Dr. Slick Language Arts: February 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

Teaching Using Web 2.0

Check out a unique blog -
Teaching Using Web 2.0

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Sample Wix - Professional Pages

See a sample of a professional teaching portfolio of an English Teacher using Wix site.
Sample Teacher Portfolio Using Wix

Interested in Working With Class Website?

If you are interested in building a class website see the following:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/05/8-ways-to-build-websites-not-blogs-for.html

Yola site listed – I was unable to open.

Webs http://www.webs.com/ Websites built using Webs can include videos, calendars, polls, and a wide variety of third party widgets. Webs offers a wide variety templates and layouts to select from. For people with a higher level of comfort with technology, Webs might be a little too basic for your needs. In that case you may want to consider Snap Pages.

Snap Pages http://snappages.com/ The editing and customizing options of Snap Pages allow users to create pages that are little more clean and professional looking than some of the other companies in this market

Webnode http://www.webnode.com/ a simple way to build a website. The easy to use, drag and drop, interface makes it easy to change the look and feel of your website. For two reasons Web Node is a good tool for students to use to present and share their work with a wider audience. First, Web Node does not put any advertsing on your website. And second, the user interface is intuitive enough for most students to use on their own.

Sauropal http://www.sauropol.com/ One feature that Sauropol offers that some similar services do not offer is the ability to use more than one template within your website. In other words, you're not locked into using one format for all of your content.

Weebly http://www.weebly.com/ Customizing the look, feel, and components of your Weebly website is easily done through a drag and drop editor. All of the pages on your site are automatically indexed for ease of visitor navigation.

Hipero http://www.hipero.com/ Has a selection of templates available to users. While Hipero is feature-rich I can't say that it is the most intuitive website builder I've used, that honor still goes to Webs and Weebly.

Google Sites http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

Why Google Sites? The following link leads to all of the possibilities when using Google Sites.

http://issuu.com/richardbyrne/docs/how_to_do_11_techy_things

Webstarts WebStarts http://www.webstarts.com/?aff=codefree

How Should English Classroom Look Today?

Randy Bomer writes, "Today's classroom should not look like the English classes of the 1940's or even the 1980's. Students now engage in dozens of literacy activities that were unavailable just a generation ago."

Jim Burke writes , We are all very much striving to maintain our humanity in the midst of so many political, professional, technological and cultural changes that would strip our classes and curriculum of the very humanity that places our discipline in the Humanities.

I am reading Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms and the New English Companion by Jim Burke. I had read Burke's original English Companion and I want to see what had been added and was new. I am trying to read it through the eyes of a prospective new English teacher to consider how it might be meaningful at the stage in teaching English. An interesting way to explore it as I am nearing the end of my career of teaching and English. I am a crone these days - check the out in your dictionary.

If I were a new teacher in the field I would use Burke's book to try to form my own beliefs about teaching English. WIth all of Part 1 I am challenged to define what teaching English should look like in Our Brave New World, what new millennial generation students will be like, and how we might teach so students learn, remember, use and enjoy.

One particular highlight for me was
Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

Develop skills with the tools of technology
Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
Create, critique, analyze and evaluate multiple texts
Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments. (NCTE, 2008)

See update 2013 21st Century Literacy Defined . NCTE Position Statement
As a new teacher what would these highlights mean to me as I planned my classes, developed my curriculum, used the curriculum of my district. How and where would I see these skills needed in the common core standards?   How would I have students develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for the 21st century?

See discussions about 21st Century Literacy.
N.C.T. E. published 21st Century Literacy statements.   See responses
NCTE Writing in the 21st Century
N.C.T.E. Position Statements Multimodal Literacies

I remember thinking when I first read this book in 1999 this is an "out of the box thinker, an avant- garde, new innovative English teacher of the future.   I remember he had practical tools for thinking, writing, brainstorming, and he wrote about reading the world - an literacy in a much broader sense that "English classrooms" of the 60's. When he first published his book he had developed a FREE for all resource spot on the web with his tools of thought and resources, English Companion. Of course, that changed, - as publishing on the web for free did not mesh with publishing companies I am sure.

So I start my writing today - a journey of thought with highlights of ideas that would make sense if I were to begin my career tomorrow.

I am a skimmer , so as I read Chapter 1 and skimmed all of Part one, I flipped through the rest of the book.   One resource I would use if I were a new teacher is p. 81 Tools for Writers. While it is labeled tools for writers, for me Burke has provided visual representations, diagrams, charts forms that can be used for thinking, brainstorming, writing, and not only generating thought and ideas byt sharing them in the future. If I were a new teacher I would go to Burke's Blog, Burke's English Companion website and save it on my blog, use my blog as a resource for myself as a future teacher. I would return to Burke's Tools for Teachers and use Burke's graphic organizers, tools for thought, tools for writers.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

COMMON CORE STANDARDS Links and Apps

CPALM Common Core Standards

The Common Core Standards are also available as an APP on Apple and Android devices. I-pads, I Phones, Android Phones and Android Tablets.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

MIddle School Readng and Writing Language Arts Curriculum

Example of a Middle School Reading and Language Arts Curriculum
MIddle School Language Arts Curriculum A reading and writing workshop approach.

Resources: Authentic Assessment for Thematic Units

With Project-Based Learning you will want to include Authentic Assessments for the students work. For best resources see below:
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Formative Assessment

What about assessment of learning?

...you know that your students are learning...

...you see motivation in their eyes...

... you feel excitement in the air...

you hear them say: “How cool”, “That was awesome” or “When are we doing this

again?” ...

...you also know about the different skills your students are being exposed to and are practicing while doing their projects ...

...you know that you are helping them learn differently than from a textbook...

...you know that you are preparing them for a work environment where they are

expected to collaborate with colleagues and teams

...you know that you are exposing them to a world, people and cultures beyond their horizon...

...you know that you are broadening their perspectives, tolerance for someone who is different...

…but… what about formal assessment and documentation of this kind of learning?

Summative Assessment

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT FOR PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Comprehensive Site for Resources for Assessment Shrockguide Assessment and Rubrics

Many ready to use samples Midlink NCSU Education - Rurbic Resources

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Survey - See Scholastic Survey Regarding Digital Reading and more

Scholastic has completed this study consistently to every few years . It is a great model of the type of questions to ask for a survey. Also it provides analysis of the results of the survey in a unique way.

How might surveys be used to inform our decisions as a teacher.

New Study About Kids Reading Habits. (Scholastic)

Resources for Diversity Thematic Unit

Resources for Diversity Thematic Unit

A beginning....

Books for Thematic People and Cultures

Conference Assoc Teacher Educators - Hand out Multiculutural Books

Thematic Unit Planning

Check out this great resources for thematic unit plan ideas. See the following site - it leads to unit resources for bullying. Scroll and search for themes and topics you are using and exploring.
University of Georgia - Virtual Library Unit Outlines

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Three Trends Defining Teaching in the Future

See how the face of teaching and learning is changing.

In today’s dynamic classrooms, the teaching and learning process is becoming more nuanced, more seamless, and it flows back and forth from students to teachers.

1. Collaboration - Communication -
Sites like Classroom 2.0, Teacher Tube, PBS Teachers, Edmodo, Edutopia, and countless others are lit up with teachers sharing success stories, asking for advice, and providing support. Collaboration is happening offline, too, at schools where educators team-teach and organize professional learning networks.

2. Tech Powered
Teachers are using Guitar Hero, geo-caching (high-tech scavenger hunt), Google maps for teaching literature, Wii in lieu of P.E., VoiceThread to communicate, ePals and LiveMocha to learn global languages with native speakers, Voki to create avatars of characters in stories, and Skype to communicate with peers from all over the world — even augmented reality, connecting students to virtual characters. And that’s just a tiny sampling.

Tech-savvy teachers are threading media-making tools into the curriculum with free (or cheap) tools, like comic strip-creation site ToonDo, Microsoft Photo Story 3 for slide shows, SoundSlides for audio slide shows, Microsoft Movie Maker, and VoiceThread to string together images, videos, and documents, to name just a few.

Students in high school and college are using digital portfolios — the equivalent of resumes — to showcase the trajectory of their work on websites that link to their assignments, achievements, and course of study, using photos, graphics, spreadsheets and web pages.

3. Blended
Teachers are directing students’ natural online proclivity towards schoolwork. It’s referred to as different things — reverse teaching, flip teaching, backwards classroom, or reverse instruction. But it all means the same thing: students conduct research, watch videos, participate in collaborative online discussions, and so on at home and at school — both in K-12 schools and in colleges and universities.

What this means for teachers and students.

Teachers’ and students’ relationships are changing, as they learn from each other.
Teachers roles are shifting from owners of information to facilitators and guides to learning.
Educators are finding different ways of using class time.
Introverted students are finding ways to participate in class discussions online.
Different approaches to teaching are being used in the same class.
Students are getting a global perspective.

For complete article read
Three Trends That Define Teaching and Learning in the Future