NOW Classrooms, Grades 9–12

CLASSROOMS GRADES 9–12

—MARY JANE MORRIS, Co-Executive Director, Consortium for Educational Change, Lombard, Illinois

“This is the book that every high school educator needs to read. It provides practical application and differentiated lessons and strategies for teachers to leverage and integrate technology to enhance student learning. We’ve been waiting for a book that speaks to classrooms of the future, and it’s finally here!”

—JONATHAN TALLMAN, Superintendent, Red Bud Community Unit School District 132, Red Bud, Illinois In NOW Classrooms, Grades 9–12: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology—part of the NOW Classrooms series—authors Meg Ormiston, Scott D. Parker, Tom Lubbers, Gretchen Fitzharris, Ellen K. Lawrence, and Katie N. Aquino stress that real transformational school change focuses on robust teaching and learning, not the ever-evolving devices that may enhance that change. This book presents practical, classroom-tested lessons that grades 9–12 teachers and instructional coaches can use to prime students to actively learn and solve real-world problems. Sets of topical lessons—one novice lesson, one operational lesson, and one wow lesson—progressively increase in depth and complexity for readers to

NOW . C L ASS R O O M S

NOW.

“This is a terrific book for teachers looking for lessons using digital tools that will engage and empower students to own their learning.

Using this book’s strategies will transform teaching into rich, learning-centered classrooms that engage students at every level.”

LESSONS FOR ENHANCING TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

NOW. CLASSROOMS GRADES 9–12

choose from based on students’ needs. Using these lessons, grounded in the essential four C skills (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity), teachers can connect technology to key content-area outcomes and prepare students to succeed in the 21st century.

Grades 9–12 teachers will: • Gain practical novice, operational, and wow lessons for using technology • Allow students to exercise their voice, choice, and creativity

• Gather helpful teaching and technology tips • Use chapter-ending discussion questions for personal or collaborative reflection Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology to download the free reproducibles in this book.

SolutionTree.com

GRADES 9–12

• Help students keep themselves and their data safe online

Scott D. Parker Tom Lubbers

MEG ORMISTON Gretchen Fitzharris Ellen K. Lawrence Katie N. Aquino

Copyright © 2018 by Solution Tree Press Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

555 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404 800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700 FAX: 812.336.7790 email: info@SolutionTree.com SolutionTree.com Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology to download the free reproducibles in this book.

Printed in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17

1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ormiston, Meghan J., author.

Title: NOW classrooms, grades 9-12 : lessons for enhancing teaching and learning through technology / Authors: Meg Ormiston, Scott D. Parker, Tom Lubbers, Gretchen Fitzharris, Ellen K. Lawrence, and Katie N. Aquino.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2018] | Series: NOW classrooms. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017027079 | ISBN 9781945349447 (perfect bound) Subjects: LCSH: Education, Secondary--Computer-assisted instruction. | Educational technology--Study and teaching (Secondary) | School improvement programs.

Classification: LCC LB1028.5 .O693 2018 | DDC 371.33--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc .gov/2017027079

Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO Edmund M. Ackerman, President Solution Tree Press President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife Editorial Director: Sarah Payne-Mills Art Director: Rian Anderson Managing Production Editor: Caroline Cascio Senior Production Editor: Todd Brakke Senior Editor: Amy Rubenstein Copy Editor: Jessi Finn Proofreader: Elisabeth Abrams Text and Cover Designer: Rian Anderson Compositor: Laura Cox Editorial Assistants: Jessi Finn and Kendra Slayton

Table of Contents

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ix

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Building Super Skills for College and Career. . . . . . . . 2 Using This Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Using This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Building Background: Know Before You Go. . . . . . . . 8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1 Embracing Creativity

. . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Using Digital Images in Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Using Video to Demonstrate Learning . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Using Audio to Enhance Understanding. . . . . . . . . . 29 Combining Multimedia Elements to Create Effective Presentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

and 2 Communicating Collaborating

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Using Flipped Video to Communicate and Enhance Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Using Social Networking to Work as a Group . . . . . . 52 Collaborating Online Using Live Communications . . 59 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

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N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

Research and 3 Conducting Curating Information

. . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Gathering Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Evaluating Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Critically to 4 Thinking Solve Problems

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Identifying and Defining Tasks for Investigation . . . . 86 Planning and Managing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Data. . . . . . . . 101 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Responsible 5 Being Digital Citizens

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Protecting Oneself and Others Online . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Engaging in Legal and Ethical Behaviors. . . . . . . . . 120 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Technology and 6 Expanding Coding Concepts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Showcasing Work Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Managing and Troubleshooting Devices. . . . . . . . . .

Coding and Developing Applications . . . . . . . . . . . .

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

132 140 148 155

Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Appendix: Glossary of Tools and Terms . . . . . 159 References and Resources . . . . . . . 173 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

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About the Authors

Meg Ormiston, in her role as a consultant, partners with school systems that have committed to 21st century learning experiences for everyone. Meg creates a unique partnership in each district, reflecting the mission, vision, and direction that local leaders identify. Her districtwide projects include guiding teams through the visioning process, designing and delivering professional development, facilitating classroom modeling, developing student leaders in technology, and educating parents.

Meg is a teacher, a keynote speaker, and an author of seven books, including Creating a Digital-Rich Classroom, which received an honorable mention in the education category for the 2010 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. After twelve years teaching and coaching in the classroom, Meg volunteered on her local school board, facilitated grant projects, and continued researching and writing about best practices.

Meg has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the National College of Education at National Louis University and travels globally, sharing her passion for real change in the classroom. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, Brian; her sons, Danny and Patrick; and her golden retriever puppy, Sonoma.

To learn more about Meg’s work, follow @megormi on Twitter.

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N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

Scott D. Parker is a science teacher and instructional technology coach for a suburban high school near Chicago.

Since 2006, he has also co-taught, with a special education teacher, students with mild and moderate disabilities. As a seventeen-year teaching veteran, he is a passionate and innovative educator who believes in the power of education technology to enhance and better assess student knowledge across all content areas. Since 2015, Scott also has been an instructional coach. He piloted his district’s 1:1 Chromebook adoption to full implementation, which covered nearly 6,500 students.

Scott has presented at local and state conferences. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Iowa. He has master’s degrees in secondary education from the University of St. Francis and in education technology from the American College of Education. When Scott is not teaching, you will probably find him at one of his four kids’ sporting events or activities.

To learn more about Scott’s work, follow @scottparker013 on Twitter.

Tom Lubbers teaches mathematics at a high school in the Chicago suburbs. He has taught at both the middle school and high school levels. At the middle school level, he piloted a 1:1 device program, during which time he integrated the Common Core mathematics curriculum with iPads. Tom took this firsthand experience witnessing the impact technology can have on student learning with him to the high school level, where he works with students using Chromebooks. Tom enjoys looking for new ways to incorporate technology in the classroom that promote student appreciation for mathematics as well as deeper content understanding.

Tom received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in secondary education from Elmhurst College, an endorsement in special education from Lewis University, and

x

About the Authors

a master’s degree in educational technology from Concordia University Chicago. When Tom is not working on creating a more rigorous and cohesive mathematics curriculum, he can be found on the golf course, going somewhere on vacation, or spending time with his friends.

To learn more about Tom’s work, follow @TALubbers on Twitter.

Gretchen Fitzharris teaches mathematics at a high school in the Chicago suburbs. She has co-taught special education classes and has been privileged to teach in a district that emphasizes technology and encourages educators to think outside the box to try new technology and expand student learning. Gretchen has also taught the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program at her school and experienced the benefits of technology use outside her core content area. Gretchen’s school has a 1:1 learning environment, and she is passionate about holding her students to a high level of rigor that 1:1 complements. It excites Gretchen to try new things in the classroom and be a leader in her department and to encourage her colleagues to do the same.

Gretchen received her bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Indiana University and her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Concordia University Chicago. When Gretchen is not teaching, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, running, sewing, and cooking.

To learn more about Gretchen’s work, follow @gmfeldma on Twitter.

Ellen K. Lawrence is a certified leader, librarian, and technology specialist with experience teaching elementary school, high school, and college students. As one of two library directors in her district, Ellen focuses on ways to support student and teacher performance across the curriculum.

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N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

The American Library Association named Ellen’s current district’s library program the 2012 National School Library Program of the Year. Also, Ellen dedicates time to presenting at local and national conferences on the topics of libraries, technology, and professional development.

Ellen earned her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education at Illinois State University. After teaching first grade for two years, she obtained two master’s degrees, one in instructional technology from Northern Illinois University, and another in educational leadership from the University of St. Francis. Passionate about education, Ellen is currently pursuing a doctorate in instructional technology at Northern Illinois University. In addition to having a passion for teaching and learning, Ellen is an avid sports fan torn between Chicago hockey and St. Louis baseball.

To learn more about Ellen’s work, follow @LawrenceEllen on Twitter.

Katie N. Aquino is an instructional coach for a high school district in suburban Chicago. She served for several years as a high school English and videoproduction teacher and technology integration coach. Katie focuses on integrating innovation into education curricula to best support and develop student learning. She is passionate about growing 21st century learners and thinkers by leveraging inquiry, creativity, and problem solving in the classroom.

Katie is a Google-certified teacher, trainer, and innovator and speaks at many local and national conferences, focusing on helping other teachers seamlessly incorporate new and emerging technologies into a variety of high school curricula.

She also works with teachers to use technology to maximize their efficiency and be more present in their classrooms.

Katie has a bachelor’s degree in English education and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She also holds a master’s degree in instructional technology from Northern Illinois University. She is certified in English language

xii

arts, instructional technology, and library media for grades 9–12. When Katie is not at school, you can find her at home with her daughter and husband, likely cheering on her world-champion Chicago Cubs, cooking up a storm in the kitchen, or curling up with a good book.

To learn more about Katie’s work, follow @edu_katied on Twitter.

To book Meg Ormiston, Scott D. Parker, Tom Lubbers, Gretchen Fitzharris, Ellen K. Lawrence, or Katie N. Aquino for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.

xiii

Introduction

Walking out of high school in 2017 looks much different than it did twenty or even ten years earlier, and these students will head for jobs that look and function very little like those of the 20th century. They will become user-experience designers, roboticists, nanotechnologists, and social-marketing mavens.

In an interconnected world, students must have the ability to communicate and collaborate not only with their peers but also with people they have never met who live halfway around the world. It demands that students function not just as information consumers but also as creative content producers. Students of the 21st century have access to so much information that it is imperative that they know how to think critically about where that information comes from, what it means, and how they will use it.

As teachers, we want to fill classroom work with magical teacher-student partnerships. In these classrooms, students own their data, and they set individual and group goals based on the projects they are working on. Looking around these classrooms, you see what we call messy learning or organized chaos. Think of the vibe of a busy coffeehouse, everyone chatting or working independently, depending on each person’s goals. Digital devices are everywhere, but so are collaboration and all types of communication as everyone gathers for different goals.

Like in a coffeehouse, when you walk into a magical classroom, you feel the energy as all students are laser focused on their personal learning targets and as they collaborate with each other. The teacher has set high expectations for each 1

N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

student, and he or she continuously monitors data using a variety of technology interfaces. Parents and other professionals are part of the communication loop with access to goal-focused data. We call these magical classrooms NOW classrooms. We selected that term because our students deserve to thrive in rich learner-centered classrooms now, not in a few months or years. We believe schools are ready to create this type of NOW classroom, typified by technology-supported teaching and learning, and the evidence we’ve seen bears this belief out. Our goal with this book and this series is to help you create them.

Building Super Skills for College and Career You may ask, “How can I use technology in my classroom to better prepare my grades 9–12 students for college and career?” This book answers that question by demonstrating the opposite of technology misuse. It features students productively using technology, not as a new toy, but to create, to collaborate, to explore, to investigate, and to share their creations beyond classroom walls. This book structures critical thinking and problem solving into every lesson by ensuring each lesson establishes meaningful, purposeful technology use that directly ties into the 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students. ISTE (2016) education technology experts have developed seven standards that call for students to become the following.

1. Empowered learners 2. Digital citizens 3. Knowledge constructors 4. Innovative designers 5. Computational thinkers 6. Creative communicators 7. Global collaborators In addition to these ISTE student standards, when we think about engagement and our learning targets, we must think about the important skills of what the Partnership for 2

Introduction

21st Century Learning (2015) calls the four Cs: (1) communication, (2) collaboration, (3) critical thinking, and (4) creativity. The four Cs, which you can learn more about at www .p21.org, are essential skills all lifelong learners need to be prepared for their future, not just nice-to-have soft skills.

These skills are more important than in the past because we are preparing students for a global world of work, one filled with jobs we haven’t identified yet. A comprehensive study by Craig D. Jerald (2009) for the Center for Public Education, titled Defining a 21st Century Education, addresses this shifting world of work and the importance of the 4Cs: Workplace and corporate change is having a large impact on skill demands. To succeed in ‘flat’ organizations characterized by less supervision and greater individual autonomy, individuals need to be able to act independently to identify opportunities and solve problems on their own. They also will need strong interpersonal skills—written, oral, social—to collaborate effectively with colleagues on self-managed work teams. (p. 15)

From these essential four Cs skills, there are sets of super skills that we believe all students need if they want to succeed in the 21st century (see table I.1).

Table I.1: The Four Cs and Super Skills of the 21st Century

Four Cs

Super Skills

Communication

Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions

Collaboration

Working together to reach a goal—putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work

Critical Thinking

Looking at problems in a new way, linking learning across subjects and disciplines

Creativity

Trying new approaches to get things done, which equals innovation and invention

Source: Partnership for 21st Century Learning, n.d.

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N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

We need to develop these super skills in students because too many of them have not experienced any real voice and choice in their classroom learning, meaning that they haven’t been allowed to decide how they present the information they learn. Classrooms that feature student voice and choice look very different from traditional classrooms because the students who exercise voice and choice own their learning path and goals. No matter the content area or class section, students who develop these super skills become independent directors of their own learning, which we believe will set them up for lifelong success outside the classroom. These elements are what transform traditional classrooms into NOW classrooms.

For high school teachers, it’s also important to note that grades 9–12 students often know as much as or more than their teachers do about using technology. This makes it easy to think that students don’t need their teachers to develop their ability to interact with a digital world. We disagree. As Mary Beth Hertz (2012) puts it: It’s one thing to use a tablet computer and its apps to learn basic literacy skills; but learning to create, read critically, use online content responsibly and be a respectful digital citizen are not always skills that can be learned without the guidance of a teacher.

The role of the teacher carries more importance than ever as we teach our students to become lifelong learners.

Using This Series This book is part of the five-book NOW Classrooms series, all organized around grade-level-appropriate themes adapted from the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students. The series includes the following five titles.

1. NOW Classrooms, Grades K–2: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology 2. NOW Classrooms, Grades 3–5: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology 3. NOW Classrooms, Grades 6–8: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology

4

Introduction

4. NOW Classrooms, Grades 9–12: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology 5. NOW Classrooms, Leader’s Guide: Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology Instructional coaches might use all five books in the series for project ideas at all grade levels and for leadership strategies. We scaffolded the lessons across the series of books so they all flow together, and we organized all the grade-level books in this series in the same way to make it easy for all readers to see how the ideas link together. We believe this series will save you hours of preparation time.

Using This Book This book features a series of lessons written for grades 9–12 teachers. As teachers, we know how challenging it is to come up with fresh ideas for the classroom each day, so we wrote our lessons in a way that makes getting started simple.

That said, instructional coaches and administrators can also use the book’s lessons to support the students and teachers they lead.

Each of the chapters includes multiple topical sections, each with three lesson levels—(1) novice, (2) operational, and (3) wow, spelling NOW. Once we arrived at the three levels, it felt almost like a Choose Your Own Adventure book instead of a step-by-step recipe book. Make your lesson selections based on what your students can already do. For example, in chapter 4, we introduce the topic Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Data (page 101). The novice lesson in this section covers how students can use forms to create polls and surveys to gather data on a topic they study. But maybe your students already know how to do that, or maybe you have specific students who are ready for an increased challenge. You can advance those students to the operational lesson, which involves them taking data they collect and understanding how to analyze the data to find meaning. Students who have mastered both concepts are ready to showcase their learning for a broader audience, hence the wow lesson on publishing and presenting data.

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N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

Each lesson begins with a learning goal, phrased as an I can statement, written in student-friendly language. These statements help students understand the learning goal and make the learning experience purposeful. When students more clearly understand what they can do and where they are going, learning happens. This is important because it means that students are taking ownership of their learning. We then explain to you what students will learn from the lesson and the tools you can use to make it work, and we provide a stepped process you can follow to accomplish the learning goal. All lessons wrap up with subject-area connections that feature ideas you can use to adapt the lessons to different content areas, like English language arts, mathematics, and science.

A unique addition to this book is the addition of a career and technical education (CTE) connection for every lesson.

In this category, we include all types of CTE courses, such as agricultural education, entrepreneurship, culinary arts, web design, and many more. As you read through the CTE connections, you may find classes your school does not offer, but because many schools are starting to partner with local community colleges to create dual-credit courses, we include connections for all types of classes. In some districts or regions, there are career centers offering a wide range of classes, and we also want to make sure these teachers and students have lessons that apply to their content areas.

Along the way, we also provide teaching and tech tips in this book’s scholar’s margins to provide useful insights.

Finally, we have included discussion questions at the end of each chapter so you can use this book with your team for professional development.

Chapter 1, “Embracing Creativity,” has you teach students to create multimedia products, rather than just consume them. Using the lessons in this chapter, you can help students develop their ability to creatively use images, video, and audio in their work to create products that show the full range of their learning.

Chapter 2, “Communicating and Collaborating,” includes lessons to develop students’ ability to engage in the four Cs of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Students will learn to work better together and provide

6

Introduction

each other with constructive feedback as they create group projects and share them with authentic audiences that exist beyond classroom walls.

Chapter 3, “Conducting Research and Curating Information,” helps you develop students’ ability to find information by creating research plans and using advanced search techniques as they investigate and offer solutions to realworld problems. Students will then strengthen their evaluation skills as they determine when they find reliable sources that have limited bias.

Chapter 4, “Thinking Critically to Solve Problems,” covers how to teach students learning strategies for using digital tools to stay organized when researching challenging problems, to improve work flow and manage time, and to collect and analyze data they can later publish and present to authentic audiences.

Chapter 5, “Being Responsible Digital Citizens,” helps you teach your students what it means to be digital citizens and make positive contributions to online culture by establishing and cultivating a healthy digital footprint for themselves and others. High school students especially need to know that what they put on the Internet stays on the Internet and can affect their ability to enter college and find jobs. We also offer lessons to reinforce to students the importance of respecting ownership by properly citing copyrighted sources and avoiding plagiarism.

Chapter 6, “Expanding Technology and Coding Concepts,” explains how to grow students’ online presence by having them create digital portfolios of their work, make better use of their personal technology, and develop their computational and design skills through coding.

In the appendix, we include an alphabetical list of technology terms and resources. This includes a comprehensive list of apps, websites, and technology tools referenced in the book along with a description of each resource.

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N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

Building Background: Know Before You Go Readers should be aware of a few additional concepts regarding this content before they begin engaging with the lessons and chapters that follow. We want to briefly mention suggestions for the sequence in which readers use the lessons in the book, discuss the concept of learning management systems (LMSs) and common education suites like G Suite for Education that are a critical part of this book’s lessons, emphasize the importance of following policies regarding student privacy and Internet use, and discuss how assessment connects with this content.

Sequence of Use Although we organized this book in an optimal way, we invite you to move among the lessons in whatever sequence you like. Lessons range in difficulty so that you may meet your students at their level. Some concepts and apps will be new to students, requiring you to offer them more basic lessons that help get them started. Other students you can advance more quickly, perhaps starting off with an operational lesson or even going straight to a topic’s wow lesson.

You know your students best, so use our NOW lesson format to fit their needs.

Each of these lessons requires some form of app or technology platform to accomplish a learning goal. We offer a variety of suggestions you can deploy with each lesson, but do not limit yourself or your students to our examples. Apps change.

They disappear entirely. The best app for a job when we wrote this book may not remain the best one for the job when you read this book. Because of this, we designed each lesson to have adaptability so you can use it with whatever tool best suits your classroom. We don’t teach the app; we teach the classroom process.

Learning Management Systems and Education Suites Just because learning sometimes looks messy, it doesn’t mean it lacks structure. Imagine a whole new world without a stack of papers to grade in which the assignments students 8

Introduction

submit are all organized and recorded in digital folders.

Access to technology allows teachers to eliminate the stack of papers and create digital learning experiences that are meaningful and even more powerful to both students and teachers than paper. Schools in the 21st century use many different software programs and web-based applications, or learning management systems to stay organized. Most learning management systems have some free features and premium (paid) school or district solutions. In most schools, everyone uses the same system so students and parents don’t need to learn a different LMS for every class. Most learning management systems allow the teacher to message students, assign and collect documents, report student progress, and deliver e-learning content. Throughout the book, you will notice we provide steps for how you can give digital files to students and then how students return the digital files to you through the classroom LMS. Common learning management systems include the following, but you can find hundreds of others on the market.

• Schoology (www.schoology.com) • Showbie (www.showbie.com) • Seesaw (https://web.seesaw.me) • Canvas (www.canvaslms.com/k-12) • Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) • Otus (http://otus.com) • PowerSchool Learning (www.powerschool.com /solutions/lms) • Blackboard (www.blackboard.com) • Moodle (https://moodle.org) • D2L (www.d2l.com) One option that needs a little more explanation is Google Classroom (https://classroom.google.com). Google Classroom, which is free to use, is a cross between a document management system and a learning management system. It does not contain all the features of an LMS, but it is a great way to get started managing a digital classroom.

In addition to an LMS, many school districts use an education productivity suite like Google’s G Suite for Education 9

N OW C L AS S ROO M S, G R A D E S 9 – 12

(https://edu.google.com/products/productivity-tools) or Microsoft Office 365 for Education (www.microsoft.com /en-us/education/products/office). We focus on Google’s platform because it’s the one we are experienced with, but if your school or district uses a different platform, you will find corollaries with them that allow you to adapt our content to your needs.

With G Suite for Education, every user in a district has a unique Gmail login and password to enter their own part of the G Suite, granting them access to the following services.

• Google Docs to do word processing • Google Sheets to create spreadsheets • Google Slides to create presentations • Google Forms to create quizzes and surveys • Google Drawings to create illustrations • Google Drive to store and share files Using these online environments, students and teachers can communicate and keep documents online and available on any device that connects to the Internet. They can keep these documents private or share them with others.

To highlight the value of a productivity suite such as this, note that our writing team used Google Docs to organize and write this book. Twenty-six coauthors took part in writing the NOW Classrooms series, and none of us can imagine how we could have done this without using a collaborative platform like G Suite. As you will read about in chapter 2, high school students especially need to experience this type of collaborative process to prepare for college and career.

Using these online environments, students and teachers can keep documents online and available to them anytime on any Internet-connected device. They can keep these documents private or share them with others.

Student Privacy and Internet Use In many of the lessons, you will see students share their work beyond classroom walls. This connection to the outside world is an important one. As educators, we make it our goal to prepare students for the world beyond the classroom,

10

Introduction

and they live in a connected world. We mention publishing student work online throughout the book, but before you start tweeting pictures of or sharing student work online, make sure you understand your school’s and district’s policies for sharing information on social media. Very likely, all your high school students are older than age thirteen, which means they can legally create their own social media accounts on platforms like Twitter (https://twitter.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com) and register to use a host of online tools and services. However, before you have your students use these services, you should talk to your administrator and ensure that you understand what you and your students can and can’t share online. In addition to staying mindful of school and district policies, you should familiarize yourself with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 before you have students publicly share their work.

Assessment Formative and summative assessments are integral parts of teaching and give valuable information on how students are progressing. These assessments also help high school teachers to streamline their data and adapt instruction accordingly.

We recommend that you use your classroom LMS to house your assessment data and ensure that students and parents have access to it. As students share work, give constructive feedback and record your feedback in your own data files.

There are many assessment programs out there that may also be helpful, but because this book features creation-based lessons, we focus this text only on formative assessment options in relation to NOW lessons.

Conclusion Our author team includes a science teacher who also serves as an instructional coach, one English teacher also serving as instructional coach, two mathematics teachers, a school librarian, and an educational consultant. Collectively, we have seen the good, bad, and ugly that occur during school technology rollouts. To better tap our collective experience while collaborating on this book, we created our own personal learning network (PLN). Many different definitions

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C ONNECT W ITH US ON TW ITTER Meg Ormiston: @megormi Scott D. Parker: @scottparker013 Tom Lubbers: @TALubbers Gretchen Fitzharris: @gmfeldma Ellen K. Lawrence: @LawrenceEllen Katie N. Aquino: @edu_katied

of a PLN exist, but we like this explanation from Karla Gutierrez (2016): Your PLN is where you gather, collect, communicate, create and also share knowledge and experience with a group of connected people, anywhere at any time. It is developed largely through social media, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and blogs, helping us form connections, grow our knowledge base and develop ourselves professionally through continual learning.

During the writing process, we used our PLN to help each other stay focused on teaching and learning first and then match the right technology to the learning goals we set. Because we have seen rollouts done with little professional development, where teachers are left to figure out on their own how to transform their lessons using newly introduced devices, we want to put in your hands great ways to use technology as an accelerator in every subject area, and we want to support you in those efforts even after you finish reading this book. You can follow our PLN on Twitter @NOWClassrooms or with the #NOWClassrooms hashtag.

You can also follow us individually on Twitter by following the accounts listed on this page. Finally, you can keep up with our work on our blog (http://nowclassrooms.com). We know that technology tools will change after this book goes to press, so we want to share and continue to learn with you on our blog and through social media. Think of our team as your personal professional development network.

Our team enjoyed our time researching and writing as we discussed our exciting visions of classrooms of the future.

We tested our ideas in our classrooms, trying them over and over again while adding different wrinkles and concepts, and then collaborated over our failures and successes. The lessons in this book are the exciting results of that collaboration, and we want you to tap our experience and adapt our lesson ideas so you have your own classroom successes. We look forward to having you share with us on Twitter and at our blog the projects your students create because your success is our success. Have fun on your journey!

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Communication and collaboration lie at the heart of learning.

This chapter facilitates students’ abilities to work together on projects and use those projects to connect with an authentic audience. These abilities link directly to the ISTE 2016 Standards for Students skills of creative communicators and global collaborators, concepts that also come up in the four Cs. The lessons in this chapter connect with these standards by helping students become proficient in multimodal literacies.

We define multimodal literacies as the integration of many modes of communication and expression to enhance the work that students create. For example, students must develop the ability to read and write using a screen. On-screen communication is a newer mode of literacy, and literacy specialists are still trying to determine if interacting with a screen incorporates the same skills as working with print-based text. In the journal article “School Partnerships: Technology Rich Classrooms and the Student Teaching Experience,” Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs, Molly Hogan, Julene Waffle, and Jessica Samplaski (2014) state, “Because the world is becoming ever more complex in terms of 21st century skills, to be truly successful participants in that world, people need to be proficient in multimodal literacies” (p. 123). These multimodal literacies are important for 21st century learners, and students

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need to be well-versed in all literacies to allow them to think and learn in the digital age.

As Tina L. Heafner and Adam M. Friedman (2008) write, “Students do not have to be passive recipients of information but can become equal partners in the learning process as they collaborate and create knowledge in a social manner” (p. 292). This chapter will help you develop students’ ability to take ownership of their learning as effective communicators and collaborators who can connect with a variety of audiences to identify and solve real-world problems. In this chapter’s lessons, students will demonstrate how to use instructional videos that flip learning, use social networking to work as a group, and collaborate online using live communication tools, like video chats.

Using Flipped Video to Communicate and Enhance Learning Although creating video is a valuable skill for students to acquire, so is incorporating digital video instruction into your curriculum. Allowing students to access outside learning sources in the form of video can inspire them to take ownership of the learning process. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (2012) state, “Students are responsible for viewing the

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Educators agree that teaching literacy requires classroom processes that include imagery and writing. Part of that process includes having learners provide and receive constructive criticism or feedback. By the time students reach high school, previous teachers have exposed them to the idea of peer editing and feedback. However, this practice often limits peer work to the classroom. When students create content, having them make that content available online for outside audiences to view helps you deliver more in-depth instruction that improves students’ critiquing, analyzing, and synthesizing skills. This interaction with an authentic audience allows the learners to build their knowledge, experience, and interests in the content they created. This also provides the students the opportunity to contribute to globalization and experience other cultures’ perspectives.

Communicating and Collaborating

Many students already voluntarily participate in online courses or video-based training to learn needed skills to be successful in school. We believe that digital media’s use in academia and in the business world will only increase over time. As we discussed in chapter 1 (page 22), videoproduction skills benefit both you, as the teacher, and your students in many ways. The process you or a student must go through to make a video deepens learning, enhances teamwork, and increases student motivation.

In this NOW lesson set, we write about using flipped videos as communication vehicles for learning. Flipped learning usually means you, as the teacher, create an explanatory video about a concept and students watch the video outside of class.

When students come to class, they then work collaboratively on hands-on activities connected to the video’s topic. In this NOW lesson set, we modify the flipped-video concept to have students create and share videos that demonstrate their understanding of a topic. In our experience, having students create videos and share them with an authentic audience increases engagement for all students. This, in turn, creates empowered learners, teaches students about self-directed learning, and shows students how to effectively collaborate with others on both local and global teams.

Using f lipped video in your curriculum allows you to increase your instructional effectiveness. Salman Khan (2012) says of his belief in flipped video, “My hope was to make education more efficient, to help kids master basic concepts in fewer hours so that more time would be left for other kinds of learning. Learning by doing. Learning by having productive, mind-expanding fun” (pp. 149–150). You can use this NOW lesson set to bring these kinds of learning experiences to your classroom.

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video and asking appropriate questions. The teacher is simply there to provide expert feedback. The students are responsible for completing and sharing their work. Students are motivated to learn, not just complete the assignment in rote manner” (p. 16). Letting go in this way can be a scary feeling for a lot of teachers. However, giving this kind of ownership to students leads to higher interest, engagement, and excitement about their learning.

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Novice: Evaluating Educational Videos Learning goal:

In addition to common video-hosting platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, students can use a variety of academically focused video-hosting websites to search for educational videos and learn from them. These sites include Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org), TeacherTube (www.teachertube.com), TED-Ed (https://ed.ted.com), and WatchKnowLearn (www.watchknowlearn.org).

Process: Streaming an Educational Video

Use the following four steps to have students locate and review an online video they can use to flip their learning.

1. Assign students a new learning topic that you want them to learn about outside the classroom.

You should provide a list of preferred resources for the students to start their search and discuss with students the most effective ways to conduct their searches. Have them put together a graphic organizer that allows them to evaluate a search query result.

2. Outside of regular classroom instruction, have students use a video-hosting website to locate and learn from a video that introduces their assigned topic.

3. In groups, students should evaluate their chosen videos’ publisher, creator, subject, ratings, and content. Upon completing their group evaluations, have groups report their findings. Students should also share links of the video lessons with you using

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I can independently locate and then evaluate an online educational video that helps me better understand a topic.

As we have established, flipping the classroom with video reduces direct classroom instruction and increases inclassroom activities that involve student communication and collaboration. The purpose of this lesson is to have students locate a video on a topic you assign and watch it outside the classroom before they engage in an in-classroom lesson that activates their newly acquired knowledge on the topic. A valuable way to assess the validity of the video is to have peers watch the video and provide feedback to each other. This allows the student who selected the video the opportunity to hear the thought process of their peers.

Communicating and Collaborating

the classroom LMS. Add the links to your class’s website.

4. Design a hands-on classroom activity that reinforces the information that the students were able to gather from watching the video.

TEACHING TIPS

Connections

• Mathematics: Have students investigate a mathematics concept they are currently studying by searching for instructional videos that purport to explain it. Instruct them to produce a list of applicable videos they can then compare and contrast to determine which videos most effectively explain the concept.

• Science: Have students search for videos on experimental design. They should then share the video they located with their group. Instruct group members to provide feedback on the quality of the video pertaining to the topic. The group should select one video to share with you. Place links to that video on the class website for all students to review and use to support their learning.

• Art: Have students search for multiple videos that illustrate the artistic evolution that occurred during a specific period they are studying. They should compare and contrast the videos to determine which videos they think best explain the unique aspects of the period and best highlight the period’s most exemplary creations.

• Career and technical education: In a woodshop class, have students search for and watch instructional videos connected to a project. For example, they could search for basic videos on the construction of a bird house. The students should first evaluate the video themselves, then share with a partner to assess the accuracy of the instructions.

Upon completing their analysis of the video, they can work on constructing their own bird houses.

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Evaluating other’s videos allows students to see the good and bad of video production. The more thoroughly students evaluate a video, the better they can construct their own recorded lessons.

The visual quality of videos students find online can vary. Visual quality, however, is not as important as the quality of video content.

Keep students focused on evaluating a video lesson’s learning content and not its production quality.

© 2018 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

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Operational: Creating Flipped Videos Learning goal:

Student created videos require even more preparation than a typical in-class presentation. Not only is it necessary for the student to synthesize various sources on the subject content, the student must also write it down as a script, read it, recite it and then create a video, sometimes requiring multiple ‘takes’ and subsequent editing. Each of these steps repeatedly exposes and reinforces the subject content for the students. (p. 272)

For this process, allow your students unlimited voice and choice in how they produce their videos. Conventional videocreation apps like WeVideo (www.wevideo.com) and iMovie (www.apple.com/imovie) are very useful tools for this process. Also, depending on the type of instruction students record, consider suggesting to them that they use a screencasting app like Explain Everything (https://explaineverything .com), AWW (https://awwapp.com), or Screencast-O-Matic (http://screencast-o-matic.com). As we briefly mentioned in chapter 1, these apps allow users to record their digital device’s screen, adding narration and other effects. Screencasting can prove extremely useful, for example, when demonstrating how something works on a device.

Process: Recording a Flipped Video

Use the following five steps to have students create a flipped video.

1. Tell students or student groups to pick a videocreation app they can use to make a flipped video that helps others understand a new topic. To 48

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I can create an original flipped video to explain a classroom learning topic.

As students begin to understand what makes for an effective flipped video, it comes time to test that knowledge by having them use their video-production skills, as we covered in chapter 1 (page 22), to create their own flipped videos. Creating these sorts of videos enables students to form a deeper connection to the content they teach in their videos. For example, if students record their own learning video describing the process of photosynthesis, they will spend more time building their understanding of the subject than if they simply listen to you explain the process. As Henry Greene and Cheryl Crespi (2012) state:

Communicating and Collaborating

increase student engagement, have a list of topics for them to choose from.

3. Have students use the app they selected to create their flipped video.

4. Have students upload their completed video to the sharing platform you specify so you can review the video. If students require help accomplishing this task, walk the entire class through the process and help individual students as necessary.

5. Use the rubric you provided to the students to determine if the videos they created met the necessary level of mastery, and then share with the class the videos you approve.

Connections

You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

• English language arts: Have students collaborate with a peer to create a flipped video on a concept they are learning. For example, students can create a video explaining the idea of a mel-con paragraph to their audience. In the video, students should use sample writings either onscreen or use physical paper as a prop to illustrate their points.

• Mathematics: Have students create a flipped video that features them working out an in-class concept, such as solving linear equations with unknown coefficients. They can record their work using a video-creation app and share their video on the class LMS. This allows both you and the students’ classmates to watch the video and give formative assessment feedback on it.

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2. As preparation for recording their flipped video, students should create slides, write scripts for narration, and make ready any other content they need to make their video. Provide students with a rubric of specific information they should include in their creations that will help them be successful in a topic assessment.

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• Career and technical education: In an agricultureeducation course, have students create a final product in which they demonstrate what they know and can do on a topic they have studied. Archive student products on the class website to use with future agriculture courses.

Wow: Collaborating to Create and Evaluate Flipped Videos Learning goal: I can use collaborative technologies to create a flipped video with others and then engage in the feedback process by sharing the video and evaluating others’ work.

This lesson builds on the operational lesson for this topic by having students work in groups to produce a f lipped video and then extend their audience by sharing it through a public-facing platform, such as YouTube, Vimeo, or another host that you specify. Students should work with their group to select the technology tools they will use to create a flipped video. After publishing their video, they will review any feedback they receive as well as any useful feedback other groups’ videos receive.

To ensure students receive quality feedback, partner with another teacher who is covering a similar topic. Plan your partner teacher for how this process will work. It often works best to have a common rubric that the students will use to provide feedback on peers’ videos. Both teachers should discuss the proper way to analyze the video and the proper way to provide this feedback.

As with the operational lesson for this NOW lesson set, unleash your students to use any of the apps we referenced here or in chapter 1. In addition to those tools, we suggest introducing students to Recap (https://letsrecap.com), an excellent app that works on all common devices and allows students to pair video content with narration. Recap’s website also allows students to provide feedback to video creators.

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• Science: Create a list of human body systems, and have students create a flipped video on a system of their choice. Assess student projects on areas such as whether the content presents interesting information with proper and effective use of language, whether images or other graphic content appropriately relates to the content, whether the video’s technical aspects (framing, lighting, and so on), are well-done, and whether the student effectively edited the video.

Communicating and Collaborating

Process: Collaborating to Create a Flipped Video and Provide Feedback

Use the following five steps to have students work in groups to create a flipped video and provide feedback on the work other groups produce.

2. Instruct student groups to work together to choose the digital tools that will best allow them to explain their topic in a flipped video.

3. Give student groups time to create their video products. Provide a rubric for the video product they are creating that highlights critical components students should demonstrate in their final products.

4. Have student groups publish their video to a suitable, public video-hosting platform that you select. They should share a link to their content on the classroom LMS. This is also a good time to conduct a discussion on how to promote finished products to audiences outside the school.

5. Have students review each other’s published work and provide feedback to each other. If groups receive feedback from audiences outside the classroom, review it with them, and model for them how to internalize and incorporate the feedback they receive.

Connections

You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

• Science: Have student groups investigate a scientific process, such as a lab process of diffusion and osmosis that uses potato cores. Students can use a video-recording app to document their lab setup, their experimental process, their analysis, and their conclusion from their analysis. If possible, have students run this experiment congruently with other high school biology classes from other states, and have the classes evaluate each other’s results.

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TEACHING TIP Make sure each group has a clear video plan before students focus on the technology they want to use. For example, students should complete their research on the video project’s topic before they select the technology tool their group will use to create the final project.

© 2018 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

1. Put students in collaborative groups, and allow each group to select one from a list of topics that you create.

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• Career and technical education: In a broadcasttechnology course, have student groups create flipped videos in the form of a news segment. Have other groups carefully observe how the creators produced their segment. Lead a class discussion and provide feedback about the presentation and feedback process between groups.

Using Social Networking to Work as a Group Our high school students are digital natives, “[people who have] been familiar with computers, the Internet, and other digital technology from a young age” (Digital native, n.d.).

As we write about in more detail in chapter 5 (page 112), “the indelibility of a digital footprint has implications unprecedented in society, particularly for [our students]” (Dotterer, Hedges, & Parker, 2016). Students need to understand that the digital footprint they are making now will follow them the rest of their life. Many companies now look at what material a candidate puts out on social media before even getting to the point of conducting interviews. For this reason, we must give students the tools to make good choices.

No doubt, your classroom consists of students who are already social media literate, perhaps even more so than you are. However, how successfully students use social media for personal and academic use varies. Most high school students still need to learn the ethical responsibilities complex social media environments require. Besides knowing how to behave ethically using technology, students must understand how to use technology in ways that enhance their

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• Foreign language: Have student groups make a video recording of a peer reading a passage of narrative foreign language content. They can share their final product with groups in a partner class to obtain feedback. The groups in the partner class should then continue the narrative reading in a subsequent video product for the original groups to provide feedback on, creating a feedback loop between the students.

Communicating and Collaborating

learning experience, teach them to think critically, and lead to self-awareness and self-empowerment. As Stan Bumgardner and Kirk Knestis (2011) state, “These tools could improve student motivation and engagement, help students develop a more social/collaborative view of learning and create a connection to real-life learning.”

As we discussed in the introduction (page 10), make sure you fully understand your school’s social media and student privacy policies. If lesson suggestions we provide in this chapter violate those policies, you can change the lessons to keep your classroom in compliance.

Novice: Conversing Using Social Media This lesson process teaches students how they can communicate about learning topics and collaborate on projects on social media regardless of whether they are in school together or they work together from outside the classroom. The skills that students learn in this lesson will help them better understand how to interact using online discussion boards and social media while accomplishing an assigned task. Before engaging with this lesson, discuss with your students proper social media use and how to stay safe online.

One way you can get a feel for and then develop your students’ ability to communicate online is to host a Twitter chat. Twitter chats are online conversations students engage in using Twitter that focus on an idea, a project, an event, or another topic. What makes them chats and not just a long series of tweets is that these chats use Twitter’s hashtag feature to make related tweets easy to find and see, regardless of who participates. (Hashtags help users locate messages about a specified subject on social media sites.) If the potential for toxic online communications makes you feel hesitant about using a public-facing medium for online student discussion, you can model these concepts using the communications features found in most LMS platforms. If your classroom 53

Learning goal: I can select and use a social media platform to participate in a themed chat with my peers that extends my knowledge.

© 2018 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

The power of social media allows students to connect their classroom to their home, their wider community, and the wider world, giving them access to real people who can help them learn, including experts in the subjects they study.

Indeed, using social media to foster cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge or ideas opens your classroom up to content, people, and experiences in previously impossible ways. A few simple mouse clicks or taps on a screen erase miles and miles of distance between people, creating for students a broader, more consistent form of engagement that extends the school day in ways that help better prepare them for college and career.

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LMS does not include these features, consider using Google Classroom instead.

Process: Conducting an Online Chat

Use the following four steps to conduct an online chat with your students.

Try using a shared document, such as a Google Doc, to aggregate essential information about the chat, such as directions for finding it, the usernames or social media handles of the students in the chat, and its hashtag.

TECH TIPS Although your high school students should all be age thirteen or older, if you have younger students, do not forget that they do not meet the age requirements to use most public-facing social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.

Consider creating a classroom account that you can control and use if you do have younger students.

If you’re unfamiliar with social media tools like Twitter, search for a tutorial online that can help you get started. You can even ask your students for their insights.

2. Use the options in the platform you selected to set up an ongoing chat. For a platform like Twitter, this may mean you simply decide on a hashtag for students to use as they communicate.

Regardless, pick a theme for the chat. The chat may give students a place to discuss questions about a classroom project, share ideas for a project between group members, and so on. Use your imagination!

3. Early in the project or discussion the chat relates to, set aside class time for students to start to use the chat platform to ask questions, discuss ideas, and so on. We recommend giving students at least thirty minutes of class chat time. If necessary, move around the classroom to provide students with guidance to help them communicate more effectively.

4. After the initial in-class chat, turn students loose to continue the chat as what we call a slow chat.

These chats take place over hours, days, or even the entire length of a large project. This allows students to continue asking questions as they encounter problems, instead of waiting until the next class to ask them. Make sure students understand that they should check in with the chat, as appropriate, outside the classroom.

Connections

You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

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TEACHING TIP

1. Choose a platform for your students to use to conduct a chat. We think Twitter is the most ideal platform for this process, but if you need your students to use a more private forum, that’s OK too. Just make sure the platform makes it possible to sustain the chat over time. (The chat shouldn’t disappear after students use it once.)

Communicating and Collaborating

• Science: Work with students to create a class hashtag and then use an online discussion under that hashtag to run a topic review before a quiz on a science topic you are covering in class. Students should evaluate the information that classmates provide under the hashtag.

• Career and technical education: In a culinary course, have students monitor different hashtags related to specific cooking shows or celebrity chefs on various social media sites. For example, students could follow #Cheflife, #Cooks, or the account for celebrity chef Rick Bayless (@Rick_Bayless).

Students should then explain what they learned about the use of social media in the cooking world from these hashtags.

Operational: Using Social Media to Connect With a Broader Audience As your students become comfortable communicating with each other on social media, and as you become more comfortable with their capabilities and their improvements, you can begin to facilitate social media interactions with audiences that exist outside the classroom. The more authentic the audience students reach, the better.

For this purpose, we define an authentic audience as experts in, or closely related to, the field of study students are working within. You should help students make these connections by reaching out to connected experts on social media or in your community before student projects begin. You should also arm students with the necessary communications skills to reach out and connect with experts on their own. If students can connect with influential people, they should attempt to cultivate and maintain that connection into the future. These

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Learning goal: I can communicate on social media with an authentic audience.

© 2018 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

• English language arts: Have students search different popular author-related hashtags on various social media sites. For example, have students search for #jamespatterson and then evaluate what they find. They should examine the types of people using those hashtags and what kinds of information other users post with a particular hashtag.

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sorts of connections often turn into references for students applying for jobs, internships, and college.

Process: Connecting With an Outside Audience

Use the following four steps to help students use social media to connect with an outside audience.

TECH TIPS As students become more proficient at using social media and expand the number of platforms they use, suggest that they explore different social media aggregation apps like TweetDeck (https://tweetdeck .twitter.com) and Hootsuite (https://hoot suite.com). These tools make it easier to organize Twitter feeds, Facebook feeds, Instagram feeds, and others.

Online safety is always a concern when making new connections on social media. Two websites that can help teach students about sound online safety practices are Global SchoolNet (www.globalschoolnet .org) and NetSmartz (www.netsmartz.org).

We provide much more information about digital citizenship in chapter 5 (page 111).

2. Have students choose a social media platform that will best facilitate connecting with other users and provide them with the information they need to finish their work or obtain feedback on work they’ve completed. If school policy prevents students from using social media platforms for this purpose, help them explore alternatives that can accomplish the same goals.

3. Help students begin connecting with outside experts or audiences. These connections can include those that you facilitate or new connections that students establish on their own. Students should document and reflect on the ways in which their online interactions help or hinder them in achieving their goals.

4. Conduct a classroom discussion with your students about their social media experiences. Explore what approaches helped produce positive interactions, and explore what went wrong if any interactions went poorly.

Connections

You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

• Social science: Using social media, connect your students with an expert in a topic related to classroom instruction, such as a civil rights expert. Have students post questions to that expert on social media

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1. Work with students to develop a topic, project, or other product that they will use social media to help advance or, upon completion, share. As students are doing this, reach out and establish connections with relevant experts who are willing to communicate with students over social media.

Communicating and Collaborating

(have them label their questions with a hashtag, if applicable) and discuss the answers they receive.

• Art: Have students create a piece of art or capture an artistic photo and then post it online using social media to see what kind of feedback they receive.

Once students receive feedback, they should use it as constructive criticism to improve their work. If necessary, establish connections with art experts who will commit to providing feedback to students.

• Career and technical education: In a preengineering class, have student groups share pictures of their STEM projects on social media to collect feedback about what they created. The feedback should be part of the reflection cycle for groups as they seek continuous improvement. If necessary, establish connections with art experts who will commit to providing students with quality feedback.

Wow: Moderating Discussions on Social Media Productively participating in online discussions with peers and audiences outside the classroom benefits all students and will continue to benefit them well into their professional futures. Sometimes, however, these discussions struggle to get going because participants don’t know how to best contribute, or maybe they feel afraid to contribute. Also during discussions on social media, unfortunately, contributors may unartfully phrase their comments or participants may take the comments the wrong way such that conflict ensues.

Facilitating productive resolutions sometimes requires someone to act as a moderator, either to stimulate discussion or to help resolve conflicts. You, as the teacher, should always do this when helping students communicate using social media, but consider assigning moderation responsibilities to students

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Learning goal: I can moderate a discussion on social media with an intraclassroom connection.

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• Science: Have students complete a digital storytelling video about humans’ impact on the environment and share a link to it on social media.

Have students make connections with related subject-area experts on social media to receive valuable feedback.

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who demonstrate an aptitude for productively contributing to online discussions.

TEACHING TIP

TECH TIP For students who display a wow-level ability to use social media, consider introducing them to LinkedIn (www .linkedin.com), a social media platform specifically designed to facilitate professional networking. Establishing a presence on LinkedIn is an excellent way for students to form connections that can lead to jobs and to make contact with college professors or administrators.

Use the following four steps to have students moderate an online discussion.

1. Select students who show a high aptitude for contributing to online discussions, and discuss with them how they can effectively moderate future online discussions for student groups or the classroom.

2. Select a chat topic and a chat venue, such as a Twitter chat, and ensure that all participants understand which student is assigned as moderator and what responsibilities and authority he or she has.

3. Monitor the ensuing discussion, and make note of how effectively the moderator keeps it on track and civil. Have both the moderator and the participants document and reflect on their experiences as the discussion unfolds.

4. Conduct a classroom discussion about the online chat, and have students reflect on what they experienced. Participants should contribute their thoughts about the moderator’s success or lack thereof and how they, as participants, contributed to or inhibited that success. The moderator should reflect on what it felt like to keep the discussion flowing and productive. Did it challenge him or her? How did he or she engage with unexpected behaviors?

Connections

You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

• English language arts: Select a book for students to read, and have them use social media to conduct book talks on what they read. (These are talks in which a student or student group tries to convince other readers to read a book.) As students read different segments of the book, choose a student moderator for the corresponding book talk. Allow the student moderator to decide on the social media platform, discussion hashtag, and so on.

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Discussion and moderation will take students from passive listeners and learners to active learners. They will be eager to describe their experiences about the discussion.

Process: Moderating an Online Discussion

Communicating and Collaborating

• Science: Select a discussion topic related to classroom learning, such as environmental issues, evolution, genetics, or biotechnology. Choose a student moderator, and have him or her facilitate a classroom discussion using social media. Allow the student moderator to decide on the social media platform, discussion hashtag, and so on.

• Career and technical education: In an entrepreneurial-studies class, have students create accounts and profiles on the website LinkedIn and search for other thought leaders to participate in a student-led, moderated chat. This chat might happen outside of the classroom, but LinkedIn will automatically keep a record of the discussion for students to share with you.

Collaborating Online Using Live Communications Collaborating to learn from flipped videos and participating in online chats are excellent ways to help students learn to better communicate and collaborate. This learning cannot reach its full potential, however, if students don’t understand how to engage with peers and others over live connections, such as video chats. Unlike the asynchronous communications we discussed in the previous NOW lesson set, synchronous (live) interactions force students to focus on the engagement as it is happening, motivating them to better prepare to discuss a topic.

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• Mathematics: Propose a complex mathematics problem related to your curriculum for students to solve. Choose a student moderator, and have him or her organize and facilitate an online discussion using social media. Students should discuss how to best find the solution to the problem and then solve it. Have the moderator present the students’ solution to the class.

CLASSROOMS GRADES 9–12

—MARY JANE MORRIS, Co-Executive Director, Consortium for Educational Change, Lombard, Illinois

“This is the book that every high school educator needs to read. It provides practical application and differentiated lessons and strategies for teachers to leverage and integrate technology to enhance student learning. We’ve been waiting for a book that speaks to classrooms of the future, and it’s finally here!”

—JONATHAN TALLMAN, Superintendent, Red Bud Community Unit School District 132, Red Bud, Illinois In NOW Classrooms, Grades 9–12: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology—part of the NOW Classrooms series—authors Meg Ormiston, Scott D. Parker, Tom Lubbers, Gretchen Fitzharris, Ellen K. Lawrence, and Katie N. Aquino stress that real transformational school change focuses on robust teaching and learning, not the ever-evolving devices that may enhance that change. This book presents practical, classroom-tested lessons that grades 9–12 teachers and instructional coaches can use to prime students to actively learn and solve real-world problems. Sets of topical lessons—one novice lesson, one operational lesson, and one wow lesson—progressively increase in depth and complexity for readers to

NOW . C L ASS R O O M S

NOW.

“This is a terrific book for teachers looking for lessons using digital tools that will engage and empower students to own their learning.

Using this book’s strategies will transform teaching into rich, learning-centered classrooms that engage students at every level.”

LESSONS FOR ENHANCING TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

NOW. CLASSROOMS GRADES 9–12

choose from based on students’ needs. Using these lessons, grounded in the essential four C skills (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity), teachers can connect technology to key content-area outcomes and prepare students to succeed in the 21st century.

Grades 9–12 teachers will: • Gain practical novice, operational, and wow lessons for using technology • Allow students to exercise their voice, choice, and creativity

• Gather helpful teaching and technology tips • Use chapter-ending discussion questions for personal or collaborative reflection Visit go.SolutionTree.com/technology to download the free reproducibles in this book.

SolutionTree.com

GRADES 9–12

• Help students keep themselves and their data safe online

Scott D. Parker Tom Lubbers

MEG ORMISTON Gretchen Fitzharris Ellen K. Lawrence Katie N. Aquino