Links for Writing Teachers

MAGPI
K12 students and teachers are creating unprecedented opportunities for inquiry-based learning by expanding the geographic boundaries of their classrooms - - virtually and cost effectively. K12 schools on the MAGPI network participate in interactive video exchanges in real-time - - with their students' peers, content providers or experts from anywhere in the world. They have access to more than 100 MAGPI-produced interactive video programs each year. Students and teachers take advantage of multimedia files and learning objects through digital library repositories, create their own virtual words and use remote scientific instruments - - all without leaving their classrooms.

The Fischbowl: This I Believe Goes Global - We Want You!
For the past three years, I have had my classes write their versions of National Public Radio's "This I Believe" segment. I was introduced to this idea by a colleague and have been always impressed by what my students hold as their personal values and beliefs. Writing these essays has allowed for them to do something they don't get to do all that often at school - express their heartfelt beliefs. After writing the essays the first year, we submitted them to NPR, but we also decided to podcast them ourselves – no need to wait to see if NPR might choose to broadcast them. The writing was good at expressing their values, but once their voice was added to their written expression, WOW, it simply transformed that personal essay. Instead of the words simply being words, the words conveyed deeply held emotions. Now, this is the standard.

ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: Weekly Writer's Blogs: Building a ...
In this digital rethinking of the traditional weekly writer's logs, students analyze example writer's blog entries then begin the habit of writing their own weekly entries, which focus on the writing that they have done over the past seven days. These reflective assignments ask students to think about their progress on writing activities and to project how they will continue their work in the future.

Personal and Professional Development Links

• A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School
  great tool for introducing web 2.0 tools to teachers
• Where do you find the time? Shirky's Answer " Moving at the Speed of ...
  This past Thursday night, I was delighted to be a guest on the Seedlings' show on EdTechTalk, hosted by Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle, and Cheryl Oakes. My daughter, Sarah, joined us for the conversation and chimed in with both her ideas and questions for other participants. Near the end of the show, Bob asked me a question I've been asked a few times in the past: How do you find all the time to publish what you share? I fumbled around for an answer, and ended up saying something about MarsEdit (my favorite offline blogging software) and the value of creating and sharing for my own learning, long term memory, and digital archive of ideas (this blog.) I don't think that was a very good answer. A better answer, and much shorter one, would have been similar to the message of Clay Shirky at the Web 2.0 Expo in April 2008. The answer I SHOULD have given to Bob was this: I don't watch much television.
• Blooms Taxonomy Tutorial FLASH - CCCS Faculty Wiki
  The tutorials were created as interactive adaptations of the three Tutorial References listed on this page. If you cannot view/use the tutorials, please consult the references instead- Churches (2008) is especially useful as it includes in-depth information about the revised taxonomy and numerous activity examples and rubrics for evaluation of those activities. This page focuses exclusively on the cognitive domain of learning, but there are taxonomies for the affective and psychomotor domains. To learn more about these, see the Clark (2007) resource listed in the Tutorial References section of this page. There are also Other Resources to explore.
• Google For Educators
  The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.
• What is Web 3.0? Semantic Web & other Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English
  Web 1.0 – That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz. Web 2.0 – This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era. Web 3.0 – This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things. If that sounds confusing, check out some of these excellent presentations that help you understand Web 3.0 in simple English. Each takes a different approach to explain Web 3.0 and the last presentation uses an example of a "postage stamp" to explain the "semantic web".

Today's Interesting Links

• Promoting Literacy Skills and a Love of Reading | Literacy Connections
  Literacy Connections provides a wealth of information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. We recommend resources that are useful for teachers, volunteers, and directors of literacy programs. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children's literature.
• Son of Citation Machine
  Citation machine is designed to help student and professional researchers to properly credit the sources used. Its primary goal is to make it so easy for student researchers to cite their information sources, that there is virtually no reason not to -- because... SOMEDAY THE INFORMATION THAT SOMEONE ELSE WANTS TO USE -- WILL BE YOURS!
• Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric
  This online rhetoric, provided by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University, is a guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric. Sometimes it is difficult to see the forest (the big picture) of rhetoric because of the trees (the hundreds of Greek and Latin terms naming figures of speech, etc.) within rhetoric. This site is intended to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years).
• Concept to Classroom: Course Menu
  Welcome to Concept to Classroom! We've got a new look with the same great workshops. The site features a series of FREE, self-paced workshops covering a wide variety of hot topics in education. Some of the workshops are based in theory, some are based in methodology - but all of the workshops include plenty of tips and strategies for making classrooms work. Access the workshops in the menu below or visit the About the Series section to learn how you can apply these workshops toward professional development credit.
• 100 Twitter Feeds To Make You a Better Teacher - Online Courses
  New technology is not only unavioidable, it's a crucial part of education today. That's why so many teachers are Tweeting, and many others are following close behind. After you set up your account at Twitter.com, be sure to check out some of these great education feeds. Who knows? You might even learn a thing or two.

Links to Summer Reading Book Reviews and More

• Assessment Cyberguide for Learning Goals and Outcomes
  Although Bloom's Taxonomy proved useful to teachers and students alike, recent decades gave rise to numerous criticisms, implying that the model was out of date. These criticisms included concerns with setting applicability, contemporary language, and process conceptualization. More recently, Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) have adapted Bloom's model to fit the needs of today's classroom by employing more outcome-oriented language, workable objectives, and changing nouns to active verbs (see "stairs" below). Most notably, knowledge has been converted to remember. In addition, the highest level of development is create rather than evaluate.
• Marzano - How Classroom Teachers Approach the Teaching of Thinking
• The Innovative Educator: Ten Ideas for Getting Started with 21st Century Teaching and Learning
  I'm often asked for advice on how to get started with using 21st century tools to enhance teaching and learning. The mistake some people make is believing educators instantly need to become producers of websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks etc. Most educators need to become comfortable and familiar as participants in these environments before they can feel successful as creators in these areas. To follow are ideas that educators who want to get started with educating innovatively can explore.
• Review: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time « Books on the Brain
  So let me save all of you a few precious hours of your life and just give you the condensed version of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace… One School At A Time by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. I wish someone had done that for me! There's this big dorky American who climbs mountains, but not that well...
• She Is Too Fond Of Books … » Blog Archive » Book Review: Three Cups of Tea
  There were two obstacles in my way as I tried to enjoy reading Three Cups of Tea, both involve the way the story is conveyed, not the underlying message. The first lies in the almost hero-like worship Relin bestows upon Mortenson , allowing perhaps a generous amount of artistic license taken with the details, which Relin acknowledges fully in the opening pages, confirming for example that Mortenson seems to work with a very fluid sense of time.
• Of Beetles and Angels: a Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard - Book Review | Black Issues Book Review | Find Articles at BNET
  Asgedom employs elegant, uncluttered prose to tell of his struggle, surviving both the daily battles of the Sudanese camps, and the more insidious battles during his acculturation into the lily-white Chicago suburbs where he lands upon his arrival.
• The Labyrinth Library: Review 27: Three Cups of Tea
  Podcast of this review is also available. It's a great book, which opens a vivid window into a part of the world that most Westerners greatly misunderstand. It illustrates the wide variety of cultures and peoples that live in Central Asia, and the cultural history that has given rise to such a potential for conflict. The writing is very engaging, and there were a few points where I thought that the landscape descriptions were worthy of Tolkien - high praise indeed, I should think.
• Of Beetles and Angels | Bookstove
  Student review: If you had to leave America, move to another country, and without knowing the language, the people, or anything about the land how would you feel? Would you expect to be treated nicely by the native people? In the book Of Beetles & Angels a family from Ethiopia, moved to America and had to survive in America.
• "A Conversation with Mawi Asgedom" by Bella Stander
  Sometimes you meet the best people-and read the best books-by accident. Of course, there's a greater probability of such accidents happening if you attend the publishing industry's enormous trade show, BookExpo America. At the end of a long day last June, I was crammed into a ballroom with hundreds of other weary conventioneers, and fell into conversation with a slim young man standing next to me. His name was Mawi Asgedom, he said, and he was at BEA for the first time because he'd written and self-published a memoir, Of Beetles and Angels: A True Story of the American Dream.
• One journey, one book, one school
  Asgedom's first book was selected by the leadership team at Mckinley because it fit the goal of applied interest across age levels and reading ability. Students in grades six through eight read the book during April and May. Asgedom will visit the school today to discuss his journey from Ethiopia, to graduation from Harvard in 1999, to his life today as an author, speaker and American success story.
• Coded Inspiration: A Conversation with Mawi Asgedom by mikeOne < feature | Abesha.com
  As individuals, we are by definition unique. Bottled within each and everyone of us, is a life unlike any other, full of its own laughs and tears; joys and heartache; triumphs and trials. The one constant is the journey in time we all, willing or otherwise, embark on. For people in the diaspora the journey is both literal and figurative. Along with the steady tides of time, we brave new shores in search of that elusive betterment. Whether we find what we seek is both subjective and immaterial.
• Building schools in Afghanistan | PRI.ORG
  Greg Mortenson, co-author of the mega-bestseller Three Cups of Tea, has his own version of the debate over guns versus butter. How much a society spends on military needs versus civilian needs comes down to bombs versus books, or as Mortenson puts it, peace through literacy.
• YouTube - Loco Book Review - Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy reading this book - it's full of adventure, heartwarming relationships, a rollercoaster of emotions, exciting culture, and downright goodness.

Links for Teaching Literary Criticism

• John Lye's Courses and Sources Pages
  "Meaning" is a difficult issue, and what I have to say here only scratches the surface of a complex and contested area. How do we know what a work of literature is 'supposed'; to mean, or what its 'real' meaning is? There are several ways to approach this: * that meaning is what is intended by the author ; * that meaning is created by and contained in the text itself ; * that meaning is created by the reader.
• Department of English Languages and Literature - Courses
  Professor John Lye explores: -What is the Nature of and What Are the Functions of Literature? -What is the Nature of the Subject? -Who is the Reader? -What is the Relation of the Author to the Text? -What are the Relations of the Author and the Text to Society? -Where (and How) Does 'Reality' Exist? -What is Representation (Mimesis)? -What is the Nature and Status of Language? -What is the Relation of "Form" and "Art" to Meaning? -Where is Meaning?
• Brock University - Department of English Language and Literature
  Professor John Lye's page on literary theory.

What Teachers (and Students) Should Know About Facebook Privacy Settings

Did you know that a Google search can pull up photos you post to Facebook? Did you know that college admissions offices are now using services like Pipl to see what potential candidates are posting to social networking sites? Below are links to number of blog posts and websites that go into more detail about what both teachers and students should know when it comes to Facebook's privacy settings. Are you protecting yourself, your images, and your content? You should be.

• Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal

  Web 2.0 tools have critically elevated the social networking activity and skills of individuals. Not only are young people highly active in social networks, but older individuals are also showing a huge increase in their use of these tools. The attraction of older age groups is, of course, social connection and community building among professional and casual peers and friends.

• FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

  The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.

• Langwitches » Teacher Code of Conduct… Revisited

  I am wondering if there is a necessity to create a guideline or code of conduct how teachers are to present themselves in their private online network places profiles? Does the administration at school or the district have the right (duty) to bring the subject up for discussion and in the end to make rules? Is it their business or not?

• Facebook in the Classroom

  A good PDF resource for teachers on how to use Facebook with students.

• Facebook Strategies For The Classroom

  This presentation explores the potential uses of Facebook for teaching and motivating collaboration between students. Issues of privacy and intellectual property will also be covered, as well as advantages and pitfalls of social networks.

• Facebook Privacy for Teachers « Megan Golding

  I’m a Facebook user AND a teacher. Here’s how I locked down my profile so that I can have a social life and not worry that the world is watching over my shoulder.

• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

  All Facebook users should know this.

  
  
• NetSmartz Workshop | Facebook

  A good place to start for talking with students and staff about privacy issues on social networking sites like Facebook.

Resources for Teaching The Kite Runner

I'll be teaching Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for the first time this fall. To prepare, I've spent the last few days gathering resources and thinking about how I might frame this story when I present it to students. I teach a tenth grade World Literatures course, where students study fiction, non-fiction, and creative texts from the non-western world. As we read the various texts, we hone in on perspective - What perspective does the narrator represent/present? What perspective do we as readers from particular backgrounds and with particular experiences bring to a text? What perspective do other readers and writers offer on this text? So in thinking about how I might bring this theme into our reading of The Kite Runner, I'm considering presenting the students the basics of literary criticism to help frame the reading of the text.

I've taught students literary criticism basics in the past. We've discussed the foundations of historical, formalist, feminist/gender studies, psychoanalytical, and reader response theories as a type of lens that a reader might don to help understand the particulars of a text. By teaching literary criticism as a lens, I have found it also helps students understand some related literary tropes and devices. In the past, students have completed a WebQuest activity to help introduce the various theories.

The Kite Runner could prove fruitful for this type of study. However, I worry that using this type of frame might reduce the story to nothing more than its devices and context. I suppose this is the danger when teaching literary criticism in general. I'd love your thoughts and feedback on anything I should consider as I work on this curriculum unit.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the resources that I found online that might help others as they consider teaching this text.

RESOURCES UPDATED MAY 2014

• My Lesson Plan Materials
  Using many of the sources listed below, I created the linked lesson plans above that I use with my tenth grade English students.
• Discussion Materials from Bucks County
  Kite Runner was selected as one of the "One Book, One Bucks County" project. This document includes a wealth of resources listed by grade-level.
• Teaching Materials from Literary Cavalcade
  This document contains an excerpt from the novel, background information, and follow-up activities, including a narrative based on an incident in the reader's childhood.
• Historical Materials from Amnesty International
  I want to thank the Human Rights Education Program at Amnesty International USA for this comprehensive guide to The Kite Runner film. I think they have done a terrific service to the students, and I am grateful to them for bringing to light the nuances and many complexities of Afghan society and Afghan life via this guide.
• My Pinterest Collection for Teaching The Kite Runner
  In an effort to keep a current collection of resources for teaching The Kite Runner, I am using this Pinterest board to continually curate a contemporary collection of resources.
• Study Guide for the Historical Background of The Kite Runner
  As the table of contents shows, this Study Guide is organized into sections corresponding to the requirements any teacher might consider - pre-, during and post-reading activities. One of the virtues of this novel is that it unequivocally places the reader inside the narrator's experience of the Pastun culture. At the same time, this quality may create barriers for younger readers. This guide includes writing and reading activities to familiarize students with the background, history, and culture of Afghanistan.
• The Kite Runner Connects the English and History Classrooms
  "Promote Independent Thinking with The Kite Runner" is a curriculum unit that includes discussion questions and links to a WebQuests and unit plans.
• Lessons shared on Teachers Pay Teachers
  Haven't used Teachers Pay Teachers before? Check it out! Registration is free. Teachers post lesson plans for just about anything you can think of, some for free, some for minimal cost. This is a link to all the lessons on the site for The Kite Runner.
• The Kite Runner Summary at WikiSummaries
  Just found this. Apparently, WikiSummaries is similar to Sparknotes with chapter-by-chapter summaries.
• "The Kite Runner" Banned In Afghanistan - CBS News
  The Afghan government banned the film more than a month ago because of a rape scene of a young boy and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights, said Din Mohammad Rashed Mubarez, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Information and Culture. Shops selling the movie would be closed, he said.
  
• Teacher Handouts for The Kite Runner
  A final assessment for reading The Kite Runner. Use the links on the left side of the page to also access the teacher's materials for teaching this book.
• My Prezi to Introduce The Kite Runner
  This is the Prezi that I put together to introduce the historical background of The Kite Runner.  Here is the video version of my introduction.

UPDATED: Here are some more background resources and even more curriculum planning materials.