New Courses Lead To New Opportunities

This fall, my husband and I are expecting our third (and final) child. In October/November, our children will be turning three, two, and newborn. The closeness in age between my two daughters has been such a blessing to our family, and we are beyond excited to be adding the"epic conclusion" to our trilogy. Organized chaos is the only term that seems appropriate to describe both our personal and professional lives which have melded into one, and we sincerely embrace the pandemonium that we have created. Teaching during the day while co-coaching and co-parenting after school with two small children in our arms have only made my family stronger - physically (holding children for prolonged periods of time has a way of toning the triceps) and emotionally. Of course the pace our lives move at is brisk, but as a teacher, I had already become accustomed to fatigue long before babies entered my world. Chomping on Cheerios with the little ones in between critiquing the elocutionary shenanigans of my "big kids" fill my afternoons seven months of the year.

To assist me in finding some work-life balance, my course load has taken on a routine over the past few school years. Teaching familiar courses and collaborating with teams that have seen little alteration, has allowed me to continue functioning. This coming school year, however, I will take on a course I have yet to teach in my instructional career and will be teaming up with new faces. Change is often regarded as a challenge, and it certainly is, but aside from the time required to make any small deviation from the norm successful, I am eager to open a fresh page and tackle uncharted territory.

What I find rejuvenating about the opportunity to pursue courses I have yet to teach is the opportunity to explore texts that I have not visited since my high school days, engage in conversations about literary devices and character development with adults and students alike, and the task of crafting lessons that focus on students current needs and perspectives. Situations, resources, and events alter so quickly in our world that the prospect of developing curriculum at this moment to reflect the present time is exciting. The taxing part, however, is beginning. Like a young person who sits at a blank Google Doc contemplating how to start a literary analysis, I found myself at the end of this past school year, overwhelmed with where to begin. Pacing a course is always a concern of mine. Wanting to stimulate and stretch students' abilities in a manner that is rigorous but also promotes a strong sense of academic curiosity is no easy feat. Cognitive dissonance is valuable but can also deter a desire to learn. So where to begin?

1. Start with the Skills

Initially, I sat down at my keyboard and brainstormed a list of skills students need to master before moving forward. Promoting literacy skills - the ability to read, write, speak, and listen - is essential. Students need to be utilizing and applying these skills each day and need to be taught to value how interconnected they are. Not only do literacy skills matter in an English classroom, but they also matter in all academic areas not to mention their daily lives. Finding ways to hone these skills is essential no matter the curriculum or content being presented. Examining the curriculum map and required skills that have been crafted by divisional leaders and course curriculum designers is also essential. The more coherent and collaborative level-based teachers are, the more continuity can be created for our students. Learning is a staircase and helping students take the appropriate steps and relying on the knowledge they have been previously taught only enhances their ability to succeed and grow.

2. Establish a Theme and Vision for the Course

After exploring the curriculum map, talking with colleagues, and reflecting on the essential learning targets, I wanted to find a way to create cohesion in the content that I will be included. While some predetermined texts have already been selected for me, I do have some freedom to select shorter works, nonfiction articles, and a second novel to incorporate into my new course. Determining a theme and reflecting on my own experiences with students, I began scouring the Internet to find pieces to pair with Catcher in the Rye that will pique students' interest and allow them to discover nuances and make richer connections between their reading and their lives. As I began to reflect on the cynicism of Holden Caufield which is used as a device to mask his sensitivity and attempts to cope with life challenges, I began to realize that our experiences significantly impact our perceptions. While Holden can be labeled as jaded or spoiled, he's lost and struggling to cope with the situations that life has presented to him, much like many teens who are searching for a better understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. In addition to critical academic skills that will help a student succeed in a classroom setting, I want to cultivate empathy in my students. This coming semester, I will teach to the American Dream while also encouraging students to examine their communities, to reflect upon how their actions and choices impact others, and to seek out ways in which they can make a positive mark on the people they encounter every day. To instill these ideas, I crafted a list of "life challenges" that I will present my students with each week. Each week, students will be asked to give three arbitrarily selected compliments to people they would not normally speak with or give a gift (even a homemade token or item from a vending machine) to someone who appears to need a bit of encouragement, or some small task like this. Each Friday, I intended to have students blog about their experience and what they have learned. Hopefully, these modest but intentional tasks will allow them to think deeply about their roles in the lives of others and reflect on what that means for us as readers of literature, writers, and communicators.

3. Dive into the Curriculum

Strong teachers are perpetual learners. This summer, I am tackling a reading list that not only contains the texts I will be teaching in the fall but also reading a selection of texts that will help me live out the themes I hope to teach my students. Personally, I love nonfiction and motivational books. I love reading books on personal growth and perspectives on how to view the world. One of my favorite reads from last summer was Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by James C. Collins. This summer, my favorite nonfiction read has been 59 Seconds: Persuasion: Think A Little, Change a Lot by Richard Wisemen, highlight different methods that people can apply during communicative experiences to win over audiences, and make a substantial impact on those we meet. Many of these strategies are discussed in speech courses and could be considered common sense, but so often we learn these lessons through communication mishaps and failures. While I read this book, I slowed my reading pace down to take notes and consider how the persuasive techniques and strategies that I was being presented to me could be incorporated into my course. I attempted to make connections to how Holden and many teens simply do not understand how to present themselves, how to express their ideas, and engage in self-disclosure as a means of positively fostering relationships. I am excited to utilize some of the anecdotes and examples from this text to my students and even suggest it as a free reading choice during the I-Search project my students will complete at the end of the year.

4. Create a Tentative Plan and Leave Room for Deviation

During the middle of this semester, I am anticipating a maternity leave. While I am not due until the very end of October and could be gone for the last six weeks of the semester (which I am sure would make my sub's job easier), my last daughter decided to arrive early - a whole month early. With a history of expeditious punctuality and a few warnings from my doctor, I have a feeling that this child will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. Considering my life situation and the fact that I am a planner (to a slightly neurotic degree), I have begun to map out a detailed daily schedule. This level of preparation is not necessary, but it provides me with peace of mind. Having some semblance of a schedule, with an estimation of unit lengths, is essential and also bolsters both synergy and cohesion of skills throughout the semester. Themes and connections are also easier for teachers and students alike when a general calendar is laid out ahead of time. Developing this type of schedule also allows for backward mapping, which is helpful when attempting to develop authentic assessments that measure student growth and progress accurately. One token that I have learned from my impulse to over-prepare is to always build in additional time. Whether a project needs to be extended or simply a discussion warrants the need for further exploration, having extra time allows a teacher to differentiate instruction and gear curriculum to the individual students enrolled in any given course. Being flexible enough to take the time to thoroughly revisit a skill or delve into an activity is so critical for student learning and development.

5. Don't Forget the Fun

Learning requires work! Honing skills, writing, and reading a text might not always be students' favorite experience. That is okay. But when we allow them to demonstrate knowledge in different ways, utilize various tools (that involve technology and more traditional approaches), and vary our class period structure keep learning fun. When we carefully relate content to the present day, incorporate multimedia, and find ways to make learning more student-centered, the careful thought that is required pays off. By instilling our passion and personality into lesson planning, we can only enhance our students' experiences and their overall perception of the course. In a learning environment that leans into fun, students are far more likely to be successful and grow not only as students but also individuals.

I can't wait to see what this fall brings. New experiences both in the classroom and beyond can only lead to wonderful discoveries.

Teaching Reading: Opening the Cover to a World Full of Possibilities

Reading is an activity that many people enjoy later in life. Even my husband as a child would never have considered reading for any reason beyond being forced to for school until he graduated college and started taking a train to work. This sentiment is a common caveat among adults. When speaking with current high school students about whether they choose to read, the response I receive is either a chuckle or an exasperated reply, "With what time?" In the ever increasing treadmill-paced trot that too many of us, adults and youth alike, find ourselves trapped within either because of the current societal expectations or our natural intuition to overcommit, numerous young people (and adults too) often find themselves unable to sit still long enough to engage in this sustained and solitary activity.

Every summer for the past five years, I have had the opportunity to dive into reading with a group of my district's incoming freshmen students. Bright eyed and eager to start school, they often reluctantly come to this particular class because of the preconceived notion that they are enrolled in this class because they did poorly on a placement test, or they simply are not skilled enough to read on their own without support. Their self-efficacy is lower than their peers, and the level of discouragement in their eyes is apparent as they enter the uncharted territories of high school. While the curriculum does require direct instruction with fundamental reading strategies such as summarizing, evaluating, predicting, and inferring, the conversations and connections that can be made during this time to a wide variety of nonfiction and fiction texts provides students with keys that can unlock not only their academic success in their freshman year but also a new perspective on who they are as readers and consumers of diverse literary genres.

This summer, my focus has been placed on the question, "Why do we read?" and "How can we make reading more fun?" The conversations and reflections that my students have generated this year have impressed me immensely. Candidly and honestly, these students have truthful discussed why they do not read and have come to discover that reading is so much more than skimming the pages of the novel they have been assigned in their language arts classes. Reading is a skill, a habit, and a way to communicate with the world. The act of evaluating and deconstructing a text allows us to gain more information that can be used in conversation, to make decisions, and to understand more about ourselves.

Students read much more than they initially recognize. They are constantly latched to their devices like leeches - attempting to devour whatever social media post or notification comes their way. They read online. Even if the articles lack credibility or what many might deem quality content, students (and countless adults) find themselves caught by a catchy title and topics that pique their interest. As our conversations have divulged this summer session into the reasons and motivations for reading, I have attempted to steer our conversation toward nonfiction - toward articles that continue to rouse their curiosity and the types of literature they are far more likely to consume on a regular basis. From sources such as the New York Times Learning Network, Center for Urban Education resource bank from DePaul University, Kelly Gallagher's Article of the Week, Newsela, and Jamestown Reader articles, I have sought to encourage students to recognize what they can learn when they have the patience to search for a text that truly interests, engages, and relates to them. In addition to exposing students to texts, they may naturally encounter online, developing a familiarity with nonfiction reading skills will benefit them in school and on standardized tests. This type of nonfiction reading will also allow them to develop a richer understanding of the world in which they live. While I do love the Abraham Lincoln Books, which are often filled with young adult novels that students often love, I want to encourage my students to access all types of texts. I want them to understand and recognize how much they are consuming online and have resources to which they can turn for credible, high caliber articles if they so choose to explore a particular topic that sparks their curiosity. 

Regardless of age or educational experience, reading has the power to unite us. The more versed in literary content and familiar a person is with the skills required to access knowledge from texts, the more he or she can make informed, educated choices. Reading does not have to necessarily be a top priority or a favorite hobby (a fact I am trying to instill in my students), but it can be viewed as an enjoyable and empowering tool from which a person can gain vast amounts of information from and even an activity a person chooses to do in whatever free time he or she can muster out of life. Will they enjoy everything they read? Absolutely not. Can they gain the confidence and skills to make reading a meaningful part of their daily lives for a variety of purposes? Of course.

Bare Walls and Empty Classrooms; Fresh Starts and New Beginnings

Note: This post was written in the final days of school. It's taken me a little time to fully reflect on the year and catch my breath from the whirlwind that was the end of this year and the onset of summer.

Summer has finally crept its way into the halls of my high school. Graduation whipped past me like the cardboard caps flying high into the air while the remaining students are completing day two of final exams. The reality of a summer break has officially hit me. This year, my classroom is completely packed in boxes as I will be making my way to the hallway over into a new classroom. Next year brings different preps than I have taught in the past and will also mark my tenth year teaching. While familiar faces will file through the halls again, the feelings that a new era is about to begin has struck me more significantly than prior years.

This newness and sense of excitement mean the potential for meaningful experiences and memories to be made. Fresh paint will be plastered to the cinder block walls and metallic rafters. I have a larger space to be filled with furniture I do not yet possess and actual bullet boards to decorate. Aside from the physical change of location, I am excited to spend time this summer reading a stack of books that have long been piled up on my shelf, spend time with my family, and regather my thoughts as countless educators do during the weeks of summer.

Looking at the walls that were once lined with posters, I realize that a classroom is more than a space for students to learn - more than just a location in which information is presented, and projects are completed. A classroom is a home - a place where young people learn more than just how to write a claim statement or solve a mathematical formula. The best moments of my first decade of teaching are not the moments in which I finally learned how to teach writing introductions effectively or crafted an annotating lesson that reached even the most struggling sophomore readers. No, the moments that I will hold onto for the next chapter in my career are the ones in which I saw a fearful freshman overcome his speech anxiety and work on perfecting a performance to the best of his ability at painstaking costs; the time I witnessed students realize that what was of the greatest importance was not the grade or accolades that come from producing quality work but the memories and lessons that were learned to achieve those rewards; and the countless times where I saw young people being kind souls to one another, great friends, and supportive shoulders for their peers. These moments all happened in this tiny classroom that I've called my home away from home for the last decade.

We will never fully realize the impact we have - the words that are internalized, the takeaways that students will carry with them past their formative years. We will never fully understand how difficult lessons, both academic and life-based, can teach resilience, foster creativity, and inspire young people to become content, productive, and successful adults. While every once in awhile, we are fortunate enough to get a Facebook message, stumble across a social media post of a former student, or even run into a parent at the grocery store and hear about the great accomplishments that our students have earned, too often we do not witness the next phase, but the possibilities that they have before them continue to inspire me to make my classroom and their high school experiences as much as a safe and homelike space as possible.

And while Thomas Wolfe states in the novel Look Homeward, Angel, that "you can never go home again..." I believe that a person always takes just a little bit of home with them wherever they choose to travel. So as I close my door to C19 for the summer and come back to a new classroom to call my own - a fresh place to forge new memories and inspire young people - I am grateful for the lessons my students have taught me during the formative years of my teaching experience. Here's to new possibilities, new paint, and the next set of adventures to be had.

Teach Speech: What I Learned from Year One of Teaching Community College

May is here and the school year is winding down at a rapid pace. This year, in addition to my high school day job, I am fortunate enough to teach an introductory speech course at a local community college. With only one class period left to administer the final exam, I find myself reflecting on the differences between teaching at the high school and college level, the classroom environment, the students, and the sentiments they hold toward public speaking. While my Thursday evenings (and Friday mornings) are extremely tiring, I have sincerely enjoyed this new challenge and believe that this experience has enriched my content knowledge and approaches to teaching speech. This opportunity has also allowed me to observe different students as they transition from high school students to college students.

The night classes I taught this school year are much more diverse, and the age range of student varies greatly. Surprisingly, I am on the younger end of my classroom demographics. What I have found to be the most interesting factor about my students is the different reasons students have enrolled in my class. The introductory speech course is a required course for all students who intend to graduate with an associate degree and is almost always a requirement for students who plan to continue their education at a four-year university. Reluctantly, students do enroll in this introductory course because this course is mandatory, but their goals and aspirations for certifications and degrees vastly span from nurse to botanist to auto-mechanic. Several students speak English as a second language or are first generation college students and starting post-secondary school is uncharted territory. Of course, there are several students in their late teens and early twenties who simply wished to stay home to save money or did not know what to major in yet. Whatever the reason for continuing their education, I have been very impressed with the lengths at which many of these students have taken to further their coursework and attend a three-hour Thursday night class. 

I have certainly gained a deeper appreciation for different types of students and learned a great deal from my colleagues and the opportunities provided by the college. Overall, I am glad that I have taken on this exhausting experience and would recommend that colleagues who teach at the high school level pursue a similar role at some point in their careers at least once. Because of this experience, I have gained knowledge and am more prepared to teach my high school students for what lies in front of them after graduation day. 

Here's some of what I am taking away from year one:

1. The more experience students have with research and writing, the better prepared they will be for post-secondary learning. 

"I was never taught THAT," is a common comment I hear from students when I introduce research assignments. My colleagues and I often lament over these claims and are frustrated because we know exactly what their previous high school teachers have taught them. The fact of the matter is that both research and essay writing skills do not come naturally to most students and need to be reinforced several times. Frequent practice and repetition is the only way for students to become proficient at conducting research and writing about their findings. Through my conversations with both high school and college students, I have come to realize how universal research and writing skills are and how frequently students are required to complete these types of assignments in their science, history, business, and humanities courses. They are often writing papers at the college level without a great deal of technical guidance often, which makes the need to be able to research and write well an invaluable skill that I must be teaching my students at both levels as a way to prepare them to find success in any discipline they choose to study in the future. 

2. Students are still apprehensive to speak in front of a class - even when they have two decades of work experience in an area on which they are presenting to their peers. 

Many of my college students work full time. They are professionals with a wide variety of experiences. Speaking in front of a class should not be as scary for these individuals because they deliver speeches at work, give presentations, and work with customers, but for a myriad of reasons, all students still exhibit a higher level of apprehension than I would have initially expected. Stage fright needs to be the subject of early classes, and all students - no matter their confidence level - need to be given strategies to cope with this anxiety. Even the most confident and experienced speakers can still experience anxiety when a formal speaking experience. Several strategies such as frequent and informal practice to speak in front of small groups, group work and class discussions to build a collaborative and supportive environment are necessary to build students' confidence. Public speaking is difficult, and my role is to create a more comfortable and positive experience for all my students.

3. Students still need clear direction and organization from the instructor (and still won't always read or hear the directions). 

I chuckle to myself a little when I hear the phrase, "Kids just don't listen." Unfortunately, people of any age or profession struggle with listening to instructions fully or reading directions or emails carefully. We are busy individuals who are easily distracted. We all attempt to multi-task and clear the to-do lists as efficiently as possible. As an instructor, I have to remember that my instructions and directions need to be thorough, clear, and repeated a few times to help my students fully understand what is expected of them as they complete any given task or assignment. This year, I have had a few encounters that have reminded me that even though these are adults, busyness is a common factor in miscommunication. Students need support and clear guidance. As for my high school students, they love hearing stories about mistakes by students at the college level, and often respond with, "It's not just me!" 

4. The learning environment and relationship between students and the instructor are still the most vital parts of the learning process. 

Students' lives and backgrounds greatly impact their learning. Their workload, responsibilities, and relationships impact the time they have to spend on coursework. These life factors also greatly influence their interest, passions, values, and beliefs. Understanding our students' lives outside of the classroom enhances the experience in the classroom. Being able to ask a person how their kids are doing, how work was, or about another project for another class builds rapport and improves the classroom environment stronger. With a strong rapport between the instructor and students, the levels of anxiety wane and students feel more inclined to put forth effort toward the class - especially their speaking assignments that require a significant amount of preparation. Building strong relationships is my favorite part of teaching at any level. I have truly enjoyed working with and forging relationships with my diverse college students and love that this element of teaching is still just a prevalent and vital to the learning experience as it is with my high school students. 

This has been such a valuable and growing experience. I have loved watching these students gain confidence and grow as speakers. In turn, I am so grateful for my students' kind words and the lessons they have taught me. With a fresh perspective and a richer understanding of communication theory, I cannot wait to see what the future brings from teaching speech at any level. 

Combatting Speech Anxiety: Ways to Increase Student Confidence with Public Speaking

Recently, I have run into an overwhelming amount of anxiety in my sophomore classroom related to public speaking. For the past few years, I have only taught public speaking skills in a senior-level speech course and a college-level speech course, and in both of those courses, students have either elected to participate or paid to be present. While I still have encountered students with anxiety, I have quickly forgotten how truly terrifying public speaking is to the general population - especially young teens.

Having been removed from working with students who would rather write a ten-page research paper than deliver a two-minute speech, I have found myself scrambling through my list of coping strategies to promote positive feeling toward this experience. While it is not uncommon for any person of any age to express a sentiment of dread when a speech assignment is presented in class, I have come to the conclusion that with this group of underclassmen, I must incorporate a few interventions to quell their fears. Addressing speech anxiety of this magnitude necessitates more than a simple pep talk, although that is certainly a terrific place to begin.

What can we as teachers do to combat stage fright to relatively new public speakers? How do we as teachers build a positive atmosphere for students that instills confidence while empowering students to share their voices?

1. Start by reviewing the rubric.

Students need to understand that formal speaking is about so much more than just standing in front of their peers and talking! Several elements work together to create a speech that is impressive from a technical standpoint while communicating strong content. Content does matter, and that content is created in the preparation portion of the assignment. Effective content often comes in the form of a story, which is easier to remember than a list of facts and makes engaging an audience an effortless feat. Also, when one takes the time to identify various elements of public speaking on a rubric, students can begin to understand and recognize what makes a great speaker impactful and what skills they may need to practice to improve their crafts. Looking at and breaking down the rubric for my most recent speech assignment with my sophomores boosted their confidence. They began to realize that even if they lacked confidence with all of the speaking elements, they could still earn a high grade if they relied on their content, prepared thoroughly, and focused on their strengths.

2. Encourage students to confide in each other about their feelings toward delivering a speech in front of their peers.

Talking about their fears and reservation in an open forum truly does begin to create an open and supportive environment. While we all know that most (or all) people exhibit a level of stage fright, we do not always accept that our peers are just as nervous or more nervous than us until we sincerely discuss is. I like sharing "war stories" with students about embarrassing speech moments. We all have them, and we all can laugh about them later... usually. My personal story is not of a speech but a 6th-grade talent show performance in which my doll that served as a prop's head fell off in the middle of a song. The entire school laughed at me, I terrified some kindergartners, and I was bestowed with the label of "that girl who's doll's head fell off" until well into my high school career, but I didn't die. In fact, I kept singing. Louder. While public mishaps are not amusing at the moment, we all survive them. These experiences often serve as valuable lessons, and if nothing else, they certainly are funny after the fact.

3. Peer evaluate and practice.

An important way to build students' self-efficacy as speakers is to encourage them to practice in front of their peers. Small group practice time forces students to present their ideas and rehearse the speaking situation before evaluation. I also like having a rehearsal day as it allows me to check note cards, gauge how much work has gone into the presentation prior to its due date, and also encourage students in a smaller setting, too. This practice also empowers students to watch critically and develop an understanding of what features create a successful speech. They are quick to be honest but also willing to be kind. This experience leaves the speaker with the feeling that no matter what, they have allies in the audience who know what to expect and are rooting for their success.

When I designate a rehearsal day, I also create a Google Form that reflects the rubric and uses an extension called FormMule to automatically email to go to the student speakers with feedback from their peers. In my experience, students sincerely do read their reviews and are often self-reflective about how much work still need to be done before the final performance.

4. Record student speeches AND provide class time to watch their film.

Every talented athlete or performer watches film of his or her performance. Why shouldn't students watch themselves speak? I am fortunate enough to have 15 flip cameras that students can use to record each other. These mini cameras can then be plugged into USB ports and uploaded to YouTube with ease. I upload these videos to my YouTube account and mark them as unlisted, but students can just as easily upload their videos on their own. Filming can expose the nerves, but even though the end products might make the individuals cringe, they pick up on their nonverbal and verbal ticks so much faster when they can watch themselves and critique their work.

Students will avoid watching their film unless given time devoted to watching their work. They need to be given a designated time to watch their work. They can even use a webtool like Videonot.es to annotate their videos while they watch. When they are encouraged to critique themselves and given guidance, they are far more likely to find value in the experience. I have even had students use these videos to create a portfolio with my senior speech class that they can then use to identify their progress at the end of a semester.

5. Incorporate frequent and informal opportunities to practice speaking and listening skills.

In this first semester back to teaching this level of students, I realize that I did not incorporate enough speaking experiences. Yes, students have participated in Socratic seminars and class discussion, but they have not until this point been tasked with standing in front of their peers to present their ideas. In other public speaking courses, students are asked to deliver impromptu speeches, demonstrate simple tasks like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, teach a section of a text to their peers, and watch/critique other speeches. In my other speech classes, I incorporate video examples of speech assignments that students will deliver and discuss my grading process. Why should this course be any different? While I only teach underclassmen second semester, I now in hindsight realize that the skills and standards in a full speech course can be woven into the fabric of a general education English course with ease. Speaking is such an important pillar of literacy and a necessary skill for all people to find success in any career path they pursue. While I am so proud of my students' this semester, I am eager for next year to begin and to work to use speaking and listening as a way of increasing students' understanding of course content and confidence in all walks of life.

Having Fun with Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a critical part of education as it measures learning and provides valuable information to teachers about student comprehension and mastery. When the words formative assessment and professional development are uttered in the same sentence, a collective groan can often be heard bellowing from the staff office. This month, I was charged with the task of encouraging colleagues to make assessments a little more tolerable and dare I say fun? With articles such as 56 Examples of Formative Assessments  and 55 Digital Tools and Apps for Formative Assessment Success, the options for making formative assessment more enjoyable seem more exhausting than exciting. 

Reflecting upon the needs of my colleagues and the tools most commonly being used, I wanted to keep the list of options concise and instead focus on when and why to use these tools as opposed to what to use. When exploring the vast options of outstanding (and free) tech tools, the sheer number of possibilities seems to deter people instead of encouraging the adoption of new methods of formative assessment. The most common tool heard (which is unmistakable by its memorable theme music) when walking the halls of my school is Kahoot. The students still find it appealing, the music does incite an unstoppable head nod, and teachers find they can create a Kahoot quiz with relative ease. While I do love to incorporate Kahoot as a quick opener or a fast refresher before a quiz, I find that the game has a few limitations, which is why I selected a few other tools to combat these restrictions and provide simple solutions to my colleagues. 

1. Quizzizz

Quizzizz and Kahoot are incredibly similar, which has discouraged me from using Quizzizz until fairly recently. While it is possible to share a Kahoot with students for them to play on their own, it is a bit of a hassle as Kahoot requires two screens - one for the questions and one for the responses. Quizzizz alleviates this issue as it combines both screens into one, which makes single person play more accessible. Also, Quizzizz has a button to share directly with Google Classroom, which makes assigning it for homework or optional play smoother. Also, Quizzizz allows teachers to express their creativity and include the use of memes (which can be designed personally or simply generated from Quizzizz). My students are OBSESSED with memes, and this formative assessment tool makes reviewing material funny and downright sassy when students select an incorrect response. Again, this tool is similar to Kahoot in several ways, but it has a little more flexibility, which means that the game does not necessitate class-time to be played. 

2. Quizlet Live

So many teachers have been utilizing Quizlet for the flashcard feature. A considerable amount of colleagues have even allowed students to play the games that are automatically generated by Quizlet to help review key vocabulary and content. Few teachers have played Quizlet Live with students as it requires a minimum of six students to play. It is not a game that an individual can test on his or her own. What I love about this tool, however, is that it requires no additional work from a teacher aside from pressing the Quizlet Live button, the game automatically and randomly groups students, and the game requires actual conversations and collaboration to successfully win. Quizlet Live is a fast-moving experience and definitely gets the crowd burning for learning. 

3. Socrative

Socrative seemed to be popular among early adopters of technology in my school. Since the use of Google Suites has increased, the need for a quizzing tool like Socrative has decreased, but one feature provided by this webtool offers a unique benefit to teachers, especially during an observation. Socrative allows teachers to generate an automatic exit ticket or automatic question (free response, multiple choice, or true/false), which makes gather both qualitative and/or quantitative feedback immediate and personal. Socrative a great tool for this reason and seems impressive in spite of its easy implementation.  

While I love these four tools, I am always eager to learn about fresh and captivating webtools that increase student comprehension, engagement, and also provide meaningful feedback to improve instruction and learning in my classroom. Recently, another teacher shared Recap, which allows students to summarize what they learned at the end of a period or unit, which has many great features including emailing videos to parents and creating a highlight reel for the class. This tool also asks students to rate their own knowledge. New formative assessment tools like this one are being created and shared all the time. Other favorite formative tools include: Google Forms, Padlet, TodaysMeet and GoFormative. While it is often difficult to stay informed of the most popular and practical tools for formative assessment, having some knowledge of a few critical tools can certainly make learning and gathering valuable knowledge of our students more fun! 

Using Feedback to Make Assessments More Meaningful

This semester, one of my goals has been rethinking feedback - how I give it, how I maximize the impact of feedback given, and how I can produce more meaningful feedback for my students. So often, we as teachers spend hours of our lives reading through student responses, adding comments on papers, and correcting grammar only to find our labors tossed into the recycling bin, or more accurately, discarded into the digital cloud since most of our students' papers are now submitted electronically. Feeling the disappointment of my comments not reaching my students one too many times, I began to reflect on why I provide feedback to my students. This form of communication with students is utilized because it shows that I care about my students as readers, writers, and thinkers. Providing a detailed reflection on their work in a time-efficient manner can foster my relationship with my students and allow me to identify their strengths as students and people. Furthermore, I craft comments with the intention of encouraging growth and engagement, but if students aren't reading my comments, then all of this effort is for naught.

How do I solve an issue that goes back well beyond my time as a teacher? How do I ensure that my students are receiving their feedback, and more importantly, how do I ensure that they are processing that feedback in a manner that will improve their academic abilities? After a quarter of reflection and attempts of personalizing my feedback, here are my conclusions:

1. The more immediate the feedback, the more effective it is. 

I grade believe in grading papers quickly. When I have an assignment to grade, such as a literary analysis after finishing a novel, I tend to forgo sleep. Instead, I stay up by the glow of my computer screen or better yet, I set an alarm and wake up especially early to complete a half class set of essays before school begins. This practice is slightly unreasonable, and my husband has since learned that we plan our lives around grading as much as possible, but I believe that this practice is critical. When I grade an assignment quickly, it shows my students that I value their work. Their achievement matters and the work is still fresh in their minds. The more immediate and direct the feedback is, the more likely they are to care. If two or three weeks pass, they will have long forgotten the assignment or no longer care to revisit the content that has since been replaced by a new text or a new unit. Immediacy also surprises students. They aren't expecting feedback yet, but when they receive it promptly, they are more likely to care and more likely to be interested in what is said.

To make this process a little more feasible for educators, tech tools such as Permanent Clipboard, Google Keep, or Auto Text Expander allows grading essays at a faster rate to be a more realistic goal. When a teacher can craft a comment bank, he or she can provide more detail, begin to recognize patterns in student work, and even insert links for students to gather more information. Other ways to provide more immediate feedback is creating automated feedback such as inserting comments on a Google Forms quiz, adding personalized comments in Google Classroom, or creating more student driven formative assessments in web tools such as Quizlet, Kahoot, and Socrative. No matter the type of feedback or assessment for which a teacher is providing commentary, the more immediate the feedback, the more invested they will be in what these comments say.

2. Feedback should be delivered in a variety of ways. 

Feedback does not always have to be extended written feedback by the teacher. Feedback can come in several forms - it can be illustrated, comments can be coded by the teacher and students, and it can even be audio. Effective feedback can be delivered via voice comments or screencasting, a method that I have discovered my students appreciate (or at least a form to which they pay attention). Diversifying how one provides feedback is also rejuvenating for the teacher.

Diversifying formative assessments can also provide great information to teachers and students. Formative assessment is a fast and effective manner with which to provide students with feedback as to where they stand individually and in comparison to their peers. Using Google Quizzes to illustrate their percentages and talk about their understanding is a great tool. Kahoot, Socrative, PollEverywhere, and other similar tools also provide feedback, encourage discussion, and also make learning a little more fun. When students have a variety of tools to show them what they know and remind them of what they still need to learn, it can create a dialogue between a teacher and students, motivate students, and drive instruction. Formative assessment does not need to count in the grade book, or it can. This type of assessment is flexible and provides such valuable feedback to teachers and students alike.

3. Formative assessment does play a significant role in the outcome of summative assignments. 

Scaffolding and chunking assignments can help students to create better final products. Whether it is writing a paper, comprehending a major concept, or crafting a presentation, providing students with feedback along the way through formative assessments can help students to redraft their work, make corrections, and increase understanding. As a means of striving to use a larger variety of formative assessments in this quarter, I decided to break down a writing assignment into more of a writers workshop, and the process yielded significant results.

For the paper assignment my sophomores recently submitted, I used daily face-to-face conferencing, screencasting, and traditional written feedback. I set clear and specific formative checks into the writing schedule. Throughout the process, students were more engaged, completed their work, and showed measurable growth from the previous paper assignment turned in early in the quarter. They knew what was expected of them and could articulate what areas in which they still needed help (i.e. quote integration). By providing a variety of types of feedback, students seemed to understand what I was expecting more and were more willing to talk about their writing with their peers. While providing this feedback took more of my time and felt tedious, I was encouraged by the results I observed in my students on a formative level and when I graded the summative draft. Chunking the paper into smaller formative assessments was tedious and time-consuming, but I found that when students were engaged in this process, I had better results. Finding ways to tie formative assessments into larger summative products can help students to grow and produce better summative products.

4. The more personal the feedback, the more likely students are to engage with it. 

During this quarter, I have attempted to find a way to encourage my students to interact with their feedback. If I'm spending the time to provide it, I want students to view feedback as meaningful. To encourage students to look at my critiques, I've started creating a highlight reel using Screencastify to point out repeated mistakes and give an overall summary of what I found with their writing. Creating videos only about 90 seconds to two minutes long, I have found that students are far more likely to open the documents that I have commented on and look at the comments after hearing my voice and watching me point out specific annotations on their papers. Yes, this does take some time, but it has encouraged students to reexamine their work. Screencasting works better on shorter writing assignments and projects than it does for longer essays, but it is another tool to make feedback personal.

Note: VideoNot.es and EdPuzzle can provide teachers with ways to annotate videos if students are submitting a video project. I have seen history and science teachers create powerful feedback using these tools!

5. When feedback is given, students should be held accountable for reading and interacting with their feedback. 

So often because of time I find myself skipping this step. Also, when I allow students to revise, few students take advantage of this opportunity unless it is required. One idea that has helped increase student engagement with formal comments is requiring that students comment back on my feedback. For longer assignments, this might be too involved. An alternative might be to have students comment on repeated mistake or a specific number of annotations. Another tool I use to encourage student reflection is using Google Forms to encourage targeted self-evaluation and reflection. Asking students to grade their own work, justify a specific a grade that they believe they deserve can be a meaningful process. Students are often honest about how diligently they have worked, talk about strengths and weaknesses, and will share areas in which they need more help. As with any assignment, this process can be time-consuming, but when students process their learning, it is time well-spent.

Providing feedback is such an important part of our roles as teachers. Finding ways to make it more engaging and efficient is a passion of mine. Not only does improving the quality and speed of the feedback process make our jobs a little easier, but it also makes our efforts more meaningful.