literacyandtechnology.digital discussions.2014

CONNECTING COMPREHENSION AND TECHNOLOGY

Smokey Daniels and Kristin Ziemke

June 2014

GOALS TODAY Comprehension & Technology

Explore one powerful application

Try written/digital discussions

Watch video of kids at work

Discuss management issues

Find applications for your own teaching or leadership

BURLEY SCHOOL CHICAGO

Best Practice+ Workshop+Technology

KristinZF@gmail.com@KristinZiemke

November 2014

Te Tsu Geh Oweenge

Pueblo SchoolTesuque, NM

from CORWIN August 19

Michael Quinn. @neurophilomath

www.slideshare.netLitTech.June2014

Follow us on Twitter@smokeylit@kristinziemke

Send us questionsHdanielsNM@gmail.com kristinzf@gmail.com

FIND ONE PARTNER

Turn and Talk

What’s one thing you love about today’s technology, in your own life or in school? And why?

Smart phone, X-box, Twitter, etc?

.

Who had a partner with an interesting story?

Highly interactive classrooms withwith extensive Kid-Kid talk are now required by:

--Standards--Best practice methods

--Engagement--Language to learn

--Developing social skills--Teacher performance assessments

How can I make surethe kids can talk with each otherin a focused and productive

way?

Teachers need support

and “a way in.”

The Best Kept Teaching Secreta K-12 literacy & tech strategy

WRITTEN CONVERSATIONDiscussion of academic content using letters - notes, memos, journal entries, emails, texts or other forms of correspondence…

….created and exchanged among small groups of students, or between students and teacher.

*Written Conversations*Mini-Memos

*Dialogue Journals* Write-Arounds

*Silent Literature Circles* Digital Discussions

Let’s Backchannel!

Lets start our own written conversation…

TodaysMeet.com/Gwinett

Discuss

Standards for Speaking and ListeningCOLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS

Georgia

“Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, buildingon others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.”

“Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.”

Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Learning

WritingStandards

Less “personal” writingMore nonfiction writingMore argumentative writingMore writing from sourcesMore use of text evidenceMore research in texts More use of technology

ELA WRITING STANDARDS

Missed the boat

WRITING STANDARDS

PROBLEMS

Overemphasis on long, occasional, high-stakes assignments

No mention of writing-to-learn

“Short research projects” don’t start until 3rd grade.

Kids need far more writing practice than the CCSS calls for.

(More than teachers could ever read, much less grade.)

Writing about curriculum content 5, 7, 20 times a day.

Putting ideas into their own words constantly.

Building a reading/writing ladder through the year.

*Written Conversations*Mini-Memos

*Dialogue Journals* Write-Arounds

*Silent Literature Circles* Digital Discussions

Whole-Class Discussion

The Dream

The Reality

We know what you’re thinking…

We have been trying to stamp out note-passing for generations!

But what if we legalized this?

Check in on our Backchannel!

Kid to teacher letters

Kid to Kid Letters

Kid to kid letters

OMG chem is so boring

It suxzzzzzz

How wuz eng test? g test?

How wzEng tst?

So hard!

Hang after?

Only B4 band prac

OK, C U @ caf

XLNT, ltr

Turn and TalkWhat did younotice about these letters?

What words come to mind?

Put letters to work in the curriculum!

Let’s try out a writtenconversation, using

a topic we are all involved in

Form groups ofthree or four

Use different color pens if

possible

Each partner grab an index card or piece of paper and write asalutation!

Dear Friends,Dear Ben, Ali, and Chuck.Dear Posse,

Now, instead of a whole-class discussion…

…let’s have a written conversationwith our partners!

1. Write legibly.

2. Cross out and go.

3. Use all the time I give you.

4. No talking.

RULES OF WRITTENCONVERSATION

TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY

How is technology working in your teaching?

What engages kids? Enhances

learning?

Remember a tech-enabled lesson or

unit that worked well?

Problems? A tool that let you down?

What are your next steps?

Any resources or training that you

need?

Write a note to your buddies.

I will give you about two minutes.

TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY

How is technology working in your teaching?

What engages kids? Enhances

learning?

Remember a tech-enabled lesson or

unit that worked well?

Problems? A tool that let you down?

What are your next steps?

Any resources or training that you

need?

There are just 15 seconds of writing time left, so finish the thought you are working on.

Now it’s time to “mail” your

letters.

Everyone pass your letters to the left!

What do you do when you get a letter?Right, you read it, of course.

Then what? Exactly, you answer it!

After you have read the letter, right underneath where your partner left off, write a response.

What could you say?

--make a comment--share a connection

--ask a question--agree and give reasons

--disagree and give reasons--make an illustration

GO! You have a minute and a half to answer your partner. You can…

.

--make a comment--share a connection--ask a question--agree and give reasons--disagree and give reasons--make an illustration

Just keep the conversation

going!!

There are just 15 seconds of writing time left, so finish the thought you are working on.

Stop writing and pass your letters to the left again.

Now look - something is different this time.You have two letters to read and respond to.

So this time we’ll takea little more readingand writing time.

You can answer one partner, or the other one, or say something to both of them.

GO! You have two minutes to answeryour partners.

Keep that conversation going….

There are just 15 seconds of writing time left, so finish the thought you are working on.

Now we are going to switch to out-loud discussion.

First, pass your papers so everyone gets back the one they started.

Now read and enjoy what people said in response to the initial comments you wrote about 5 minutes ago.

Now reread everyone’s notes and markthe one most interesting, unusual, or debatable sentence that anyone wrote.

This should be something you’d like to talk about further with your group.

Put a star beside that sentence.

Now we you can continue the discussion out loud. Jump right in and talk about the poem.

If you need a place to begin, have someone read aloud their chosen “important sentence” and begin your discussion with that.

Let’s come back together and discuss this topic and the process.

First, let’s hear some highlights from your written and spoken discussions.

What where the big ideas about the topic that came up?

What did youspend time on?

What did you agree or debateabout?

This is a tool we can use over and over.

Thank your write-around buddies for their letters and great ideas today.

Brad’s Message Board

Brad’s Message Board

BeauBTajahEmmaLuke

An online backchannel provides opportunity to

share and archive conversations.

Written conversations &

backchannel discussions

WRITING STANDARDSBuilds fluency, clarity, confidence. Practice in expository and argumentative modes. Shortresearch projects.

READING STANDARDSSupports student thinking about complex fiction and nonfiction text. Provides tools for closer reading. Makes student thinking and comprehension visible.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING STANDARDSDevelop and support a point of view; use evidence; engage in discussion and debate. Anticipate opposing points of view.

LANGUAGE STANDARDSReal audience helps improve correctness, editing, standard English, spelling, conventions of written genres.

HDanielsNM@gmail.comKristinZF@gmail.com

Hang in there,Super Teachers!