518+Swap+Shop

===Please post teaching ideas related to engagement, language and literacy, reading/writing, academic language, and/or working with ELLs. Be sure to title your post, provide a brief description, and if applicable, attach any documents or related links. Also, don't forget to sign your posts with three tildes ~.===

**Are you ready for some.... Geopolitics?!**
For those of us who are completely devastated by the lack of football to occupy the blistery cold Sundays and the void in our lives ever since I was consistently beat every week in Fantasy Football, I bring you... (drumroll)... FANTASY GEOPOLITICS!! I know what you're thinking, the excitement has overwhelmed you, settling down into your core and filling you with that warm fluttery feeling generally reserved for those times back in middle school when you and your crush walked by one another in the hallway... Ehem, so for my social studies brethren, Fantasy Geopolitics has apparently been called "fantasy football for NCSS (National Council for the Social Studies) and Common Core literacy standards." That's all neat and dandy and uses all those wonderful political educational terms that you can throw around at the next Christmas party to earn major kudos, BUT the important thing here is making geopolitics engaging and interesting and fun and all those other adjectives that basically mean the same thing. Here's the gist, the game is like fantasy football in that it inspires students to become fans of learning geopolitics. It works threefold by: (1) Gamifying the news, (2) Engaging students with global information sources, and (3) providing relevant standards-based activities and resources from those dusty interwebs. Like fantasy football, students draft teams. Unlike fantasy football where you can draft the beyond gorgeous Golden Tate, you draft teams of countries instead. Students' teams earn points every time a country is mention in a particular news source. As such, students' counties compete for news headlines, score points, deepen interest and understanding, and basically conquer the world. Whaaaat?! Geopolitics can't be engaging?! I say, "Malarkey!" This is the way to do it. user:hutchesonk
 * [|Fantasy Geopolitics]**

**“A single conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a month's study of books”-Chinese Proverb**
All three of my CTs are great in their own ways but I would say that my US History CT probably does the best job of trying to stay up-to-date on new ideas and theories in education. Recently, he found out that he and his teaching partner for Humanities had been allocated a certain amount of the school budget to pay for a new set of cafe tables for their classes. These tables will be circles large enough to fit five kids and they will be high enough that students can stand up to work at their table. I think that this is a really interesting way to foster engagement and participation. I'm anxious to see how it all works out but I know my CT will be able to do a lot of creative and interesting things with this new arrangement. For those of us who don't have thousands of dollars to spend on cool seating arrangements, I thought I'd mention that this CT also has used some really cool visual metaphors for complex ideas in history. For example, before the students read or discussed anything about the Great Depression, my CT asked them to build houses of cards in groups of three or four. Then he handed out slips of paper, each of which detailed a cause of the Depression. He asked members of each group to read their slips and as they did so, he used a small wrecking ball made of duct tape to smash their houses. On another occasion, he asked students to use a piece of string to symbolize time/history. He then asked them to read a short philosophical article and asked them to reform the string. In each instance he stopped to discuss why students had formed their string the way they did. I thought that both of these lessons were really great ways of engaging students in their short readings. We rarely have the opportunity to be hands-on in history so these were nice examples of how it can work. user:Ltormey

Since graduation, I have been inundated with offers to join various science associations. One, the American Chemical Society, I had used extensively for my undergrad research so I looked into it. On their website, I noticed they had a whole section for High School chemistry. While I was perusing this, I saw that they have a magazine that is published for high school level science students called Chem Works. A year subscription was only $12 so I ordered it. I just got two magazines in the mail, and they have some great articles that are written in really easy to understand language. This is helping me bridge the gap between accessible language and academic language by giving me examples of how to explain concepts using words they know. Additionally, the magazine goes into detail about the chemistry in everyday things like "Why do you add salt to the ice around ice cream makers?" or why drinking whole milk is better than drinking water after eating spicy foods. These give some examples of how chemistry is really applicable to their daily lives. I'm sure other disciplines have professional organizations that offer similar publishings or resources. Also, the National Association of Science Teachers (NSTA) is something my field methods professor brought to our attention. There is a yearly membership fee but it offers incredible services, especially for new teachers. I was looking up lesson plan resources for inquiry based assignments and I was AMAZED at what they offer. user:marinhatcher
 * Give them some real world application!**

//**Put them on the spot!**// I noticed this in a Spanish class that I observed, and it was amazing!!! In Spanish it is ridiculously difficult to get the students communicating in Spanish - especially speaking - which is the whole goal of the TPA. Anyway, this teacher warned her students ahead of time that they would be given oral questions so that the students could prepare. Then, the next day, she asked each student an oral question to which they had to respond, one at a time. I thought for sure that the students would be nervous, but the class seemed to bond because of their nerves. Furthermore, many of the students seemed to be enjoying themselves, because they were comfortable making mistakes in front of each other. It was amazing to watch, and a wonderful way to get students using academic language to communicate about their subject!

Similarly to Charlie's post, there is a way for teachers without a smartboard to make learning more interactive. AirServer is an inexpensive product that allows teachers and students alike to project their devices onto the whiteboard wirelessly. More than one screen can be projected at a time, so students can compare ideas/answers easily. For instance, in Spanish I saw students projecting videos that they made that day in class onto the whiteboard,allowing their classmates to take notes on and/or crituqe their claims. It also made the students feel more empowered because just like a teacher, they could project their ideas on the board to teach the class.user:kdobler1

//**Instructional Reference Videos for ELL's**// During the fall I volunteered in an ELL study skills class. Many of the kids struggled with algebra or geometry, but one teacher helped out their students tremendously. On the blackboard site for this particular algebra class the teacher had used the screen capture feature on the classroom smart-board to create a video of a work through for each concept that was presented on every piece of homework and test. For each homework assignment there was a link back to the needed concept video for each problem. Each video had an audio overlay explaining the concept and each video went through the concept quickly once and then again slowly to break down each individual piece of the procedure or concept. This was extremely helpful for students who are still learning the language they are being taught in, and those who are better able to learn from instruction as oppose to their textbook, which contains language above some of their instructors heads. While this teacher used the screen capture technology of the smart-board, their are many screen capture applications available for a variety of devices that could be used to do the same thing. Each video was roughly two minutes long.user:ccoffin12

//**How do I get my students to read? Make it socially satisfying!**// Getting students to actually read to learn in history (or any class) is difficult. With my World History freshman, I have found a method that appears to be improving motivation to read, as well as general engagement in the class. Team competition. The class is divided into seven rows (random seating chart), and they compete for points for their team, thus encouraging peer support. With an website called Classroom Dojo, I have a set up a system of reward points for answering questions about the reading, having a take-away idea or essential question about the reading written down, among other quick checks at the start of class. More students are coming to class prepared with at least some understanding of the reading assignments, and it is allowing us to dig deeper into the course material during class. Beyond reading to learn, the Dojo Teams get points for class participation, turning in assignments on time, and even just coming to class (which is a challenge for some students). We also have unit research challenges for students who complete their work more quickly, so they can add more points for their team. The end goal is to be in the top 2 teams before a seating rearrangement (about every 3-4 weeks) since they get donuts. It satisfies sweet tooths and that social belonging that 14-15 year olds really crave. user:potterkc

//**grammar...trust me, it's TOTALLY** **fun!**// okay, that may have been a lie, but unfortunately, students are now required to be good at it...,which, in turn, means so are you! so, how do we make it interesting...or even (dare i say) fun??? show them the lyrics!!! split your class into groups and show them a few lines of a popular song (//see example below//)....each team needs to work together to make the lyrics grammatically correct (punctuation and complete sentences)...set a time limit (1-2 minutes) and make sure there's a prize for the winning team (middle schoolers will do ANYTHING for a piece of candy....) you can even modify this for specific grammar terms...have them circle the nouns, pronouns, and proper nouns....underline adjectives...identify specific clauses/phrases....you can also use celebrity tweets (kanye has terrible grammar!)...also, a lot of your ELL students may not know their academic language yet, but i'll bet good money, they know song lyrics!

//example song lyrics: I lived (One Republic)// hope that you spend your days but they all add up and when that sun goes down hope you raise your cup

I wish that I could witness all your joy and all your pain but until my moment comes I'll say... I did it all. user:nanako_32

//**Academic Language along with language and literacy engagement:**// When adapting to a new piece of music the students needs to learn and apply the musical language presented in each piece. By adding warm ups (Entry tasks) that apply the days' rehearsal pieces it allows the student to adjust mentally and as well as physically. Since music is solely a performance subject most teachers remain in that regimen, practice then perform. //Taking time within rehearsal, either in the beginning or before rehearsal a musical phrase, to analyze the foundation and significance of the ideas through example and a look into history will give them not only a physical break but a mental think through the piece as a class.//
 * physically preparing the body to produce consistent music though breathing warm ups
 * adapting rhythmic figures (phrases) to warm-ups
 * using scales represented in the piece to familiarize technique and tonality
 * balance within ensemble and sections
 * //Adapting visual as well as written text://**
 * //Most ensemble rehearse then perform. True. Musicians (students) that involve intellect and emotion develop a deeper sense of musicality.//**
 * //students analyze composers ideas and phrases within the piece//
 * //students develop a point of view through their reaction of the music//
 * //students use imagery and written text to express musical thought//

//user:a.luna//

Academic Language: I insufficiently addressed academic language last semester in our 8th history class and am making an effort to focus more on this important aspect of any given lesson. At least with 8th graders, simply writing terms on the board, briefly addressing them, and moving on is not enough. Thus, I am planning to take more time toward the beginning of a given lesson to address anticipated academic language. This approach is imperfect, but so far presenting the term(s) in big, bold, accessible ways seems important. If the term can be wedded to a visual support (as they often can), that is beneficial too. In addition, taking 2-3 minutes to have the students work with terms could be beneficial. It may sound cheesy, but having the kids do a pair-share where they literally recite the term might help, and then once you have incorporated more material and additional context, having them discuss it could help solidify the meaning/imagery in students' minds. I discovered academic language is crucial 1) because it is the way in which events, place, phenomena etc are discussed, but 2) because if I "loose them" at the beginning of the lesson on academic language, much of the rest of the period is for not. Moreover, if students develop a sense of confidence and agency with respect to agency, it seems probable engagement will increase (or at a minimum, will not significantly be diminished). user:kthorson1Kirk

I just wanted to share a practical example of a lesson/activity that worked to engage the students in a creative way. When we were reading The Outsiders, we talked a lot about decisions, consequences, relationships, and perspectives. In class, we read the chapter about Ponyboy (the main character) who wanted to fight in a big brawl to stand up for his friend Johnny (who was in the hospital). The students picked a partner, one student was Johnny, and one was Ponyboy. They had to create an imaginary texting conversation between the two friends. The student who was Johnny got to choose whether he was going to try to convince Pony either to fight or not to fight. Ponyboy had to make a decision about what he was going to do by the end of the conversation. They had to each use at least one real example from the text. I attached a copy of the blank worksheet I make up, as well as an example that two of my students did. This lesson addressed the academic language of argument, perspective, decision, and consequence. Not only did the students engage with the text, but they were extremely excited to read the next chapter to find out what would happen--Did Johnny want Pony to fight or not? Would Pony fight? Would anyone else die? Who would win? The students still talk about this lesson, and they call me "the only teacher that lets them text during class." Soooo sneaky, I am!
 * The Academic iPhone:**

user:Lomacey

Here are a few of the graphic organizers/tools that I presented in class! Thank you Tim for spending the time to scan them all in! Remember, ladies and gentlemen, these are meant to be used as a starting off tool; not the be-all-end-all of student thinking. Enjoy! And use responsibly!

I would like to use scientific news articles (perhaps as an opener) to get students interacting with material in ways that it's really used. News articles are much less intimidating than technical literature and can have real, pertinent connections to content offered in class. I can do pre-, during-, post- guidance to help students pick out important details. Here's an example of an article: http://www.materialstoday.com/view/21788/wide-wavelength-solar-cells/
 * Jan. 30**

user:CalebE1

My experience tutoring at college writing centers for 4 years allowed me the opportunity to work with ELL students from around the globe. I always loved hearing about the culture of writing from their home and found it incredibly fascinating (often to the point of distraction from the task at hand). Americans can fall into a trap of assuming our way of writing is the only and best way. Oregon State University created the documentary [|Writing Across Borders] to explore different writing conventions across the world and how they are informed by politics and culture. I believe it is crucial as educators to be sensitive to different cultural norms and well-educated about them. Unfortunately, I've seen firsthand instructors give ELL students Fs simply for incorrect grammar usage again and again. And yes, it was difficult to contain my righteous rage (per usual as a future public educator).
 * Feb. 4th**

Below is a link to the clips from the documentary I wanted to share today: []

Further Reading: Fox, H. (1994). //Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing.// Chapter 7:

user:ashleykreynolds47

I was told by my CT last semester, "90% of teaching is classroom management." I have found this to be very very true. Mrs. Shay, my current CT, has two wonderful classroom management techniques that she uses. One is quarter long and the other is daily.
 * Sarah Bockelman Swap Shop for 2/4/13**

Daily: The "Victim" sticks At the beginging of the school year she had each student write their name on a popcicle stick, different color for each class period. During class she'll take the bundle of sticks and put them in a jar. While responding to questions about the Entry Tasks and other discussions needing feedback, or "volunteers" to go read their poem aloud. She pulls randomly from the Victim jar. The sticks are then placed to the side and everyone gets a chance before a person is picked twice. I have seen this work wonderfully for the entry tasks, it gets students who might not understand up front to be helped while keeping order in the classroom, everyone has to pay attention because they don't know if their name will be drawn.

Quarter Long: Hall Passes and Homework Passes Every quarter she hands the students 4 hall passes. They are allowed to use these during class to go to the restroom or go grab something from their locker if they forgot it and they need it to do their in class assignment (one student did this the other day). At the end of the quarter these can be returned for extra credit. Every quarter she hands the students Homework Passes. Four the first semester, three the second semester, two the third semester, and one the fourth semester. These are good for ONE homework assignment late ONE day. At the end of the term any unused ones can be turned back in for extra credit. (I remember my 8th grade science teacher using these as well and they were very effective.)


 * Chris Boyle- Swap Shop for 2/6/13**


 * Parental Involvement for ELL**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV3jF4B5GDc (1:30- 2:30 for Epstein's traditional model of parental involvement)

Possible Ways to Encourage Parent Involvement

1) Use of Workshops 2) Establish Open Communication 3) Create Open/Warm Environment

NYC Department of Education is great for looking up resources for ELL students... they support 13 different languages.

Things like videos on school orientation, questions for parents to ask teachers in student conferences, tons of goodies!

http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/ELL/default.htm

For my swap shop I wanted to share a lesson that I developed for my students to do that really got them engaged. We were studying poetry and it had been really hard to get any engagement out of them. For all of us English teachers I think we know that poetry can be a really hard sell. The lesson I developed was that we read a poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca called "Who Understands Me but Me". I then had the students write their own poem based off of this structure. The poems that they came up with were amazing. I loved this lesson because it allowed the kids some creative freedom. But as we were talking about, the way I set it up helped them with the task of writing that could seem overwhelming. By giving them the structure, they understood the HOW of writing and then could focus on writing a meaningful poem. Here is the outline I gave them:
 * Janey Ortega 2/8/2013**


 * They…, so I…(X3) (lines 1-14)**


 * Who understands…? (2) (both of these end with a ?)**


 * I cannot… (2) (lines 17-18)**


 * I can…(1) (line 19)**


 * I am…(2) (lines 20-21)**


 * I practice…, (1) (line 23)**


 * and I have found…(1) (line 24)**


 * When the…(2) (lines 26-27)**


 * I followed…(2) (line 30)**


 * Who taught me…, (1) (line 32)**


 * and gave me… (1) (line 33)**

This assignment also addressed the question of audience. The students were writing it for me but really they were writing it for themselves. The task allowed them to express themselves. Many of the students said things that they would not be willing to say out loud. Also, poetry provides enough ambiguity that they could feel protected about expressing their true feelings. I will share some examples of student work in class. user:janeyc18
 * You will also need an ending line of your own.**


 * Marissa Koon - 13 February 2013**

Getting students to practice working through problems in math class can be difficult. Though the practice is important, worksheets and book assignments are not engaging, and often the kids who need to practice the most "check out" when given these sorts of assignments. I want to share a lesson I used in my algebra class that really got the kids engaged, especially my usual non-participators.

The kids had been learning how to solve a system of inequalities by graphing. I split the kids into groups of two and gave them a handout with five systems of inequalities. The catch was that one partner had an "A" worksheet and the other had a "B" worksheet - for each of the five problems, each student had half of the system, and their partner had the other half. One partner graphed THEIR inequality on a whiteboard, and the other partner graphed THEIR inequality on a transparency. They then overlaid the transparency onto the whiteboard and sketched the solution to the system that their teamwork showed on the handout. ("Sketching" was also good practice for them to pick out the important features of a graph!)

Here is the partner handout: This activity is obviously math specific, but the idea of making an ordinary task more engaging by introducing something new (i.e. whiteboards and transparencies), and mandating engagement by making partners dependent on each other's work could work in many settings.

user:marissak12


 * Andrew Walker 2-13-13**

Based on my experiences so far at Rogers with kids who have by their Junior year either checked out of school or have too many problems at home to focus on school, I have found that engagement is something that I spend a lot of time working on. After we talked about it, I felt like there was a big difference in what we were able to accomplish when they were engaged vs. when they weren't. So one of the things that I have really focused on was making my lessons engaging using the PECS model (personally pertinent, emotionally engaging, cognitively challenging and socially satisfying). One way I did this when teaching about the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was to use a powerpoint that gave them some pictures that got them more emotionally engaged (which ended up starting a debate that was socially satisfying).

The one thing that has been the most difficult I think has been to tap into the personally pertinent aspect. However, I have a plan for an upcoming lesson on the Cold War. There was a very, very good high school runner who ran for Rogers in the 1960s. Besides his career an Olympian in the 10,000, the thing he is most known for was a showdown with the Russians at the USA/USSR dual meet in 1964. In front of tens of thousands of people, a scrawny high school kid from Spokane, WA ran away from two of the best runners in the world. I think it would be a great tie in to the rivalry between the USA and USSR, especially because he went to Rogers and had rough home life, similar to the situation of many of my students. Learning about the Cold War from the perspective of a kid they can relate to who went on to do some amazing things is a great way to make the lesson more personally pertinent.



user:awalker27

Animoto is a great tool to harness the technology and 21st century literacy our students are so adept at. It it multimodal in nature, allowing students to use text, photographs, video, and audio. Harnessing these tech tools in researching and presenting information engages students personally, by allowing and encouraging them to use in their learning what they are good at, and gets them excited about the process. What I really appreciate about Animoto is that the characters are limited on each "slide" to an amount that causes students to have to read, synthesize, evaluate, and summarize or paraphrase in order to present what they have learned, rather than copying and pasting information found on the internet onto a PowerPoint without actually learning anything. Having to synthesize and paraphrase cognitively engages students, and presenting their animotos--many of which are SO cool--to their peers provides social engagement as well. I observed my students taking pride in their animotos and wanting to share them with their peers, much more so than a "boring" PowerPoint or other form of presentation.
 * Animoto**

My juniors gave presentations a few weeks ago in which they read, verbatim, off of powerpoint presentations that they copied and pasted information from. They were not engaged and several of them, while presenting, actually could not even read the words on the presentation--they were stumbling over the words. I am certain they did not learn much or take much information in during their research project/presentation. On the other hand, many of my freshmen used animoto for a research project they were working on. I had many conversations with my freshmen about their topics during our workdays, and they were easily able to discuss their topics in detail, including why they were significant or important. Because they were engaged in their research, they actually learned.

Animoto is free to educators. As a teacher, you are provided 50 accounts a quarter to allot among your students, and multiple videos can be made on each account. Animoto

Example student animoto: []

Drew Baldassarre - Feb 22nd

Stick Pick - This is an application for the Ipad. It can be used for teachers that want to randomly select students to be called on. It also is useful in choosing questions to ask students based on blooms taxonomy. It records students answers and can help you identify what levels of blooms taxonomy your students are struggling with. It is extremely useful in helping to change the way you call on students and keeping all students accountable because it is randomized through Stick Pick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQrwsIl8Jys

user:DrewBee11