Word Up! Using Technology to Teach, Reinforce and Support the Learning of Academic Language

After successfully completing Technology Integration Academy, Mark Anthony Page, felt better equipped to bring even more technology to the classroom.  Being at Adams Middle School , the new campus, Mr. Page and his teaching partner, Kris Mouser wanted to embrace technology and set a standard for the campus and be a model department for their program Career and College Readiness/Professional Communication. (CCR)

Mr. Page and Mrs. Mouser are integrating Vocabulary.com into their weekly routine. Once a week students log into their Vocabulary.com site and work to build their academic language skills. For years’ teachers have included Word Walls as a part of their curriculum. Using a digital platform like Vocabulary.com takes students learning to the next level. The platform allows students to operate in a safe space where their success and struggles can be private. This may seem small but ability to work independently gives students the confidence to try.

Mr. Page and Mrs. Mouser, use the website to teach new language. When the CCR duo is introducing a new lesson they go into the program and create a word bank for their students to get acclimated with the new terminology. The program takes the words and builds a game in which their 8th graders can match words with definitions. They also, use the program to reinforce terms that students are already familiar with by giving them extra time to practice seeing the terms in different sentence structures and context. Further building their own knowledge of the words. Finally, the program is used to support students who have low or limited vocabulary in the English language.The program adds support for ESL students who are still grasping at trying to understand the language and the many functions that words in the English language can have.

Mr. Page & Mrs. Mouser’s classrooms are leading the way at integrating technology and making sure their students are prepared to be global leaders.What they are accomplishing at Leo Adams is setting the standard of what can be accomplished with technology.

Student Choice & Content Creation - Not So "Foreign" After All!

Learning a foreign language can be, well, foreign sometimes! On top of mastering new vocabulary and verb conjugations, students in Pre-AP Spanish II are also learning the difference between two past tenses, preterite and imperfect, and then identifying the corresponding verb conjugation for that correct past tense - whew! In Spanish, you must differentiate between the two types of past tense shown the below table.

	Preterite Tense	Imperfect Tense
Definition	A completed action in the past	Ongoing, repeated, or past actions without implied specific beginning or end
Example	“He put his hand through the car window.”	“The birds sang.”

It’s been said that mastering preterite and imperfect can be done through repetition in that the more you do it, the better you will get at it. While this skill can be sharpened through worksheets or practice sentences, this concept is a difficult one that gets solidified in memory when it is applied. Language is developed through speaking, listening, reading, and writing, so what avenue is best to facilitate this language acquisition?

Asking a high school student to speak in front of their peers is scary enough, add on top of that the factors of the language not being their primary one, compiled with a new and super challenging concept as well as one that requires much thought before the actual sentence is constructed. Listening and reading are both effective in learning the content, but both of these depend on teacher-facilitated content consumption rather than student-driven content creation.  So, two Byron Nelson Pre-AP Spanish teachers, Matt Condon and Isabel Greuling, created the perfect project to get the best mix of language development through product creation with appropriate scaffolds to facilitate student success. Students were tasked with writing their own Spanish Children’s Story Book!

To communicate clear expectations, students received this Rubric, Requirements, and Rough Draft document which contains intentional planning tools such as separate boxes to pre-write two sentences per page, a space to plan vocabulary that will be used and its translation in both English and Spanish, and instructions to highlight verbs and grammar. To facilitate effective story development, students also completed this StoryStarter questionnaire to help students develop the concept prior to developing the language used to describe it. To gain quality peer feedback, students reviewed each other’s rough drafts using this Peer Edit Guiding Questions. Lastly, students constructed their final draft using the online story creator site: Story Jumper; those who are more artistically advanced or who prefer to work offline also had the option to creating a physical book that meets these same requirements.

Below are a few exemplars. Click each image to view the full version within Story Jumper.

Pedro, Carlos, y Los Perritos Calientes

Teacher Feedback: Jackson did a fantastic job of using the preterite and imperfect correctly throughout his book. This book contained very few errors and had a wide range of varied vocabulary covered in Spanish 1 & 2.  Jackson terrifically demonstrated his knowledge and mastery of grammar and vocabulary concepts from the last few chapters.  

Los Peces y El Taco

Teacher Feedback: Dylan exceeded the project’s expectations on this activity by creating a funny, original story with a surprise ending and using correct preterite & imperfect usage to narrate the book.

Rico Y Los Ratones

Teacher Feedback: Adriana's story is very original, and she uses multiple concepts we have learned this year very well. 

Additional student exemplars: Samuel el Sapito and La Mofeta Triste

Students were able to extend the project a step further in creating an audio file of them reading aloud their storybook; thus, refining the skill of speaking the language. In doing so, students can practice pronunciation using a familiar text that they personally constructed which again sets the student up for success. This optional additional audio file can be embedded on the first page of each Story Jumper book.

“I don’t teach a foreign language, so how can this concept be applied to my classroom?”

This project has multiple elements of "good teaching" that can be applied to all ages and content areas.

Highest level of Bloom’s = Creation

• Are you providing time for your students to apply their learning to their own student-driven product?

Student Choice

• Students were able to choose their own setting, characters, and script providing multiple opportunities for student buy-in and student-selected opportunities to demonstrate success.

Scaffolding

• Appropriate planning documents and class time were provided to allow students to pre-write and get peer-feedback for revising and editing.

Cross-curricular

• Since Spanish is a language, incorporating ELA elements lend itself easily to this task. Rather than simply saying “Write using appropriate grammar,” this project reminded students of multiple literary elements such as setting, character development, and climax which are concepts currently being studied in English I-IV.

This activity meets ISTE's Student Standard of being a 'Creative Communicator' in which "Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.." (6c)

Blogging Challenge

The Librarian at Schluter Elementary has challenged the entire 4th and 5th grade to become bloggers! She started the challenge out by having each class come to the Library. The classes brainstormed what a blog was and what they could blog about. The conversations naturally led to having passions, and that's when the spark was ignited! The second the students realized they had choice in what they were able to blog about, they suddenly got interested in this challenge. Each student had to brainstorm what they wanted to write about and the title. Then used Blogger to execute the challenge!

Mrs. Pospisil used her connections and reached out to people in the district to be mentors for the student blogs. She wanted their voices to be heard! 85 people jumped on board. Principals, Assistant Principals, Librarians, Instructional Coaches, and people at the Administration building all wanted to be a part of the challenge of mentoring students in a digital world. The mentors respond by leaving a comment on their assigned students blog once a week. This ongoing process encourages students to keep writing for their authentic audience, while building a relationship with their district mentor.

Blogging gives students a way to reflect, grow, and learn about themselves as a 21st century learner. We need to vary our methods of reflection and blogging is a great outlet for many people. It offers ongoing documentation and long-term reflection. 

Here are a few student blogs to check out:

An Addition To Math

All Elephants

Imagine.Dream.Think.Real

The More You Know 2018

Mastering the Madness of Mythology

Mythology is a genre most students enjoy reading and studying, however few truly comprehend.  In order to help students deeply analyze the elements of this genre and demonstrate their understanding of the structure, Mrs. Davis, 7th grade GT ELA teacher at Chisholm Trail Middle School, challenged students to write their own original myth.

Students were asked to collaborate with peers to craft creation myths.  Through each unique tale, students explained how a natural phenomena came to be, while teaching the audience a valuable lesson about the choices we make and the impact they can have.  Students spent a week working through the process described below.  

Planning and Drafting

A key part of this project involved students collaborating on all aspects of the myth.  In order to easily facilitate collaboration, Mrs. Davis shared template resources with students through Google Classroom.  Student groups were then able to access the files from their own Google Drive and work together  to develop a solid plan.  Students also relied on Google Drive as they drafted the first version of their myth.  Google Docs allowed students to simultaneously access the same document so all group members could serve as active participants.  The use of the “History” feature available with this tool enabled the teacher to clearly see the individual contribution of each group member.  This encouraged full participation and aided in the assignment of individual student grades.

Publishing

When it came time to publish, students were given the option of using Adobe Spark Video or Pages.  Spark considers itself, “a one-stop content shop for creating and sharing visual stories that will wow any audience on any device.”  This was the perfect tool for students to blend their text with images, bringing their stories to life!  Click on the images below to see their creations.

             

      

Reflection & Feedback

Mrs. Davis utilized Lino sticky canvas for students to provide feedback to one another.  The canvas was created by the teacher and then shared with students.  Each group created a note with their names and a link to their presentation.  Groups were required to view at least 2 projects and use the TAG feedback strategy to provide authentic peer feedback.  The collaborative aspect of Lino allowed all students to view one another’s projects, as well as access the feedback.  While Mrs. Davis was happy with the overall experience Lino provided students, she did mention that she would set things up differently if she utilized the tool again in the future.  She suggests creating the original notes for each groups and then allowing students to comment around them.  This would allow the teacher to lock the notes in place and prevent any confusion caused by a lack of organization.

In years past, students completed this project using paper and art supplies.  It’s always been a project students love, but this year, the integration of technology took things to an entirely new level.  A common frustration reported previously was the limited time students had to complete the myth.  With the use of collaborative tools, students could access their work anytime, anywhere.  The increased accessibility, improved the overall quality of the projects and provided students a deeper understanding of the content.  While all of these benefits make the project worthwhile, the most meaningful benefit would be the ability to instantly provide students with a global audience.  Since the assignment was completed using a digital tool, students were able to link their Adobe Spark Videos or Pages to their ePortfolios.  This will be an experience students can look back on and share for years to come.