How to Create Interactivity, Even Remotely

Q: My students are reluctant to speak in some classes. What's worse is that in other classes, two or three students monopolize the entire conversation. How can I increase interaction in class while making the best use of class time?

Asking students to complete reading assignments outside of class or to watch videos on their own time can immediately net you precious minutes in the classroom. But how can we increase the likelihood that this outside work gets done?

One possible solution is Verso. Verso allows you to create a collaborative yet closed social media space in which students anonymously respond to a video, site, or reading. Students then craft a response, comment upon the responses of others, and upvote the responses they found to be most helpful. The video below illustrates this process.

 In the classroom, Verso can be used to

• build understanding of historical context of a novel. In connection with a novel set in the 1960s, for example, students might view videos of the Vietnam anti-war movement, the Civil Rights movement, or the Space Race.
• review a concept or skill covered in class. This video on dramatic irony, for example, could either precede or follow a lesson on the same topic, while Simile School pokes fun at a concept in a way students will enjoy (after watching, students could write creative similes for those comparisons mentioned in the video).
• generate background information for a current events debate or writing. Above the Noise is a public television series that will appeal to middle and high schoolers. See this recent post on Universal Healthcare.
• review the steps of a process. After a lesson on writing hooks, for example, a student might need a refresher.
• integrate SEL and discuss sensitive topics such as bullying. These videos from Pass It One can serve as excellent conversation starters for any age level, whereas this video titled Talent Show is intended for more mature audiences.
• provide alternate interpretations of classic literature. From staged versions of Shakespeare to the Simpsons' take on The Raven to animated texts of classic speeches such as The Gettysburg Address, YouTube is full of possibilities.
• practice inferring skills. This commercial titled The Perfect Daughter requires the viewer to put together the limited information available in order to make sense of the narrative.
• to create an online crowd sourcing site. In response to any one of dozens of issues, students could share and debate opinions. These ideas can later help students who struggle for ideas in their essay writing.

Choosing the correct video is half the battle; crafting a student response prompt that fires a conversation is even more crucial. The more open-ended, the better! Verso provides several videos of High Impact Teaching Strategies to get you started.

In addition to creating a common experience for students, Verso provides younger students with a closed environment of social media. Verso provides an excellent venue to teach students that they need to own their social interactions online. Once students learn that they are accountable for what they say, they tend to make comments that are more helpful and incisive. And when they choose to do the opposite? They'll receive instant feedback from classmates and teacher alike.

If you're looking for ways to embed questions, videos, and text within existing webpages, I highly recommend Insert Learning. Perfect for formative assessment!

Tech Tools for Assessment

Assessment isn't what happens after instruction; assessment is instead what guides instruction and moves it forward. Formative assessment, the ongoing "pinging" of student progress, is a key part of instruction and not an afterthought. Wiliam (2013) stated it this way: “It is only through assessment that we can discover whether the instructional activities in which we engaged our students resulted in the intended learning. Assessment really is the bridge between teaching and learning.”

With this in mind, I've created a collection of over 30 free assessment tools which teachers can use at all stages of the learning process. I've annotated these sites and provided introductory videos which will help you to get started immediately.

Why the Emphasis on Assessment?

When my older daughter was five, she purchased a rubber squeaky hammer from the dollar store. For days she walked around the house, asking what needed to be hammered. So I guess she proved Abraham Maslow to be correct when he said, "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail" (Maslow, 1966, pp. 15-16). I sometimes feel that teachers are like that when it comes to a new technology. We get excited about a single site or application and seek ways to use it immediately and often, regardless of its appropriateness to the task. “While well-designed tools or assessment strategies are a key component to authentic formative assessment, if they are not what teachers consider the right tools for the immediate task at hand, they are frustrating and counterproductive” (Formative assessment that truly informs instruction, 2013, p. 2).

We should strive to work in the opposite way. Let's first consider our instructional objective, which is never "to use a new technology." Let's then ask, "Is there a technology that we can incorporate to somehow facilitate, extend, or improve this lesson?" When it comes to tools for assessment, we are seeking measures that are timely, frequent, authentic, engaging, practical, collaborative, and reflective. That’s a long list, but not every assessment needs to meet every criterion. We as teachers simply need to select judiciously; if a technology doesn't fit the bill, we shouldn't force it.

Technology tools are especially effective in administering formative assessment. Formative assessment can be defined as “a deliberate process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides actionable feedback used to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve students’ attainment of curricular learning targets or goals.” Mursky (2015) goes on to describe its attributes, which include clarifying intended learning, eliciting evidence, interpreting evidence, and acting on that evidence. Few teachers, however, were trained in how to elicit evidence of learning in a manner that is authentic, practical, or engaging. Other teachers fail to differentiate between formative and summative assessments; instead, they simply set assessment tasks, not fully realizing “that formative assessments are for learning, not necessarily of it” (Miller, 2015). As a result, these teachers are likely to associate assessments with summative examinations and standardized testing, and to see them as something that happens discretely apart from instruction. It’s even possible, in cases such as the PARCC test, that teachers view assessment as an intrusion on, or distraction from, classroom instruction and learning. “In a context in which assessment is overwhelmingly identified with the competitive evaluation of schools, teachers, and students, it is scarcely surprising that classroom teachers identify assessment as something external to their everyday practice” (Heritage, 2007, p. 14). We need to see assessment as a key factor in learning, and digital tools can play a huge role in this mission.

The purpose of Tech Tools for Assessment is to introduce teachers to digital assessment applications which will motivate and inspire students while yielding practical outcomes for reflection and continued growth. The tools provide measures that are timely, frequent, authentic, engaging, practical, collaborative, and reflective. Whenever possible, teaching applications and exemplars have been included in each site’s description to assist the teacher in understanding each application’s use and to aid the teacher in introducing the applications to students. As teachers, we need to “effectively communicate to our learners both a description of how they will perform an assessment activity as well as a description of how we will judge the quality of their performance” (Vega, 2015). These tools can play a critical role in meeting these objectives.

Continue reading my rationale for these tools, or check out the collection for yourself.

Feel free to share your own favorites in the comments below.

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Sources:

Formative assessment that truly informs instruction. (2013). Retrieved from National Council of Teachers of English website: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/formative-assessment_single.pdf 

Heritage, M. (2007, October). Formative assessment: What do teachers need to know and do? PHI DELTA KAPPAN, 89(02), 140-145. 

Maslow, A. H. (1966). The psychology of science: A reconnaissance. New York: Harper & Row. 

Miller, A. (2015, February 3). Formative assessment is transformational! Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessment-is-transformational-andrew-miller 

Mursky, C. (2015, January 30). Formative assessment practices to support student learning. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2015/01/30/formative-assessment-practices-sbac/ 

Vega, A. (2015, January 27). Blended and online assessment taxonomy design. Retrieved from http://www.fulltiltahead.com/edtech/blended-online-assessment-taxonomy-design-infographic/ 

Wiliam, D. (2103, December). Assessment: The bridge between teaching and learning.Voices from the Middle, 21(2), 15-20.

SMART Reading Assessment Activities



For Hunger Game readers still seeking more
dystopian sci-fi, check out the recommendations
at the end of this post.

In addition to the comments I receive here at How to Teach a Novel, I also receive many emails seeking practical, how-to advice on how to authentically assess student learning, while effectively managing student assignments.

One terrific resource I've found is this list of  SMART Free Reading Activities compiled by Jeremy Glazer. Jeremy has devised not only a list of activities, but also a scoring plan that motivates students to attempt more challenging assignments. I've uploaded the activities in both Word doc and pdf format (scroll to bottom of the page at this link) to my Teaching Reading and Language Arts wiki so that you can easily modify the plan Jeremy created. If you're anything like me, you need to personally tweak even the best ideas to make them your own.

In speaking about the plan, Jeremy says:

This assignment becomes as much about learning to pace yourself as anything else. Students often struggle the first few marking periods because they put things off, but ultimately they learn to plan ahead, particularly if you are consistent. I was very, very strict about only accepting one assignment per week. Students often begged for mercy because of one disaster or another, but I would gently explain to them that this assignment was about an accumulation and no one week mattered that much.  If they waited until the end and then had computer problems, etc., then there was a lesson to be learned about waiting until the end.

I would, however, make copies of a chart for them to keep in their folders when I passed the work back each week (that's the other part of it - you have to stay on top of the grading if you expect them to stay on top of their progress) so they could record their status. Grading was pretty minimal, though. I would make copies of the rubric on 1/4 sheet of paper strips, circle one of the numbers, write a one sentence comment and then staple that on to their assignment and hand it back. It "only" took a few hours per week.  

Jeremy Glazer presently works in The Good Government Initiative, a program to train elected officials, and intermittently teaches as an adjunct at a community college. If you dig these activities, or have additional questions, drop Jeremy a line.

About The Maze Runner: A couple of teachers have emailed me and asked what I recommend for students who have plowed through The Hunger Games Trilogy and are still hot for more science fiction. I recommend The Maze Runner trilogy (The Scorch Trials is book two in the trilogy), Incarceron(Sapphique picks up where this book leaves off), and Leviathan (followed up with Behemoth).

Until Hunger Games I'll admit I wasn't a fan of series, but I love how these dystopian books get kids hooked on reading. I'm totally open for other reading suggestions as well!

Real Writers ONLY Need Apply

I recently caught up with an old friend over coffee. At one point during our conversation she asked if I had continued with any writing after college. I mentioned that I wrote three blogs and did some spec work for publishers for online pieces.

When I asked, in turn, if she had continued with creative writing, she responded that she was about to publish her first book of short stories. "Without my writing group," she enthused, "I never would have had the drive to actually finish it."

"Sounds like a pretty awesome group," I responded. "I should join you guys."

"Well," she hesitated, "we're a group of serious writers."

"I'm a serious writer."

"You're writing on the Internet," she replied, as if I were missing an obvious point of consideration. "Anyone can do that."

"Can't anyone do what you're doing? Aren't most of you working on computers?"

"Yes, but we're passionate about what we write."

"Well, you obviously haven't read many blogs, because we can be pretty passionate as well."

"It's not the same," she said lamely, her brow now furrowing.

"Well, unlike some of your real writers, I have an audience for my writing. I also think some of the stuff I write actually moves people to action. And for some of the work I do for publishers, off the blogs, I actually get paid. So how am I not a real writer?"

"You are, but you're not a serious writer. There's a difference that you just don't understand."

On that single point we agreed.

The takeaway from that conversation? Any writing that we can get students to do should be considered real writing. Narratives, persuasive essays, and multi-page reports shouldn't be our only measure of their abilities and passion.

When I asked students to express their feelings about a live performance of Romeo and Juliet, for example, students responded via Edmodo, our closed social media community. The same students who would have grudgingly eked out just one or two sentences in writing typed out huge paragraphs expressing their opinions on the acting, the language, and play's abrupt ending (it ran over time, so the last scene had to be cut). Any one of these short samples was as truly passionate, well written, and skills-representative as anything else they had ever written. Most importantly, however, the writing served a purpose, as real writing should.

But don't take my word for it; I am, after all, not a serious writer.