At the beginning of the school year, I decided to focus on increasing the amount of reading that my students did in class. While I have to occasionally remind some students that they shouldn't be catching up on other school work, the majority of my students have indeed read more books than they had originally planned on. I'm still working on incorporating some of the ideas from "The Book Whisperer," mainly on dealing with reporting and accountability, but I've been happy with what I've seen.
Student writing, though... well. There's still some room for improvement.
About this time every year, thoughts turn to final exams and on whether or not we have been adequately preparing our students for the writing that they will be expected to do. This has often led to a frantic rush in the final months to practice some of the structured writing required of them. I'll also do quite a bit of thinking about how I could have been using writing more seamlessly earlier in the year. And so... here we are again.
I came across an article from Edutopia that I'm curious to try out. If the headline is to be believed, I can "increase engagement and lessen anxiety" when it comes to writing.
"Fire writing" is simple enough: don't stop to erase and fix the mistakes. Just keep writing. Rebecca Alber encourages teachers to provide written prompts that are designed to encourage fluency and stamina. Where I haven't always followed through is in the act of providing a space for students to share their work with others. The act of sharing with others and providing feedback helps to provide experience and comfort with the revision process. I was also intrigued by the idea that I have already implemented with my reading program: just as students can choose what book they're going to read, they should have the same freedom to decide what they're going to write about. Working with specific structures doesn't always have to be so restrictive.
Alber also introduces (at least to me) a strategy for assessment called GRASPS. You can read more about it here but the acronym itself represents:
G... What is the real-world GOAL?
R... What is the real-world ROLE?
A... What is the real-world AUDIENCE?
S... What is the real-world SITUATION?
P... What is the real-world PRODUCT or PERFORMANCE?
S... What are the STANDARDS?
It should go without saying that having students help to craft at least some of these statements would be a helpful exercise in helping to increase student relevance and buy-in.
More to come on this one, methinks.
Classcraft Returns
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| Character or 'Avatar' creation remains popular. |
After playing Classcraft for the better part of last year, I decided not to use it this year. I enjoyed the game, but I had some issues with how seamless the entire thing was with my existing structures and routines. I even had some students complain that it was taking far too long to deal with some in-game elements and that they would be much more interested in moving forward with what we should be doing.
When a colleague approached me a few weeks ago and told me that he had discovered this amazing new game called Classcraft, I was able to answer some questions and give my take on a few things. Soon, though, I started asking questions of my own. It was becoming clear to me that many aspects of the game had been changed and improved from when I had last played it. I found my own excitement building again and it wasn't long before I took the plunge and signed up once again.
Classroom pitches proved to be pretty successful and I very quickly saw kids perk up as I described what would be happening with this game. We are a little more than a week into things and already kids are coming in and asking about our Daily Events or how they can be using their powers and abilities to help out their teams.
I still have a few kids who aren't sure about the whole process, but I've felt better about the product being offered and how I can use it more effortlessly as a teacher.
I'll report on my progress later.
~Mr.T
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