Welcome to Ms. Adonyi’s class!
October 22, 2009 at 4:11 am 7 comments
I teach 17-19 year olds (Juniors) at Eastside Memorial Green Tech HS (http://www.austinschools.org/campus/eastsidememorial/main/). Our high school is now part of the New Tech Network (http://www.newtechfoundation.org/), a Project Based Learning environment. The most amazing thing you’ll see when you come to our campus is all the students walking around with laptops (Dell 2100 Netbooks). Once you make your way into any classroom, you’ll be amazed by the multimodal multi-tasking going on. If you were an English III student, here are some of the non-negotiable daily expectations my classroom:
- say hello to me, shake my hand, tell me how you’re doing (special handshakes are encouraged)
- take a seat and login to PeBL ( The New Tech Network “Collaborative Learning Community” https://portal.nthls.com/) and click on English III
- click on the day’s hyperlinked calendar, get into the Daily Agenda, and get busy with the quiz or warm up I uploaded, usually, these are questions following a video (typed responses are stored in a class account so I can usually relpy within the hour with academic feedback)
- turn off the iPod, quit texting, and make eye contact with me while I present a mini lesson (i.e. today was Ethos, Pathos, Logos: tomorrow will be ”How to start a Weebly website”) and then get in Project groups and get back to researching and writing (this week’s project titles include Our American Timeline, Human Condition Essays, Shaping Our National Identity, and Jim Crow Raps)
- during the last 5 minutes of class (only 47 minutes with them a day!) we login to the class social network called Our Identity (http://ouridenity.ning.com) and read Ms. Adonyi’s blog post (i.e. “How does struggle lead to progress in Ch. 15 of Black Boy?” – there’s a image, a movie) – reply to my post and comment on five other students’ replies for homework.
The kids I teach are digital natives, so they are incredibly comfortable and skillful with most of this stuff. Many different versions of the multiple literacties and multimodal meaning making Jewitt explains in her lit review happen in my room every day. As I was reading the article, I kept saying to myself over and over, “Yes, we do that!” “And that too!” (which might come off sounding snooty but that’s just the way it is at our school). The big question I kept asking myself was “How can I get more effective with managing it all?” Many of the challenges with this type of meaning making on the teaching end is tons of time spent on project planning (and you have to be fast with the responses)! It’s like each kid is on their own project, following their own path, asking their own set of fascinating questions. I know that sounds insane, but that’s just the way it is. And now that my roster has evened out at 163 students, that’s a lot of email responding, movies to watch, songs to listen to, games to figure out the rules to, etc. What I’m starting to realize though, as I compare this type of teaching to the more traditional schools I’ve been in before, is that at the end of the day they are less resistant to reading and writing. And that’s a good thing!
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beth steinbach | October 22, 2009 at 8:03 pm
you presented a nice picture of a working multimodal classroom. How do you feel assessment has changed for you between a traditional class and this new project-based learning environment?
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languageandliteracy | November 15, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Beth, sorry it’s taken so long to reply. Assessment has moved to a much more rubric oriented process in the PBL environment. As kids are given the choice to collaborate, they are also given the choice to grade each other while grading themselves. Assessments have become more genuine on our social networking site also. Kids post their replies to the novel, read each others’ responses, and then are assessed based on their dialogue with another student. So it’s much more authentic I think. But then again, we’re also an AU campus with TEA up our butts so the TAKS related district wide benchmarks are also required. When the kids have to take those assessments, there’s a whole lot of resistance; it seems especially contrived (maybe even more uninteresting) compared to the authentic “celebrations of learning” (tests) we take in class. With the state, district mandated stuff they have to regress in their reading and they know it. One of my students Karina said, “With benchmarks & TAKS, I have to force myself to not be creative and not think big.” Sad right?
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crdliteracy | October 22, 2009 at 10:03 pm
WOW that looks incredible!
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Treavor | October 22, 2009 at 10:08 pm
I would have fun in your class. I really like thinking about multimodality and terms of how it might students feel more successful as students. Like, for instance, have you noticed if composing in different modes make your students feel move involved in learning? Do you think it constructs more literate identities?
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languageandliteracy | November 15, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I’ve been meaning to tell you that last week, my kids and I made “movie posters” of our favorite novel using a crazy free program called Glogster.com, have you heard of this? You would love it. I’m going to invite you to my classroom ning (Our Identity) so you can see the stuff they came up with – so fun! And yes, this speaks directly as an example of how composing in different modes make students feel more involved in learning; the more images, graphics, sounds they get to use, the more they are able to communicate their understanding/interpretation of themes, characters, moods, tones, etc. And hell yes it constructs more literate identities; they get more powerful the more choices they get to make! Thanks for being wonderful.
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mmosley77 | November 12, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Hi. I’m writing to respond to our great conversation last night about how the role of the teacher as writer shifts when our students start blogging and using new literacies. You brought up something that related so well to what Dr. Horan was talking about, about teachers and writers and what that means. I then linked to Claire’s blog and saw that she has been writing towards a goal–10,000 words in 3 months next to her student’s 3000 words. I am not suggesting that for you, but what if there was a way for you to show your students what you are working on your own learning in the blog and you’ll be blogging while they are blogging 1 time a week or 3 tmes a week or whatever?
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languageandliteracy | November 15, 2009 at 9:12 pm
That’s interesting. I write beside the kids everyday, but it’s in response and support to the theme/prompt/topic concerning the novel we’re reading. I suppose showing the kids what I’m working on in my own learning/blogging would encourage them. I guess the next step would be to manage our writing time in a way where I get more freedom to concentrate fully on my own thinking. Thanks for the suggestion, I will try it and let you know how it goes. Did you get my invitation to the Our Identity ning? Maybe that would give you some insight into the brevity and nature of their posts. Baby steps, but moving forward.