My Class of Clans

Many of the boys in my C block English class are obsessed with the smartphone game "Clash of Clans."  From what I've learned, it's a resource-based, teamwork game where a user builds their own community to sustain resources that are awarded in the game.  The user must also fortify their community with structures and different types of "warriors" to protect from other Clans attacking them and "stealing" resources.  A user may join a Clan and organize attacks on other Clans to obtain resources, awards within the game.  Awards can unlock certain features in the game which impact what resources are available to you, and so on and so on.

This is 9th grade, so it can be hard to get students to buy-in to what teachers are selling when those things compete directly with romantic and social interests, sports teams, cell phones and cell phone games.  I am often feeling like I lose their concentration in class, maybe more so than any class I have taught before.  However, at times they can be very focused.  One third of them are Honors students, and even the loudest of the rest is very smart, maybe the smartest in class.

A couple of weeks ago, it was suggested that we turn our class into a "Class of Clans" (a nice use of wordplay by the student who suggested it!) to somehow join the ethos of the game with our in-class dynamic.  They know that they can be frustrating, and are somewhat apologetic, but they also know that there isn't much that I can do to change them.  I need to understand that they just can't control themselves for too long.  First semester 9th graders are basically middle school students.  And middle school students are basically older elementary school students.

I saw potential in a "Class of Clans," especially for organizing group work scenarios.  But the more I thought about the culture of the class, the more I saw the opportunity to make it much larger.  I could use an incentive scheme like the one in the game to hold their concentration for longer.  This incentive network would be something more tangible than the one that Frontier/public schools offer (i.e. a grading system where an A is a reward for achievement and a college acceptance is the reward for a lot of As).  I've always tried to teach in a way that my students do not become self-conscious of their learning.  If a student becomes to focused on getting As, they become less focused on actual self-discovery.  For a lot of students, the majority, learning does not mean getting As, therefore it can be really difficult to buy-in to "learning."

A lot of students, the majority, play the game anyway: What's the least amount of work I need to do to get a grade that is good enough that no one will be on my case?  Which teachers will give maximum reward for minimal effort?  How many ways can I avoid true self-discovery, which feels uncomfortable and unnecessary?  How long can I avoid defining my own personal standards?

The class had voted on Clan names and each student was randomly sorted in to a Clan.  There are 4 Clans of 6 students: Crowtow, Starbucks, Sea Bass, and Purple Tunafish.  Today in class we had a 10 minute Clan meeting where they could review last night's reading and prepare for a quiz.  The quizzes were administered in a way that they could be completed collaboratively, as a Clan.  Then each Clan developed their own quiz questions (to be reviewed by me for their legitimacy) to be used to "attack" members from other Clans.  If the "attacks" were answered correctly they would earn 1 point ("trophy") for their Clan.  But if it was not answered correctly, the "attacking" Clan would earn a point ("trophy").  Out of fairness, no Clan member could be "attacked" twice in a row.

From a process standpoint, they have never been more focused on the minutiae of the text we are reading.  They all talked about big ideas and small details in their meetings to review for the quiz.  After the collaborative quiz, when they constructed their own questions, I had to work with each Clan a little bit to help them understand what a fair question is.  The majority took it as an opportunity to develop something like "What is the third word in the second paragraph on page 89?"  The idea behind that would be to pick up an easy trophy by asking an impossible question.  This is cheating.  When I stopped the activity to explain to them that the questions must be fair, but they can be difficult, the quality of the question development rose.

During the "attacking" only a few of the questions were answered correctly.  That could be expected.  The questions were hard.  At first, I was nervous about individuals being put on the spot to answer questions, but after a couple of rounds it seemed ok.  There was a lot of glory to be had for answering a question right.

I see potential in playing this method out.  Some Clans have already voluntarily started designing a crest.  Using Google Classroom, I can administer quizzes through Google Forms and compile statistics from the responses sheet to show which Clans are performing best and worst.  This may motivate students to study/read/do homework, or just push themselves in general to learn more in my class.  Over time, I see this impacting the Gradebook in a significantly positive way, while they are, hopefully, forgetting that the Gradebook exists at all.  Lower achieving students have an automatic support system.  (Each Clan has at least 1 Honors student and I think one Clan has 3).   It gives me control over the culture by threatening demerits for talking or whatever rule I want to enforce, but it also gives them more control over the class.

One of my current teaching methods is to allow some aspects of my class to be decided by coin flip.  Now, I can allow Clans who have reached a certain level of awards to make a choice for the whole class.  (Clans can earn "gems" by having a certain number of trophies.  Previously, I would have flipped a coin to decide due dates, point values of assignments, even the order that we read main texts.  Now, a Clan can choose to use a "gem" that they have earned to make the decision for the whole class, if they want to.)

As the teacher, it is not fair for me to expect that my students, or any high school student, understand the big picture of their lives.  They are so incredibly privileged to have so many people in their community supporting their education.   And for this, some may never come to be outwardly appreciative.  What I do think a fair expectation of a teacher is, is for the teacher to strive to teach skills so when students become adults, and they do need to understand the big picture of their lives, they can understand more.

For this class, I will divide and conquer.

Thank You

"Thank you."

As this past Tuesday was National Thank a Teacher Day, and this week is National Teacher Appreciation Day, I wanted to share these thank you letters from students. Now, I am aware that our school does not really celebrate this week, but I wanted to share with you all that I am incredibly thankful for your continual guidance and inspiration. I am blown away by the way you transform the curriculum to inspire students and create important conversations. I am very lucky to be part of this department at Frontier and am constantly becoming a better teacher because of all of you.

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/education-leadership/787686

What makes a good teacher?

I found this video both reassuring and very touching. I hope everyone is enjoying their break! Hopefully this video will help to rejuvenate you when we return!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=161&v=36QWcC0Y5rE

Online Chromebook signout until we each get our own set...

I initially thought it was a genius idea and now I'm realizing that EVERYONE one in our HS needs to be involved in using it or else it will actually make things much more confusing:

frontierhsenglish.weebly.com

Grading to Standards

Recently I have been thinking, is grading to standards fair and equitable?

We talk about standards all of the time. We have set standards from the Common Core Frameworks, standards of performance level, and standards on our rubrics. For the most part, standards make sense. Standards give us common goals for students to provide an equitable education. Of course, it's not fair for one school to have lower standards than another school. This is all common knowledge. But how do standards, our A-F grading system, and intrinsic motivation to learn and grow fit together?

For some of my students, it all makes sense. Grades show how well you are meeting the standards, but your focus is to learn as much as you can and grow as a person. However, is this how most of our students think? Are our students understanding of this dynamic and still intrinsically invested in learning?

If this system worked cohesively, or rather, was executed properly, would we still hear students say "is this graded?" or "how do I get an A?" or "is there extra credit?" in our classes? Or, an even bigger question might be, would the students still complete assignments and participate in class if we were not assigning them an A-F grade? Would students intrinsically want to learn and be inspired to learn more?

As teachers, I know that we all went into this profession thinking the same thing: "I want to make a difference. I want to inspire students and make the world a better place." But how do we actually do that? How do we truly inspire students? How do we develop intrinsically motivated students? How do we instill a genuine sense of inquiry and curiosity within our student? How do foster a safe and meaningful collaborative environment?

These have all been questions on my mind ever since I started thinking about teaching. How do I make my intentions a reality? And I truly think that there is no better profession that speaks to the saying "it's easier said than done" than teaching does. However, what can we start to do or experiment with to foster our students' desire to learn in our classrooms and the outside world?

This video below speaks to this idea, but in the working world. I've been thinking about how I might apply these concepts within the classroom. What do you folks think?

Workplace Motivation

Creating a Digital Dialogue

The addition of the chromebooks has genuinely enhanced the level and depth of participation in my classroom. With the chromebooks, my students have been able to collaborate both in and out of the classroom, therefore, taking their understanding and analysis to a whole new level.

After talking with Joe today, I was absolutely astounded by the creativity that teachers can use when utilizing this technology. He said that he would share a presentation with the students, and then the students would create their "response" on a slide through a shared Google Slides file. Through this method, students had time to reflect on the presentation and their response, but more importantly, it's all-inclusive. Through a digital dialogue, all students speak up and everyone benefits. Through this shared document, students were able to take the time to craft their response in a meaningful way. Moreover, along the way, students were able to read each others' input. 

My understanding of Joe's assignment was that he took the class discussion to another level. Students had due time to create their responses and everyone had something to say. As much as I would love to have a similar experience without chromebooks, I think that the technology allows for these discussions to take place on a daily basis, whereas if these discussions took place without this tool, I think I would need to give the students more time to prep and would fear that all of the students would not share some or all of their thoughts.

What are your thoughts on the utilization of chromebooks in the classroom? Do you think that we should be straying from these sort of digital discussions or be using them more? Where do we strike a balance of physical interaction and digital dialogues?

What Students Remember

I know that I get caught up in making sure my students are learning, improving, growing, and preparing for the future. However, I strive to always keep my students' well-being first. No matter what, when class starts I always take a deep breath, look across the room at my students' faces and then ask "how are we all doing today?" The chorus of responses changes daily, and I enjoy addressing everyone. On some days, I reflect back on the class and say to myself, maybe I shouldn't ask that question. On the good days, these discussions take a minute, and on the bad days, these discussions have taken up to ten minutes. That's right, ten minutes of class time they could have spent learning and practicing skills. So I've been thinking, maybe I shouldn't take the time to address this question everyday, but then I read this great article. Enjoy.

What students remember.