It's been a year since I posted anything on my blog. I've started and scrapped at least ten blog posts but nothing felt right until now.
I'm very fortunate to have technology in my classroom. This is the second year of having chromebooks for my students and every student has a district issued Google account. I set out a lofty goal for myself for the year and it was simple, or so I thought: Be Paperless! I thought being paperless meant I was being innovative, even when I knew it didn't. But I was giving my students the 21st century classroom experience they expected and deserved. Students were making Flipgrid videos to demonstrate learning, writing responses to works we read using Google Docs, making Screencasts, annotating digitally on Newsela and other sites, there was not one assignment completed on paper the whole first semester of my class this year and I noticed something, something I didn't expect, students were not turning in the work. For example, in a class that had 35 students, only 20 submitted the assignments on a regular basis and to make matters worse the work that was being turned in was failing to meet the goals of the assignment. I decided I needed feedback from my students as to why this was the case and many of them said they did not have internet at home and were using their phones to complete assignments but were using too much data. Without meaning to, I had alienated an entire cross-section of my class. I give my students a survey at the beginning of the school year asking about internet access and everyone responded in the affirmative, so I thought I was good until it turned out I wasn't. I decided to make a change, one of my weekly assignments is an Article of the Week. I give students an article in which they read, annotate, and write a response to said article. The first semester, this assignment was 100% digital, but students were missing critical elements of the assignment. One of the goals of the assignment is to be able to identify the author's main idea, or argument for their piece and my students were struggling with that skill. Cue the old-school highlighters to paper task. We worked on the skill repeatedly and we went through the protocols of how to do this online through websites like Newsela and using online highlighting tools like Diigo. The remarkable thing that happened when I changed the assignment from 100% digital to paper was now the assignment was being turned in and I could better evaluate the skills being demonstrated. I'm still learning how to blend the technology and traditions within the classroom.
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AuthorMy name is Sarah Todd and I teach freshmen and junior English in Southern California. Archives
August 2018
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