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. 

Are You Teaching Your Students to be Unintentional Plagiarists?

"Gasp" by Halimae / CC BY 3.0

Sometimes plagiarism is intentional. Sometimes it's not. But neither are acceptable. 

During the year, my students spend a good deal of time learning to cite evidence and identifying their sources when writing essays or research-based speeches. However, do students apply this practice when creating other types of content? Do they understand that when they reuse someone else's creations (images, videos, etc.) without permission that they may be plagiarizing and violating copyright laws? Do teachers know this?

How does this apply to nontraditional forms of classroom writing? All of my students have their own blogs, and some enjoy writing posts about their favorite athletes or a game they just watched. They often incorporate facts they read from other sources, but they fail to identify where they found this information. This is when my students forget the concept of plagiarism. Perhaps this is because they don't associate blogging with academic writing since blogging isn't commonly taught in schools. However, this is still not okay.

Some educators are guilty of the same mistake. I know I used to be. When we are looking to spice up our lessons, we may search for ideas on the Internet. Sometimes we come across a great idea and a lesson is born. But how many are actually acknowledging that their lessons originated from someone else's hard work? Sure, ideas are not copyright protected, and we're not breaking any laws. (Unless we are lifting words and content from someone else's work and reusing that for our own needs without the consent of the creator. Then, yes, that is illegal.) 

We need to remember that plagiarism is the act of appropriating another person's idea without credit attribution regardless of the purpose behind our actions. This may not always fall under the jurisdiction of the law, but it does under the court of ethics.

In my "9 C's of Digital Literacy," I pointed out that we should be teaching about character when teaching digital literacy. I believe that we should be encouraging our students to be advocates of ethical practices even if not legally required.

So now I make it a point to include either of the following sentences on my assignments if the situation applies: "This lesson was inspired by _____" or "This lesson idea originated from ______" with a link to this person's work.

If we want to teach our students to do the right thing, shouldn't we be modeling these behaviors as well? It takes so little effort to acknowledge another person for his or her hard work. Isn't it time we started? Sometimes the best lessons are the ones we don't explicitly teach, and many times those are the ones that leave the biggest impact on our students.

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.

A Trip on the Wild Side: From the Rainforest to the Desert

“Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.”

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

According to USGS, the earth’s surface is 71% water. What many students don’t know is that this doesn’t translate into an unlimited supply of drinking water, especially considering that 97% of it is ocean water.

Near Hoh River by Wsiegmund /
CC BY 2.5 

With all lifeforms dependent on water for survival, it’s important that our students understand the role of water and how it affects our present and our future. Bring this lesson to life for your students by joining Kari Vigerstol, senior hydrologist on +The Nature Conservancy's Global Water team, and science teacher Tyler DeWitt as they first visit Seattle’s unique watershed before zipping over to the Verde River, a vital water source for Arizona’s dry desert. During this live broadcast, one classroom will be chosen to participate live using Google Hangouts on Air.

Don't miss this great learning opportunity for your students! Event details are listed below:

“Wild Biomes: From America’s Rainforest to America’s Desert”

April 8, 2015 at 12 pm ET.

Register here for this unique event.

Classes that can watch the field trip live on The Nature Conservancy’s Google+ Channel or they can watch it as a live stream on YouTube at this link. Classes can also watch an archived copy or other Nature Works Everywhere productions by visiting The Nature Conservancy’s YouTube channel.

After watching the virtual field trip, students can continue the learning by using these fantastic supplemental materials:

• How Natural Areas Filter Water
• Managing Salmon to Support Healthy Forests
• Gardens Activity Guide: Water

This virtual field trip is the second in a series of future broadcasts that will examine the interconnectedness of people and nature. This program is designed for students in the third through eighth grade.

Through this program, students will gain a greater awareness and appreciation of the following key concepts:

• Biomes (temperate rainforest, desert)
• Water quality
• Water quantity
• Pacific Northwest
• Urban watershed
• Arizona desert
• Verde River
• Geography
• Rainfall
• How water affects people and how people affect water
• Where does your water come from?

The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving the beauty of our natural world. That is why they created +Nature Works Everywhere “to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us -- and how we can help keep it running strong.”

The partnership between us and nature has never been as important as it is now. Do your students understand where we belong in this fragile relationship? Let’s bring this lesson to life for them and help them become our future changemakers!

This blog post is sponsored by We Are Teachers.

Teach Your Students How to Dumpster Dive

LA Dumpster Dive by Jim Fischer / CC BY 2.0

Most students think that using the Internet to search for information is as easy as using any search engine. We all know that there's much more to it than that.

I addressed this concept of digital research in my presentation,"Teach Your Students How to Dumpster Dive," at the San Gabriel Valley CUE Tech Fair. My session was on how to teach students to be expert researchers and great content creators. I also focused on the concepts of copyright, fair use, free to use, and public domain since most students (and even many teachers) don't understand that the Internet is not a free buffet where you eat without paying the bill. The goal is to teach students how to sift through the trash to find the treasure. In addition to explaining how to use Google Advanced Search, I also wanted to build a list of credible websites that teachers and students could use for their research.

Below is the list I'm developing. I plan to add to it if I come across anything new.

• Google Advanced News
• Google Books
• Google Scholar
• RefSeek
• Sweet Search
• Google Cultural Institute
• PBS LearningMedia
• Newsela
• PBS News Hour Extra
• KQED DoNow
• KQED The Lowdown
• American Experience
• ITVS for Educators
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Kids
• Time for Kids
• History Channel
• NPR
• History Matters
• Library of Congress
• National Archives
• National History Day
• Life Magazine Photo Archive
• Getty Images

I hope this list is helpful. If you have a great website to share, please add it as a comment.

Oh, The Places We Will Go with Google’s Connected Classrooms!

What if you could take your students on unlimited field trips?  What if your class could visit Antarctica or speak with a NASA astronaut? With Google’s Connected Classrooms, this is now absolutely possible.

In recent years, Google has taken their video calling service, known as Hangouts, to a whole new level by introducing the ability to broadcast a live recording of it. These Hangouts on Air allowed anyone to create broadcasts on the Internet for free. Then, Google stepped up their game by launching a new educational outreach program called Connected Classrooms, in which students around the world can participate in virtual field trips via Hangouts on Air.

During every Connected Classrooms event, a few classes are invited into a special Hangout on Air where students can ask questions and interact directly with experts and distinguished guests. Other classrooms can follow along by viewing the live broadcast, submitting questions in the Q & A feature of Hangouts, or by accessing an archived recording at their leisure.

By partnering up with educational institutions, non-profit organizations, businesses, and famous individuals, Google has created a fantastic program that will bring the world into your classroom. Below are some places where students have ‘been:’

• Seattle Aquarium – Classrooms everywhere were treated to a free field trip to the Seattle Aquarium’s Window on Washington Waters exhibit where a scuba diver in the tank took live questions from the audience and broadcasted this interchange to the world.
• Above the Arctic Circle – This hangout started above the Arctic Circle in Alaska and ended in Berkeley Lab in California. Students learned “how and why scientists study permafrost to better understand the vulnerable Arctic ecosystem — and what may happen to it as the climate changes.”
• Dogsledding Through Google Glass – Dave Freeman, a wilderness explorer and dogsled guide from the Northern tundra of Minnesota, took students on a “ride” on his dogsled. Students were able to experience this unique trip through the wilderness from his Google Glass perspective.

Those adventures sound amazing, don’t they? After learning about Connected Classrooms, I couldn’t wait for my class to participate. When when our turn came, I couldn’t have been more ecstatic.

To commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Connected Classrooms partnered up with Peace Jam, and they invited three classes to speak with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Leymah Gbowee. My students and I couldn’t believe our luck. Then, a couple of weeks later, we received another special invitation. The White House, in partnership with Connected Classrooms, was looking for one middle school class to speak with Education Secretary Duncan. I am proud to say that my students conducted themselves with poise and maturity as they presented their questions to these distinguished guests.

Google+ Hangout with Education Secretary Duncan

All my students were absolutely thrilled to have been given the opportunity to participate in these two wonderful Connected Classrooms events. Not only did they learn from the wisdom of our special speakers, they also learned how to conduct themselves professionally in front of a live camera. The students who presented their questions practiced their public speaking skills in an authentic environment. They also became the superstars at our school that day and were the subject of their classmates’ envy. What student doesn’t want that?

To participate in a Connected Classrooms event, you will need to join the Connected Classrooms Community on Google+. By joining this community, you are also tapping into a global network of educators which was never possible before. Are you teaching Spanish and want your class to chat with other classrooms in Spanish-speaking countries? Are you teaching social studies and want your students to actually talk to their peers who live in the country you are studying?  Connected Classrooms is the place to find these contacts. Feel free to reach out to the other educators in this community. Everyone is very welcoming and quick to respond, and I’ve witnessed many fantastic connections formed through this community.

Join the Google+ Connected Classrooms Community if you haven’t already. I look forward to interacting with you there!

This post originally appeared on the CUE Blog on June 10, 2014.

Is Technology Just a Tool?

Recently, I had a conversation with someone about using technology in the classroom. Though it was acknowledged that students should learn with technology, the conclusion drawn was this. Technology is just a tool.

I think this could be true, depending on what type of teacher one is describing. Teaching with technology just to be cool, modern, or hip is not good pedagogy. However, to downgrade technology to being just a tool misses the point as well.

Could I perform my job without technology? I'm not the type of teacher who teaches straight out of a book. Whenever I come across something that I think I can use in the classroom, I'm always adapting it, revising it, and trying to improve it. It's hopeless. I can't stop tinkering.

I prefer to create my own teaching materials. Even now, after teaching for over 18 years, I still constantly revise my own teaching documents and presentation files -- sometimes from one class to the next because I want to give my students the best work I can produce. So could I effectively do this part of my job without technology?  No.

What about research and learning? Without the Internet, I couldn't look for new literature, author biography, current events, or digital media with which to supplement my lessons.  For example, one year, I decided to augment my "Flowers for Algernon" unit with medical articles about disabilities to help my students appreciate the challenges of living with a disability. Prior to the invention of the Internet, I would have never thought about doing this because I didn't have the resources.

So how do my students benefit from a technology-rich curriculum?

Having access to technology has enabled my students to write for a global audience. As a result of blogging, my students are far more prolific than those from my previous years, and they also have the added advantage of being able to connect with other students around the world through Quadblogging.  This has shown them that the world is bigger than they realized, giving them glimpses of other cultures to which they previously wouldn't have been exposed.

Having access to technology has enabled my students to participate in the Mystery State Project and to have had the opportunity to Skype with a State Senator. We're finally able to bring the world into our classroom.

Having access to technology has enabled my students to create more digital media projects like video animations, live action movies, still photography, comic strips, and podcasts to name a few. These projects taught them how to be creative and collaborative. They learned the importance of revising their work and the necessity of observing copyright laws when choosing their media. They were also more engaged during the learning process.

Could my students learn without technology? Yes. But did technology elevate my students' learning to new heights? Without a doubt.

Like it or not, technology is immersed in our lives - in our homes, at our jobs, and out in the world.

Would you run a company without technology? Then why would you run a school without it?

How Common Core Will Propel Schools into the 21st Century

I have always believed that my job as an educator is to prepare my students to be successful in the world beyond high school.  To me, that meant developing critical thinkers, teaching career-transferable skills, and nurturing an appreciation for humanity in my students.

I believe that some of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects emphasize the same goals I envisioned for students when I first started teaching almost 20 years ago.  I also believe that technology is the gateway through which these goals will be met.

Here are some CCSS that recognizes the importance of technology in the classroom.

1.  "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting."

These standard could easily be met through the use of Google Docs.  To publish their writing, students could write blogs, create websites, and collaborate on wikis.

2.  "Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration."

Teach students how to Google Search properly and how to discern valid sources would be perfect here.

3.  "Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a  standard format for citation."

Students need to learn how to use the Internet for more than just social networking and gaming.  Exposing them to quality journalism, online news and other similar media are crucial in their development as critical thinkers and well-informed, responsible citizens.  Learning how to properly give attribution to not just the written text found on the Internet, but also the plethora of images published online, is just as important.

4.  "Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest."

Teaching students how to use presentation software like Google Slides, Keynote, or PowerPoint not only meets Common Core Standards but is also an important career skill.  Here, they can build upon the skills gained in #3 above and incorporate that information into their presentations.

5.  "Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech."

Many online dictionaries like Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com can easily serve this purpose.  Chances are your students already use them so this standard is easy to meet.

6.  More informational text is expected to be taught across all disciplines now which "includes the subgenres of exposition, argument, and functional text in the form of personal essays, speeches, opinion pieces, essays about art or literature, biographies, memoirs, journalism, and historical, scientific, technical, or economic accounts (including digital sources) written for a broad audience."

What better way to prepare students for life in the real world than to expose them to more nonfiction writing, which includes the various media outlets that adults access on a regular basis like CNN, The Wall Street Journal, or National Geographic?

7.  "Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table)."

By practicing #6 above, students will naturally come across the various forms of infographics that are used in the world today.

8.  "Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic."

Need an excuse to use YouTube in the classroom?  Here it is.

9.  "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and
efficiently."

Since my students blog with the world, this one is one of my favorites.  Blogging has truly motivated my students to explore their written creativity.  Read my post "For the Love of Blogging" to learn more.

I'm excited about what Common Core will bring.  I think the standards truly reflect what it means to be a 21st century learner.  Let me know what you think below.