It makes you think, doesn't it? I wonder if categories here (Good vs. Evil) are a too simplistic. I'm curious, what other wolves battle inside us all? Sounds like a great paper topic for my students!

It's been a busy semester and a lot of new teaching techniques, tips, and tricks have been tossed my way. At times it's been a tad overwhelming figuring out how to best use them all in my classroom, a small inner voice reminding me at times that I shouldn't adopt a ton of new practices without some serious thought. Here are a few of the books and practices I've been looking into --

Creative Problem Solving – This book (Treffinger, Isaksen, and Stead-Doval) has some interesting ideas for leading students through problem solving. Most of the process is pretty straightforward:

• Give students a problem/question
• Allow them time to generate ideas
• Refine the ideas using a variety of modular tools
• When students have a refined idea, allow them time to work on an appropriate project

Generally, the ideas are pretty solid, but I found some of the tools clunky and lacking the refinement needed for struggling students. When you teach students that come from diverse educational backgrounds, you need to be flexible in your methods and I'm just not sure that the CPS process can achieve that without a lot of tinkering, especially when I have something even better available…

Question Formulation Technique – Now THIS technique got my attention! QFT is a very simple process of getting students to ask their own questions. I normally use a Driving or Essential Question to start off units, projects, and papers, but under this method instead I create an intriguing statement and allow students to generate their own questions that connect to the topic. They can then use their questions to focus research and as a driving focus for a project. The tool set is simple for students to master and is similar in concept to CPS, but far more student friendly. A colleague of mine made scaffolding QFT even easier by creating instruction cards for students, complete with question stems that could be used during the generation and reflection phases. One of the great things about QFT is how easy it is to use in my current curriculum. As an English teacher I have students write quite a few papers, but as much of my curriculum is also Project-Based Learning there are several times throughout the year where students are supposed to design projects and experiments from their own questions. In the past this hasn’t always been successful, but this process is one I’ve used a few times this year and it seems to intrigue students to create some really interesting questions that they’ve gone on to use in very engaging personal projects.

Argumentation Process – Okay, it’s not like I haven’t had students write arguments before. It’s a state requirement and I’ve always felt that a student who can’t persuasively convince somebody of anything has missed something vital in his or her education. That doesn’t mean that the way I taught it is perfect however, so this year I decided to play around with Socratic syllogisms and logical arguments. Syllogisms are a foundational part of logic but are often overlooked by students (and teachers). I decided to have my students practice making simple syllogistic statements for an upcoming writing assignment and was impressed by the simple (but thorough) arguments they were able to build. When they used those as the groundwork for the argument papers, I found that most students were able to deftly support an argument with far more ease than they had on earlier persuasive assignments. I think the process is definitely one I can use next year earlier on to help scaffold my teaching of argumentative writing.

All in all it’s been an interesting few months and I’m closely examining some changes to my teaching practices for next year. Considering the amount of work I’ve already done with using driving questions to lead my PBL classes, it makes sense to work on melding the QFT process into what I already do. I’m happy with how syllogistic arguments worked for my students and I think it’ll support both my goals for writing and the new district standards and writing goals we roll out next year. 

I just finished reading Creative Problem Solving: An Introduction (Treffinger, Isaksen, Stead-Dorval, 4th Ed) and made the following presentation on the basic premise of CPS. It's a pretty neat process and one I'm looking at using in my classes as students start their new projects.

Today I was privileged to receive the Bob Costas Award for Writing from the College Board, an honor bestowed upon me due to the work my students have done publishing their book “Something to Fight For: The Stories and Experiences of American Veterans” and for the resulting service project where copies of the book were donated to the Gold Star and Marine Families. 

While I am indeed honored to receive this award, the honor is not entirely mine to bear alone. The honor really belongs to my students, whose hard work created this book, whose words grace its pages, whose efforts recorded the lives of these veterans so that others might come to know them and take solace in their experiences. 

This honor belongs to Tom Sheppard, who runs White Swan’s CWP program and started the original iteration of this project years ago with his English students. Without his hard work organizing the project and helping students get connected with veterans to interview, this book would not have been completed.

At it’s heart though, this honor really belongs to those men and women who were the book’s subjects: the veterans who have risked their lives -- and in some cases, lost them -- to secure and project our rights and privileges. Without them this great country would be nothing. I feel honored not that I received recognition for helping my students write this book, but that we were blessed to have such outstanding people to write about. 

To the College Board, I appreciate the acknowledgement you have given to my students and the work they have done

To all veterans, I thank you for your service and will continuing doing all that I can to pass it on.

 

I've spent the past four years guiding students through an exploration of Greek Literature, urging them to consider how the values of that culture might be reflected in their own, and working with them on the development of "shields", personal emblems of those people and things they value most. While my students have done this mostly through technology, I decided for my own shield to go somewhat more.... low tech. Hence the image above.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus fights a slew of obstacles as he wanders the Aegean, always working his way closer to home. During one adventure he is confronted by the Sirens, a group of monsters that seek to devour him and his crew. Old fragments of Greek pottery show these creatures to be women with the bodies of birds (much like harpies), while later imagery depicts them as mermaids. Incidentally, my daughter's name is the Gaelic term for siren/mermaid -- hence the idea of using the siren/harpy imagery to depict her. The metaphor is a bit mixed; she's something I want to protect, not a monster to fear, but the juxtaposition of the Greek imagery with the play off of her name played together well.

Eventually the image will be expanded upon, but for now I’m happy with my little siren. She’s a vivid reminder of my duty as a father – and as a teacher.

The final version "Warrior Stories" has been changed from it's working title to "Something To Fight For: The Stories and Experiences of American Veterans” and has gone to the publisher today! As soon as a proof copy arrives and checks out, I’ll start sending copies to Kickstarter donors and begin buying copies for the Gold Star Family donation project. You can preview the book below.

 

I've spent a good deal of space on this blog describing my ongoing Shield of Achilles Project and given what I hope is a pretty thorough overview of how I intended this project to unfold this year. For the most part the project has gone as intended and has followed the rough calendar outlined in my earlier posts, though a new opportunity for collaboration has landed on my desk that has made some interesting changes in where the project is headed this semester.

Warrior Stories – Why We Fight 

In a partnership with my school's CWP teacher, the English 12/CWP students at White Swan will be writing that tells the stories of local veterans. A fundraiser is currently in the works for this project to send copies of the finished book to Gold Star Families -- families of soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. We've raised over $600 of our $750 total and should be able to produce and ship the book by Christmas. The main subject of the book is the Yakama Warriors Association, a veteran group for tribal members from all military service branches. Students will also interview family members and friends who have been in the military and collectively these interviews and biographies will make up the bulk of the book. As my personal part of this book I intend to include interviews with my grandmother and uncle, as well as a biography on my grandfather, all of whom served in the Marine Corp.

The Shield of Achilles Meets "Warrior Stories" 

"Today, headlines from across the world keep Homer close by. The dragging of the bodies of U.S. Rangers behind their killers' jeeps through the streets of Mogadishu evoke the terrible fate of the Trojan hero Hektor. A young American widow was reported as saying she tried to close the door against the soldier who appeared at her home in dress greens, believing if she could keep him from speaking his news of her husband in Iraq, she could keep his news at bay -- a small domestic scene that conjured the heartbreaking words of Hektor's widow, Andromache: 'May what I say come never close to my ear; yet dreadfully I fear...'"

- Caroline Alexander, The War That Killed Achilles

The Iliad is a war epic, but not one that glorifies war. If anything, Homer spends far more time informing his audience of the costs of that war and illuminating for us the motivations behind why those soldiers fight. There is wealth to be had, for sure, but at their core these soldiers fight for glory, honor, respect, and to protect a way of life they value. In that respect they are not so different than our modern soldiers. As we get further in to the months of November and December my students will be producing their value-laden digital "shield" films, inspired by the shield Achilles carries into his final battle with Hector. But with 'Warrior Stories" there is an opportunity to go a bit further and tie this project to the real world. While students spend some of their time working on their films, they will be meeting with and interviewing members of the Yakama Warriors and other veterans and asking them why they joined the military and fought for our country. By compiling these stories to produce a book, while also creating their personal videos and distributing them on their blogs and YouTube, students will have an opportunity to showcase the connections they've made between classical Greek literature and the roles soldiers play in our modern lives. They will better understand the sacrifices these soldiers have made on their behalf and when asked to ponder what they value, what they themselves would fight for, will be better prepared to answer.

Next Steps

Both of these projects (film and book) are expected to be finished by mid-December. Copies of the book might be made available to the general public after the fundraiser has ended. For more information, check my Shield of Achilles Project page or my Twitter feed for updates.

 

As I near the end of my current project, the challenge of giving effective feedback is foremost in my mind. When I give feedback to my students, how do I ensure that the feedback I am giving is effective? Moreover, what do I even mean by effective in the first place? And how do I do this in a manner that doesn’t drive me crazy?

Giving Effective Feedback: To Chunk or Not To Chunk

Pretend you are an average student. Sometimes you understand perfectly what is expected of you, and other times you don't quite get it. Which of the following types of feedback do you think would work best for you?

• "Hey, great job on that paper!" The instructor walks away hurriedly...
• The assignment is returned to you, covered in red marks, questions, and comments... after it's already been graded.
• The instructor gives you measured feedback, tied to standards/expectations, during the process of creating the assignment and you have the opportunity to revise your work.

The third option seems like an obvious answer, right? Why then do so many of us NOT give our students descriptive feedback in measured, discrete increments (i.e. "chunked") and design our feedback to be used effectively – that is, to be used with purpose to improve the learning of students.

Largely the issue is time management. When do we have time to give detailed and measured feedback to our students when we’re often outnumbered 30 to 1? Not to mention, giving feedback in this manner REQUIRES us to work harder by giving more detailed feedback more often, rather than just marking up a paper at the end or giving a student a vague thumbs-up in passing. How do we manage giving effective feedback, knowing that time is going to be an issue?

Time Management: How To Not Go Insane, One Student At a Time

There is no magic formula for doing this, but I do know what has worked well for me. When I give students feedback, I follow this mental checklist:

1. Limit The Scope – If we’re prewriting, focus on developing ideas. If it’s a paper draft, focus on how well the ideas are supported. If it’s a near-final draft, start focusing on mechanics. If it’s a performance piece, pick one or two behaviors/standards and tell them how to improve. Don’t focus on everything or go beyond the scope of the current phase of the assignment.
2. “Self-Reference” Earlier Feedback – The next time I give them feedback, I make sure I acknowledge whether or not they used my earlier feedback, how they improved because of it, or where they still need to follow it. If they didn’t improve or follow, that needs to be something we discuss before they move on.
3. Rinse/Repeat – One of my goals is to never let feedback be a one-time deal. Often I’ll give limited but focused feedback to a student and tell them their work back to me as soon as they feel they’ve met my directions. I then reevaluate the work, reference the earlier feedback, and give them new limited/focused feedback and send them back to work.

If I were to hand write comments on a student’s physical work, the above checklist might seem daunting. I’ve found it’s best for me to give oral feedback to those students who retain it and short written feedback to those who might not remember what I said in 5 minutes. I’ve had my best luck giving them electronic feedback – comments on Edmodo, their blogs, through email. It creates a permanent record the student and I can refer back to, takes less time than hand writing comments, and as most of their work is on their blogs anyways, reinforces to students the value of digital literacy.

Giving effective feedback is challenging, requiring us to balance many factors: level of detail vs. the ability of students to follow through, effective use of our time, and ensuring that feedback is not a one-time deal. However challenging these factors may be, the end result is worth it if our actions help students improve the core skills they need for success.

 

How do you honor the sacrifices of those that have gone before us?

 

That's the question posed to this year's seniors. Working in both their English 12 and Contemporary World Problem classes, next month students will be writing essays, interviews, and biographies about the role local veterans have played in various military conflicts. This book is dedicated to a former student who died while serving in Afghanistan.

Part of this project is geared towards sending copies of the book to Gold Star families, families who have lost a loved one in combat. To support this goal, we've started a Kickstarter project to help us fund the cost of publishing the book and shipping it. If you would like to help support us in this project, please follow this link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kennetholden/warrior-stories-writing-books-for-gold-star-famili?ref=email