Teaching 101 - return to the classroom

After some time out of a school classroom context (three years) but still working in schools at the senior school level with a special project across three large secondary schools, I have been reappointed to a small K-10 school in the metropolitan area of my city in Australia. The school has high numbers of  EALD (English as an Additional Language and/or Dialect) students and the low levels of literacy are proving really problematic in the secondary classes I teach at the school.


Thinking, talking, writing and reading are all far down the list of my student's preferred ways to interact and communicate. They much prefer online gaming, and Facebook style gossiping, with verbal taunting including fast comedic retorts and high levels of sarcasm, such as those seen on web based social media sites such as fail.com. and various online memes. The notions of essays and the written style of communication as used almost exclusively in schools for educational assessment  purposes and for the ranking and testing of students is something they see as so far away from the world of what communication is according to what they know and experience it. The tools of language seem to be something they don't really see as useful or important  nor do they seem to know how to use language to express ideas, thoughts or opinions effectively.
They do not inhabit the world of books, films, TV, documentaries or libraries as did their teachers and the test setters. my students are as far away from the expected school forms of writing and reading as I am from understanding the writing and texts that are being created and shared on-line such as the Harlem Shake phenomenon.  

I have been teaching my secondary classes at the sentence and paragraph level with my 13-15 year olds across all classes having completed modelled writing sessions that have focused on the structure of sentences and paragraphs. Also surprising me, my 14 year olds are responding really positively to the use of word prompts in their argumentative essay writing task. I gave them a bank of  connective vocabulary such as; also, considering , firstly, secondly, most importantly etc, - all the ones that real writers commonly use in crafting their opinion based writing -  and asked that they have to go to use them effectively in their own writing. The kids seem excited to try them out, with a few students saying how much they liked trying to craft their writing to make it sound more 'grown up' and educational. 

Anyway...serendipity being ever present...I heard a Radio National interview of Peg Tyre this morning and as a result it prompted me back to my much neglected blog. The interview segment also gave me a sense that I could be onto to something positive for my kids and their need to improve - so I thought I'd share the link to Peg Tyre and her article she wrote in 2011, in The Atlantic. I have also added a link to the podcast to the ABC Radio National segment that aired this morning for you!

I hope you get something positive out of the links!  I did.  Enjoy!

      

Flipped classroom concept and its link to 'flow' learning

I think this concept of 'flow' as described by C.Birk in Connected Principals web, has a lot of potential to work with the increasingly interesting 'flipped classroom' concept - the idea of students doing the content reading and exploration online, at home or in library centres on the www, then turning up to classrooms to engage in the practical content of trying out their hypothesis, inquiry learning, clarifying, testing and collaborating, sharing and engaging with others about what they have learned, found, read or viewed - suits the idea of flipping the learning in the classroom.

Face to face teaching is then reserved as important contact time with the students & teacher in the classroom.The students exploration of theories, philosophies and ideas is more self directed and exploratory over the websites and channels we have available online, including MOOCs, webinars, networks, etc and the work undertaken by students in the classroom, takes on greater imporantance through the shift in focus form content  lecturing to a more dynamic teaching approach.

Flipped learning privileges contact, discussion, experimentation and practical application of what has been in the past often content driven schooling experiences within classrooms. Traditionally students learning from textbooks, whiteboards and curriculum packages.It also encourages the kind of informed and self directed learning that allows the student to get into the state of "flow" as described by Csikszentmihalyi and examined by C.Birk  - Good stuff for educators and those interested in blending delivery using ICT.

from little things big things .....grow! 

Finally I have found some time in between project demands and study to write again, such is the nature of multidisciplinary working from home roles!

DERN again continues to provide interesting research and links about literacy and technology.
Recently a very thorough literature review was completed on the topic of teenagers and texting. It resonated with some of my observations in classrooms and my own control group that I had prepared earlier - my teen  at home  - lol.

  

Gender and digital reading

I have included an interesting link from DERN. The paper is only brief but contains some relevant research findings on the topic of gender & digital text reading practices.  

I have a long standing interest in how the digital world in which our children and students are currently immersed has impacted on their literacy and learning practices, so thought I would share the research about reading on line - thanks to Gerry White and DERN for always bringing forward such interesting research up for discussion.  

 

 

  

Online participation experiences with MOOC #change11

I had my first opportunity to participate with the MOOC # change 11 on-line, in a live discussion, thanks to a Perth based Murdoch university guest speaker Jan Herrington, the start time was suitable for Australian based participants! The ICT was painless via Blackboard and the quality of the connection was good for the hour long discussion - some lag on audio and video but chatting via the keyboard with other participants was instant. I did find the keyboarding chat very open, broad ranging and encouraging so thanks everyone! It is a bit daunting to give it a go at first! I did find trying to read, type, listen, follow, comment was the most challenging aspect of the participation for me!
Enough about the the ICT  - it worked and was operated by me - unaided ( wee hoo! It must be fool proof)

The theme of the webcast was"Authentic Learning".

I got the gist of the content and got to follow the presentation. I did find the concept of "Authentic Learning" interesting but struggled to see the secondary school based subject application across most areas, without it becoming non-authentic and frankly it seemed a bit of a forced fit. This is mainly because of the premise that school learning is somehow 'authentic' and has 'real world' application.  'Authentic Learning' seemed to be best matched to vocational contexts - simulated situations, reporting, observing, etc. schools often are responsible for the skills prior to these simulated situations the ones surrounding the ability to writ a report, observe and record, report etc... it might have been that I got the wrong end of the story but Jan  Herrington seemed to be equating 'Authentic Learning' to realistic applicable tasks that have application only to the real world and any other type of learning such a 'learning to learn' seemed to not have application as a simulated real experience therefore was seen as a de-contextualised learning experience which rendered it inauthentic.  The definitions were ill defined rather than established and shared from the beginning. School based tasks seemed to be labelled inauthentic if they have little application for students beyond...well just learning it .. i guess for me it was the idea that in secondary schools are somehow not real world and instead offer learning that is not applicable to 'real world' was a strange position to begin from and it felt at odds with what I have understood of tasks assignments and assessment in schools. I  will read more on the topic and reserve my further comments for now but as a reflection this is my first blog on the topic - I'd love to hear from others about their thoughts on the topic.

Digital Learning

Have just attended attended a thought provoking and at times very affirming networking day on digital learning The keynote address was provided by Professor Stephen Heppell, and educator with specialist areas in ICT, creating learning environments and a great teller of interesting anecdotes from his formidable track record of projects in Education and learning. I was introduced to Heppell's work last year through the director of emergent form Paul Houghton - thanks Paul - really enjoyed meeting Prof. Heppell today and realising that the meeting from late last year has completed its full circle and led to my participation in such an exciting forum on future education directions for schools in the form of today's Digital Learning day.
Heppell's website is comprehensive, inclusive and challenging and something to behold - plenty of student voices too. I also enjoyed a workshop presented by x-cite logic's Jenny Jongste on wiki's and blogs - very good link was provided that I just thought was practical and addresses some concerns teachers have about how to assess  digital learning! The wiki is called edorigami and is set up by New Zealander Andrew Churches - fabulous stuff here - gold! 

I will write more on the blog about the day and my reflections soon - meanwhile enjoy exploring the links!

 

Info-graphics and visual text production

I came upon this interesting website that gathers infographic examples and has created a community of visual data images that are appealing and interesting and well suited to the graphics of most ICTs today.. if nothing else it is full of excellent examples of visual texts.

It got me thinking about how information is changing through the establishment of web-situated content and therefore how we locate, read and interpret that content is changing. This in turn changes how we teach and what our students expect from the texts they read/view.

Codes of visual language and the skills of layout, design, font and colour choice all have an effect on a  texts 'readability' The balancing of these aspects of visual text creation leads to an increased need to understand how we communicate visually through psychology & brain function and how the construction of on-line texts effect understanding and learning ....

Exciting times for teachers and students - me thinks! Perhaps this is a direction that curriculum content needs to head  - the need to develop visual & digital literacy skills has never been higher... along with social interaction, communication, negotiation, inquiry methods and much more. These are the core curriculum areas now...to quote a 15 year old student ..... "The need to know what Australia's main mineral export product is died for me the day my mobile phone learnt the answer"... hmmm well.. ...yes...