time with the process. We got through the library and computer lab research fairly quickly, but all of the other steps we took more in stride. And it was better for me.
Instead of having a big PLAN, I just knew what needed to come next and fit it in where I saw fit. This was confusing to my students, so this year, I decided to break the research process down into modules, each covered during a subsequent grading period.
My English 10 students will have pretty much free reign over their choice of topic, as long as it’s academic and they can make a point about it. This ensures (or aims to ensure) that they’ll be working with a subject that will keep their interest.
I’ve added several new elements to my plan this year.
One is starting with a research question or questions about the topic. This way, when students look through sources of information, they have a more specific goal: to answer the questions they have. This should also help us avoid the fake presupposition that’s inevitable from having to state a thesis before any research takes place. My goal is to try to make this process as close to “real life” as possible.
Another addition is an annotated bibliography of the initial batch of sources. This will include the source information in MLA format, a summary of the source, and an evaluation of its relevance to the student’s research question.
And after the final research paper has been submitted, students will debrief in a couple of ways. They’ll present their research to the class with visuals (which I hope to record, since I’m planning to have a FLIP video for my class by then!), and they’ll also write, blog, and/or podcast about their research experience. =)
I’m planning to make a project sheet for each six-weeks grading period, so students can see what they’re expected to get done by when and keep in mind where they are in the overall process.
Here’s my draft so far:
1st Six Weeks
Process
Brainstorm topics
Choose one topic
Develop at least five research questions
Skills
Assessing research topics
Writing research questions
2nd Six Weeks
Process
Library: Find at least five sources and print/copy all
Annotated bibliography: source info + summary + evaluation
Skills
Library
Etiquette
Computerized card catalog
Using databases
MLA source formats
Reading comprehension
Summary and evaluation
Embedding quotations
Using citations
3rd Six Weeks
Process
Working thesis and rough outline
Additional research, if necessary
Source cards
Skills
Three-part thesis
Subtopics
Outline format (incl. Roman numerals)
MLA source format
Source card format
4th Six Weeks
Process
Note cards
Body paragraphs
Skills
Note card format
Topic sentences
Support/evidence/proof
Citations and embedding quotations
Transitions
Interpreting ideas and using them to support own ideas
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When I first started this site years ago, tags weren’t even an option. Everything was categorized. And now, I have pages and pages of categories and very few tags. I think it’s backward.
I guess I need to decide on a small number of categories that all of my posts here should fit into — kind of like separating all of my files into file-cabinet drawers first. And then I can give them each more specific tags.
Hmmm. . . I don’t even know where to begin. . .
Well, here’s a start:
lessons
tools
groups
methods
management
writing
literature
research
language
I don’t think that covers everything, though. I’ll have to check my posts and current categories with this list to make sure? Plus, I have to consider the posts that may be moving to my “students and parents” site, English.mrshawke.com. Hmmm. . .
Mr. Hawke says I make things complicated. He’s right, I know.
Any suggestions or links on this that might point me in the right direction if I’m not on it already? How do you organize your categories and tags? What have you noticed other people doing on their sites?
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I usually just pick up books here and there and read them when I find time, so until now I’ve never had a formal list of books I plan to read. I had actually planned to make this a summer reading list, but as I’m only a week away from returning to school, er, that ship seems to have sunk.
Anyway. . . last summer, I moved into a new classroom filled with a wealth of resources from a retiring veteran teacher, including shelves and stacks of very old and dusty books AND a ton of books that look good as new. What a treasure trove! With summer school and family fun last summer, though, I didn’t have a chance to go through it all and sort out the valuable from the in-.
So the day before Spring Break in April, and again at the end of the year, I offered my students the opportunity to start clearing it out. In the process, we found some cool old treasures, like an old-style record player that perplexed a few of my sophomores (one actually asked what it was :P) and a petrified banana that was black, hard as a rock, and stuck to the floor!
Since half of the books on my list are from my cleaned-out classroom, it makes sense that most of the 24 books here are nonfiction. It’s still strange to me, though, because I usually prefer novels. Not all of them are really heavy-duty reading, though; some are teaching materials like quizzes and activities.
I’ve linked all the titles to my Amazon.com account as accurately as I can; some of them are older editions that appear to be no longer available. And I don’t really know why I linked them at all, other than I’d never done it before and wanted to try it out. If a book catches your eye and you buy it through my link, the proceeds will go toward paying Bluehost for hosting this site. :)
Jazz for Dummies — Dirk Sutro [Ooh, I found this one at Ollie's discount store for about eight bucks!]
Proust: A Biography — Ronald Hayman [This belonged to my cousin, who was a librarian at UVA for some time. He passed away several years ago (:(), and his mother (also now deceased :() gave it to my mother who gave it to me. Proust has always seemed a little intimidating, so I've been thinking the biography might spur me into reading his actual works.]
Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress — Oliver Hunkin [I picked this one up from my parents' yard sale. :D I haven't read Bunyan's original in a while, so I may have to go back to it as I'm reading this graphic novel. I like the idea of using graphic novels in addition to teaching the original text.]
Jane Eyre,* — Charlotte Brontë [I started watching the BBC miniseries from the early '80s a few weeks ago and knew I'd have to go back and reread this.]
I’m already thinking of others that I could add to the list, especially old favorites — like Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses that’s been creeping into my thoughts over the last months.
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Mr. Hawke came in the house the other morning with Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” in his head. When I think of that song, I told him, I always hear Jerry Garcia singing it. His sweet voice from the Jerry Garcia Band’s 1990 album is etched on my mind.
Well, of course, he wanted to hear it, so I googled it, and we ended up on YouTube.
After listening to Jerry’s version, I couldn’t help but click on The Band’s version; Richard Manuel’s falsetto of that song is classic (although Mr. Hawke didn’t care for it much on first listen). From there, I moved to the all-star force from The Last Waltz and followed the breadcrumb suggestions in the sidebar on and on, from one version to the next.
Same song. Same words. Same basic chord structure. Some were similar to others, but most were distinctly different in some way.
At some point I realized: I’ve got me a lesson here.
Voice: the writer’s presence in a piece of writing, created mostly by the writer’s word and information choices.
This is the working definition I have my students learn from the very first week of school, as we’re going through the Virginia SOL Writing Domains and Features. (This is a department mandate in my school. We follow it with a practice Direct Writing test, which is an essay written from a prompt. It is scored according to the domains and features.) A big part of analyzing the “Written Expression” domain is analyzing the writer’s voice.
I usually start discussing voice by having students describe someone’s writing in a note, details that would clue them in to who wrote this hypothetical note they found in their locker even if it weren’t signed. Or the “anonymous” text message that’s really from someone you know…
Fielding comments about a person’s handwriting or about the abbreviations he or she uses in text messages is key. We’re not talking about penmanship here; we want to get past the form to the expression underneath. This is not to say that form isn’t important, just that it’s not the voice of the writer.
We look at some examples of student essays next. I have three that I saved from the first year we started using the SOL tests, back before they actually had any bearing on (or reflected) student achievement, before testing security got so strict. My prinincipal at the time made copies of the essays for us to use as examples of different levels of achievement… So I have one that scored a perfect “600,” one that scored just over “400″ (which is passing), and a third that scored around “360.”
We look for vivid and descriptive words and phrases in the essays, while trying to create a character sketch of sorts for the author. Is this author a guy or a girl? What kind of person is he or she? What kinds of activities would he or she enjoy? What kinds of TV shows would he or she watch? Music? Friends? Life goals? And so on…
It doesn’t take long for students to see that it’s much easier to sense an author’s personality when there’s more to work with. That “600″ essay is about three (very small and not too easily read) handwritten pages; “400″ is a bit over a page, and “360″ isn’t much more than one paragraph. We always get a better feel for who wrote “600.” It never fails. But “360″? Who knows! No voice!
From there, I like to move on to writing in other people’s voices: friends, relatives, neighbors, people from movies. I think it’s easier to create something you’ve already heard. And it’s easier to find your own voice while practicing with other’s voices.
It reminds me of how I learned to sing harmony. My mom was trying to learn how to sing harmony, so she had me sing the melody to songs like “Amazing Grace” over and over and over and over as we drove back and forth from our farm in Axton. (Everything was a big trip from there, let me tell you!) And as I was listening to her sing that harmony, I set out to memorize it myself. I knew my part without thinking, so I’d listen to hers instead and mimic it in my own time. Before long I’d memorized that part so well I could sing it without anyone singing the melody because I could hear it in my head. I know it sounds crazy, but I was singing along with the tune in my head.
And I know that if my students can start to hear their friends and family, the people on TV and in the movies, the guy who was yelling at the cashier in the grocery store the other day. . . in their own heads. . . they can start to hear the characters in the literature they read (which will enable greater identification, engagement and analysis in itself) — and to hear their own voices, too. And once they begin to hear their own voices, they can more easily wield them in their writing.
Okay. Back to the song.
I think this song will be an excellent tune to use in deciphering and describing voice, not only because it’s been remade in a myriad of voices, but also because of its lyrical content.
They say ev’rything can be replaced
Yet ev’ry distance is not near
So I remember ev’ry face
Of ev’ry man who put me here
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
They say ev’ry man needs protection
They say ev’ry man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Some place so high above this wall
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
Standing next to me in this lonely crowd
Is a man who swears he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him shout so loud
Crying out that he was framed
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
Most of my students will have never heard this song in any of its forms, which will hopefully cause them to more objectively move on to the lyrics and interpretation. Of course, this could also backfire with some students who aren’t open-minded musically. If they don’t like any of the music, they may not be able to adequately analyze it. Because of this, we’ll discuss the kinds of music they’ll be hearing and some background on the artists involved beforehand.
The song is written in first-person point of view, which is important mostly because whoever takes on the vocals takes on that character’s role, speaking with his or her voice. And in the various versions of the song, you can hear the different voices that the musicians covering the song use in interpreting this character that Bob Dylan created when he wrote the song so many years ago.
I think the story behind the song will be familiar territory to my students, though the music and arrangements aren’t. The narrator is imprisoned, either physically in a jail cell or within some other kind of mental or psychological captivity, and pondering his imminent release. From prison? From his life of suffering? From life itself? We’ll try to use the lyrics’ clues to answer these and other questions.
And now, to the different versions. I’ve placed them here in pretty much the order I found them, but I’m not sure that I’ll present them to my students in this order. I may not even play all of them. Ideally, I’d play clips from each, but I doubt the copyrights allow for any manipulation.
I’ll ask my students to try to take some notes on the videos, so they can sort of keep them separated a little in their minds. I’ll probably make a sheet with the artists’ names and blanks for notes/drawings.
Jerry Garcia Band:
The Band, ft. Richard Manuel:
The Band from The Last Waltz
Joe Cocker at Woodstock in 1969:
Govt. Mule:
Grace Potter offstage at Bonnaroo:
Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass, and Mary Travers:
Sting:
and Bette Midler:
I’m not sure if I’ll use this last one of Bette from her Continental Baths days (with none other than Barry Manilow on keys). She sounds completely amazing, and she alters the lyrics of the second verse from “man” to “woman,” which reinforces the interpretative angle. But the video is awful! :(
Afterward, I’m planning to ask students to reflect on the overall activity of viewing the videos in regards to voice. Some possibilities I’ve considered:
Journaling about the activity
Writing a character sketch of the song’s main character
Drawing a detailed picture of the song’s main character
Comparing and/or contrasting two or more of the versions
Creating a map of the versions based on their similarities or musical styles/genres
I would love to find a different song in the same vein, something in first-person point of view, that students can then respond to in similar ways. I would actually prefer one that doesn’t have a lot of versions, or either I would opt to show only one. I think this would give my students more latitude in their own interpretations.
Well, that’s what I have so far. I’d love to hear what you think about it. If you have suggestions or questions, let me know, please. :)
And I’ll let you know after I’ve actually used this in class.
Send me a message if you are a teacher who would like copies of my quizzes or tests. Please include the name of your school and/or district, your school e-mail address, and the title you are interested in. All secure materials are shared with the expectation that they will be kept secure and not redistributed or otherwise shared.
If you’re a teacher looking for other teachers to follow on Twitter, check out the Educators on Twitter spreadsheet. It’s a Google Doc that’s set up to allow anyone to view and add their own information.
I found the link in my “curriculum ideas” email folder (yet another place for me to virtually “stack” all the things I don’t want to lose :P). The timestamp for my entry says, “6/4/2009 22:36:57,” and I’m number 187. There are now 1,485 teachers listed!
UPDATE: Here’s another Twitter list of educators someone posted earlier: the Twitter4Teachers Wiki. This one is nicely separated into content-area pages, and again, you can add your own info.
Send me a message if you are a teacher who would like copies of my quizzes or tests. Please include the name of your school and/or district, your school e-mail address, and the title you are interested in. All secure materials are shared with the expectation that they will be kept secure and not redistributed or otherwise shared.
I took this picture in April 2009, after snatching up this huge box of dry-erase markers at the Office Depot closing sale. I had to look back at my educator deduction folder to see what I paid for them: $6 for 16 brilliant colors!
Well, since they’re all used up by now, I’m pretty much back to black. But I do take donations. ;)
Send me a message if you are a teacher who would like copies of my quizzes or tests. Please include the name of your school and/or district, your school e-mail address, and the title you are interested in. All secure materials are shared with the expectation that they will be kept secure and not redistributed or otherwise shared.
Most of my teaching resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to ask me. :-)
* — Gary Provost
* — Charles Gulotta
* — Harriet Diamond and Phyllis Dutwin
* — Bonnie A. Helms
* — Holbrook (NCTE)
* — Marjorie Frank
* — P. Susan Mamchak and Steven R. Mamchak
— Greg Mortenson and David Relin [I borrowed this one from my son, who's a rising senior. His school read it as part of an IB activity.]
— Kay Burke [This one has sat on my shelves for many years. ;)]
* — William Zinsser
* — Gary R. Muschla
— Tim Brownson [I actually won this book through someone on Twitter's contest this past winter.]
— Dirk Sutro [Ooh, I found this one at Ollie's discount store for about eight bucks!]
— Ronald Hayman [This belonged to my cousin, who was a librarian at UVA for some time. He passed away several years ago (:(), and his mother (also now deceased :() gave it to my mother who gave it to me. Proust has always seemed a little intimidating, so I've been thinking the biography might spur me into reading his actual works.]
* — Molly Ivins [Ms. Ivins was required reading for my journalism undergrad, and I've always loved her style. RIP :(.]
— Oliver Hunkin [I picked this one up from my parents' yard sale. :D I haven't read Bunyan's original in a while, so I may have to go back to it as I'm reading this graphic novel. I like the idea of using graphic novels in addition to teaching the original text.]
,* — Charlotte Brontë [I started watching the BBC miniseries from the early '80s a few weeks ago and knew I'd have to go back and reread this.]
* — Thomas Wolfe
— Kathryn Lasky
* — Emily Brontë
— Margaret Fishback Powers
— Saint Teresa of Avila (with commentary/study questions by Dennis Billy C.Ss.R.)
— Kathryn J. Hermes
— Edward and Lorna Mornin
that’s been creeping into my thoughts over the last months. 
