Think-Aloud, 'Real Blogging' and Storify

In my reading of education blogs I keep coming back to the work of Will Richardson. One thing that has been a persistent mental irritant with no small measure of dissonance for me is Will's thoughts on how much of what bloggers do is, in fact, not really blogging. This list of what does/not constitute blogging resonates-

Posting assignments. (Not blogging)

Journaling, i.e. “This is what I did today.” (Not blogging)

Posting links (Not blogging)

Links with descriptive annotation, i.e. “This site is about…” (Not really blogging either, but getting close depending on the depth of the description.)

Links with analysis that gets into the meaning of the content being linked. (A simple form of blogging.)

Reflective, meta-cognitive writing on practice without links. (Complex writing, but simple blogging, I think. Commenting would probably fall in here somewhere.)

Links with analysis and synthesis that articulates a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind. (Real blogging)

Extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period of time that builds on previous posts, links and comments. (Complex blogging)

And as my students begin their work reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" Will's list kept nagging at me. Then I thought "isn't a lot 'real blogging' just a Think-Aloud?" So in lieu of the usual pre-reading lists and worksheets my students are going to be blogging. Real blogging - but blogging as a Think-Aloud. 

Given that mimetics is at the heart of learning I thought that I'd try my own Think-Aloud with a recent article. The article is about how Death Valley is experiencing a rare occurrence - an outbreak of wildflowers. 

 

Right away images of the desert spring to mind with the mere mention of the name "Death Valley". The smell of wildflowers, dry winds, kalediscopic colors all flood the senses, but so do other texts. One I can't help but think of is the closing monologue of "25th Hour". While it's an amazing finish to a so-so film the use of the word "desert" always brings this scene to mind: 

From the opening lines of the article 

A rare burst of color is softening the stark landscape of Death Valley, with clusters of purple, pink and white wildflowers dotting the black basalt mountainsides and great swaths of golden blooms bordering the blinding white salt flats on the valley floor.

these connections just come given the idea of flowers springing from land that is otherwise dead. It also recalls T.S. Elliot's Wasteland and the opening stanza

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

 

and while this poem connects to the processes at work in the article it also connects to my own experiences with poetry. Elliot's Wasteland was one of the first poems that I read and reread in high school. At the time I couldn't at gunpoint tell you why it was always around me, and even reading an article about wildflowers in Death Valley, the poem still haunts. 

The article isn't without moments of confusion though. In all of the amazing descriptions surrounding this phenomenon and all of the flowers listed, I had no idea what a "chia" was. Contextually, it was obviously a wildflower, but I couldn't even place a color to the flower. 

The other moment that I had trouble comprhending was the bit concerning the pools of water:

The recent storms have turned part of the salt pan around Badwater Basin — normally a brackish puddle a few inches deep — into a reflecting pool about five miles across. Kayakers and windsailers cut across the shallow, lifeless water. Other visitors wade in, only to emerge covered in a salt crust.

This is an engaging description but it's hard to fathom whether this pool became both deeper and wider, it must have to accomodate the windsailers and kayakers, but if it swelled to being miles across it just doesn't read correctly. 

I don't know how often I'll come back to this specific article, perhaps only as metaphor. But images and idea of life and color springing forth from the desert is compelling. Especially when the article closes with something so closely connected to T. S. Elliot 

"This isn't a wasteland," Muick said. "It will start looking empty when the flowers are gone, but there's life there at all times."

 

As a bonus here is my first attempt at using the webtool Storify. It's an interesting service and the features lent themselves well to the requirements of a Think-Aloud. 

 

 

 

 

Reigniting the Muse of Fire

It's been a tough week in my district with tragedy befalling our student body prior to an extended weekend coming up. While the shock is still something being processed, the students have been making good use of writing to work toward a sense of catharsis. Blogging, like writing, often offers the chance for reflection and thought. 

This video of a talk by Sir Ken Robinson is something that has this writer thinking about the future and what needs to be done in education. Sometimes in darkness it's incumbent upon us to ignite something if no other illumination can be found. This video is something that's shining a light for me. It's Sir Ken Robinson being given the RSA Animation treatment. 

Socratic Circles and Backchanneling v.1.0

My classes have gained experience in the use of Socratic Circles this year. The basic formula for that activity is one of the following:

students first read a passage critically and then form two concentric circles. First, the inner circle examines and discusses the text and the second circle comments on the quality of the dialogue. Then, the two circles switch places and roles, and the process is repeated with the new ideas from a new circle. The outer circle is required to remain quiet while the inner circle reacts and dialogues, and conversely, the inner circle must listen quietly to the outer circle’s evaluation of their conversation.

One new feature we are experimenting with is the use of backchanneling. One backchanneling that's been a part of this experimentation is Today's Meet. Today's Meet gives their own basic definition of  backchanneling as:

The backchannel is everything going on in the room that isn't coming from the presenter.

The backchannel is where people ask each other questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give you the most immediate feedback you'll ever get.

The procedure is now altered to one of:

1. Group the class into two circles.
2. The Inner Circle speaks first using Socratic questioning methods.
3. The Outer Circle backchannels using Today's Meet while the Inner Circle discusses.
4. Time is called and the transcript of the backchannel is turned into a word cloud for analysis.
5. The Inner Circle's work is evaluated while new topics are generated from the evaluation and word cloud.
6. The circles switch and the new circles have their respective discussions and backchannel sessions.

So here is an example of Socratic Circles at work with students discussing the first part of "The Odyssey".

 

Here is the transcript of the backchannel from that session. Below is the word cloud generated from the backchannel session:

 

"Telemachia"
Click on the link above to see this word cloud at WordItOut. You may also view it on this website if you enable JavaScript (see your web browser settings).

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Mr. Smith's Class and 21st Century Teaching

Flipping the Paradigm of Homework

Writer Daniel Pink's article for the Telegraph has been making the rounds in various educational circles. In the article Pink first presents what has been the traditional model of education in the U.S. for the better part of the 20th century- 

During class time, the teacher will stand at the front of the room and hold forth on the day’s topic. Then, as the period ends, he or she will give students a clutch of work to do at home. Lectures in the day, homework at night. It was ever thus and ever shall be.

The article goes on to detail what Karl Fisch, a teacher in Denver, Colorado is doing to change this paradigm. 

However, instead of lecturing about polynomials and exponents during class time – and then giving his young charges 30 problems to work on at home – Fisch has flipped the sequence. He’s recorded his lectures on video and uploaded them to YouTube for his 28 students to watch at home. Then, in class, he works with students as they solve problems and experiment with the concepts. 

After reading Pink's article and the thoughts of marketing researchers like Seth Godin it's an idea that has merit. But first I'm going to put the question to my students and to all readers. 

Daniel Pink's full article on "Flip Thinking"

Complete the survey on "Flip Thinking" if you'd like to share your opinion. 

Sharing Reconciliation with the People Formerly Known as the Audience

Lately there have been a few words that have become ubiquitous in media discussions of education. That's right: standards and data are everywhere when education comes up as a topic. Everything in education is either "standards-based" or "data-driven" no matter what the topic is. Whether it's the adoption of a new set of standards or a supposedly well-intended instance of agitation, in education the words 'standards' and 'data' manage to resurface often. But in being given this opportunity to guest blog, the word that haunted the build-up toward approaching the topic of reconciling standards and 21st century learning was not standards but data. In a fit of 21st century research it can be found that data is defined as 

–noun

1.

a pl. of datum.

2.

(used with a plural verb) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent 

the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate  processing by the computer.

3.

(used with a singular verb) a body of facts; information: Additional data is 

available from the president of the firm.

In all of the angst that surrounds the lemming rush of educational systems surging to become standard-based data-driven entities the definition of data gains new importance.  If data is simply a set of items of information, educators need to keep this fact in mind when the word 'standard' is wielded as a weapon. It is this writer's fervent belief that educators everywhere really are doing good work with students every day. What has been lacking has been a succinct way to communicate this fact. Cynicism aside, testing and the use of data has arisen as a part of the problem that education wants for ways to articulate what it does. In the midst of heated editorial pages and town-hall levy meetings achievement testing has become a baleful blade possessed of precious few handles. But how much do those strident voices demanding accountability even know about what is on those tests? 

The debate surrounding accountability and standards is often presented within a frame of binary solutions when what is truly needed is reconciliation. Wanting more for students is no more wrong than wanting a real assessment of learning. If education is to move forward and repair relationships with all stakeholders it must be with a sense of reconciliation. As Daniel Pink shows us, some surprising things can be learned from data particularly in relation to motivation. 

But if the tests used to derive the data only reward lower-order thinking how can education survive when its very funding is tied to what some consider to be the antithesis of higher-order thinking? The answer lies within the word 'data'. If data is a body of facts, education must use standards as a basis of learning not as a myopic and duplicitous lens. Data is present in everything education does. Data does not stop with a test score. But then how is the picture to be properly painted to all involved? How can accountability, standards, and the need for 21st Century skills be reconciled for all involved? 

The roots of this repair are present within the very 21st Century skills that are required by a shifting modern world. In the book "Cognitive Surplus" author Clay Shirky calls digital media users "the people formerly known as the audience" because 

When you buy a machine that lets you consume digital content, you also buy a machine to produce it. 

The binary distinction of student and teacher loses focus in the context of 21st Century technology and skills. If education is to repair the schism between 21st Century skills and standards-based education it must come through the sharing of data. The items of information for such sharing can come from the activities already going on in classrooms today. Data doesn't have to come from a one-shot testing window; data can come from qualitative learning experiences that still use educational standards. But such sharing will require a change on the part of educators. 

If educators are to reconcile educational standards in the context of a 21st century world, the "four walls syndrome" must cease. The times of saying that "<insert educational initiative name here> is just a fad" and will pass must become the past. No more closing the doors to the world and teaching within one set of four walls. To begin this reconciliation educators don't have to be Scott McLeod, or Shelly Terrell, or Will Richardson. Your school doesn't need to be on a laptop initiative or have a seamless online class management system. Use your cellphone to record a great student discussion, create a Facebook page for a class, have students concoct a Twitter hashtag to conduct larger discussion, or join a PLN yourself. But educators must share what is going on in their classroom with all stakeholders within the community and world around them. Isolation cannot be the default for those that feel educational data selection is subjective. Karl Fisch and others are taking steps to change educational paradigms; all you need to do is start to share the good that you do. Share this reconciliation of education with the people formerly known as the audience. 

Starting an "Odyssey" in the Answer Garden

Today students begin reading "The Odyssey" by Homer. The pre-reading will include reviewing a summary of the text and then researching the names they find to determine if they are indeed deities in the text. After that the deity names need to be entered into the Answer Garden below.

 

 

Which Greek Gods and Goddesses are present in "The Odyssey"?... at AnswerGarden.ch.