Thing 6: Reflection and Evaluation

Wow: I just erased about 3o minutes worth of writing and started this post anew. The now deleted post waxed theoretical about the nature of any conclusion, but it didn't really head the direction I intended: the practical nature of application. So, I'll just take a more direct approach an actually answer the assigned questions:

1. The systematic way of working through the project and responding to the process could be quite helpful, especially if someone were to read through all of the posts before embarking on their own assignment. Waiting until you are stuck in the middle of your own personal quicksand is a bad time to go looking for help. I say this for teachers, not for students. Students will know how to do this, or they will be more flexible in their thinking about technology as a whole. Oh, to be of the digital age...

2. As for how I will use this particular blog in the future remains to be seen: I've been loyal to my old blog for several years now, using it as a forum for classroom discussions, etc. I might have my seniors watch the video here and hold a cyber discussion rather than the typical classroom response. We'll see...

3. How will I help others grow in the use of technology? Well, I can show my peers what I've created and even offer to help them make their own, but I'd risk stoning and public derision. More seriously though, I could create an inservice for my fellow teachers and lead them through the basics of the assignment. Maybe...

4. As for the success of the 23 Things format, I'll say this: over the past few summers I've learned about some really cool technology applications, and I think the increased awareness and savvy is notable on its own, but this summer's assignment was all about application. It demanded a new product that would draw upon all of those things learned in the past.

I used so many of the technology applications from past summers, this time in more authentic ways. Time and time again, I found myself going back to the 23 and 11.5 things pages, looking for reminders, instructions and details: What was that site called where we made the magazine covers? BigHuge Labs? Where were instructions for how to download to Utube?
These are just a few examples that spring to mind in these early morning hours...

I'd have to say though, that the greatest challenge came in the form of the assigned medium, the video. I spent more hours learning about Windows Movie Maker than anything else, period. The inspiration, the information gathering, the prewriting and planning: all of that came easy in relation to the actual production. Looking back at my posts, you can see all of the incarnations, and those were just the ones that I had the nerve to publish!

I hope this wont dissuade other teachers from creating their own productions or assigning them to students: the fun is in the learning! Students will find the assignment easy and natural, and teachers will just have to accept that they may not know all of the details, but that they can learn some of them along the way.

Thing 5

Okay, it has been a few days since I've worked on my project: I declared myself "finished" with the video part a couple of weeks ago but left some of the finer details (like actually completing all of the blog posts) incomplete until this morning.

I went back into Utube and updated my video with a description and tags so that others might be able to find and/or use it. Although I am proud of the work completed, it is hard to imagine that anyone other than my students might want to see it, but who knows. Other than the Library2Play3 tag, I also included words like literary analysis, literary criticism, evaluation websites, English IV AP, etc., so that others can search for it.

Created for my English IV students, I do think that the content has application at all high school grade levels and even other subject areas, but the production is still so rough that I'm embarrassed to suggest anyone else look at it! Like I said in another post, I'll keep a copy of the presentation in its raw form and continue to edit and revise it once the school year begins.

THING 2: Evaluating Sources

"Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets."
- George S. Patton -








As you can well imagine, the question of sources is incredibly important to those of us who teach English. I know, I know: it is important to everyone, but allow me a moment ( a screen?) of latitude here.

Imagine a bit of patriotic music playing here...

We all know that the responsibility of teaching research skills falls squarely onto the shoulders --onto the steely, battle-tested ranks -- of the English Department. Year after year we rally, willing to meet this foe head-on, and each year we gain some intellectual territory, but they are small and tenuous victories.

Reseach is a foe large and notorious, but even worse, our soliders are untried. Rather than relying on the strength and skill of tested warriors, we send rookies, newbies, and greenies onto the field of battle.

Pick your favorite general, be it Patton or Petraeus, and imagine him schooling these youngesters, laying out the mission, the purpose, the plan, the strategies and techniques. Blueprints, maps, satellite images, lectures, and speeches all come together in preparation. But we all know that planning only goes so far and that with action comes truth. Though they may seem readied, the rookies are blissfully unaware of the dangers presented by the electronic age: with Google only a keystroke away, students fall victim to the landmines and barbed wire of cheap information.

Marching orders stipulate, "Head for the Library Resource Page!" but their green ears fail to hear: they are anxious to get started, more likely to "get this thing over with", and with this zeal they rush headlong into Google's vast expanse and the enemies' embrace.

We see them sprint across the Internet, assured by the seemingly smooth path prepared by their website assessment training, but they don't know the pitfalls of the terrain. They grab whatever they find - toxic gas impairs their vision - and they bound back across the library ready to present their spoils: "1-2-3 Help Essays" or "Mr. Felder's Sixth Period Blog," and then -- BOOM!

A flurry of papers, the detritus of shame: they find themselves bamboozled by the easy captive of less-than-credible sources... If only they had followed the commander's orders and headed for the Library Resources Page...

Okay, all silliness aside, I do like the web assessment tools, particularly the two linked below, and I think that they are great teaching tools. With direct instruction, class practice, and individual application, I can see those criteria becoming a natural and intuitive part of research.

Until that day comes, my strategy involves constant vigilance: I watch over my little soldiers and make what they consider unreasonable demands: all of their sources must come either from the Library Resources Page or another library's database. Period.

I'm not sure why they want to google instead of using the library's resources. Maybe it presents a friendlier face. Maybe it seems "easier." The truth remains, though, that there are too many superficial and uninspired sources available, and until the kids develop the critical eye for evaluation sources, this commander orders them to head for the library!


http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/webcheck.html

http://21cif.com/tools/evaluate/

THING 4, SAMPLE G: The Final Product

OK- this "finished" product comes with more qualifications and disclaimers than one typically hears at the end of a pharmaceutical advertisement!

Finished, in this context, means "all that I am going to do" rather than complete. I have spent so many hours trying to get the clips, audio, transitions and timing right that my rear-end is becoming one with the chair and waffle weave patterns permanently cross my thighs. (Gotta love that image, huh?)

I could sit here for another 36 hours, but I don't think that the precision of my project would improve. There are, though, some things that have yet to be done:

1. A Title Screen

2. A Music Track - I have the music, Coldplay's "Things I don't Understand" and Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" downloaded and ready to use, but I am having trouble adjusting the volume of two competing tracks. So, until I can get some expert help with the audio levels, I am going to leave the music unplayed. (That sounds like a sad folk song, doesn't it?)

3. The Works Cited Page for images. I have saved all of the image weblinks in my favorites, so it is just a matter of getting it done. Yuck. I think I'll take the Scarlet O'Hara approach and worry about that tomorrow.

4. What else is missing? With the video, I mean. I know that the blog posts are not complete, but that shouldn't (won't) take too much time. I hope.

I know that the videos are growing tiresome, so I understand if you don't want to watch it again. There are a few surprises, though...

THING 4, SAMPLE F: Enough for one day

OK: I rerecorded the whole audio track and revised a bit... What do you think?

THING 4, SAMPLE E: Suddenly, I understand Victor Frankenstein's words

From Chapter IV of the 1818 version of Frankenstein:

IT was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! -- Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips.

Although I never really felt any compassion for Doctor Frankenstein, after creating my own monstrosity I am filled with a newfound empathy. Click to see my work...

The latest version...

THING 4, SAMPLE D: How do you like me now?

Well, there are still a few tasks remaining and a few questions unanswered:
1. The matter of an opening screen, a closing screen, and a works cited page for my images.
2. Finding a way to add another layer of music/audio. I'd like Coldplay's "Things I Don't Understand" to play in the background during the duration of the movie, but I'm not sure this is possible.
3. The boredom factor: maybe it is just me, but I feel like the whole thing is rather flat and lifeless. I always thought myself (prided myself?) fairly animated, but maybe that quality doesn't translate very well. Anyway, I sound like an average, boring English teacher with an average, tedious assignment. My kids are going to love this, right?

Maybe I'm just tired and this is the voice of fatigue, so I'll just post my now incredibly long movie and shuffle off to bed! Night, night!

THING 4, SAMPLE C: Back to work - July 7th

There is nothing like post-vacation exhaustion to encourage a day spent staring at a computer screen. I'm not sure my movie is getting any better. More complex, certainly, but not any further toward completion... The timing is off, and if anyone can offer any suggestions about how to align the pictures and the narration with greater accuracy, I'd really appreciate it. Oh, you can stop watching after the film clip: it is just gobbledy-goop from there on...

THING 4, SAMPLE B: Born on the 2nd of July...

Here is the latest incarnation of my video: I've added additional pictures but removed the music and transitions. I know that some of the pictures, especially the screen shots of the park and Cliff notes are both too small to read and out of focus. Up the learning curve I continue to tread.
Well, it is 5:49 a.m., and I feel the window of opportunity beginning to narrow. Better quit while I'm ahead and get ready for the weekend ahead. Independence Day - that's fitting somehow...

THING 4, SAMPLE A: What I've Completed Thus Far...

Well, after working with Windows Movie Maker for the past four or five mornings, here is what I've come up with. Definitely incomplete, but I wanted to post it for my reader (thank you, Nancy) to see. I'll actually write about the process later... Or not: I am getting a video upload error. Crumb!

THING 3: Storyboards - Margaret Mitchell, Watch Out!

With God as my witness, I'll never digitize an adobe file again! Whew: who knew that getting the digital images to appear on my blog would be the hardest part of this endeavor?



Actually, creating a storyboard was pretty consistent with my way of thinking about writing and presenting information: as an English teacher, I am always teaching organization; therefore, the storyboards were a natural for me.



I liked the idea of using Power Point slides, but since my home computer doesn't have that particular application and since I was too lazy to get up and actually find my laptop (perhaps I am more like my students than I care to admit...), I decided to download one of the forms available through PrintablePaper.net and plow forward. 45 slides later, and I was through!



Honestly, I am not sure that my kids would tolerate the repetition involved in making a storyboard in one form and then transferring the data into another: the tendency to produce one document that is continually modified is probably more consistent with their practices.

I think that they could do this with PowerPoint, and in retrospect, might have been a good idea even if it meant getting up out of my chair... My mother definitely would have had something to say about this level of laziness...

Storyboards!

THING 1: Accessing Information: The Internet is targeted toward low-level thinking

As preparation for this second "thing", I decided that I would adopt the characteristics of my students.: I would wait until late (OK, relatively late by old peoples' terms) to begin; I would subject myself to multiple distractions, watching the College World Series and texting my family with scores and predictions; I would risk dropping crumbs onto the keyboard and enjoy a snack while working; I would venture no further than my electronic arm would reach; and I would still expect positive outcomes. Ah, the optimism of youth...

All teasing aside, these are the conditions under which my students work, and I hope that by appreciating their working environment I will be better able to guide them in the learning process. I can't expect the kids to work as I work; instead, I have to adopt their perspective.

So back to my narrative, I sat down at the computer ready to study Crime and Punishment. This weighty tome is one of the assigned summer readings for my English IV AP students, and given its complexity provides the perfect laboratory for my experiment with resources. It is a shoe-in for Cliffs Notes, right? The names alone - Raskalnikov, Svidrigalov, Dunia, Sonia, Lubetkin, etc - create a barrier of unfamiliarity that sends students running to the security of these "study aids." There is no doubt that students reading this novel will need support!

Seeing as how I have adopted the persona of my students, to find this support I will go directly to my computer, I-phone or other portable electronic communication device. I'd like to think that the kids might start with the library and actually hold a book, but chances of that happening are slim to none: it is late at night, and even if it wasn't, why go to the 'brary when you can just click or touch your way to the help you need? (Remind me to check out apps for literary criticism...)

Just for argument's sake, I did check out Meriwether and Aquabrowser for text resources available. Visually Meriwether appears dated and unappealing, so it was no surprise that the resources available there for a student struggling were limited: several versions of the novel and guess what? Cliffs Notes! Niiiiicccceee! Aquabrowser looked more promising, especially the web cloud Discovery Web and the sidebars for refining one's search; however, the sources were still mainly print - no e-books that this researcher could find- and required legwork that I just don't think my students are willing to undertake.

It is my conviction that students will rely on the electronic sources and that they will begin with the least common denominator of web searches, Google. Having a fairly good idea of what that type of search will return, especially considering the fact that my students will use the simplest search terms, I opted for two of the other search engines suggested. Maybe they would offer more promising returns? Bing, despite its flashy Jay-Z/JLo name, found nothing new, nothing different than I expect Google would: in fact, the first several links included Spark Notes, Grade Saver, Bookrags, Novel Guide, and Mega Essays. And what do they offer? Low level, superficial readings of the text and/or opportunities to engage in ethically low behavior! Ask.com netted similar choices: Spark, Cliff, Gradesaver, E-Notes... The one bright spot on the second page was a link to a DiscoveryEd lesson plan on Split Characters, but it was geared to a teacher's use over a student's comprehension.

I did find that if I changed the search term away from the title of the novel itself to include works like criticism, interpretation, or analysis the returns were greatly improved, but will my students know to do this? This is something I should consider!

Truly, the best sources for supporting complex literary thought came from the district's databases. Ebsco's Student Research Center and Literary Reference Center were overflowing with information. Even the plot summaries included there from Masterplots and Magill's operate at a higher level of thought, offering criticism and interpretation to enhance rich thinking rather than the oversimplification of the plot. And the true criticism? It is beautifully designed to offer new perspectives and challenge the prevailing and common interpretations offered up by the intellectual welfare system.

I did look at the social networking sites, but I couldn't find much, and emulating my students, if the answer didn't come quick and easy, I moved on. I can see the kids using Facebook to find out the library access codes, though! YouTube? There were some interesting dramatic productions and student projects there, but it is too early to see if those will be helpful.

So what have I learned through all of this? That we've got to get the kids off of the Internet and into databases and other credible sources. We already knew that, but how do we pass that learning on to them? That's a question for another day. It is 11:11, and my eyes are growing heavy. I know: pretense can only go so far... Good night and sweet dreams!

Bringing it all together

What an optimistic title for this blog post, more importantly for this endeavor: "Bringing it all together." Those of you who know me well can appreciate the irony of this ambitious statement -- I never have it all together. In fact, the wingandaprayer method has served me well lo these many years of teaching, and I kind of like it.

At the risk of sounding too cavalier or casting myself in the wrong light, let me qualify that statement: After 21 years in the classroom some things become second nature and no longer require the legwork required in the early years of teaching, but I am forward thinking as teachers go: I am not a "file cabinet" teacher, and rarely do I execute the same lesson plan twice.

Teasingly, I describe my family as a group of complexity seekers: we are always looking for a better way to accomplish some task. From gumbo recipes to the vacation plans, we are quick to ask, "You know what we should do next time?" This familial trait carries over into my classroom: as soon as we finish an assignment, I am quick to ask my team how we should modify it for the next year's students.

Case in point, let us consider one of the major tasks of each year. As educators we are called upon by local, state, and national standards (if not the ethical standpoint of a modern educator) to encourage critical, independent thinking and thereby promote lifelong learning - a welcome relief from the days of rote memorization and skill and drill instruction. Yet students often fail to appreciate the liberation offered to them; instead they "just want to know the answer."

This conflict finds particular application in the study of language and literature. Despite our attempts to teach the type of thinking mentioned above and to bolster students' confidence in asserting their own, reasoned interpretations of literature, many prefer to rely upon the intellectual welfare offered by Spark Notes. (Or Cliffs' Notes, Baron's Guide, Pink Monkey, Novel Guides, etc. - they are all the same...) So quick to give up on their own ideas and adopt the easy answers and interpretations offered by these study aids, many of my kids resist the offer of free thought. (Ironic isn't it? But that's another post...)

Back to the topic at hand: my goal is to use the technology skills learned over the last two summers to create a product that addresses the conflict of critical thought and literary analysis. My hope is to create something that (in no particular order) 1) addresses the need for support while working with complex literature, 2) includes the role of direct instruction in understanding literary trends, 3) exposes the simplistic and reductive nature of superficial study aids, 4) offers some better alternatives that encourage deeper and more complex analyses, and 5) combines together to encourage students confident literary analyses.

What form this product assumes is yet to be seen: I've seen the videos offered on the Library2Play3 website, but I wonder if there is a better vehicle for delivery -- Maybe an interactive flipchart to be used on my ActivBoard? Hmmmm: anybody have an idea?

Whatever incarnation it takes, I know that the more technologically advanced and savvy the end product is, the better it will catch my students' attention. And as so many of their "cheats" to critical though come through electronic sources, I hope to show a better way to use those same mediums for a better outcome. So that's my plan for now, but given that my life is under constant revision, look for changes along the way. And when I'm done, too: I can hear myself already, " You know what I think we ought to do next time???"