April is National Poetry Month, and, while I'm excited that poetry is showcased this month, really, poetry is all around us everyday. Rather than teaching an isolated poetry unit for two weeks during the school year, I incorporate poetry into every unit all year long. Look for some more blog posts highlighting poetry that connects to canonical texts.
Found Poetry
Midway through the school year, I like to do a lesson on Found Poetry. I photocopy pages from the books we have read in the first half of the year and the books that we will read in the second half to use as the basis for the found poems. Titles include Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Odyssey, Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities, Pygmalion, and Declaration of Independence. This is a creative review activity, and it gives students the opportunity to preview the texts that we will be reading in the second half of the year.
To learn more about Found Poetry, check out this Google Presentation.
What I like about found poetry is it allows students to play with the text on a new level using a constructivist approach. It is a creative way of actively reading and patterning, and is an artistic way to practice literary analysis. We can also talk about the choices the students as artists make in creating the poems:
Why did you choose this page or story as your foundation?
Why did you make the choices you did in selecting the words and phrases in the text?
What was your "writing process"?
Did you start with an idea and pull words from the text to fit your idea or did you let your background knowledge of the text guide the writing of your poem?
How does your poem align or contrast with the themes in the original text?
I was so impressed with my students' work that I plastered the backwall of my classroom with the found poems. Students also marveled at the poetry, remarking on the ingenuity and visual design of particular poems.
Take a look at one of my students' creation. Poetry doesn't have to be scary, but her artistic choices bring out the monstrous and ghostly aspects found in pages of The Odyssey.
Full shot of Haley's creation
Close up of Haley's creation.
Another close up of Haley's creation.
Showcasing another student's work, this one also chose to connect pages of The Odyssey to the Hunger Games.
While this student may state that she is not artistic, she was able to use a symbol from a book she had
read for pleasure and overlay it on the page. The visual design is effective and draws the viewer in.
Notice the use of white-out to create the found poem
From the pages of Pygmalion, this student made a poem focusing on the theme of travel and photography. When we read Pygmalion at the end of this month, I'm excited to see what she will say about her poem.
Take a look at the other creations from my students in this Loupe Collage. Who knows what you may find!
This week Curriculetannounced the release of an Edmodo app version that allows teachers and students to use Curriculet using their Edmodo credentials and classlists. The app is a portal or gateway and opens Curriculet inside Edmodo. I am ecstatic about this announcement!
I've been using Curriculet (previously known as Gobstopper) for two years now, and I can't say enough good things about it! Get me started talking and I can't stop! But my one tinsy, itsy-bitty complaint--which has nothing to do with Curriculet per say-- is that my students continually forget their username and password. While Google log-in is also available for Curriculet on the web, there is at least one student who struggles with remembering his/her log-in information. Trust me; I've taught them naming conventions for passwords, but there is always one. Now that Curriculet can be used inside Edmodo there is one less log-in for students to deal with. I wish more web tools would partner with Edmodo for app creation, because not having to worry about logging in is so valuable for students to continue using a digital tool.
If you are wondering, why bother to use Curriculet or thinking that the traditional way of teaching and reading a text works. Take a look at this inforgraphic. When reading Romeo & Juliet, Curriculet saves me 50 hours worth of administrative tasks. Imagine freeing up 50 hours of your time!
I couldn't afford the cost of attending the entire NCTE conference this year in Boston, but I was able to attend and present at the Conference on English Leadership, an intimate conference tied to the main NCTE event that was held November 24-26.
The 2013 CEL convention focused on the theme of Transformative Literary Leadership and Learning, and my session was STOP BLEEDING RED INK: Using Paper and Online tools to assist in evaluating student work. I'm very passionate about changing the perception of English teachers as red pen wielding warriors. English teachers should not be lugging home piles of papers to red pen and spending 20+ hours outside of school grading student work. Available technology AND teaching strategies can empower students to create better products better than any red mark on a paper. I'm very grateful to Heather Rocco and the CEL leadership for the opportunity to share my thoughts how on to transform literacy learning in the classroom with people who can effect change in their districts.
Celebrity Sightings & Twitter
Twitter has become such an integrated part of my professional learning. Sharing resources, working out issues, and conversing on Twitter with like minded individuals has propelled my teaching practices. On more than one occasion, I was called "prolific" in reference to my tweeting habits during the conference-- if they only knew. One of the highlights for connecting via Twitter is being able to meet tweeps in person, face to face.
#CEL13 love that so many of those I follow on twitter are here in person!
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
There were quite a few people at the conference who I did not recognize until they mentioned their Twitter handle. One such moment occurred with Colette Benett: it wasn't until I saw her Twitter handle @teachcmb56 that I realized I follow her on Twitter and regularly read her blog. "OH! You're Used Books in Class! I love your blog!" was my immediate response when I connected with her and fellow teacher Stephanie Pixley during #CEL's social hour. Nothing beats discussing Odysseus, Frankenstein, and Pygmalion over a class of Cabernet.
Amazing geeky awesomeness. Talking abt The Odyssey over wine. #cel13
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
Colette made an interesting point in one of the sessions (please forgive my paraphrasing): Teachers are always doing dress rehearsals; we are never actually performing a final show. Every period we teach is just a dress rehearsal at best, and if we are lucky to teach the same prep, we can perform it multiple times with the 3rd showing probably the most successful. I think she is right! I wonder, how can teachers be on stage for a final performance? Evaluating teachers' performances via the Danielson model isn't the answer. I also wonder, why do teachers need to be on stage? Why not let the students "steal the show"? Let the teacher be the stage director or set designer-- more thoughts on this for another blog post.
Another moment was during the lunch keynote session, where I sat at a table with fellow educators Meenoo Rami, Amy Baskin, Kate Roberts, Maggie Roberts, Chris Lehman, and others: catching sight of @teachkate written on a name badge, I exclaimed, "OH! YOU'RE @TEACHKATE! I follow you! I'm @KtBkr4!" Once our Twitter handles were shared, we realized that we already "knew" each other.
#CEL's keynote line-up was jammed packed with Twitter-celebs, amazing educators who cut the edge. Eric Sheninger touted the importance of being connected in his conference opening keynote. Troy Hick's keynote on digital writing resonated with me for it focused on what I am trying to do with my students: get them writing more and for an authentic audience. I carted around my copy of Hick's Crafting Digital Writing hoping to catch an autograph. Donalyn Miller's keynote on fostering life-long readers was funny, smart, engaging. Meenoo Rami's keynote on connecting with her students and empowering their learning through relevant projects. I want to be in class with all of these people!
Tough decision: tweet or eat during @meenoorami 's keynote .... Actually not tough decision.... #cel13
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 26, 2013
One of many highlights for the conference was sitting with Meenoo Rami, Kate Roberts, Maggie Roberts, and Chris Lehman during lunch and unintentionally twitter-bombing Donalyn Miller's keynote. We realized rather quickly that the noise we heard emanating from the podium was her phone vibrating every time she received a tweet. We couldn't stop tweeting because her speech was relevant and inspiring, and needed to be shared.
One session really got me thinking about writing instruction. Erika Bogdany's Breaking Down Walls: how to break down the walls of a classroom for inclusive learning among staff and students. By changing the mindset and having staff model independent reading and participate in an Educator's Editing Workshop, student accountability, connections, and performance are increased.
AH-MAZ-ING Educator Editing Workshop breaking down walls. Ts & Ss see/learn more abt process of learning & selves. #cel13@ErikaBogdany
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
Interesting concept: Educator's Editing Workshop. Other subject area Ts read/edit Ss work. Strategic, Deliberate & structured #cel13
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
The Educator's Editing Workshop is simple: invite other staff members from other subject areas to sit with students and conference about their writing. Amazing concept. Erika is to be commended on her ability to pull this off. She really got me thinking about how I could bring this to my school.
If you've read my other blog posts about grading writing, I harp on this issue: writing is never finished. Erika made this point in session.
change language: "final draft" needs to be "BEST Draft (for now)" Can always make writing better later. #cel13#engchat#flipclass
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
So why do we mislead students by labeling it as "final"?
Another highlight was bumping into Penny Kittle and getting her to follow me on Twitter.
Yay! @pennykittle follows me! Gushing blushing goodness! Love twitter for connections & #cel13 for opportunity to meet f2f
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 26, 2013
I have some reading to do: I picked up copies of Penny Kittle's Book Love, Donalyn Miller'sThe Book Whispererand Reading in the Wild. While I have had a hand in crafting the curriculum, I'd like to see what else I can do with my students besides whole novel instruction for reading. While I didn't grab it YET, I'm also enamored with Chris Lehman and Kate and Maggie Roberts' concept of Falling in Love with Close Reading. Their session got me thinking about how much close reading I do with my students (A LOT). Really, we don't need to close read everything in class. It does take up a lot of time and I can always sense the moments when my students have had enough. So putting Kittle's and Miller's ideas into practice with this notion of selective close reading, I wonder how I can restructure my class so that reading is more student centered and authentic.
I want to close read every text I teach w my Ss. Good to put in perspective! It is ok to only do parts, not whole. #cel13
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
Really, CEL could be renamed Connecting English Leaders because this conference was more than just sharing ideas about the future of ELA in schools or sharing progressive projects in conference session. This conference promotes collaboration and connections. I have so much more to process and write about this conference-- probably another 10 blog posts, but to sum it up for now, take a look at these two tweets:
"at end of day we want to feel like we are energizing our colleagues" @MaggieBRoberts#cel13 Lift each other up, not be beaten down
— Kate Baker (@KtBkr4) November 25, 2013
