Module 1 Update

Tomorrow my basic skills students end the first module of the year. Together we have tackled setting up class blogs, editing sentences on iPads, writing personal code of conducts, and diving into the game worlds designated for each class. So far, I'm cautiously optimistic - the students enjoy what we are doing, and I'm seeing quality work without frustration.

One of the programs I am most excited about using is Membean. Membean teaches vocabulary using a multimodal approach. Students study a word on a page with context clues, images, videos, word maps, and root explanations. Then, they review words they have learned through fun mini-quizzes. An incorrect answer is not penalized - students are sent back to the learning page to review the word and try again.

 Membean very graciously offered to set up a classroom account for me to test with my students. After two weeks of usage, I'm a fan. Take for instance Rachel (name changed), who thinks visually and immediately connects the words to the background pictures. Or Tim, who watches the vocab videos and picks up the words quickly. These are students who would not excel with typical vocabulary workbook setups. I've observed student after student adopting new words with ease and coming to an understanding that "failure" leads to mastery of the words. If a review question is answered incorrectly, students are taken back to the vocab word page to restudy. I can see how over more time, these words will truly become ingrained in the students' everyday vocabulary. Bravo, Membean.

I am not a huge fan of the quizzes. I don't fully count the quizzes, but instead use them as a way to gauge student progress. I wish that the quizzes were more accommodating or at least modifiable. They involve 15 or so questions on one page, small print. I wish that the quizzes were given in the same format as the study questions - one per page, bright and bold. It was overwhelming for some of my students to process that much small text on one page.

Next module, we tackle pairing reading with the chosen MMOs. I know all of my students are eager to dive into the games and experience literacy in a fresh new way. 

Scheduling World Literature

This year is the year the English Department at my school gets to weed through curriculum and update. Because this happens only once every five years or so, I'm glad that it's taking place my third year at CCA.

For my 10th graders, I completely changed the novels they are reading. Many of their former novels are being passed down to 9th grade. The 10th grade focus is World Literature and my topic is: Stories of the Sea. We will be exploring questions of identity, duty, loyalty, and trust.

Here are the novels:

Things Fall Apart (summer reading)
Lieutenant Hornblower
Kon-Tiki
The Whale Rider
Twelfth Night
Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Once my book list was set, the next step was to tackle the schedule. As all English teachers know, it's quite challenging to fit in reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and literature. Here's my tentative schedule (still a work in progress):

Yes, thank you Pages. I am aware that Vocab is not a real word.

Periods are 42 minutes long
Grammar - Caught'ya! Grammar: Monday, Wednesday, Fridays - 10 minutes
Vocab - Tuesday discussion, Friday Quiz (weekly quizzes mean less words per week) - 15-20 minutes
Independent Reading - Tuesday and Friday students may choose any book to read during this time, except the literature book - 15-20 minutes
Literature - Discussions, activities, projects, movies, Monday & Wednesday - 30 minutes
Writing - Timed essay every other week, free write every other week. The free write may be a blog post, book review on Amazon or Goodreads, a comment on an online article, etc. Thursday - entire class

Of course, this must be a flexible schedule to accommodate last minute events like snow days and special events.