Our class’s 12th Kindle arrived today. Thank you very much, Katie!
The Classroom Kindle Project continues to grow. I’m amazed by the generosity of my friends and anonymous donors.
My goal is to acquire a class set of 24 Kindles before next school year. That way, each of my classes can use the Kindles for a quarter at a time.
My ultimate goal, of course, is to provide a total 1:1 environment and to completely sync my physical classroom library (now 500 titles) onto the Kindles.
I believe strongly that reading is the most important skill to teach. Students who read well have significant advantages in all academic subjects.
Even more important is teaching students the joy of reading. Many of my students read fairly well but have not made reading a significant part of their lives. I want my students to read newspapers and magazines regularly and to read hundreds of books during high school.
If you know anyone who would like to donate their old Kindle to my students, please direct them to iserotope.com/contribute. Thank you so much!
Yesterday and today, students at my school took the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). They need to pass the test — which covers basic skills in English and Math — in order to graduate.
Don’t worry, this post won’t extol or decry testing in general. But in observing the students, I noticed some trends that could help me become a better teacher.
1. The English part tests reading stamina. Several students said, “This is too much reading!” That’s not a good sign. Sure, the reading is boring, as it is on every standardized test. But by no means is the reading too much. My students’ frustration speaks to how little we expect our students to read. These comments embolden me to champion voluntary reading, where students get to choose what they read. Students who completed the 1,000,000 Word Challenge last year had no problem with the exam.
2. The writing prompt tests following the rules. If the prompt calls for a letter and you write an essay, that’s a problem. (So is misspelling a word that’s in the directions.) Figuring out a prompt is a crucial skill. Some may say that making students adhere to a prompt lessens their creativity. I think that’s hogwash. Rather, deciphering a prompt shows precise reading and critical thinking skills.
3. We need to teach more content in social studies classes. At our school, we teach concepts well. Our students understand social justice and civil rights movements and equality. Those are important things to learn. But I wish we taught people, places, and events better so that students have more precise evidence to back up their claims. It’s a problem when students have to recall something they learned in seventh grade social studies class.
4. We need to teach writing genres more explicitly. What’s the difference between a business letter, persuasive essay, expository essay, and analytical essay? I don’t think my students know. In my students’ minds, the teacher assigns them something to write, and then they write it. In fact, the teacher likely will simplify the task for the students — offering templates, a suggested organization, perhaps even sentence starters. This scaffolding doesn’t help students learn how to write for different purposes and different audiences.
5. More practice working alone is necessary. Our school values collaborative learning. Indeed, our society needs more inventive, creative people working together to solve problems. But I worry that my students have trouble figuring out how to do things on their own. There’s a quick give-up factor, and it’s tough for them to utilize resources (e.g., context clues, prior knowledge, test-taking strategies). We need to do more to teach hard work through personal struggle.
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The last two days of CAHSEE made me proud yet extremely nervous. I’m proud because our students took the test seriously and did their best. But I’m nervous because I know that many of our students will not pass. You can bemoan our society’s overboard test-taking culture. But that’s just an excuse. After all, the CAHSEE tests basics everyone should know. What’s really happening is that our students of color in urban areas have low skills and have a history of not learning in chaotic classrooms. And we must do something about it.
In my last post, I wrote an update about the Kindle Project: my dream to get a class set of 25 Kindles and to sync my physical classroom library on the devices.
Yesterday, the Kindle Project got a big boost in two ways.
1. We unwrapped our class’s 11th Kindle. Pauline (right) got the honors this time.
Funny side note: My students are beginning to think that this whole Kindle Project is getting a little out of hand. Some think I’m secretly getting them each a Kindle so they can keep one as they go to college. (That’s not happening.) Others say I should change the “Kindle Project” to the “Fund Our Entire College Tuition Project.” (That’s not happening, either.)
2. We received a big donation for Kindle books. I was hoping for $250 by April 1, and the goal was met in less than 24 hours. Amazing. (Do you know anyone who’d like to donate? It’s easy. Just click on the ChipIn button on the right sidebar.)
This money will go toward buying e-books that students want and toward syncing my Kindle library with my classroom physical library.
It’s powerful to tell students that I’ll buy them any book they want (so long as they explain why they’re interested in the book and why others might want to read it, too).
It’s also powerful to tell students that every book they see on the bookshelf is also on their Kindle. That’s the goal.
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As you can tell, I’m starting to get pretty excited. My dream of getting a class set of Kindles with a substantial e-book library might actually come true. I am very appreciative of all the donors. Thank you again!
The State of the Kindle Project is strong! Here’s an update.
1. We’ve more than tripled the number of Kindles in the classroom. I started the year with three Kindles for student use. Now there are 10. And one is coming tomorrow! (Thank you, Angela!) I am appreciative of all the donations.
Our current Kindle inventory consists of the following:
1 Kindle 1
2 Kindle 2s
5 Kindle Keyboards
1 Kindle Touch
1 Kindle, Latest Generation
2. Our e-book library has tripled. In September, I had 30 books on the Kindles. Now there are 97. By next week, we’ll hit the 100 mark. More important than the number, however, is the quality of the books. I want books on these Kindles that students want to read.
Here are some books added in the last two weeks:
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers
Lockdown, by Walter Dean Myers
Looking for Alaska, by John Green
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen
I’m still trying to figure out the best way to encourage e-book donations. Maybe I’ll set up an Amazon Wishlist (though nobody likes those) or a donation button on the sidebar. Who knows. (I decided to go with the sidebar. Check it out!)
What’s neat, though, is that my “library mirroring” vision has begun. I want students to be able to browse our classroom’s physical library and then be able to read the book on their Kindle. It’ll take time, but my goal is for the physical and electronic libraries to sync, to match up perfectly.
3. Students are reading, asking for books, and choosing classics. Opponents of voluntary reading say students don’t challenge themselves with rigorous texts. I don’t find that argument convincing.
First, it’s not true. Last week, one student started reading Animal Farm. Yesterday, another student got into Things Fall Apart. If we give students choice, they choose what’s right for them.
Second, even if it were true, it doesn’t matter. Voluminous reading is what matters most. For my students (and most young people), whose reading is minimal, quantity is much more important than quality, whatever that means. Before getting nervous that our students aren’t reading Dickens, let’s get 30-40 books under their belts.
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Next steps for the Kindle Project:
Reach 15 Kindles by the end of March.
Reach 150 e-books by the end of March.
Develop strategy to get to 25 Kindles (a class set) by September.
Thank you so much for your support. Please let me know if you have ideas!
This year, I’m trying to teach my students the importance of having zero grammar errors in their final essays.
For the most part, I haven’t been successful…yet.
But tonight, I think I had a (minor) breakthrough.
As students completed their corrections on Google Docs, I jumped from document to document, student to student. In the chat window, I asked if students wanted support getting down to zero errors.
About five or six agreed.
Then, I worked with each student until his or her essay had zero errors. Along the way, I taught a few grammar rules. The students asked questions. We noticed patterns of challenge and areas of improvement. It was fun.
It wasn’t anything special. But it worked.
Like my six grammar coaches, who provide weekly one-on-one tutoring for 12 students, my online coaching worked. Here’s why:
1. I didn’t let them stop until they got to zero errors. There was no way for the student to wriggle away from the standard.
2. They knew they weren’t on their own. There was trust. (In fact, there might have been more trust online than in real life. More about that in another post.)
3. It wasn’t mandatory, so students could opt in. Choice matters. As a teacher, I’m learning how to transform otherwise tedious learning activities into options attractive to students.
I’m pleased with my results. Yes, it took a long time, and by no means was this process efficient. But I’m hopeful that it will send a message that my standard of zero errors is both important and possible.
To me, that lesson — that error-free writing is both crucial and doable — is much more important to me than fixing the little errors themselves.
My teaching, after all, is about building individual academic character and collective academic culture.
Our class’s 12th Kindle arrived today. Thank you very much, Katie!
