The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky

Welcome to our blog! The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky (The Fund) inspires and scales innovation and excellence in Kentucky’s public schools, resulting in a better future for all of our children. Here on our blog, we share about our work in a more in depth manner. Blog posts are written by staff members, teachers we work with, board members and others.

The Fund believes in unlocking the unique potential of every student by spreading innovative ideas, shining a spotlight on transforming teacher leadership, and driving sustainable change that will increase academic achievement for all students in Kentucky’s public education system.

Thank you for your consideration and visiting our blog. If you share in our vision of an innovative education culture, we welcome the opportunity to partner with you. Please visit our website at www.thefundky.org for more information.

Barbara Bellissimo

CEO

A Cycle: When I Grow, My Students Grow

The following blog post is the latest in a series written by teachers who are in our Next Generation Instructional Design cohort. These posts describe the process by which these teachers are collaborating to create units that transform teaching and engage students in their own learning.

By: Kari W. Patrick

“I’m sorry.. this is English class right?” a parent quizzed me over the phone.

“Yes, ma’am. The students are making podcasts of their written work and research.” I replied proudly, but also hesitantly. What if she responds negatively? My heart started racing and I began questioning myself “Why am I doing this?”

Thankfully, my self-doubt was unfounded. The supportive reply I received from this inquiring mother helped me to refocus and remember that students creating podcasts is one of the most collaborative and effective strategies I have used in my classroom.

Over the past semester, I co-designed an ELA (English Language Arts) student performance unit with my colleagues at Shelby County High School and fellow cohort teachers of The Fund for Transforming Education’s Next Generation Instructional Design initiative (NGID).  Working with the NGID cohort has been an intellectual and professional venture. It has led me to a level of synergy that I hope all teachers get to experience in the future. When teachers make peer to peer collaboration a priority, we create the expectation that all future educators, as well as students, must embrace collaboration as a way to learn and grow.

In a society that demands professionals work in teams to produce solutions to complex problems, our students need the real world skills of working collaboratively and cohesively enough to produce and publish a permanent project. Through my own professional growth as a member of the NGID cohort, I am developing and honing the same 21st century skills that we want to foster in our students. When I grow, my students grow.

In the unit that our NGID cohort created, our common performance assessment task was for students to create a narrative podcast. At first glance, it’s easy to assume a podcast is next generational solely because of the technology used, but I challenge that assumption. In our planning work, my NGID cohort and I discussed this at length. Why are we using this as our common performance task? What makes it a task worthy of a student’s time? How does it prepare them for the real world?

The use of technology was not what made for next generational learning; instead, the technology fostered critical thinking, increased communication, and created platforms for collaboration to come to the forefront of their learning experience (Framework for 21st Century Learning).  The use of Google Docs, Vocaroo, Audacity and Google Classroom created conditions for students to develop 21st century skills.

Figure 1: Coincidentally, this image represents the workflow of both the student process and the NGID cohort’s work.

Throughout the entire project, technology was an enhancement to the traditional writing process; I saw students peer editing, asking questions, and challenging each other’s thinking at every step. Students gave and received immediate feedback from their peers and I was able to expand on it in real time. For me, the most exciting part of this process was watching students hold each other accountable. Not only did students hold each other to high standards, they were also supportive of the work process. They worked at a level of collaboration that can only be described as next generational.

Just the other night I sat at a parent teacher conference (with the aforementioned parent) and listened to a poignant podcast about police brutality against African-American teenagers. The parent and I looked at each other in awe of how insightfully and critically a team of 15 year olds handled such a sensitive and meaningful topic.  

My professional journey with NGID created an opportunity for students to perform at high levels and they definitely exceeded my expectations. When my students grow, I grow.

Part 2: My Messy Vocabulary System

By: Summer Garris

If you did not read yesterday’s post, please click here to read Part 1 of Summer’s blog. 

What It Looks Like: It’s Messy

A typical week goes something like this:

Friday: After a quiz on vocabulary words (from the previous week), students individually write at least one new word on a piece of chart paper hung on one wall in the classroom. It cannot be a word that is already written on the chart, so students must cross reference their own word lists with the list on the paper.

New words for the week are collected on chart paper.

Monday: Students decide on master list of words. A student “leader” goes to the chart paper, and students discuss, hone and justify the list of words. In doing this, students have conversations about the words. Which words are most useful? Which words sound cool? Which words have we seen other places? Which words come from a portion of the passage that sound profound or important or especially beautiful? In these conversations, students are using the internet to clarify meanings of the words. They talk about roots, prefixes and suffixes. They remember other places and contexts where they’ve heard the words. 

Ultimately, through process of elimination, students settle on a list of ten words. I randomly distribute ten notecards throughout the class. Small groups are assigned one word and given the task of using internet and other resources to find the following information: 1) the pronunciation of the word 2) the part of speech 3) example of the word from original text 4) a sentence with the word used in context 4) any other “fun facts” about the word. 

On one side of the notecard, a member of the small group writes write the word in large, bold print. On the other side of the notecard, they write the definition and other information. Groups present their words to the whole group, and students individually make a collection of notes. Often, if the word is tricky to say aloud, the class will say the word together a few times to “feel it in the mouth” and hear it aloud. Conversations are lively and engaging. Students find associations to help them remember the words. For example, when defining “turgid” (which means swollen), a student associates old celery. “Did you know,” she explains, “you can put celery in iced water, and it will become turgid again?” When defining “peritoneum,” a student quips, “the membrane lining the cavity of the abdomen and covering the abdominal organs.” “Ewww,” another one chimes in, “you mean like a gut sack?” Students scratch “gut sack” into their notes.

The words are pinned on a bulletin board to hang for the rest of the week that has the heading, “Word to Ya.” Some students make their own set of flashcards to study.

Words to on the “Word To Ya” board to hang for the week.

Wednesday: Among other class activities, random students are given the front face of the cards and have to say the word, define the word, and use the word in context. Students don’t know who will receive a card for the impromptu quiz, so all students have to be ready to present said information on all the words. Students correct each other and agree on contextual sentence accuracy. 

Thursday: Students participate in seminar about the passage, often citing passages that contain their new words.

Friday: The words are moved from the “Word to Ya” wall and onto the “Word Wheel.” This is round wheel that can be spun. We spin the wheel and choose three random words from the week’s list of ten. With these three words, students must construct a sentence and define the word. 

Words are chosen randomly for the week’s quiz
on the “Word Wheel.”

Assessment of the “quiz” ensures mastery. The definition must be accurate, though it can be in a student’s own words (“gut sack” counts as a definition). The sentence must be completely accurate, demonstrating the proper part of speech and enough detail to “prove” the definition is understood. Students receive 10 points per word, 5 for the definition and 5 for the sentence. 

When they finish their “quick quiz,” they put new words on the board from the new reading selection.

At the end of each nine week grading period, all of the notecards are stacked. I perform random card “tricks” to select 10 random words from the stack of all the words. 

What I Love about this System:

• It is fun. From the conversations, games, and immersion in the words, students are engaged and often amused. (Who wouldn’t giggle at the concept of a “gut sack” or when a scorned girlfriend describes her ex-boyfriend as an example of an “inimical dastard”?)
• It enhances the other literary experiences happening in the classroom. No longer is vocabulary time a time to move away from other literacy experiences in the classroom. 
• Students hear and speak the words. They consult dictionary pronunciation guides and use the internet to listen to the correct pronunciation of the words.
• It is student driven: students select the words, discuss, argue and define the words. Student learn the words however they see fit (flashcards, word webs, lists, whatever works for them). 
• It’s easy to assess. Flipping through the three word definitions and sentences per week is a breeze. I am no longer taking home multi-paged packets of worksheets and spending my time mentally hearing, “1-A, 2-E, 3-G. . . “ 
• I’m getting to know my students even more. As I read student sentences, I am getting an inside look into their personalities. Their sentences are creative and often witty or figurative. I comment with little notes and share with the class when I see word usage that seems especially profound. This week, I delighted at one music loving student who wrote how the “DJ could ‘posit’ that beat.”
• Students make the words their own. Because they choose the words and create their own sentences, students often have favorites. The words are showing up in their writing and in our class conversations like never before. 
• I’m learning new words, too. So often, I stop during my reading to look up the definition of a word I don’t know. This system with such immersion with the words really makes the words usable. 

My system isn’t neat and tidy, and it’s not quiet. There are moments of intense laughter and cheers and boos. Since students are leading the discussions, it’s never certain where these discussions might go. For my classroom, though, it’s OK to be messy. Messy is fun!

Summer is a High School English teacher in LaRue county and is a NGID Participant. Currently, The Fund is featuring blogs from teachers in the Next Generation Instructional Design network. They will share their journey, their ideas, and their collaborative work related to being in the network and with building units of study with LDC modules embedded.