This week's Educational Technology assignment asked us to explore two companies offering free online classes -- Coursera and the Khan Academy -- and review the material for possible use in our classroom or for our personal lives.
First, a basic impression of what I noticed on the Khan Academy's site. The classes are easily organized into broad categories such as: Math, Science & Engineering, Computing, Test Prep, etc. There's a small section of Arts & Humanities but there are no literature or writing classes and only one class on grammar which is a very general overview that seemed geared toward older rather than young kids. I participated in an Art history class titled "Art of the Islamic World." I also scrolled through a few other options relating to history, government, or math. The videos and assessments were easy but interesting.
As an ELA teacher, I doubt I will ask my students to take a Khan Academy class unless we are reading a book that might benefit from the added context of history or government. While, of course, much of my work is interdisciplinary and does benefit from cultural context, there are other online options (Google Expeditions, for example) that I would turn to before the Khan Academy.
Moreover, for my students, including English language learners, I would prefer more classes about writing. Grammar is okay but is considered a lower-order concern. What benefits my students is learning about different forms of writing, about argument, about different audiences, about accurately summarizing other people's ideas before responding with one's own, and about knowing the purpose for writing in the first place (i.e. sometimes called the "so what?" question).
Finally, I'm still considering Khan's philosophy behind the Academy and his comments in an interview we watched in which he notes a discrepancy between the "product" parents believe they are buying their children when they send them to college (i.e. a highly respected credential that will have a return on investment in the job market) versus what college administrations believe they are selling (a content-rich, mastery-based, experiential growth opportunity that teaches the whole person as much about being a 'good' citizen as about practical content knowledge). He argues that this discrepancy can be corrected by more online credentialing.
I tend to disagree because to me, with the bias of an educator, I don't see the educational trend toward better credentialing as true progress. I'm concerned that even offering "certificates" or other credentials for completion of these free courses will not actually make a person competitive for a leadership role in a global market, but it will make them think they are competitive. What I see from students who go on to be global leaders is that they focus not on the acquisition of short-term credentialing but on the long-term cultivation of ontological skills. For me, a 21st century education involves daily practice of skills like creativity, collaboration, flexibility, resilience, problem-solving, and communication. I don't see this as the core mission of the Khan Academy.
On the other hand, Coursera offers free online classes in which learning is sustained over a longer time period. Their site is similar to Khan's in that there are a range of disciplines but an emphasis on STEM. Once again, no literature or writing classes. Therefore, like the Khan Academy, it may not be as useful for my ELA teaching as other resources.
Personally, my husband or I have taken a couple classes that took us several weeks to complete and we enjoyed the experience of these classes. I still remember some of the information I learned and I liked the interactive element. Something that Coursera does well is provide opportunities for deep learning. There are various formative assessments sprinkled throughout the lecture experience and the summative assessments move students up Bloom's Taxonomy.
As for whether MOOC's are the "wave of the future," I think they are the wave of a future for some people. I love that learning is free and designed by professional educators. I like that students who cannot attend traditional brick-and-mortar institutions for a variety of reasons have access to quality education.
Coursera also builds some of the 21st century skills that I believe are missing from the Khan Academy. As Daphne Koller mentions in her TED talk, students can organize in-person or digital study groups. Collaboration is encouraged.
I believe, like many, that when people put their heads together the ideas grow exponentially to the information at hand. We now know that the model of the "lone genius" is a myth. Many famous ideas from history were crafted from conversations in coffee houses or bars even though we still tend to only credit one person. Therefore, if MOOCs are going to be truly progressive, I believe that they need to be built with interactions in mind.
Koller notes that one thing Coursera, and many MOOCs, struggle with is higher-order learning. I agree. So much of my ELA teaching isn't about content but higher-order thinking. My assessments are designed around analysis, evaluation, and creating something new. I'm sure this is true in many fields.
So, for me, I want MOOCs to develop better ways to assess this higher-level or deep learning (the spatial geometry of education metaphors puzzles me -- is learning a fractal? Perhaps). The data that Koller and Ng are collecting from Coursera is incredibly useful, but I want to collect the hard-to-reach data that's qualitative, creative, and shows higher-order learning. I look forward to seeing how the research will evolve.
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Exploring Standards-based Lesson Plans
For this week's Educational Technology assignment I will explore an example of standards-based lesson plan as it applies to my grade range and subject area. In honor of Black History Month, I also want to tie my sample lesson into some young adult (YA) books I've recently read and would like to someday incorporate into my own curriculum. My English/Language Arts licensure will cover grades 7-12 and these books are appropriate for this age range.
To begin, I was inspired by the week-long Black Lives Matter at School site which is a "national committee of educators organizing for racial justice in education" (BLM at School, home page). Of course this learning opportunity will work for any time in the school year, but the committee focuses on a Black Lives Matter curriculum week in early February.
I pulled a sample standards-based lesson plan that I imagined tying in to the novels I loved. The novels from my own bookshelf include...
1. Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper
2. Dear Martin, by Nic Stone
3. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
4. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
5. Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper
6. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
7. American Street, by Ibi Zoboi
There are so many more! Including, of course, anything by one of the most important American writers, Toni Morrison. I could fangirl on Toni Morrison all day! However, for this post, I chose novels that: a) involve a teenage protagonist, b) deal directly with the U.S. legal system (including Jim Crow laws, etc.), c) are award-winners, bestsellers, or teacher favorites, and d) tie into my sample lesson plan.
The sample lesson plan I'm using is a Google Doc on the site and can be found here. As you can see, it fits the AYA grade range and is an interdisciplinary introduction to "Restorative Justice, Empathy, and Loving Engagement." It aligns with a number of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) including: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.4.
Additional lesson plans and resources are available by clicking the link for Lesson Plans on the home page menu and scrolling down to "Black Lives Matter in #PHLed: Lesson Resources Overview." This Google link takes you to an exceptional list of videos, activities, and learning opportunities all connected to CCSS. The lessons are organized by grade range and apply to all subject areas. It is worth checking out!
How do the standards play out in the design of this lesson plan? Since this blog post focuses on analyzing the standards I will break down each standard with an example from the lesson.
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 This standard asks students to support inferences with textual evidence. It's the classic "show don't tell" of teaching literature -- show me how you drew this conclusion from reading the text by pointing to influential passages. Students practice this skill by reading an excerpt of "Destruction of Black Civilization" by Chancellor Williams and responding with discussion-based questions that draw on Williams' argument. Here's a screenshot from that portion of the lesson which I'm including because I'm taking the lesson out of order for this standards analysis post...
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2 I liken this standard to following a trail of breadcrumbs through the woods in that students will identify key textual details as part of a pathway to the bigger ideas. What are the themes of this text and how did you find the "breadcrumbs" to follow? This is illustrated by watching the video "Crash Course in Philosophy: What is Justice?" Students then discern the theme of justice by identifying the various types of justice presented here.
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 moves students up Bloom's Taxonomy by evaluating the texts they've read in a diverse array of formats to tease out the deeper meaning. Students achieve this by connecting the perspectives they read and viewed about justice with what they know about the U.S. justice system. Here's a screenshot of some discussion questions following the video...
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1 and ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.2 takes students from what others say about justice to what they say in their own words. After the students demonstrate understanding of the various perspectives, they work in small groups to evaluate which ideas best fit the definition of restorative justice.
Finally, the culminating activity involves students creating original ideas about justice. This aligns with ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4 in which students present their ideas in a new format, namely the "Restorative Manifesto" list of "practices, beliefs and values that are restorative in nature" ("Restorative Justice" lesson plan). I love this part of the lesson plan so I'll include it here...
There are a number of extension activities I won't go into here but look like an exciting way to bring these ideas to life.
Finally, how might I incorporate this into an ELA classroom using one of the novels from the above list? Let me count the ways...
1. Consider these perspectives of justice as they relate to the international tragedy of enslavement in Copper Sun. How did the African conception of slavery differ from the European practice? What are similarities and differences between indentured servitude and slavery? How are our current ideas about freedom and justice similar to and different from the 18th century? What forms of injustice do we deal with today? Are these practices of injustice part of one individual's personality or built into our system of laws and culture?
2. How do the novels Dear Martin and The Hate U Give directly confront the contemporary U.S. justice system? How could the core tragedies have been avoided? How do the personal lives of the protagonists elaborate our ideas about justice? Is the U.S. justice system a just system according to these novels? How do the character's experiences with this system relate to your own understanding of restorative justice?
3. The protagonists in Sing, Unburied, Sing and American Street are haunted by ghosts of those who unjustly died. How do we continue to be haunted by the specters of history? What unrest do these ghosts bring into the present situations? How are ghosts and supernatural monsters a metaphor for injustices that won't go quietly into the night?
4. Another Sharon Draper novel, Out of My Mind, deals with another form of injustice -- the incapacity to speak and move. When Melody's ability to communicate changes, how does her sense of freedom and justice change? Where do injustices lurk that we might not notice? How does our medical system and society ignore or silence bodies and communication patterns that are marginalized? How can mainstream voices/bodies/ideas be better at empathy and listening?
5. Finally, in the poetry of Brown Girl Dreaming, we see the power of place as it affects the culture of justice and freedom. What are the different attitudes of racial justice, fairness, and equality in the different places where Woodson lives? How is time rooted in place, with "traditions" of Jim Crow or other forms of racism ground into the soil? How do different religious practices share opportunities for spiritual and earthly freedoms? Are these practices constricting in other ways? How does poetry connect to other Black forms of expression, such as spirituals, rap and hip-hop, and spoken word performance? Is the poetic form constrictive or liberating for the ideas?
I hope you've enjoyed this excursion in thinking through standards-based lesson plans and the tie-in to Black Lives Matter at School and contemporary YA literature and will find some takeaways for your own lessons. I want to give special thanks to the Black Lives Matter at School committee for designing this deeply engaging material and making it available publically for educators and community partners. Thank you for your work!
To begin, I was inspired by the week-long Black Lives Matter at School site which is a "national committee of educators organizing for racial justice in education" (BLM at School, home page). Of course this learning opportunity will work for any time in the school year, but the committee focuses on a Black Lives Matter curriculum week in early February.
I pulled a sample standards-based lesson plan that I imagined tying in to the novels I loved. The novels from my own bookshelf include...
1. Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper
2. Dear Martin, by Nic Stone
3. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
4. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
5. Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper
6. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
7. American Street, by Ibi Zoboi
There are so many more! Including, of course, anything by one of the most important American writers, Toni Morrison. I could fangirl on Toni Morrison all day! However, for this post, I chose novels that: a) involve a teenage protagonist, b) deal directly with the U.S. legal system (including Jim Crow laws, etc.), c) are award-winners, bestsellers, or teacher favorites, and d) tie into my sample lesson plan.
The sample lesson plan I'm using is a Google Doc on the site and can be found here. As you can see, it fits the AYA grade range and is an interdisciplinary introduction to "Restorative Justice, Empathy, and Loving Engagement." It aligns with a number of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) including: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.4.
Additional lesson plans and resources are available by clicking the link for Lesson Plans on the home page menu and scrolling down to "Black Lives Matter in #PHLed: Lesson Resources Overview." This Google link takes you to an exceptional list of videos, activities, and learning opportunities all connected to CCSS. The lessons are organized by grade range and apply to all subject areas. It is worth checking out!
How do the standards play out in the design of this lesson plan? Since this blog post focuses on analyzing the standards I will break down each standard with an example from the lesson.
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 This standard asks students to support inferences with textual evidence. It's the classic "show don't tell" of teaching literature -- show me how you drew this conclusion from reading the text by pointing to influential passages. Students practice this skill by reading an excerpt of "Destruction of Black Civilization" by Chancellor Williams and responding with discussion-based questions that draw on Williams' argument. Here's a screenshot from that portion of the lesson which I'm including because I'm taking the lesson out of order for this standards analysis post...
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2 I liken this standard to following a trail of breadcrumbs through the woods in that students will identify key textual details as part of a pathway to the bigger ideas. What are the themes of this text and how did you find the "breadcrumbs" to follow? This is illustrated by watching the video "Crash Course in Philosophy: What is Justice?" Students then discern the theme of justice by identifying the various types of justice presented here.
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 moves students up Bloom's Taxonomy by evaluating the texts they've read in a diverse array of formats to tease out the deeper meaning. Students achieve this by connecting the perspectives they read and viewed about justice with what they know about the U.S. justice system. Here's a screenshot of some discussion questions following the video...
ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1 and ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.2 takes students from what others say about justice to what they say in their own words. After the students demonstrate understanding of the various perspectives, they work in small groups to evaluate which ideas best fit the definition of restorative justice.
Finally, the culminating activity involves students creating original ideas about justice. This aligns with ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4 in which students present their ideas in a new format, namely the "Restorative Manifesto" list of "practices, beliefs and values that are restorative in nature" ("Restorative Justice" lesson plan). I love this part of the lesson plan so I'll include it here...
There are a number of extension activities I won't go into here but look like an exciting way to bring these ideas to life.
Finally, how might I incorporate this into an ELA classroom using one of the novels from the above list? Let me count the ways...
1. Consider these perspectives of justice as they relate to the international tragedy of enslavement in Copper Sun. How did the African conception of slavery differ from the European practice? What are similarities and differences between indentured servitude and slavery? How are our current ideas about freedom and justice similar to and different from the 18th century? What forms of injustice do we deal with today? Are these practices of injustice part of one individual's personality or built into our system of laws and culture?
2. How do the novels Dear Martin and The Hate U Give directly confront the contemporary U.S. justice system? How could the core tragedies have been avoided? How do the personal lives of the protagonists elaborate our ideas about justice? Is the U.S. justice system a just system according to these novels? How do the character's experiences with this system relate to your own understanding of restorative justice?
3. The protagonists in Sing, Unburied, Sing and American Street are haunted by ghosts of those who unjustly died. How do we continue to be haunted by the specters of history? What unrest do these ghosts bring into the present situations? How are ghosts and supernatural monsters a metaphor for injustices that won't go quietly into the night?
4. Another Sharon Draper novel, Out of My Mind, deals with another form of injustice -- the incapacity to speak and move. When Melody's ability to communicate changes, how does her sense of freedom and justice change? Where do injustices lurk that we might not notice? How does our medical system and society ignore or silence bodies and communication patterns that are marginalized? How can mainstream voices/bodies/ideas be better at empathy and listening?
5. Finally, in the poetry of Brown Girl Dreaming, we see the power of place as it affects the culture of justice and freedom. What are the different attitudes of racial justice, fairness, and equality in the different places where Woodson lives? How is time rooted in place, with "traditions" of Jim Crow or other forms of racism ground into the soil? How do different religious practices share opportunities for spiritual and earthly freedoms? Are these practices constricting in other ways? How does poetry connect to other Black forms of expression, such as spirituals, rap and hip-hop, and spoken word performance? Is the poetic form constrictive or liberating for the ideas?
I hope you've enjoyed this excursion in thinking through standards-based lesson plans and the tie-in to Black Lives Matter at School and contemporary YA literature and will find some takeaways for your own lessons. I want to give special thanks to the Black Lives Matter at School committee for designing this deeply engaging material and making it available publically for educators and community partners. Thank you for your work!
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Assistive Technology for Students with Hearing Impairment
I recently read Cece Bell's phenomenal graphic memoir, El Deafo, about her experience renegotiating school and friendships after her hearing was impaired by a severe childhood illness. It's a fabulous memoir that was the first graphic book to win a Newbery honor (Cece Bell "Books!").
El Deafo also addresses many of the issues kids face -- navigating a school system that doesn't meet your needs, desiring to fit in socially while cultivating individuality, and fostering healthy friendships. I look forward to reading it with my students some day.
In school, Cece struggles with her hearing assistive technology because it's clunky and visible and she's embarrassed by the way she believes it makes her stand out from her traditionally-hearing classmates.
Learning about Cece's experience with assistive technology inspired me to look into how the technology has changed over 40 years.
Before I get into the technology, I want to clarify the difference between deafness and hearing impairment because the terms are sometimes confused. I will use definitions from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which is the resource that educators use. The IDEA legislation ensures all children receive an appropriately challenging K-12 education and helps determine educational services for which students may be entitled ("About IDEA").
According to IDEA, hearing impairment is "an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance" ("Hearing Impairment").
By contrast, deafness "means a hearing impairment so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child's educational performance" ("Deafness").
It's important to note the differences between these two definitions in the IDEA legislation.
Cece is hearing impaired but not deaf.
In school, Cece uses hearing assistive technology called the Phonic Ear. This is a sound amplification system that reminds me of a Walkman radio (remember those?) with ear buds. Cece wears the system strapped to her chest, and her teacher wears a microphone that feeds sound into Cece's amplifier.
Here's Cece's illustration of the Phonic Ear device (Bell 39)...
In El Deafo, Cece describes feeling embarrassed by the size of the amplifier she has to wear under her shirt and the skin irritation it causes.
However, it's not all bad! Cece realizes that wearing the device gives her a unique advantage, her "superpower," which she eventually leverages in social capital.
So, how has the technology changed since the early 1980s? To begin, here's a new and improved 21st century belt-pack receiver offered on School Outfitters.
Ummmmmmm....... this looks the same? How is it different??
To answer that question, let's first define the system. This technology is called an FM system. Think of it as an FM radio channel for one person. Cool!
According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), an FM device like Cece's Phonic Ear would allow her to focus exclusively on the teacher wearing the mic and tune out irrelevant background information ("HATS for Children"). It would also help Cece hear her own voice so she could speak at the appropriate volume ("HATS for Children").
While the hearing assistive technology may look similar to the technology 40 years ago, there have been advances in the software of these devices.
As for the future of hearing assistive technology, there's an interesting development for schools called sound field systems. While these systems were designed for students with hearing impairment, researchers sound they actually benefit all students (Phonic Ear "Sound Field Systems"). Winning!
Sound field systems project a teacher's voice equally throughout the classroom using a series of speakers ("HATS for Children"). They also supposedly clarify voices that tend to mumble (Phonic Ear "Sound Field System").
And the best part? This system benefits all learners. Perhaps it's something we will implement in future auditoriums or concert halls!
Here we see the seed of a brilliant idea to support students with special needs blossomed into a revolutionary innovation that benefits everyone. This is why the research is so important!
I'm so grateful to Cece Bell for writing El Deafo, her exceptional graphic memoir. I appreciated learning about her experience with hearing assistive technology as it makes me consider ways to support students with new, creative technology. It also opens my eyes to a new perspective.
I encourage you to read El Deafo and reflect on how technology has affected your own educational journey.
El Deafo also addresses many of the issues kids face -- navigating a school system that doesn't meet your needs, desiring to fit in socially while cultivating individuality, and fostering healthy friendships. I look forward to reading it with my students some day.
In school, Cece struggles with her hearing assistive technology because it's clunky and visible and she's embarrassed by the way she believes it makes her stand out from her traditionally-hearing classmates.
Learning about Cece's experience with assistive technology inspired me to look into how the technology has changed over 40 years.
Before I get into the technology, I want to clarify the difference between deafness and hearing impairment because the terms are sometimes confused. I will use definitions from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which is the resource that educators use. The IDEA legislation ensures all children receive an appropriately challenging K-12 education and helps determine educational services for which students may be entitled ("About IDEA").
According to IDEA, hearing impairment is "an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance" ("Hearing Impairment").
By contrast, deafness "means a hearing impairment so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child's educational performance" ("Deafness").
It's important to note the differences between these two definitions in the IDEA legislation.
Cece is hearing impaired but not deaf.
In school, Cece uses hearing assistive technology called the Phonic Ear. This is a sound amplification system that reminds me of a Walkman radio (remember those?) with ear buds. Cece wears the system strapped to her chest, and her teacher wears a microphone that feeds sound into Cece's amplifier.
Here's Cece's illustration of the Phonic Ear device (Bell 39)...
In El Deafo, Cece describes feeling embarrassed by the size of the amplifier she has to wear under her shirt and the skin irritation it causes.
However, it's not all bad! Cece realizes that wearing the device gives her a unique advantage, her "superpower," which she eventually leverages in social capital.
So, how has the technology changed since the early 1980s? To begin, here's a new and improved 21st century belt-pack receiver offered on School Outfitters.
Ummmmmmm....... this looks the same? How is it different??
To answer that question, let's first define the system. This technology is called an FM system. Think of it as an FM radio channel for one person. Cool!
According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), an FM device like Cece's Phonic Ear would allow her to focus exclusively on the teacher wearing the mic and tune out irrelevant background information ("HATS for Children"). It would also help Cece hear her own voice so she could speak at the appropriate volume ("HATS for Children").
While the hearing assistive technology may look similar to the technology 40 years ago, there have been advances in the software of these devices.
As for the future of hearing assistive technology, there's an interesting development for schools called sound field systems. While these systems were designed for students with hearing impairment, researchers sound they actually benefit all students (Phonic Ear "Sound Field Systems"). Winning!
Sound field systems project a teacher's voice equally throughout the classroom using a series of speakers ("HATS for Children"). They also supposedly clarify voices that tend to mumble (Phonic Ear "Sound Field System").
And the best part? This system benefits all learners. Perhaps it's something we will implement in future auditoriums or concert halls!
Here we see the seed of a brilliant idea to support students with special needs blossomed into a revolutionary innovation that benefits everyone. This is why the research is so important!
I'm so grateful to Cece Bell for writing El Deafo, her exceptional graphic memoir. I appreciated learning about her experience with hearing assistive technology as it makes me consider ways to support students with new, creative technology. It also opens my eyes to a new perspective.
I encourage you to read El Deafo and reflect on how technology has affected your own educational journey.
References
1. Cece Bell’s blog! https://cecebell.wordpress.com/
2. IDEA’s definitions: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8
3. Belt-pack Receiver from School Outfitters: https://www.schooloutfitters.com/catalog/product_info/pfam_id/PFAM4029/products_id/PRO12158
4. ASHA’s article on Hearing-Assistive Technology for Children: https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/hearing-assistive-technology-for-children/
5. Phonic Ear: http://www.phonicear.com/
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