On writing persuasively...

My Academic Bio students will be researching a food issue and writing a blog post about it. I have not blogged much with them as it is mired in "schooliness" and is more like homework vs. true writing as Clay Burrell would say. I do not want to beat the writing out of them but know that they may not write at all without an assignment, so here goes.

They will watch a really cool you tube video on organic produce and the farm wars (hat tip to Chris Lehmann for tweeting this.) The video and my "assignment" can be found here on the wiki.

How to make this more meaningful to students vs. a simple research. Perhaps this should be a persuasive article that has students finding information for and against. How much experience does a student have in writing persuasively and what do I need to tell them? I know if they really want something, they can pour on the persuasion, but what about a "schooly" piece like this?

Brian Clark's blog post about Aristotle's Top 3 tips for Effective Blogging may be a place to start.

• Begin with the end in mind. You need to know where you are going before you can effectively choose the right path there. Any writing is really telling a story. You need to know the big picture of what it is before actually writing. Identify what the clear point is.
  
• Persuasion is an art. Identify the fundamentally most compelling element of the topic. In order to communicate the element effectively, you must connect with the raw emotions of the audience (this could be passion, fear, or even anger.) You need to strike a nerve in them not in you. Make it very personal. How do we do this: Identify what is compelling, connect at that emotional level, then back it up with logic.
• Learn to tell a persuasive story.

1. Create an opening. Make a shocking statement, quote a fact, or create a scenario.
2. Connect to emotions by feeling the readers pain or connecting with those passions.
3. Show a solution and how they should act on it. What can be done?

On un-schooly blogging, how do you get students to want to blog about related class topics? Should they be required to post to the blog once per unit about a topic of importance to them? Connect to class topics? Unlike an English class, where writing can be about anything as writing continually improves writing, what is the purpose of blogging in a biology classroom?

How do you assess that?

My session at PETE-C almost two weeks ago was a great way to get my thinking about assessment straight. Though not an expert, I have spent considerable time questioning the way that we do assessment and how this works with project based learning. A few thoughts:

• It has always seemed wrong that we "learned" material, students took a test (and usually did poorly), and yet we still moved on even though not all had learned.
• When doing projects, a few students do a good job and "get it"," a few come close, but a vast majority miss the mark. They can see what you are asking but do not know the knowledge "steps" or questions that it takes to get there.
• I have been reading a lot about "assessment for learning" which we should be doing instead of "assessment of learning."
• I am using Understanding by Design to backwards plan the course from the essential questions and its assessment to the day to day activities.
• With reforms in education, assessment has not been changed and is crucial as old ways of assessments are not the best at assessing learning.
  

My main suggestions through the session:

• Use formative assessment of the project pieces to be sure students get to the goal of the project. Since the project is more than just "tell me about the biome" and is value laden decisions about the biome, asking students for the pieces of the project and then offering feedback and oppotunities to improve, seems like a great idea. Though the project is moving slower than I would like, students are improving upon the way they complete the project. I am planning on using evidence for future presentations and to determine if this is a way I should proceed in the future.
• In my academic class, students will have an opportunity to be exempt from portions of the test by doing well on the quizzes along the way.
  
• During the labs in the academic class, students analyze what has been learned in lab as a group write-up but the harder questions are reserved for homework. Students who score low are offered remedial activities to bring up portions of the grade, though they will not achieve 100%. The purpose is to get students to understand the essential ideas that tie the content together which lead to the unifying themes in science.

So basically, I am focusing on many formative assessments that provide the opportunity to correct misunderstandings and show learning along the way. There are other teachers doing similar assessment for learning.

So what are your thoughts? Are others asking the same questions and making/made some of the same changes in assessment? I am still pushing my thinking as well as listening to feedback/criticisms (though, assessment is broken and needs fixed.)

Tags: PETE-C, assessment, education

Storytelling keynote at PETE-C

Jason Ohler's (http://www.jasonohler.com/index.cfm) keynote at the PETE-C conference:

We need to open doors. All the testing in the world means nothing unless that door opens.

Kids are banging on the door. We need to let them in.

Every screen is a screasel - screen + easel

Kids are consuming and producing the media forms of the day

Literacy - students need to be able to write whatever they read.

Not words, but a collage.

Why literacy changes? Read and write, moving images Free stages , venues, art

Web 2.1 - colors, music, images and not just text

Web 3.0 - semantic web - we may have too much information - recode the web so a report comes up collating everything instead of just hits. Need a better way of searching, organizing, and presenting.

9 digital lit action guidelines

1. shift from text-centrism to new media collage
2. value the writing more than ever - not the assessment anymore - Visually differentiated text - chunked information instead of a page of a bunch of text.
3. Adopt art as the next literacy
4. Follow DAOW of literacy - Digital-Art-Oral-Written
5. Attitude is the aptitude - intelligence now is the ability to deal with new tools
   
6. Practice private and social literacy. Not enough to be individually literate anymore.
7. Develop literacy about digital tools.
8. Fluency, not just literacy. The person who best understand the tools and leveraging it for what you want to do. Collective intelligence for where you want to go.
9. Harness both report and story...embrace story. the way you shape the information - it is the container that holds the information.
   

Kids come to school wired for story. They get information in a list ordered format. When they say they don't get it, they really don't see it without the context of a story.

Beat copyright and create your own stuff. Overuse of music in production is a problem.

Assess the total package: research, writing, planning, media fluency, literacy blending

Story core - need problem (tension) and a solution (resolution) - A story without transformation (growth) is not successful. Inquiry, discovery and the transformation is learning.

rolling ball idea - create the problem in the story. Music is subtle and hooks you in.

Emotional flow vs. flow of motion

things are not good or bad - it is either clear and compelling or it is not

Find media development process grid - important to brainstorm, and then peer pitch to others. Storyboard (powerpoint is a great storyboard)
Write/speak.record
Media list, get media

Danger with storytelling. Story + critical thinking is what we need to do. Don't rule by concern. Turn concerns into goals. A concern is a negatively turned goal.

My notes: My emphasis is in bold. What if projects became more like stories that show learning? Not sure about this yet. It is sometimes difficult to look at Science in other ways but collections of fact. I am mulling this over and thinking of testing it out. In the least, the podcast items students create for class can be more engaging if presented in a story format.

Tags: Jason Ohler, PETE-C

College?

A lot of talk about whether students should be pursuing the college dream. Here is another article about it:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0129/p09s02-coop.html

I have mixed feelings about this but think that we have lost our way in what educated and even successful means in this country. Now that my kids are teenagers, I want them to find a career that they are happy with and is fulfilling.

Tipping point near?

Many are creating change in our own little corners of the world (and quite alone there might I add.) We are encouraged by every possible sign. Several times at Educon, I was reassured by others saying the tipping point was really near. I hope so and continue to be encouraged. The following news stories further push my thinking that the more that are on board, the faster this train is going to move...

Superintendents in Texas put the brake on decades old education practice and NCLB. view an article here. a pdf of the actual document can be found here.

Further argument in No Dog Left Behind (from the ASCD Smartbrief.)

Minnesota's focus on Science has increased their students test scores. I have not poured over their website, but there is much reference to project 2061 which emphasizes science as a process and working through basic tenets of science deeply (in a nutshell, it is not about content.) I talked about it before on this blog.

Increasing recognition to educators that are making a difference with a different pedagogy than the current norm. One recent example is here.

New Science standards for the State of Washington discussed here which include 4 essential requirements:

• Systems thinking to analyze and understand complex phenomena.

• Inquiry activities to develop understanding of scientific ideas.

• Application of the science they are learning to solve real-world problems.

• Understanding of the domains of science: physical science, life science, and earth and space science.

The emphasis is on fewer core concepts that are learned in a deeper manner to understand the process. The standards can be found here.

I am encouraged that this conclusion is finally being reached by more than one agency at the same time. What is needed: continual discourse and collaboration and an emphasis on our own learning in perfecting our profession.

PA ban on "portable electronic devices" in schools

Hat tip to Teach42 and Jim Gates about PA House Bill 363. This bill will ban pagers, cell phones, and portable electronic devices used for recording video and audio. Not sure the why about this bill, but it really is unfortunate that we even have to hear about it.

A quick email I sent out to our State Representative:

As a member and educator in this community, I strongly urge you to vote against the above referenced bill concerning cellular telephones and portable electronic devices that record audio and video. As you know, some students must travel for athletic events and cell phones are necessary to coordinate transportation from parents. Additionally, by definition, the laptops that Punxsutawney School Board has voted on going one-to-one fall under "portable electronic devices." This is a giant step backwards in a state that is at the forefront of technology use and 21st century skills through Classrooms for the Future. The only way to assure wise and responsible use of technologies is through open discussion and modeling of appropriate use, not through the banishment of technology. We stand to lose greatly if this bill is passed. I look forward to hearing your viewpoints and discussion on this issue.

Louise Maine
http://hurricanemaine.blogspot.com

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