Morrill Summer Retreat: Shared Stories and Single Stories

Goals

• Come together as a staff and share our stories 
• Critically consume and respond to media 
• Share techniques for using media in the classroom to develop critical literacies

Agenda
Tuesday Night:

• Back-to-Back Stories: Our Morrill Stories
• The Single Story of the Inner City Public School
• The Danger of the Single Story
• Creating Counter Narratives
• Reflection 

Wednesday Morning:

• Framing, Goals, Opening Reflection
• Media Consumption and Representation by Demographics
• Media and Racial Identity
• Viewing through a Critical Lens
• Classroom Connections
• Reflection

Convergence Design at Morrill

Goals

• Establish common understanding of what a Convergence unit looks like
• Clarify definition of a high quality performance assessment
• Feel prepared to unit plan over the summer

Prezi from Today's Session

Agenda

Welcome, Overview

Picturing Convergence
Compose an image that illustrates your definition of the word "Convergence."

Putting it All Together

-Common Core

-Understanding by Design

-REACH Framework

-CPS Frameworks

-Assessment schedule

-Writing Mini-Lesson Schedule

Inside a Convergence Unit

-Begin with the End in Mind: Student Example

-Performance Assessments

-Walk-Through

Now it’s Your Turn!

-Click HERE for a Convergence unit template

-Click HERE for a Curriculum map template/ exemplar

Summer Supports

-Friend us on www.Goodreads.com for book recommendations (convergenceacademies@colum.edu)

-Check out our Transmedia Library page on the Convergence Classroom Blog

-Work with Liz when you’re planning: eparrott@colum.edu.  

-Convergence Summer Camp: August 12-14

Let us know how we did! Please take a few minutes to fill out our survey so we can improve our support for you in the future. Click HERE for the link.

Remixing Tilden

A Taste of Convergence from Mindy Faber on Vimeo.

Tilden + Morrill = the Convergence Academies in partnership with Columbia College Chicago + CPS
= Connected Learning

This project is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education, Investing in Innovation (i3) program; Chicago Public Schools; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Pearson Publishing; and Pearson Foundation.

Innovation through Digital Integration

Powerful Learning with Purpose

Consume, Create and Connect

Learn more about the Convergence Academies?

http://www.colum.edu/CCAP/Programs/i3-convergence-academies/

Summer Connected Learning
Join Goodreads.com
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21076892
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8164933-teaching-tech-savvy-kids

What is Project Based Learning
http://www.bie.org/

References
Revolution Will Not Be Televised
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised

Original video by Gil Scott-Heron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqWMmwH4p6w

Remixed video vimeo.com/25976076

Teacher Guides
http://www.at-the-core.net/

Morrill Family Literacy Night/ Noche de literatura familiar

Learning in the Summer/ Apredizaje en el Verano

Resources/ Recursos

• Raising Media Literate Children
• Key Questions  to Ask When Analyzing Media Messages/ Preguntas calves al analyzer mensajes de medios de comunicación
• Partnership for Children and Youth: Summer Learning Loss
• Common Sense Media / en español

What Do Good Readers Do?

In looking over 1st quarter unit plans for Morrill Elementary, I saw that many grade levels dedicated time at the beginning of the year to helping their young readers build good habits (habits for writers will be covered in a different post).  I wanted to compile some digital media resources and ideas that would support these learning goals and offer some suggestions for how the Convergence model might be built into these units.

*Sidenote: These suggestions are based on text-based reading, though many concepts can be tranferred over to "reading" other media as well.  

Good Readers are Social.
There are several social networks specifically for readers that could be used in classrooms of all levels to encourage readers to share their love of reading with each other in the form of reviews and recommendations, and even online book clubs!

Goodreads.com offers readers the opportunity to see what their friends are reading, track books they've read (or want to read), get personalized recommendations, rate books, and write reviews.

Shelfari.com is a similar platform that's connected to Amazon.  Shelfari has basically the same functionality, but with a slightly nicer interface.

For one perspective on the difference between the two, click HERE.

Either platform would work for a whole class to have a shared account (more appropriate for primary grades) or to give each student his or her own account (probably more for middle school).  The way to make this work the best would be to choose one platform for the whole school so that teachers and students can "friend" each other and have school-wide conversations about books.  You could even invite parents to participate as well, bringing them into the process and letting them know the books their children are reading in class.  Both of these platforms integrate into blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, which allows readers to use social media for literary discussion.

Scaffolded/Leveled use in the classroom:

• For K-2: After a read-aloud book, the class could work together to compose a review, which would include summary, characters, setting, theme, and the students' opinions on the book.
• For 3-5: Students could submit their own reviews during independent reading centers, which would include summary, characters, setting, theme, and the students' opinions on the book.
• For 6-8: Students maintain their individual accounts (with parent permission and teacher oversight) to track their own personal reading journey throughout the year (and multiple years at Morrill).

Good Readers are Critical.

In reading the unit plans, and in thinking about the conversation last week about career connections, I kept asking myself, "What are some examples of good readers in the world beyond school?  How are their habits made visible?  How can our students learn from them?"  The obvious answer is Book Critics.  Book Critics make a living by being deep and critical readers who are able to make connections to other text and the world around them.  They have a strong command of language and think about the choices that writers make.  They have a distinct point of view and back up their claims with evidence.  They respond to other critics.  They blog.  They podcast.  They give out awards.

In addition to reading books, students should be reading literary criticism as well.  This can provide strong and concrete models for how good readers think about books.  Finding high quality book reviews that are professionally written but also age-appropriate can be challenging.  The New York Times has a yearly round-up of the top children's books, from picture books to young adult.  Those reviews are written for adult readers, but can help to think about good ways of structuring reviews.  Some of the reviews are accompanied by slide shows that include images from the books, which might be more accessible for younger readers.

Once students have been exposed to high quality literary criticism, they can start to produce their own.  Although much criticism you'll find in the world is still written, there are increasingly more video and audio reviews.  No matter how students communicate their thinking about their reading, there should be a purpose beyond demonstrating their comprehension.  As you're designing units and performance assessments, start to think about how students can critique their reading for an authentic audience.

Some suggestions:

• A school-wide "What to Read" webpage with reviews of all the books read across the whole school, tagged by grade level, genre, and author.  This can serve as a tool for other readers who want some help choosing their next book.
• In addition to Goodreads and Shelfari, students can easily post book reviews on Amazon.com for an even wider audience. 
• Newsletters home to parents can include book reviews and recommendations for the next family trip to the library.
• Older students can recommend books to younger students, based on what they loved when they were their age.
• Students can lobby for the school or community library to purchase more copies of books they love.

Good Readers Seek out Diverse Sources.

One of the foundational aspects of the "Consumption" circle in the Convergence model is curating a transmedia library.  Rather than thinking of a single text, or a loose collection of texts, a transmedia library is a thematically linked collection of texts that represent an array of different types of media.  For instance, if the topic for a unit is "What Makes a Good Reader," a transmedia library would include suggestions for books about reading, but also links to audio pieces, videos, poetry, abstract artistic pieces, documentaries, images, and games-- all that have to do with showing examples of good readers in the real world.  The key is finding examples that will appeal to students with a wide variety of readers (interests and ability levels); I would recommend including texts that may appeal to adult readers as well.

You can set up your library using various digital tools, so that it's accessible to your students and any other constituents you may have (parents, fellow teachers, etc).  Eventually, the hope is that your students would help you build your libraries, doing research to find good texts of all kinds and taking ownership for not only their learning, but the learning of their classmates.

Diigo.com is a social bookmarking site that allows you to organize your links, comment on pages, and collaboratively develop a "reading list" that would include multiple types of media.  You can set up groups and allow students to post their own suggestions as they come across new sources in their own research.  Students' contributions to the class's diigo collection could even be an assessment if you challenge them to justify the addition and check the reliability.

You can also collate everything on a blog or google site page.  This way, you can embed videos and images, making it a bit more appealing visually.  This decreases the social aspect a bit, though students can still comment.  HERE is an example of how I organize blog posts as project hubs, centralizing all texts, images, videos, etc, in addition to providing step-by-step outlines and instructions, plus links to rubrics, worksheets, and other important documents.  

Mrs.Yollis' classroom blog is a great example of a teacher using blogging to document her students' learning and her own practice, communicate with parents, and extend learning beyond the school day/building.  She teaches 2nd and 3rd grade, and helps scaffold her students to become bloggers on the site.

Good Readers Contribute to the Conversation.
What are ways that students can have their voices heard as readers?  Who will listen?

Many teachers have included performance assessments in their units that ask students to summarize books, answer questions, or produce original writing.  How can the connective nature of digital media enhance these experiences for students so that they feel purposeful beyond the walls of the school?  How will their work have an impact?  How can they positively influence the reading habits of others?

Some suggestions:

• "Reading Rainbow" type testimonial videos, wherein students summarize a book and review it.  These can be collected in a centralized location for the whole school and tagged to be searchable as a database for students who need help choosing their next book.  Can be made easily using camera on the computer and iMovie or other screencasting software, with very little editing required.  (Reading Rainbow is now an app!)
• Slideshow book reviews, modeled after the New York Times slideshows, which include images from the book or students' original artwork.
• "Micropublishing" book reviews on Amazon, Shelfari, or GoodReads.
• Class blog dedicated to publishing student-written book reviews.

Visual Authenticity: Constructing and Capturing Images

What's constructed and what's captured?

What makes for more compelling images?

Project Aims

• Read images "between the lines" to determine authenticity
• Build photographic vocabulary for telling stories through images
• Publish our work to a global audience
• Explore new tools: Cowbird.com

Project Overview

Today we will be reading and writing images, both constructed and captured, and exploring the differences between the two.  After investigating and discussing an image, groups will go off on their own and construct and capture images that tell stories of connection.  Then photographers will publish their images on Cowbird, adding a title, tags, and short text to flesh out the stories.

Connect: Back-to-Back Stories

Think of a moment of connection in your life-- with a person, a place, an idea, an object, an animal-- and start to visualize it.  What were the circumstances, the sounds, the weather, the colors, the smells?  How did the connection manifest?  How did you know?  What did it look like?

Consume: Reading an Image

This image was sent out by the Obama campaign on Nov. 6, 2012 and instantly became viral.  This election was tweeted about 20 million times, but this photo was re-tweeted over 800,000 times and liked over 4 million times on Facebook.

Photograph by Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America via Flickr

Was this image constructed or captured?  

What makes this image so compelling that it was the most Tweeted image of all time?

For more information about this image and an interview with the photographer, click HERE.

For more information about Interpretive Discussion, click HERE.
For outline of Interpretive Discussion questions we used today, click HERE.

Common Core Standards Addressed:
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Create: Constructing Images

In your school group, find a spot in the school and construct an image showing a moment of connection.  Think about how to communicate that visually: the context, angle, the lines, characters, etc.  Meanwhile, one group member will be documenting your process.

When you return, upload the images from both cameras to your laptop and curate your images down to 3.  Then choose the most compelling image of the batch to publish.

Common Core Standards Addressed:
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Connect: Cowbird

Go to www.cowbird.com and login.  

Click on the red "Tell a Story" button in the top right corner.

Click on the photo button and upload the photo you've selected.

Add your title, then tag as "Connect" and "#Convergence" and any other tags that would make sense.

Once your photo is up, compose a Tweet-length (140 character) story to accompany your image.

If you finish early, play around with Cowbird: explore other stories, connections, and the audio function.

For an example of student work up on Cowbird (from Chicago, no less), click HERE.

Critique

Let's look at one of our images.  Is this constructed or captured?  What makes you think that?  What makes this a compelling image?  Why did the artist choose this image?

Reflecting on Process

What did you do in each of the 3 circles of Convergence?

How might you use elements of this activity in your classroom?

Digital Place Making

How are we connected to this place?
How do our individual perspectives of a place contribute to its identity?

Placemaking

Placemaking is a collective approach to community development, an "of the people, by the people, and for the people" philosophy for how to nurture neighborhoods, cities, and nations.  It is not a new concept, but with the rapid development and ubiquity of connective technology, digital placemaking has become a way of rethinking how to engage people in the conversation and redefining "Place."

For more about Placemaking, check out the work of Project for Public Spaces.

Today we will be engaging in collective digital placemaking through photo mapping.    

Project Aims:

• Discover a place through photography
• Share our personal relationships with a place to create a more complete picture
• Publish our work to a global audience
• Explore new tools: Picasa, Panoramio

Project Overview:

Using a photographer's lens, we will go out and explore this area.  By composing images, we will tell the story of what we see and what this place is, through our own perspectives.  Then we will publish our images to Panoramio, along with very short poems that help flesh out our stories.  Panoramio is an online photo mapping program that regularly selects images to included on Google Earth, visible to a truly global audience.

Connect: Back-to-Back Stories

Think of a place that is meaningful to you, and start to visualize it: the smells, the people, the textures, the light.  What is it that makes that place? 

Consume: Reading an Image

Observe: What do you see?  

Reflect: What is the mood of the photo?  How do you feel viewing it? What does it remind you of?

Interpret: What is going on in this image? What's the story here?  What do we know about this place?  Is this image candid or staged?  Why did the artist make this?

Decide: Does this work as a photograph?  What techniques might you use for your own work?  What would you have done differently as the photographer?

*This critique structure hits the Common Core Reading Anchor standards 1-6.

Create: Photo Walk

With a team of 3-4 people, take your camera for a walk around the neighborhood and compose images that tell the story of what you connect with about this place.  Be sure to notate your exact location for each shot.  Jot down words or phrases that come to you in connection with your image.

Connect: Publish

• Upload your images to your laptop or tablet.
• Log onto Picasaweb.com.
• Upload one image per artist to the Album "Digital Placemaking"
• Log onto Panoramio.
• Upload the images from your group.
• Title each image based on the words or phrases you jotted down.
• Map the images.
• Tag the image with your handle.
• If there's time, write a short (1-5 line) poem as the description.

Connect: Comment

Explore the other photos on our map, and let the photographers know how you are interpreting their work, and how their perception of this place connects to yours.  Remember the rules for comments:

Be known: Always tell us who you are, no anonymous posting.  It helps to drive the conversation in a positive, community-oriented direction if we use each other's names.

Be nice: No hating, sniping, or bullying.  Even if you disagree, do so decently, while maintaining everyone's dignity.

Back it up: Link to your sources and always be able to point to sound reasoning from a careful examination of the facts.

Write for real: This isn't a text message.  Use actual words (no abbreves), proper capitalization and punctuation, and the best spelling you can muster. 

Trust intent: If you feel bristled by what someone said, chances are they were guilty of being clunky rather than cruel.  Approach the poster in person and ask for clarity, then respond in person.  Do this within 24 hours, or breathe and let it go.

Reflect: How are we connected to this place?

What did you notice in looking at everyone's images?  What similarities or patterns?  What were some major differences?  What did you learn from looking at other people's images that you didn't see before?