Twitter-Based Literature Discussion

You must choose . . . 

or Mark Twain, my Kindle and My Tweeps

Matching tech tools to needs is tricky.  For example, I am reading Mark Twain's Innocent's Abroad  with my AP Language Class on my Kindle on my Ipad2 and I want to share a highlighted passage.  After I highlight the passage I have 2 share options.  Although I have mixed feelings about social networking and students, I opted to share via twitter.  This created a page that houses the quote I selected as well as the writing prompt I attached to this quote.

Note the use of hashtags in prompt tweets

Sharing also sent a message out via twitter.  I found another passage and crafted a question about tone.  Each of these used a unique hashtag in order to facilitate tracking and sharing the class discussion.  While Twitter makes much of following people and gathering followers, a hashtag allows any user to find and participate in an ongoing discussion.  In this case I used

Content Capture: Matching Tool with Need

There are many times at school when I want to capture what is happening.  It might be a discussion, a writing conference, presentations, or a guest lecture.  Today we had one of these opportunities.  Leon Vermont, A childhood survivor of the Holocaust in France visited our school to share his story.  Many Holocaust stories have been captured in many settings.  When we hear a story it is our duty to listen and share.

As keeper of the school youtube channel,  I have adopted the mantel of default videographer.  I set up the camera and tripod and got a good capture of the talk.  Leon was a great speaker, still very in touch with his own emotional memory of that time in his life, from ages 11-14.

Echo Smart Pen, what a tool!

In addition to the video, I decided to try out a new tool.  I made a Livescribe Pencast of Leon Vermont. 
Leon Vermont, Childhood Holocaust Survivor

The Power of Interest

The ninth graders are currently reading The Sunflower: on the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness.  When I say currently, I mean they are reading it in the room as I type.  They are all engaged and on task, even the students with computers.  What is the secret?  This is the first text we have read as a class that does not have a significant comprehension challenge.  While some of the students find they don't have enough prior knowledge about the holocaust, everyone finds Wiesenthal's writing accessible.

I am fortunate.  I have control over which texts I use in class.  I choose to put the more accessible texts later in the year.  We build our comprehension skills on The Odyssey and Julius Caesar.  When we hit these texts in the spring (the Sunflower, Catcher in the Rye)  the students dig in and read ahead simply because they are not fighting for understanding at every word.

I am grateful when they dynamic works, my grand plan pays out with a day that reflects the student's growing skills and maturity. (Currently knocking wood).

My Amplified Classroom

This inexpensive FM wireless
plugs into my computer

I teach in a small classroom and I use a microphone.  Although some teachers on staff think I am nuts for using a mic in such a small setting, I do it for a few simple reasons:








But according to the internet, there are a bunch of complex reasons to do this: 
(The Research)

Putting the "Style" in Stylus

Notice, these pens have no point.

While most of the tech in my classroom is pretty advanced, one of my favorite tools is my smart board stylus.  Running any classroom requires flexible on-the-spot problem solving and this is also hold true for all things tech.  As a SmartBoard user, I have struggled with line quality and alignment.  These issues have improved over the years with updates to the software.  A source of ongoing minor frustration has been the pens that come with the smart board.  The pen tips become soft and ill-defined.

The "quill" actually has a brass tip, and was bought at Barnes and Noble

My first solution was to trim the pens.  I used regular scissors and gave the pens a fairly severe clipping.  This solved the issue for almost 2 weeks.  After that amount of time, the tips started to fan out again.  My new solution was inspired by the quill on my desk.   In the midst of class, I remembered that the Chemistry teacher had given the art teacher some feather from the turkey the chemistry teacher's nephew had raised for his 4-H project.  I sent one of my student's to get one of these feathers, and he returned quickly with the feather.

The calligraphy pen setting 

 The feather has become my favorite accessory in the class.  I love the quillish nature of how it interacts with the white boards "calligraphy pen" setting.   The feather is well-suited as a stylus.  It rests well in my hand, and the tip is great.  It is well defined, but smooth.

A fine tip makes a fine line, the rest is just putting the style in stylus

Formatting Dialogue: the Mechanics of Adapting Julius Caesar

So this morning I want the students to begin building the documents that will be their Julius Caesar adaptation projects.  To that end, I need to teach them about play formatting and give them some formatting tools.  What I will need are models: I found 2 good ones.  The first model is from Script Frenzy.  This model focuses on a centered script.  They also include a word template at the bottom of the page.  I will show the students how to use this document to make their own, so this page has both a model and a scaffolding tool.

On of the students with a flair for the dramatic shared his journal.
 We talked about his use of the left hand margin and ( )'s.

The second model is a PDF from ozscript.org.  This model has all of the character names on the left instead of in the center of the page.  This gives me 2 models that illustrate the choices available to the students.  Each model also discusses how the formatting functions.

I opened the class with a journal prompt: Write a dialogue between two characters, use the dialogue to reveal something surprising about one of the characters.

Then I had the students share their journal by reading out and I showed a couple of journals using the webcam as a document camera.  We talked about what dialogue looks like and why it looks that way.

Adapting Julius Caesar, Pooling Web Resources

Today in class the kids will be working on their adaptation of Julius Caesar (see assignment below), so I went out into the orchard and looked around for some tips on Adapting Shakespeare.  I found some great information on the adaptation of history by Shakespeare for the play originally.

As well as this information about activities for actors using adaptation of Shakespeare.  I have pulled these videos, each with a different take on adaptation

.
Shakespeare on the Subway


A scene from a film adaptation of Julius Caesar




The Assignment I gave to the students: