Vocabulary Practice and Help the World

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. They offer an easy way to learn vocabulary, math skills, geography and more.

According to FreeRice

FreeRice has two goals: 

1.  Provide education to everyone for free.

2.  Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on this site. Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your education can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide.

Want to learn in a fun and exciting way?  Check out FreeRice.

The Best Thing About Computers

Hey Reading Workshop students, share your opinion!




You can see the results HERE.

Nothing Like a Blog to Get Them Working

Walk into the Reading Workshop classroom and it is so quiet.  Students are intensely focused on their screens.  About the only sound is the pecking on keyboards.  Occasionally someone will ask a peer for help, which is quickly given because the helper wants to get back to their post.  At times, students will skim through their book, looking for correct spelling, or a detail that will support a point. 

Students created their blog the first week of school.  A lot of the second week was spent learning the basics of Wordpress and blogging.  As students begin posting, once again the value of integrating technology into the curriculum shows.  Discipline isn't an issue.  Everyone wants to get a post written so their peers can read it and comment on it.

Fake reading during SSR is limited.  Let's face it, if you know all of your peers are going to read what you write, you better make sense.  And how can you write about a book if you haven't read it and/or don't understand it?

Technology contributes in many ways to the success of students in Reading Workshop.  The greatest benefit though is motivation.  Students are working, doing their best to produce a great blog.  And with the way they are working, I have no doubt they will succeed.

Why Student Blogs are So Valuable

I read Cassie's blog yesterday, and thought about it several times throughout the evening.  I woke up this morning and thought about it again.  She really nailed it.   She compared the meanness in Larger-Than-Life Lara with what she sees and feels some times at school.

As we work towards improving higher level thinking, and writing that supports ideas and opinions with explicit and intricate details, she  wrote a post that was extraordinary.  However, there were many mistakes in PUGS (Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling).  Her post shows how blogging will build writing skills, while pushing students to think, and reason, and consider themselves, their lives, and how people treat others.

Opinions are sometimes really mean like when someone talks about you.  When you talk about them and it is not nice but it could be nice sometimes. When people do that it is just like them talking about you. How would you feel if someone talked about you? It would not feel to good. 

That is why I don’t like it when my friends make fun of people to make them look cool. It just makes them look like a jerk.  I don’t like it when people talk about people. It is just really mean. I really think that if we don’t talk about people there would be no fights at school and for people who do talk about people need to stop.

Don’t talk about people because when people do it just gets back at them and they talk about kids. People don’t like it when you talk about them because all it does is  start a fight. So thats why I don’t but I’m not going to lie. I have talked about people but I quit.

This was a super job relating Cassie's life to the book I am reading aloud in Reading Workshop.  As her writing skills improve, great thoughts like these will be a topic for discussion and growth for her, and her classmates.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinhutton/86405062/in/set-72157605053379133/

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How To Grade Student Blogs

One of the challenges of having students write all of their assignments on a blog is coming up with a fair and objective way of grading.  Writing assignments in Reading Workshop are graded with a rubric that looks at several factors to come up with an overall grade.

After considering several rubrics, I created the Stair Steps to Success.  As students' writing improves and posts get better and better, they can climb the stairs to writing success.  

These questions can help certain determine their grade.

Did you spell everything correctly? I would hope so. After all, who would want to write something that is available to the whole world, and misspell words? Can the reader understand the topic because you stick to it? Following these minimal standards will earn you at least a D.

Did you use correct grammar?  Did you take time to check your PUGS?  Can the reader follow your post in an organized manner? This is still a most basic expectations for writers that want to publish their work. The skills learned in the primary grades are not too much to expect for work posted on the Internet.  A C means satisfactory and not meeting this basic criteria would surely not deserve anything higher.

Do you have interesting content presented in a well-written way? To build loyal readers, you must grab the reader.  Supporting details draw in the readers and give them understanding. If posts are written cleanly with correct PUGS, the words illustrate the meaning, and the reader can visualize your ideas, you will earn a B.

Does your writing cause the reader to pause, and think, or cause the reader to agree or disagree? Sometimes hours after reading an essay, the reader is still thinking about it. When a blog post has that something special, then the writer deserves an A.  To earn this, the majority of posts must be of exceptional quality.

What step are you on? Have you climbed the stairs to writing success?

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Rules for Blog Comments

Everyone that blogs wants readers.  And, we wish that every single person that visited our blog would comment.  In fact, almost any comment is better than none.  So, the most important rule for blog comments is to comment.  If you agree, say so.  If you disagree, or have a different opinion, say so.  But whatever you do, take a minute and let us know you were here.

As students in Reading Workshop begin to build their blogs, post by post, the need for some structure in commenting is evident.  Hopefully these guidelines will help students engage in meaningful dialogue, comment by comment.

Here are the Reading Workshop rules for Blog Comments.

1.  Be nice. No name-calling and personal abuse, please.

2.  Keep on topic.  Don't write a comment that has little or nothing to do with the subject of the article.

3.  Opposing opinions are welcome, as long as they are respectful of the views of others.  If you disagree with the opinions of the author, express it politely.

4.  Don’t issue personal attacks or insults.  Attacks against  the author, other bloggers, commenters or people will be deleted.

5.  Avoid repeating yourself.  If many people have already said something, please don’t say it again.  Once you make a point, support it, but don't keep saying the same thing over, and over, and over.

5.  Avoid repeating yourself.  If many people have already said something, please don’t say it again  (See how annoying this is).

6.  Don’t make comments like “Great post.” If you read it, say why it was great.  Add some­thing to the con­ver­sa­tion.   Add your own view, or thoughts to the topic.

7.  Don’t use incorrect grammar or mispellings. Doing this makes the blog look like a low quality blog. It makes the blogger feel like you don't care enough to take the time to do it right.

For more information about commenting, see the post Comments That Count. 

Always remember the most important rule for blog comments is to comment.

Goals and Benefits of Student Blogging

As the Reading Workshop students begin to blog regularly (see links in the sidebar), one might question, what do you want the students to get out of this project? How will it help them? Are the benefits academic and or social? Listed below are the goals and benefits of student blogs.

Goals with student blogs include:

1. Students will communicate effectively.
2. Students will share thoughts, ideas, and opinions, and support them with details that make understanding easy.
3. Students will become better writers, both in content and mechanics.
4. Students will become better readers, improving comprehension and the ability to read critically.
5. Students will share great books and enter into dialogue about them.
6. Students will use Web 2.0 technology as a tool to publish their work to share with their peers, family, and friends.
7. Students will finish the year of Reading Workshop with a published portfolio of their writing projects.

In addition to the goals for learning, there are other benefits to students. These include:

1. Blogging is fun.
2. Students can improve writing in an exciting and engaging manner.
3. Students can share their work with friends.
4. Students can comment on their friend's work, sharing thoughts and ideas.
5. Students can learn about using computers and web-based tools.
6. Students can show off their work to their parents, grandparents, and other family members.
7. Students can earn good grades for doing something they like.

Get it Right, or Do Not Post

Students, as you begin blogging on a regular basis, the need to write cleanly is paramount if you want your audience to take you seriously. Readers will not follow someone they don't respect, or someone they see as unintelligent. Even a writer in sixth grade must produce good writing that makes sense, and is not filled with errors. Plus, the content must be interesting and engage the reader. But, that will not happen if the writing has basic errors that distract the reader.

Chris Pirillo discusses the need for PUGS--Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling in this video.

Student Blogs on WordPress

Student blogs this year were created and hosted at WordPress.  In the past, we used Blogger, but due to the recent changes, (like requiring an access code sent to a cell phone) The Reading Workshop student blogs went to a more user-friendly site.  Even though Google owns Blogger, and provides a great service at Google Apps, hosting a blog is not part of the service.

One of the tools provided by WordPress is a spelling and grammar checker.  Use of this tool will "clean up" student writing, while helping to teach basic writing skills.  Just go to My Account -->Edit Profile-->Proofreading and check the boxes.

Check out the sidebar for a link to all of the student blogs.

Blogging in the Classroom

Students are creating blogs to post their writing about their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and responses.  Using this Web 2.0 tool in the classroom allows students to share their work, comment on each others work, have a real audience, and lets parents view their child's work in Reading Workshop.

For more information about what a blog is, and how it works, check out this video by Lee LeFever of Common Craft. 

Blogging in Language Arts

After eight months of commenting on The Reading Workshop blog and writing an online journal on the Reading Workshop Wiki, students are stepping into the driver's seat. A few students have already had the opportunity to create their own blog as part of this class. Now, all students who have their parents' permission can have a blog of their own.

The opportunity to publish online is a powerful motivator for students because it gives them a voice, an audience, and the chance to get immediate feedback. Students are excited about the opportunity to share their work. Blogs engage every student in the writing process and allow the students to both reflect on their own writing and react to the writing of others. I intend to use our blogs as a platform for a variety of writing exercises. Each student will respond to prompts, share ideas and resources, and reflecting on learning inside and outside of the classroom.

The blogs are accessible to anyone searching the Internet, but I will oversee all student blog contributions, and I will exercise administrative access privileges whenever necessary. By their nature, blogs are designed to allow comments by readers, but for safety reasons, this feature will only be available to our students and approved visitors.

If parents and teachers would like access to be able to comment on the blogs, they can send me an email and I will set up privileges.

The students are excited and I look forward to seeing the results of their hard work and creativity. Links to all of the students blogs are in the sidebar.

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A Trusty Presentation

What does the teacher do when school is out? Go to school, of course. That is what I did on Friday.

SCOCA--South Central Ohio Computer Association presented a Web 2.0 workshop for teachers on Friday, March 27, 2009. This three session day focused on Blogs and Wikis, Google Sites, and RSS Feeds and Bookmarking.

Alvin Trusty, University of Findlay Director of Technology professor kicked off the day with a live Video Conference sharing his insight into Web 2.0 and its use in today's classrooms. He is a leader, and advocate for integrating technology as part of the curriculum. His presentation focused on social networking, and the need to build networks as part of the educational process.

The use of iGoogle and Google Docs was presented in one session. Google just continues to create new tools and improve the tools available. And, everything is free! Embedding a form in a blog is one tool that has been used in Reading Workshop. Two posts that are examples of that are here and here. Unfortunately, Google crashed right at the beginning of the session. Luckily, in a few minutes service was restored.

This was an informative day, with a lot of good ideas for teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms. I grabbed onto a couple of ideas that I hope to incorporate into The Reading Workshop including some new uses for INFOhio.

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Google Docs Gift to Bloggers

Want an easy way to survey your readers? Thanks to Google Docs, that is an easy task. Embedding a question into a blog post is a simple process, and results will be compiled in a Google Docs spreadsheet that will allow sorting of the data.

The first step is to create a Google Docs account. Once that is completed, and you have signed in, just follow these steps:

1. Click on New

2. Click on Form

3. Choose the type of questions. The types include text, multiple choice, check boxes, choose from a list, and scale 1-n.

4. Edit the form with questions.

5. Embed the form into the html of a blog post.

For an example of how this will look on a blog post, you can check out Where Am ?. This is a sampling of students used in The Reading Workshop.

Thank you to Mr. Todd Tomlinson, Logan Elm technology teacher for the tip!

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gfxdave99/1368734060/

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Education Like Burger King

Have it your way,

have it your way,

have it you way,

at Burger King.

If you ever heard the jingle, once you heard it, then it bounced around in your head all day, driving you crazy. Well, what if education was like Burger King? What if you could decide how you wanted it? So much of school is based on tradition, but what if it didn't have to be? What if you could design education and your school to suit you?

How would students be assessed? Would there be grades? Would there be the same classes/subjects? Would students switch classes? Would students have one teacher or several? What would the schedule look like? What would be the school hours? Would everyone attend at the same time and the same number of hours? What role would technology play? Would any learning be online? Would there even be a Reading Workshop?

For those who have never seen the Burger King commercial, here it is.

If education was like Burger King, what would your order be?

Image from http://flickr.com/photos/ambrosianapictures/3142319248/

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Is Handwriting Yesterday's Skill?

Handwriting is still alive, but should it be? With all of the emphasis on curriculum, the need to cover the course of study, and prepare for the OAT, one must consider if handwriting is just a distraction. Although this is still a skill taught in school, one could question if keyboarding is a more relevant skill.

My handwriting is terrible, at best, even though my elementary teachers did their best to teach me penmanship. If I take my time, it is legible, but never without a struggle. When I write, it is almost always on the computer. When I read something, it is almost always digital. Anything that has been hand-written is usually brief, and most likely informal.

Recently, a post on the Core Knowledge blog explored this issue. Much of the argument stressed the need to continue teaching and using cursive writing. By the time I finished reading it though, I had this "do as I say, not as I do" kind of feeling. Even those that advocated the need for handwriting seemed to admit that they seldom used it themselves.

When I think about the careers that students in the sixth grade are most likely to have as adults, I am not sure that I can picture anywhere handwriting plays a vital role. However, technology will most-likely be an integral part of most jobs, if not when they graduate, surely throughout their lifetime.

There is a problem though. As long as students are in school, they will need to write legibly. Tests and journals will be written for grades. If teachers cannot read the writing, or have to struggle to understand it, students' grades will suffer. Even though handwriting is not graded, it could affect many scores.

What do you think? Should schools still focus on handwriting? Or should more emphasis be placed by schools on catching up with the rest of the world?

http://flickr.com/photos/bg/1532769756/
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Day in the Life of a Technology Coordinator

John Rundage, the Technology Coordinator for Logan Elm Schools described his routine and responsibilities at a presentation at the Ohio eTech Conference. In his informative session he discussed how he keeps the district running, maintaining the hardware and software while also planning, budgeting, and training teachers.

As he states on the Logan Elm Technology Blog I have a daily routine that starts before I walk in my office. I get up at 4:30am and get ready for work. By 5:15, I start the coffeemaker and pickup my Blackberry to look at the messages that came in overnight.

From this early morning start, until the end of the day, Mr. Rundag attempts to keep the districts computers running. The fact that he is, for the most part, responsible for 800 computers and 10 servers, in six buildings running Windows, Linux (Ubuntu), and Mac operating systems is an unbelievable task. At the same time, that he is maintaining the system's security, he is also installing software and building a library of video tutorials for teachers.

As Rundag continued his presentation describing the progression of his day, Tech. Coordinators from around the state of Ohio listened in, grabbing ideas to use in their own districts. Many seemed amazed that one person could do all that John is doing, while still finding time to explore new ideas.

The fact that Laurelville has such a strong technology-centered approach to education is only possible because of the support we receive. Very few schools have a computer for every student in their language arts classes. Without Mr. Rundag's never-ending help it would never happen. The details from A Day in the Life of a Tech Coord show how much hard work goes into making technology work at Logan Elm Schools.

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Blending Learning and Technology

Wesley Fryer, an educator and agent for the combination of learning and technology in schools spoke at the Ohio eTech Educational Technology Conference. As the author of the blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, Fryer frequently posts about applying innovative techniques in the classroom. His presentation is available here.

Attending a conference, most people hope to bring home one or two ideas that will help improve on what they are doing. Listening to Mr. Fryer, it quickly became obvious that his message during the keynote address to open the conference had numerous thoughts and ideas for educators.

The need for integrating Web 2.0 into the daily lives of students was mentioned throughout the speech. Collaboration and connectivity were main themes. Fryer modeled this using videos, personal stories, and time for sharing with peers.

As we move through the second half of the school year, following his lead and thinking, students will have numerous opportunities for exploration and growth. Currently students are working on writing posts for the blog, and commenting on online journals. This is a great start, but only the beginning.

As we follow the ideas set forth by Wesley Fryer, students will have numerous opportunities to use technology to increase their learning. He commented frequently about blending technology and learning. This is what makes Reading Workshop engaging for the students and the teacher.

Before the end of the year, students will have chances to incorporate research, with music and videos while building a digital portfolio, including guest posts on this blog, of their writing that will travel with them as they move on towards Jr. and Sr. High School.

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Study Island Student Assistance

The problem was he was a clicker. He could answer more questions on Study Island than any other student in the school. He figured out, the easiest way to do a session was to just keep clicking on that Enter button And because the questions were multiple choice, he could always get about 25%. Unfortunately for him, his teacher soon caught on to the fact that he was blowing away lessons like a windstorm blowing leaves in an oak woods. He could complete ten questions in about a minute.

Study Island is based on state standards. It is an excellent online learning program that features lessons, and remidiation by bumping students down to lower grade levels if they are unable to pass the tests. Each session features four answer multiple choice questions on a chosen topic. The test is an excellent predicter in the likelihood of students passing the Ohio Achievement Test.

A third grade teacher, Mrs. Kable approached me with this problem. She had a student who was rushing through lessons on Study Island. I picked three Reading Workshop students, Trindi, Dylan, and Jacob to take turns helping this student with his sessions. One goes each day for 20 minutes, rotating so none miss too much class.

After the first day, this was my conversation with Trindi:

Me: How did it go?

Trindi: OK

Me: Did you help him?

Trindi: Yes

Me: How?

Trindi: He wasn't even reading the questions. He just clicked on an answer.

Me: What did you do?

Trindi: I told him to stop clicking, and read the questions.

Me: Then what happened?

Trindi: He got the rest right.

Here you go. A fool-proof method for improving Study Island scores. Thanks to these students, working as teachers, to help a third grade student be successful.

Image from http://flickr.com/photos/96dpi/501424691/

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Why Writing Correctly Matters

Texting, IM'ing, and the casual language of students today is a concern to many people in education. When talking to students, by far the majority realize how different types of writing require different styles. Most students know the difference between formal and informal language.

However, grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills still tend to trip up many writers. Part of the challenge is recognizing just how much of an impact mistakes have on the reader. Often times, we teach the how, and not the why. Occasionally, something comes along that really points out the reason most of us take writing correctly so seriously.

With permission from Sister Salad, this edited version of their video, "Yo Comments Are Wack!" points out the disasterous commenting seen on the web and explains why writing matters. I first saw this video on Joanne Jacobs, but it needed a little editing to make it appropriate for use in school.

Thanks to Lizz, Alexandra, and Invisisis for allowing the editing of this video so students everywhere can benefit from their knowledge of wacked out comments!

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Why Skimming Matters Most

Is skimming the most important skill needed by readers today? In the technology driven, Web 2.0 world, readers are faced with information overload. Just the number of words thrown out at readers on the Internet causes an overload for struggling readers. Web pages are jammed with facts, opinions and statistics. Links to everywhere just wait to lead the reader astray.

Just looking at the main page of the Reading Workshop blog must be daunting for someone struggling to get through the words. On top of that, you have the words in different colors and in different places. The day of just reading from top to bottom and left to right is over. Now readers must know, at a glance, what is relevant.

This week as we began reading and writing persuasive essays, the challenges of just a simple Google search overwhelmed some struggling readers. Limited vocabulary made for unsuccessful or irrelevant searches for many students. Even when provided with key words, the need to quickly skim the results and evaluate for relevancy, was quite a challenge.

Determining whether or not an article was just on topic, or if it provided information to support a persuasive essay was another challenge. Students searched for facts to support their opinions. Just this part of the writing/reading process was hard work.

In order to search successfully, students needed to follow these steps:

1. Choose appropriate search terms,

2. Skim the search results,

3. Find links that most likely fit the topic,

4. Determine if the web pages provided appropriate information,

5. Decide if sites might include facts to support their opinion,

6. Go to the websites and skim for facts and information,

7. Save appropriate information and sources,

On top of these tasks, the ever-present web filter blocked many search results, and students only had 30 minutes of class time. Even faced with all of these obstacles, many students found research results with statistics and facts to begin to build a convincing persuasive essay.

As students continue their search today, maybe the best topic to write about would be "Skimming is the Most Important Reading Skill."

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