Let there be light! The past three years, I have spent working on my master’s through a joint partnership of Visalia Unified and Fresno Pacific. I am ecstatic because, as of today, I have submitted all of my paperwork. It will now follow the path of editing to revision to publication. Praise God!
This was a partner activity with Gina King where we produced a radio podcast on Javier Molina.
I am excited to try a new type of assessment, performance assessment. This will be in lieu of a multiple choice assessment that I previously used. The students will have choices (pick a character in the novel or play), and they will have to determine four character traits that best represent their character. In addition, the students will give two text examples supporting these character traits through the character’s thoughts, words, or actions, or the thoughts and actions of other characters toward the chosen character. I anticipate a greater level of application and synthesis with this assessment than I have previously exhibited in my students. Attached is the lesson plan, graphic organizer, and ChecBric I am using.
I am at the beginning of a new relationship to technology. I am incorporating power points into my lessons for instruction as well as teaching students how to use power point in their projects. I have created a wiki with one class to see how it would work. It was exciting to see the poem they edited change in many ways using figurative language. I have set up a del-icio-us account for our unit on “Romeo and Juliet.” Podcasting is another area I am experimenting with, and I can see the possibilities for a Flickr account with my students. The knowledge I am learning will have long-standing effects for my students as they continue in the future years to experiment, collaborate, and create innovative ideas using technology. The future creativity that teachers bring to the classroom using technology and the Read/Reflect/Write/Participate Web will be a pathway for improving student learning and motivation. I am excitied to be on board the ship that leads to the real fun of learning.
Big Shift #3 “The Social, Collaborative Construction of Meaningful Knowledge” (Richardson p. 128) is acceptable, plausible, and eventual. My main concern with it is that until college professors start changing their way of instructing, students will enter with a lot of experience in collaborate work, projects, and performances, but be destined to the typical teaching style of independently producing work for a limited audience for the grade. That is the part that needs addressing. Students who enter college will be ahead of their teachers in technology and ways of learning and making meaning from it.
Big Shift #5 “Know ‘Where’ Learning”  (Richardson p. 129) is another area where I have a concern. I have always felt that students need to know the basics (math facts, handwriting, spelling, punctuation, essay format, works cited–to name a few–in order to function in the world of education. But now, many of these things can be done for them with little effort. Calculators will figure out their math facts, computers take away the need to write well, spell check fixes most every mistake, and resouces will be cited for them in the correct alphabetical order and format. I teach 7th grade, and one of our standards is being able to write their resources correctly on a works cited page. This standard is not done on the computer. Many of the students have been relying on the computer to do it for them. They don’t seem to feel the need to learn it. Also, I’ve noticed their spelling and punctuation is getting worse due to e-mailing, which has its own unique spelling and codes. So, I guess though the web can help us access sources quickly and easily, I still feel students need to know the basics so that if the calulator batteries stop working, they can go “back to the blackboard.”
The last Big Shift #9 “Master Is the Product, Not the Test” (Richardson p. 131) is one that I think we had already shifted to, but then we had to shift back. There was a time when projects and products were used as the assessment for the standard. These were even done in groups; but once student scores went down on the CAT 6 and CST’s, it was back to testing. Even our report cards only list the tests as the means of reporting whether a student has proficiency in a standard. I must admit that many teachers including myself are being more creative now with the interpretation of what is “proficient,” test or product.Â
It was questioned in this chapter, “Would you feel safe in a world where kids were awarded drivers licenses by just passing the written test? I didn’t think so” (p. 131). However, students do not get to the actual driving participation unless they have passed the written test.Â
I like the idea of products showing mastery. My two children are very different: one with the ability to test easily, the other has to work harder with less success. But in the classroom, the one who has test anxiety produces higher quality products, and the one who tests easily, does not put in as much effort and produces average quality products. So, testing is not the only measure of student mastery. I hope it will change in the future in the college settings, too.
I really like the free sites for uploading music to go with a podcast. An idea I liked in this chapter is the “Poetry Corner” (Richardson p. 116). I could see this as being a great podcast idea. The interview with Scott was interesting and fun. I will attempt to post it with proper editing and music. There are many possibilities for this kind of technology applicable to the classroom. I could see the students making a podcast that would teach other students a particular standard. It could also be used as an alternative project exhibiting a student or group’s knowledge of a standard. It’s way cool!      Interview with Scott
I’m looking forward to trying this with my class. My goal is to have pictures where students have to write an essay or paragraph with the picture–or slide show–helping to initialize their thinking and creativity for writing. Other thoughts I have for this kind of “fun” is to have a place where students can see pictures of people, customs, and geography, to name a few, that are linked to a novel we are reading, such as Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher-Staples (setting in Pakistan, Cholistan desert, and Moslem religion). This could be a very exciting site to visit, but I would keep it limited to our class.Â
I finally decided to keep it simple for the first try. I invited a few of my students to the Flickr account to view the four pictures I posted. They are to write a comment under each picture which reflects some type of figurative language: similes or metaphors. I will be sharing their responses when they send them. Wish me luck!
This section has so many possibilities. I established a del.icio.us account where my students can go to find sources that relate to our unit on “Romeo and Juliet.” It is exciting to be able to have a place that is safe where they can go to get answers, but also where they can add other sites to help our unit. This idea got me thinking about one of my passions: Jane Austin. Richardson (p.91) can be quoted as saying, “Suddenly, it’s easy to find all sorts of other people who have the same interests or passions as you do.” I have read all of her books several times, and I’ve even read a lot of the books people have written that have been–in my opinion–pretty effectual attempts at continuing the Darcy and Elizabeth legacy. Now, I can find new books sooner than going to Borders and browsing myself.Â
I don’t know if having an RSS would make me cancel subscriptions to paper versions of magazine and newspapers…maybe down the road. But one thing that is certain is that the most important thing about the potential for RSS is helping students “develop a keen eye for quickly spotting the most relevant and interesting information…skills our students are going to have to develop in order to flourish…quickly discern what of that information is most useful….it’s our job to model and teach these skills” (Richardson p. 77). That is a huge task with so much inappropriate information out there, and potentially inaccurate information. Teachers definitely need to help students develop a detective’s eye when distinguishing what is relevant and factual from what is hyperbole and opinion.Â
I was looking back through some of the reading we’ve done, realizing that I hadn’t written a blog on some of the chapters, when something exciting hit me (Richardson p. 49). It was the idea of celebrating good work, using blogging to reveal to other students the great work that can be shared with the class in a class blog. It really grabbed me when (Davis, 2005) talked about weaving “together excerpts from all of her student blogs so they can easily see the things their peers are writing about and so feel that sense of accomplishment that Anne so wonderfully imbues.”  Wow! That’s exciting.
