I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I’m new to blogging. There’s a lot I’m still figuring out about the “how’s” of writing a blog, but I do think I’m getting a little more comfortable on here. (But in checking my blog stats I saw that someone found my blog by googling my name, which is one of the reasons I was so hesitant to really be out here like this. Now that it’s happened, though, I’m not as freaked out as I expected to be.)
“We should NOT make assumptions about the ‘digital literacy’ or technology skills / knowledge people already possess, whether those people are younger college students or older professors with PhDs.”
Which I think is so true. I have often met the assumption that because I am a member of the “online generation” I surely must think or act a certain way. Maybe the generalizations are true of generation Y as a whole, but they’re a lot less accurate on an individual level.
In my approach to this blog, I’ve been really focused on what I don’t know. I’m not always sure what to write about. I hesitant to comment on what I think should or should not be done in the classroom until I’ve actually been in front of a class. And, despite my age, I’m not that familiar with a lot of technology.
“…beginners are not merely observers or spectators. Beginners are active participants. When it comes to digital and social media technologies, as educators we must choose to become beginners / participants and move out of the stands or off the bench.”
I might be familiar with things like facebook or twitter, but I’m new to blogging, nings, and plenty of other technologies. That’s no reason for me to reject it all on sight. It just makes it a little more difficult to use. I’m learning, though, and I am realizing it’s ok to be a beginner.
I’m taking a class this semester in teaching English to English Language Learners (ELLs), which has me frequently thinking about what I would do for students in my class who are not native English speakers. The class I’m taking seems to focus primarily on young students who are still developing literacy in their native languages while simultaneously learning English. It’s interesting stuff — I’d always assumed it would be easier to learn a language as a young child but the research seems to show that’s not necessarily the case. I do think it must be easier to learn English in the younger grades mostly because there is just less English to learn. At least, a second grader who is a native speaker has a smaller vocabulary than a ninth grader. Even though an ELL at the ninth or tenth (for example) grade level might have the appropriate literacy skills for his or her age, there would be a lot more English to learn to match the language of his or her classmates. So I am making the assumption this is more difficult. I don’t know.
I was glad to see Jeffrey Wilhelm address his experiences teaching Kae, an ELL from Laos who was a struggling reader in one of his classes. Kae did have difficulty making connections to the stories she was reading and truly experiencing a book, but it seemed more to be a language issue than a reading issue. As Kae became more proficient with language, she was also better able to experience her reading. Wilhelm’s use of pictures and visualization to help his struggling readers experience a story was interesting; one of the main points we’ve discussed in my class about teaching ELLs is the use of books, particularly picture books. The context provided by the picture helps an ELL to decipher the content. So when Kae was able to use pictures to depict what was going on in the story, she was able to make connections to the work whether she knew the proper vocabulary or not.
There is a lot about my class that is applicable across grade levels, but I’m still curious about the particular challenges for secondary English teachers who find themselves with an ELL in class. At several times in my own high school experience, students joined our classes from foreign countries; it seems likely that at some point in my career I will also have a student who is not a native English speaker.
I hate rubrics. Is that okay for an educator (in training) to say? I think I’ve seen more rubrics in my first six weeks back in school than I saw in the entire 17 years I previously spent in school. I don’t remember any of my teachers using rubrics when I was in high school. I can’t say for certain that they didn’t, but I have always assumed that rubrics became en vogue sometime after I’d passed through the halls of Collingswood High School. Rubrics were more commonly used when I was a college student, and I can clearly remember receiving them in several classes – probably in my communication classes and definitely in the single education class I took as an undergraduate. Either way, my experience with rubrics is limited.
Which means that I have been spending a good deal of time researching rubrics through the resources that have become available to me through this PLN project (such as the English Companion Ning) and my favorite resource: a Google search.
To be honest, I’m still working it all out in my head, but I think I can finally put into words some of the things I dislike about rubrics:
I can see how rubrics function as a tool to make assessing student writing easier and more justifiable. But I am hesitant to believe that because rubrics are beneficial just because they simplify a teacher’s life.
I think rubrics seek to remove some of the subjectivity from the grading process. By distributing a clear set of guidelines to students before an assignment is due (or maybe even begun), teachers are able to defend the grades students earn based on a set of categories and points. Rubric or no, I think the process is still subjective. What I see as a five in a category is going to be a four or even a three to someone else.
Too often, I’ve found rubrics that assess all elements of an “ideal assignment” on a 1-5 scale. Which means, each area of assessment is weighted the same. But I would argue that in many cases, spelling and grammar do not need to be given the same point value as analysis and synthesis. (And, yes, I realize that the easy solution is to change the point values. Though there are many sites where formulaic rubrics are available for teachers to use, I’m sure they are intended as templates.)
Although I think students are searching for guidelines in completing an assignment and rubrics are a way to define expectations ahead of time, I think that a great assignment might not be what we expect it to be. Often, it’s the entire process that defines an ideal result.
In searching for alternatives to rubrics, I’ve found little that I could put into practice in a classroom. There is a part of me that wants to admit that I’ve failed: I did not find what I was looking for and I am likely to use rubrics in my classroom (though, I was always likely to use rubrics in my future teaching). But although I did not actually find answers to my question, I’ve been able to define why I dislike rubrics. I’ve gone from “rubrics are dumb” to “here are the flaws I have found in this process.” In understanding what I don’t like about rubrics, I am better able to create rubrics that address these flaws.
And I did find that I’m not alone in finding rubrics to be inadequate. Maja Wilson’s Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment addresses some of the same issues. Though I haven’t read this book (yet), I did read through several reviews and find references to her work in other places.
On the book’s amazon.com page, reviewer Allison H. writes “Like Alfie Kohn says in the Foreward, we really should be questioning anything that is designed to make, what I would argue is a very individual process, “easy.” Quality is indeed “more than the sum of its rubricized parts,” and I think before we, as teachers, look for an easier way to grade, we need to look at the how’s and why’s of what we are doing… I think what Maja Wilson is asking of teachers is similar–that we engage in a dialogue with our students about their work, rather than ending all possible chance of conversation by assigning their work to some “neat” and “tidy” category on a rubric.”
Reviewer John Schoen writes “Maja Wilson recognizes some of the most important features of a writer: we are fallible. We are human. We are given to appraise writing according to our own consciences. Our qualities as a writer and the things we value in writing are not prescriptive, but are derived from different social circumstances and person experiences. Writing values are not universal, and they certainly cannot be canonized and placed in neat boxes, dissected and labeled for professional conveniences.”
John’s comment particularly resonated with me because it addresses the subjectivity of assessing writing. There are preferences that I have because of my own experiences that someone else will not share. There are times when a formal tone is required of a work and other times when it’s inappropriate. Understanding the difference between “good writing” and personal preference is highly subjective and doesn’t fit into categories.
In an interview on youtube, Maja Wilson describes some of her ideas and the thought processes that led her to research and write Rethinking Rubrics and explains that she was frustrated with a rubric’s inability to provide constructive, helpful feedback to students. It may have been easier grading for teachers but was a limited response to student writing. I’ve received great scores on rubrics before and not known what it was that I did well. Similarly, receiving a low score on a rubric doesn’t necessarily help me understand what I need to do to improve.
I think Maja brings up good points about rubric shortcomings that reflect my own disdain for them as an assessment tool. But perhaps what I have a greater problem with is formulaic rubrics that pigeonhole “good” writing into a set of traits. In his book Teaching English by Design, Peter Smagorinsky (2008) addresses the criticism of rubrics, saying “In my view, it all depends on what’s inside the boxes and how a teacher interprets the task of evaluation. I believe that a carefully designed rubric can lead to richer reading.”
And maybe Smagorinsky is right. It’s more work, certainly, to carefully design rubrics for every assignment, but they can create expectations without hindering exploration.
When I started writing and researching some three hours ago, I had hoped that I’d run a few searches and find some helpful alternatives to using rubrics in the classroom, but I’m ending up in a completely different place from where I’ve started. I don’t have any alternatives, but I have new ideas (and my professor, Jason Whitney, will be glad to hear this — new questions).
My new blog title is totally ripped off from a Tom Stoppard play, Arcadia. As an undergraduate, I wrote my thesis on Stoppard’s use of scientific theory in Arcadia and have long been obsessed with his writing, especially the aforementioned Arcadia and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (which, yeah, are Stoppard’s most popular, mainstream works — I’ve already gotten over it).
While going through recent posts on the few education blogs I’ve started to follow, I found this post about using shmoop to make learning relevant. At first glance, it’s Sparknotes with some shiny extras that presents itself as super-knowledgeable because its content is written by PhD students from places like Harvard and Stanford (I don’t really see why their insight is necessarily better than the rest of ours, but I digress).
The reader’s guide to Arcadia, for instance. The chapter-by-chapter summaries, the character descriptions, the analysis. How is this not Sparknotes?
But there are a few things I do like about it. The language — it’s straightforward language that explains some pretty difficult concepts without simplfying the material. The Intro, with it’s “Why Should I Care?” section could also be valuable. And I love that the quotes are divided by theme and used to pose questions about the work. But there are just too many “answers” on Shmoop for me to feel comfortable having my future students cruising the site for class. And I have doubts about a site that will concoct quizzes and tests for you (how do they know what material I’ve covered? How can they determine what my class should be assessed on??).
So I’m not sold on shmoop, but it did lead me to dig out my copies of Arcadia and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to reread. For that, I’m thankful.
More than once since my last blog post, days and days ago, I’ve been ready to sit down and write about something but stopped for fear of saying something I shouldn’t. It’s not that I want to post something inappropriate, but I am concerned about accidentally offending someone I shouldn’t. This blog is attached to my real name and is part of my new professional identity. It’s not a risk I want to take.
Which got me thinking.
My future students will be more tech savvy than I ever was in high school, and I know they’ll be perfectly capable of googling me. Most of them will be on Facebook. The internet’s not exactly overflowing with personal information about me, but it’s not completely private either. And to an extent, I can control what they’re able to find. But it’s not easy, and I can’t be certain that anything on the internet is truly private anyway. (I definitely do not trust that Facebook is private, but that’s another story entirely).
A quick search led me to this article about a teacher in Georgia who lost her job over a picture posted on Facebook — a photo that shows her with alcohol but is otherwise innocuous. I’m not interested in debating whether or not it’s okay for a 24-year-old woman to be shown with alcohol, but I am interested in considering what’s out there about me. For now, I’m comfortable with the information that’s accessible through my Facebook account — my profile is as private as Facebook allows, I’m not searchable, and I choose my profile pictures carefully in case someone stumbles across my profile — but I do worry about what image I might present to parents or a future employer.
Whether I like it or not, this blog is now a part of my online identity. When I choose to write about something, it is not without careful consideration (and honestly, I revise these posts more thoroughly than anything else I write). And this week, when I’ve felt most strongly about education-related issues I encountered in my daily reading, I’ve decided to hold my tongue. My readership consists mainly of my classmates, but I’m still aware of how public this space is. Who knows what could happen?
New goal: get fired up about things I can comfortably write about on the internet. Or maybe, be less uptight. We’ll see.
I’m just getting started, but I’m already finding interesting people to follow and learn from. I feel that my own contributions are limited by the fact that I have no background in education. I’ve not yet spent any time in the classroom and I have maybe 12 or 15 college credits in education. In a way, that’s what makes this blog so exciting for me. I believe strongly that one learns to teach through experience, but I can prepare now by reading others’ experiences and discovering ideas to try in my own classroom.
The use of wikis has been maybe my topic of the week because I recently set up my very first wiki for a class project and followed up by using another wiki to organize a group project and lesson plan for another class. It’s an incredibly practical way to share and organize information and the cost is minimal. With computer and internet access (which I am assuming the majority of schools now have), students are on their way to collaboration.
That said, I think technology is but a distraction if it’s not properly incorporated into the school or the classroom. There’s plenty out there about the use of wikis (or blogs!) in the classroom, but I was really struck by this idea from the Innovative Educator:
“Another way they are using the wikis is to collect the lessons that teachers create for units of study. Currently, with paper, these exist with various teachers, in various classrooms, in various notebooks and binders. Now, they’ve set up a section on the wiki for lessons collected by grade and subject. They are now writing these lessons using Google docs where teachers can engage in collaborative curriculum writing. They have a document they use to begin creating the lessons and units of study and all those involved can contribute anytime/anywhere. These final lessons / units are uploaded to the lesson section of the wiki. These lessons are then available on demand to any teacher, anywhere, any time, this year or next and…because of the Google docs and wiki format, they can be revised, customized, and discussed!”
An organized place for sharing of lesson ideas? Ok, maybe this is not especially revolutionary, but I love this! This collaborative writing of curriculum and discussion of lessons and units in a school is something I’d love to find in my future school. It’s easy to say that teachers in a school should work together to create connections between the subjects, but what better way to actually DO it?
If I am being completely honest, I am writing this blog for a class.
It’s not that I don’t believe in the power of social media and blogs. There are plenty of great examples of the power of a social network. My hesitation with blogging stems more from a reluctance to put myself out there. Success on any social network requires engagement; if you’re not there, making frequent (valuable) updates, you’ll likely go nowhere. And I’ve never been that interested in sharing so much so publicly.
I’ve often been told that “my generation” grew up on the internet and no longer has any sense of privacy. Which, I guess, to an extent, is true. I don’t think it’s true for me; I’m uncomfortable sharing too much on a medium like Facebook or this blog. Then again, we didn’t have Facebook for half of the time I was in college, and I still don’t have text messaging on my phone. Maybe I just need more time.
But I’m trying to be less of a dinosaur. I’m still hesitant to get too involved with new technology and social networking, but since I do recognize the value and the potential for education, I’m making an effort to be less resistant. Also, I have a class this semester that requires it.
So here I am with a blog and a Twitter, using my real name. I think it will be okay.
