Read, Write, Reflect, Repeat: Making the Skill Connections

The next few weeks will be strange. Here in Japan we are beginning baby steps of returning students to the physical classrooms of the new year that began in early April. I’m looking forward to meeting my students in 3D! What that first step looks like here is each day of the week assigned to a department (M: math/computer; Tu: English; W: science/music; Th: Japanese; F: social studies/art) for “consultation classes.” So my English classes (both English language arts and EFL) each have an assigned time on Tuesday where students can come for an hour of help if they want and need it. The other 4 days, I am conducting online education, as usual. Except that an unknown portion of my students may be attending other classes. So I was working to come up with assignments that would be worthwhile as well as doable for students not attending live online classes. 

Suddenly I realized I could pick up an important reading/writing/reflecting thread: parallel construction.
This past week we were bringing an essay through its final drafts in one of my classes. For the editing class, I’d scanned the revised drafts for error patterns to teach a mini-lesson on. I noticed a majority of students had made errors in parallel construction. So I pulled some examples from their work and taught the lesson.

The next day when students turned in the final draft, they reflect on their learning in a Google form. Here are the questions I asked:

• What is something you worked hard to improve or do well in this piece of writing?
• What is something you want to work to improve in your next piece of writing?
• What's something you learned about the topic, the world, or yourself while working on this piece?
• What is something you learned about writing while working on this piece?

I noticed the mention of parallel construction: “I want to improve more on the parallel grammar when writing the sentence.” 

Today as I was creating next week’s online assignment, I thought, “I should include a mentor sentence component.” Then I thought, “I should pick up on the interest in practicing parallel construction.” But would I be able to find parallel construction in the chosen article that would be simple enough for these advanced high school EFL students to be able to understand and to benefit from patterning? Yes!!! Here are the 2 mentor sentences I found:

• “We nurse one another, romance one another, weep for one another.” (paragraph 2)
• “The same is true for people who steal or despots who slaughter.” (paragraph 6)

Here are the modeling exercises I came up with:

• For sentence 1: Write a sentence modeled on this one. Write about some group of people you are a part of--basketball teammates, KIUA students, Japanese people, Christians, teenagers, or some other group of your choice. Use this pattern: We _____ one another, _____ one another, _____ one another.
• For sentence 2: Write a sentence modeled on this one. For example:
• We’re having days that are warm and nights that are cool.
• I enjoy being with Japanese who are reserved and polite and Americans who are outgoing and warm.
• I prefer dogs that are friendly to cats that are aloof.

I can hardly wait to see what students do with this—whether they will appreciate that this is a response to their reflection on this past week’s essays, whether I’ve been able to calibrate my ELA expectations for EFL, and whether these advanced 11th and 12th graders are able to latch on to the connection between reading English and writing English. 

Falling in Love with Middle School Books All Over Again

A package landed on my desk at school on Thursday. It was one of the highlights of my week. It was from Book Depository and contained New Kid by Jerry Craft and The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. 

In the shift to a new teaching assignment and a new school, all my familiarity with 10th and 11th grade books amassed over the last 8 years has suddenly lost currency, and I’m starting over with books that will entice 6th and 7th graders to read. In the beginning, it seemed like a daunting task. The first day of school in mid-April when I asked students via distance learning what they’d last enjoyed reading, I hadn't read anything they mentioned! So I asked if they owned the books, if I could borrow them. When we finally meet. In a real classroom. Whenever that may be. How can we even share books isolated at home in a non-English speaking country? 

Eventually I realized I did have some resources. I sifted through the boxes containing the portion of my former classroom library that had made the packing cut. I was looking for any books that might be on a middle school level. And I found about 30! So I’m working my way through all the books I’d either never read, or haven’t read in the 27 years since I last taught middle school! So far that’s The Giver Quartet and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Some I have kept up with as I worked to help implement a school-wide reading program previously—like Kwame Alexander's The Crossover and Booked, Alan Gratz's Samurai Shortstop and Grenade, and Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming. A number of others are still in a to-read stack, including the Eragon series. 

Then I combed our small school library for tempting possibilities. I was delighted to find a list of gems, from which I’ve been busy reading Starry River in the Sky, Because of Winn-Dixie, Maniac Magee, and Walk Two Moons. Still in my to-read stack from there: Star Girl and The Thief Lord. I can always go back for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and a whole shelf of Roald Dahl.

Finally, I asked for recommendations from a couple of reading friends with middle school kids. I compiled a long list and batched them to order as I’d be able to get to them. I ordered my first 5, not even knowing if they’d ship in this crazy pandemic world, or how long they’d take to arrive. (Japan Post is will send letters but not packages to the US, and the masks we ordered from Amazon Japan took a month longer than projected!)

Which brings me to the excitement this past Thursday, when the first 2 books of my order arrived. I’ve already finished New Kid and started into The Mysterious Benedict Society. It’s a pretty thick one, so it might last me the rest of the weekend! And as the world begins to open up again, it’s beginning to seem I might really get some kids in a classroom in the next couple of weeks. When I do, I’ll have some books to share with them! After all, even in Japan, summer vacation is coming—only 6 weeks, and not until mid-July—but I’ll see if I can get some 6th and 7th graders to take home some books by then!

I know that I’ve fallen in love with middle school books all over again! 
Here were some of my favorites:

• New Kid by Jerry Craft—A new graphic novel about fitting in, making friends, being kind, being just, dealing with parents and teachers, and growing up. It’s smart, funny, poignant, and deals with real issues without any red flags. I loved it.
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech—I real this a long time ago when my oldest daughter was in middle school and loved it then. I loved it again. I don’t think we ever outgrow the need to grow in our understanding of other people.
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo—I’ll have to admit that I’d never read a Kate DiCamillo book, though my younger daughter was at one time in love with The Tale of Despereaux. One of my current 6th graders named this as her favorite book, and I’m definitely feeling her. I’ll be collecting more of Kate DiCamillo. 
• The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry—I’d read The Giver before, but not the rest, so I decided I’d better get the full effect and start from the beginning. A lot to think about embedded in fairly compelling stories—as long as you don’t poke too deeply into the world-building.
• Starry River in the Sky by Grace Lin—A bit of a slow start, but as the Chinese folktales told by different characters began to come together, it became a beautiful reflection on family, belonging, compassion, selfishness, forgiveness, and what our stories say about us.

What middle stories would you recommend for me and my students?

Quick Wins for the Distance Learning Week

So grateful for the couple of colleagues who continue to come in to school to plan, teach, and assess online classes!

What do coffee, questions, and Google Classroom have in common? They all figured in my quick wins for the distance learning week. 

Week 5 of the new school year in Japan, and it seems like students and teachers are all approaching the end of the grace period for figuring out distance learning. Not that we can’t take any risks to learn any new things, but not, like, on a daily basis. Maybe once a week, but not daily any more. So I’m focusing on exploring the platforms we’ve already used, applying what I know is good teaching in any context, and practicing proactively seeing students and colleagues with appreciation and empathy. Here are a few of the good things that yielded this week:

(1) “Can you help me understand what’s happening?” It's the question that withholds judgment, presents facts, and exhibits curiosity. Yes, it’s time to start holding students accountable. Maybe they missed things earlier because they were figuring out technology and platforms and my classroom culture. Now I need to start filling in those gaps in the gradebook. So I’m presenting data—“I got this and this from you, and I’m not seeing this.” Then the question: “Can you help me understand what’s happening?” It not only reminds me that the conclusions I jump to are often incorrect, it also keeps me seeing students as people, keeps me curious, and allows students to respond with remarkable honesty so we can all win. Sometimes it’s an apology that they’ve been slacking with a promise to work harder. Sometimes it’s a thank you for the reminder. Sometimes it’s a true explanation: Half had been done on one device and half on the other, and the platform only accepted one input. Sometimes it leads to a better design of future assignments (see discussion below). Sometimes it opens a conversation: “idk” because you didn’t know and wanted to turn the assignment in doesn’t accomplish any of the thinking and learning that is the real goal here.

(2) Google Classroom Questions discussion: All I did was post the 4 discussion questions given for a reading on CommonLit.org as questions on Google Classroom. I posted them with the directions that students—6th and 7th graders—were to post original responses to 3 of the 4 and post responses to 2 classmates’ original posts. Responses that added value—not just “Yes.” This was partly in response to last Friday’s live online discussion which proceeded so quickly in the chat bar that some students were unable to think or type that fast. I was nervous introducing it. But everyone engaged in significant ways—including those who were unable to attend the live class and those who couldn’t type fast enough to keep up with the chat. The ultimate seal of approval came in the chat bar from a student who often thinks finishing is more important than learning: “hmm this discussion kinda thing is getting fun”.

(3) Google Classroom slot scheduling for writing conferences: I picked this up from a comment in an English teacher Facebook group, explored, and experimented with my 11th and 12th graders. We had a few glitches on the first try, but they were flexible, we figured out how to do it, and I’m really excited about the possibilities for setting up individual conferences where I divide a period of time into slots which class members can then sign up for. 
(4) Google Forms for writing reflection: In face-to-face classrooms, I always have students reflect on major projects when they hand them in. This Edutopia blog (“Teaching Strategies of Award-Winning Online Instructors”) pushed me to remember I could easily do it with Google Forms: What did you work hard on? What do you want to improve next time? What did you learn about the content/yourself/the world? What did you learn about writing/the process?

(5) Gratitude: I’m so grateful for the 2 colleagues who come into our office at school every day to do their planning and grading while most others are working from home. We can do this because we haven’t been in the kind of lockdown here in Japan than many have in the US and elsewhere, though we are teaching remotely. But being new to the community, I am so grateful for the collegiality they offer! I brought them coffee from the nearby convenience store for a Friday afternoon celebration, and we all had more energy to finish the day. 

Little steps, using what I know, practicing curiosity and gratitude—that’s the fuel in my tank this week. What’s yours?

Creating Classroom Community Remotely: My Best Strategy

Questions can be gateways into students' lives--even in a remotely-taught classroom!

Mrs. Essenburg, can we do the question?

It was a couple minutes before the online class was supposed to start, but about half of the students were already in the Google Meet. “The question” was what I’d been asking as an “attendance question”—once I started recording the meeting to post for students who couldn’t attend live, I’d ask a question for everyone to answer in the chat column. Then I could go back and check the transcript to see who was there. It was a different question every day. 

The added benefit was what we learned about each other. I was so excited that the student was so eager to answer the question and see her classmates answers (forget the attendance benefit) I went ahead and asked “the question”: “What are you looking forward to being able to do again after the Covid-19 emergency is over?” Answers ranged from the predictable (getting together with friends) to the unique (riding horses) to the unexpected (nothing—I love having the excuse to stay home and play computer games all day). 

This is such a simple but powerful practice. I started out with standard, non-threatening questions. “What is a food you like?” (Hint: Try to avoid asking “-est” questions. I’ve known students—a daughter and myself included—who can be paralyzed by having to choose the color, food, book, or whatever that they like “best.”) But "the question" can do many things like... 

• Set up the lesson. (“What is an animal you like?” before we read Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” personifying fog as a cat, and then writing our own personification of a natural phenomenon).
• Offer insight into health and self-care. (“What did you have for breakfast today?” or “What did you do for fun over the weekend?”)
• Lead to deeper discussions. (“What is a good thing that happened to you yesterday?” “Nothing.” Yes, that lead to a discussion of 1st world problems….) 

Yesterday’s question was, “What are you afraid of?” I modeled, “Snakes and spiders” in the chat. Though I added by voice that I’m not afraid of snakes I know are not poisonous—I’ve held them and they feel really dry and smooth and muscular. But when I nearly step on one, without identifying it, I naturally recoil with adrenaline coursing through my body. 

Some students followed my lead: “snakes, frogs, and anything ugly.” I responded by telling a story about the time I learned the difference between a personal preference and a true phobia. A friend told me she was afraid of earthworms, so I thought it would be cute to make her a birthday cake that had gummy worms on top. It was not a joke—she truly did not like it. I felt really bad. One student responded, “Woah!” I think he got it. Other students responded “death” (serious) or “not being noticed” (double deep).

And that is its own conclusion. There are a lot of things I miss about not being able to observe and interact with students in physical proximity. Computer screens ARE limiting. But something as simple as asking an initial question…especially in this distanced environment where we can sometimes be more vulnerable than if we were actually physically present with one another. I will continue doing it now and will experiment with continuing to do it even into whatever becomes our “new normal.”

As I run out of questions, there are oodles of blog lists out there, and I’ve begun adding them to my Pinterest board on SEL (Social and Emotional Learning): 

• 50 Questions to Ask Your Kids: Get to Know Them Better Today  
• How to Launch More Meaningful Conversations with 29 Big-Hearted Questions 
• The Family Dinner Project (so many lists here!) 

What is a great way you have discovered for building classroom community remotely?

Sharing Learning with Collaborative Google Slides

The hum of engagement when students are reading and writing, and talking with each other about reading and writing. Oh, how I’ve missed it in my first 2 weeks of online teaching. (I've learned a lot, see my reports on week 1 and week 2, but it's been a bit of a slog.) Yesterday, I discovered one way to recapture the hum in Google Classroom: group Google Slides.

In the thumbnails on the left, I could see each student on his or her slide, which ones were making rapid progress and which ones weren’t. I could see when they started visiting each other’s work and several avatars grouped on a slide. I could return to the Google Meet tab and see students requesting help in the chat bar—and helping each other when I was occupied with another request.

A few days earlier, I had been looking for a way to celebrate the 6th and 7th graders’ completion of their poetry project and have them share some of their work. I had recently seen the suggestion of using Google Slides like an online bulletin board to display student work. So I created a slideshow with a title slide (see above) and 2 slides for each student, and shared it with the class. I told them to pick their favorite poem and reflection out of the 4 in their finished project, find the 2 slides with their name, and copy and paste their poem on one and their reflection on the other. Finally, they were to read all their classmates’ poems and answer the question posted in Classroom: “What was a line you found interesting and why?” 

Oh, and one thing I have found essential in this online learning environment—modeling the work for and with the students. So I picked my own favorite poem and reflection on the last 2 slides (see below).

In the process, we all continued learning about the tools. I learned that students can also present in a Google Meet. A student asked for help and said, “Can I show you my screen?” I wondered how she’d do it—with a second device, like a phone, or emailing me a screenshot (things students have resorted to before). Then suddenly I was looking at her screen! “Oh! You can present, too!” “Yes,” she said proudly, “I just found that out yesterday.” That’s when I looked back at the chat bar and found that two other students had just helped each other figure out how to make 2 columns on a slide. 

That was the most fun teaching I’ve had in the last 3 weeks! It felt familiar, like teaching used to feel. I’ll be looking for more opportunities to use group Google Slides, and for more ways to foster that kind of collaborative learning and celebration of learning.

How do you cultivate effective collaborative learning in the online environment?