Remixing Writing

It is one of my students' favorite daily writing prompts. Mine, too. Yesterday I came into class with a stack of newspapers in hand. Before the bell rang, I walked around the room handing out a section of the paper to each student. I got some quizzical looks. We usually begin each class writing in our writer's notebooks. Are we going to start today with reading? Nope. We're started the day by remixing the newspaper.

I shared Austin Kleon's blackout poetry with students, and you could hear a buzz move throughout the room. They didn't want to wait for me to finish explaining our writing task. They wanted to jump right in. And they did!

After they spent some time carefully considering their word choices and marking out meaning, we spent some time sharing our process. How did students begin the task of making something new from another person's words? Some began with a single word, plucking the most important word from an article, letting it form the heart of the blackout poem, and then finding the words to connect with that idea throughout the rest of the article.  Others started with a pencil, circling whatever words first intrigued them and let the meaning of the piece arise naturally from the work. Still others began with an idea in mind, and like a hunter, stalked the article for the necessary words.  And it was in this discussion on how we went about the task of making meaning that we were able to reflect on the value of having different perspectives, different approaches to creating meaning.

There is so much value in creating blackout poetry with students. Not only do students have the opportunity to step outside their own writing by working with someone else's words, but also blackout poetry begs the creator to take a different perspective on writing in carefully considering both the original writer's words as well as the process by which writers create. And it's a heck of a lot of fun, too!

Digital Connections Realized

It began with a tweet.

A student in my tenth grade English class researched running injuries for her recent #HavPassion independent inquiry project. As part of her project, the student created a blog to both share what she was learning as well as to connect with other readers and experts interested in prevented running injury. To help students connect with those experts, we used social media to share our blogs and ask experts for help. And if you are going to research running injuries, then you better try to get in touch with Christopher McDougall, author of the best-selling book Born to Run. So I shared my student’s blog with Mr. McDougall through Twitter, and what followed was a connection that brought the author to our high school this past Thursday to speak with students about his experiences with running and writing.

Mr. McDougall spoke with a group of about 100 students on February 26th about his experiences as a writer. A free-lance writer for Philadelphia’s Daily Times lead to a position as a journalist with the Associated Press, who sent him on a worldwide adventure covering the civil war in Angola and later covering the genocide in Rwanda in the early 1990s. After years spent covering Africa, Mr. McDougall went on to write about Mexico, and while there, learned about the hidden tribe of Tarahumara Indians who live in Mexico’s Copper Canyons. Fascinated by their ability to run great distances while wearing only simplistic sandals, Mr. McDougall let his questions drive his inquiry and research into how it was possible for members of this culture to run hundreds of miles without rest. And that was his take away message for our students and teachers in attendance - always ask questions.

And they did! The students and teachers in attendance spent nearly 40 minutes asking Mr. McDougall about his experiences, his advice for novice runners, and about his upcoming projects. As an added treat, my student and her parents, all avid runners, were among those in the audience. And so what began as an online connection turned into one in real life as well!

Bring on the Battle...the March Madness Book Battle

Image from basketball-sports-books.com

I came home from Saturday's Delaware Valley Reading Association's conference inspired. We spent the morning sharing ideas for empowering student readers by promoting voice and choice in our school classrooms and libraries.  As we discussed ideas for building reading habits and engaging all members of our learning communities in reading, the idea of a March Madness style Book Battle came up. That's when the ideas really started to flow.

You'll find all sorts of clever bulletin board ideas on Pinterest for a book battle, but I wanted to do something that wouldn't just reside inside my classroom. Instead, I wanted to invite participation from students, teachers, administrators, and parents alike. This meant, I needed to think digitally. So, I started with a basic bracket design (feel free to use the graphic below).

I'm fortunate because I have an awesome sister who works on a production team for a printing company and is able to print this out large scale for me on vinyl for free, but you easily could print this out at Staples for under $30. Why vinyl? So I can write on it easily with white board markers that wipe off, making it easy to reuse it year after year. So this big banner will hang in the hallway, but how do I involve our larger community? That's where the digital aspect comes in.

Excited, I emailed my students, their parents, and fellow teachers on Sunday, sharing a Google form with a basic description of our book tournament - 16 books pitted against one another with daily voting to narrow down our book selections to two challengers by the close of March. I asked our community to recommend the books for the initial 16 challengers. What are your most loved books? Within 24 hours, 56 people had responded with over 250 book choices! So in the coming week, whichever books are most recommended will become the 16 in the initial bracket.

Then over the course of March, I'll be sharing our book battles through our daily announcements and classroom Twitter account, asking all community members to cast their vote using Celly.  At the moment, I'm reaching out to local bookstores, publishers, and authors to help us by sponsoring reading prizes for community members who participate in the voting. I would love to be able to giveaway signed copies of books and bookstore gift certificates to daily participants. The idea is to reward readers with reading prizes, and throughout the month of March sharing the joy of reading! 

What are you doing to spread the joy of reading in your community? I'd love to hear your ideas!

UPDATE:

Here it is! The final 16 books as recommended by teachers, students, and parents:

Motivating Readers

What a fantastic morning! I got up early to share my Saturday morning with teachers, librarians, reading specialists, and educators from around the Delaware Valley for the Delaware Valley Reading Association's conference on Motivating Readers In and Out of the Classroom. I was invited to share how I connect my student readers using 2.0 technologies. And although we didn't plan it, the other presenters, Lauren Strohecker, BJ Neary, and Janine Sacks, and I all ended up reinforcing the same thing - students need to be heard! We need to give space in our classrooms for student voice and choice.

In preparation for my presentation this morning, I asked my high school readers what got them into reading, what motivated them to read, their responses came faltering at first. But when I asked them what didn’t work to motivate their reading, their responses came faster than I could record. Repeatedly students mentioned not having a say in what they read, how they read, or how their knowledge was assessed. Students mentioned being assigned books, assigned chapters to read in those books, and then being assigned how many comments they needed make during a class discussion of the book. Students wanted to read, but many said that reading in school killed reading. “Having to make six comments during a class discussion put the focus on the grading and not on the book,” Steph offered. Her comment opened up a conversation about how reading is assessed. “Why do teachers give quizzes to check if we’ve read? Does it really matter if we remember that the protagonist was wearing a blue shirt on Tuesday? I’d rather talk about the book,” stated Vivi. “A teacher told me that I shouldn’t read ahead, but I really liked the book,” another offered. "So what does work?" I asked. “I love when teachers give us a chance to talk about the books, and not just answer questions that the teacher came up with,” Nina suggested. “Yea, I learn so much more by listening to how others interpreted particular scenes,” Kelly added. “I don’t learn a whole lot from worksheets, but they sure seem to count for all of my reading grades,” Anthony shared.

As writer and teacher Peter Elbow points out, “...when students struggle for excellence only for the sake of a grade, what we see is not motivation but the atrophy of motivation: the gradual decline of the ability to work or think or wonder under one’s own steam” (“Grading Student Writing: Making It Simpler, Fairer, Clearer” 129).

And this was echoed by my students when I asked them about their experiences reading in the classroom. So what can we do to encourage voice and choice in the reading classroom? Give students opportunities to have their voices and choices validated!

You can follow along with our online conversations from this morning by clicking through our Twitter conversation below.

Bringing the Outside In

I have been incredibly fortunate this school year to host a number of speakers and writers in my classroom. The opportunity for students to meet with published authors, with poets, and with a Holocaust survivor have enlarged the conversations we have about history, about writing, about identity, and how about we connect through the stories we tell.  "Stories," as novelist Madeleine L'Engle stated, "make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving."

Check out all the speakers and authors who have visited with my classes during the 2014-2015 school year (so far):

Click on the images below to watch each presentation.

Elise Juska, author of the recent fiction novel The Blessings, visited on January 15, 2015

• The Philadelipia Inquirer described Ms. Juska's book, The Blessings as a "bighearted novel... Juska's moving, multifaceted portrait of the Blessing family." Join our creative writing class as we listen to the author and question her about her process.

Cameron Conaway, mixed martial arts fighter and poet, spoke with students on January 13, 2015

• Cameron Conaway, author of The Malaria Poems, shares his experiences and process, including mindfulness, with students from our creative writing and 10th grade English classes.

Dave Patten, singer/song writer, novelist, actor, and Haverford High alum, met with students on December 22, 2014.

• Dave Patten, author of the recently published Run of the Mill, spoke with creative writing and 10th grade English students about what it takes to succeed in creative fields and shared some advice for aspiring creative types.

Three young adult novelists speak with students on November 6, 2014.

• Young adult (YA) genre authors, E.C. Myers, Ellen Jensen Abbott and Marie Lamba introduce their new work, discuss their writing process and answer questions from high school creative writing classes.

Holocaust survivor Mr. Michael Herskovitz speaks with students about his experiences in three death camps on September 29, 2014.

• Michael Herskovitz was born in Czechoslovakia in 1929 to hard working parents and a happy family. In March 1944 he noticed German soldiers in the village and learned that Germany had invaded his country. Mr. Herskovitz shares experiences inside Auschwitz and other "work camps", through to liberation and finally realizing a successful family life and business in the USA. An earlier recording of his presentation can be found here.

Anything? Really? Really!

When I first describe our #HavPassion research project to students, I get this quizzical look. "I can research anything? Really?" Really!

For the last eight weeks, my tenth grade students have delved into the origins of the word passion, explored what it means to have grit and persevere through initial stumbles and failures, and ultimately share their passion with readers and audiences outside of the classroom.

Today after school, I listened in as Skylar interviewed someone form the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education in order to learn about how one gets into this field of study. Earlier in the day, TJ pulled up curriculum outlines for computer programming language courses and computer science classes taught at a high school in Washington. He mentioned that he was going to try contacting a principal from the school to help with his current research. He thought he was just going to be building a computer from scratch (which he did), but then he asked the question, "Why don't students have the opportunity to do this is school?" So this weekend, he put together a course proposal and research curriculum guidelines and state teaching regulations which he plans to share with our principal and hopefully the school board. Jillian connected with Duckworth Labs and with professors to learn more about growth mindset and its impact on student success in the classroom. Juliet was excited when her free book arrived after she connected with Ed Lebetikin, store owner and teacher at The Woodwright's School (if you are a fan of PBS, you might be familiar with this show). We tweeted best-selling author of Born to Run and running advocate Christopher McDougall when Abigail started to research how to prevent running injuries. He's making a visit to our school next month! Students have been taking cake decorating classes, shadowing landscape business owners, composing scores for orchestration, conducting and teaching middle school band students, and so much more. And all the while students have been blogging, sharing their research and their reflections with students both around the country, as well as those around the block.

As my tenth graders selected their topics and looked for mentor texts and experts to interview, we also connected with fifth grade students in our district completing a very similar inquiry project. Using Google Hangouts, elementary library Christina Brennan and I connected our students, encouraged them to share their inquiry interests, and then we connected our learners further using collaborative Google docs.  My high schools students read through her students' initial questions and research findings and commented back to the fifth grade students, sharing research strategies and connections. My students moved from finding mentors to being mentors.

We have come to our final week for our #HavPassion inquiry projects. When I shared this with students on Monday, I had groans. But they were not groans complaining about having a week to work on research. Instead, they were groans hoping for more time. Students want to do more, read more, blog more, connect more. Now they are saying, "We can research anything! Really!"

Next weekend, some of my students will be joining Christina and me as we present at EduCon on the mentorship relationship forged between our two groups of students. My students aren't being graded for their presentations. In fact, they are joining me after our class together has come to a close. But this is what passion-based learning inspires. Student and teachers building a community of learning that extends well beyond our physical classrooms and beyond the boundaries of one particular class.

Please check out their blogs. This week they are adding up their final reflection posts and we will be celebrating their accomplishments in class on Friday. I would love to share any words of encouragement that you might have, so use the comments section below to share!

UPDATE:

Interested in bringing this to your classroom?

Feel free to adapt my student materials to suit your student needs! Here's a link to my student materials:

Overwhelmed...but in a good way

I have too many blog posts in me! So right off the bat, know that this post is almost more of a reminder to me of all the things that I want to write more in depth about in the coming weeks. It has been an overwhelming semester, filled with a classroom makeover, presentations, author visits, and so much more.   I look forward to sharing these developments with you in the new year.

First, I need to share a bit more about my classroom redesign.  I shared some of the early steps in my classroom makeover in September, but I need to post my more recent learning space redesigns. My initial steps to create a more student-focused, student-driven classroom have lead to even more changes. As I spent time reflecting on my educational philosophy, I realized I needed to make a few more changes to my classroom space so that my philosophy was mirrored in my physical  classroom space. My classroom is open, with flexible seating in the form of stools, pillows, ottomans (which double as book storage), and a couch.  And I'm also happy to share that our classroom is featured as part of the #ClassroomCribs challenge. If you are looking for inspiration for your own classroom makeover, be sure to check out the work of Erin Klein, Ben Gilpin, and A.J. Juliani over at ClassroomCribs.com.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this I learned that I am one of the Grand Finalists in the ClassroomCribs Challenge!

Click to enlarge our four essential questions.

In addition to redesigning my physical classroom, my curriculum got a big makeover this semester too. For the last decade, our tenth grade English class has focused on world literatures, connecting with the writers of the non-western world.  However this semester, our department took a more thematic approach to our tenth grade curriculum, focusing on four essential questions to guide our new thematic focus on "Perspectives of the Individual." And although initially a bit apprehensive about this change, it has afforded me an opportunity to reimagine my curriculum. I revisited the work of my language arts gurus to help me rethink what was possible. Kelly Gallagher helped me think through how I provide writing feedback (students should write four times more than you can grade) and how I teach close reading (Articles of the Week). Chris Lehman helped me think through possibilities for teaching analytic reading. And so many more mentors than I could name helped inspire my renewed focus on cultivating a student-driven classroom with students doing, speaking, and sharing more than I do. And in addition to adding new core texts, I figured now was the time to make some other big changes, the most significant of which is the move to a 100% paperless classroom. Now, four months into it, I can't imagine teaching any other way.  Going paperless has meant finding better, more collaborative ways of working with students and with working with readers and writers outside of the classroom.

Although I have been pushing my emerging writers to connect with audiences outside the classroom for a number of years now, this semester I have witnessed the pinnacle success of that focus.  My students and I used social media to connect with and invite in a number of writers from a variety of genres into our classroom.  In the last four months we have:

• heard a Holocaust survivor speak of his experiences in three death camps,
• used Skype to speak with the senior editor of Philadelphia Stories and Philadelphia Stories, Jr., Ms. Christine Weiser, about what editors look for in creative writing pieces seeking publication,
• virtually connected with Ms. Leah Nicholson of the Jenkins Publishing Group to learn about ghost writing,
• Skyped with founder and senior editor of Teen Ink, Ms. Stephanie Meyer, to get some advice for submitting our work for publication,
• invited three talented YA authors - E.C. Myers, Marie Lamba, and Ellen Jensen Abbott - to come to our school to speak with us about their inspiration and advice for writing stories,
• learned with a local psychologist about psychoanalytic theory, the 
  
  divided self, and repression which we applied to our reading of The Kite Runner,
• chatted with musician, actor, and novelist Dave Patten about what it takes to "make it" in a creative field, and
• used Twitter and blogs to connect with students and experts all of the world as we researched our #HavPassion projects.     

And the next four months look equally as packed with connections! We will be hosting:

• poet Cameron Conaway, author of Malaria Poems, who will be speaking with my creative writing students about his inspiration and writing craft,
• Elise Juska, author of The Blessings,
• Christopher McDougall, best-selling author of Born to Run,
• Zachariah OHora, children's book author and illustrator,
• Judy Schachner, children's book author and illustrator of Skippyjon Jones,
• Donna Aviles, presenter and author on the United States Orphan Train Movement, and
• Christina Baker Kline, One Book One Philadelphia author of Orphan Train.

So many of these connections have come as a result of my students and I reaching out on social media and asking.  This has been a big take-away that I need to explore more in the coming months.  In talking with Teen Ink's founder Stephanie Meyers when we first connected my students with her via Skype, she graciously showed us virtually around her office and said, "No one has ever asked me to do this, and I love it!"  In putting myself out there and asking anyone and everyone to come into my classroom - fellow teachers, writers, parents, other students - whether it is done in person or virtually, I have opened up opportunities for my students to connect with real audiences. Very little of their written work is seen by only me. We blog using Blogger and respond to classrooms around the country. Students post their work in online portfolios which can easily be shared with fellow teachers, students, and even parents.  And in talking with my students about these opportunities, I have also encouraged them to ask.  They are reaching out through their blogs and through Twitter in order to build their own personal learning network (PLN). I hope to share more of this particular adventure both here and in some upcoming presentations.

Yup, that's me presenting.

Speaking of which, wow! I need to share more of the presentations I've been doing! In the last few months I have had the opportunity to present at the Pennsylvania Council for Teachers of English Language Arts (PCTELA) as well as at the Michigan Google Summit. I was honored as an Emerging Leader at the recent PASCD conference. In a few short weeks, I'll be presenting at the upcoming EduCon conference in Philly with Christina Brennan on "Mentoring Passion" about how we connected my high school students with her elementary students through passion-based learning. And I need to share more about what I have learned from these fantastic organizations and connections.

So, I'm overwhelmed...but in a good way.