Essential Teaching Protocols for 21st Century Learning

In this blog post for Meritas, I discuss how I incorporate the four essential protocols.  

 I spent a semester of college staring at a William Butler Yeats quote that my professor proudly posted on her bulletin board:  “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting a fire.”  

Of course, I grasped the basic meaning of the phrase and thought I understood its significance, but it took me years to fully realize exactly why those few words were so important to her.

Never did I imagine how vital they would become to me as well.

In my twelve years of teaching, I’ve come to understand that education is not instructing students what to think; it is about showing them how to think.  It will never be about filling their minds with facts, but about instilling a thirst for knowledge. 

At Meritas, our approach to “the lighting of a fire” is demonstrated through our four essential teaching protocols:

·              Essential Questions

·              New Vocabulary

·              Differentiation

·              High-Order Assessment

It is through use of these protocols that teachers are able to remove the focus on memorization and allow our lessons to come to life.  As a result, our students truly interact with and understand the material.

The following outlines some of the ways I incorporate the Meritas teaching protocols into my classroom:

Essential questions

I begin each unit by writing my essential questions on the board, and as the class progresses through the material, students are expected to continually respond to these questions, which have no yes or no, right or wrong, answers. 

Recently, in a study of non-fiction graphic novels, students were asked to consider how historical events affect the individual and to apply their answers to our reading of Maus and Persepolis.  Another question I posted invited them to reflect on how the medium might change the impact of the story or, as in the case of Maus, the validity.   

It is my hope that my essential questions will encourage students to apply what they are reading/studying to their everyday lives, to other classes, or to our study of literature as a whole.   

One way that I assess each learner’s comprehension of the essential questions is by use of an “exit ticket” at the end of class.  I do this by using Socrative, a free iTunes/android app, which students download onto their smartphones or use on their computers.   The exit ticket asks three questions: 1. How well did you understand today’s material?  2.  What did you learn today?   3. Can you answer the essential question on the board?

The exit ticket requires a couple of minutes to complete, and it discloses how well my learners understood what we covered that day.  Exit tickets are a terrific way to evaluate whether my students are grasping the essential questions, understanding the vocabulary, and benefitting from differentiated instruction.

New vocabulary

While there are many ways to teach vocabulary, I prefer teaching it in context with each lesson.

 One way in which I incorporate the vocabulary of literary devices and rhetorical strategies is by separating students into small groups and having them race to find as many examples as possible in a text. With this form of assessment, students are not cramming to remember vocabulary words, which they will forget the minute the quiz leaves their hands; instead, they are utilizing the words, interacting with them.

Many students struggle with new vocabulary, particularly those who are kinesthetic or visual learners. I often work with these students one-on-one or in small groups.  A simple technique that works wonders is to teach students how to create a visual representation of the word. Teaching students to create their own mnemonic devices helps them to move past the memorizing/knowledge acquisition phase faster and more successfully, so that they can move on to the higher orders of thinking. This is also a helpful differentiation strategy. 

Differentiation

I firmly believe that most teachers differentiate, even when they are unaware of it; I attempt to make it a visible part of my courses because not only does differentiation help with student engagement, it also aids in retention of material.  There are a variety of options for differentiating English, from using a side-by-side translation of a difficult text to requiring rewrites of particularly complicated passages.

A recent example of differentiation in my classroom is a Twitter assignment I created. Each student chose a character from Hamlet, created a twitter account, and then tweeted as that character throughout the play. It is one of the most successful assignments of my career, particularly in terms of student engagement.  All four of my English IV classes, with all levels from standard and ESOL to honors, were able to interact on Twitter, and this forum allowed my students to write at their own level and pace, with more advanced learners employing a variety of rhetorical strategies.  You can read more about this assignment by visiting http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2012/03/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet/.

High-order assessment

Most assignments given in my classes require some form of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, or creativity.  One of my favorite methods for assessing student comprehension of a text is by assigning a reaction paper. These writing assignments are primarily based on higher order reasoning, but must include textual evidence to support any idea that the student introduces.  I find that requiring quotes from the original text forces each learner to once again interact with the book or essay.   

Another of my favorite activities involves student-teaching components, where I ask my students to take turns presenting sections of an assigned novel.  At the end of their short presentation, they must lead their class in a discussion of two higher order reasoning questions (which they can find on the flip chart in my room).  By the end of the first semester, the students have many of the questions from the chart memorized! 

In conclusion, Meritas’s four essential protocols are not foreign concepts to most teachers. Perhaps we’ve not used the same vocabulary to describe these procedures in the past, but by giving us a “common language” for learning, Meritas is fostering an environment that will truly benefit each student.

It’s a party—BYOD!

Every class should be a party.  Right?

Well, I know a handful of teachers from my past who wouldn’t say yes to that question and quite a few students who would shout “yes” from the rooftops if given a chance.

We educators are standing at a crossroads. Many of us are excited to join this media party, but there is also the worry that fun and innovation could outweigh educational value. And though we may recognize how these resources can make learning accessible and fun, it’s not surprising that many of us hang back, wondering if our students will really benefit from joining the fiesta.   

A few weeks ago, I overheard a fellow teacher discussing social media use in the classroom, “They [the students] already do all that stuff at home, why do they need it in the classroom too?”  I wanted to shout: “That’s the point!”  It’s time to meet our students on their own turf; I mean, hey, we’re basically inviting our non-digital-native selves to our media-crazed students’ party.

So, on behalf of our students, I officially invite you to the shindig—just be sure to BYOD!  

Bring Your Own Device!

As Mark Schindler wrote in his blog “Conversation Fodder for the Fashionably Late”  (http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2012/03/conversation-fodder-for-the-fashionably-late/), “I want to reach out to all the readers who feel like they are arriving late to the social media party. Don’t worry – you’re not alone. And you’ve arrived at the perfect time!”  Mr. Schindler is right; this is the ideal moment to start experimenting with the new apps, social media sites, and teacher tools that are popping up everywhere. 

Admittedly, my classes are difficult, but most of my students would also admit that they are fun.  Why? Because a BYOD atmosphere encourages students to learn through interaction with technology. I promote the use of laptops, tablets, and smartphones, and students access everything from online discussions and quizzes to homework announcements and dropboxes online.  Over the last few years, I’ve come to accept that students who’ve grown up with computers in their pockets aren’t going to be excited about a boring flat piece of paper.

Resistance is futile: today’s students are plugged in for most of their waking lives (and the generation that follows them will likely be even more addicted and distracted). As I mentioned in a past article, education is still about finding that balance between tradition and innovation, a pedagogy that entertains as well as informs, because entertainment fosters learning.   Finding a way to use technology to our students’ advantage is an important task for the twenty-first century educator.

Here are two great sites that my students and I are enjoying at the moment:

SOCRATIVE—interactive online quizzes and activities that you create!

One of my favorite new sites/apps is Socrative. Students can use a device or a computer to access it, and the app is designed for easy group-up or pass-n-play.  Teachers can create quizzes (multiple choice, short answer, or true false) with a few clicks of the mouse.  It works great for formative assessments, but I often use it for review games and peer-evaluations of presentations.

Socrative also has an amazing “exit ticket,” a three question closing activity which takes only a few minutes to complete.  The ticket asks students three things: 1. How well did you understand today’s material?  2.  What did you learn today?   3. Solve the problem on the board. I love that the last request is the teacher’s choice.  It allows us to craft a question based on our lesson for that day. 

The most incredible aspect of the Socrative app is that you can watch your students advance through the “quiz” with a live feed of the results, including their correct responses, and when a quiz finishes, the site will emails you an Excel report detailing your students’ answers. 

 TODAYSMEET—a backchannel for live discussions

This is a recent find, and I love the way this site specifically allows for discussions, comments, and questions during a set period of time, anywhere between two hours and a year. TodaysMeet.com is a backchannel, a live discussion board that takes less than a minute to set up and has none of those pesky time-consuming sign-up requests.  As the instructor, you can go to the website, type in the name of the “meeting” (such as english101dantediscussion), which the site turns into a board (todaysmeet.com/english101dantediscussion).  Let your students know the URL, and they can immediately begin chatting/commenting. 

This tool, which is accessed through the internet—no app yet, though it works well on smartphone browsers—can be used in a variety of ways.   For example, the instructor can have students ask questions or comment during lectures, presentations, or films; it’s an instant way to discuss what’s going on in the classroom, without interrupting. (One warning about TodaysMeet—the posts cannot be deleted before the end time; thus, if students write inappropriate comments, you will be unable to censor them.)

 If we aren’t banning paper and pen—because students can use them to write notes to each other or doodle—then shouldn’t we at least consider allowing our students to BYOD? 

There are many benefits to allowing devices in the classroom; perhaps the best part is that these forms of interaction give shyer students and those who take more time to process their answers a level playing field. In the old days, auditory learners and quick thinkers dominated classes. But now, there’s more than one way to raise your hand.

The Tortoise and the Hare—Social Media Can Differentiate the Course

The amazing thing about social media in the classroom is that it engages all learners. That’s right, I used the word-that-shall-not-be-said—“all!”

From students who excel at class discussion to the shy turtle who never sticks his head out of his shell, sites like Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook have the ability to grab every student’s attention and give the tortoises a chance to speak out.

Having shy students in class isn’t uncommon, and it is easy to lose them in the marathon. Our turtles are sometimes easily stressed, afraid to put themselves out there, and often resistant to group activities, preferring to stay in the warm cozy safety of their shell instead. What social media is capable of doing is minimizing the stress of being vocal in a class full of peers and giving these shy kids a voice, something that lies at the very heart of differentiation.

True differentiation, tailoring our teaching to meet the needs of the individual, happens when educators utilize social media. Differentiating the learning environment, the content, the process, or the products by making use of some of the free media sites available can help instructors reach every learner. And because our classes are designed with the traditional model of teacher as architect of the track and students as runners, differentiation is the key to keeping each member of the class on pace and striding towards the finish line. Perhaps the trick is for those of us setting the route to make it a fair race or to consider encouraging the students to help with design of the course. Social media can be instrumental in doing this.

The following three free user-friendly social media websites can help to differentiate with your tortoises and hares. I’ve included a few ideas to start your track design!

TWITTER

What to assign?

1. Posit a question relating to the material from that day—English: What did you think about Dante’s journey into the second circle? What might his meeting with Francesca symbolize? History: If you were fighting in the Battle of Hastings and could text message, what would you report back home to your family and friends? Science: In the experiment today, how did the results of your lab differ from a classmate’s? Math: How can the equation we learned today be used in a real-world setting?

2. Have students tweet as a favorite author, scientist, historical figure, mathematician, or character from a book. (See my “To Tweet or Not to Tweet” article for my personal experience with this assignment.)

3. Ask students to tweet a current event that applies to your field of study. For example: This week, find one event in the world where advances in technology are being questioned or scientists are being called irresponsible.

4. Math: Have students tweet (or Facebook status update) and then follow the exponential growth of that tweet as it is passed from friend to friend. They can chart the growth over an allotted time period.

In giving Twitter a try, I learned that tweeting removed inhibitions while providing additional time for my students—specifically, my shyer students—to design their responses to our discussions. Both my cheeky little rabbits and my quieter tortoises took more time planning what to write, the end result being better posts and better grades. I would also like to mention that as with any social media site, especially those that are public, caution and etiquette are keys to a successful experience

FACEBOOK

What to assign?

1. English or History: Ask students to create pages for characters from a book you are reading in class and to have conversations, post pictures or videos, and follow the events of the book (via the timeline). I use this with my Hunger Games unit, and my students adore writing as Katniss, Peeta, and Gale! Social studies or history teachers could also assign novels as a complement to their textbooks and require the same.

2. History or Science: Ask students to create pages for scientists or famous historical figures and have conversations, post pictures or videos, or even debate via the timeline. Try having science students create a page for a late scientist and have that figure respond to what is happening in his or her field today. (English teachers could have students select different authors and imagine conversations between them—this would be great to teach tone, diction, and style.)

3. Drama: Have students create a page for the character that they are playing in a production. The characters can interact, and students will have a better understanding of the role that they are playing. Again, tone, diction, and style can be part of the assignment guidelines.

GOODREADS

Many may not be as familiar with this website as with other social media sites. A quick description: Goodreads provides a place where users can catalogue the books that they have read, are reading, or would like to read. Users can write reviews for books, create bookshelves for different genres (or classes or groups), and share their favorite works with the online community. This is a great resource for modeling and promoting independent reading.

What to assign?

1. Ask students to read a certain number of books per quarter or semester, and require them to write a review for each book and post it to the website. This is an excellent way to teach voice and audience (we know that they get tired of writing just to us)! The teacher can receive weekly or daily emails regarding what their students are reading or reviewing.

2. Have students create a bookshelf of books that are relevant to their study in your class and to read reviews to help decide reliability and usefulness to the topic.

3. Create a group and ask students to review each book you’ve listed on the group’s bookshelf; you can also start online discussions on the group’s page!

Now, that I’ve introduced the three sites that I love, I’ll share the two main questions most teachers ask:

1. How do I start?

It’s easy! Go to the website you’ve chosen, make an account. Next, ask your students to make accounts and to follow or friend you. Follow or befriend them. And Go! I would also suggest a rule about not “friending” others outside of the class and making all pages private—this will help control access and privacy; however, in the case of Goodreads, communicating with others outside the class may actually be of greater benefit to your students.

2. How do I evaluate this type of assignment?

Create a rubric which evaluates frequency; quality of their posts, tweets, or reviews; adherence to the assignment guidelines; effort; and creativity. You may also want to consider retweets, friend requests, or other ways that the students interact.

Ultimately, educators have the difficult, if not impossible task, of employing a variety of styles and methods that reach their students, and using a social media extends the classroom discussions and activities outside the walls of the school, providing both the tortoises and hares with a learning environment that inspires creativity and higher order thinking. With our increasingly technologically savvy students, it is getting more and more difficult to keep up with the online trends. But if we can, then our growing children who spend the majority of time online will benefit from it!

Special Thanks to: Jennifer Howard and Randie Johnson, my math/science and English gurus

Photo Credit: Jason Salerno

Should Students Need a Driver's Permit to Cruise Social Media?

Let’s imagine. Your daughter is finally sixteen and you bought her a car for her birthday. As you watch her close the door and fasten her seatbelt, you say those two little words… “Go on.” Now, you and I both know that you didn’t give her any lessons or hire her an instructor. In fact, you forgot to have her take the driving

test.

Is this responsible of you as a parent?

Of course it’s not. It’s ludicrous. But the funny thing is that this is what we are doing with our children and our students. We are giving them the most amazing vehicle—technology, but we are forgetting the importance of safety education and teaching them how to both “drive” these devices and navigate this information highway.

Let’s face it—cruising the web, especially social media, is sometimes as dangerous as driving a car, but prohibiting the use of social media doesn’t stop it; it only makes it more dangerous because it becomes secret. As educators, we must begin to instruct our students in proper driving technique and etiquette.

Speaking of etiquette, those of us in education need to review safe practices as well. Taking the car analogy a step further, most teachers would never find themselves alone in the car with one of their students; in today’s lawsuit-happy world, we should avoid any situation where our word is up against that of a child in our care. And just as we would not get into a car alone with a one of our students, we must not enter into a social relationship online—no private chats, private Facebook messages, or personal non-school related emails. There are ways to interact, yet we must use them carefully and publically. We must be wary and we must be wise. But we also—MUST.

Today, with budget cuts, the internet is one of our greatest resources, especially with textbooks, podcasts, and youtube videos all for free. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and so many networking sites that are just waiting to find a place in education. The world is at our fingertips, in our smart phones, tablets, and laptops, and most of us are finding that simple words on blank pages no longer cut it. We are trying to drive our beat-up VW Bus in a stock car race. We aren’t going to win.

The good news is that the racetrack hasn’t changed; education is still about engagement, pure and simple. Students who are interested learn; students who are bored don’t. There is a place for social media in our classrooms, just as there is a place for iPads and smart phones.

The key for us as educators is to balance innovation with safety.

We shouldn’t have to ask who’s driving the VW bus? None of us should be—we need to meet our digital-native students where they learn best. But we also should not have to wonder if the person driving the stock car has a license either—let’s teach our students to drive safely.