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I’ve Been Thinking About Design Thinking

August 1, 2017 By David Rickert Leave a Comment

This July I spent a week and a half at my family’s cabin in the Adirondacks. It’s a great place to dream big, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the new school year. And one of the things that I couldn’t get out of my head was design thinking.

Design Thinking

I’ve been following John Spencer, one of the gurus of design thinking, for a year now, and took his book “Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning” with me on vacation. His ideas about turning a classroom into a place where students design their own problems and design solutions to those problems slowly became something that I was interested in applying to the study of literature. His philosophy that we need to create learners that are prepared for anything is one that I think can have transformative effects in my classroom.

I had a great year last year. All of my classes were filled with eager learners that practically taught themselves. That is, all except one of my classes. This class was filled with students who didn’t like to discuss literature. They were smart, but passive learners who only wanted to know what they needed to do to get the grade. They weren’t naturally curious- at least not about my subject matter. Frequently the class was painful for all involved as I tried to lead them through discussions about literature that no one seems engaged in.

Despite the rest of the classes being a joy to teach, this is the class that I’ve been thinking about the most this summer. Where had I failed these students in my instruction? And if a lot of these students weren’t engaged in what I was presenting to them, I was sure that there were others in the classes that went smoothly. Was there something I could add to make the classroom work better?

Lessons Learned

I learned a couple of things last year. One is that I’m a much better teacher when I’m not in front of the class. I do better roaming around the room when students are working individually or in groups and my role was helping them problem solve. When my problem class worked well, it was when this was the mode of instruction.

The other is that when I collected my end of class assessments, my students told me the best learning took place with projects in which students had to design a solution to a problem.

Successful Class Projects that Involved Design Thinking

In one instance I had them create an infographic to display their knowledge about chapters in Pride and Prejudice. They not only had to find a program to use to design one, but they also had to learn how to use it because I gave them no instruction on it.

In another, I had them create a verse of Emily Dickinson poetry that would pass as one of hers. We had a contest to see whose verse was the best impostor. Students had a problem to solve – how can we create a verse of poetry that looks and sounds like one of Dickinson’s – that made them use a fair amount of critical thinking skills.

In another activity from a previous year students designed hats based on one of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. It was a great end of the year project that was based on the types of challenges I saw on show like Project Runway.

These activities worked because kids were actively working to design solutions to problems. I began to think about whether my class could be like this more often. And could I eventually get to the point where students could design their own questions about literature and a way to find the solution?

Next Steps

I’ll be blogging a lot about this over the course of the school year as I try things out and share what worked and what didn’t (and blogging is right in line with design thinking as a way to process learning). I’m not sure how essays will fit into this, nor if I sure how this will work with all of the stuff that we have to do, like common novels and preparing for mandated tests.

But I feel confident that there’s something to this based on my experiences last year. And I’m excited to see what happens.

David Rickert is a high school English teacher in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. He has been teaching for over 20 years and has taught virtually every grade and every subject. David is passionate about developing lessons that make difficult language arts subjects fun and engaging. He is also an author on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Learning Stations In Secondary ELA Classrooms

June 6, 2017 By David Rickert Leave a Comment

Learning stations are no longer just found in elementary classrooms. They are a sound instructional strategy that can be found in many secondary classrooms as well. They provide student choice and a variety of ways to demonstrate understanding. Plus, they can be a great way to build in time for conferencing, which is always tricky to incorporate into the day.

For those not familiar with learning stations, students rotate through stations to complete various tasks. these tasks can be virtual, although I like to use good old fashioned papers. In some cases they are used to differentiate instruction – grouping kids to work on skills where they might be deficient. However, in this post I’m going to focus on using learning stations at the end of a novel unit. If you have the basic concept of the stations but need some guidance on how to set up learning stations in your classroom, then this post is for you. Here are some guidelines I follow when I’m setting up stations.

Get the kids moving.

You want to keep kids moving around the classroom. Many studies have show that kids learn better when they are up and moving around. There are a couple of ways to manage this.

The first is to arrange desks in groups (or if you’re lucky you already have tables in your room). Sometimes I will reserve space in the media center where they have tables for them to use. This works best if you don’t have kids working in assigned groups. With this strategy students rotate from table to table collaborating with whomever else happens to be there if they’d like.

Or…

Another option is the one that I use most often-I let them choose their own groups and allow them to find space to work either by sitting on the floor (a popular choice) or by arranging desks to create a workspace.

I like to post activities around the classroom on the walls, usually using QR Codes that linked to the task. One time I made the mistake of putting the activities around the room with text big enough that the kids could read it from where they were sitting and they didn’t have to get up. I like the hum of activity that you get when kids are moving around.

Ideas for Stations

So you want to end your novel study with stations. So now what? It can be a challenge coming up with different activities to do that are meaningful. I generally try to have five activities that can be completed in any order – this helps manage group size in a class of 25-30. So here are the stations that I always include:

A station that gets them opening their books.

You can point them to a specific passage to analyze – something that would be too long to give them as a handout. I had my students examining Haimon and Creon’s argument in Antigone to find examples of their views on family and obedience. I also had them looking for examples of ethos, pathos, and logos in those speeches. When we read The Importance Of Being Earnest they reread the final appearance of Lady Bracknell to analyze the use of satire. This is a also great time to look at theme: pick a passage of have the students demonstrate how that passage illustrates the them of _______ in the novel or play.

A station that has them annotating.

This would be with a passage that is short enough to put on a handout for them to annotate so they don’t have to open their books. I might have them looking for the use of specific literary devices or analyzing tone. With Antigone I have them look at Antigone’s final speech to determine how she feels about her fate through analyzing word choice. With Othello I have them looking at Othello’s final speech to determine what he is trying to accomplish before he dies. At other times, though, it might be a passage from the novel that we didn’t spend any time on that I think is still worthy of study. No matter how long I spend on Pride and Prejudice there’s always something that falls by the wayside, and I can use this as an opportunity to cover it.

A station with a real world connection.

This would be an article or video that connects to the work in some way. I use news articles on dating an relationships with Pride and Prejudice and articles about people who have married against their parents’ wishes with Romeo and Juliet. I don’t teach Oedipus Rex anymore, but when I did I had a station on the Oedipal complex. This gets them thinking about how the text relates to their lives and explores topics that continue to be relevant.

A station with something creative.

We don’t do allow students to express themselves creatively enough anymore, so a creative activity is a must. I have a decent amount of standbys for this. They might write a summary of the novel or play as a limerick. I have also had them create a gingerbread man for a character in the novel: they create a recipe for the character that includes character traits instead of sugar and flour, complete with a recipe for how to make it. With The Importance of Being Earnest I have them create one of Cecily’s diary entries that capture her fictional relationship with Ernest.

antigone limerick — An Antigone limerick.

A station with a video.

To meet the needs of diverse learners I always try to include a video as well. We are a 1:1 school where everyone has iPads, so this is pretty easy for me to do (although YouTube is blocked.) Before every student had an iPad, I was able to obtain a couple of laptops for this or used a bank of computers in the media center. I put this one last as an option because it can be difficult to manage depending on the circumstances.

However, there are some good options here, especially if you have them watching a film clip of a play that you’ve read. With any Shakespeare play there are bound to be wildly different interpretations out there: have students comment on the directorial choices made and whether it enhances the play or not (I’ve done this with virtually every play I’ve taught, actually.) You can do this with novels as well. You also might find a video that provides good context.

A conferencing station.

If you feel the need to and can away with letting the students work at the stations without being monitored, have a station where you conference with kids. Call them up in groups based on whatever criteria you choose. Maybe based on closing some gaps in skills or just randomly to go over certain skills in small groups. Usually while we’re doing the learning stations we are also working on essays as well. This makes it a good time to go over mini-lessons or proofread thesis statements. Most of the time the students are able to work on the stations with minimal questions, so take advantage of the time to conference.

Finally…

Do you need one more station or can’t think of anything to do for one of these categories? You can always double up on one of them. I have also had a station with simple review questions. To make it fun I put them on index cards face down on a table. They have them pick three of them (this works well if you are doing something that deals with fate. Tell them they are not allowed to pick cards other than the first three they chose or by avoiding their fate they will suffer some consequence.)

Sometimes I get a group that’s too task oriented and subdivide the labor. With some activities I don’t mind that they do this. But generally I’m assuming that they will be collaborating on the tasks. Make sure that students know going in that they should work together.

In some cases, I will give them the option of choosing a certain number of tasks to complete instead of requiring them to do them all. Not only does that give them more choice, but it allows them to spend more time on something that they are really into. I don’t want to disrupt them if they are having a really good conversation about something!

6 Benefits of Independent Reading in High School

May 27, 2017 By David Rickert 9 Comments

Independent reading allows students time to read whatever they want to every day. You might remember it as SSR or DEAR, catchy acronyms that originated in the elementary grades, but there are tremendous benefits to allowing students time to read books that they select themselves at the high school level.

Here’s what it looks like in my classroom: at the start of every period, the whole class spends 10-15 minutes reading whatever they want. No work is required of them. Occasionally I will talk to them about what they’re reading, but there’s never a grade attached. And most importantly, I read with them. I don’t use it to grade papers or plan lessons. Occasionally I’ll get kids caught up on work they missed, but not often. And I do this will all of my classes from regular freshmen to my seniors in AP Literature and Composition.

So what benefits have I seen?

Kids learned to like reading again.

The sad fact is that in high school kids begin to see reading as work. A lot of this is our fault. We ask them to annotate, give them study questions, and make them take tests and write papers about books. Add on the fact that most of them have busy schedules that don’t allow them to read for pleasure and reading can quickly become something to avoid.

By allowing student to read whatever they want with no strings attached, students will be transported back to that time when reading was a fun activity. They will look forward to reading every day because they’ve found a book they like and know they won’t have to do any work with it. Furthermore, it’s a nice break from all of the academic work they do throughout the day. At the end of the year several students told me that independent reading helped them love to read again, so much so that they started reading at home for the first time in a while.

It’s an effective transition from other courses.

My students tell me they like reading time because it allows them time to switch gears from whatever subject they just came from. It has also served as a nice centering activity – when we are done with reading, we are all ready to do whatever we are working on for the day. Plus, kids tell me they like the opportunity to be silent for a small chunk of the day, which in today’s school environment is a rare luxury.

Students pick out more challenging books than I would have assigned.

Many kids will choose books that are below their reading level (and that’s OK), but a lot of them are willing to try more difficult works. I have some classics on my bookshelf like Crime and Punishment, Emma, and Invisible Man, none of which I would do as a whole class novel, but have been read by students in my class. This even extended well into the fourth nine weeks with my seniors, who have a tendency to check out at the end of the year.

They read more books.

Some of my seniors tell me they have read more books this year than in all other years of high school combined. We want our students to make reading an active part of their lives, and independent reading does that.

I read more books!

Since I have five periods a day, I get a good 50 minutes of reading in most days if I’m not conferencing with kids.

They are more likely to read the books I assign.

Because I give them time to read whatever they want, they are much more likely to do the assigned reading. Part of this is because it’s part of the deal: I let them read what they want in exchange for going along with what I want to read. But a large part is also because I’ve built a classroom culture in which reading is something you do. Kids know you read books in my class. And when they are given the opportunity to get better at reading by making it a daily habit, they will be better able to tackle the required reading.

Be patient!

Sometime I didn’t see progress with kids until much later in the year. For example, one of my freshmen last year reread “The Outsiders,” which he read last year in class, because it was the only book he liked. I’m not sure that he accomplished much with it, but this year he came back to me and asked for some book recommendations. I was able to get him to read and enjoy “The Road,” “Ready Player One,” and “The Martian.” He didn’t become a reader in my class, but I planted the seeds for the following year.

Like I said, I was hesitant at first to try independent reading. After all, you’re giving up a fifth of your class time to do it. However, I’m seen tremendous benefits from it in my class. My students love reading again, and leave my classroom with their passion for reading reignited.

David Rickert is a high school English teacher in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. He has been teaching for over 20 years and has taught virtually every grade and every subject. He is passionate about developing lessons that make difficult language arts subjects fun and engaging. He is also an author on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Sociograms: An Alternative to the Essay

December 30, 2016 By David Rickert Leave a Comment

Sociograms are visual representations of the interaction of characters in a novel. They are a wonderfully flexible assessment tool and can be used in all grade levels. Best of all, they require the same sort of critical analysis that you would use in writing an essay. If you’re looking for something a little different than a final paper (or an alternative form of assessment), a sociogram might be just what you’re looking for.

How it works:

We just finished our unit on Romeo and Juliet and did a sociogram. Here’s the procedure that I gave them:

Pick a character to be in the middle. It doesn’t need to be Romeo and Juliet, but it should be a major character.
Add the other characters from the play by connecting them to the main character in the middle. Any characters that have some sort of significant interaction should be connected. This applies to the character in the middle as well as characters on the periphery that interact during the play. You can leave characters off, but be prepared to justify why you did.
Add something to the lines to indicate the importance of the relationship. You can add different colors, or make them dotted or squiggly lines, or make the lines actual shapes (like hearts or daggers.) Provide a key that explains what each line means.
To each line add a brief description of the interaction between the characters in the play. For example, you may already have a line that indicates that Romeo and Tybalt are enemies, but you might have a description such as “Romeo kills Tybalt” on the line.
Group the characters in some meaningful way with a color, symbol, or font that represents a meaningful grouping in the play. Obviously for “Romeo and Juliet” grouping them as “Montagues,” “Capulets,” and “neither” is appropriate. But can you think of any others? (I like it when they group them based on who is alive and who is dead at the end.)
Add a symbol that represents each character’s role in the novel. (This last part is important to emphasize, otherwise they’ll pick the Eiffel Tower for Paris.) Explain in 2 or 3 sentences on a separate sheet of paper why you chose the symbol that you did.

I have them create their sociograms on large pieces of paper that I purchased at Michael’s. We also have a bunch of markers in our department that hey could use for their final. I always require them to do a rough draft to show me first – some do it on notebook paper, but others used an app called Popplet to plan it out. It usually takes them one period to plan it out after I explain the procedure and a couple of periods after that to finish it. I always have them explain the symbols that they chose

Alternatives to the Essay: Sociograms — Students using the Popplet app to plan out their sociogram.

Other ideas:

I also I kept it pretty simple this year, but next year I’ll add a couple more tasks: the size of the character on the sociogram should reflect how important that character is to the character in the middle. Or I might have them do it based on their location – the closer they are, the more significant the relationship is. Sometimes I’ve had them pick a quote that describes the relationship between characters rather than just have them describe it (we ran out of time for that this year.)

I did this with freshmen who need more structure than my seniors. Once they get more advanced I have them use the sociogram to demonstrate a theme, or have them create a unifying concept that makes sense from the work. I have people do a spider web for Othello and a long braid of hair for Janie in Their Eyes are Watching God and add elements to it that reflect character roles. What you don’t want it to have them impose one symbolic structure on top of another – generally sociograms based off of Star Wars or Disney where they try to match up characters from one work to the other don’t turn out very well.

I have always bought a big pad of paper and provided markers and colored pencils for them to work from. I require them to draw out everything – they don’t tend to do a good job sizing things they print off of the computer and it always looks neater if they do it by hand. I tell them they won’t be graded on their ability to draw, but they do need to show an ability to work around their artistic limitations.

Learning should be fun! Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store for fun comic resources like those below.

Adding Free Choice Reading to Your Classroom

November 1, 2016 By David Rickert Leave a Comment

In a previous post I discussed the reasons why you should add free choice reading to your English class – even if you teach upper level AP classes like I do. There’s a good chance that over the course of their high school careers they have lost a lot of their love for reading, and free choice reading can help bring that back. In this post I’m going to go over how I incorporated free choice reading in my classroom

1. Ten minutes a day, every day.

I know some teachers like “free read Friday” and have students read for the entire period. I like to do it every day because I’m trying to develop a habit and, as Gretchen Rubin says, “what you do every day is much more important than what you do once in a while.” A lot of students won’t read at home, and they can’t truly get into a book if they only read once every seven days. Furthermore, I don’t have problems with students forgetting their books like they did when they only brought them once a week.

I am very protective of this time – nothing makes me give it up. And once a week I’ll give them 15-20 minutes instead of ten.

2. Read with them.

With ten minutes a period and five periods a day, I could have 50 minutes to plan or grade papers. But I read with them. My experience has been if you read, they’ll read. And even though I’m taking graduate courses that require me to read novels, I don’t read those books either. I honor the obligation that I ask them to make for the time as well.

3. Have a classroom library.

We have a terrific media center at our school and it was hard for me to imagine that it would make that much difference if I had a classroom library. But it has. My students are much more likely to check out books from my library than they are to ask to go to the media center and look for a book there.

Fortunately I was given a pretty substantial amount of money for a classroom library from my district. I know that books are expensive. I’m not an expert on building a classroom library on a budget.

4. Don’t add any work.

My students know they’ll never be asked to do a book report. They won’t have to annotate. They won’t have to complete a certain number of books each quarter. Any of these run the risk that reading once again becomes work.

There’s always this nagging voice in the back of my head that says “shouldn’t I be doing more with this?” But the fact is, I really don’t want to rob them of the pleasure of reading. We can work on skills with other things that we do in class.

However, there are some teachers that are doing really great activities with free choice reading if you’d like to add a little more structure to it. B’s Book Love has a great blog post on this topic and Room 213 has a bunch of great activities (and products) that she uses with reader’s workshop in her classroom.

You’ll find that free choice reading has an amazing transformative effect on your classroom.