pedablogical

Twitter Resources Round-up

January 5, 2013 by Traci Gardner

I’ve been using Twitter for years for everything from keeping in touch with colleagues to sharing professional development and curriculum materials with other teachers. In the years since I’ve joined, I often first learn about current events from Twitter (@BreakingNews is my favorite).

Since I’ve been doing this for a while, I have some links I can share, from blogs that I’ve written for NCTE, Bedford/St. Martins, and my own site. They were written over the past few years, so forgive any links that are broken please.

If you’re interested in collecting Twitter links in a simple way for students, Paper.li can be a useful option. The tool gathers Tweets from your feed that include URLs and lays them out in a newspaper-style format. I’ve written several pieces about using Paper.li:

Most recently, I’ve written a series of posts on using Twitter Chats, which are real-time, online conversations that use specific hashtags to help organize the discussion. Twitter Chats can be a powerful tool for students and colleagues. You can read more about them in these posts:

Also, if you’re even slightly interested in how you might use Twitter in the classroom, take a look at William M. Ferriter’s essay “Why Teachers Should Try Twitter” from Educational Leadership. The article explains, “For educators who use this tool to build a network of people whose Twitter messages connect to their work, Twitter becomes a constant source of new ideas to explore.” It includes some tips and how-to’s as well as a personal story on how the experience affected the author’s understanding of differentiated instruction.

Hope that helps any readers who are interested in expanding how they use Twitter. I’m willing to share whatever advice and experience I have, so contact me if you need more or have a question I might be able to answer.

Filed under Bedford Bits, Teaching with Digital Tools

Help Keeping Your Teaching Resolutions

January 2, 2013 by Traci Gardner

Making a New Year’s Resolution is easy. Keeping it? That’s a different story altogether. Personal goals end up competing with teaching goals. The busy whirl of heading back to the classroom crowds out all those plans, and the next thing you know, it’s March and those teaching resolutions are long forgotten.

How about some help with those goals? I’ve gathered some of the best resources from ReadWriteThink and Thinkfinity to help make sure your good intentions all become accomplishments in 2013!

Learn something new: Did you set the goal of learning a new technique or strategy to use in the classroom? Try these resources to get started:
- ReadWriteThink’s Strategy Guides cover areas ranging from teaching with technology to reading in the content areas.
- Want to learn more about content area reading? Register for our Free Webinar: Using Formative Reading Assessment to Enhance Content Area Learning.
- Watch Doug Buehl’s webinar on Meeting the Demands of the Common Core: Mentoring Readers of Science and Technical Texts on demand.
- Find even more webinars and additional resources in the Professional Development area of the Thinkfinity site.
Collaborate more with other teachers: You can share ideas, give other teachers some advice or feedback, and ask questions about your classroom and students on the Thinkfinity site.
- Visit the Community Hub, The Lounge, or the Online Tools for Educators to connect with teachers across the U.S.
- Discuss specific strategies in the content area social groups on the Thinkfinity site:
Plan activities further in advance: What teacher hasn’t found herself scurrying at the last minute to figure out what to do in class tomorrow–or even later this afternoon! I know I have. Use these calendars to find activities and sketch out your month in advance:
- This Day in the Arts, from ArtsEdge
- Calendar of Historical Events, from EconEdLink
- Calendar, from EDSITEment
- Calendar Activities, from ReadWriteThink
- Calendar, from Science NetLinks
Help families and students learn at home: Families are often eager to try fun, educational activities at home, but it takes time to round up the materials and get them into a parent’s hands. Here are some ready-made materials you can use right now:
- Use Parent and Afterschool Resources from ReadWriteThink to give families everything they need to try activities outside the classroom.
- Point families to the Wonderopolis site for a daily activity that take advantage of the kinds of questions kids ask every day.
- Share the ReadWriteThink podcasts Chatting About Books: Recommendations for Young Readers and Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers to give families book recommendations on a wide range of topics.
Publish your ideas: Want to share your teaching strategies with teachers everywhere? ReadWriteThink welcomes contributions from educators who want to write or review for the site. Fill out our online interest form and you’ll be on your way to publishing a lesson plan, a classroom printout, or a strategy guide on the site!

Whatever your goals, I hope you meet them and have a fantastic 2013.

[Photo: Resolutions 2012 by simplyla, on Flickr]

Filed under ReadWriteThink

Bits December Blog Flashback

December 31, 2012 by Traci Gardner

Bedford/St. Martin’s Bits bloggers posted on topics ranging from working with new TAs to how we teach research projects. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about pop culture (like reality TV shows) and how to teach with comics—and don’t miss Holly Pappas’s reflection on the end of one term and the beginning of the next in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

About Writing and Being a Teacher of Writers

Nedra Reynolds explores the work of Peter Elbow and Suguta Mitra, and then asks, “Do Writers Need Teachers? Really?”
Steve Bernhardt gives us some insight on Mentoring New TAs and shares details on his own experience with new TAs.
Doug Downs gives us an extended analogy that applies to how we teach writing in Riding on Ice (A Lesson in Conceptions).
Susan Naomi Bernstein talks about learning English in The Nice White Lady Tells a Thanksgiving Story.
Andrea Lunsford tells us all “What I Want for Christmas”—and the gift is all about Building Stories!

Classroom Strategies and Resources

Holly Pappas reflects on the research projects she’s assigned over the years and The most wonderful time of the year.
Jonathan Alexander takes a look at Vibrant, Visceral Things in his Interview with a Young Writer and graphic novelist.
Andrea Lunsford asks, “Is the Term Paper Dead?” and considers how research assignments have changed.
Dan McDonough shares activities on the Controversy surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on High School Bits.
Jonathan Alexander interviews Compositionist Kat Eason on Beginning to Teach with Comics.
Holly Pappas reflects on the end of one term and the beginning of the next in Academic Rhythms: The Fallow Period.
Nathan Odell shares an Exercise: Close Reading for Gender on the High School Bits Blog.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

Susan Naomi Bernstein talks about the challenges and revelations of Teaching after Hurricane Sandy.
Liz Losh reviews how we can engage writers with real world issues in Representing Organizations with Comic Books.
Jack Solomon substitutes a “Cultures Versus Vultures” meme for the oft-heard political meme of “makers versus takers.”
Barclay Barrios thinks about readings and discussions he can use to Teach the Gaza Conflict.
Jack Solomon considers the profound cultural signifier of the Unreal Housewives of American TV.

Teaching with Technology

Traci Gardner explains why Teaching with Twitter Chats is a great addition to writing classes and describes how to get started.
Barclay Barrios shares a link on Teaching Digital Citizenship with games.
Andrea Lunsford reviews recent efforts to bring effective online education to the masses in MOOCs to you!
Michael Michaud shares details on his recent experiments with Collaboration in the Paperless Writing Class.
Traci Gardner explains how to kick off in-class discussion with Introductory Twitter Chat Activities.
Barclay Barrios spends some time thinking about technology and The Dark Side of the Digital Humanities.
Traci Gardner suggests some Advanced Twitter Chat Activities you can try next term.
Michael Michaud describes how he uses Google Docs as part of The Paperless Writing Class.

For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to sign up for the Ink’d In newsletter (and other resources), like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

[Photo: Comics by Ryan Brunsvold, on Flickr]

Filed under Bedford Bits

Best Educational Apps from Thinkfinity

December 20, 2012 by Traci Gardner

It’s the gift-giving time of year, and if you’re giving someone an iPad, you can start getting it ready with these great apps for children, teens, and teachers.

Download Reading and Writing Apps

Word Mover App
Take poetry on the road with this ReadWriteThink app. Kids and teens can create “found poetry” by choosing from word banks and existing famous works like “America the Beautiful” and Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream.” Kids can pull up a famous work or the word bank, find words that inspire them, and arrange them into an original poem!

Trading Cards App
With this ReadWriteThink app, kids and teens can create trading cards for fictional people and places, real people and places, objects, and Events. Imagine the fun of having kids create trading cards for favorite holiday characters and places. How about making trading cards as place cards for a holiday dinner—one card for each family member! Going on a family trip? Make a card for each place you stop. The possibilities are endless!

Download Apps for Other Content Areas

For other content areas, try these apps and reviews to find tools that will encourage kids and teens to learn while exploring their new iPads:

Mission US, Think Fast! About the Past from EDSITEment challenges kids to test their knowledge of history as they race against the clock.
EconEdLink has gathered a collection of apps on economics and personal finance for mobile devices.
Illuminations has created a range of Mathematics Apps including the games Math Concentration, Deep Sea Duel, and Okta’s Rescue.
Science NetLinks reviews STEM-related apps for both the iPad and the Android.
Nat Geo Mobile offers apps, games, mobile video, and more. Everything for a geography explorer could ever want.

Build an App!

If you’re working with teens, also look at The Verizon Innovative App Challenge, which provides the opportunity for middle school and high school students, working with a faculty advisor, to use their STEM knowledge, their ingenuity, and their creativity to come up with an original mobile app concept that incorporates STEM and addresses a need or problem in their school or community.

Filed under ReadWriteThink, Teaching with Digital Tools Tagged with games, mobile apps

My Connected Learning Round-up for 2012

December 18, 2012 by Traci Gardner

Earlier this year, I spent some time learning and posting about Connected Learning, in particular in the context of the college writing and literature classroom. Most of my posts focus on trying to define what Connected Learning is and thinking about how the strategy would work with college students in programs that often have strict guidelines about what courses must cover.

Here is a round-up of those posts, most of which appeared on the Bedford/St. Martin’s Bits blog:

I returned to my Connected Learning notes today to prepare for a discussion with Mimi Ito, Howard Rheingold, and Jon Barilone on the future of Connected Learning and how to grow and expand the movement. As I reflected, I kept returning to the same issues that made explaining and recommending Connected Learning so difficult for me:

I want to create a version of the definitions, the strategies, and the reasons that they are valuable in approachable language that meets the needs
- of busy teachers who do not have the time to do extensive research,
- of the families who see students engaged in non-traditional activities and wonder why this is an effective system,
- of administrators who want to understand how these experiences will help students meet curriulum goals, and
- of students who push back from these strategies and who need a better understanding of why teachers are choosing these ways to teach.
I want to better understand how various learning strategies relate to each other, where they overlap, and how to explain when and where Connected Learning is the most effective strategy. During the various webinars I attended in 2012 and in my reading elsewhere, I encountered a variety of terms: Connected Learning, project-based learning, problem-based learning, gamification of learning, participatory learning, participatory culture, and so forth. I need resources, even a simple glossary, to help me understand them all.
I would like to have a collection of position statements, rationales, and pathways to support teachers who are trying to get started. I would love to be able to provide some responses that teachers can use when they are asked questions at the strategy. Knowing in my heart that this is the right approach doesn’t help much when I’m trying to convince someone to adopt Connected Learning.
Finally, and most significantly, I wish I had the funding to pursue all these documents that I want to write. It’s so frustrating to have an idea of the kinds of documents and resources teachers need and not to be in a position where I can create them because I need to pursue work that will give me a paycheck.

[Photo: Notes by English106, on Flickr]

Filed under connected learning, Teaching Composition

Easy Ways for Kids and Teens to Make Greeting Cards

December 9, 2012 by Traci Gardner

No matter what holiday you are celebrating this month, nothing is quite as precious as a handmade card—especially when it comes from a family member or friend.

We’ve collected some easy ways that you can help the students you teach make cards in class as well as instructions that you can send home for families to use together during the Winter holidays.

The resources do not refer to any particular holiday, so they work whether students and their families want to make cards for Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas, or Kwanzaa. The materials can even be used to celebrate the first snowfall or wish someone a Happy New Year. And, of course, the same instructions work for Thank You cards too. So read on, and get ready to make some fun greeting cards!

Make a simple card: Make a funny or thoughtful greeting card with photos of family or friends and a poem, joke, or riddle. Find simple step-by-step instructions on how to Send a Smile! For a full lesson plan for early elementary students, check out Using Greeting Cards to Motivate Students and Enhance Literacy Skills.
Draw a cartoon: Use the Comic Creator to make a one-of-a-kind greeting card. Kids and teens can illustrate scenes that show how they celebrate with family and friends or create scenes that show what would happen if a dinosaur showed up to celebrate at their home.
Write a poem: Help a Child Write a Poem for the inside of a card, or frame it for a special piece of art. Use one of our online tools to write an Acrostic Poem, a Diamante Poem, or a Theme Poem.
Create a folded card: Use the Stapleless Book to make an 8-page card for a special family member or friend—and it all fits on one sheet of paper!
Design a postcard: Write a postcard with the Postcard Creator then print it out and illustrate the front in a variety of ways, like drawing a picture, creating a collage of images, or printing and pasting clipart in place.
Publish a greeting: Make a nontraditional greeting card with the Book Cover Creator. Kids and teens can imagine what a book about a Winter day with their family would be like and create front and back cover as a greeting card.
Compose a year-end letter: Help a child or teen write a letter to friends and family that sums up all the things they have done in 2012 with the Letter Generator.

Whatever you do, hope you have a fantastic December. Leave us a note in the comments on how you spent your time together!

—Traci Gardner

[[This entry cross-posted in the Community Hub on the Thinkfinity Community site. Photo: Group work on cards by San JosÃ© Library, on Flickr]

Filed under classroom activities, ReadWriteThink

Bits November Blog Flashback

December 4, 2012 by Traci Gardner

Bedford/St. Martin’s Bits bloggers posted on topics ranging from our work as writing program administrators to how we teach digital natives. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about politics and how writing fits into general education requirements—and don’t miss Andrea Lunsford’s praise for short writing assignments in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

Writing Program Administration

Barclay Barrios contributes to Restructuring Gen Ed and how we teach with his Notes on a Train.
Doug Downs considers what we want to change, over their years in college, in the ways our students understand writing in Priorities.
Barclay Barrios takes a look at the implications of the legislated categories for Florida’s statewide Gen Ed core in The Buckets.
Liz Wardle explains that “Writing Is an Object of Study” is an Underlying Threshold Concept for WAW Curricula.
Barclay Barrios asks, “Public speaking or more writing?” as he continues his series on Restructuring Gen Ed, with The Bloodbath.

About Writing and Being a Teacher of Writers

Holly Pappas shares reflections on a Saturday in Boston, as a Writer, Reader, Student, and Teacher.
Susan Naomi Bernstein talks about Writing After Hurricane Sandy.
Traci Gardner gives us Ten Reasons she’s Thankful in the classroom, as a writer, and as a teacher.

Classroom Strategies and Resources

Susan Naomi Bernstein discusses dialect and codeswitching in Part 2 of The Nice White Lady Teaches Comma Splices.
Traci Gardner links some Tempting New Media Assignment Ideas that are ready to use this term or next.
Nedra Reynolds gives us A Dialog on Reflection in Perspective and asks readers to respond to her questions.
Andrea Lunsford leads colleagues in a cheer in Let’s Hear It for Short Writing Assignments.
Traci Gardner shares one of her favorite activities—a time capsule writing assignment.
Jay Dolmage turns junk mail into classroom activity in Catalog Writing.
Steve Bernhardt discusses how to use the Model research papers included with Writer’s Help.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

Jack Solomon takes a look at the Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed and finds Signs of Hypercapitalism in the USA.
Donna Winchell thinks about how the either/or fallacy relates to the recent election in her post, Either/Or Politics.
Jack Solomon considers the challenge of using mass media to predict American electoral behavior in Tea for Tú.
Andrea Lunsford reflects on lies, fact checking, and ethical rhetoric in her Post-Election Thoughts and Thanks.
Donna Winchell considers the arguments surrounding consumers, stores, and shopping on Black Friday Eve.

Teaching with Technology

Michael Michaud talks about technology, digital “natives,” and “immigrants” in Talkin’ Bout My Generation.
Andrea Lunsford looks at how Twitter connected people during Hurricane Sandy in her post Tweeting in Times of Crisis.
Holly Pappas is looking for A low-tech solution to canned comments.
Michael Michaud shared 3 scenarios for The Paperless Writing Class. It’s about much more than avoiding printing.
Traci Gardner challenges colleagues to start Connecting with Twitter Chats.

For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to sign up for the Ink’d In newsletter (and other resources), like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

—Traci Gardner

[This entry cross-posted as a Note on Bedford/St. Martin’s page on Facebook. Photo: The first word is the hardest by APM Alex, on Flickr]

Filed under Bedford Bits, classroom activities

Posts You’ve Gotta Read from Bedford/St. Martin’s

November 1, 2012 by Traci Gardner

During October, the Bedford/St. Martin’s blogs posted over three dozen new posts on topics ranging from pop culture to teaching with technology. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about current events and the the election, and don’t miss Andrea Lunsford’s discussion of syllabus design in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

Writing Program Administration

Liz Wardle (Bits) explains the 5 Stages of Learning to Teach Writing about Writing.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) describes his department’s Orientation for new and returning teachers.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) considers the complicated question of Who Gets to Teach Writing?
Heather Sellers (Lit Bits) shares a letter to a new graduate student, who is Feeling Underprepared, Underread, Under Everything.
Nedra Reynolds (Bits) describes a dissertation on Trinary Collaborations: An Alternative Model for Writing Instruction.
Doug Downs (Bits) responds to questions about the purpose of first-year composition in Refuse It, Break It, Remake It.
Guest blogger Dan Martin (Bits) explores The Intersection between Writing About Writing and Writing Across the Curriculum: An Examination of the Reading, Writing, and Research Processes of UCF Faculty from across Disciplines.

About Writing and Being a Writer

Traci Gardner (Bits) reflects On Being a Writer in her first post for the National Day on Writing.
Traci Gardner (Bits) catches up on last year’s National Day on Writing with 10 reasons #whyiwrite.
Susan Naomi Bernstein (Bits) Teaches Writing for Home, School, and Everyday Life at The Free University of NYC.
Traci Gardner (Bits) gets ready for the National Day on Writing by sharing the details of #whatiwrite.

Classroom Strategies and Resources

Andrea Lunsford (Bits) is Learning from WOVE, that is, written, oral, visual, and electronic modes of expression.
Holly Pappas (Bits) reflects on her students’ First Attempts at Making Videos.
Steve Bernhardt (Bits) explores Writing about Financial Literacy and considers other real-life issues in composition class.
Elizabeth Losh (Bits) explores doodling, drawing, and hand lettering as she considers the act of Illustrating Understanding.
William Bradley (Lit Bits) shares great, free resources for teachers in Web of Truths: 5 Sites for Creative Nonfiction.
Emily Isaacson (Lit Bits) explains how theater is a participatory event in The Greek Chorus: Or, You Will All Have to Participate.
Andrea Lunsford (Bits) explores The Art of Designing a Syllabus and asks for some help assessing multimodal texts.
Holly Pappas (Bits) talks about helping students find research topics in Finding that elusive spark.
Susan Naomi Bernstein (Bits) talks about grammar, race, and privilege in The Nice White Lady Teaches Comma Splices.
William Bradley (Lit Bits) ponders how to advise student writers anxious to start their careers in Unpublished, but Non-Perishable.
Traci Gardner (Bits) thinks about how to talk with students about what they need to write.
Emily Isaacson (Lit Bits) focuses on skills for student success and Helping students engage with lectures and other content.
Jonathan Alexander (Bits) describes a course he’d love to teach in Manga on Manga: Thinking about Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life in the Comp Class.
Traci Gardner (Bits) discusses the role of audience and purpose in The Truth About Proofreading.
Steve Bernhardt (Bits) explains how he uses Cover Memos as Reflective Writing in the classroom.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

Jack Solomon (Bits) thinks about the process of selecting a topic for a researched semiotic interpretation in The Inquiry Is the Instigation.
Andrea Lunsford (Bits) talks about the cultural shift from consumption to production in The Next Industrial Revolution?
Donna Winchell (Bits) spends some time analyzing Elements of argument and the first Presidential debate.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) talks about polarization and getting used to difference as he teaches The Election in the composition classroom.
Jack Solomon (Bits) uses The Semiotics of Critical Thinking to analyze the emotional appeal of popular cultural imagery.
Andrea Lunsford (Bits) analyzes recent political debates and asks, “When is an interruption not an interruption?”
Donna Winchell (Bits) examines current events for evidence of the power that words have in What a Difference a Word Makes.
Watch the latest Bedford/St. Martin’s video— Going Viral: Political Campaigns and Video.

Teaching with Technology

Michael Michaud (Bits) shares Tales of an Emergent Academic Technologist or, Getting Out of the Garden.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) explores the issue of eLearning at his university and thinks about the possibilities for hybrid courses.
Michael Michaud (Bits) reflects on how access to computers shapes what and how he teaches in Get a Room.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) discusses the challenges of returning students’ graded work while also complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in FERPA-fy Me.

For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to sign up for the Ink’d In newsletter (and other resources), like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

—Traci Gardner

[Photo: _MG_7158 by Neon Tommy, on Flickr]

Cross-posted as a Note on Bedford/St. Martin’s page on Facebook.

Filed under Bedford Bits

Aligning Composition with Student Interests

May 24, 2012 by Traci Gardner

I was lucky enough to teach a first-year composition course in the mid-80s that focused on the rhetoric of war. Admittedly, the topic was not one I had any deep ties to. It wasn’t one I would have chosen on my own. I took on two sections of the specially themed course as a favor.

I was not an authority on the topic. I hadn’t even reviewed all the texts for the course before I began teaching. I had to work to keep up with the readings and the films that the class watched. I designed the usual kinds of assignments and activities, which I have documented in a List of Ten and in my blog post Assignment: Naming and the Rhetoric of War. Frequently, the students in the classroom knew more than I did about historical battles and current military events.

Despite all the reasons the course could have gone wrong, I found myself with some of the most engaged students I have ever taught. Their personal interest in the topic made all the difference. Students had signed up for the course because they were interested in exploring the topic, so they came into the classroom ready to dig into the texts.

By contrast, the overwhelming majority of students signing up for first-year composition courses had no details on the courses they were choosing. It’s much harder in this more typical unthemed composition course to create contexts that will lead to personal connections for students.

You can read the list of possible contexts for a generic composition course and my ideas on how to align composition with student interests in my post on the Bedford Bits site.

Filed under Bedford Bits, connected learning, Teaching Composition Tagged with interest-driven learning

Gaming the Writing Process

May 16, 2012 by Traci Gardner

What would happen if we rethought the ways that we think and talk about writing and the writing process to use the kind of language and thinking that people use when they play games? That’s the question I’ve been pondering during the several weeks since Katie Salen’s webinar, Making Learning Irresistible: 6 Principles of Game-like Learning.

Last week I talked about how to make a curriculum relevant by thinking like a game designer when you structure your curriculum. This week I want to take that idea a little further by considering how a game designer might teach writing.

Read more about the 3 fundamental ways my teaching will change if I apply the strategies of game play to the writing process in my complete post on the Bedford Bits site.

[Photo: The Art of Video Games 2012 by blakespot, on Flickr]

Filed under Bedford Bits, connected learning, Teaching Composition Tagged with gaming

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pedablogical

Twitter Resources Round-up

Help Keeping Your Teaching Resolutions

Bits December Blog Flashback

Best Educational Apps from Thinkfinity

Download Reading and Writing Apps

Download Apps for Other Content Areas

Build an App!

My Connected Learning Round-up for 2012

Easy Ways for Kids and Teens to Make Greeting Cards

Bits November Blog Flashback

Posts You’ve Gotta Read from Bedford/St. Martin’s

Aligning Composition with Student Interests

Gaming the Writing Process

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