Constructing Concrete Connections

Vanderbilt University professor H. Richard Milner IV wrote that, “…building relationships with students is about meeting students where they are, attempting to understand them, and developing connections with them.” Most educators know that connecting with students and building positive relationships are key strategies to developing student success and those relationships serve as a foundation for what is done each and every day in the classroom. Making those connections can sometimes be a challenge, especially when a student is more introverted or maybe lacks confidence in his or her own voice. These connections also rarely happen without a teacher’s willingness to be vulnerable and share authentic pieces of themselves with students which, in turn, help to build foundations of openness and trust that are essential in student motivation and growth.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Technology can be useful in transforming the ways we go about meeting the needs of our students while also providing a voice for those students who feel uncomfortable or who might not normally contribute in larger class settings. Effectively utilizing the right tool or resource can make a real difference in providing authentic, safe, and supportive connections, and ultimately learning experiences, that yield success for all students.

Katy Watson, a French teacher at V.R. Eaton High School explained that, “French I is the first time many students encounter a foreign language class in their entire academic career” and “it’s often a period of adjustment.” Mademoiselle Watson’s awareness of her students’ need for connecting and establishing a comfortable foundation for learning led her to utilize her YouTube channel to produce a video welcoming her students to the course and sharing basic expectations with both students and parents, prior to the first day of school. Mademoiselle Watson took time to introduce herself to students and their families while showing them her passion for both education and the French language. When asked about her goal for this video, she said, “I wanted to take some time to introduce parents and students to my program and to [help them] get an idea of what they can expect from my class. I’m hoping that parents will feel more empowered to speak to their students about my class…” and “to reach out to me if they need something, because they’ve put a face with a name and they feel more comfortable.” Her willingness to take that extra step to initiate personal contact with students and parents before anyone even set foot into the classroom is something that has had an impact on both students and families. Students came to class on the first day and felt encouraged to mention the video and make connections right away. Several students mentioned appreciating the effort and having a greater feeling of comfort and openness at the beginning of the course. Parents expressed a sincere appreciation for a chance to hear about the course and the instructor’s expectations and to have a positive communication from the teacher right at the start of the year.

Samuel Beck Elementary’s Ethan Dee is another example of an NISD educator who regularly uses technology in his classroom and, this year, he specifically used it to create authentic connections right at the start. Mr. Dee began by assigning a “Welcome Back Scavenger Hunt” where students were to visit a variety of websites gathering information about Mr. Dee and sharing information about themselves with him and the rest of the class. Mr. Dee utilized everything from a Smore newsletter, to Moodle, to Padlet, to the comments section of his school website, and even Animoto, where he created a video about himself. This scavenger hunt not only gave students a chance to get to know their teacher, but it also allowed them to begin interacting with each other in a positive way and previewing the types of tools they would use to learn and collaborate throughout the year. When speaking about the scavenger hunt assignment, Diane Tsapos, a fifth grade parent said, "...as a parent, I enjoyed sharing this." Aaron Reisman, one of Mr. Dee’s fifth grade students, shared that he is usually a bit quiet and nervous at the start of school and that he has felt more comfortable this year. He especially liked to see his classmate’s selfies posted on the scavenger hunt Padlet wall and thought that the part of Mr. Dee’s video, where he was dancing, was funny. Aaron expressed that he was definitely looking forward to spending the year in Mr. Dee’s class because he was already having fun exploring these tools and getting to know everyone better.

When we evaluate student academic experiences, we find out very quickly that although a lot of content is sometimes forgotten, the connections we make help us to solidify foundations of trust, social responsibility, and confidence, which then allows students to walk away with skills and experiences that are positively remembered and applied for the rest of their lives.

Student ISTE Standards:

1) Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. 

• 1.1: Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
• 1.2: Create original works as a means of personal or group expression

2) Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute tot he learning of others.

• 2.1: Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media

A Digitized Novel Study

Third graders at Beck Elementary recently completed their reading of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Throughout the reading of this novel, students were tasked with maintaining a digital notebook that would document their discussions, experiences, and learning. 

Students responded to the text in a variety of ways. Getting to know the key characters in the book provided students with the opportunity to analyze character traits that could be supported with text evidence. Beckett, in Mrs. Bell’s class, said, “using different apps, like the whiteboard app, helped us have evidence for our thoughts and allows us show response in pictures and drawing.” Digital tools, such as, the Aww App and Tagul were introduced to students as a way for them to share their thinking about the novel’s characters. 

Mrs. Phillips’ student, Wyatt, felt challenged throughout his work on his digital notebook and his Recap responses. “The most challenging part of our digital novel study was the questions were really tricky and you had to really think and deeply analyze the novel to understand it.” Responding to their reading verbally, using Recap, encouraged students to think deeply about their responses. It was especially empowering for their voices to be heard by their peers as they shared their recorded responses.

An extension menu was also provided to students to access throughout the study. This menu provided students with choice as they responded to their reading in a variety of ways. Support for completing the tasks on the extension menu was provided by the teachers via Screencastify. Instructional videos created by the teacher allowed students to work independently, at their own pace. The extension menu exposed students to new tech tools and provided differentiated learning experiences to students based on their strengths and needs.

On any given day, throughout the novel study, students within their classrooms could be found working on projects of their choice in response to their reading using Buncee, Google Docs, Google Slides and a variety of other digital tools. With choices on the extension menu such as: creating a personal intriguing word wall from each chapter, keeping a summary journal from their reading, publishing a “must read” newspaper article and designing a digital poster to represent a character, it was no surprise that student engagement was through the roof. 

As their reading of the novel came to a close, students had choice again in their final product. Options included creating a book trailer, writing a reader’s theater script or creating an interview with the main character, Edward. These risk-free tasks provided students with a platform to create and collaborate on their learning from the novel study. Some of these tools used to complete these projects were Animoto, DoInk and Canva. Students added their final product as a slide to their digital journal. 

Loseli, also in Mrs. Bell’s classroom, found this project to be good preparation for future learning. “The digital notebook enhanced my learning by introducing me to new websites that can help me with more of my extension projects or more of my learning throughout the year.”

Additional student notebooks can be viewed HERE.

Literacy Love via Book Trailer Choice

Roanoke 5th grade is fully involved in book clubs and readers workshop.  Students' journals are teaming with reading responses and reading logs are filling up fast.

So, how do you continue this enthusiasm and encourage the motivation to read more? Let your students create their own book trailers! Choice was all over this project, from the selection of the book to showcase in the trailer to the digital tool to create the trailer, every part was student driven.

The Roanoke Language Arts Teachers provided examples, discussed with the students that elements that made a successful trailer, modeled how to plan out the process to create a trailer and provided a rubric that identified the content needed to show mastery of literacy skills.

Here are two exemplars from the the 5th grade students at Roanoke Elementary.

The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis- Book Trailer by Michael using Smore

Nothing's Fair in the Fifth Grade by Barthe DeClements- Book Trailer by Amanda using Animoto

These exemplars along with the other 5th grade students' Book Trailers, using a variety of tools beyond what was mentioned here, can be seen on the Standard Based Bulletin Boards at Roanoke Elementary until November 21st, 2014.  All are welcome to come by and see how choice promotes the love of literacy via Book Trailers.

S'more... hear me "Roar"

This summer, all students entering 6th-8th grade pre-AP Language Arts were required to read a book from the NISD Recommended Summer GT/PreAP Reading list.  When these students returned to their campuses in August, they were given the task of creating a product based on a matrix of choices. They were given a rubric to help them self-evaluate if their end product met the learning expectations of the product.

It is the student's choice how he/she showcases the work. This allowed John (seventh grader at Pike Middle School) to showcase his thoughts, ideas and understanding of his book, The Roar by Emma Clayton, in a unique way. After browsing many options such as Weebly and Wix, John decided to use S'more.

John was extremely passionate about Roar and this is evident in his S'more.  He chose the S'more as it allowed him to showcase the book via images, video (Animoto) and text, as well as embed links to an informational website on the author.

S'more is an exceptional and thorough way to showcase a book. It is incredible is how John not only completed the requirements, but valued sharing and feedback as well.  John asked his mother to share his work via Facebook.

The Feedback he obtained via his mother's social media allowed him to gather important information and ideas. The feedback helped him edit his final product and allowed him to evaluate whether his product had an impact beyond just completing the assignment.

While he was looking for feedback to improve his product, his work as a by-product was so convincing that many behind the posts featured here stated that because of his S'more, they now wanted to read The Roar.

What do you think of his final product? Are you persuaded to read the The Roar by Emma Clayton now that you have viewed John's S'more?