Comprehension Processing Questions with videos

A few weeks ago, I wrote a short post about using Comprehension Processing Questions. I was asked for some follow-up information, so here is follow-up number one (yes, there is even more to come). 

I teach at an incredibly diverse school. Because we are in Texas, we tend to focus on our Spanish-speaking population, but we have students and families here from all over the world - Vietnam, Nigeria, Middle Eastern countries, South American countries. 

We are moving into a unit on expository text, and our first reading set is about immigrants and the challenges they face. Although some of my kids have a great deal of background knowledge in this area, some have none. So I searched for a video to help, and I ran across this: 

Although it had not come up in my summer training, I wanted to give my students something to focus on with this video. I created a Comprehension Processing Question to guide them: What do immigrant parents give up when moving to the United States? We discussed the question, and I clicked play. 

At first, my kids starting making notes in response to the CPQ, but I noticed that their pencils were being put down very quickly. I sat back and watched, wondering what was happening. As soon as some of my students started getting teary, I declared victory. I had, as the kids say, put my students all up in their feelings. That moment was worth so much more than their responses to the CPQ. 

We did, however, watch the video a second time in order to answer the question. My kids were able to discuss - in detail - what they had heard in the video. I do not show many videos in my class, but this certainly added value to what I was attempting to do with my lesson. 

Up next - CPQ with expository text. Stay tuned. 

Plausibly Preposterous: Mixing Vocabulary and Grammar (Part I)

Before I left for my trip to San Marcos last week, my students were reading an article about the Loch Ness monster in Scope magazine. In our reading, we ran across the words preposterous and plausible, and I decided to do some more work with them because the kids seemed to enjoy speaking with them. 

Monday, we started with a modified vocabulary routine. I put both words together since we discussed them a bit last week. I gave them pictures to identify as preposterous or plausible, including pictures of a much younger me (sometimes you just have to go there to keep them engaged). 

Now that my classes are comfortable with the Texas Literacy Initiative vocabulary routine, and because I am an ESL teacher, it was time to add another component: writing. Our school theory is that all students are English language learners, and as such, they need to listen, speak, read, and write every day. The kids have been doing a great job using the words in social conversations both in and out of my classroom, but I wanted to make sure they could use preposterous and plausible academically. 

Last weekend, I was in San Marcos for the TexTESOL conference. I learned some incredible things in my day and a half (I was also presenting, so I did not get to attend as many sessions as I wanted). One of the presenters, Colin Ward, introduced me to the website Just the Word. The site allows you to type in a word, and it returns common uses of the word. This is a benefit for students who are encountering new words that they may not be familiar enough with to use correctly in their writing. Providing students will phrases instead of single vocabulary words helps them use the words more effectively. 

Preposterous did not return any common phrases, so I gave my students two of my own: "That's preposterous", and "That idea is preposterous." Plausible returned six phrases, four of which I gave to my students for their use. Even though I provided my classes with these options, only a few students used them in their assignments. Most were able to effectively use the words on their own. 

I also had the honor of seeing Gretchen Bernabei at the conference last weekend. Bernabei presented information from her upcoming book due out in January. I took one many of her ideas and added to the writing lesson I was putting together for this week.  

The first idea I incorporated into my writing lesson was a simple trick (at least I think they are) to use with their, there, and they're. I chose to start with there:

Bernabei talked about having the kids prove that they are using the correct form of there/their/they're. I am constantly on my students about providing text evidence (proof) with our reading assignments, so adding this component to their writing was a natural fit. 

For there, the students use (here) as the proof piece. I initially gave this instruction but after a day, I realized that my kids were not actually checking anything. I added a piece to make sure that they were actually thinking through the method. In addition to (here), my students had to define the here (Bernabei asked us to play with her methods and see what works for us, so I do not feel guilty for the modification). For example:

• There they are. 
• Where are they?
• Here. 
• Here where?
• Here in the school/cafeteria/classroom/etc. 

Bernabei also said that if her students used the word correctly one time, they earn one grade. If they use it five times, they earn two grades. I decided to follow her lead, and I have to say it was a fantastic idea. I do not give extra credit, so most kids took advantage of this "easy" option for earning an extra 100. 

Here is what the some of the first drafts ended up looking like:

We followed all of this up with an editing/revising activity. Stay tuned for Plausibly Preposterous: Mixing Vocabulary and Grammar (Part II). 

"Stolen Ideas" - Definitions and Photography

I have mentioned before that my school is part of a state grant, the Texas Literacy Initiative, and the focus this year is on vocabulary. I stumbled upon this in my Twitter feed today, and my brain has been twitching with ideas ever since. I said I would wait until Saturday before I started doing anything school related, but my brain does not agree with that decision after 6 /2 days of little educational stimulation. 

Today's Daily Create (@ds106dc) assignment: Using Dictionary.com's word of the day, take and share a photographic representation of the meaning. 

How easy and wonderful is that. Not only can I use this with a word of the day to expose my students to more vocabulary, I can also assign words from our readings for them to do this with. We are a Bring Your Own Technology school, and most of my students have some sort of camera. For those who do not, they can always draw something. They can also use photo editing apps to add some creativity. 

Of course, what is a great idea without some practice? 

Today's Dictionary.com word:  

As a former daytime soap opera addict (I am only a nighttime soap opera addict now), I know this meaning. The second definition, however, caught me off guard. I decided to go with that one because it is new to me and because I cooked a turkey Christmas Eve. 

So without further ado, here is my photographic representation of schmaltz:

Yum!

Now I need someone to teach me how to use Flickr because I have not logged into the site in years. 

Vocabulary Routine for Milkweed: Ghetto

Now that turkey break is coming to a close, it is time to get back to the daily grind. That means Sunday lesson planning! 

My Pre-AP class is reading Milkweed. This is not a difficult read, and I have not pulled out any vocabulary so far. But we are now traveling to the ghetto in the story, and this is definitely a word I feel needs to be taught explicitly. 

I admit it. I'm guilty of using this as a slang term, then turning around with my old lady voice and saying,"Do you have any idea what that word really means?"

Although some of my Pre-AP students will understand the word in context, some will not. I am sure some have been doing their reading over the break with an image such as this in mind:

My apologies if this is a picture of
any of my readers and/or family/friends/
acquaintances of my readers.
Blame Google Images. 

I have worked at the same school for 10 1/2 years now. I know my students. This kind of image, or one similar, is going to come to mind when reading the World War II story as soon as they see the word ghetto. 

So, I have put together their vocabulary routine lesson, complete with various images from 1940s Warsaw, to ensure that they never forget what ghetto really means. I did add an end piece asking them to briefly write about how they think the 1940s definition used in the book has turned into the slang definition we use today. I am curious to see what they come up with. 

The Giver: Chapter 1

While my Pre-AP students are reading Milkweed, my academic students will be reading The Giver. Last year, I will honestly admit that I did some of my worst teaching with The Giver. I was frustrated with my students. They refused to read outside of class, impeding the lessons I was trying to cover in class. For the most part, we listened to the book and did very little with it. Of course, when I was doing this, my newly-promoted secondary superintendent was brought to my classroom to view some of the finest teaching our school has to offer. (sigh) Not my best moment, but I refuse to let it happen again. 

Prior to beginning the novel, we will be going through our Texas Literacy Initiative vocabulary routine with the word release. Although I know my kids know this word, I want to put focus on it since it is such an important concept in the novel. We will be viewing the presentation with Nearpod so that I may assess understanding of the term. I am not expecting any issues here. We will come back to discuss this more after reading the first chapter of the book. 

Last year, I began by having my students create their own perfect societies, but it become more of a distraction and never truly connected to the novel the way I had initially intended. This year, I'm throwing that out the window. For chapter 1, we will focus on Contrasts & Contradictions from Notice and Note. They are already familiar with Contrasts & Contradictions, but now we are going to shift away from characters and focus on the setting. I want them delving deeply into the differences between Jonas' world versus our own to see what this "perfect" world is like. 

In preparing the Contrasts & Contradictions lesson, I incorporated Christopher Lehmans' Close Reading Ritual from Falling in Love with Close Reading. The lenses will be focused on the setting of the story. The patterns will be the Contrasts & Contradictions. We will then use this information to create a picture of Jonas' society. 

As with some of my previous lessons, I am going to have my students respond to the presentation questions using Nearpod. By using Nearpod, I ensure that every student submits a response, rather than letting another student answer on his/her behalf. I can skim through their responses and see who is understanding the text and the strategy, as well as who is not. This information is also saved in a report that I can use as needed.

This is definitely a better start from last year's teaching. Ain't nobody comin' back this year to say I ain't doin' my J-O-B!

Playing with Nearpod

I am a lifelong learner. I will never know everything I would like to know, but every opportunity I have to learn something, I jump at it. 

Last night, I had the opportunity to work with our district Texas Literacy Initiative technology representatives. They came to campus and conducted a workshop on educational apps to use in the classroom. My favorite of the night was Nearpod, especially since I make PowerPoint presentations for everything. 

With Nearpod, I can upload my presentations, then edit them to include polls, short answer responses, draw responses, quizzes, and videos. My presentations now go from discussion to complete interaction. Not only can you have the students respond, you can show their responses anonymously to discuss (or laugh at, as we did with the drawings today). The program will also save a report of all the responses to whatever you have within the presentation. 

Today was a district testing day for us, so I only had two afternoon classes. I decided to throw together a quick test run. I did tell the kids we were playing today, so you'll see some of the non-seriousness. 

This was a hit from the very beginning. There was so much smiling going on in my classroom, and that doesn't usually happen after three hours of testing. They were 100% engaged. The only complaint I heard was, "I don't wanna put this on my phone. It takes up memory!" Teenagers. 


I have pasted each slide with some of the student responses:

SLIDE 1

SLIDE 2

SLIDE 2 RESPONSES

SLIDE 3

SLIDE 3 RESPONSES

SLIDE 4

SLIDE 4 RESPONSES

SLIDE 5

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 1

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 2

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 3

SLIDE 5 - RESPONSE 4
(NOT SURE WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THIS SINCE I AM BLOND)

TLI Vocabulary Routine: Round 2 (Reflection)

I love this strategy. I love love love love love this strategy. Did I mention that I love this strategy? I do. I love it. I loved it the first time. I loved it this second time. 

The Texas Literacy Initiative vocabulary strategy engages students. The kids are actively involved in learning the material. 

1. They repeat the word. I have them do this in different ways for my own enjoyment - say the word, say it like a cat, say it like a dog, say it like a boss. I definitely see some future actors and actresses coming from my classroom. 

2. They are analyzing usage and providing informal assessment information with a thumbs up/thumbs down response. I can scan the room and visually see who is understanding within a matter of seconds. Both times I have conducted the routine, when a student provides an incorrect answer, he/she will go back to the sentence and process again until he/she figures it out. Watching a student take the initiative to actually correct himself is pretty impressive. 

3. I learn a great deal about my students through my examples and non-examples. Case in point: Today, one of my sentences said that parents are vexed when kids take the initiative to wash dishes on their own. One boy told me that he is not allowed to wash dishes because his parents think he is does not clean them well enough. I think this is one smart child!

4. The kids are speaking to one another in complete sentences with the Seven-Up Sentences. I did not complete this part of the activity last time. This time, I added it, and the practice was magical. I am one of two eighth-grade ELA ESL teachers, and getting my ELLs to speak in front of others can be a struggle sometimes. This was a no pressure partner conversation, and everyone was talking, in addition to working with the given word. 

5. They are learning. It has been a few weeks since we went through our first vocabulary routine. When I referred back to our gripes lesson, I was immediately barraged with a chorus of "to complain." Sure, a few kids forgot, but after a few seconds, the first lesson seemed to pop right back into their brains. 

6. They made connections between two lessons and were able to write about it using the words. 

I have not yet taught this strategy to my campus colleagues, but the training is coming up soon. I cannot wait to share and model how this works with them. 

Vocabulary Strategies for "The Tell-Tale Heart"

I will begin teaching "The Tell-Tale Heart" later this week. I am working on two vocabulary strategies for this lesson to mix things up: the Texas Literacy Initiative vocabulary routine and another strategy called Sketch to Stretch. 

I will start the vocabulary work with the vocabulary routine for the word vex. I chose this word because it ties in well with our last vocabulary routine for the word gripe. I want my students to be able to view words in connection to one another, rather than isolated pieces from different readings. I have heard my students using the word gripe - correctly - in conversation with one another, so I will be curious to see if they pick up on vex the same way. 

The second strategy, Sketch to Stretch, comes from Vocabulary Strategies that Work, a book provided by the Texas Literacy Initiative as part of our vocabulary focus. Sketch to Stretch was originally created as a reading comprehension strategy for visualization (I am going to use that as a connection piece at the end of the reading). In this process, students read a section of text, then create a reaction drawing. By the end of the reading, they have a series of drawings to help them recall information. [If you search this strategy online, you will find a great deal of information.]

Wilfong has adapted this strategy for vocabulary study. Students read a chunk of text, then they choose a word from that section that they feel is vital to the meaning of the selection. They then draw what they think the word means in the given context. 

Since this is the first time I will be using this strategy, and because "TTH" tends to be complicated enough for my students to understand, I have modified Wilfong's strategy to suit my own needs. Rather than use Poe's text, I am giving my students modern-language sentences with selected words from the story. They will create their drawings and definitions based on this information to help them apply it to "TTH".

Follow-up to come after I teach this Thursday or Friday. Stay tuned.

Texas Literacy Initiative: Vocabulary Routine

This year, my school has become part of the Texas Literacy Initiative. This is a grant that helps support literacy efforts from ages 0 -18. The focus for 2013-2014 is vocabulary instruction. Our at-risk students come to school with a significantly lower vocabulary knowledge-base than students from other family backgrounds. If we want out students to make it to college (or simply get by in a future workplace), it is imperative that we find effective ways to provide vocabulary instruction. 

I am serving as a pseudo-instructional coach for my school regarding this grant. I have already had the opportunity to attend professional development with state representatives that I am bringing back to my campus for my students and colleagues.

This week, I incorporated the TLI vocabulary routine into my classroom instruction. In the professional development sessions, the routine seemed extremely time-consuming and very dorky. Boy, was I wrong on both counts. The entire routine took no more than ten minutes, and it only lasted that long because the students were so engrossed in what we were doing. 

I conducted the vocabulary routine with the word gripes to accompany a news article. The first group I completed the lesson with was my Pre-AP students. I thought for sure that my group of 29 was going to hate this activity. Wrong! By the time we finished, one of my girls called me over and said, "Are we going to do more words this way? This was fun!" Out of all my students, she was one of the last I expected to hear this from. 

My favorite experience was with my co-teach class, a combination of special education and academic students. My co-teacher and I struggled to pull in the reigns with this group. Not only were they fully engaged with the routine, but they managed to turn it into a song. My classroom was full of singing, dancing, and clapping. How is that for vocabulary instruction?

I honestly thought most kids would know this word, but a quick show of hands throughout all my classes showed the contradictory. I think it is incredibly important to point that out because we often assume that our students know more than they actually do. I am working hard to break that mindset, and this vocabulary routine has provided me with an entertaining avenue to break through to my students.