Lost in Translation: When Lesson Plans Go Wrong

As with most adventures in life, things don't always go as planned. It was 2007, light years away from Angry Birds, Iphones, and instagram. Class projects relied on the good ol' #2 pencil, glue stick, colored pencils, crayons, scissors, and a trusty ruler.

I was a week away from spending a romantic springbreak get-a-way with my husband touring the city of love and lights; Paris, France. But as with all teachers, it is in our DNA to carry our students in our hearts, even on vacation.

I was walking the aisles of Hobby Lobby when a miniature passport with the Eiffel Tower on the cover caught my eye. Wa-La! The Flat Stanley project was scheduled to launch. It would be the crème de la crème of literacy ventures. I would take a class-made Flat Stanley to Paris, snap photos, and return ready to translate the photos into a journal starring our very own Flat Stanley.

Before internet gizmos and gadgets, hashtags, and Avatars, Flat Stanley was a simple paper cut-out, shaped like a boy with reddish-brown hair, fair skin, and rosy cheeks. He was an ordinary boy until a bulletin board fell on him during the night flattening him. The 1964 book series, by Jeff Brown, has Stanley capturing burglars and retrieving keys from storm drains; feats of heroism attainable because of his flatness.

As fate would have it, the day my literacy class was scheduled to discuss our global project, I bit down on a cherry jolly rancher and cracked my back molar. I went to the dentist and was told I needed a root canal. I scrambled sub plans and wrote detailed notes on Flat Stanley literacy circles, mapping out his adventures to famous landmarks, and of course, using paper templates of Flat Stanley.

When I returned on Thursday, teachers would vote anonymously on which Stanley would go. It was a lot to ask from a substitute, but visions of the project trumped any common sense.

Dreams of French pastries and desserts kept me strong through the ordeal, and I was confident the Flat Stanley project would prevail. I would not...could not...let a jolly rancher take me and our class project down.

The swelling was worse than expected and  a dry socket would keep me out until Friday...the last day before spring break. I emailed my substitute who assured me the students were "highly engaged" and the students' characters were "coming along nicely."

I returned to school to find a plethora of paper creations lining the walls, only none of them looked like Flat Stanley.  I opened my book bag and a lump formed in my throat.

The crispy white sheets of Flat Stanley templates, were tucked neatly inside my school tote bag, along with my project plans. 

I looked around the room. There was a Harry Potter look-alike (scar and all), a transformer, a Justin Bieber, and even a Pegasus. I wanted to cry. What have they done? I cursed the jolly rancher. In the absence of templates and lesson plans, the students didn't know that they were creating a Flat Stanley replica that would actually go to France.


My substitute wasn't to blame either. I had forgotten to take the templates out and half of the plans were paper clipped to the copies. She only knew to read books and have students create a character using their imagination. It was the best I could've expected, really, given the circumstances.

I confess that I blamed the jolly rancher for years for the project gone bust. But there was a bright spot in the Flat Stanley Fiasco, as I called it for years. His character was unmistakable. With the exception of Flat Stanley's hair and white complexion, it was Kenny to a tee.

He had also designed a passport with a hand-drawn Eagle on the cover with black marker.

I pulled him aside, "You did a wonderful job drawing your character. What is his name?" (I excepted for him to say his name).

"Mrs. Dollar! He already has a name...Flat Stanley!"

After class, I quietly asked Kenny if he'd like for me to take his Flat Stanley and he answered, "Duh! That's why I made a passport!"

I confess that I wanted to create an authentic Flat Stanley, the one Mr. Brown would be proud of (or so I thought), but my teacher inner voice screamed no! I guess you could say it's one of the moments when, as a teacher, I had to let go of preconceived notions, my ideal lesson, the crème de la crème project.. and go with the heart.

To learn more about the Flat Stanley Literacy project: http://www.flatstanley.com/

Confession Reflection:

• Has there ever been a project/lesson that didn't go the way you planned? What did you learn from the experience?

• Can you think of a teacher who affirmed you in some way? Did the experience shape how you relate to your students?

• How can administrators nurture a climate that affirms risk-taking and celebrates "jolly rancher" moments?

I originally published this blog in 2013, but decided to republish this year. This is one of my all-time favorite blogs. I also found more pictures to post. 

Literacy in the New Millennium: Finding a Balance Between Audio and DigitalTexts

I confess change can be difficult. I recall with deep sorrow the day my overhead projector was rolled out of my room and replaced by a document camera.

In my opinion, my projector was a perfectly good piece of equipment! In fact, it took me almost a year to concede that the projector wasn't returning. I stayed in denial until 2015 when I tossed out my box of faithful transparencies.

As a middle school literacy coach, I felt like I had committed an unpardonable sin when I discovered the guilty pleasure of reading a book using my new Kindle reader. My first digital book was David and Goliath by Malcomb Gladwell. I enjoyed the nuance of changing pages with the swipe of my finger, highlighting features for unknown words, and the luxury of having a virtual bookshelf that could go anyplace with me.

During the school year 2011-2012, our campus introduced an audio library to staff and students. Our librarian worked with the students in my reading support class and showed them how to check in and check out Young Adult (YA) audio books. I saw firsthand how struggling readers, who would have never been able to read a YA novel on their own, listen to the same books as their peers. When available, my students would check out the physical book from the library and follow along with the audio. I saw my student's confidence as readers blossom.

My first audio book was Divergent by Veronica Roth. I spent part of my summer vacation listening to the  Divergent series while running errands or cleaning the house. There was something comforting about someone reading a book to me. Surprisingly, I didn't feel like I had missed out by not reading the text digitally or from a physical novel.

In spite of my experience with digital and audio texts, I always returned to the books I could hold in my hand. I found comfort in the familiarity of "dog earring" pages from a dime store paperback novel. I like the smell of paper and the sound of pages turning. I'm quite certain my first library card is boxed up in our attic most likely with my first edition of the Nancy Drew books.

Last fall, I co-designed an experimental research project to find if people (in general)  comprehended more after either listening to a text read by the author or by reading the digital text. Out of 117 volunteers (some of you may have participated), the results showed participants remembered more from an audio version of a text.

The graph shows the trend of correct questions answered. The orange line shows the correct answers by participants who listened to the author read the text. The blue line shows the correct answers by participants who read the text.

Would the results be differently had the passage been longer than 500 words?

Would the results have been different if the text had required different comprehension demands such as remembering a sequence of steps like in a recipe?

You can learn more about the study here: http://dollarliteracy.blogspot.com/2016/11/this-i-believe-experimental-study.html

As audio books and digital texts are being marketed by mega educational book companies, our students have options. Students who are reading "below grade level" have the opportunity to access the same literature as their "on level" peers by listening to the audio version of a book. Digital books often have features to allow English Language Learners to have unfamiliar words defined by touching and highlighting the word.

And yet, our students continue to be assigned paper based books to read in their courses.

One thing we should all agree on is that reading only happens when there is comprehension. Reading words without making meaning is nothing more than what is concerned "barking at print." I can "sound out" words in Spanish and sound like I am reading with some degree of fluency. However, I would have NO idea what the words meant without knowing the language!

Whether or not we agree on the type of text (audio, digital, paper-based), the goal is ALWAYS making meaning. In the classroom, ensuring that our students engage in DEEP READING is also critical. (At least that is my strong opinion).

What is deep reading?

According to Standford Center for Teaching and Learning, deep reading is a "deep approach to reading where the reader uses higher-order cognitive skills such as the ability to analyze, synthesize, solve problems, and thinks metacognitively in order to negotiate meanings with the author and to construct new meaning from the text. 

Lately, I have been wondering if the same high level of engagement could happen auditorily or by "deep listening". If so, what would this engagement look like? How would comprehension be measured?

As the millennium nears the twenty-year mark, changes in technology will continue to shape and define the literacy landscape. There will be more and more ways for students to engage with books whether it is auditorily, digitally, or perhaps with virtual reality.

The key will be finding a balance.

Confession Reflection

• What are the benefits of giving students choices on how they engage with literacy? How would this empower students?
• How might digital books support language acquisition for English Language Learners?
• Why is it important to expose our students to literacies other than paper-based? How would engagement with these types of literacies support college and career readiness goals?
• How can curriculum directors and literacy teachers support a balanced literacy program?

5 Post-Holiday Strategies to Thwart the Infamous Triple Dog Dare!

Whether it's on the playground, in the locker room, or discreetly right under your nose, bullying happens every moment of everyday. Here are 5 strategies to stop bullies in their tracks!

1) Know the players.

Bullies are sneaky to say the least! In fact, one of your beloved darlings who makes straight A's and gave you a box of dark chocolates for Christmas, may very well be picking on one of your not-so-beloved students. One of the best ways to spot a bully is to catch them off guard.

The cafeteria lunch line, locker room, and playgrounds are breeding grounds for bullies. Pay attention to who cuts in line (bully)? Who typically sits alone pretending to read (victim)? Who is picked last when choosing "teams?" Instigators are highly manipulative and sneaky!

2) Get the whole story.

Before jumping to conclusions, stop and meet with involved parties separately. This may need to happen in an administrator's office depending on the severity. Nonetheless, before picking up the phone to call home, listen to all parties involved before writing the student up.

Warning: document, document, document! I once had a mentor teacher of mine tell me, "If it isn't written down, it never happened." Having the student write down in his/her own words will protect yourself and your campus administration from future headaches.

3) Don't be an enabler.

Just because you needed a smaller student to play the sheep in your Christmas pageant doesn't mean you should have chosen the smallest student. Children who are typically bullied are targets for a reason. Maybe they haven't hit a growth spurt and are small for their age. They may be super-intelligent and would rather talk about computer coding or fossils over computer games.

Why make the bully's job any easier?!

4) Be approachable.

How you see yourself and how your student sees you are entirely different. You may appear 15 feet tall to a young child who is in first grade.

As goofy as it may sound, practice your facial expressions in the mirror. Find a way to diminish scowls and creased foreheads in exchange for a less scary look. It is one thing to show disapproval, it is another thing to scar a small child for life!

Perspective is everything!

5) Teach students to self-advocate.

There's a fine line between tattle-telling and self-advocating. Students who learn to stick up for themselves and express their needs are less likely to fall victim to bullies. When a student self-advocates they are empowering themselves.

Whining and crying are weak ways to express needs and may look like tattle-telling. Our job as teachers is to teach children the difference. (We can't assume that children will learn this at home). Comfort and console, but then role play to model how to self-advocate.

Taking a proactive and preventative approach  may not rid the world from bullies, but it can certainly help to stop them in their tracks! Be aware. Be proactive. Believe students when they tell you that someone is picking on them. I triple dog dare you!

Confession Reflection

• What is the difference between a student tattle-telling and student self-advocating?
• How can administrators support teachers who have reoccurring bullying episodes in their classrooms?
• Why is it important to have continued age-appropriate professional development on bully prevention? What resources would support this initiative on your campus?
• What kinds of proactive measures can be taken to prevent cyberbullying?

5 Safeguards to Grinch Proof Your Classroom this Holiday Season

As we enter the Yuletide season of joy and giving, let's be honest. Every last nerve in our body is about to be tested. Our students are on the verge of eating excessive amounts of sugar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They will be bombarded with ads for the newest, coolest toys available for a fraction of a cost if they shop online.

Their eyes will glaze over during class with visions of robot toys that shoot lasers at annoying little sisters, or video games that blow up evil empires while simultaneously chatting with an opponent in the UK.

As engaging as we try to make our lessons, they will not be able to compete with the big man in the fat red suit sporting a white beard who owns flying reindeer.  Yes. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all at risk of becoming a Grinch.

Before it's too late, I've pulled together five safeguards to protect our students, parents, and ourselves.

Safeguard #1: Expand your Heart

During this holiday season, two types of students tend to emerge. The Cindy Loo Who's who are innately kind, loving, and will complete homework and projects in a timely manner. You will love these students. "Who" wouldn't?

But what about the non-Cindy Loo Who's who will fail to complete assignments, push your last button, and then go home and tell their parent that you hate them. Take a deep breath. A mentor of mine once said, "Fake it until you feel it." Act like you love The Cindy Loo Who's and the Non-Cindy Loo Who's and you'll be surprised when your heart catches up!

Safeguard #2. Collaborate don't isolate.

It is easy to feel like you are the only teacher on the planet who is considering early retirement (and
it's your first year) but know that you are not alone! Teachers all across the U.S. and Canada are feeling the effects, as well.

Just as you would never attempt Black Friday or Brown Thursday alone, you should not take on the days and weeks leading up to winter break alone. Go to your team and express how you are feeling.

Chocolate also helps.

Safeguard #3. Be realistic. 

As excited as you are about completing an ice sculpture of the Great Wall of China in your World Geography class, this is not the time or the place. Variables like shorter attention spans, additional carbs to induce sleeping, and inevitable interruptions by your former students coming by to remind you why you love to teach, are very, very real.

Ask yourself. What assignments can wait until these variable diminish? Separate the need to do's from the I want to's and you will become far less frustrated. Taking on too much can make you feel like you are a horrible teacher, which of course, you aren't.

Safeguard #4. Be kind.

Even if you have failed miserably at Safeguards #1-#3, it is never too late to change your behavior. Before sending out the mass email and a bcc: to your principal about the teacher whose students are climbing the walls. Stop!

Before posting or emailing anything ask yourself: Is it biased? Could it be taken out of context? Is it hurtful? If you can answer one or more of these questions with a yes, you need step away from your computer, Ipad, or Iphone and take a deep breath.

This is the perfect moment to engage in a random act of kindness!

Safeguard #5. Be thankful

Hands-down one of the best Grinch repellents is a spirit of thankfulness. Begin making a list of reasons to be thankful. Warning: While you may exude thankfulness on a normal basis, you may struggle. This isn't to say you aren't a grateful person...because you are! Remembering the reasons you are thankful is more about reminding you of the person you truly are. You are NOT a Grinch..so don't act like one!

Confession Reflection:

• How can administrators support teachers who are dealing with "seasonal" behavior issues?
• Why is it important for teachers to stay connected to their PLC or mentor teachers and not isolate?
• What are the benefits of closing the Teacher Evaluation Window the week before a holiday break?

"This I Believe" Experimental Study

Do people remember more by listening to the audio version of texts or by reading texts? This is an experimental study to add to a larger database on ways people remember what they have read. I need YOU to help me with this study, as well as, show how Twitter can be used as a global connector.

My research partner, Ed, and I have chosen an excerpt from the book, "This I Believe" titled Be Cool to the Pizza Dude.  It is an inspirational message everyone should read (or listen to) at least once.

To participate in this research study, you will choose form A or B and either listen to or read this article. You will then answer 20 multiple choice questions. Your choice of forms will need to be random...so even if you prefer listening you may be given a form you will need to read.

On a personal note, I would like to demonstrate to my follow classmates the power of social media to gather responses from a global audience. Please help me in doing so.

Your name and identity will remain anonymous. However, I've added an optional place to put your Twitter handle for us to connect. I ALWAYS want to grow my PLN and connect with other educators.

Thank you!

Tamra


Form A

https://goo.gl/forms/u0Oatnb8pCcadIlh2


Form B

https://goo.gl/forms/n3IQFfiVjbR7KAYs2

Hack in Action: An Excerpt from Hacking Homework

After ten years as a middle school reading intervention teacher and five of those years as a literacy coach, I've heard more excuses for missing assignments than I care to admit. Long gone are the shallow excuses like, "the dog ate my homework." As you can imagine, preadolescents are savvy and seem to know the perfect excuse to use and exactly the moment to deliver it.

Without question the coup de grace of all excuses is the excuse that shifts responsibility from the student to the teacher. The excuse goes something like this. The student looks the teacher squarely in the eyes and solemnly swears that they have already turned in their homework. It is the teacher's fault for losing it.

In a stroke of genius, the responsibility shifts from being the student's responsibility to being the teacher's problem. If you're like me, some days it is not worth going to the extreme to convince the student that their homework is, indeed, missing.

Three weeks later the homework surfaces during a mandatory locker clean up. It is now stuck to another piece of paper by a sticky red substance that smells like cherry.

As a part of my reading intervention classroom, I decided to dedicate the first Monday of every month to teaching organization. (If I had a new student I would schedule a time to meet with him/her one-on-one).
I would have my students bring in their backpacks and every scrap of paper they could find in their lockers, even if the scraps looked like trash.

At a table or on the floor, I would have the students write on three sticky notes: Keep, Trash, or a "?". The first pile was for papers to be kept and organized, including incomplete assignments, study notes, schedules, etc. The second pile was for papers to trash or toss out; students would often find doodle sheets, drafts of paper that had already been written, and even multiple copies of the same paper.  The third pile was for papers that the student wasn't sure if they should keep or toss. Students were taught how to assess the purpose of the paper so they could determine if it should go in the keep or trash pile.

I would literally pick up each piece of paper and ask, "is this to keep, trash, or you're not sure?" I added an extra layer of support by placing the "Trash" and "?" piles in a file folder until the end of the grading period. It never failed for a student to run into my room in a near frenzy because they believed they had thrown away a paper that was due.

Students who are learning to organize often do not have the skills to prioritize what is or isn't important. This was a way to scaffold learning using Gradual Release of Responsibility. It is a best teaching practice a teacher would use if teaching an academic skill like how to multiply fractions or how to write an expository essay.

If students do not have instruction and a workable process, they are not likely to figure it out on their own. Explicitly teaching organization gives the students the skills and processes they need to be successful - author's comment (Connie Hamilton and Starr Sackstein)

You can learn more about ways to teach responsibility and organization in the book,  Hacking Homework. It is now available on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/jdjgc84

Confession Reflection:

• Why is it important to teach skills like organization?
• Teaching organization skills and teaching responsibility often go hand-in-hand. Why is this?
• What is the difference been supporting and enabling? How can teachers discern between the two?
• How would explicit instruction on ways to organize assignments benefit students beyond the walls of the school?

Emoji, Selfies, and Memes: Innocuous Terms in Today's Classroom

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past decade, you are aware of strange terminology spoken in the halls of your school, in the cafeteria, and even in your classroom. By all accounts, it may sound like jiberish or incohesive chatter: "idk", "lol", and "jk" are just a few. 

You watch in sheer amazement as your student's fingers fly across teensy weensy keys on a "smartphone" sending encrypted messages to friends, while it takes you a full two minutes to write and send one sentence.

If you have experienced this phenomenon, this blog is for you!

Who are Millennials?

Millennials are individuals born between 1982 and early 2000's. The are also the largest social group since the Baby Boomers. To put it in perspective, most of today's students have never physically addressed an envelope, used a hand held map, or used a telephone that wasn't attached to a land line. It is estimated that there are approximately 87 million millennials either in school or in the work force. In other words, Millennials have taken over planet Earth. 

1. All things abbreviated

Have you wondered why the letter "u" keeps popping up in student essays, or the letters LOL or IDK as an annotation? You remind your students to spell out words in their essays, to always use a capital "I" when referred to oneself, and to make a key when using unknown letters like LOL or IDK. If you listen closely, you will notice the written code has become a spoken tongue. It is not unnusual to hear one of my students say "jk" which translates into "just kidding." Here are a few other common abbreviations common among millennials.

IDK - I don't know

LOL - laughing out loud

FYI- for your information

JK - just kidding

TBH - to be honest

IMHO - in my humble opinion.

2. Emojis

Do you remember the yellow smiley face during the late 60's and 70's stamped on t-shirts, posters, and billboards? It was an international symbol of happiness and was called an "Emotican." Texting emotican's begin to appear at the end of messages to indicate how the writer was feeling or to convey the tone of the message. :)  :(  

Today emojis are ubiquitous to our society. Students have the ability to create an emoji of themself using free apps or choosing emojis from their Smartphone. Did you know that McDonald's recently handed out Emoji's in happy meals? 

When shopping for my grandson's two-year-old birthday party I spotted emoji stickers. I thought how cool it might be to use emoji's for polls and surveys and how it would create a universal language (or pictoral) for expressing emotions...until I remembered I teach college students. 

If you are teaching elementary or middle school students, sticker emojis would be an innovative way to annotate as kids read as part of learning characterization or author's purpose. This would be especially interesting during the climax and resolution of the story.

This past week I heard of a large school district near me change discipline policy to be proactive by builidng a classroom community. The school day starts by students sharing as a member of a learning community how they are feeling. There are a gajillion ways to integrate emoji's into building a community of learners. Wow! Think about the possibilities for teaching empathy? Compassion? 

3. Meme

A meme is an image, video, or text that is copied (often with variation) and spread to internet users. memes are easy to make and have the potential for some awesome lessons. There are free apps to create memes. You will also see memes posted by educators on Facebook and Twitter. 

Students could easily make a meme to demonstrate their understanding of a concept. Memes also make great bell ringers or conversation starters.

4. Mash-up 

A mash-up may sound like something you would do when cooking mashed potatoes, but the meaning is far more complex. According to Urban Slang Dictionary a web mashup is a web application that takes information from one or more sources and presents it in a new way or with a unique layout. Mash-ups are easily spotted on the internet especially by aspiring artists and musicians presenting their own rendition of a song by combining two songs. 

As a literacy coach and creative writing teacher, I loved to use mashups around the holidays to teach parody. I would have my students select a holiday song and add new lyrics based on a book they were reading. For example, one year Harry Potter was Mashed-up with The Night Before Christmas. They would record and upload to their private school You Tube account and then we would show their presentation during parent night. 

Here is a Mash-Up using movies to demonstrate hyperboles:

5. Selfie or Snap

What is a selfie? Wikipedia defines a selfie as "a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick." Today, the newest, coolest feature is to add a filter on a selfie called  "snap" using the social media site Snapchat.

When confiscating phones from your students you may have noticed dog ears, or rainbow-like vomit spilling from their mouth, or sparking princess glitter  adorning their hair. I'm still scratchng my head on this one. I'm sure my parents probably felt the same way about some of the silly things I did as a teenager. 

I'm learning that sometimes it's best to relax and LOL, not be too serious and say JK....and that it's okay to admit when IDK.

Confession Reflection:

• What are some ways to invite ideas and social behaviors of millennials into the classroom? 
• In your opinion, is acknowledging and integrating millennial's social behaviors into the classroom a form of culturally responsive teaching? why? or why not?
• What does this statement mean to you: "Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater?" 
• Why do some educators resist change? 
• How can we equip students with the skills they will need for the work place? What changes would need to be made in the classroom to do so?

Dewey said, "If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow."