In the forward, Brendan Kelso discusses the important scenes of Shakespeare that have remained with him since high school.  These are the scenes that are alluded to and remembered, such as, “Romeo, Romeo; wherefore art thou Romeo?”  The most important element of this book is that all of the famous lines that teachers want students to remember are there, but the lines are connected with language that students understand.

The plays can be acted out in 10 minutes or less which is perfect for a flip video rendition of  Romeo and Juliet.  I plan to use this fabulous book to group my students and create flip video versions to post to our student blog pages.  Not only will students be able to recite some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines, but they will also be able to connect with the characters in the play to develop a greater understanding and appreciation of Romeo and Juliet.

Thank you Brendan Kelso and Playing with Plays for your excellent, engaging, and short enough to be able to use in class, melodramatic plays.

On page 5, Hicks discusses the purpose of his book, which relates to the obvious changes in technology; he explains how to create a writing workshop that goes beyond paper and pencil to implement a workshop that emphasizes 21st Century skills.  Hicks addresses RSS, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and he provides a companion website to support the book at the Digital Writing Workshop Ning.

I love that Hicks discusses how to introduce NPR’s This I Believe series into the classroom.  His ideas, thoughts, and rubrics are more than enough reason to buy this book.  If your high school is not implementing this writing assignment at some level in your school, I highly suggest that you visit the website and buy Hick’s book to discover why it is a keeper.

The most important element that Hicks brings up is on page 104 when he discusses why we are missing the point when we assign digital projects as assignments.  Is the font, the colors, or even the number of slides used, make a project relevant?  None of this really assesses whether a student can effectively create a worthy digital product.  As an English teacher who understands that digital elements and images are connected to words on a deeper level than just using the required number of pictures in the slides, I know this is true, but assessing and creating a rubric is difficult.  The Digital Writing Workshop demonstrates not only how to use new technologies, but also provides teachers with charts of effective digital writing.  If you have just purchased this book, turn to page 115 to figure 6.2 to see what I mean.

I have used wikis and nings with my students, but this is the first year I have ventured into letting my students support their own personal blog.  Hicks created a Blogger’s Matrix that includes assessments for teachers to use with student bloggers in the classroom.  I plan to incorporate these assessments into my classroom.

I was excited to find a book called The Digital Writing Workshop.  The title alone inspired me, and I knew that this would be a book that would be an invaluable resource in my classroom.

I recently read on the ning that the Heinemann is offering a special discount on this book thorough Nov. 30th.  I encourage you to purchase the book to discover how you can change your classroom with digital writing.

Creating a Romeo and Juliet Ning with Students

Last school year, I used two different nings in my 9th grade English class.  I created the first ning to engage students as they read Romeo and Juliet, and then I created another ning to accompany the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.  Before we began reading Romeo and Juliet, I discussed how a ning has a format similar to Facebook and told students that they would join the ning in character.  I then modeled what I expected by joining the ning in character as The Bard.  I wrote my responses to the profile questions as if I were Shakespeare joining the ning.  I told my students that they would answer the same profile questions but from the perspective of their character (we drew names).  I divided up the characters in Romeo and Juliet and then added a few extra main characters to cover all of the students in my class, so we had a Romeo 1, 2, and 3, for example.  I gave my students a planning sheet to fill out as we began to read the play.  Students connected with their character so much that my plan to listen to the play on CD went astray.  Students wanted to read the parts of their character.  I believe showing the students the ning before we began reading the play and modeling how to create The Bard profile page enticed students and inspired them to create worthy ning profile pages; I know it definitely kindled their interest in reading the play.  Although we were almost finished with the play when we actually created the ning profile pages, we continued to post on the ning as we went back and closely read certain acts, and this greatly added to their overall understanding of the tragedy.

Creating a To Kill a Mockingbird Ning with Students

I decided to introduce the To Kill a Mockingbird Ning before we began reading the novel.  I set up this ning differently by focusing on connecting outside literature, text, and videos to the novel.  I used the event tab to write up assignments and due dates for posting to the ning.  Students’ posts reflected their understanding of the universal themes presented in To Kill a Mockingbird and how those themes were connected to the other media introduced in class.  Although this ning was introduced differently, it also engaged students because the ning guided their reading and provided a way for the students to digitally respond to the novel’s themes and further the discussions started in class.

Creating a ning for the entire 9th grade class

Ambitiously, our high school created an entire 9th grade class ning for this school year.  Our lead 9th grade Keystone teacher, Tim Hall, wanted to add a technology element to Keystone that included all 9th grade students and teachers, so we created a Class of 2013 Ning.  We are using the ning to connect 9th grade students with each other and their teachers as they transition to high school.  This is our first year to use a ning with an entire class, and so far, in addition to using the ning as a communication tool, it is also allowing us to open discussions about posting responsibly on the web, introducing effective online discussions, and creating a positive web presence.

Where to start?

To create a ning, I first watched Steve Hargadon’s recorded webinar on Building a Ning from Scratch.  Follow the link to the Ning in Education webpage and look under Highlighted Resources in the lower left corner.  The Ning in Education is also a great community to join if you are looking for more resources and information about how to use a ning with students.  I also belong to several other educator nings.  If you are an English teacher, I recommend that you check out the English Companion Ning if you want to connect with other English teachers.

Other ning examples in the English Classroom

I would also like to recommend that you check out these nings: James Miscavish’s classroom ning: LHS Freshman English and Candace Follis’s blog page that has links to her classroom nings.

I decided I needed to know if a Smartboard is  a worthy technology tool to have in an English classroom.  Would it benefit my students or would it just be a great gadget that might engage my students for awhile?  I started my research.  I started with Dana Huff.  You can view her posts related to a Smartboard here.

Then I moved to the English Companion Ning.  Many resources for using a Smartboard in an English Classroom are posted on the ECN.  Just go to the website and search for Smartboard or click on this LINK to read one of the forum discussions.

Next, I started to search for software that I could use with my mythical Smartboard to assist my students in engaging, interactive lessons, and I discovered Smartboard enhanced software lessons provided by Prestwick House. After reading what my students could do with the enhanced lessons, I knew that I really wanted to try this out.  I googled reviews and decided I had to have a Smartboard to use with the Prestwick House software.  I am not a traditional student myself.  I need to move around, and I am very visual, so just sitting and listening to a teacher go on and on is much like Charlie Brown’s teacher, blah, blah, blah, and I have no idea what she said.  Poetic justice has given me students much like myself.  I deserve every one of them.  They need to move and see what is happening.  I know that technology is just a tool; it is never the complete answer, but I do believe that the ability to drag clauses, parts of sentences, punctuation, and the like around on a Smartboard is not only engaging, but it will make a difference in those students who have to move and create.

I wrote a grant to ask my district to provide me with a Smartboard and software to engage my students in class.  I am not sure if it will be considered one of the worthy grants they receive, but even if it isn’t, my district has given me the opportunity to request this money for my classroom.  Every district across America should earmark money for teachers to write up their requests and explain what technology tools they want to use in their classroom and how it will benefit the students.  Our district form is just a short four part form and well worth filling out.  I can only hope that districts across America are also implementing this strategy.  America needs to ask teachers what they want in their classrooms: How will they use it, and how will it benefit students?  I am so impressed with the teachers that I follow on Twitter and blogs that I believe if districts across America implement Bryant School District’s process of asking teachers what do they need and how will they use it,  school districts will find that they have teachers who are creative and innovative when it comes to finding ways to engage students, and this is what will make the difference in America’s students.

Imagine you are a 9th grade student with more on your mind than writing an essay about To Kill a Mockingbird for your English teacher.  How could you resist the allure of the first six hits you recieved?

I do not want to use turnitin.com just to bust my students when they take the easy way to writing an essay, but after reviewing the features at turnitin.com, I realize that this website will provide my students with feedback that evaluates the amount of original writing in their essay.  Students will understand if they have paraphrased too closely to the original.  They will see the percentage of quoted material used in their paper versus their own words.  Students will also begin to realize that they cannot use another person’s words as their own.  Not only is this plagiarism, but it is against the law.

As a teacher, sometimes I must emphasize the hard lessons in life.  One of those lessons is that a student must avoid the easy way by avoiding copying and pasting an essay off of the internet, even though it is readily available as one of the first hits.  Just because a student is under pressure to achieve and “everyone is doing it,” is not a reason to undermine one’s developing writing skills as he or she works to become an effective writer.  I somewhat blame the irresponsible companies that are allowed to post freely to the internet and advertise in a way to fool students into thinking that the essay students copy is not true plagiarism, but as a teacher, I also have a responsibility to step up and teach students that they will constantly be bombarded with the “easy” way, when the best way is in earning a grade based on their true ability.

In order to succeed, our students must depend on their own understandings, develop their own rationale, and learn how to communicate effectively.  Turnitin.com is just a tool to help students understand and focus on developing their own skills in order to succeed in a world that isn’t always truthful.

In the “Foreword to Teachers,” Degen said a few things that all teachers of writing should note.

Too many teachers merely assign a paper, provide little instruction over the methods for achieving expectations, and scream while grading “these terrible essays.”

He admits that he unfortunately did this as well, and I too am guilty.  I can’t imagine a teacher who hasn’t done this at some point, especially early on in his or her career.  In this same section, he reminds teachers that we must always remember not to assume that our students will just know how to write by the time they reach us, regardless of their grade level.

The ability to communicate through writing develops at a much slower rate than does the ability to communicate through speech and requires much more formal instruction.

In my own classroom, I have discovered that the process of writing must be practiced and modeled by the teacher in front of the students “repeatedly,” or the students will simply not learn how to write.  Degen ends the section he titles, “Demonstrate the Writing Process Repeatedly” in the “Foreword to Teachers” by saying,

To keep assigning papers without teaching how to write them is professional negligence.

In this last statement, Degen does not apologize for rebuking teachers, and  I welcome his censure and expectations.   Knowing it is my job to teach my students to read critically and write clearly,  pushes me to continually seek out the advice of authors, teachers, and other professionals who can assist me in my endeavor.

How does Degen provide assistance for writing teachers?

Degen provides his own list of editing symbols to assist the student in understanding their own writing.  He also provides teachers with numerous examples to use as models for revising student writing.   I particularly found chapter 4, “Grammar for Structure and Syntax,” useful.  Is this the magic book that will turn me into the writing teacher that every student needs?  No, it is a tool that I will use as I develop my own writing abilities and my own strategies for modeling effective writing.  Yes, I highlighted and sticky noted the really good stuff that I will use, but I have many, many books with my annotations.  Although all of this advice becomes overwhelming at times, what I have discovered as I continually seek answers is that the strategies start becoming a part of me.  I begin the school year reviewing my favorite writing instruction books and the more I re-read the pages, the more I learn and the more I incorporate all of this advice into my teaching, which also makes me realize that I will never find the perfect book.  I will always be seeking knowledge that will help me become a better teacher.  This is my job, and as long as I am seeking and employing effective strategies in my classroom instead of merely handing out assignments, I won’t be guilty of negligence.

Edublog

Each student will have his or her own Edublog, which will give the student a broader audience and more ownership of his or her work because the blog will be less controlled by me, the teacher, than one of the other web tools.  The students will link to the main class blog in the Blogroll for easy access.  See the main class blog below:

Mrs. Seale’s 9th Grade English Class Edublog

For organizational purposes, I have linked a Google Site and Calendar to the Edublog, so I can easily post handouts and assignment instructions.  Students also have easy access to Google Sites because our district is using Google Apps this year.

Mrs. Seale’s 9th Grade English Class Google Site

Because students enjoy contributing and creating profiles using a Ning, we will use a Ning (our own social network) for a special project in which we communicate as if we are characters from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  Implementing this Ning project worked last year, so I plan to use it again to engage students while we experience and discuss Shakespeare.

My grant proposal title is The Rest of the Story, a video novel project. I wrote about my idea in an earlier blog post, titled Using Video to Teach Character Perspective.

My class reads To Kill a Mockingbird in my 9th grade English class.  I hope to divide the class into groups and have each group create a video from the perspective of different characters in the novel.  The assignment will engage kinesthetic learners who benefit most from a hands-on approach to learning.  Additionally, the project will help students who struggle with a lengthy novel by providing a focus to closely read and discover the motivations and view point of their character.

I recently read Teaching the New Writing by Herrington, Hodgson, and Moran.  The authors point out that the NAEP framework requires that writing standards incorporate digital composition by 2011.  Therefore, It is important that English teachers implement lessons that utilize digital skills not only because of the NAEP standards, but because students need to be able to produce “the New Writing” to become successful in a digital connected world.

Winning the grant is not exactly based on the merit of the grant proposal.  All grant ideas are posted on the We Are Teachers website, and visitors at the website are encouraged to vote on the best idea.  Unfortunately with so many ideas to read through, I believe many voters will vote for either someone they know or the first good idea they read.  So if you think my idea has merit and will benefit the students I teach, please visit the We Are the Teachers Voting Page and vote for Tara Seale.  I on the 18th page because the grant proposals are listed in alphabetical order by the author’s name.  Last time I checked I was in the top 15, so I appreciate all of you who have voted for my grant idea.

Voting ends on August 10th.