Category: Literacy

Concept Mapping: The Map that Leads to Effective Instruction

3/25/2019

Gif of a variety of people viewing the same map

When thinking of concept mapping, graphic organizers often come to mind. But concept mapping is more than that. The graphic organizer is the tool for this strategy, but can often be confining to our students that see connections outside of the typical graphic organizer. Concept mapping has an effect size of .64. It is important to highlight that this is effective when students are making their own connections and not the connections predetermined by the teacher.

This instructional strategy is comprised of three specific steps.

Step 1. Predetermine the topic or question for the concept map. “A helpful way to determine the context of your concept map is to choose a focus question--something that needs to be solved or a conclusion that needs to be reached (Kieschnick, Bold School, pg. 124).” Teachers can help students focus their concept map by asking essential questions.
Step 2. Pull a list of key terms or ideas from the topic being addressed. Students should work to classify those key terms or ideas in some way. For example, they might identify the broadest ideas working down to the most specific details. Because students may visualize this in different ways, it is important they have the freedom to choose a tool that best supports their thinking.
Step 3. Connect concepts by creating linking concepts and words. In this step students might need language stems to support the connections they are making. For example, “is related to”, “as a result of”, “caused or causes”, “leds to”, etc.

Incorporating Digital Tools

It is important to provide kids with a variety of options for concept mapping, both digital and unplugged. For example, Mindy would rather create a sketchnote as a tool for concept mapping while Gina really likes being able to have a stack of manipulatives with a broad canvas to organize and connect. Online tools that support concept mapping might include Jamboard, Mindmup, Lucidchart , or Google Drawings. For kids who prefer an unplugged option, the Post-its App can allow students to start their work in an analogue environment and then move it and manipulate it online. Finally, for kids who prefer a drawing or sketching method for organizing their thoughts, consider using a camera to capture and share unplugged work.

Key Takeaways

Concept maps are NOT graphic organizers. Instead, it is the process of organizing thoughts and key ideas.
Concept mapping is a scaffolded process facilitated by the teacher. Teachers help students identify the relationship between key terms by asking probing questions and providing language stems.
It is crucial to honor student voice and choice when concept mapping to support personal visualization of the connected concepts.

~Gina Rogers
~Mindy Cairney

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Reciprocal Teaching, it’s Not Just for Literacy Teachers!

3/15/2019

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Chances are if you have heard of reciprocal teaching you have thought of it in the context of an English Language Arts class. Although reciprocal teaching is a text processing strategy, its application is further reaching than the English classroom. Reciprocal teaching has a .74 effect size making it a powerful instructional strategy for all content areas where text is being used.

What is Reciprocal Teaching?

Reciprocal teaching includes four steps:

Predict
Clarify
Question
Summarize

Reciprocal teaching is a process that best works in a collaborative environment so most commonly small groups will be used in this strategy. Additionally, the process helps students organize their thinking about text. Creating a Doc or Slide Deck template for groups to use (see examples in Step 1) can be used to record ideas and provide links to additional tools used in the process.

Incorporating Digital Tools

Step 1 - Predict: The predict step can look different in different grade levels and content areas, however, no matter what grade level or what content area prediction involves previewing the text and connecting prior knowledge to what is seen. Additionally, students think a little bit about what the text might focus on based on the quick previewing that they did. Collaborative conversations are imperative to the prediction process. Recording thoughts on a table in a Google Doc or collaborative Google Slides can help classmates when returning to the conversation and for later evaluation of predictions.

Step 2 - Clarify: In this step students read through the text and note any areas that are unclear for them. One area that can be focused on is vocabulary. To clarify and further make meaning out of unknown terms, students can use an online dictionary tool (like the dictionary feature in Read & Write for Google or the Google Dictionary Chrome Extension) , but additional development of this new vocabulary might be needed. Vocabulary programs have an effect size of .62. One model that can support the explicit teaching of vocabulary is the Frayer Model. On a collaborative doc, students determine words needing clarification. Repeated words from the doc are collected and distributed to groups for further investigation. A shared Frayer Model tool can be used to further build the group’s understanding of their assigned words. Google Slides or Google Drawings fulfill the need to share and collaborate as a class.

Step 3 - Question: After all of the predictions have been made and all unknown terms have been clarified, groups begin in-depth reading of the text. Each group will record three questions they have as they read. Groups are encouraged to come up with a ‘right there’ question, a ‘between the lines’ question, and a critical thinking question (Kieschnick, Bold School). Teachers will need to model the question generation process prior to turning kids loose with this responsibility in addition to providing language scaffolds to help students generate questions. To learn more about question generation check out some of the resources in our Riddle Me This blog post.

Step 4 - Summarize: The final step in reciprocal teaching is summarizing. As a small group, students create a summary of what they just read and come to consensus on how they will show what they know about the text. There are a variety of different ways that students might share their summary of the text. With the time constraints of a classroom, this strategy might not be completed in one day. Flipgrid allows students to share their summary in the moment, with the ability to view with the class at a later time as they evaluate their summaries against previous predictions. This could also be great for students to reflect and review before an assessment.

Key Takeaways

Organization and planning for this strategy is essential. Use collaborative tools to keep groups organized.
Digital tools should not replace collaborative conversations, but instead help collect and record the ideas shared in small groups and provide an artifact to return to throughout the process.

~Gina Rogers
~Mindy Cairney

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Putting it all together: Using the Jigsaw Method with Instructional Technology

3/11/2019

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If you have ever attended PD at Grant Wood AEA chances are you have been exposed to the obligatory Jigsaw Method for processing learning. Although this is said with a hint of sarcasm, the Jigsaw Method ranks as a 1.2 high effect size instructional strategy. Originally the Jigsaw Method was implemented in Austin, Texas as a way to diffuse racial tensions in a recently desegregated school. In order to get the students to work together and learn from one another’s diverse perspectives, researchers devised a method that focused on cooperative learning. The history of the Jigsaw Method is quite fascinating and can be read about here.

What is the Jigsaw Method?

The Jigsaw Method includes a few steps:
1.) Divide students into groups of 5 or 6 that include diverse representations. Appoint a group leader and, as a group, segment the learning into equal chunks (teacher should provide guidance in how to segment), each individual taking one chunk.
2.) Provide enough time for students to read and reread their material and become familiar with the content. Then, the students that have read the same chunks gather together to become experts, discussing main points and preparing a presentation to share with the original group.
3.) Students return to their original group to share the presentation that has been prepared, answering any clarifying questions. During this time, the teacher moves from group to group making observations and providing support where needed.
4.) Finally, students should be formatively assessed to check for understanding and to guide future instruction.

Google for the Win!

We have to admit, it’s Google for the win when it comes to the Jigsaw Method! Google Slides provides an excellent opportunity for student collaboration while working within expert and ‘home’ groups. As a teacher, create a collaborative slide deck for the whole class (Alice Keeler example here), with each group assigned one slide in the deck. Allow expert groups to collaboratively add notes, main ideas, talking points, or even images. When students return to home groups, each student, not just the expert, will be able to access the notes digitally. Pro tip: View all the Slides at once by clicking on ‘Grid View’ in the View Menu.

This same idea is possible within Google Docs, as well. Creating a table in Google Docs allows for the same collaborative power, just with a different feel. As a teacher, create a template for your students. Each home group should have one template. Use ‘Force Make a Copy’ with the group leader. The group leader will share the template with the rest of the group. Pro tip: Thirty kids in one doc is usually frustrating! This idea works best in smaller groups.

Modifications

One concern that we have when looking at the Jigsaw Method is that it places a high level of independent learning on students who might need support in order to fully participate in the learning. We recommended supporting learning objects (texts) be digital in nature and accessible to a screen reader so students who need the decoding support of a screen reader will be able to fully participate. Additionally, we feel that allowing students to record the summary of the learning from the expert group with something like Screencastify or another recording tool might help ease the anxiety of students who are quieter and don’t like to share even in the smaller group.

Key Takeaways

The Jigsaw Method has a rich history of enhancing cooperative learning in diverse learning environments.
Students are responsible for becoming experts in the room and sharing their learning with one another.
Digital tools enhance the collaborative nature of the Jigsaw method, as well as providing accessibility supports to all learners.

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Coming Up Roses

12/14/2015

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The Iowa Hawkeye football team is heading to the Rose Bowl, but their journey to get there was captured by a budding ESPN blogger/reporter.

Here’s the story....
I spent the days prior to the Big 10 Championship game with a colleague, Gina Rogers, at a national conference (so we couldn’t make it to Indianapolis). There was a lot of great learning occurring at the conference, but the story of Gina’s 7 year old, Jack, while we were there got me reflecting the most!

Jack, at the beginning of this year’s Iowa football season, started a blog, Black and Gold Fire. An undefeated season was his prediction and he blogged about it. I remember, in August, Gina sharing with our digital learning team his blog and how excited he was to write about something he was passionate about Hawkeye Football and I also remember a few chuckles with this kid’s undefeated prediction. I was just hoping for a winning record in the Big 10.

With his parents’ support he got this blog started and was writing, but also did a mid-season video breakdown video with his dad, Jonathan. This was fun to follow, but then when we boarded our plane to the conference, Gina shared with me that Jack had landed an interview with Steve Ferenz, player and head coach’s son. So, that night Jack was going to be busy writing his questions and getting ready for the interview about the big game. What an awesome experience for this second grader! The elementary teacher in me started to think about all of the writing standards that were going into this experience and the sports fan in me was just pretty impressed.

Jack’s interview got shared via social media and it also got picked up by the Cedar Rapids Gazette in Marc Morehouse’s weekly series 3 and Out prior to the championship game. Real people are reading Jack’s writing and watching his interview, not just his teacher or others in his class. When we talk about personalized learning, here is an example. Granted, it does help to have two pretty tech savvy educator parents, but they encouraged him to try something new that he was interested in and learn along the way. That can be done without technology!

5 Things to Think About After Reading Jack’s Story

What a great way to build a positive digital footprint (with the supervision of an adult).
Kids don’t just have to have these opportunities in school, but it is nice when they do.
The learning for Jack was meaningful and applied to something he was interested in and took ownership of, so he probably went deeper and gained more than if it were a cookie cutter assignment.
Talk about publishing for a real world audience...
There is a lot of power in social media that can share the what kids are learning and make those connections (even with Iowa football players).

I challenge educators to tend to the ROSEs of learning (Rich, Open to student choice, Standards addressed, Engaging) and weed out the crap (trees). #GoHawks #Hawkeyes

Thank you to the Jonathan, Gina and Jack for letting me share their story!

~Stacy Behmer, Coordinator of Digital Learning - @sbehmer +StacyBehmer

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Don't Leave Your Students Alone in the Text!

4/28/2015

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This post is geared primarily toward literacy teachers, but in case you didn’t know, that is everyone. Yep, even you Mr. PE Teacher are a literacy teacher. All of us are responsible for incorporating literacy activities in our classroom. Now I’m not saying let’s read Ivanhoe in Algebra I (that’s just silly), but why not have your students take a look at this non-fiction article and debate the merits of Algebra. And in fact, the Common Core advises that students should, by 12th grade, spend 30% of their time reading literary texts and 70% of their time reading informational/non-fiction text, furthermore suggesting that a great deal of non-fiction reading in grade 6-12 can happen in classrooms outside of ELA.

All right, descend from soapbox and let’s take a look at a tool that will help us in the teaching of literacy. This tool is called Actively Learn. It is one of my new favorite tools for ELA, well it’s not new, just newish to me. If you are not familiar with Actively Learn, watch this short video to get a quick overview:

Teacher Overview from Actively Learn on Vimeo.

So why do I love Actively Learn? Here is my top three list:

Content - the content available in Actively Read is phenomenal. I taught the gamut of HS ELA classes (everything from English 9 to AP English Lit and College Composition) and in the available content in Actively Learn is representative of most of the texts that I taught. Additionally, texts are Lexiled and sorted by grade level and subject. Additionally, teachers can add their own content by going to the “Create Assignments” tab and selecting “Add Content”. They can add from a URL, Google Doc or PDF. So go ahead, add those lyrics from Thunder Road or Don’t Drink the Water, they will work.
Support - The Actively Learn interface has a ton of support built right into the tool. When teachers log in, the first stop is their “Checklist” which shows them what they need to accomplish to fully leverage all of the features built into Actively Learn. The checklist links to a help video on the topic as well as text instructions with screenshots. Additionally, you will always find a helping hand hanging out in the lower right hand corner of the app. Click on the photo of the support person and you can launch into a live chat.
Collaboration - My mantra has always been “comprehension is collaborative”. Ok, I don’t think that I came up with that one on my own, but it is true. Comprehension hinges on the student’s ability to build/activate their schema and make connections and the best way to support this in an ELA classroom is to create a collaborative reading experience (my other thoughts on schema building). Kids should be talking about text, they should been sharing what they see in the text, and they should be having debates about the text. Actively Learn allows this to happen at anytime. No longer is a student “alone in the text”. They can post notes for their fellow students to comment on, they can send a private “I don’t understand” flag to their teacher, and they can accommodate for themselves as needed (i.e. have the text read aloud, look up definitions of words, etc.). In short, they have a community of learners to aid in their comprehension. Additionally, teachers can co-author assignments together and they can co-teach classes.

Actively Learn truly puts the student experience at the forefront. Students have great opportunities to collaborate and connect with their classmates and teacher via the text and this helps aid comprehension and the development of schema. So, if you are a literacy teacher (and I know you are) give Actively Learn a look and don’t leave your students “alone in the text”.

- Gina Rogers, Technology Consultant, Grant Wood AEA (@grogers1010)

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Concept Mapping: The Map that Leads to Effective Instruction

Incorporating Digital Tools

Key Takeaways

Reciprocal Teaching, it’s Not Just for Literacy Teachers!

What is Reciprocal Teaching?

Incorporating Digital Tools

Key Takeaways

Putting it all together: Using the Jigsaw Method with Instructional Technology

What is the Jigsaw Method?

Google for the Win!

Modifications

Key Takeaways

Coming Up Roses

Don't Leave Your Students Alone in the Text!

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