From the Classroom Blogging Doldrums: What Would Teacher 2.0 Do?
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Sometimes you just want to give up. Instead, I’ll go transparent and see what ideas, counsels, or commiserations come from sharing.
It’s about the “Visionary Student Blogging” connective writing project.
The problem? Little vision, little connective writing.
It’s partly senioritis, I think. College applications, SAT’s, too many commitments to too many extra-curricular activities (got to have those bullets for the college application, even if they come at the cost of destroying both my learning and my GPA), too many week-long sports trips, too many AP classes that were chosen not for interest but again for careerist reasons.
It’s partly Korean culture: parents sending students to night and weekend schools for SAT prep, AP prep, tutors. Students confusing memorization skills with academic excellence, trained to “be instructed” rather than to “construct” meaning themselves. Having no time to be, reflect, explore, wonder (or having no energy, rather).
And it’s partly my own fault: all the macho posturing of Advanced Placement courses as “college-level, rigorous,” etc - and Wes Fryer’s etymolological connection, in Shanghai back in September, of “rigor” with “rigid” and “rigor mortis” echoes here - led me to buy in to what now seems a sadistic and pedagogically pathetic imperative to overload AP students with A Mountain Of Homework. I’ve stopped that and changed courses after seeing that Paradise Lost was over most of my seniors’ heads. Instead, I’m now trying to save Milton from being Hated by Association with AP by simply playing the Bard and reciting my favorite parts to them, with full bardic savoring of Milton’s high style, and then gushing explicative about those heights as if I was talking about it on a summer road trip with friends. Call it modeling the Oral Tradition. They’ll be given the wheel for the later books, and expected to do the same. (See Carolyn Foote’s “How Long Does It Have to Be?” post about homework load for more on this, and read Alfie Kohn’s The Truth About Homework for some research data.)
And it’s partly they don’t know how to be writers. They’ve ever only written what teacher tells them in school, by and large.
So. Again, the result: little vision, little effort, little connective writing. Little writing at all. (There are exceptions, blessedly.)
So they’ve pulled me back from Beyond Schooliness into Threatening Teacher mode. I don’t like it. Below is my schooly post to them. Tell me what you would do? Here it is:
You’ve seen the “What Makes a Quality Weblog” guide. It’s the one you used to give feedback on each others’ blogs a few weeks ago. Click here if you need to see it again.
I’ll use it to assess your blogs for two “test” grades - the “Composition” part of this “Literature and Composition” course. Writing schooly essay assignments is only one form of writing (and the least authentic one, at that. You’ll never write literary analyses in the real world).
Connective reading and writing is the other half of your writing development in this class.
This project started on September 18-ish. You just finished your eighth week since starting it. The finish date will be Friday, December 7. That’s 11 weeks of writing you need to show you were doing.
The “Quality Weblog” guide is meant to be just that: your guide. It tells you how to make an A (”mastery” on the guide), a B (”above average”), a C (”average”), or lower.
Biggest factors for your grade: frequency, connectivism (linking to and discussing BLOGS that match your interests), writing quality (titles, ideas, style, voice, presentation - photos, font, links correct, etc), and tags (organization). There should be evidence of “self-directed learning” - call it your chosen, interest- or passion-based research project - in your writings.
So here’s the math, with a bit of generosity*:
If you want an A for these two test grades: by December 7, you should have
- 45 posts; 10 “long-ish”; 22 “connected” (linking to posts you’ve found interesting, but more importantly, discussing WHY you found them interesting); 44 “short-ish”.
- for examples of “longish,” see JoonPyo’s post (good, but not connective at all, so nobody will find it in the real world), Nicole’s post 1 and post 2 (both good AND connective - Nicole seems to “get it” more than most students, and is a real pleasure to read - much more pleasant than her schoolwork), Shim’s post (good, but connects to a website instead of blog, so nobody will visit and form a network relationship). Or for a non-student example, see this post on “Have Fun - Do Good” about “How to Get Someone Other than Your Mom to Read Your Blog” - connective, fun, informative, useful (you don’t need that many links in your “connective” posts - one or two is fine).
- for examples of “short-ish AND connective,” see Jane’s post.
- finally, too many 1- or 2- sentence posts really makes you look lazy
Think a paragraph or two.
If you’ve been writing regularly, you’re okay. If not, you’ve got some catching up to do. Or you can aim for a C by using the guide.
Finally: if you still haven’t found feeds to match your interests, I’ll say it one last time: see me and I’ll help. Or don’t, and get what you deserve for not having your act together enough to problem-solve.
Note: I will help you write more by scaling back the Paradise Lost reading load. But you must yourself make the time - key word, make - to write regularly. You won’t go anywhere if you never start, in writing or in life.
—
*the “generosity,” for those who didn’t do the math, is that I reduced 11 weeks x 5 posts/week = 55 posts to only 45; I also reduced “11 long-ish” to “10″.
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Clay,
I went to the wiki earlier and read your directives. I feel your frustration: you’re trying to give these students an incredible gift/opportunity, to find a creative outlet that might become a lifetime venue for expression, reflection, interaction.
You can create opportunities; you can’t compel people to make use of them.
I see this each time my current events class meets. I try to be innovative, to include cool tools to enhance the learning experience, and most of the kids aren’t interested. PowerPoint is as creative as they want to get. A few of them will pass on the opportunity to self-correct assignments once they obtain a passing grade - they’ll “take” a 75% rather than spend a few minutes to raise their grade.
But the adults in the building aren’t any better when it comes to innovation or change. One or two teachers take the time to explore links or tools I show them. No one else in the school, to my knowledge, has a blog or reads blogs as a matter of course.
As far as your AP students go, would it work better if you found them mentors rather than send them “out” into the blogosphere to locate kindred spirits on their own? I’d be happy to volunteer, and I’m sure one Twitter would bring a slew of others. I realize that this would eliminate the exploration component of your assignment, but with all the pressures and insecurities of adolescence, perhaps your students aren’t motived or mature enough to find there path without a bit more guidance.
Obviously as a fairly new blogger and inexperienced cyber citizen, I’m no expert on these matters. If I can help, just let me know. I love blogging, and would like to offer encouragement to the next generation of online journalists and diarists.
diane
[Reply]
diane
17 Nov 07 at 11:50 am
Diane, you write:
It’s an intriguing idea.
I put your comment on Twitter. We’ll see if this goes anywhere.
What you say about the average common denominator is so true. My own reality-check maxim, “Always expect to reach three out of a thousand,” is worth remembering.
I’m not close to giving up. I’m hoping the stick of compulsory writing - note the permission to write mostly short posts - will ultimately transform, with patience, into the carrot of self-compelled expression on their blogs. Put another way, the lure of their own content, after they decorate their blogs with it, should hopefully grow on them?
[Reply]
Clay Burell
17 Nov 07 at 12:02 pm
Clay,
I’m in as well.
Thanks for sharing your struggles, and I agree with Diane that it seems just as hard for the adult learners.
One thing I’ve realized with my own faculty is not everyone is expressive verbally. Some teachers like to write and read, some like to see visuals, some like to show what they are doing in photographs rather than write….some like to work together, some like to work alone.
Any chance that some of their posts could be photographs, or videoblogs, or other representations of their feelings and ideas?
And like Diane, I’d certainly be happy to mentor as well.
I also think that maybe adding an auditory element would help. One of our teachers does what I think of as the equivalent of blogging, which he calls Occasional papers.
(Actually other teachers now do it, but I think it was his idea originally)
Students write about something that interests them, has piqued their curiosity, bothers them, etc., and once they’ve written it, they read it aloud to the class…and then they just talk about it. The papers are like essays, about what’s on their minds, which is why they remind me of blogs.
And like you, he writes himself and reads his, and is honest when things are bothering him.
I’m meandering a bit, but I guess my point is–I think the in-class sharing is an important piece. It gives the students examples, it gets them interested, they can authentically discuss what they are hearing….and then it can carry over into their own writing later.
I do think the caveat is, if it gets too schooly, it loses it’s energy, you know?
It’s a fine balance between blogging and “assignment-like” writing.
To me the point of it is reflection, but as I said above, I’m realizing that as much as I like to reflect in words, that is not everyone’s preferred method of reflection.
Food for thought…Carolyn
[Reply]
Carolyn Foote
17 Nov 07 at 12:08 pm
Lord knows I love to hear/read myself!
Maybe once they realize that their comments won’t be censored, that they have an opportunity to tell their own story in their own way, some of them will step up and be heard.
Oh where are the activists of the ’60s?
[Reply]
diane
17 Nov 07 at 12:09 pm
Clay,
One other thing I wanted to mention. In her work on the research process, Carol Kuhlthau identifies that the most difficult stage emotionally for students is when they are “deciding on” their topics and first starting. They are stressed, don’t know what to research, think they can’t do it, etc. Not having been asked all that often to research whatever they want, it can become hard for them to locate that gem of an idea.
That’s the stage where there’s the most resistance, kids wanting to give up or change topics. But if we offer them some scaffolding, they can hang in there, and then once they get going and their concept materializes, they find their “flow” and then really get moving.
So I do think a key here is to find the scaffolding, and hang in there with them until they get going, without making it too onerous, but recognizing this may be a normal stage.
[Reply]
Carolyn Foote
17 Nov 07 at 12:30 pm
Clay,
The Korean culture you describe resides in my school as well. Even in China, it influences the way Koreans approach learning. For the most part, they expect to be instructed and tend to look charmingly perplexed when asked to inquire, make conclusions, and take meaningful action. Your “Visionary Student Blogging” project lends itself to inquiry-based learning very well. Your right not to give up on it. I like the mentoring and scaffolding ideas you got from Diane and Carolyn. You’ve probably come across it already, but I’d like to recommend a book Robin and I learned about last summer at Lehigh. I’m using it now to help me develop a shared vision with my students, one that will lead them to more constructive learning. It’s called The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, and Bryan Smith. I’m finding the sections entitled Mental Models and Shared Vision inspirational, especially when it appears that I should just give it up. Cheers!
[Reply]
Tod
17 Nov 07 at 1:53 pm
Hi Tod,
Thanks for the input. I’d love to hear more. Any nuggets you care to distill from the book for us? (Robin just left to Bangladesh for a week, so no luck there.) Maybe we can Skype a bit? I’ll record and share what you offer, if okay?
Good to hear from you. Too bad we couldn’t hang out in Shanghai.
[Reply]
Clay Burell
17 Nov 07 at 1:59 pm
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