Forgive me in advance for the not-so-touchy-feely words regarding our beloved Mother Goose, but this one gave me pause…
My two-year-old daughter drug over The Real Mother Goose yesterday as we were playing. I knew we had the book. It was a gift at some point in the last couple of years. However, it has never been one of my favorites. I guess I’m a prude, and for that I’m sorry, but these sing-songy bits of goofiness never did excite me. But hey- what my daughter wants to read… we read. So we read. Actually- even at two, she can spot-read (identify?) many of the words on the page already. So we laid in her comfy bed reading verse by verse and studying the accompanying artwork. Until I spied one in particular queued up across the page.
We didn’t read this one.
Now you can go on and on in the comments section about the historical significance of this work from 1916. It certainly does give an interesting glimpse of society at the time it first went to print. Jack Sprat, Little Boy Blue, London Bridge… I get it. I also appreciate the fact that these descend from verbal tradition and seem a bit weird on the printed page. I know.
But I have a pretty bright little turd here, and as of my current state of mind, we’re not about to sing songs of the difficulty of mathematics in my house. I almost hope someone will reply with just cause for not fretting over such a silly verse. I mean… she’s just two, right?
What will two years of failure do?
I was educated in the very public schools in which I now teach. I stayed pretty close to home. I was fortunate enough to be served by our gifted education program from elementary school on, when it was just out of the box and brand-spanking-new. I am proud of the experiences I had in our district from early to late. In fact, I was also in advanced mathematics in grade seven with Ms. Melody Boring (a known expert) and I learned a ton. However, I also have some baggage from later years that speaks to the power of having two bad experiences… two years in a row.
I don’t really feel like the usual research links here tonight that show how two neglected years can really sink a kid. It is in my head that this has been shown. I’m hoping someone will do that for me in the spaces below. But- I have a case study that says it is so.
Me, a bright kid sitting in the back of the room as a sophomore reading In-Fisherman and Sports Afield while my teacher sat in his desk chair tying flies. Yes, you read it correctly… tying flies. Tying flies in a full-on fly-tying vice clamped to his desk. Tying flies, painting the lead heads of crappie jigs for the weekend’s fishing expedition. Heck, I liked the guy. I mean, really… what high school boy wouldn’t? It was pretty routine. He’d scribble on the board for ten or fifteen minutes… give an assignment… and then get to work on his sportsmanlike artistry. If we needed a brownie point or two, we’d approach his desk and ask something like: “what color have the crappie been biting on this week?“ … and we’d be “in.”
The next year I was lucky enough to score a good teacher. He was a kind and gentle man, and one who knew a bit about mathematics instruction. I was playing catch-up, but a bright kid can do just that. Just a few months in, my teacher (the father of a current colleague) passed due to cancer and I was once again thrust into a tailspin. You can’t play catch up in advanced mathematics with a sub who reads the paper.
My senior year began anew with the trigonometry experience. Really- this was all quite interesting to me from a science perspective. I instantly got the conceptual ties to physics. Apparently, these conceptual ties weren’t solid enough as I ultimately scored a 6% on one exam, nailed the only D in my life… and pulled out of calculus for the second semester. This teacher?……. he was not rehired the following school year. Years later, my principal would show me the actual three-ring binder of documentation it took to pull this teacher’s roots from the public school system. Bad seeds in a good system. But the collateral damage of that mess is writing this blog. You should see the disparity in my ACT scores.
So perhaps I can thank all of this mess for pointing me in a rather literary direction. I remember even as far back as middle school, taking tests in Odyssey (gifted ed.) that always showed me to be “left-brain dominant.” That didn’t last long. From college on, the right side has done nearly all of the “talking” for me. That is probably rather obvious to anyone reading this blog over time.
A naked nerve
So, ultimately I apologize for defiling The Mother’s good name in kiddie lit (if she indeed has one). What I do not apologize for are some of the attitudes I have taken with me into the classroom for the past eighteen years. The idea that every kid matters. The idea that everyone deserves to grow, regardless of the skills they bring into your room in September. The idea that smart kids, perhaps most of all, deserve to be challenged, pushed and empowered every bit as much as any other kid.
My daughter stands to be a pretty brilliant little human some day. I’m not reading her stories of the vexation of multiplication. I’m just not going to do it. In fact, I’ll be damned if anyone does.
I hate internet memes. I have to be honest in saying that I never respond to them. The place they feel especially strange is on my blog. This is one of the few places where my learning is allowed to run about unfettered. Perhaps the meme concept feels like high school did back in my day when I was given really specific things to perform for a particular assignment. We all know that growth occurs from many of those situations where we have been forced to think within the guidelines of a particular set of “rules.” However, I have always seen the inside of my Edublogs dashboard as a place where I run the show, dictate the pace, put forward the agenda, and set the course for my own growth.
With all that said, I felt since Tania Sheko tagged me in this one… it was one I couldn’t refuse. Tania writes Brave New World from her home in Australia. Tania is a faithful contributor here at nashworld, and someone whose work and opinions I respect deeply. So really, that makes it pretty easy to see why this was my first official play-along with a blogging meme. I can’t quite think of a better reason to step to the plate for such a thing, for this is a meme of reflection.
This meme is the “4R’s” meme for bloggers. I am to troll through all of my old posts and pick one that fits each of the following R’s:
RANTS
RESOURCES
REFLECTIONS
REVELATIONS
I am to point to a post that fits each of the categories and tell why it was important, why it had lasting value or impact, and how I might update it for today.
Reflection
Actually, I spent some time back in April around the time of my first “blogversary” pulling an excerpt from each post throughout my first year behind the wheel of this blog. I stuck the outline on a separate page entitled: Year One Archive. So actually… I had a pretty slick little tool for surveying all of my posts for this reply. Still, this little exercise did require some pretty deep reflection to pick just one for each of the R’s. So for that- thanks Tania.
Rants- this could fit any number of posts here. However, I chose a post from last November for this one. Increasing Our Level of “Vitamin A“ was a post about the need for administration at all levels to step up and improve their support and modeling of current educational technology within the profession. I challenged administrators to book a trip to Washington D.C. for NECC 2009 and the unveiling of the refreshed NETS-A standards for leaders in this area.
This one was posted at 10:00pm on November 13th. At noon on November 14th our district’s Chief Operations Officer, Rick Hartigan, was sitting at the table in my principal’s office to let us know that, “he has heard the call” and that the district “was supporting this ideal and behind us 100%.” I had received timely feedback here before then, but I think you can see how impactful that little post was. What was the follow through, you ask? Mr. Hartigan booked a trip to NECC and attended like a pro. In fact, I remember one particular afternoon when he accompanied me to the “blogger’s cafe” to chat with some of the member of my burgeoning PLN.
The blogger’s cafe at an event like this is the most locale on the premises. I quickly introduced him to Wesley Fryer, Dean Shareski, and Terry Kaminski. The five of us stood and chatted about some of the more crucial aspects of an educational technology “upgrade” in schools today. Rick stepped up and asked as many questions as were sitting on the forefront of his brain, and those three graciously took the time to share their input. That one set of events did potentially more than anything else I have done on nashworld to date.
Resources- this one was tough. In the end, I chose the one single post with the most comments to date, Trolling my PLN for Edtech Vision. In all seriousness, this is a classic post to demonstrate the fact that sometimes the comments on a post are far more valuable than the initial content. This was, of course, the goal of the post to begin with. You should proceed through that comment field with a pen & paper (or your stickies app) and record as many titles and names as you can. This is a true wealth of information and opinions from what I consider to be some really top-notch thinkers.
Reflections- This category could mean many things. Nearly all of my posts fit this one in some way. Yet, Inspire First, Instruct Later required perhaps some of the most personal reflection. This post was written close on the heels of a family death and the birth of my youngest little girl. As Clay Burrell noted in the comments, “Good luck on the newcomer, and sorry about the loss of the old-timer. Quite a cycle you’re experiencing.” The meat of the post speaks to the affective needs of our students. I argue here that these needs must be met before trodding down any sort of prescriptive curricular path. The closest competition (and this one treads awfully close to “revelations”) is the poem-post I dropped after the birth of our youngest daughter, Neve.
Revelations- Since the first three speak to the educational technology and instructional coaching elements of my life as an educator, I thought it apropos to toss in one from the world of biology. Where are the seeds in an orange? speaks to the disconnect our children have with the very food they nourish themselves with on a daily basis. That day, a student of mine confessed during a lab that he had never seen an orange with seeds. In the real scope of things, this scary fact is likely is as important, if not more, than any of the aforementioned. Not only are young people detached from the food they eat as actual biological entities, we as educators may as well be increasingly detached from the world our students have grown up immersed in.
So in keeping with the spirit of virality (if I may coin that term) I am to tag a few others to continue the meme. No, this will not keep you in God’s graces. It will certainly not bring you great wealth from the shores of Nigeria. It may not even make you happy upon first considering it. However, I do respect these folks, and would certainly enjoy seeing their responses to this project. It did make me reflect, Tania. So thank you. Oh…. and don’t forget to tag your post with: #postsofthepast.
My turn
I hereby tag Michael Doyle, “Science Teacher” who constantly inspires me; Punya Mishra, “Punya Mishra’s Web” who is about as creative a person in our field as can be; Shelly Blake-Plock, “Teach Paperless” who has recently been one of my favorite bloggers; and Steve Dembo of “Teach42” who put us “on assignment” with his 30 Days To Being a Better Blogger challenge last Autumn.
Modeling fluent reading. Introduction of outside text every period of every day in every class. The opportunity to bring relevance to adolescents. With whole-school immersion in text and reading, ideas and concepts naturally follow. The teacher reads, the student follow along a copy of the text. Content-area literacy expert, Janet Allen calls it “eyes past print with voice support.” At my school, we call it a requirement… one element of a building-wide literacy plan.
Two years ago, after our sit-down session with Janet Allen in Orlando, Florida, our leadership team decided on a school-wide implementation of this strategy as an element of our focus on literacy skills. Co-Principal in charge of instruction, Dr. Jeanette Westfall, was a former elementary teacher, high school communication arts teacher and instructional coach. There is no doubt that her background helped her decide that a non-negotiable approach to reading improvement across content areas was a valuable thing given our situation.
Why we went there
Data analysis in our school improvement planning sessions clearly indicated the need for a systemic effort to improve reading. However, witnessing and characterizing the problem is only the beginning. The ability to design concrete, strategic approaches to solving such a problem is a crucial next step. Bringing the teeth of accountability into the picture is the final piece of the puzzle in comprehensively addressing a systemic educational issue.
The accountability piece tied to EPP is a direct requirement from our building administration to employ this “read aloud” strategy for an absolute minimum of five minutes per class per day. For students this translates to a daily minimum of twenty minutes of engagement with rigorous text with a fluent reader. The next logical step of a strategic teacher is to quickly adjust planning to take advantage of this requirement to bring rigorous and relevant content-specific text into the beginning (or end) of each period.
For a teacher with traditional style, this also forces at least one transition within the daily lesson. In the hands of an effective teacher, these transitions help to keep kids actively engaged and using their brains in varied ways. Data showed that not only was there a need, but that our kids simply weren’t reading enough. You can make strong suggestions about what goes on outside of the classroom. Inside the four walls of a classroom is a different story. You can guarantee immersion within the walls of a school building.
Lit2Go
In other posts this year, I have suggested online services that might add to our implementation of EPP. In this post, I would like to introduce another interesting online resource from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse. Lit2Go is a website I remember running across a year or so ago on Apple’s iTunes. On the USF site within iTunes you will find audio files for K-12 education organized by grade level.
However, in my opinion, the organizational website for Lit2Go is what makes it useful for the strategy described above as well as others. The main page allows many typical content searches for literature. Author, Title, Keyword, and Reading Level are all available search functions as well as a direct link to the files on the iTunes service for slipping smoothly into your iPod.
My first try was an author search- I pretty randomly chose Lewis Carroll. I ran down the list of ten offerings for the author and clicked to select The Two Clocks. The contents page for any selection has a nice set of overview information such as an abstract, word count, reading level, origin, genre, lexile level, theme, suggested educational strategy, Sunshine State Standards (of more use if you are actually IN Florida), and more. On this page, it is the collection of not only the .mp3 audio file of the work, but also the text in both .html and .pdf format that makes this a valuable resource. It also looks as if some pieces contain other “support material,” though the attached document for this particular story seems pretty useless.
Overall, the fact that this site provides both audio and clearly-printed text of a good number of classic pieces makes it valuable for efficiently selecting and managing EPP within a literature or communication arts class.
An easy win
The “clock that doesn’t go” in Lewis Carroll’s story is right two times per day. The other clock which loses a minute a day is only right twice per year. Surely, implementing EPP in a setting where reading immersion strategies are warranted is a way to be “right” at least four times per day. If this form of “being right” seems worthwhile to you in your own educational setting, then give Lit2Go a try and come back and tell us what you thought. Did it work quickly and easily for the described strategy? Even better… do you have another innovative use of Lit2Go to share? Bring it here, and help us all to be right more than two times per day.
What I have found particularly true in the past year is that even the fanciest website on the Internet doesn’t produce a solid educational event outside of the carefully-created framework of a skilled instructor. Compared to many of the applications/websites I have talked about on this blog in the past year, this one could be seen as one of the less “sophisticated.” However, any good teacher knows that what happens when you plug a device into the wall… pales in comparison to what happens inside the mind of a child.
Happy anniversary to “nashworld.“ This post is the 65th of the year, and it comes exactly one year after my first post on April 21st, 2008. Wow. Looking back at that post, it was quite clear I was full of questions for the coming year of study and reflection, but very shy of answers. In fact, this blog was initially titled “virtual southside” that first month. My first plan was for this space to be a group blog to facilitate PD for our brand-spanking-new tech cohort starting in June.
Forming a purpose
Then I found Ning. In one weekend, it was clear to me that this platform would be a far better, and more flexible, match for our school’s edtech PD mission. It also served to bring some comfort for our staff in the world of social media. Though we control membership to the site, it is certainly a more free-wheeling place than a simple group blog. It was the decentralized nature of a Ning network that I loved. I didn’t want to drive “virtual southside.” I didn’t want anyone to drive. I wanted to be merely another loud voice on a very enthusiastic and speedy bus.
So after a quick rename, nashworld became more of a personal place for reflection, sharing, and synthesis of thought. I do drive this bus. However, I had my first guest move up from the passenger section just this month. Though I certainly do have an amazing passenger list here, this is where the metaphor breaks down, for the readers of this blog certainly help steer my thoughts and words with their comments. To those of you who have put in your two cents here, I thank you greatly. You have helped to develop many of the thoughts and beliefs I currently own.
Year One Archive
A couple of months ago, when I started to really reflect on what blogging has meant to me over the past year, I decided to create a different type of archive for the blog. If you look up, you’ll notice that just to the right of the “About” page is a link to a new page entitled: “Year One Archive.” This page lists every post I have written over the course of the year by month- with somewhat of an abstract-like summary. I hope this provides yet another way to navigate the site. It certainly isn’t a quick and efficient way, but it does provide a bit of a different approach. The archive page also serves as an interesting chronological history of the past year.
Archaeo-blogology
In fact, after that first post in April… I didn’t write another that month. I didn’t even write one in May. During that month I was working hard on both Virtual Southside as well as my first shot at social media for an actual course I teach. June, my most prolific month, was the result of using the blog to fulfill the requirements of a really lame online grad course on “educational technology.” Truly the worst course I have ever experienced. You can easily tell this by the lame posts and lame books and movies and edtech articles from five and ten years ago. Jeeeez. I wish I hadn’t looked back over those just now.
Things got much better when school started and I began to feel a true mission for the blog. When November began, I followed along with Steve Dembo in his 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger adventure. That experienced helped tremendously. Also in November, I was actually even nominated for a 2008 Edublogs Award. You can imagine my surprise as such a green little blogger, but that was no doubt extrinsically empowering. I am certain to post several more reflective pieces on things I have experienced, learned and accomplished over the past year. Stay tuned for those. As soon as my grad program is completed in May… I have a lot of things to explore yet. Grad school, a new baby girl… it’s a wonder I could pull off any of this at all.
To community
Most of all- thank you. Thanks for coming here. Thanks for reading. Thanks for commenting. Thanks for joining in the discussion. Thank you for helping to steer my personal learning mission over the past year. I cannot thank each and every one of you enough. The thinking I do about the things you say… is worth a graduate course in something each time. In reflection over this past year, I can for certain that the biggest thing I have gained from blogging is people. I now have current and future collaborators on from all over the country. We have and will collaborate on projects that will no doubt extend not only my learning, but that of my friends and colleagues in Saint Joseph. I am humbled by the professionalism, creativity, and generosity of people in this newly-generated community. Thanks isn’t enough.
“OK Sean, I am ready to start reading some blogs. Can you tell me where to start… give me a few places to begin?”
Connecting
The above question is one I have begun fielding more and more often from faculty members as of late. Many teachers at Benton, and a growing number from other schools in town are ready to start tapping this powerful resource. In my opinion, this is a fantastic way to begin. Read. Read. Read. The best way to understand blogs is to read them.
The second step in the process is usually making your mark publicly and actually commenting on a few blogs that stir your interest. This is a very important move because it is the step that actually defines you as a contributor. This is no small thing, for this is a contribution to what has become a vibrant and global conversation.
For some, the final step in joining this conversation is to set up a blog, which is a place to guide a community of conversation of your own. Sure, some folks will say that they blog “for reflection”, or to “sort out their thoughts”, or even to “create an archive of what is happening in my life or work.” To this, I agree completely.
My perspective
Blogging fulfills many of those things for me as well. However, if that was all I really wanted to do, I certainly wouldn’t need to go to the Internet for it- much less do it in global public spaces. I would simply download one of the available free journal applications… or just tap away at MS Word. Right? Okay, perhaps Pages for me… but you get the point.
For me, the act of blogging has been responsible for more synthesis of thought than I have experienced in a really long time. For me, this is not only a place to put together professional thoughts, life experiences, and opinions, it changes the way I experience things. I find that I am now engaged in the act of “blogging” even while away from my laptop during most waking hours (and likely a few while asleep). I have always composed in my head, and this exercise makes it happen often. That said, for me personally, it is also very much about the interaction with those who reply to, link to, or blog about the ideas that I present there. That interaction between interested people from many countries not only changes the conversation after I post to the blog, but it also affects my future writing as I once again consider the audience that unfolds there.
So, where do I tell folks who ask where to look? The first place I suggest looking is down the right-side column of my blog under the header “blogroll.” This is a list of bloggers who, for differing reasons, have compelled me to plaster a permanent link from my site to theirs. Looking through someone’s blogroll is akin to mining the bibliography of a really super journal article. My blogroll is my “go to” list when I get a hour to read. How did I find those names in the first place? The answer to that question is as diverse as is the list.
However, more and more I realized that before you fill up Google Reader with a ton of blogs you may or may not read later on, there might be a better place to begin. And really… if you are just starting to open up to blogs as a learning resource, you probably aren’t ready to mess with RSS just yet. I really do like Alltop. I still use it. I came pretty close to titling this post: ”RSS for the masses.” When I want a visual version of the latest posts from the best blogs, I scan the screen there and click at will. In the words of Alltop, their service “is an ‘online magazine rack’ of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7.” There is also a nice little explanatory video linked near the top of the main page.
In fact, just this past week, Alltop has now added a feature called “My Alltop.” As you can probably guess, this is a user-customized screen showing only the latest posts of the blogs you choose from all categories. I created my personal page the day it went live, and it bookmarks tons of blogs on the topics of education, science, neuroscience, literacy, news and even a few humor and “being a daddy” -type blogs. To me, it feels like something between that of a beefed-up blogroll and an aggregator. Another cool feature is that you can share the URL to your personal page with others.
In fact, as of a couple of months ago, you can also find my nascent little blog there.
The day my link first appeared on the site, I received a message that invited me to go to Alltop and download a badge to adorn the blog. I’m not above badges. Badges are fun. Steeenking badges. The one you see just above is the one you’ll see in the right sidebar of my blog. However, if public education wasn’t my business of choice, I might have been inclined to choose the more playful one shown modified below:
Add Alltop Education to your bookmarks toolbar. Click when you have a slot of time that couldn’t dare handle the latest print release by ASCD, but certainly could slide in a blog or two. Oh and of course, look for me there:
Oh yeah… I almost forgot: My name is Sean, and I approve this message.
On a day when the only thing bigger than the snowflakes is the deep gray loneliness of the sky, I bring you a minuscule chunk of one of my favorite Christmas gifts.
My wife, Erin, has a thing for finding the perfect book to send me off on my April exploration of the Bahamian backwoods. Normally, when I unpack the mystery book from my jumbled bag on board a sailboat anchored on Andros Island, I delight in the pen-sloppy scribblings just inside the front cover. Last year it was Pablo Neruda. What will this Spring bring? Someday perhaps I’ll do a post on those messages. Though parts, to be sure, will stay private forever for me.
Today’s words for winter: by Galway Kinnell. You (and I) can thank some nifty old guy on the east coast for this book. He knows who he is too. I’m glad Erin reads his blog as well, for she is an excellent gift-giver.
This verse is from A New Selected Poems from Galway Kinnell. I feel OK about posting the words to this poem here in hopes that it will gain a larger readership. I will, of course, retract if ever asked.
We humans do create fires here on Earth. We create warmth in a universe where, aside from stars, cold is the norm.
Amazing words here. Poetry compared to language is the inverse of DNA compared to a tree frog. While poetry can be seen as shiny distillation of our daily talk, biochemicals tell little of the quickness of life.
Artwork thanks: Cemetery Angel from Adam Selwood on Flickr.
Before I roll out the details of this little mini-project, allow me to summarize. This project was the first of many in an attempt to characterize the differences between online writing and more traditional formats. Students in my Dual-Credit Biology course were divided into two groups upon culmination of a biochemistry unit. Half of the class wrote a comprehensive unit summary in a traditional format which was turned in directly to the teacher. The other half of the class composed a summary in an online forum for a much wider audience (Ning network).
Summaries were analyzed for word count, readability and effect on content-based exam scores. Exam scores and readability were closely aligned. However, strong differences were noted in average word count. Students writing in online forums used significantly fewer words to achieve the same overall impact. Implications of using online forums for future enhancement of student summarization are discussed. My take? Writing online is a potentially powerful tool for summarization of course content.
The set-up
A building-wide focus for instructional improvement in my high school this year, has been to launch and maintain an instructional technology integration initiative. The school year began with a cohort of twenty teachers who were willing to engage in training above and beyond the professional development for all staff. I began meeting with these teachers in mid-June for three-hour technology training sessions. The first meeting consisted of a “care and feeding” session for the 15″ MacBook Pros, Olympus digital cameras and iPod nanos the cohort teachers received. From that session forward, training sessions integrated this hardware, as well as emerging online technologies, with solid instructional best practices for classroom learning. These twenty teachers have followed a prescription of immersion. New technological tools were presented alongside potential uses in a classroom setting. An online social network was set up to facilitate learning between face-to-face meetings.
I teach one course during the regular school day. Principles of Biology is a course in which students earn 101-level college credit through Missouri Western State University. This course is populated by students who enjoy learning. Work conducted by these students formed the basis of comparison in this study. Our course network is also based on the Ning platform. Though this network features discussion forums as well as blogs, both are examples of online writing in some form or other. As you will see, in this class, I utilize the forum much more than the blog. This will certainly have an effect on the results of this project.
The main event
What effects, if any, does a move toward online writing generate? Actually, little has been done to characterize the impact this new “genre” of writing is having on student achievement. In fact, blogging has been said to be different enough as to warrant a new genre of writing called “connective writing.” As Will Richardson has said: it is
“…a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demands clarity and cogency in its construction, that is done for a wide audience, and that links to the sources of the ideas expressed.”
This project began at the culmination of a biochemistry and nutrition unit. Class sessions throughout were widely varied and ranged from cooperative work in small groups, guided webquests, lecture and discussion, and wet-lab investigations. The final strategy prior to the unit exam was to have students engage in writing a comprehensive summary of their learning throughout the unit. Students were randomly divided into two groups. They were then informed that they would be doing one of two types of comprehensive summary.
The only difference between the two groups of students was writing “environment.” The “odd” group was to compose the summary on a word processor, and then print as well as e-mail the final copy directly to the instructor only. The “even” group was to write their summary online, as a blog post, to our classroom network. Based on previous work with the online class network, these students knew that their work would be accessible online to virtually anyone. This group of students knew that they were writing for a potentially wide audience, while the students of the first group were writing for me alone. Since this class is largely an inquiry-based biology class, data was analyzed by the students themselves. Students were asked to infer from the data and make conclusions online based on the findings.
So what happened?
Overall, 20 students participated in the study- out of a total of 20 enrolled in the class. Each student in the table is listed only by initials in order to preserve anonymity. (Table 1) Students who constructed a comprehensive summary of nutrition unit via online blog post for a wide and potentially global audience (even group):
(Table 2) Students who constructed comprehensive summary of nutrition unit via MS Word document handed in directly to teacher (odd group):
An examination of the data will show average exam scores differed less than one-half of a point across the two groups. Average readability was also comparable, with the average score differing less than one Flesch-Kincaid grade level. Easily the largest difference between the two groups was the average number of words used per summary. Students writing online summaries used an average of 239 words less (399 opposed to 638) than those writing in Microsoft Word for me alone. Variability in all data seemed fairly low for human studies. Word counts were tightly clustered around the mean for online writers. Though the results here seem fairly simple to interpret, there are many factors that must be considered in any analysis and subsequent application.
Jibba-Jabba
In this study, students were instructed to create a comprehensive summary of a unit on biochemistry. The only instructions given were that the summary should provide an understandable context for the main topics of study, and that any source used should be cited. It was also suggested to students that the mere creation of this summary would help to prepare for the upcoming exam. Therefore, the only difference between the groups would truly be whether the summary was composed in an online forum or in a word processor. Also- the online group knew their summary would gain a potentially global audience while the MS Word group knew that their summary would be read only by me.
Before extrapolating too far, it is important to note that when planning to implement any new teaching strategy, the first consideration should be to do no harm. With that philosophy in mind, the data in this study immediately suggests that when students worked online, they certainly performed no worse than their counterparts who spent their time offline.
With that in mind, the fact that both groups showed no measurable difference in exam scores, is encouraging. Therefore, even if an instructor wanted to use online writing as nothing more than a novel approach that might excite a few reluctant learners, they would likely do no harm toward content achievement. I had initially hypothesized that due to the connective nature of this form of writing, students would better assimilate the content of the unit and show higher exam scores. When considering this initial study alone, that hypothesis was not supported. Though it is also important to note that the individual classroom climate and culture could impact these results heavily. Not only would the feel of a classroom influence these results, it is easy to see how previous instruction could change things to a large degree.
To this point, few significant differences have been shown between the two study groups. However, when looking at raw word count per summary, things quickly diverge. It was anticipated that the group engaging in online writing would be stimulated to write a higher volume of words. Hey- it’s a novel approach. Writing online is in contrast to a traditional approach where the work is done in isolation from start to finish. In fact, this is the opposite result seen in the trial. The group writing online submitted a much lower word count (avg. = 399) than the word processing group (avg. = 638). This is no small difference and would certainly register as significant on any statistical test.
Why so many fewer words per summary when writing online? Many of the participants had an idea about this when analyzing the results after the fact. The following statement by student “RH” typifies a common student response:
“It appeared that the papers had a higher readability and word count, which I kind of expected because I think people tend to write more formally on papers, whereas the blog posts tend to be more opinion and informal writing.”
The aspect of formality is something that was not considered to be a factor prior to the study, and yet it makes solid sense. The type of online writing these students had engaged in prior to this study was largely of a reflective nature. Our work online has tended to center around written reflections that helped to synthesize classroom sessions. A more formal approach to blogging has simply not been utilized as of yet with this class. This is something that could certainly affect the results of this study. Online writing has been approached in many ways for many different reasons in classrooms across our building this year. It is very interesting to think about furthering this study to investigate the details of this interaction between instruction and writing.
First phase data is soon due in from three other participating teachers. In contrast with the class in this study, several of the other participating classes feature some “reluctant” learners. It will be interesting to see if the results of those trials differ from these in any way. I would guess that they will. The analysis of this new data, will certainly provide a jumping off point for the next round of research in our school.
Wheww… finally
To conclude, this brief study demonstrated several things. For one, the mere act of writing of a comprehensive summary prior to a unit exam seems to be an effective strategy for a class of mature high school students. Furthermore, the nature of this summary did little to affect scores in this study. Students writing in online forums showed an average score almost exactly equal to that of students writing in a more traditional (printed) format.
The most signficant result of this study was the analysis of word count between the study groups. Students writing online submitted significantly more concise summaries with smaller word counts. The implications of this data are very interesting. Furthermore, students who wrote less (when writing online) performed equal to those students who wrote many more words. This could directly point to the power of online writing in helping students to summarize effectively. This is no small feat considering the difficulty many of today’s students tend to have with summarization. Hotshot ASCD guru, Robert Marzano, makes the case that “summarization has a robust and long history of research,” and is one of the “nine most effective instructional strategies a teacher can employ.” These final results will likely have implications for not only future research trials at our high school, but for immediate classroom action in the area of content summary writing.
You?
What do you think about writing online? You obviously read online. You likely even write online. We would love feedback about what goes on in your mind when you write online in different settings. What happens when you blog? How are discussion forums different? What difference does a global audience make- if any? Weigh in. What does change when you write online?
Snow falls. My fireplace coats one half of me in cozy radiance. Across the room, Erin animates a book for my curious babe. School is still a solid day and a half away. As I sit here inspired by the art of Vladislav Gerasimov’s studio, I ponder physical space.
I catch myself in full muse about the spaces in which I usually write and how they might influence tone, mood, volume, and mission. Of course, I am sometimes sitting in my office at 3:00pm pecking keys that reflect the day. Other times still, I am stuck to a conference hall wall -hugging an outlet- allowing my laptop to drink while I scribble electronically.
Though given my choice, it would look much like today. The mission-inspired rocker where my butt is planted- was meant for a nursing mother just two years ago. Since this chair didn’t seem to inspire her “mission” after all, it has lately become my writing chair. Her lack of love for this spot has become my pirate’s loot. Here I sit feet up -gliding in the golden glow of flames- tapping on letters for fun.
The more serious posts in waiting: our school’s use of the Ning platform, tech strategies for increasing writing fluency, etc… well, they’ll just have to wait.
Actually, there is a plenty about our artistic stick blogger friend that doesn’t concretely resemble me. My head isn’t that big, I’m not a big fan of Digg, and far more than letters fill my head. A conversation with my Communication Arts department the other day revealed a multitude of mental strategies for writing. Most seemed to rely heavily on a stepped-draft approach. I thought it interesting that my pal Kelly Lock and I both tend to compose in mental spaces before encoding onto the page. You can thus imagine the stress we felt while fabricating those incremental “rough draft” assignments in high school. I bet the little fella above would create his “outline” assignment after-the-fact as well.
Come to think of it, there might be many similarities between he and I. He does have a slender build. He does lean intently into his superthin laptop. He does love dim lighting, and his silly feet seem to be less than planted on terra firma at times. Hey, you can’t always be practical, right?
So where do you write? Not when you have to… but when you can. What is there with you? Where does it take place when you get to choose? Tell it. Draw it. Photograph it. Blog it. Come back and share it. You know you want to.
ps- If you care that your screen is beautiful and creative, then check out the art at Vlad Studio. With the Holiday season fast approaching, I think Christmas Volcano is my current fave. Wow. No one on Earth would care enough to pay for an ad on this site, so consider this merely a nod in a cool direction. Image above is entitled: Blogger (digg it digg it digg it).
Ok, so I am caught up in it. I am now caught up in celebration of a holiday that my youth taught me was little more than a gorgefest. A gorgefest with football. A gorgefest with football, oh- and did I mention, pretty little turkeys everywhere? In an attempt to create a blogosphere-infinite-loop of sorts, I give you MD’s last post.
Tonight, in the interest of hugging my beautiful girls (two alive and one unborn), I bring you a strangely succinct post. I bring you a description of what I am most thankful for. I bring you my love(s) and I bring them to you in a Demboesque “image means a thousand words” -type format. I might have been hesitant to do this a year ago. Tell me I am too open if you think I am. I know, I teach web-weirdness informally and weekly, and here I am still trying to figure this out. Anyway, here we go…
What am I most thankful for?
…uh huh, that’s it.
How about we try one that is a bit more abstract? Here is one from above:
And really… how can we celebrate mommy & babe and leave daddy out?
And one last one for Michael… of my “tadpole” (i love it, and so will she someday) as she was swimming in botanical monoculture this past July 4th:
So- happy thanksgiving day. As my girls and I wait for another genetic gift… I ask you:
What are you thankful for? I mean really thankful for?
My two-year-old daughter drug over The Real Mother Goose yesterday as we were playing. I knew we had the book. It was a gift at some point in the last couple of years. However, it has never been one of my favorites. I guess I’m a prude, and for that I’m sorry, but these sing-songy bits of goofiness never did excite me. But hey- what my daughter wants to read… we read. So we read. Actually- even at two, she can spot-read (identify?) many of the words on the page already. So we laid in her comfy bed reading verse by verse and studying the accompanying artwork. Until I spied one in particular queued up across the page.
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