Standardized Testing

One of the big educational debates recently has been about the value of standardized testing. It is easy to find a lot against it and fairly difficult to find a lot of defense (the benefits) in favor of it. Yet it is a fact that as teachers, we will be administering these tests. Whether or not we agree with the value of these tests, we will be required to prepare our students for them. Because of this, each teacher should best learn how to use these tests for the benefit of the student. Some of the strongest feelings arguing against standardized testing come from those teachers who aren't taking the opportunity to look for benefits or how they can use the results to help their students. I'm not saying whether I'm for or against standardized testing. I am saying that as long as teachers are required to prepare students to take these tests, they should do what they can to make it a beneficial experience. They can cling to their opinions while still making the best of the situation.
Here is a site that presents (in a question and answer format) the "For" and the "Against" side of the argument:
http://school.familyeducation.com/college-tests/educational-testing/38358.html?page=2

Personal Technology - Part 2 (Homework Assignment)

This is the document I would have students use. I had originally planned this to be a homework assignment, but if I was going to do that, I think I would actually print out the poems themselves and give them to the students as hard copies. Or, I would do this review as an in class assignment, it which case, I could just use this electronic copy since they would each have access to a computer.

Tools of Poetry

Here is a review of some of the tools we’ve gone over. Read the poems that are listed for each section

Imagery
“The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop

Alliteration
“Youth and Art” – Robert Browning

Line Breaks
“This is Just to Say” – William Carlos Williams

Rhyme
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun – (Sonnet 130)” – William Shakespeare

Sound
“The Pickety Fence” – David McCord (You’ll have to click on the section titled “Rhyme and Sound” to find the poem)

Personal Techonology Project - Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan

PLANNING

(This would most likely be done in 8th or 9th grade English class; however, it could easily be adjusted for an older grade level as well)

Date: 12/1/09

Title/Subject of Lesson: Final Poetry Project

Objectives: Students will be able to utilize the tools of poetry they have learned to create their own poems. They will also be able to make poems using picture prompts.

State Core Curriculum Standard:
[1b] Enjoy the processes and outcomes of reading and writing
[3a] Understand that language enhances and identifies human beings as meaning makers
[2c] Extended Writing
Use narrative details (e.g., dialogue, descriptions, imagery, symbolism)

Materials Needed: Computers with both Microsoft Word and Internet access


PERFORMING

Continuation from Previous Lesson: They should have finished the homework assignment to review a few of the different tools we’ve discussed by reading the assigned poems (see document “ToolsofPoetryReview”).

Lesson Presentation:
A) Getting Started
· In computer lab, have each student open www.piclits.com
· Each of them will create an account
B) Directing the Learning
· Explain and demonstrate how to use the Drag-and-Drop feature
o Show personal examples from My Piclits
· Students will create and save their own Drag and Drop PicLits (2). They will choose their favorite one and copy the text to a Word document. Above the text, they will describe the picture they used.
· Explain and demonstrate the Freestyle feature (Show examples from My PicLits)
· Students will create and save their own Freestyle Poem (1).
· Student will then choose 2 different tools from the Review sheet (Rhyme, Sound, Alliteration, Line Breaks, Imagery) and write two new Freestyle Poems – each one focusing on one of the tools we discussed as a class. They will copy the text from these two poems to their Word document. Above the poem, they will simply describe the picture.

C) Bringing the Lesson to a Conclusion
· Students will print off the Word document where they have saved their PicLits projects.

Assignment: Students will find a picture (Can be a magazine picture, a home photo, an image from a book, etc.) and use it as a prompt to create a poem. They will bring the poem and the picture to class and share their poems in front of the class as part of the class Poetry Jam.



Here are my examples that will be shown as demonstrations
Drag-and-Drop:


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com


Freestyle:

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

And more poetry

I feel that I have been posting a lot of poetry links lately. As I was working on finding resources for our final class project, I came across a wonderful site for teaching poetry. There is a list of many different poetic tools and devices and examples for each. It is called "Poetry Foundation", and I've become a huge fan!

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

Different Learners Require Different Techniques

I came across a really neat site that offers suggestions for how we can use different resources and different topics to teach English. For example, a student might struggle with English, but loves drama. There is an entire page dedicated to how a teacher might tailor an English assignment so that it centers on some aspect of drama.

This site includes everything from lesson plans to PowerPoint presentations to sample assignments.

It is actually developed by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong, so most of the grammar examples/lesson are geared toward learning English as a second language. However, the lessons themselves are easily tailored. I think this site is valuable for any teacher looking for ways to present material in a new, interesting way that will benefit and excite the students.

Writing Fix

I came across a great resource for English teachers. Often students struggle knowing what to write about. Teachers don´t necessarily want to dictate what to write about, but students often crave that guidance. WritingFix is a wonderful site that offers everything from daily writing prompts to full lesson plans based on commonly used literary works. It also provides writing resources concerning the different points in the writing process (pre-write, revision, etc.). This site is more geared toward teachers than students, but students could access it for writing prompt ideas.

My Personal Technology Project

For my personal technology project, I would like to explore PicLits. This site provides pictures and words and it allows one to drag and drop words to form poems or narratives. This would help students who struggle coming up with topics to write about. It requires more abstract thinking, and it could engage students who normally struggle with the typical approaches to writing. In my opinion, this way of writing would appeal to many different kinds of learners.

I also would like to learn more about WebQuest. I think that it will be good tool for researchingas well as creating. This seems like a wonderful way of assessing students' mastery of a specific content area. Making a WebQuest could possibly be a test assignment at the end of the unit. Or, a teacher could utilize this resource for group projects. Each group could perform one of the WebQuest tasks pertinent to the subject matter being covered in class. After they have completed it, each group would be responsible for presenting what they learned to the class. This way, a lot of information could be covered and all of the students are responsible for learning and teaching.

I would like to explore both of these resources in depth for this project. I'm not positive how I could use both of them for the same assignment yet. As I begin to learn both of them in greater depth, I will look for a way to combine these two resources.