Coding Text-Based Gaming in ELA #NCTEChat

I am always looking for different ways to engage students in ELA classrooms. As a gamer, I've been looking for a fun way to engage student gamers in the classroom and I think I have found a very fun way to do that.

One of the oldest types of computer games were text based Role Playing Games (RPGs). You would be given test based descriptions of what was happening and you would have to type what you wanted to do next. You could travel from one place to another by typing in "go west" or some other direction. You could pick things up and use them as needed as long as you typed the instructions. I thought that creating a text-based RPG would be a great lesson for students for a few reasons;

• Story-telling - Students need to work on telling stories. Creating a narrative around a game they are creating is a fun way to practice their writing skills. Building a plot, creating a protagonist and antagonist, and working on their descriptive writing are skills that writing for a game can help enhance.
• Proofreading - Proofreading code to make sure everything is where it needs to be to run properly is crucial. These proofreading skills need to constantly be practiced. The importance of punctuation in coding is the same as the importance of punctuation in standard writing.
• Interactive - Writing a game and being able to play it and share it with friends to play is a more interactive way to write. Any errors in writing that are found while playing can be shared and debugged later. 
• Differentiated - Writing the code for this game can become a very complex game or a very simple game depending on the person writing the code. This allows all different skill level writers the chance to explore story-telling through code in ways that meet their skill set. 
• It's different - Sometimes, it is good to do a bit of writing that is different than just sitting and writing. This offers a nice way to change the pace of the classroom writing students are used to doing. 

The more that you have your students doing this, the more benefits you will find. Below are the steps I took to laying out the lesson. 

Note: You do not have to know how to code to do this lesson. Do not let the code scare you away. 

Day 1:

I introduced the Raspberry Pi RPG tutorial program to the students. This link is shared on Google Classroom so all students can access it. The program is very nice because it does not ask students to understand the bits of code that are provided, it only asks students to fill in some blanks and recopy what is already given to them. The tutorial is really helpful because it allows the students to work ahead if they are quicker in understanding what needs to be done. The tutorials takes students to an online code program called Trinket. You can have students create a free account so they can save their code and come back to it later. 

As a class, we work together to add one room to the program. By the end of one class period, the students should have added one room to their game. They are asked to try and add another room before the next class meeting. 

Day 2: 

For the second class meeting, we will have students learn to add an item to pick up as part of their game and we will add a monster. The tutorial walks the students through all of this and makes it easy for them to copy and paste in the Trinket website. 

For the next class meeting, I ask that the students have an item and a monster added to their game and 5 total rooms. 

Day 3:

For the third class meeting, we will focus on how you can win your game. After finishing their game, we discuss the different types of stories that you could tell with this type of computer game. Mystery, adventure, space adventure, spooky, etc are all possibilities. The students are asked to start brainstorming a story that they would be able to create a maze-based game around. 

Day 4:

Students are asked to start mapping out their maze that will fit in the narrative of their story. By drawing out their maze room by room, it will make it easier to code. I drew out my map to help me and it made the overall design much easier to code. 

Days 5-7:

Students should be coding their game around the narrative they have created. This is where they can have fun and create the game they really want. By Day 7, they should have something that can be tested with other students in the room. 

Days 8 and 9:

Final proofreading and debugging should take place and the games should be ready to share with the class. Trinket allows users to share links to their games so others can remix them and try them out. Posting those links in a Google Doc or in Google Classroom would be helpful. 

Depending on your students, this can be done more quickly or you can spread it out over time. Since the tutorial is self-paced, this could be something you have students work on a little bit each day. 

Here is the game I created. It is far more complex than the ones that students are working on, but I thought I would really have a go at it. [Update: I added a search feature that can allow players to search rooms for extra treasure that is randomly pulled from a list, but there are rooms rigged with traps, so a search of a room with a trap will cause death unless you have found an amulet to protect you. There is so much more I can add and tweak. I'm becoming a little obsessed with it.]

The game is still a work in progress, but if you want to take a look underneath the hood of this code, follow this link.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter or leave a comment below. I have some very excited students working on this lesson and some of them have told me they have over 10 rooms after only a couple of days. I can't wait to see what they come up with and share them out with the community.  

Writing IS Making #MakerEd #CSforAll

The more I have spent time sharing Making and Makerspace with people, the more I get to reflect on those conversation and see how others perceive the act of making. I also spend time thinking about my own practices and how I used to teach in my English classes. The one thing that stands out is that writing is an act of making that should be in the same conversation as coding, 3D design, and other forms of creation.

When I work with students and teachers, the focus of making is not learning tools. The focus is on designing to meet the task at hand. The process looks a little like this;

1. Identify the problem or question

2. Generate ideas to address the problem/question

3. Prototype one or multiple of those ideas

4. Evaluate the prototype and have others offer feedback

5. Iterate the prototype or start over with a different concept

6. Repeat steps 3-5 until a final concept is found.

7. Take prototype and turn it into a final product.

8. Share your final product

(Editor's Note: Now, these are not the end all be all steps in the making process. Every person with have their own steps and some mini-steps that fit in here. There are things I might not have written that I take for granted as part of one of these steps. The point I'm trying to get at is that I don't want people to feel that this is a set in stone guideline on how to make.)

These are steps I present to teachers as they plan lessons that involve Project Based Learning and will require students to create an artifact to demonstrate understanding. I also use these steps to support students as they explore creating something that really want. As I started to articulate these steps, I noticed something that connected to my English background. This is the very similar to the writing process.

For writing, I would ask my students to follow this process when writing,

1. What is the question you are being asked to address or the assignment you were given?

2. Generate different ideas to address the topic of this paper or assignment.

3. Put together a rough draft of one of your ideas.

4. Review your rough draft and share with others for their feedback.

5. Make corrections and change the piece based on feedback and observation.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until a final draft emerges.

7. Submit final draft to class.

This writing process can work for a formal essay, a short story, a poem, or any other form of writing. When people talk about STEM only used for Makerspaces, it really bothers me because the Arts belong in a Makerspace. We need to bring all of these pieces together to form STEAM so that all students can feel like the type of making they want to do is valid.

For ELA teachers, I want you to look at this model and see how similar it is to the writing process and I hope you feel more comfortable trying to integrate other forms of making into your classroom. If the students mirror the writing process, they can follow the maker process because they are one in the same.

This one of the ways that The Maker Mentality works across curriculum and can help create a culture that all students and teachers are makers that just use different mediums. So, before you dismiss writing as an act of making, focus on the process and not the tools. I think you will see that making is all around you. 

A @Snapchat Project Based Learning Attempt #EngChat #PBL

I wanted to change things up for my students the week before finals and after we finished the Mock Trial of Mark Twain. My students have been doing plenty of writing, so I was looking for something a little different. Instead of coming up with something on my own, I asked the students. During our discussion, Snapchat was mentioned and an entire project grew from there.

The thing that I decided to focus on with Snapchat is that it offers a very specific point of view. The user can quickly share their thoughts on anything and any situation. They can add effects to add emphasis or even context if needed. This ability made me think about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because the story is told strictly from Huck's point of view. What if the other characters could share their point view on events from the story? This is the foundation for this assignment.

My students are currently working on this assignment and are pretty excited about it. They are limited in time (two days), but are working hard to share their characters point of view. The students have already created accounts and their "Story" will be posted Friday morning and last for 24 hours. They will also download them and post them to YouTube so we can view them later. I encourage you  to follow these accounts to see what they create.

Boggs' Death                                     Freeing Jim

        Huck_Finn17                                      WhatThe-Huck

                                     Willbury.Madi                                    Tom.Sawyer17                             Col.Sherburn                                      Fun_Jim

Wilks Con                                        Royal Nonsuch

                     HuckFinn1995                                  TownsPeople84                       

Joanne_Wilks                                    HuckBoi_Finn

KingLuvsCash                                   DukeOfTheBilge

Here is the assignment if you want to see where I started. I think that this assignment can be used for many different stories that use first person point of view, but it not limited to that. Other stories written in the third person could still use the same assignment. I also think that history classes can accomplish the same thing. How might soldiers engaged in the same battle on opposite sides view the outcomes? There are plenty of possibilities if we are willing to go beyond the norm when creating project ideas for students. 

I do not know how this is going to work out in the end, but I thought I would share it and see where this takes us. This project might be refined based on your suggestions or it might lead to a different project altogether. Stay tuned for the Snapchat stories going live on Friday morning.

Update:

Here are the videos that students uploaded to SnapChat for the project. The students shared them and then dowloaded them and then uploaded them to YouTube. We encountered a few hiccups along the way, but the students did a great job problem solving and then provided wonderful feedback on the project.

Hiccups:

When uploading snaps later, they upload in the order they were taken, not the order of the upload. This means the students will need to create snaps in chronological order next time.

There was some discrepancy on whether or not you have to follow someone back so they can see their story, but it was determined you can adjust your settings to address this issue.

Some students uploaded their stories the night before instead of the morning of and that threw off the 24hr connection of the entire group. That is fine the students said because you can always re-upload the story again after the 24 hours has passed if needed.

Feedback:

Students said they enjoyed the project as a nice diversion before Finals.

Students said it was fun, but not as in depth as the Mock Trial.

Students would be interested in trying it with other stories. Maybe Huck Finn did not lend itself to this specific project. The Great Gatsby was suggested as another possibility.

Videos:

Here are a few of the videos from the project. Some of the Snaps are not in the correct order due to the hiccups mentioned earlier, but they are a valiant first attempt at something brand new to everyone involved.

The Wilks Brothers Con

The Royal NonSuch

I Wish I Did Not Have To Teach Huck Finn #EngChat

Ever since I've started teaching Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I've longed for the day that I would not have to teach it any more. It's not because I think it is a terrible book. Actually, I think it is one of the most important pieces of American Literature ever written. I still wish the day would come where I don't have to teach it.

I say this because Huck Finn is a beautifully written piece of satire on race and white society's view of race, and it is still very relevant today. I long for a day that the book is no longer needed to draw parallels to modern society where easy comparisons are made. I hope every year we will get a step closer to viewing the book as an example of the archaic times we used to live. For every year I thought we were a step closer, we took steps back.

A surface reading of the text would have some claim that Huck is a wonderful example of a white person standing up for what is right and protecting Jim, the runaway slave. That is the easy view. It's the view that makes most people feel better about themselves. "Huck can't be racist, he has a black friend!" This is far from the truth. Huck Finn, the character, is racist.

We can have the debate, and we do in class, about whether or not Huck's racist view of the world is his fault or is he just a product of his society. At what point is a person maturation can you no longer claim it is how you were raised? When do you become responsible for your beliefs, and not the beliefs of your mothers or fathers? These are the tough questions we tackle in class because they are still relevant. The minute the book not longer connects to the world we live in, I will happily retire it. Sadly, we are not there yet and I'm not sure when we will get there.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is still a challenged book in this country and that is sad. We need to be having these conversations now more than ever. We need to own our history, discuss it, and look to the future. Twain was not a perfect person, but he wrote a book that still makes every person think about their lives, their privilege, and how we can move to make the world a better place.

I take pride in the fact that I have the honor to help students navigate this text and I hope I can do Mr. Twain's book justice. If I don't, I might be stuck teaching the book until I retire.

Hugs and High Fives,

Nick

What are you waiting for? #EdChat

I found myself saying this a bunch the past few weeks. We've been discussing Transcendentalism the past few weeks in my American Literature class and we focus on the importance of the individual and what conformity means in today's society. I'm always a bit saddened by some of the defeatist attitudes of students when confronted with the idea to change who they are and follow their passions. At the high school level, some students already feel like it is too late to explore what matters to them or to stand up for their beliefs. It hurts my heart hear such young people think this way. Some students say that they want to follow their heart. I always shoot back,

"What are you waiting for?"

I make it a mission to encourage students and offer support to them in thinking about making changes. The words of Thoreau, Emerson, and Whitman are bookended by the songs of Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Katie Perry to show the students that finding who they really are is still very relevant today. We discuss social media and the illusion of perfection we often try to portray to the world around us, when a student suggested it is the imperfections that make all of us special and beautiful. I'm constantly reminded of the words of Emerson,

"Trust Thyself" and "Imitation is suicide"

These simple aphorisims are so important to remember and so difficult to follow. We strive to please the world around us and are afraid to follow our heart. We need to create a world where our students are not afraid to believe Emerson and be free of the fear societal judgements.

As I think about encouraging students to find out who they are outside the influences of society, I think about teachers who have trouble finding their voice and identity in the classroom. It took me a few years and a great friend and mentor to help me find me. I'm not sure I'd still be teaching if I hadn't found me. For the teachers out there still looking to find who they are or want to show their real self to the classroom, I will say to you what I said to my students,

"What are you waiting for?"

Hugs and High Fives,

Nick

We Want Your Huck Finn Stories #EngChat

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is  one of the most important pieces of literature ever written in American History. Mark Twain wrote an amazing story tackling the issue of race that still resonates today. It is one of our favorite books of all time and a joy to teach with our students.

Literature teachers are part of a wonderful community and we share many stories about our favorite novels. Huck Finn is one of those books that brings this group together. Ask any ELA teacher for their Huck Finn story and they will share with you an amazing tale that will be sure to make you laugh, cry, and shake your head. These teachers also have great lessons that they use to get students to see the classic the way that Mark Twain had always hoped people would see.

After sharing our love of the book, we thought it would be an a great idea to collect these stories and lessons put together an e-book that all teachers could read and share. In particular, we’re looking for your stories about teaching this novel in present time.

We want your stories about how you've made sense of this text in a diverse classroom. We want your stories about this book being challenged by parents/community. We want your stories about making this book relevant for your students.

If you are interested in sharing your story or lesson, please fill out this form by May 30 and we will pull all of this together over the summer so teachers can have something awesome to read by the start of the school year.

Please share this with anyone that has a great Huck Finn lesson or story worth sharing!

Thank you,

Nick and Meenoo

@thenerdyteacher

@meenoorami

Thank You Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird was never a book I appreciate or understood in high school. Hell, I'm not sure how much I truly understood it when I started to teach it for the first time. It took they eyes of children, eyes much like Scout's, to truly show me what TKAM was all about.

Harper Lee passed away today and she left us one of the most important novels in American Literature. The voice of Scout is a narration authors can only hope to capture in their novels since TKAM was released. 

To me, Atticus stands the test of time as a figure doing his best to leave a better world for his children. His words of wisdom still ring true today.

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." 

- Atticus Finch 

Harper Lee crafted a tale that spoke on race, poverty, education, societal norms, and so much more. It is a book that is powerful and has the ability to, not only remind people of the way this country used to be, but the way the country still is in many ways.

For this, I say Thank You Harper Lee. You left us a gift that will continue to matter  for years to come.

Silent Class Discussion With Google Classroom #EngChat

Last week, I was out a couple of days for the MACUL conference and I was challenged by my principal to make sure that learning still takes place while I am out. I am always up for a challenge, so I spent a couple of weeks trying to think of the best way to make sure my students get the most out of the class time while I was out.

I've used bulletin boards, message boards, and other similar tools with students in the past, but I have never had students have a discussion in class using these tools while I was gone. They have always been used for after school work. My idea was to have a silent class discussion. I'm not sure if others have used this term before or if I made it up, but it was an interesting concept. What if students could engage in a full discussion on a topic using iPads and their own personal devices.

The Set Up:

I wanted students to discuss 4 Emily Dickinson poems. The focus on the poems must start with the learning objective they chose at the start of class (Post coming soon), but then they may go off into other areas if they wanted. I created 4 videos that I recorded by using Google Hangouts On Air. I basically invited myself and recorded me reading Emily Dickinson poems while sharing my screen that displayed the poems.

I uploaded each video as a new announcement with the directions.

The students have 49 minute class periods and that would be plenty of time to ready the poems and comment. I sent a Remind text to them in the morning to remind them to bring headphones. I wanted students to listen to the poems and then comment. I also gave them some areas to consider when discussing the poem. What happened next, blew my mind. 

Silent Class Discussion

I really had no idea what was going to happen with the class discussion. I hoped there would be a nice dialogue about the poem and the students would share a few ideas and move on to the next poem. The picture above shows that there were 55 comments on the first post. I have a class of 31 in that hour. When I went through the post, I was happy to see that everyone had a comment and others had multiple. I was actually able to join the conversation during the opening keynote (Sorry George!) and it was great. 

Olivia, who was an absolute rock star while I was gone, responded to my comment earlier in the post and it was as if I was in the class. The posts were filled with such great comments and everyone bounced back and forth with their thoughts on the different poems presented to them. There was a point where I wondered if I was holding students back in class when I'm in the room. Was I holding students back in class? Am I too involved in class discussion?

Another thing that was cool to watch unfold without any suggestion from me was how the students communicated and responded to one another. To make sure everyone knew who they were responding to, the students used @ and the student's name. It would be great if Classroom allowed users to tag others like you can in Facebook, but this method started by the students worked very well. I followed their lead and communicated to students that way when I responded to their questions. These were comments for the first question. I figured things would wind down near the end of class as students wrapped up the discussion. I was way wrong.

The exact time stamps are now gone, but Mary Kate was responding to a previous comment asking about her thoughts on what fire represents. The thing with Mary Kate's last comment is that it took place 20 minutes after my class ended. She was in her next period responding to a comment that was left on 5 minutes before hers. That means the other student was commenting in their next hour. It was amazing! (I do not condone students doing my work in other classes, but it was pretty awesome to see how engaged their were in the discussion.) The conversation was so engaging that students felt the need to finish their thoughts and it did not matter that they were no longer in my class.

The other thing that stands out about this 4th question is the fact that there were over 80 comments on the 4th question. When students might have decided to slow down as the end of class approached, they provided the most feedback on this poem than any of the others. Students were quoting lines from the poem, using facts from websites, and even providing varying definitions to words to support their points. It was so great to see the kids invested in the discussion.

Final Thoughts:

This worked out in the best way possible. The next time I am out of the classroom, I will be using this. I'm annoyed I have not used this earlier in the year. There are still some major steps that Google needs to take with Classroom before it can become an integrated part of my class every day, but this experiment showed me a way to get the most out of it for now.

Poetry and Phineas and Ferb #EngChat

"Poetry Stinks"

That's how I start my Poetry unit with my Freshmen. I know that there are many students that have a nasty view of all poetry. I feel that it is easy to just embrace it and see where it goes. I spend the first half of class asking kids why they do not like poetry and I will agree with them. There are some kids that are poetry fans and I will push back or encourage them to convince me that poetry is important.

After the first half of class, I ask the kids if we can just discuss music instead of doing the poetry unit. Kids tend to get very excited about this and shout out tons of suggestions. I say I've got some options I'd like to play for them. I like to start with "Keep Ya Head Up" or "Changes" by Tupac. I love these songs for their messages and I think they are very poetic. From there, I will play something else that is pretty popular. Taylor Swift or Katy Perry work pretty well. After a few songs, a student will always say that music is poetry.

I will then push those students to prove to me that songs are poetry because that statement is ridiculous. The students proceed to look up the definition of poetry and argue about different songs and whether they meet the criteria established by the definition the agreed. It is a fun debate where students spend time trying to convince me that music is poetry and it always ends with me asking them if they like music, how can they claim to hate poetry? It's a fun moment where the kids really need to think about what they think they know about poetry and how it is ok for them to explore the concept a but more. One student said that music is art and so poetry is art. It is awesome moments like that that make teaching amazing.

As for Phinea and Ferb, I start each class in the poetry unit with a song and we look at the lyrics and discuss the poetic elements found in them. I will let kids select songs and we can look at them as well. For one class, I thought I would post the theme to Phineas and Ferb and play the song for the kids and have them annotate it on the Smartboard.

I snapped this photo and tweeted it out to share what was going on in class that day and I decided to tag the creators in the tweet. I was blown away when they both responded. Here is a response from Dan Povenmire pointing out the rhyme scheme for the first stanza. 

It was so excited to see the response that I immediately screen-captured the response and added it to my SMART amp page so the other classes could see it while we worked on the theme song. The other fun part of using the theme song was that students knew the song and could sing along and try to identify the exact and slant rhymes. It is a fun way to start a class and dive in to more traditional poetry. 

It is so important to keep all type of writing interesting and accessible to students. Playing the Devil's Advocate at the start of the poetry unit and using modern music to spur student interest in poetry is just part of the average teacher's day lesson planning. Feel free to borrow and tweak this for your classroom. Any suggestions you might have for teaching poetry is always appreciated.  

BONUS:

Here I am singing the Phineas and Ferb theme song at ISTE.

It's All About That Project, 'bout That Project, No Tests. #PBL #EdChat

My Freshmen have been turning in their projects and presenting their work to class this past week and part of last week. The assignment was pretty simple. Take the essay that you wrote and turn it into a visual presentation. They needed to choose a theme in the novel Of Mice and Men and support it with examples from the text. They were not limited to the type of project they could choose. The students have created some amazing items.

I've had students do puppet shows and create dioramas to express the different examples. There were plenty of Prezis with videos and pictures embedded to add a bit more to a typical presentation. There was one that stood out the most that I want to share here. A student decided to create a whiteboard video and, with the help of her mom, created something awesome.

Hannah took a concept and was able to explore it and share her thoughts in a way that was meaningful to her. She had fun and was able to convey complex relationships in a way that the ret of the class was engaged when she presented. She had fun and wanted to go first to share what she had done. This is the power of a project. What multiple choice test could inspire this type of passion and dedication. I'm still shocked by those that are still committed to the worksheet and the 50 question multiple choice test. Here is just another example of why Projects trump exams every time. 

Increase Levels of Engagement & Collaboration With @BoomWriter_ #EngChat #EdChat

Increase Levels of Engagement & Collaboration With BoomWriter’s Group-Writing Tool

BoomWriter is a group writing website that is free for teachers and allows students to create, share, and even publish stories and other original content.  BoomWriter’s easy-to-use and interactive collaborative writing platform lets teachers deliver a fun and engaging personalized learning experience, while elementary, middle, and high school age students work online to develop their reading, writing, and peer assessment skills.  

BoomWriter uses a simple process but with a technology twist.  The teacher selects a “story start”, either from a database of original first chapters or they can create their own prompt, and students then individually write what they think should be the next chapter/section.  The teacher reviews each submission online before allowing the students to read and vote on the anonymous chapter/s that they would like to see included as the next part of the piece.  There’s an easily managed voting system that fairly determines the winning chapter, while not requiring students to read all of their peers’ submissions (and they do not see their own during voting).  The process continues until the story is completed, which is determined by the teacher.  Once finished, BoomWriter will even convert the project into an actual published book containing the names of all of the participating students.  Completed books are then made available for purchase from the BoomWriter Bookstore.

BoomWriter can be used by teachers in a variety roles and educational settings, such as whole class, small group, before, during, and after school.  Boomwriter is also completely safe for students, since all of their work is created and stored in a closed digital environment.  BoomWriter is a helpful and effective instructional tool, allowing teachers to go online to monitor students’ progress, and provide individualized feedback on their writing and personalized instruction from anywhere.  Teachers are also able to provide helpful guidance notes to the group prior to each writing phase, creating relevant practice and application opportunities for specific skills and/or understandings covered in class.

BoomWriter started in a middle school classroom and now has a presence in close to 10,000 classrooms spread throughout more than 60 countries!  The more BoomWriter grows, the more ways teachers find to use this approach to writing in their own classroom.  One high school teacher in Kansas used BoomWriter with her students to create a modern day version of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible that explores the events of the Salem witchcraft trials.  According to the teacher, while collaboratively engaged in a contemporary retelling on BoomWriter the students explored “how the themes and ideas that Miller wrote about are still prevalent in today's world.”  

BoomWriter has also identified a way to support large urban school districts and inspire students to write using technology through its Technology Heroes Program.  Tech Heroes, which “helps teachers be champions of technology in their classrooms”, consists of BoomWriter partnering with larger districts and a third party corporate sponsor to provide every student and teacher with their very own free copy of the book they created using BoomWriter!  Tech Heroes programs have taken place within Boston Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, and the Oakland Unified School District, to name a few.  In a survey conducted of participating Tech Heroes teachers just last spring, 95% found BoomWriter to be an “effective instructional tool” and 97% of teachers would use it again in their classrooms.  One teacher raved, “I really enjoyed hearing my students beg to write. Students were thinking at home but writing in class.  They were talking about their stories during recess.  Students who never wrote full stories, began to write and complete their writing.  I am delighted with BoomWriter.  It is a valuable asset to my classroom.”

BoomWriter continues to add new free resources and features to support teachers, such as ELA lesson plans, providing teachers step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate elements of personal narrative or literature into their projects.  By the start of the upcoming school year, BoomWriter will also feature two new products for use within and beyond the classroom.  The first is an interactive vocabulary application called “WordWriter” that will deliver a technology-based learning experience that is certain to develop greater interest and engagement levels around vocabulary instruction.  WordWriter will increase students’ overall vocabulary development by allowing students to apply, share, and assess newly learned words in original content.  The second product will facilitate non-fiction group-writing projects around Social Studies/History and Science/Technical subjects, and BoomWriter will support teachers with these efforts by providing free lesson plans as well.   

Increase the levels of collaboration in your classroom by registering for free on BoomWriter!

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Thug Notes - A Different Approach to Literary Analysis #EngChat

I wasn't sure what to think when I saw my first Thug Notes. It was interesting, weird and accurate.

Thug Notes plays on the preconceived bias of people. When you see the narrator and hear the way he speaks, do you expect him to drop some knowledge on you? Probably not, but you will listen to see what he has to say about To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men. That interest is what grabs the viewer and allows Thug Notes to provide an entertaining recap of a famous novel that students can enjoy and teachers could show in class or provide links to on their website. Here is one of many videos worth exploring on Thug Notes. (Warning: These are designed for high school and might contain some language not intended for younger audiences.)

I really enjoyed this video on Of Mice and Men and it even made me think about the biblical connection in the story that I had not realized before. I've taught this book for a number of years and that is something I never considered. I always love exploring literature in different ways and Thug Notes takes a fun new approach to the standard pieces of literature at the high school level.

The one word of caution I have for teachers is to make sure to watch all of the video before you show it in class. Some of the language might be bothersome in some schools, so use your best judgement when showing these, or any video, in the classroom. I think they are funny and could show them, but that might not be true for you in your building or district.

+Jacob Salamon does an awesome job putting these together and the collection of videos they have uploaded is very diverse and would be a great spice to add to the lesson plans.

Take a minute and look over the collection of videos, leave a comment and share with your friends who might want to show these in class or need a refresher course on some great pieces of literature. 

Awesome Annotations with Livescribe #EngChat #EdChat

A group of students were not happy with the current selection of books in our curriculum, so they started their own book club. I agreed to come on as a co-adviser because I love to read and I support students who love to read.

The group will meet once a week and we will discuss part of a book the group has chosen. The first book the group chose is The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. I love this pick because it is a great book and he is actually from the community I teach. The story is actually set in the city the students live, so that should make for some interesting conversations.

Anyway, I really wanted to make sure I did a good job reading and annotating this story so I could share with the group. I feel I have a high bar to meet since I'm an English teacher. I didn't want to just download a book and annotate that way and I didn't want to just buy a book and highlight it. I wanted to do a little bit more with the notes, but wasn't sure what to do.

Well, Livescribe was the perfect solution to my problem. I have the Livescribe Sky pen and I recently purchased Livescribe Sticky Notes. By using these two items, I can take notes on the Sticky Notes and not only save them in the book, but they are saved in Evernote.

I can take the Sticky Notes with me and leave them in the book as I read. With my pen by my side, I can just add the notes as they come up and annotate the book as well. This book club idea has me thinking though.

What if I took the books we read in class and did my own annotations using the Sticky Notes? After the notes were saved, I could then post a public link on my website or drop those notes in another shared notebook with my students and they could have my notes while they read. Maybe note specific notes, but perhaps I add guiding questions. The Livescribe pen and the Sticky Notes can change the way I teach annotation with my students and can add a layer of class discussion that I haven't been able to have.

If I allow the students to edit the notes I share with them, the students could actually add their thoughts and ideas to the annotated notes I left. This could create a crowdsourced collection of annotations for the entire class to see. This could have a serious impact on how my students study and share. It can also really help some of my struggling readers to see what others are thinking why they read and can also add their thoughts.

I think I am going to try this for Gatsby or Catcher this semester. I know that it will be some work on my end upfront, but once I do it the first time, I will have the annotated notes in Evernote and in my book for years to come.

For those of you looking at different ways to use their Livescribe pen, I think this is a fun and exciting way to use annotations in the classroom. Stay tuned as I explore Livescribe Pens in my classroom.

If you want to start your Evernote journey now, follow this link to sign up!

Call Me Maybe #EngChat

No matter how hard I try, my brain is always thinking of potential lessons. With my blog, I have the ability to share these ideas and get some feedback. I was driving home today when Call Me Maybe came on the radio. I have heard the song and have seen the Harvard Baseball video, but had never really listend to the lyrics. I was paying attention this time around and hear the lyrics and found them pretty descriptive. Silly but descriptive.

As an English Teacher, I'm always striving to find ways to engage my students in poetry. It is not the easiest thing in the world and I always turn to music to show them the beauty of poetry in the world around them. As I listend to this song, I thought about the lyrics and wondered what the actual music video looked like. Did the video show an accurate representation of the song? The next thought was the lesson.

What if I had my students take songs they liked and create music videos based solely on the lyrics? I could have kids recreate the videos of their popular songs while focusing on the imagery the artists provide. I got really excited about this project and even came up with an alternative option for the students who do not have access to a camera to record their videos. Those students can create storyboards and draw out their video. I see these as group projects where students can dive into the language, look at songs as poetry and use these words to create visual representations of the the songs.

Lastly, I am big on modeling assignments when it is possible and I thought I might reach out to my PLN to recreate Call Me Maybe in a literal fashion. I might be sending out emails this summer asking for people to film parts of the song so I can edit them all together to show my students.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.  Is this a good idea, or just a silly idea. Well, I guess it can be both.

I threw the curriculum out the window! (For two days) #edchat #engchat

I happily tossed aside the district curriculum for two days and you will be shocked to find out that my students still managed to learn and my classroom did not burst into flames.

Through regular interaction with my students, I discovered that 26 of my 30 students had read The Hunger Games. They all had read the book on their own and we were spending time at the start of class discussing the Gale v Pitta debate. After some thought, I decided it would be fun to explore the book and really dive into the literature. I set aside two days this week (Monday and Tuesday) to talk about the hottest dystopian novel in years.

The kids could not have been more excited. I had 15 and 16 year-old students getting into heated debate over the value of the games and whether or not Katniss had to kill anyone. Student debated who the real monsters were, the Capital, the viewers of the Hunger Games or the Tributes. The importance of Haymitch as a drunk versus a traditional mentor was discussed at length. A girl was so excited to participate in the discussion, she Skyped in from Florida where she was finishing her Spring Break! Honestly, what 16 year-old girl do you know would wake up at 8am to have a discussion with class about a book?

I could go on at length about the need to update curriculums across the country, but that is not really the point of this post. Our students are reading and sometimes we just need to ask them what it is. Luckily I had read the books, but if I had not, I would have. Engaging students is increasing in difficulty as books get older and kids get younger. I set aside two days to have a discussion about the literary merits of a book my students had read. No points were awarded, not homework assigned. Students that chose not to read the books, sat and watched as their peers had a heated discussion on the symbolism of the bread sent by district 11 after Rue's death.

Sometimes curriculum can get in the way of learning. I plan on risking the immolation of my room when I set two days aside to discuss Mockingjay and Catching Fire.

.@RealTimeGatsby - Fun with Great Literature #EngChat

I was watching the tweets coming from @TitanicRealTime and was blown away at how real everything seemed. It was just an interesting way to engage people who might not really know much about the disaster save for the movie.

My students have started reading The Great Gatsby this week and I have to say it is one of my favorite books. It is one of the most "current" books we read all year and kids tend to love it. I get excited when I tell the kids that the character of Daisy is actually based off a girl that is from our little town. Now, that might not be something to be entirely proud of, the kids get a kick out of it. There is still plenty of things kids can learn from Gatsby and I always enjoy teaching it.

This year, after seeing the Titanic tweets, I thought it might be fun to do the same with The Great Gatsby. I'm not giving this assignment as extra credit and it is not part of some larger lesson plan, I just thought it might be fun for me to do for my kids and anyone that is a fan of the book. I know that this in not a revolutionary idea. This has been done with a couple of Billy Shakespeare's plays, but I wanted to do this anyway. Here is the feed for the account.


I'm really excited to see where this fun little adventure will take me. Even though the actual story plays itself out over the course of an entire summer, I will be tweeting the story out as the students read it over the next two weeks. The kids seemed slightly intrigued about the idea, but I'm not sure how much they will buy in. You know what though, if one kid in my class loves it, it's worth the extra work.

Thanks for indulging me with this silliness. I'll keep the feed on the right had side for the duration of the Real Time Tweets and probably a bit longer. I encourage you to follow and interact with the account. Please feel free to share it with your students and just have fun with it. Really, isn't that the point of literature? Read and have fun.

If you have any suggestions for tweets, please feel free to drop me a comment or send me a tweet and I will send them out when I get to that moment in time.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

The Epic Mock Trial of Mark Twain #EngChat #EdChat

Mark Twain is one of my favorite authors. I hated him in high school, but grew to admire him in college. As a satirist, few can compare to him. I love teaching Huck Finn, but have found it harder and harder to teach the students the satire he used. Almost all of his references are to cultural ideas that are all but gone. One issue, still lingers today. It's this issue that I've decided to focus on for my Huck Finn unit.

Racism is still running strong in this country and Huck Finn is still in the middle of the firestorm. I'm sure I will be writing more about the use of the N-word and the value of its use in the context of this unit. I will also be using the newly published "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Robotic Edition" Edited by Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine with illustrations by E.W. Kemble and Denise Devine. This will be a great chance to talk about satire and how they chose to have fun with an American Classic. Here is a video with more details on the book. 

I hope to get in touch with these awesome people to possible talk with my students.

Anyway, on to the project.

After spending a few weeks reading and discussing the book, the students will be holding a mock trial for Mark Twain. Mr. Twain has been charged with the crime of Racism. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is has been deemed a book that is racist and inappropriate for society. Here is how I break down the project.

6 Lawyers - 3 lawyers each for the prosecution and defense team.
6 Witnesses - 3 for the prosecution and 3 (Including MT) for the defense.
1 Court Reporter .
The rest of the students act as the jury.
(I might add 2 more lawyers and two more witnesses depending on the class size.)

Students always want to know how I pick the parts for the trial. I use a few things in my decision making. I always look at grades. The Lawyers and Witnesses are parts that require self motivation. Those parts need to be given to students who can be trusted to get the work done in the time given. Extroverts are a must. I need students that also like to be on stage. I might have an "A+" student, but if they are quiet and shy, making them Mark Twain would be bad for everyone. Personality is a major factor in filling out the parts. Lastly, teacher instinct is huge. I've been watching these kids for over 5 months. I've know who will play what part for a couple of months now. When in doubt, trust your gut.

Each Lawyer is responsible for the examination and cross examination of a Prosecution witness and a Defense witness.

The Witness part of the Trial can be a bit complicated. Twain wrote the book as if it was a real event. Huck, the narrator, specifically references Twain in the opening of the story. With this being the fact, I've taken to allow the characters to be witnesses in the trial. This allows for deep character analysis by students as they prepare for testimony and cross examination. The student that gets to be Twain has to be knowledgable of the text and his life.

Students get one week to prepare for their cases.

The Jury is usually involved in some creative writing work while they wait for the case to begin.

I give the prosecution and defense one day each to make their case and the third day is for deliberation.

I plan on UStreaming one of the trials when they air. They are currently scheduled for February 13 - 15.

In the past, students have had a blast with the project. They have done an amazing job with the witnesses and did some in depth research on the book and its history. I have had guilty and not-guilty verdicts. It's a project that really opens the eyes of the students and I think Twain would appreciate that.

I'll provide more information on the project as we get closer to the event.

This was my first major project 10 years ago as a student teacher and I have done it on and off since then. This project takes the right mix of students to accomplish. If you have questions on this project, stay tuns for updates or email me and I'll see what I can do to help.

Crowdsourcing an English Curriculum #EngChat #EdChat

Hello everyone! I’m working on a proposal to drastically change the Grade 10 Curriculum. Currently, our curriculum starts with Puritanism and ends with Catcher in the the Rye or Death of a Salesman. Our “newest” book is over 60 years old. It is getting harder and harder to engage reluctant readers to texts that are further and further away from who they are. I’m looking to bring in new texts that students can identify.


What I want to do is move our 2nd semester that generally starts with Huck Finn and move it to the first semester an start the 2nd semester with all new texts. The main focus on the Grade 10 Curriculum is coming of age. Despite being an avid reader, there are plenty of things I have not read or heard about that would be a perfect fit for this curriculum.


Here is where I need your help. Please suggest literature (Poetry, short stories, novels, essays, fiction, non-fiction, media, etc) that would be perfect for grade 10 students. Here is the criteria for the selections.


Must be American Authors (This is an American Literature Class)
Must have been published post 1960
Must be age appropriate for 15-16 year old students with varying reading levels


Feel free to add your suggestions to the Google Doc and I will be able to put together a list of suggestions for my district. Thanks for all of your help and support.


Links to book reviews would be very helpful as well. Thanks again!

Google Doc Link

What is the point of an English class anymore? #EngChat

 

The most fun I have in class is when my kids are having discussions about literature and relating it to the world around them today. Isn't that why we read? Isn't that why authors write? Are English classes today becoming test prep course for state exams? If my students uses one too many run-on sentences but can explain the complexity of Twain's satire in Huck Finn and compare it to Saturday Night Live's view of the Presidency, does that make them a bad student? Does that make me a bad teacher?

The reason I ask is because of a conversation I had with some English teachers online the other day. They were stressing the importance of being common in all of their classrooms and making sure all of their exams align with their state exam. Now, I understand the importance of preparing students for the state exam. However, are we preparing them to be thinkers? When I look at the world around me, I make constant comparisons to literature I have read. When I hear about a school district banning a book, I think of Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury. When ever some talks about trying to relive the past, I can't help but think of Gatsby and the green light. TV uses literary allusions all of the time and a part of me smiles when I see those connections because I feel like I'm part of an inside joke the writers put there just for me. Are our kids going to feel the same thing if texts are only used to teach specific skills to prepare them for state exams? 

What about teaching the beauty of reading? Why not focus on the value of making connections? These are parts of life that are valuable to people long after they are done taking tests. Am I wrong in wanting to show my students how scary The Hunger Games is when we look around the world and see laws and governments that are seen in the story? Does it make me a bad teacher? What is the point of an English class anymore?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Pandora's Box: Cross Curricular Project for HS and 3rd Grade #AdobeEduAwards

I've been loving my time scanning the Adobe Education Exchange the past couple of months. I have found some many great lessons that I have passed on to others. Here is another great lesson that involves students from the High School working with students in 3rd Grade.

Matt Cauthron submitted a lesson to the Adobe Education Exchange that had students use Acrobat.com, After Effects, Creative Suite Design Premium and Photoshop. He explains the process here,   

1. A version of the myth was edited and distributed as a script by a sophomore student and myself using Acrobat.com. 

2. High school students visited the two 3rd grade classrooms to read the story and create sketches based on assigned parts of the readings. 

3. Our district visual arts specialist then helped both elementary classrooms create watercolor paintings from the drawings.

4. After the drawings were sent over to the high school, students shot, edited and/or composited their interpretation of the 3rd grader's paintings using Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended. 

5. High school students returned to present their imagery to the elementary students and teachers, discussing their own creative processes and making connections between the visual works. 

6. Several 3rd graders recorded the audio track for the script and submitted them to the high school for narration. 

7. High school teams worked to compile all media assets for the digital book layout and video. 

8. A senior student created the Pandora's Box intro graphic using Adobe After Effects. 

9. The book layouts were uploaded to two different book websites and distributed online to share with the world for print and/or online enjoyment.

Here is a video that was created for the project. 

 

Pandora's Box from Matt Cauthron on Vimeo.

 Here is a collage the students created.

There is so much to love about this project. The fact that students at the high school get to work with 3rd graders is awesome. The creativity level of this project is off the charts. There are so many different aspects that students get to work on, there is a job for everyone. The finished products are something that can be published online for students to see whenever they want. They can share this project with family all over the world. Students get to be engaged in learning in a way they have never been before. This project has the potential to inspire students at a young age to follow their passion in the arts. I could keep going, but I fear I might run out of space on the internet!

To access more of the completed projects from this lesson, join the Adobe Education Exchange. Once you do that, you can follow this link to the Pandora's Box lesson.

Matt has a chance to win some great prizes because he decided to share is awesome lesson with teachers on the Adobe Education Exchange. You could also be in the running for great prizes. Join the Adobe Education Exchange and submit a lesson. Pass it around to your friends so they can join up and vote for your lesson. Check out my last post for more details. 

- @TheNerdyTeacher

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