What we did at Digital Is … Conference

It was a pretty amazing day here in Philly with the National Writing Project’s Digital Is Conference — we spent the entire day discussing, debating and considering the emerging digital literacy movement that we are seeing reflected in the lives of our children and students.

The morning began with an overview of why we were here — the rationale behind talking about the influx of digital media in our classrooms and why it is part of the writing focus. We then broke off into smaller groups. I took part in a discussion called Change Writers, which focused on a project that connected eighth graders with fourth graders in California to research social injustice, discuss the issues via blogs and then move into positive social action as a result. Much of our talk focused in on what the students did, with the teacher putting on emphasis on the fact that it was not the technological tools, but the ways those tools were used. In this case, the technology of blogs and voicethreads opened up a large audience for students who are often left out of the conversation because of socio-economic issues.

Here are a few things I heard:

“The technology is a piece of it. But it is not all about technology … Technology allowed us to take down the walls of the classroom. They were not just writing for me. They were writing for peers, for others, and getting feedback. The got to write without that ‘red pen’ slashing through everything. They could have conversations.” — Lesley McKillop, Prairie Elementary School.

“It’s not about the technology. It’s about using technology to help students join communities. They were no longer confined (to their classroom).” — Gail Desler, Area 3 Writing Project.

Later, I presented some student digital work — a digital science picture book — to a group and due to our protocols for discussion, I had to sit silently while the room talked about what they saw in the project, what “worked,” and what questions they had. Only then could I, the presenting teacher, grab the floor and put the project into context. It was a bit nerve-wracking, particularly when I saw former NWP Executive Director Richard Sterling sitting right in front of me with colleagues Charlie Moran and Anne Herrington. And across the room was Gail Hawisher. These folks are HUGE in the land of composition. But it was intriguing to “experience” the book through their eyes and lens.

A second afternoon session brought different folks together to talk about what they had learned and observed after viewing difference pieces of student work. I took a bunch of notes, but they would not make much sense to anyone (not even me at this point). But this Wordle nicely captures the main ideas from our discussion, which focused a lot on what we view as the new definition of Writing (not everyone agrees that this is new).

But we did have some important questions that we were left with from our table discussions:

• How do adults tackle issues affecting young people that the adults have not experienced themselves?
• What is relationship between traditional forms of writing and the new forms of writing?
• Keep an eye on the haves and have-nots – Will it exasperate the difference or equalize it?
• What is “writing” these days?
• What is missing from our conversations around digital literacy: questions about rhetoric and how it works and what you need to do it well.
• Are traditional composition classes the training ground for the new media literacy?
• Are new genres developing within new literacies that are irrelevant to the traditional writing classroom?
• How does the new design – non-linear text and media – affect our views of literacy?
• Do we even know what we should be teaching when it comes to new literacies?
• How does firewall affect teaching new literacies if every step in any direction is blocked?
• Some teachers are learning along with their students – they are learning by doing it.

Finally, I attended a session down the street at the Museum of Natural History, where various kiosks of student digital work — podcasts, movies, digital stories, etc. — were on display for viewing, and then I attended an interesting forum discussion about how young people are using digital media in their lives and how are educators meeting this shift (Mostly, we are not, to be honest).

So, long day with a lot to think about and ponder.

Peace (from Philly),
Kevin

What Digital Is is

It will be an exciting day today. I can tell. I’ll be participating in the Digital Is Conference here in Philly. The Digital Is Project is a new partnership between the National Writing Project and the MacArthur Foundation to explore how students are using digital tools for writing and learning. One of the larger projects still underway is an online site that documents what teachers are doing to scaffold use of digital tools in writing.

A session I am attending this morning is called “Change Writers: Empowering Students to Write for Change.”  If that doesn’t pique your interest, then you must not be a teacher wanting your students to become active participants in the world around them. One of the facilitators is my friend, Gail Desler, and I can’t wait to hear what she and the other presenters will share out about their experiences of using digital media (podcast, etc.) to explore social action projects with their students.

Later, I am presenting some student work at a roundtable discussion. My piece is a Digital Science Picture Book and there is an entire protocol for folks to examine the work and think about it as a piece of digital composition. It’s a little nerve-wracking, I guess, although there is no real reason to be nervous about it. They’re all friends, right? I’m sure the conversations will be interesting and give me some outside insight into what my students are doing when they compose with these tools.

Tonight, I signed up to attend an event called The Power of Youth Voice: What Kids Learn When They Create With Digital Media. It is taking place over at The Academy of Natural Science and that, too, should provide a real interesting take on what is happening with students composing with various media, for various purposes, for a variety of audiences. Neat.

Peace (from Philly),

Kevin

Day 18: 30Poems 30Days

(Poet’s note: This poem came from a conversation that I had with someone about how kids can use Magnetic Fridge Poetry for writing, as I was lamenting that my new Interactive Board led to the removal of my chalkboard, where I often would stick magnetic words for students to play with. Oh well. Then, I thought about what it would mean to “lose” a word from a set and what if that word were love?)

The missing word
from the fridge
is the Love Magnet
and I wondered where it had gone
so I went searching:
Under carpets;
Inside cupboards;
Behind curtains;
Between cushions;
until I was so exhausted that I collapsed in bed
and discovered “love” right where I had left it:
Beneath your pillow – right beside me.

Here is the Voicethread, if you want to hear my voice.

Peace (in the finding of love),
Kevin

More thoughts on Literacy for All Conference

This morning’s keynote speaker for the Literacy for All Conference was dynamic. Lester Laminak is a tour de force storytelling and he wasted no time in bringing us on a journey into the Wizard of Oz, playing all the parts, singing (repetition is key to learning, he reminded us) and dancing. While it was enjoyable (he was without notes), Lester slipped into teaching mode — reminding us that, like the journey to the unknown Oz, we must remember that our students must also be centered on a message of Home, the Mind, Courage and the Heart. And us, too. The teachers.
He asked us, provocatively, “What is your Oz?” and ventured to ask: “Is what you do in your classroom tempered by the heart that beats in your chest? Do you care?
It sounds schmaltzy on the screen, but it hit a nerve with us in the audience. At least, it did in the seat where I was sitting.
Lester then read through his own Declaration of A Dream for Schools and urged us as educators to become a more forceful voice in setting the agenda for school in our country and not let politicians and government officials set the agenda for the next ten years. “Use your literacy. Don’t just teach it. Use it,” he half-whispered, half-shouted from the stage.
At one point, Lester said teachers must also stop talking so much in the classroom and listen. “Let the babies speak,” is how he phrased it, and I held on to this phrase for much of the day, finally letting it form the opening of a poem.

Let the babies speak, Lester
says in that accent of his — eyes afire —
and voice clothed in such urgency that I sit
on the edge of my seat.

Today, I open my eyes
to their voices again and feel them
pushing in through the cracks of the window pane
like spring airm rustling after a closed-up winter —
fresh and strange and full of something wonderful.

The only other session that I attended (before hitting the road for the airport) was on Guided Writing, led by Lori Oczkus. She is a literacy coach and works with many schools around writing. I found her engaging and fun, if a bit too fast with her overhead sheets (yep, most presenters at this conference were still shuffling around folders of laminated sheets). Here are a few things I took from her session:

1. Use what she calles “cool tools” — which are just motivational concepts beyond writing on a piece of paper. She talked about using hand gestures to signal the kind of “start” a writer uses (such as the pantemime of a paint brush for using a description). Cool tools engages the interest of young writers, she said.
2. Use drama and acting during the writing process. Have students act out scenes as others read their stories. Give life to the words on the page. I like that and used to do it more than I do now. I don’t know why. Thanks Lori.
3.Integrate poetry throughout the entire year. Don’t wait for Spring! She showed how students use short poems to show knowledge of non-fiction text and how to move a piece of fiction in new directions with poetry. She put the emphasis on free-form poetry, and if you read my poems, you know she was talking my language.
4. Center specific lessons on how to start and end stories by looking at many sample texts.
5. Use what she calls a “Live Rubric.” This is a set of colored papers with words like Dialogue, Description, Action and other ideas that the audience holds up as a reader reads their work, giving visual clues to strengths and weaknesses of a piece. I love this idea.

All in all, the Literacy for All Conference was decent, not great. One of the organizers slipped me a note after we had been talking, asking if I might submit a proposal for next year. I guess we’ll see. I don’t have too many laminated files (ha).

Peace (in RI),
Kevin

Day 17: 30Poems 30Days

(Poet’s note: This poem was inspired by a conversation at a literacy conference, where we were talking about struggling readers and how they sometimes can’t see below the surface of the letters on the page).

She reads the words,
not the text.
She zeroes in on the sounds,
not the meaning.
I’d like to shrink her down
so that she can dance inside the sentence
and tightrope among the twists and turns of the font
that holds the story up
when it often appears to her to be on the verge
of collapse.

Here is my Voicethread for this week’s group of poems, as I am away from home.

Peace (in the poems),

Kevin

Literacy for All Conference

I’m just back from a long day at the Literacy for All Conference here in Providence Rhode Island. The day has been somewhat mixed. The keynote addresses were fair, although I cut some slack for the first presenter — Linda Alston, author of the book Why We Teach — who got stuck in the Denver airport in a snow storm and was speaking on 24 hours of no sleep. Given that, her views on early literacy and the photographic tour of her classroom were magical. The afternoon speaker was Linda Gambrell, who used research in the field of literacy to really talk about the power of reading in the lives of our students.

I went to two break-out  sessions today.

The first was by Carl Anderson, who talked about establishing effective writing conferences for students. He showed us a few videos of him conferencing with students of a variety of ages, but I wish we had been engaged in some activity.

Here are my notes:

Predictable structure to conferences (not aimless conversation)
●                 Ask assessment questions
●                 Read student writing
●                 Make a decision on what to teach
●                 Give critical feedback
●                 Teach the mini-lesson
●                 Show sample of writing
●                 Have student talk through example
●                 Move towards independent writing


Ideas – advice

●                 Don’t be afraid of silent thinking by students before responding
●                 Take student responses and re-frame/re-state with writing discourse language
●                 Ultimately, the teacher can shift focus of conference
●                 Use your own writing experience in the questions that you ask
●                 Trust yourself with your questions and direction you take the conference
●                 Not necessary to read the whole piece by the student  — pieces of it are fine
●                 Use cues from students to know where to focus on a piece

And then I attended a session by Donalyn Miller, the Book Whisperer, about moving away from Whole Class Novel Reading. She had a great personality that led to some interesting discussions. Many of us in the room were upper elementary/middle school teachers.

Here are my notes:

Why do we use the class novel?
●     Common text
●     Exposes students to variety of genres/cultural texts
●     Teacher can invest a lot in teaching of the one book

What are concerns about using Whole Class Novels:
●     Varied reading levels and interests of students
●     Novels take too long
●     Extension activities reduce reading time

How to streamline approach to Whole Class Novel:
●     Shorten time on novels
●     Strip units of many activities and vocabulary work
●     More read aloud books and shared reading
●     Provide more for independent time for reading
●     Alternate Whole Class Novels with independent reading units
●     Provide instructional support for reading of novels

How to re-position reading instruction around Independent Reading:
●     Design instruction around genre studies, literary elements or comprehension strategies, not specific books
●     Create guiding questions and common assessment to be used for any book
●     Use common texts like short stories, articles, first chapters, etc.

More sessions on tap tomorrow.

Peace (in Rhode Island),
Kevin

Collaborate on an Important Question

Paul B. has set up an interesting Google Slideshow and is seeking collaborators. The question: What experience do you provide for your students and what experience do you hope they get? Paul hopes you add an image and a sentence that captures your insight.

Here is my addition, which I created over at ToonDoo:

But you can add your own or at least, see what others are adding:

http://moourl.com/sfam1

(I hoped to embed the slideshow here, but I could not seem to get it to work.  I might not have enough access to the Google Doc to do that.)

Peace (in the thought),
Kevin

Day 15: 30Poems 30Days

(Poet’s note: I was writing this poem with a comic in mind and then realized that it would be best served on a comic medium (with fries on the side!). And, what the heck, I wanted it a movie, too!)

The poets would laugh at you
if they saw your words in a comic
because how could they take you seriously
when your words are shoved into speech bubbles
voiced from the mouths of funny characters?

Let ’em laugh, I say,
because poetry is no longer bound to the page –
it is alive with creativity
and, anyways, they’re dead and buried as mere echoes of the past
while I am alive and living here, in this moment.

You can go to the comic poem movie directly or watch it down below:
DayFifteen Poetry by dogtrax

Peace (in the bubble),
Kevin

Where am I? A comic for my kids

I am out of the classroom all next week — first to Providence for Literacy for All and then to Philly for NWP and NCTE. Yesterday, I had to stay home with my son, who was sick, and then they have the entire Thanksgiving week off (we have professional development), which means I won’t see my students for more than two weeks!

Ack! That’s a long time.

So, I went on our comic site and made this for them. A few have already started to leave me comments. I like how comics can connect us.

Peace (in the frame),
Kevin