How to Foster Empathy in Students Using Project Based Learning in an ELA Classroom.

Image Credit: Pixabay User fancycrave1 / Public Domain

Noisy and energetic like any scene during lunch, my students can be found sprawled throughout my classroom, intent on seizing the coveted title: Inventors of the Year.

Though my story may be seem to be specific to my English language arts classroom, I think there are larger implications of the importance of incorporating empathy with project based learning. In this instance, every year, my students read Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon,” a fictional story about a man’s extreme quest for intelligence and his willingness to undergo a radical surgery to increase his mental abilities. My students are always fascinated by this story, and they enjoy debating the merits of the operation. They write reflections, engage in discussions, and compose essays during this unit – all classically rigorous activities that require critical thinking skills. However, I wanted my students to do more than just study the story from an academic perspective. I wanted them to not just appreciate their natural-born abilities but for them to realize and explore what it would be like to live with a disability, hopefully leading to an empathic understanding that will last a lifetime.

An Invention for People with a Disability
As I pondered this one night well over 10 years ago, I did what I always do when coming up with lesson ideas. I asked myself how I could design an assignment that could simulate real experiences, a life outside the walls of a classroom and the world in which we lived. Then inspiration hit. I could ask them to become scientific inventors and imagine the impossible.
My students were challenged with creating a product that will improve the life of someone with a disability, in essence, an Invention of the Year.  The product must be a device that people with disabilities can use in their daily lives, and it cannot be a miracle drug or an operation that will magically conjure away the disability.

First, each team had to choose a disability to research and were directed to medical websites to learn about their topic. We talked about the importance of credible web resources and how to find experts on any given research topic. At the time when I first conceived of this project years ago, the Common Core State Standards had not yet been introduced to schools. What inspired this idea was my long-standing belief that real-world applications should be at the core of all my lessons. Therefore, using informational texts like medical articles fit in perfectly with the adoption of a CCSS curriculum.

When doing their research, students brainstormed many different ways they could help someone with the disability. Then they created three final works: a prototype sketch of their invention, a product description for the purpose of "selling" their invention, and a user guide. To guide them, I shared examples of product descriptions from online vendors like Amazon, which they examined and emulated. I also shared examples of user manuals from real products we use in our lives. With these professional examples as their model, my students were practicing writing skills beyond those required in a traditional English language arts classroom.

The Culminating Expo
The culminating activity in this project was to debut students’ products at the Invention of the Year Expo. Over the years, I was able to convince the other language arts teachers who also taught this story to join me in this endeavor. My colleagues liked the idea of incorporating more informational texts and taking PBL approach to this curriculum unit. As a result of this collaboration, we decided to hold an expo where all our students would showcase their inventions in the multipurpose room and present their ideas to each other.

Anxious and yet excited, the entire eighth grade met during their language arts period throughout the day to show off their inventions or to learn new ideas from their peers. By the end of the school day, they saw some amazing inventions such as computerized glasses that speak and project holograms (this example is from many years ago, before anyone had even heard of Google Glass). Other creative projects include a GPS-equipped walking cane with self-defense mechanism for the blind and surgically implantable microchips that moderated electrical signals in the brain (which I later discovered is not too far from the impossible as a few companies are currently trying to develop this technology to measure electrical brain activity to predict epileptic seizures). In the end, our expo was a success, and students talked about it for days afterwards.

After completing this project, my students wrote blog posts about what they learned, and they published their projects and reflections on their own individual blogs. Because my students are connected with other classrooms around the country, they received many compliments on their work from peers outside our school. In the end, this project gave my students a greater appreciation for people with disabilities, and they were able to share their epiphanies with an authentic audience through their blogs.

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This post is also published on the Buck Institute for Education PBL Blog. 

Empowering Students with Peer-Designed Lessons

Image Credit: Ulrich Wechselberger / Public Domain

Traditionally, teachers have always determined the pace and format of all their lessons. What if we shake things up a bit in our classrooms and give students more control over how they learned instead? What if we put students in the driver’s seat of learning, let them design their own lessons and allow them to be teachers for the day?

Relinquishing control of one’s classroom may seem a bit scary or chaotic, but it doesn’t have to be that way if we provide the guidance and structure students need. Below are the steps I took to ensure my students were designing meaningful lessons for their peers. I allowed students the option of working alone or in groups of their own choosing.

Teaching Specific Skills and Content

Narrow down the standards, skills, or content that the lesson must address. This helps students determine the focus of their lesson. For example, in my language arts class, all groups were challenged with teaching a chapter of a novel we were reading. Each lesson must address a literary element present in the chapter, and students were to choose from this list: characterization, conflict, theme, figurative language (symbolism, metaphor, simile, or hyperbole), setting or mood.

Instructional Materials

Students had to design the instructional material for their lesson. They could create handouts or use presentation software like Google Slides to fulfill this requirement.

Assessments

I asked my students these questions: What will your peers do to show that they have learned the content you taught? How will you evaluate each student individually and collect data on their learning? I really enjoyed the different approaches my students took to create their assessments. Many used Kahoot, a web-based gaming platform that tapped into their peers’ competitive spirits as they tried to best each other. Using this digital tool, lesson designers developed their own questions and determined the answers. Kahoot will reward players with points based on two criteria: the correct answer and student response time. Other lesson designers had students write their responses on Google Slides, Google Forms, or Google Docs. Others created Jeopardy games and tempted students with candy to encourage participation. (Check out this great Jeopardy template from Eric Curts’ blog.) Some students opted for a non-digital route and passed out handouts or had classmates answer questions on a sheet of paper. I let my students determine the method they preferred.

Conference with Students

Before teaching their lesson, I met with each group to make sure their lessons were meaningful. I also checked for errors and questioned them on their workflow. For example, one group created a template in Google Docs for their assessment. Their plan was to have each student make a copy of the template, but they didn’t think about how they were going to collect these individual copies. I suggested they use a Google Form to collect the links to the individual files. I also pointed out that if the assignment asked students to write a short response, then using Google Form where all the answers would be populated into one spreadsheet is more efficient than collecting over 35 individual files.

The Day of the Lesson

To ensure that all lessons were focused and productive, each group had to teach a concept or skill and give an assessment in approximately 15 minutes. This helps keep the lessons interesting and the students engaged. The peer teachers were addressed as “Mr.” or “Ms.” which everyone found extremely amusing. During the lesson, students also enjoyed having command of the classroom and would gleefully direct peers who were off-task to pay attention.

Peer Assessment

After all lessons were taught, each group met to assess the data they collected from their peers. They had to determine a method for assigning grades, and I loved the discussions that arose over how to do this fairly. Each group would report a score for each student in the class. Then, I averaged the scores each person received from all the lessons that were taught and used that as a participation grade.

Reflections

Not only did the students assess their peers for their participation in the lesson, they were also asked to evaluate their peer teachers and to nominate those who gave great lessons. In turn, they also evaluated their own teaching practice by answering the following questions:

1. What skills did you teach your peers?

2. How effective was your lesson? How do you know?

3. What can you do to improve your lesson?

The responses to this project were overwhelmingly positive. My students truly enjoyed this activity, and countless students commented on how challenging it was to be a great teacher. One of my favorite responses came from a student who wrote, “I learned that it is not easy to be a teacher. It takes time and dedication to actually learn to teach properly.” Also, quite a few came to the conclusion that “being a lesson designer and presenter is harder than it looks.” Many also shared that creating a lesson forced them to learn the material better because they were responsible for becoming experts on their chapter.

Empowering Our Students

By giving students voice and choice, we are cultivating our students’ investment in their own learning. This project also fosters many college and career-ready skills such as decision-making, project management, analysis, collaboration, communication and metacognition. Not only did I enjoy seeing my students bring new energy into our classroom environment, but they had a blast, too.

Let’s empower students by giving them more control over their own learning in the classroom. The end result might surprise you as much as it did me.

Originally published on KQED's "In the Classroom" blog. Reproduced courtesy of KQED.

Maximize Learning with Digital Tools: Moving from Consumption to Creation

“Students as Creators” © 2016 Alice Chen | All Rights Reserved

We are starting to see them pop up more frequently in U.S. classrooms: the iPads, the Chromebooks, and the laptops. As more schools move toward using technology in the classroom, we are faced with the question of how to use these devices effectively in our instruction.

Undoubtedly, it's an exciting time to be an educator. We are no longer limited to just using textbooks or curriculum guides. The number of apps and websites available to us has exploded exponentially in the online educational space. Students are using math apps to brush up on much-needed skills. They can watch science videos that bring concepts to life. With social media, they are able to access the latest news within minutes of the occurrence of an event. However, is that all we wish our students to be able to do, to only become consumers of information?

I believe that students should be using technology to its fullest potential in the classroom. This means that not only should students be using it to access the wealth of information on the Internet but that they also should be using digital tools to create meaningful content from what they have consumed.

Cross-Curricular Integration

Though I teach English Language Arts, I believe in integrating other academic content whenever possible. I always try to provide a scientific or historical perspective when the lesson lends itself, and PBS LearningMedia is perfect for this purpose. This fantastic and free online platform has over 100,000 resources available that covers topics from all content areas and grade levels.

For example, my students just finished reading a wide selection of speeches for our rhetoric unit. We studied various speeches for their beauty of language, persuasive elements, and powerful message. One of my favorite speeches from this unit is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream.” I want this speech to come to life for my students and for them to also appreciate the historical significance of this time period. Below is my approach to teaching this piece by leveraging digital media resources and Google Drawings.

Lesson Plan for “I Have a Dream”

1. Introduce the Civil Right Movement by showing students these media pieces: "The Legacy of the Gettysburg Address" and "Civil Rights and the 1950s | Crash Course US History #39".
2. Students read "I Have a Dream" in groups, stopping to discuss each paragraph and the rhetorical strategies Dr. King used.
3. Divide the speech into different sections and have each group create a Padlet to demonstrate their understanding of this piece. Each group must include the following components: a quoted passage, an explanation of the quote, two analysis of the rhetorical strategies used, and proper attribution for any media they included. Here is an example that my students created.
4. Students examine the following primary sources provided by PBS LearningMedia: the original pamphlet advertising the 1963 March on Washington, the manual for march participants, and the March on Washington official program.
5. Based on the information from the three historical documents above, students create a 21st century flyer advertising the event. Below is an example of one group’s work on this project.

“Digital Flyer” © 2016 Anisha & Jake | All Rights Reserved

Using Digital Tools for Authentic Assessment

Instead of giving my students a traditional test to assess their comprehension of the significance of the speech and the historical documents they examined, I prefer to have my students express their understanding by creating an authentic product. Because I’m constantly trying to cultivate my students’ creativity and critical thinking skills by emulating the “real world” as much as possible, I also emphasize the importance of artistic design when creating a project. I find that this last step is often overlooked in our instruction. However, in life, how an idea is presented is just as important as the idea itself, and I want my students to realize this.

Let’s Get Them Creating

My students used Padlet and Google Drawings for this particular lesson, but there are also a plethora of other digital tools that students can use to foster their creativity. Below is a list of digital creation tools that are great for the classroom. It is no means an exhaustive list, but many students find them fun and easy-to-use.

1. Thinglink makes images and videos interactive
2. Canva is easy to use design software with templates for infographics, posters, and more
3. Storybird is a beautiful app that inspires writing with art
4. Powtoon makes creating animated presentations full of awesome
5. Zoodle Comics a comic strip app for the iPad
6. Sock Puppets if you love sock puppets…
7. Video editing tools (i.e. YouTube Editor, WeVideo)
8. Screencasting tools (i.e. Snagit, Screencast-O-Matic, Screencastify, Movenote, Explain Everything)

Which digital tools do your students like to use to show what they know? Please share in the comments below.

Originally published on KQED's "In the Classroom" blog. Reproduced courtesy of KQED.

10 Ways to Use Google Hangouts to Transform Learning

My class "hanging out" with Education Secretary Duncan on Google Hangouts

In our world today, we can stay connected in unprecedented ways. Why just call or text when you can “see” someone who is hundreds or thousands of miles away? Even President Obama used Google Hangouts in 2013 during his fireside chat with the country. If you haven’t used Hangouts before, it’s time to examine the possibilities.

In education, using Hangouts is a great way to connect and collaborate with other educators without giving out your phone number. It’s a powerful tool for making connections, working collaboratively, and introducing the world to your students. Many educators have embraced Hangouts to enrich both their students’ learning experiences and their own professional development. Below are some ways educators are using Hangouts to step up the learning.

Make Student Connections

You can connect students with their peers from around the country, or even from abroad if time zone differences permit. Below are some ideas on how teachers are using this fabulous video calling tool in their classrooms.

1. Book Talks: Classes that are reading the same book or similar genres can discuss novels together and make book recommendations to one another.
2. Mystery Hangouts: In this activity, two classrooms video chat with each other but do not reveal their individual locations. Before meeting online, both classes research facts about their own state and create clues about their location. Then, each class takes turns asking “Yes” or “No” type questions in a race to solve the mystery. More details on how to get started could be found on my blog here. To find classes to connect with yours, visit the Mystery Location Calls Google+ Community or reach out to members of the Connected Classrooms Workshop Google+ Community.
3. Presentations: Give students an authentic audience. They can present their projects to other classes or adults. Recruit parents, community members, or career professionals to provide a captive audience for your students.
4. Project Collaboration: Classes that are studying similar themes or topics can collaborate on a project together in a way never possible before.

Bring in the Experts...For Free!

1. Guest Speakers: Inviting a speaker into the classroom has never been easier...or cheaper. Video calling enables anyone from around the world to “visit” a school. Also, as an added plus, Google Hangouts has the ability to handle up to ten people in a video call at once and up to fifteen using a Google Apps account. This means that there’s never a dull moment or radio silence during the call. Last year, my classes were able to participate in two amazing Hangouts on Air. We got to speak with Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee and Education Secretary Duncan.
2. Virtual Field Trips: With video calling technology becoming more popular, many companies are now offering virtual field trips via Hangouts on Air, which is a public Google Hangout that broadcasts a live recording of the event. After the video call ends, it is archived on the host’s YouTube channel for anyone to view again later. Here are a few companies that are offering or (have recently offered) virtual field trips that could bring that out of classroom experience to your students: Learn Around the World, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, and SeaTrek.TV. Occasionally, announcements of virtual field trips from various members of the Connected Classrooms Workshop Google+ Community will be posted.

Learn and Collaborate from Anywhere

1. Virtual Classes: One year, we had one student at my middle school who progressed so quickly through his math studies that he was ready for Algebra II. Unfortunately, we didn’t offer this course on our campus, but we did at another school in our district. Thanks to Google Hangouts, this student didn’t have to transfer schools and, instead, he attended math class virtually and received all his instruction online.
2. Office Hours: Sometimes students need more one-on-one attention or perhaps they were absent and need to catch up on what they missed. Teachers can schedule Hangouts to hold virtual office hours to provide the assistance students need.
3. Professional Collaborations: With everyone just a video call away, educators can work on projects and share ideas with anyone around the world. Many educators have forged powerful connections (called PLNs) via social media platforms like Twitter and Google+, and they’re using Google Hangouts to learn together or to plan professional development events for educators like Edcamps and PLAYDATEs.
4. New Twist to Webinars: More and more, companies are turning to Hangouts on Air to host their webinars. It gives educators a choice: watch the webinar live and participate in a “Question & Answer” session with the presenter or watch it later at one’s convenience. A great example of this is the webinar series from Imagine Easy Solutions.

The possibilities of using Hangouts in education are endless. How will you transform your learning and the learning of your students?

Abbreviated version of this post was originally published on WeAreTeachers.

Creating an Environment That Discourages Plagiarism

Image Credit: Shelley Shott, Intel Free Press / CC BY 2.0

Why do students plagiarize? Most of the time it's probably due to two reasons: they don't know how to properly cite their sources or they don't know what to write.

In my English Language Arts class, my students are constantly writing. It may be blog posts, essays, or speeches. In previous years I've never had access to Turnitin to check for plagiarism, and even though my district has decided to subscribe to this service next semester, I don't plan to change my approach to teaching writing. This is because I prefer to be proactive, rather than reactive. So how do I know that my students are truly the authors of the work they call their own?

First, my students start and complete most of their writing in class. When given time to write, there is less inclination to cheat.

Second, I scaffold them throughout the writing process. If it's an essay, we brainstorm the ideas in class, and we crowdsource the evidence they need to support their opinions. I have students post their thesis statements on Schoology's discussion platform or using the "Create Question" feature in Google Classroom. Then, my students agree or disagree (respectfully, of course) by either supporting or refuting the posted thesis statement with evidence from the text. This natural dialogue helps them practice their arguments before they even start to plan the essay.

Third, my students brainstorm their essay on a mindmap. As they work, I confer with each one of them and discuss where they are going with their ideas. We use Google Slides or an essay planner on Google Docs to map out their essay. Though I could simply insert comments, I prefer to talk to them face-to-face. They appreciate the personalized attention, and I always get an appreciative "thank you" at the end of our conversations. If I run out of time in class, then I will resort to written comments.

Next, students write their essays on a Google Doc, using the information from their mindmaps or essay planner. As they write, I set up opportunities for students to give each other feedback. I instruct them on which specific criteria to focus on and how to give each other formative feedback. As they work on this, I also monitor their essays, jumping in as necessary to provide even more feedback.

After this process, students revise their essays based on comments they've received. When this draft is finished, I give them a self-assessment to complete. Then, they have the opportunity to revise their essay once more before turning it in. For each step of their writing process, I provide scaffolds and feedback for their writing.

After all the planning, drafting, and conferring in class, there is no need to plagiarize. From this point on, it'll take more work for students to look for someone else's work to copy.

If we equip our students with the skills they need, give them the time to write, provide them with our guidance, and cultivate the support of their peers, there is less incentive to plagiarize. However, I didn't take this approach to teaching writing because of plagiarism. I use this method because I believe in scaffolding and giving my students the tools they need to succeed. The decline of plagiarism was just a byproduct of this approach to writing instruction.

Do You Really Have the Right to Use That?

"Copyright Symbol" by Mike Seyfang / CC BY 2.0

Most students, and even educators, don’t think twice about copying and redistributing content created by other individuals, not realizing that they may be in violation of copyright laws. As of March 1, 1989 all creations (text, images, videos, etc.), automatically receive this protection even if the creator never formally files for copyright status.

In this post, I’ve put together a quick guide to help educators better understand this concept and to help them teach students the need to respect the work of others.

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Quick Guide to Copyright, Fair Use & Public Domain

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Copyright

• Only expressions of ideas are copyright protected. (However, appropriating someone else's idea without credit attribution is plagiarism.)
• As of March 1, 1989, all work is copyright protected the moment it is created.
• Copyright registration is not required to copyright a creator’s work. (It is, however, helpful in ligation cases to establish proof of copyright.)

What fair use usually allows (however, there are exceptions)

• Criticism and comments
• News reporting
• Research and scholarship
• Nonprofit educational uses
• Parody
• Noncommercial uses

Does it qualify under Fair Use?

It depends on how you use the work. Each case is unique, and there is no guarantee that the courts will rule in your favor. These are the questions usually considered in a court of law when determining fair use.

• Is this an entirely new creation?
• What is the purpose of using this work?
• Will you be competing with the creator of the original work?
• How much of the original work are you using? (You can only reproduce a small portion of the work.)
• What quality and essence of the original work are you using? (There is no magic percentage that protects you under Fair Use. If it is the “heart and soul” of the work, even reproducing a tiny fraction of the work could be considered a violation of copyright laws.)

How to Determine If a Work Is in the Public Domain (United States Only)

The table below is created from information published by Stanford University Libraries’ “Welcome to the Public Domain.”

Publication	In the Public Domain
Work published before 1923	Yes
Work published between 1923 and 1963	Work has copyright status for the first 28 year, but has to be renewed to retain copyright status
Work published between 1993 and February 28, 1989	If the work has no copyright notice and “the law has not made an exception for its omission, then the work is the public domain.”
Work created by the government	Usually

Sources

"Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright (Library of Congress)." 2007. 15 Feb. 2015

"The 'Fair Use' Rule: When Use of Copyrighted Material is Acceptable." 2011. 28 Jan. 2015

"Welcome to the Public Domain - Stanford Copyright & Fair Use." 2013. 25 Jan. 2015

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This guide cannot be substituted for legal advice and should not be construed as such. The information contained herein is based on the works cited above.