Practice, Practice, Practice!

On Friday, September 11th, I was already in a touchy mood, so I didn't want to do anything that required too much effort on my part. That may sound bad, buy you know that we all have those days. I still wanted to pack my students' brains full of information, though! I was thinking about what I wrote in my previous post...about helping the students understand how to prepare for their presentation, and the difference between a good and bad presentation.

I decided that I should first assess how much they already knew. Some of them have already taken Business Essentials as an elective, and have had to learn about presentation skills. So, I had them do a Think-Pair-Share to brainstorm ideas of what it takes to give a successful presentation. Here's the list that my 6th period came up with:


















After the brainstorming session, I passed out copies of these two articles:


http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2009/sb20090825_379576.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2161539_give-presentation-class.html

The first article takes a humorous approach to teaching presentation skills. The author gives instructions on how to give a lousy presentation. So, the students figured that everything the author says to do, they should do the opposite. The students took turns reading the points out loud, and we discussed what would be the correct action to take. This brought up quite a few questions! Sometimes, the students were able to answer their peers' questions. Other times, I answered.

The second article highlights some was to prepare for giving a presentation. This article stresses the importance of practicing. I told the students what my Public Speaking professor told his classes in college: "Practice, practice, practice until you think you've got it. Then, practice once more to be sure." This helped drive the point home that I have high expectations of their performance on Wednesday. Dressing the part (they have to dress business-casual) does not make you automatically successful. You must practice and work to be your best.

Today, Monday, they were all supposed to turn in their PowerPoint presentations. Many of them were ready, but a few students/groups needed more time. I told them they had to get the slide show to be by the end of the day (3PM) or it would be late with points counted off. For those who were ready, I printed a handout of their show, and asked them to make brief notations beside each slide to tell me who would be speaking during that slide and what they would say.

Before all of that, the students had to take their MLA Citations Quiz today. There was a wide range of scores, but only a handful of students failed. This shows me that they just need time to soak in the information, and they need to see it repeatedly. In the past, I've tried to teach MLA at the end of the year within a very limited time frame, and the students just don't get it. This year, as this quiz has shown me, they have understood much better.

I was reminded today that our first Benchmark Exam is on October 7th. By this date (according to the county pacing guide), my JR LA students should have studied Native American Lit, Exploration Narratives (ex: John Smith), Equiano, The Crucible, and Puritan Poetry. My SOPH LA students should have studied Gilgamesh, the Bible, and at least 2 other epics. ...That is not going to happen. I gave as much time as my students needed to feel confident in the research process and essay writing. I know that they can do this. I feel confident in sending them to take the GHSGWT at the end of Sept. (with a little more practice in persuasive writing, of course). Now that I know they can organize their ideas, and write strong paragraphs, we can move on to the literature. What is the point of teaching, if the students don't have time to learn?

I guess I better get planning. We have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks! :)

Putting It All Together

I told my language arts students on Monday how proud I am of them for working so hard on these research projects. I was flying high all weekend because most of them are up to date with all of the checkpoints in the process. I know that there are a combination of factors that are attributing to their success, but I really do think that doing this project at the beginning of the school year rather than the end has had a huge effect. Their minds aren't yet fatigued, I'm still energetic enough to bounce around and help each student, and we all still have patience enough to work through lapses in comprehension rather than just give up.

After I told them how pround I am of them, I also told them that THIS is the most difficult part: putting together the research with their own ideas to create an essay. If they give it a few days of hard work and focus, though, it will be over soon enough. This seemed to take off some of the pressure that overwhelmed them.

I read through their rough drafts Monday night, and many of them are still having problems with citing their sources. Either they cited nothing at all, or they did it incorrectly. I was careful to edit as much as I could to help them correct these mistakes (and others). I also showed them some examples on the board, and gave them a handout from our Media Center's website that shows correct MLA in-text citations. More of them seemed to understand after receiving the information in three more ways.

During class on Tuesday, I handed back the students' rough drafts (bleeding red from all of the comments I'd made), and instructed them to write a second rough draft, using my comments and corrections as a guide. I told them to go slowly--sentence by sentence--to make sure they corrected everything and made all necessary changes. This gave them the opportunity to improve and revise their work and ask me questions if needed. I used to hand back the rough draft, and say "OK, now use your rough draft and my comments to type your final draft." I found, however, that students often got hung up on making their corrections on their final draft. It was too much pressure or they knew they were almost done and didn't care as much...I don't know exactly. I do know that having them hand write their second rough draft made it a much more meaningful exercise to them. They were focused on improving, and that's what I wanted for them.

Today, Wednesday, we were in the computer lab so the students could type their final drafts. I'd already given them my example essay on teen dropouts in correct MLA format, so I told them to look at that to set up the format of their own papers. Most of them needed help with the header and double spacing, but then their fingers were flying around on the keyboards, typing their final drafts.

I am also practicing writing with my LDC IV students. I've introduced them to chunck paragraph writing, and it is going well! The first time was rough. Most of them didn't quite get it. Yesterday was much better, though! They turned in very nice paragraphs in response to two topics I gave them which were related to the chapters we'd read on Monday from Tuck Everlasting. Today is grammar day for them, and tomorrow is speaking day. I really would like to find some speaking activities that helps improve their pronunciation. I have a couple of Korean boys, and a couple of Hispanic girls who still don't pronounce their English words very well. I want to find some verbal exercises they could do here and at home to strengthen their pronunciation...sort of a Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle experiment. :)

Quote of the Day (Tuesday):
"S____, these paragraphs are awesome!"
"Thanks, Miss! Remember when I first wrote a paragraph for you and you said that it was horrible?"
"I didn't say 'horrible.'"
"You did! See?" (She shows me her paper with my red letters: "This is horrible!")
"...Oh."
"It's OK, Miss. I'd rather my teacher tells me my writing is horrible than to keep being dumb. Now I'm getting better!"

Quote of the Day (Wednesday):
A____ asked me: "Ms. Greene, if I type 'this situation damaged their reputation,' how do I spell reputation?"
I began, "R-"
"Oh wait," he said excitedly, "I just remembered how inside of my own brain. Thanks anyway."

Researching in the 21st Century

Every year, for the first 4 years of teaching, I had to assign a research project to my students at the end of 2nd semester. It was kind of a right of passage. The students had practiced essay writing throughout the year, so they had to use their writing skills AND their new-found MLA format skills. In my opinion, this is just way too much for an end of the year activity. The kids are burned out, the teachers are burned out, and no one can concentrate on a task for more than 5 minutes.

Well, this year, I'm turning the tables. I started my JR LA and SOPH LA classes on their research projects right away (as I've explained in previous posts). At first, I was determined to have them do their bibliographies, note cards, and works cited pages by hand so they HAD TO learn MLA format. They'll probably have to identify things like "proper punctuation for the title of a novel in an MLA citation" on a Benchmark or other standardized test. However, most of my students are writing WAY below grade level, so I'm having to teach them basic essay format almost from scratch. (Some of them think that one sentence that stretches for 6 lines on a piece of paper counts as a paragraph!)

To cut down on the paperwork, while keeping my high expectations for their learning, I enlisted the help of our Media Center specialist and her new toy called Noodle Tools. http://www.noodletools.com/
This program is awesome! As the students do their article/website research through our Media Center databases, they can use Noodle Tools Bibliography to create a working bibliography online (by inputing author, title, publication, etc. information into 'fill in' boxes), then print a Works Cited page that is already in correct MLA format with indentions, italics, quotations, etc.

Furthermore, each source has a link to a blank Noodle Tool Note Card that the students fill in with the appropriate information plus any direct quotes they'd like to use or paraphrases they come up with. The program keeps the cards organized for them in a workspace, then prints them all neatly for the student when he or she is ready.

My students went to the computer lab for 3 days during my class (the first day was 1/2 orientation to the databases and Noodle Tools), and they've accomplished more in those 3 days than I have been able to do in a week with past classes who had to do everything by hand. Most of them have found their 2-3 sources, created and printed a bibliography, and created and printed note cards for each source. All of that in 3 days!

Tomorrow, I want them to take one more look at each source and highlight information that would be useful in their essay. Then, I want them to use their KWL, articles, and note cards to start outlining their essay. I've come up with an outline template that walks them through the different parts of an essay. Hopefully, that will cut down on questions like, "Ms. Greene, where does the thesis statement go?"

BTW: I forgot to mention last Friday that I gave the students 2 more ways to remember the proper format of an essay. For the visual learners, I drew a burger on the board, and explained that a good essay is like a good burger...it has a top bun (introduction), the insides to keep things interesting (body), and a bottom bun (conclusion). Without the stuff in the middle, it's not very interesting, and not very appealing. Without the bun, everything falls apart.
Then, for my kinesthetic learners, I gave small groups/pairs an essay that had been cut apart into hook, background info, thesis, 3 topic sentences, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The students had to reassemble the essay using what they already knew about essay format and clues from the topic sentences. Both of these worked very well!

Starting that Research Project

The past couple of days have been sort of a review over basic essay format. I know that some students are, unfortunately, hearing much of this for the first time. I'm trying to take it slow, but there is just so much time that I can spend on teaching BASIC essay format (intro w/ thesis, body paragraps w/ topic sentences, conclusion). It is my job to start them on MLA format and persuasive writing.

My students have all signed up for a teen issue that they would like to research. These issues are directly related to the summer reading books, so they should theoretically have some background knowledge about the topic (although, relistically, most did not do their reading). They did not have to do the reading to be able to do this project, though, so there is no excuse for full participation and completion! Their projects are worth 300 points and will consist of:
KWL (10)
Participation in Writing Centers (20)
Reading and highlighting articles (10)
Source Note Cards (30)
Outline (20)
Rough Draft (40)
Final Draft (100)
Group Planning (20)
Group Presentation and Note Cards (50)

So, today, I passed out a pack of papers that included: 3 articles, 1 essay, 1 works cited page, and 1 note card. I stayed late last night to do research, write my own original essay, create my works cited page, and create a sample note card. I passed out clean copies of my originals that were highlighted and notated. Then, I separated the students into small groups of 3 or 4. Each group received on of my original documents and had to highlight and make notes on their papers exactly as they appeared on my originals. These notes were things that labled the thesis, topic sentences, paraphrased citations, direct quote citations, etc. It also provided some hints about how to format essays (double space, header with page number). The groups made their marks, then passed the document to the next group, and so on.

Thus, the students have tangibly created models and reminders of what I expect from their own research documents. I told them to refer to these documents before asking me questions so I don't have to answer 22 times: "Ms. Greene, do we need a title for our essay?" The students put these documents into their classroom folders which will stay in my trailer.

I'm wondering if I'm overloading them with information to start. I guess repetition is good...they'll hear it once now, hear it again later, hear it again during their research and writing, and hopefully it will take effect. I tend to want to wait to give them the info until they actually need it, but how will they remember it if they only hear it once?

Tomorrow, we're meeting in the computer lab for the students to have an introduction to the databases they'll use for their research, and to Noodle Tools, which will help them stay organized through this process.