ReFORMat Your Teaching

In two short weeks I am leading a workshop at a Google Summit in Lancaster PA about using Google Forms.  I came up with the title of the workshop, ReFORMat Your Teaching, because I want to encourage educators to think of more creative uses for forms other than assessment purposes.  Forms is a multi-faceted tool that enables teachers to collect information but what about the students?

Last year my students learned how to use forms to support their learning of key concepts.  They used forms to collect information related to online research, collected data for graphing and analysis, and assessing their peers' knowledge of concepts.

During our study of Life Structures (FOSS) I introduced the class to online search tips and tricks. Once students employed the use of these strategies to find appropriate websites concerning crayfish, they copied and pasted the links into a Google Form.  We then looked out the frequency of a particular website URL and had a great list of peer-reviewed sites to make the research process easier.




Here are some of the responses:

My students also surveyed each other by making their own Google Forms and adding options through the multiple choice format. This was a great introduction for how to create a Form on their own.  They then were able to analyze the data.  More information can be found on the class blog.

After reading blog posts from talented educators in my online PLN, I was later inspired about the possibilities of how to use Forms to enhance student learning, rather than just student assessment.  This involved student-created assessments, reading instruction, and writing creativity.

Last year's class created their own geometry test. They created the test items in a Google Doc and then drew visuals for questions using Google Draw.  Some examples of other "tests" they made are available here.

Another great use of Forms is to provided support while students are working more independently with for Reading instruction.  I created this example for a talk I did at Long Island University concerning Interventions for Struggling Readers.  I used branching to provide support for students that selected incorrect answers.  When a student was incorrect, a new page opened with an explanation with the correct answer.





My next goal is to use branching in a creative writing assignment where students do a "Choose Your Own Adventure" e-text.  Kate Petty has a great example on her blog.


Also next on the list is exploring more advanced scripts and add-ons!

Chrome Apps to Aid Struggling Readers

On Tuesday I will have the pleasure of meeting with a graduate class at Long Island University's Rockland County campus.  Janice Hurewitz, the course instructor, is my former principal and it is an honor that she asked me to join some of my other esteemed colleagues to speak.

The class is focused on interventions for struggling readers, so it is no surprise to anyone that I chose to focus on how GAFE and Chrome Apps can help.  I probably could have spent an entire day or even week talking about the ways students can benefit from interventions with Google apps.  After much debate I decided to just focus on a few options.

Below is what I came up with... (BTW I mention Padlet as a backchanneling tool, but there are so many ways that Padlet can be utilized to also help struggling readers).

Reflections from an ISTE First-Timer

ISTE ended a week ago and it has taken me this long to fully process my experience.  I walked away full of notes in Evernote, many QR codes, product fliers, and bookmarked websites.  As the perpetual qualitative researcher I naturally looked for the patterns.  The pattern that binds my experiences at ISTE is the notion of PLAY.  This was not shocking to me because intuitively I knew that I thrive on play and my students certainly do too.

Flashback to this past school year...  I had the amazing opportunity of having a 1:1 tablet classroom for the month of September thanks to being a Sony Education Ambassador.  Although teaching third grade for the second year was stressful (at least I had one year of testing under my belt), I looked forward to seeing how the curriculum could be enhanced by the use of the Xperia tablets.  Curriculum drove instruction, the tablets made things playful.  You can see my blog post on my students' work here.

At the end of the school year, my school district had me pilot the use of Chromebooks in my classroom and I was elated. Not only were the kids excited about using the new, novel technology, but so was I.  I looked forward to going to work everyday because I got to "play around" with the Chromebook.  My students were encouraged to use Chrome apps to be creative, be collaborative, be critical thinkers, and to communicate.  As a result, they thought they were playing, but they were also creating the most amazingly detailed work that involved lots of reading of print and online texts, lots of paragraph writing, and lots of providing quality feedback for each other. You can see their work while studying China and Water on my website.

Ok, back to ISTE... 

Moby Sighting

 I attended workshops centered on Minecraft, augmented reality, apps, game-making with ARIS, and other web-based games.  The icing on the cake was listening to Kevin Caroll speak about how everything he ever needed to learn in life, he learned on the playground.  The obvious take-away is that play is essential for learning and knowledge development.  We thrive when we play!  Time passes quickly when we care about and are engrossed in what we enjoy.  It just doesn't seem like work!  What if entities in charge of curriculum development considered this?  When is the last time you heard a child say, they would love to play a textbook or reading program anthology?

Thankfully there are education leaders out there that are celebrating the state of play in education.  They recognize like James Gee that games are part of the "New Literacies" that are essential in today's digital age (read more about Gee's thoughts here).

Based on what I experienced at ISTE I recommend checking out these resources.

• Phillip Vinogradv's presentation from the Google for Education booth on gamification
• Changegamer is a website that promotes the use of computer games to learn about, "energy, climate change, natural disasters, the environment, economics, politics, history and science."
• AWW Web Whiteboard is a collaborative whiteboard.  Share the board and anyone can join in
• Padlet is another interactive space- shared by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellows
• Build interactive lessons with Pear Deck (works with GAFE accounts)- shared by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellows
• Make infographics with Picktochart- shared by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellows
• Marianne Malmstrom shared her resources for using Minecraft in the schools
• Tuvalabs has data sets that students can interact with to "empower your students to think critically about data, ask meaningful questions, and communicate conclusions.
• Teachersfirst is a collections of lessons, resources and units
• Denise Jaffe's site for Universal Design for Learning 
• Microsoft's Innovative Teaching and Learning site
• Teaching with Primary Sources at Governors State University has a great site and the team that presented shared their Blendspace page that contains information on how they use ARIS for game making to learn content

Of course there is so much more that I learned and experienced... Stay tuned.

Student-generated Assessments Using Google Forms and Scratch

     Last school year was my first year of teaching third grade after teaching first grade for 11 years.  Let's just say that there are not many similarities to teaching emergent readers and readers in the intermediate grades.   I admittedly was a little unsure about how guided reading works in third grade when I first started.  Now that I am fully immersed in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), I am very aware of what skills and strategies I should be imparting and I am learning every day how to accomplish this feat.
     As a teacher interested in educational research, I have been looking at books and articles dealing with motivation.  No matter what grade I teach, there are always reluctant readers and I am striving to find out how I can motivate them to take risks and develop an interest in reading.  As I incorporate technology into my classroom, I notice how interested some students get in my lessons, and in particular some of the reluctant readers mentioned previously.
     The way I look at it, incorporating technology can allow a chance for innovative thinking, ownership of the work, and above all choices.  Students love choices!
     So when six of my third-grade boys were done reading The Most Beautiful Place in the World by Ann Cameron, I asked them what are they going to do now that they have read this book? Some other students wrote a commercial for why you should read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (see video here), so what were they going to do now that they completed the book.  Some decided to make a "test" of the book using Scratch and the other group decided to make a multiple choice test using Google Forms.  This "project" was a great window into the minds of my students and how they understand and perceive assessment.  Future lessons in book clubs later focused on moving beyond asking and answering questions that can be found explicitly in the text (CCSS RL.3.1).
     The first group that read The Most Beautiful Place in the World wanted to make a test using Scratch.  We have some avid coders in the class and they jump at any opportunity to use Scratch. They had to figure out how people would respond. The test (available on the class website) was the stepping stone for future "tests" and really illustrated the progression of learning and problem-solving. Later on, one of the students shown below made a test about our research on China.  He used a different format and other students collaborated to figure out how to program in the progression of points.

    The second group that read The Most Beautiful Place in the World started their final project by writing questions in their reading notebooks. Next, they wrote incorrect answers that may trick their test takers with distractors.  Once this was accomplished, I gave them a quick tutorial on using Google forms and they went to work creating their online assessment.

    The multiple choice group had to come up with the post on the class blog letting others know their test is available.  Now do we have any takers to read the book and take the test?


    These experiences later influenced how the class ended our online research of China.  Seeing the level of motivation, collaboration, and focus that these students demonstrated had me rethinking how the class' knowledge would be assessed.  Stay tuned to find out the results of my next experiment.

The Road Less Traveled: Using the End Product to Fuel Learning

    Every school year is another opportunity.  Another opportunity to learn and grow as a professional as I read more professional literature, talk with talented educators, and meet extraordinary students.  Meeting the diverse needs of my students can be a daunting task when you throw in high-stakes testing and more rigorous standards that have just been implemented one year prior.  In light of this situation, I am constantly trying to figure out new and interesting ways to engage my students- and honestly myself.  How can we find the road less traveled?  There are no blatant road signs showing the way, or that I have found at least.

Photo by Ann Douglas downloaded from Flickr

    Last year was an "interesting" year spent teaching a new grade level while trying to find the materials and resources that would help me instruct within the Common Core State Standards framework.  Google became my friend as I scoured the Web to find information, advice, and printables and thankfully people out there are very willing to share.  New York decided to support modules created by Expeditionary Learning (EL) for English Language Arts and modules for Mathematics on their website Engageny.org and this year I have been exploring the use of some of the modules in both subject areas.  
    To be honest, at first I really disliked the modules.  My reasons are not what you are probably thinking. I had no issue with the texts for the EL units and although I balked at some of the tasks my students were asked to do in the beginning of the school year, I see how my students have grown and developed since participating.  My real issue was that these modules are highly scripted.  So much so, that I felt that I had no real voice in my classroom anymore.  Since it was my first time implementing the modules, I did not feel comfortable "putting my own stamp" on the lessons.  As this year progresses, I am slowly changing this thinking.
    Here is where craftiness comes to the fore.  Instead of conducting teacher-directed lessons, I began to think of how we can infuse more student ownership into these lessons. I have been influenced by books such as Catching Up or Leading the Way by Yong Zhao, Creativity in the Classroom (4th edition) by Alane Jordan, and now the Passion-Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold.  How do I get my students to be more engaged, motivated, and learning?

Photo by CircumerroStock

    What would appear to be a passion for using technology "gone wild" is actually the source of my craftiness, my "lure for learning" as it would seem.  My students are my fish and my use of technology is the bait. I admit this and I am not ashamed.  
    Some examples of Math craftiness include:

• Arranging 24 Yoga Mats- Talking a friend into manipulating reality a little in order to teach my students about creating arrays for a more concrete representation of multiplication was one of the first lures used this year.  She is a yoga instructor so it was not out of the realm of possibility that she would need the help of my students to figure out how to arrange her yoga mats into equal groups if she had 24 students. (CCSS Math 3.OA.A.1; 3.OA.B.5) 

• Mondrian Art- Many of students love participating in anything that is outwardly "artsy" so why not learn about a famous contemporary artist while calculating the area of squares and rectangles? (CCSS Math 3.MD.C.5)

    Some examples of ELA craftiness include:

• Kidblog for Publishing- Since the beginning of the year I have had my students use Kidblog as a place for them to digitally publish their writing.  Knowing you have an audience, proved very motivating for my third-grade writers and they took more care to edit and revise for an audience.  They love being able to read each other's posts and comment on them.  We have read articles from Time for Kids and then written paragraphs summarizing key information.  These paragraphs were posted on Kidblog for everyone to see.  In September, we also used the Blogger (see our class blog) app to publish our personal narratives. (CCSS RI.3.2; RI.3.5; W.3.2; W.3.3; W.3.6)

• Aurasma Book Recommendations- After reading a book of the students' choice, they had to write a persuasive paragraph explaining why people should read their selection.  We ran into some memory issues when creating our videos using the Aurasma app; however, this led to an important lesson on summarization and finding the main idea.  The reviews my students had to come up with were quite concise but we still have the entire paragraph to refer back to once we work out some of the initial issues. (CCSS RL.3.2; RL.3.3; W.3.1; W.3.4; W.3.5; W.3.6)

• Northeast Travel Bureau Videos- The EL units we completed so far this year focused only on fiction texts so we have been reading informational texts at other points of the school day.  Instead of telling my students were were going to develop our comprehension strategies for reading informational texts, I told them that they were in charge of collecting information about the Northeast region of the US centered on the categories of economy/natural resources, geography, climate, and culture.  Lessons focused on finding main ideas and searching informational texts and then turning their information into persuasive writing pieces that would finally be turned into scripts for commercials for the "Northeast Travel Bureau."  They were in charge of collaborating with peers to develop the scripts and direct themselves.  If you click on the link above you will see that some groups created Google Presentations as a backdrop to their commercials (which also lent itself to a lesson on how to select images from a Google search that are earmarked as "labeled for reuse"). (CCSS RI.3.1; RI.3.2; RI.3.5; W.3.1; W.3.2; W.3.4, W.3.5; W.3.6; W.3.7; W.3.8)

    It makes me feel so good to look around the room (I can do this because they are in charge, not me) and see the animated faces and the furious writing, turning of pages, or clicking of keys.  In giving up control, I feel we all win.  I feel like I am an important piece to instruction by not being an important piece... if that makes any sense.