Any time students are introduced to a text, concept or idea, there is a time period where they are looking to their teacher to make sense of it for them. At this point their understanding is a “borrowed” one in which they have adopted the view of their teacher and their teachers understanding of whatever “it” is. During this time period, they are contemplating, digesting, and transforming the content into their own understanding. It’s not until they have a full grasp of the content that they truly “own” the idea and use it as a part of their own creations. It’s during that initial period that mentor texts can bring meaning and understanding to student work. However, this understanding is dependent on their teachers understanding. It comes with all prior knowledge, biases and background influences of the teacher that is then transferred with that “borrowed understanding”.
In my district we are heavy users of Grant Wiggings, Understanding by Design framework. He refers to this basic concept as A-M-T, Acquire, Make Meaning and Transfer. When we look at mentor texts with students, regardless of the medium, we are acquiring understanding and knowledge. It is strictly fact finding and information gathering. That acquisition will then lead to students making meaning of that knowledge. Whether that’s through creating a video or writing a piece, they are taking the knowledge of the skill or concept that they’ve acquired and using it for an assignment based on something that we’ve asked them to do. This scaffolding gives them practice with the tool and moves their understanding more towards something that they begin to know. However, “knowing” can’t be the end goal. Even having an understanding can’t be where this ends. Until students transfer this knowledge, skill or concept to their own world and to their own work, independent of a teacher-driven assignment, I’m not sure that they “own” the knowledge, skill or concept.
As I think about this series and the course of events that have led to it, I can’t help but reflect on the idea of all of the knowledge that I’ve “borrowed” from this group. It’s expanded my understanding of mentor texts and of the role that they play in the classroom. When I started blogging with my students 8 years ago, I did so to make for a more authentic learning experience by giving them the opportunity for an audience. We floundered through it and I got better through experimentation and looking to my own mentors online. When we tried our first podcast that year, it was because of the mentors that were experimenting at that time as well. Each of these forays into the world of digital writing and creating provided me with the opportunity to borrow my understanding of content, process and technique from others.
I know that my thinking is incomplete here, but I’m spending a great deal of time considering how this fits into what I’ve been writing about the past week.
Join us at CSD for the free DENVirtual Conference with a STEM focus on Saturday, January 28th. The DEN SCIcon is a live-streamed event that CSD hosts with breakfast & lunch. We will also provide small group & 1-1 support and learning during the entire day. The doors open at 7:30 a.m. and we begin at 8am. The day will wrap up by 2:30 p.m. Come as you are, for as long as you can. Share with your educator family & friends. Contact Stephanie Madlinger at smadlinger@csd.org for more information.
Yesterday I wrote about how content can be the basis for mentoring when you take an initial text and, using the same kind of content, morph it into something similar but different. Yesterday it was Gary Brolsma’s, Numa Numa video. Today I want to talk about a second way to look at mentor texts, that of technique. In the writing workshop this can take the shape of students analyzing a particular style of writing and emulating it in one’s own works. Continuing my theme of thinking about how this can translate to video and the creation process when it comes to that medium, the techniques that are used in movie making can often be imitated through software. One of my favorite ways this is done is through animation.
The following video is one created by a group of elementary students who were studying ancient Egypt and tasked with telling a story about an event. Rather than write a paper, they chose to tell their story through clay-mation and create their own video. With support for their technology integrator and teacher, they created a storyboard to guide them through their story and began the revising and rewriting until they had it just the way they wanted. By their own admission, they hadn’t ever written that much for an assignment ever before.
Once they had written the story and felt ready they immediately began diving into the clay to make the characters. This was the fun stuff. The stuff they could do without planning, or so they thought. Having never created an animated movie before, they had no idea what was in store for them. They knew they had a story inside that they had written out, but making it come to life in clay was a completely different thing. To guide them, their teacher had them look for examples to show them how to go about making an animated video. They found a few and got started, but after only a few frames, they realized they needed more direction and turned to the teacher for help. The teacher, who had also never created animation before called in reinforcements in the form of the building’s technology integrator. Without this available support, there’s a very real chance that the project would have died right there as the teacher was not what you’d consider a techy. This is the end result.
From where I sit, this was a successful project. The students told their story and showed their understanding and ability to transfer their knowledge to a new medium. However, there are many lessons to be learned through this project’s story including:
The students who created this video were creative and resourceful, but they didn’t create clay-mation. They had seen it somewhere and it it had inspired them to try something new. In one of their minds they had a mentor piece that guided them to this point.
We can’t assume that because something has to do with computers that students will be able to do it without support. They needed feedback, guidance and instruction to be successful.
Bringing in new mediums can change the scope of a project making it more challenging or complex.
When given choice and opportunity, students can and will create content that surpasses what we had envisioned.
My next example is from a middle school. In this student’s class they were reading, To Build A Fire, by Jack London. In this case, the student was talented when it came to drawing and also wanted to create an animated story taking an excerpt from the book as her inspiration. She had seen animation techniques and wanted to try something a little more advanced and ambitious. This is her creation.
In this case, the student was inspired by technique as well as content and went about creating because of it. She knew of the techniques and chose to put them to work in their own project.
When a work (be that a video, text or other medium) leads someone to explore a space that is unfamiliar to them and gives them guidance, it can most certainly be classified as a ment0r to the new work. Whether it’s mentoring content, technique or both, these are the basis for much of the creation going on in today’s world.
As this series goes on, it strikes me that each of us involved are adding to the thinking of and mentoring each other through our writing. Thinking about Kevin’s example of the choose your own adventures through video, or Tony’s project with his kids, I will take these “mentor texts” with me as I work with teachers and add to their thinking while they add to mine. The more I think about this subject, the more I see the inspiration that mentor texts can bring to students.
Tomorrow I will pull in the final way that mentor texts can influence the decisions that our students make and inspire them to create. Until then, be sure to check out the posts of the others participating in the series and please, let us know if you are thinking/writing about mentor texts as we are. We want to learn from you.
One of my very distinct memories from my childhood was when I was 7 years old and the second installment of the Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, was released. I hadn’t seen the first movie and didn’t really know anything about it, but my dad was watching the news and there were all these people out in California that were dressed up in all these costumes to see a movie. I remember seeing Chewbacca and Darth Vader and thinking, “What are these people doing?” Here they were standing in line to see this movie, but they weren’t just standing in line, they wanted to experience it and be a part of it. It wasn’t until quite a few months later that I was whisked away to an Indianapolis theater by my father and uncle for my first Star Wars experience. I was surprised to see absolutely no one dressed up as that was really why I wanted to go – to experience the spectacle first hand.
Much has changed in our culture since 1980, but the idea of people participating in cultural events is certainly nothing new. The classroom is no different. As teachers making connections between content and the everyday lives of our students, we constantly bring the outside world into our instructional spaces and invite students to participate. Over the last 10 years, the opportunities to participate have grown exponentially. Much of this has to do with the digital tools and connectedness that we experience everyday. Thanks to the internet, our students have the opportunity to see, hear and experience events on a global level. But typically, it doesn’t stop there. They can actually participate and emulate those events in the virtual world. Recognizing the power of this will be an important piece to seeing how these cultural events can provide mentoring for students for in their digital creations.
In preparing for my part of the NCTE presentation on mentor texts this year, I remembered an example that Michael Wesch had showed during one of his presentations. Wesch, a social anthropologist at Kansas State University, reminded me about Gary Brolsma. In 2004, Gary sat in front of his computer, turned on his webcam and recorded himself doing a lipsync to the song, “Dragostea din tei”, by Moldovan pop band, O-Zone.
This video immediately became an internet sensation being linked to and sent to email addresses throughout the world. While the idea of videoing yourself singing a song that you like was by no means new in 2004, the ability to share with people everywhere and for the video to become viral was. With over 7 million views, Gary’s video is still one of the most watched videos of all time on the internet. With no production quality (watch the video if you don’t believe me), the appeal of this video passes all understanding (at least in my own mind). However, it’s clear that the world was interested. Shortly after the Numa Numa video was created, others started creating videos copying Brolsma’s song and actions. In the following video, a boy who seems to be middle school aged, takes the Numa Numa song and, using it as a sort of mentor text, creates his own video on a webcam and, because of availability of YouTube, he uploaded it and shared his version with the world.
In some way, Gary’s video influenced and inspired this young man to create his own video and share it online. Whether it was poking fun at the original or whether it was because he liked the song or even if he just got caught up in the hype that was surrounding the press that Gary was getting, a video was created and share. Gary wasn’t alone, the next video is of an adult who wanted get in on it.
Each of these videos took the same premise and idea from Gary and copied, expanded upon and emulated his basic ideas. Why they did it is unknown. It could have been just for fun or because for a two year period, that was the thing to do. However, both of these people took the content of the video and used it to make their own creation. They used the “text” as a starting point and went from there.
Not all of the videos that were created in homage to “the Numa Numa kid” were straight copies though. In the following video, a student (of unknown age) creates a video in an animation class as a tribute to the Numa Numa craze. In the video he uses a software program called Maya to animate a lego character watching and copying Brolsma’s actions. While you watch the video, pay close attention to how he uses camera angles and character actions. To a certain extent, he is telling a story while showing his proficiency with a piece of software (which was actually probably the overall goal of the project). From the head turns to the arm movements and even the “head bobs”, creator Jeff Dingman is using the content of the original video as a starting point.
Think about the decisions that a writer makes when composing a piece. Now add on top of that writing, the decisions that Jeff had to make in order to animate his character. While the medium is different and the content was essentially created initially, he made it his own. In the same way, the content of a mentor text gives students a starting point. It’s a beginning, not an ending and the inspiration that comes from there will help to guide them through their creation process.
Students create more and more everyday and have more options for distributing their creations than they ever have. Because of this, their “mentors” are changing as are their influencers and those who inspire them. I would argue that content is only one of three types of ways that these creators can be mentored by texts. The other two I will address in posts later this week. Each of these videos was created using the same base content; a song and a guy in front of a webcam.
Have mentor texts changed? I don’t know about that. It’s in our nature to copy that which we like and to want to participate. In his book, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Henry Jenkins says that,
“Participatory culture is emerging as the culture absorbs and responds to the explosion of new media technologies that make it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways.”
We are participants in our culture who take the content that we see and with which we interact and try to frame it in our own lives. Mentor texts in all forms give us that starting point, but it’s important to recognize the need for the meaning of “texts” to be expanded to include content like what Gary inadvertently made with a webcam. We are in a time of change and the mentors that we find all around us, if harnessed, can guide us in interesting, enlightening ways. Just like 30 years ago when folks dressed up to see Star Wars, participation in our culture will drive much of the creation that is made and shared by people of all ages. It’s time to see “text’ as more than words on a page and “mentors” as more than just that which we, as educators, supply our students.
As I wrote in my last post, next week I will be doing some joint writing with folks around the idea of mentor texts in the digital writing workshop. However, I wanted to take a moment and write out/explain how we are going to aggregate all of our posts into one spot. With all of us blogging at different websites, I wanted to be sure to pull all this thinking together to share and record this event. It had to be automatic so none of us had to “do” anything other than focus on our writing and our ideas. Basically, I wanted the tech to take care of the process so we could take care of the thinking. What follows is an explanation of what I did, how I set it up, and why I chose to do it this way as opposed to the other possible solutions.
One of the goals that I had when we began talking about this project is to pull all of the blog posts from each of the five blogs into one spot. I had toyed with using Delicious, Diigo or another social bookmarking tool so that we could each bookmark our posts into one common space. However, I quickly decided against that because, from my point of view, I wanted to completely focus on the writing, not the process that I would have to go through (and teach everyone else to go through) to bookmark all these posts. I knew that there had to be a way to do it using the RSS feeds that each blog created. In the past I had toyed with the website ifttt.com. This site basically uses a trigger that I can set up to signal another action, also defined by me. To simplify that process, what ifttt (which stands for “if this then that”) allowed me to do was create an event on their service that looked at the RSS feed that my blog creates and searches for the term “mentor texts”. If it finds the term “mentor texts” in my RSS feed, then, it would pull the entire text of my post and do something with it. In this case, I wanted it to post someplace else.
Ifttt.com has a number of preset services (they call them channels) to choose from that you can activate to create events or triggers. Using the API of tools like Evernote, Twitter, and YouTube (see a complete list of channels here), ifttt uses the language of the web to pull all of these services and then do another action. The two channels that I chose were the “feed” channel and the “Posterous” channel. Posterous is a blogging site that makes it really easy to share content. I had set up a Posterous account quite awhile ago but never did much with it. Seeing that ifttt worked with Posterous, I set up the RSS feed for this site so that whenever I posted something and tagged it with the phrase “mentor texts”, ifttt would recognize it, pull the entire text, and then repost it to the Posterous blog that I set up for this project. To set this up, I had to activate both the feed and Posterous channel on ifttt and then create the task.
Kind of surprisingly, it worked flawlessly with my blog. I posted a number of test posts and within 15 minutes (the amount of time ifttt checks my feed), whatever I put in that post showed up on Posterous including any pictures or media.
My next step was to go back to ifttt and take the task that I had created and make, what ifttt calls a recipe. Basically, this creates the formula for the task and lets you copy it. Using that recipe, I set up Franki’s blog and had her test if for me as well. This is where it got a little more complicated.
What I learned when I set up Franki’s blog:
Not all RSS feeds work the same way – I knew that there were different types of RSS, but I didn’t really know the difference between and “atom” feed and an “xml” or regular RSS feed. Whenever I’ve needed to use RSS before (usually with an RSS reader) it just worked.
Blogger’s feed wouldn’t pull the full text.
Only a new feed item would get pulled into the Posterous blog, no past posts would be pulled in.
Ifttt searches the entire text, not just the tags.
Armed with this new knowledge, I went back to Franki’s feed and added a short line of text at the end of the existing blogger feed. Franki’s feed is “http://readingyear.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default“. This is an atom feed that ifttt doesn’t recognize. However by adding the text “?alt=rss” to the end of her feed, you are redirected to the regular RSS feed which works famously.
After having everyone test each of their blogs to make sure it worked, I decided to do one more thing so that I can really stay hands off with the technical side of the project and focus on the writing. I wanted to be notified whenever my tasks in ifttt was triggered and one of us had posted a new topic on the Posterous site. One of the things I really enjoy about Google Calendar is that I can get text message notifications when an event is added or to remind me of an event. Ifttt also has an SMS channel that I can set up to text me when a new post is put up on Posterous. So now, any time any of us posts something next week, ifttt will post it to Posterous and then I will get a text message so that I know I have something new to read.
For a project like this, I think this is an ideal solution. It automates the whole process and takes those tasks that I would normally do manually and takes them off my plate but will still aggregate all of our thinking into one place. The technology is working for us and getting out of our way so we can focus on thinking and writing around this project.
To see the results of our thinking around mentor texts, visit the Posterous site and follow along.
According to YouTube’s statistics page, “More than 13 million hours of video were uploaded during 2010 and 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day.” That’s an amazing amount of video that everyone, students and adults alike, has access to. While some of these videos are of cats riding skateboards, there are also as many instructional and educational videos available for use in the classroom as well as in your own life. Not long ago, my daughter, Molly, was trying to figure out how to get past a certain level in the video game Poptropica. She had worked through previous levels and was stuck. Rather than asking for help, she went to YouTube and did a search for a solution to that level. At 7 years old, she knew that she’d find her answer in an online video and in about 2 minutes, she found it, got through the level and went on her merry way. By watching her dad use the internet and find resources, she had learned that YouTube was someplace where she could find answers.
With all that video, sometimes it’s hard to manage and navigate the YouTube environment. Here are some thing you may know that you could do with YouTube.
Create your own playlists – Just like with music services and software, you can create a playlist of YouTube videos that you want to save to watch later. To do that, you need to create an account with Google. (Watch this video for instructions.) If you’re logged into YouTube, under each video you’ll see an “+ Add to” button that will allow you to add it to a playlist.
This playlist can then be accessed clicking on your username in the upper right hand corner and then selecting “Videos” in the dropdown. On that page you’ll see any videos that you’ve uploaded, tagged to watch later or added to a playlist.
Share a video- Sharing videos on YouTube may not be new to you, but there are a couple of options that you may not know about. When you click the “Share” button below a video, you’ll see a link to a video where you can email that link to someone or you can click “Embed” and get a code to post that on your website. Those are common features that are readily used but in that same window, you’ll see a “show options” link. One of the features that I like best here is that you can check the “Start at” box and select the point in the video where you want it to start. Then when you share that link with someone, the video starts exactly where you wanted it to without the recipient having to watch the irrelevant parts.
Subscribing to video channels- There have been many times where I have found a set of videos that were uploaded by someone that I really liked and wanted to know when they uploaded more. At one point, I would have to continually go back to that person or organization’s channel to see if they have something new. Now I just subscribe to their channel and receive an email every time they upload a new video. To subscribe to a video channel, click on the “Subscribe” button on the top of the video and you’ve just subscribed yourself. On the popup find the checkbox beside “Also email me for each new upload” and you’ll start getting emails whenever new content is available.
Show videos without the comments or recommendations – YouTube has lots of busyness on every page with a video. There are comments and suggested videos that may or may not be appropriate as well as ads on the site. Sometimes that can be very distracting. Using a site like Quietube can allow you to focus only on the video by removing all the extras. Go to the Quietube website for directions on how to use it. (See an example here and watch a tutorial here.)
Online video is a part of our lives and it’s not going away anytime soon. Students like my daughter are becoming very adept at using and working with online video but it’s not “just for kids” and it’s not “just for entertainment”. More and more it can be used as a tool for education and for learning. Hopefully these tips can help you navigate the world of YouTube a little more smoothly. If you’d like to talk more about the role online video can play in your classroom, contact me. I’d love to hear from you.
Over the last few years I’ve created a few documents around how to do some interesting things with Google Docs. I don’t think I have ever actually posted them anywhere on my blog so here are the most recent versions of these documents. As time passes these processes may change but the ideas and techniques behind them are still valid for those who are interested in understanding formulas and functions in Google Spreadsheets. Going forward, I will archive these documents on the Documents page of this blog.
The first one is a process for how to set up a Google Form to email the information that has been put into the form to the email address included as a form field. It’s messy, but it works.
The second document demonstrates some of the functions and formulas that can be used in Google Spreadsheets with some interesting results. It specifically targets Google Lookup and adding a gadget.
The last document shows how to create a self-grading quiz using formulas with a Google Form and corresponding Spreadsheet. The process can now be done with a script called Flubaroo but the process still works and is a good learning experience.
It’s so weird to think that another year is about to come to a close. In nine short months, another class has come and gone. Summer is upon us and for many teachers, that means taking classes and attending professional development in preparation for yet another group of students to come walking through the door in the fall. This summer I’m teaching a couple classes, but I’m also going to spend some time learning and gathering ideas. Some of my personal development will be formal classes or meetings that I attend, but most of it will be through free online resources where I’ll get ideas, strategies and resources from a variety of different sources. As this is my final, formal writing for this school year, I though I’d share some of the places I’ll be virtually visiting this summer.
Podcasts
If you’re not familiar with podcasting, it’s a broadcast medium that allows you to download episodes of audio and video to your computer for playback either on that computer or on a mobile device (mp3 player or even your phone). Anyone can podcast but it certainly takes a commitment to do on a regular basis. The following are some podcasts that I’ve listened to at some point and found interesting.
TWiT – This is a tech podcast that discusses weekly news. At twit.tv you’ll find a number of different shows on a variety of topics. It’s not geared towards education but it’s one that I consistently listen to (I also suggest TWiG – also found on the TWiT network)
Revision 3- This isn’t a single podcast but actually a network much like TWiT with a variety of shows
Teachers Teaching Teachers – A group of teachers who discuss educational topics (many shows have a tech slant but not all of them)
Grammar Girl – Answers questions about grammar explaining concepts in easy to understand terms
EdTechTalk – A podcast around technology in education
There are tons of other podcasts available. The easiest way to find them is by opening up iTunes and searching through the “Podcasts” section of the store. If you’re interested in it, there’s a good chance a podcast is being made by someone out there.
Other Online PD
In addition to podcasts, there are many other PD opportunities online. The Discovery Educators Network regularly does webinars on different topics and the site Classroom 2.0 hosts and interviews a number of different authors and educators. Finally, TED.com is a regular visit for me as they have some amazing speakers discussing all kinds of topics from education to the arts to politics. There’s some AMAZING stuff there.
Finally, METC has made their featured speakers available in a virtual format until this fall. There are some great presentations here from some great speakers in the areas of education and how to use technology in the classroom.
Regardless of how you spend your summer, these have become staples in my own learning and have opened me up to new ideas over the years. I highly suggest trying one or two of them out. If you want to know more about podcasts and how they work, take a look at this video from commoncraft.com.
While email has changed the way many of us communicate, it can also quickly become overwhelming and one of those tasks that we dread. One way to get past this is to start using rules and folders to organize your email. Below you’ll find a document and a video that will show you how to create rules in Groupwise that automatically sort your email into specific folders. As always, if you have questions feel free to contact me.
Any time students are introduced to a text, concept or idea, there is a time period where they are looking to their teacher to make sense of it for them. At this point their understanding is a “borrowed” one in which they have adopted the view of their teacher and their teachers understanding of whatever “it” is. During this time period, they are contemplating, digesting, and transforming the content into their own understanding. It’s not until they have a full grasp of the content that they truly “own” the idea and use it as a part of their own creations. It’s during that initial period that mentor texts can bring meaning and understanding to student work. However, this understanding is dependent on their teachers understanding. It comes with all prior knowledge, biases and background influences of the teacher that is then transferred with that “borrowed understanding”.
