The Schoenblog

Today we began a week of discussion and analysis of Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus II. In the past, I’ve broken the text down for students with a chapter a week to complement our study of Elie Wiesel’s Night. This year, I decided it was time to change things up--and I was excited. We would focus on discussion and critical thinking and devour the text in a week, with a chapter a day. I was excited to explore a high-interest text with a focus on students’ voices and ideas.

But after ten minutes of discussion--of pretty strong discussion--I noticed that the same handful of voices were all I heard. Eight awesome students shared high level observations, discussed symbolism, and deconstructed the comic book form. Three or four more jumped in from time to time, and a small group just didn’t say a word. And today, I let that happen. I made it okay to sit back and listen. After all, some of these students were clearly engaged--I saw note taking, head nodding, and the wheels of critical thinking turning. But not everyone.

And while public speaking, discussion, and clear communication is essential in all classes, I think we need to find ways to engage students on multiple levels. That’s where technology can be an asset: to amplify every student’s voice for an audience. I value the traditional discussion, but also see the importance in teaching students how to have meaningful discussion in online spaces to complement and to supplement face-to-face conversation.

On March 15, my English 10 students had a rare opportunity to share our classroom with the world when CNN reporter Clare Sebastian and her team filmed and interviewed my class. She reached out to discuss the role of Twitter and social media in education to tie into coverage on Twitter’s tenth anniversary. I wrote about the day, documenting my challenges and lesson redesign recently, in When the Lesson Fails. Now I want to share the segment and the lesson plan that worked.

Find the full CNN segment, titled “Teacher Encourages Twitter Chat in Class” below.

Teacher encourages Twitter chat in class - CNN Video

Twitter has made its way to the classroom and CNN's Clare Sebastian went back to school to see how one teacher is using it as an educational tool.

This was an exciting week. Last Thursday, I received an e-mail from a CNN International reporter asking some questions about Twitter in education. We talked on the phone the next day and had a good conversation. I explained how my students are using social media and Twitter in class and told her about my plans for this week. Her response left me flabbergasted: “Do you think we can come film that?”

After a few seconds of stunned silence and a few days of prep, CNN reporter Clare Sebastian was in my classroom, along with a cameraman and microphone operator. They filmed a full class period and then interviewed three students and me.

It was such a cool experience and my students truly stepped up and really displayed their enthusiasm, insights, and engagement for the world to see. The students’ responses during the interviews had me silently cheering from behind the camera; when asked about the dangers of social media, my student Helen replied, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

As a teacher and nerd, I’ve never been prouder. But it’s not the responsibility of social media I want to write about today. Below, I’ll share a slideshow of pictures from the day, and next week after it airs, I’ll blog about the lesson and the segment more, and will definitely link to it.

Instead, today I want to discuss what happened before the CNN lesson, when I taught it earlier in the day. I have two chances to practice the lesson with other classes, and to put it simply, it bombed. Badly. The lesson that excited me just did not work. And I panicked a little.

When the Lesson Fails

No matter how hard we teachers work, not every lesson is a winner. Most of the time, my students meet the objective and accomplish the learning goals. Sometimes it only works in part, and it requires some reteaching or clarification. Other times, it just doesn’t work. Some days, you just need to throw in the towel and realize that it’s just not working. But then you need to try again.

It can be hard to admit defeat. But it can be even harder to figure out what didn’t work and to make it right. It can be humbling, embarrassing, and frustrating to have to admit to students--and to yourself--that you didn’t get right and need to do better. But I think it also makes us human. For my two morning classes today, that’s exactly what I did.

I today started by explaining how I realized what was wrong yesterday and what we needed to fix. We adapted, gave it another shot, and things went better, thankfully. But in the high stakes world of testing, Common Core, and the rare TV interview, you don’t always have that next day. What do we do when the camera’s about to roll or the time just isn’t there?

Rethinking Lesson Design

This experience reminded me of the fundamentals of good lesson design: know what students need to learn or do, and then find the best learning activities to get them there. With clear, student centered, achievable objectives, all students should have an understanding of what’s expected. And you can’t forget who your students are, where they are, and what they need.

And here is where I faltered. Interestingly, it wasn’t about the technology or social media at all--that worked just fine. The lesson modified the fishbowl discussion format, in which groups of students rotated in and out of an inner circle to discuss a text, and an outer circle listened in and backchanneled in a Twitter chat. The problem was twofold:

• My discussion questions did not lead to good arguments. They were about the text, but too broad to require the students to really take a side and back it up.
• I counted on students being able to activate prior knowledge without enough time for it in class. Students needed time to review the questions beforehand so that they were ready with contributions.

I knew where I wanted students to go, but they didn’t. Without time to prep, process, and make textual connections, they just couldn’t get the job done. And they shouldn’t have had to. I planned the lesson for a class that typically won’t shut up--focusing their conversation was so rarely an issue. Instead, I needed to plan with all of my students in mind, and provide the time, scaffolding, and support to help them all achieve.

Last week was a busy one for me as I attended and presented at both #EdCampNJ and #NYSCATE15. At EdCampNJ, I hung out with friends new and old and helped lead sessions for #BreakoutEDU and #GoogleExpeditions. The highlight was definitely helping facilitate a discussion and demo of Expeditions with Dani and with Jonathan Rochelle from Google. Then, from Sunday to Tuesday, Dani and I drove way up Rochester for the New York State Computer and Technology in Education annual conference. NYSCATE is the NY ISTE affiliate, and this was probably the largest conference I’ve ever attended. We presented on backchanneling in the secondary classroom and you find our presentation here.

I typically enjoy any conference with good company, good learning, and good food, but I had really high expectations for Ednado. Ednado, a free conference that took education by storm yesterday, was a great day of learning and fun for many different reasons:

• I presented with my best friend Dani for the first time. How could I have not realized how much more fun it is to present when you love your topic, audience, and co-presenter? This was legitimately the most fun I've ever had in one of my own presentations. I think I'm a good presenter and usually feel like participants have learned and haven't had their time wasted. This was probably the first time I felt like we all had fun, too. Thanks to EasyBib for the hype as one of the 5 sessions to watch out for! If you are interested in backchanneling in the secondary classroom, our presentation is here.

5 Must-See Sessions at New Jersey’s @Ednado Conference http://t.co/ha0ZhQXqhI #njed #edtechchat #SuptChat pic.twitter.com/yz8bCdByyn
— EasyBib (@EasyBib) April 24, 2015

• I didn't set myself up to be overwhelmed. Too often at conferences, I feel like I try to do everything. I attend every session, no matter how much I think I'll learn. Ednado was casual, relaxed, and fun. I learned a lot but also spent my day hanging out, meeting people, and having great conversations. Instead of attended every session, I followed the learning on Twitter and opted to dominate the scavenger hunt, learn from the amazing Student Tech Team, and connect with my #PLN. 

Student Tech Team is awesome! Learning about @HaikuDeck at @ednadoedu #ednado pic.twitter.com/G0I7a2LT1g
— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) April 25, 2015

• At Ednado, my #PLN became F2F friends. I love connecting online and participating in Twitter chats. I love meeting new people at conferences. But this was the first time where I was able to meet people who I had established Twitter-connections with in real life. And it was awesome.

Educators Unite! #EDJusticeLeague is coming to @edcampphilly @iruntech @missraskin @AJBianco @MrSchoenbart pic.twitter.com/ysHZQy5V8H
— Christopher J. Nesi (@mrnesi) April 26, 2015