YA Lit (if I had an inequality sign I'd use it here) PSA

In my twitter stream this morning, I found this tweet from @readingrants

I followed the link to @bkshelvesofdoom's blog, then followed the link to the New York Times article they're referencing here. The statement that got me from the article (which you should go read) was:

The need to tell a good story gets in the way of the message.

You're kidding me, right? Since when does message come before story? Mind you, I'm all for bibliotherapy. I practice bibliotherapy on myself all the time. I think young adult literature can be great starting place for conversation. But it's always about the story.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

 

A little bit about AR

I decided, for the last hour, instead of reading I would participate in this week's #engchat on Twitter, where the topic was bridge literature: YA texts we can use to help students make connections to the canonical texts we're required to teach. I first heard about that on Text Messages, which you can listen to here.

We moved into discussion about Accelerated Reader, and a link was posted to @donalynbooks's article How to Accelerate a Reader. Good read, and possibly a good start for me on @pursuitofdreli.

An Unwind Sequel?

I saw this tweet in my feed today and had to share. This was not a book I expected a sequel for, but I'm interested to see what Shusterman does with it. I'm definitely looking forward to the release of his novel Bruiser, on June 29th. My copy's already pre-ordered.

Thinking on Other Ways to Utilize Edmodo

During our professional development today, I posted a few tweets with the hashtag #learningcube. My thinking was along the lines of "I want to be able to refer back to this later when I'm writing my blog post on this workshop." So I'm sitting here 2 1/2 hours later thinking about the iPad and the tweet by @zemote who said that the iPad + Edmodo is going to be super-cool. Also crossing my mind was the fact that @chadsansing uses iPod Touch technology when our kids chat on Fridays. Finally, in this blender of thought, I think of the #edchat backchannel and the #ncte backchannel and how webinars have conversation happening in a sidebar during the presentation. All of this is swirling around in my head and somehow my read alouds get caught up in the swirl and what I end up with is this:

I want to use Edmodo as a backchannel for mini-lessons and read alouds. I don't quite have 1:1 except in my 2nd hour class, but two students running on the same username isn't a big deal.

I was thinking specifically about read alouds, and helping students monitor their thoughts while they're reading, or initially, being read to. They would be able to see this both on the screen in front of them and on the big screen at the front of the room. After the read aloud, we'll look at the channel together and debrief about how they're making meaning, what kinds of questioning and predictions they're coming up with and how they can use these strategies in their independent reading.

I also happen to have a SMARTboard and a second projector. During mini-lessons, to foster engagement, students could take polls, ask questions and make comments that would be projected onto the SMARTboard and discussed during the presentation, much like what is done during webinars.

For the moment, though, I think I'm going to start with read alouds.

Thoughts before implementation?

Why I Love Twitter (short post)

When I began as a Twitter, my updates were protected, and I only followed people who I already knew (and they were all from either HS or the NMLA conference). A couple of weeks ago, I unlocked my tweets, posted something about #ncte, which I wanted to attend but didn't, and my online professional development opened up 100 fold. I feel like I have a network of teachers that I'm following and are following me, all determined to share as much as they can on edtech, strategies, and the art of teaching.

The experience of participating in Twitter has broadened the world of my students as well. Through Edmodo, we are currently connecting with a class of students with @chadsansing in another part of the country. Funny how many of my students had to look at a map before they realized that their new peers are farther away from where we are than my hometown.

Educators, if you haven't tapped into this resource, you need to, and Mom, I'll set you up when I get home later this month.