21st Century

Teaching Research Techniques

by Laura Groves on January 22, 2013

We have all the information we need at our fingertips, right?

Well, sort of. Thanks to the internet, there’s plenty of information out there. But students still need to be taught how to use that information responsibly.

My high school sophomores write a research paper using MLA endnote citation, and it’s not their first. Our high school requires an acceptably written research paper each year, and our students move on well prepared. It’s not an easy task for students or teachers — lots of grading, as you can imagine.

How do you successfully teach research techniques? Here are some suggestions:

1. Consider your students’ level and ability. Ours is a unit school (PK – 12), and research techniques are introduced in the lower school. Don’t expect students to know it all, obviously. Consider this a building block project; raise the bar a bit every year.

2. Break the project down into bite-sized bits, and communicate the schedule clearly.

3. Communicate your source expectations clearly and early. If using internet sources, teach students how to discern between the good and the bad.

4. Check student work each step of the project so you can catch big problems while they can be more easily fixed. It’s a lot easier for a student to fix source problems early than it is when the weight of typing the entire paper is on his shoulders.

5. Be flexible but consistent. Flexible with those of differing abilities and those with less exposure to this kind of project. Consistent with deadlines, especially with those familiar to the project. If you start moving deadlines around, it’s harder for the students and the teacher.

6. Talk about the problem of plagiarism, and take it seriously. CBS News did a great story on the subject, and Youtube has a number of good videos you can show your students. Watch and pick one that will speak to them.

7. Be sure your students understand documentation at the appropriate level – or they’ll find themselves plagiarizing. Show them how to give credit where credit is due. Choose the method that will work best for you and your students and give them examples. There are many websites that show examples and some that even put the information into citation form for you, but choose one for your students so they can be sure they’re following your instructions.

8. Reward them on the day the paper is due! A research paper is a lot of work. Your students will have learned a valuable skill and worked hard, so bake some them brownies!

No matter what field they enter, all our students will have to handle information. They’ll have to discern between credible and bogus sources, and as people of character, they should all know how to give credit where credit is due.

What about you? Do your students undertake a research project? Share some of your suggestions with us.

Laura Groves

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Surviving New Curriculum – Misery is Optional

by Kendal Privette on January 8, 2013

I’m teaching new curriculum this year. Actually, it’s a new-to-our-state course: Middle Grades World History.  A course I haven’t had since freshman year in college. 24 years ago.  One of my students figured it out right before Christmas. “Wait,” he said,  ”You’ve never taught this before? Why are you teaching it to us?” (I would never accuse a seventh grader of mincing words.) We’re often called to new curriculum due to changes in grade level, change in location or district/state/national revamps. I’m not a fan of change – too stressful. (I once cried over changing vacuum cleaners.) I have found some essentials to a smooth and effective transition:

  1. Organization - This is the most difficult for me. I’ve learned to keep a copy of the state standards in a three-ring binder along with the unit plans my teammates and I are developing as we swim this broad sea. I take it to all my meetings, and most importantly, I review the standards and our work from time to time or I find myself adrift.
  2. Collaboration – Two other teachers in my grade teach the same course. I trust them and depend on them. Our principal set aside a planning period per week for official unit planning. During that time we have team norms and a note-taker. We leave the meeting with clear expectations for who is doing what until we meet again. But we plan far more than during the official professional learning community. We talk/email/text about learning targets, activities, resources, assessments, what worked and what didn’t work every day. I would drown without them.
  3. Internet Resources – I admit that I find the wealth of information on the web a bit overwhelming, but here are a few of my go-to sites that are applicable to all fields:
    • Teachers Pay Teachers - An open marketplace for educators where teachers buy, sell and share original teaching resources. (Part free, more for a fee)
    • Brain Pop - BrainPOP® creates animated, curricular content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement. (Part free, more for a fee)
    • Quizlet - You can study anything. Find or create what you need to learn. (Free)
    • PBworks - Online team collaboration to get work done. Capture knowledge, share files, and manage projects within a secure, reliable environment. (Free)

Surviving new curriculum does not have to lead to misery.  I’m remembering why i teach – to discover and facilitate discovery. No, I don’t have to add misery to my plate – just stay organized, collaborate and allow myself time to wade the vast waters of internet resources.

So, how about you? When is the last time you changed curriculum? How do you best manage without misery?

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Erasing the White Walls – Publishing and Presenting Student Work

by Kendal Privette on October 8, 2012

She was fourteen-years old and holding her boyfriend’s hand at the water fountain. “That one’s mine,” she told him as she pointed to her Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Hinduism and Buddhism hanging on the wall.  She was pregnant. The boyfriend, already sixteen in the 8th grade was trying to hold down a restaurant job so he could take care of his girl. And they cared to look at her carefully drawn circles on the pink piece of construction paper. He, this young man who rode a moped to a job at night, listened as she explained her process.  I was stunned. I have always hung student work in the hallways, but until then, I thought I was just contributing to the aesthetic appeal of our school. I didn’t realize that even big kids care. According to Rick Wormeli, a national education consultant and veteran educator, one of the five ways educators should transition students through the formative adolescent years is to understand students’ concerns about belonging by, “Design(ing) classrooms and hallways with student interests in mind, with student work prominently displayed.” Publishing and presenting work for authentic audiences, even if it’s other students in the school, provides students incentive to persevere to quality learning and product. My principal has made unique connections with students this year by having them show him their work in the hall and then photographing the pieces with his phone. He shares his collection with others as they visit our school building. I’ve compiled a list of a few ways that middle schoolers at my school publish and present their work. I would love to hear what you do in your school!

  • posters
  • student-led conferences
  • writing contests
  • web-based, digital presentations such as Prezi, Glogster, Storybird
  • Power Point presentations
  • Post-it notes
  • phone images
  • Email or blog comments
  • letters
  • videos
  • performances

What are your favorite ways to publish student work?

photo credit

Kendal’s personal blog is a spacious place.

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A Teaching Tool You HAVE to Meet!

by Laura Groves on September 26, 2012

Looking for a great study tool for your students? Check out Quizlet – the leading study site in the US. I learned about Quizlet from my high school sophomores, who use it all the time. And it’s easy to see that Quizlet’s tools can be used for all ages.

Quizlet was created by Andrew Sutherland when he was a high school sophomore looking for a way to study for a French vocab test. (Amazing, huh?) The website says it’s used by over ten million people a month.

Quizlet is free, simple, and has mobile apps. The website is incredibly clean and easy to navigate. Teachers can create sets of terms for their classes, or students can input information on their own.

Once sets are created, they can be studied six different ways, from flashcards and practice tests to various games. Students can even print flashcards, tables, and glossaries, if they wish. There are a number of interesting sets already available in Quizlet, but as a student enters his own terms and definitions, his learning is reinforced; and then, he can play Scatter or practice flashcards to his heart’s content.

So, check out Quizlet. And tell your students to give it a try!

by Laura Groves

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On Feeding the Planet and Learning in the Process

September 7, 2012
On Feeding the Planet and Learning in the Process

It’s my favorite kid-friendly site on the net. Free Rice.  Sponsored by and supporting  the United Nations World Food Programme, Free Rice has two goals: to provide education to everyone for free. to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. How does it work? Players answer quiz questions, and for [...]

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Learning in the Digital Age

August 29, 2012

Smartboard? Check. Document camera? Of course. Student e-readers? A given. Personal smart phones: A necessity. Does your classroom utilize all of those? Or any of them? I’d imagine we’re all at different places in terms of technology. Some school districts and private schools may provide the latest and greatest, while others are scraping by with [...]

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Why I’m Participating in the Staff Back-to-School Picnic

July 30, 2012
Table

  When I read or watch the news these days, I learn about climate change. And how it affects me. And what I can do to affect it. This is a little overwhelming, really to think of just one person having an effect on, oh I don’t know, the entire atmosphere, but it has made me think of [...]

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Technology Lesson Idea for Students {Make a Movie!}

June 13, 2012
Technology Lesson Idea for High School Students {Make a Movie}

Need an assignment for students that incorporates your educational subject with technology? Consider having students create or help create a movie. Video assignments are fantastic ways to engage students on multiple levels and in varying core standards, while encouraging that “21st Century Learning” in the process.  Another thing I love about making movies in class [...]

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Are You Ready for the Common Core Standards?

May 21, 2012

When I first started teaching it was without the benefit of textbooks. Although at the time I thought of it as a hardship, looking back I realize that the lack of textbooks is what enabled my team and I to really focus on the standards and teach to them, instead of following a textbook scope [...]

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Using Music to Teach English as a Second Language

May 17, 2012
Teaching Tip for Teaching English as a Second Language

The following is a guest post from Marsha Goren. Marsha teaches in Petach Tikva, Israel, where she has creatively begun the American English School in her city. Enjoy the following tips for how she uses songs and videos to teach ESL. You can find Marsha at her blog, GlobalDreamers.org. **************** I am an American who [...]

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