Guest Post
By
Angelo Carideo and Dr. Rose Reissman
Middle school students must develop persuasive
writing skills. They need to be able to take a side on an issue and explain and
support their position with at least two details from a print or online
text.
These are important, meaningful Common Core Literacy
and Social Studies goals. However, achieving them can seem elusive. Further, you’d like to captivate and inspire
your students. You’d like to involve them in small and large group discussions,
ones in which they have the chance to exchange views with one another and not
just answer your teacher questions
We’ve accomplished this with our students through an
easy to do project. A project that makes
them eager to do research, to trade
views on a topic and that fosters genuine
personal interest in what their peer partners have to contribute.
Our project has students create products that effectively
represent their written and spoken efforts in a contemporary context as digital
learners and creators.
Actually, they create not one, but two technology-based
literacy products, things that teachers can use to document students’ research,
persuasive, argumentative and conversational skills. These are products that
can be easily and proudly shared with parents, ratings officers, and
administration.
By the way, we
work with students in a Brooklyn middle school and are well aware of how overwhelmed
with instructional mandates teachers can be. Many have at least 125 students (or
more) to teach and grade, and consequently would wonder how much time they’d have
to devote to a project like this, no matter how worthwhile and rigorous the resulting
learning might be. Does a 6 to 8 period maximum sound reasonable?
Projects are inherently engaging and kids thoroughly
enjoy working on them. They also result in important skills-learning as students
create learning products. To make this happen, though, teachers need to select
effective project content themes.
We select themes that put our students in the role
of informed, active citizens of their world.
The following is a step by step description of how one of our projects
unfolds and how colleagues can easily adopt our approach and similarly engage
their own students. This description centers on real local news stories we
presented to our students. However, locating other, similar stories for other
areas of the country is an easy matter. Thus, there is much room for colleagues
to adapt what we’ve done with topics that will resonate well in their specific
schools and groups of students. We did this project with 6th grade
students, but it can work at various grade levels and across a multitude of
student population types.
Case
Story #1: Lifting the Student Cell Phone Use Ban
STEP
1:
Take the topic of School Law or more specifically,
school law cases concerning infractions of city and state law by students or
staff. Engage students in considering specific
issues which resonate locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. Have them read about a local student school
law case in print or online and then react it.
In New York City in the first months of 2015, Mayor
Bill de Blasio and the Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina decided to change the
NYC school law banning student cell phone use in all city schools. They strongly suggested, although individual
school principals still could make a joint decision with teachers, parents and
administrators, that students needed to have access to their cell phones at
times during the school day so that they could call their parents and their parents
could be in touch with them.
At Middle School /IS 62-Ditmas-in Kensington , Brooklyn,
NYC, the sixth graders in our ethnically diverse class (including Jamaican, Dominican,
Uzbek, and Bengali students, plus native born Brooklynites) were very “into”
this issue, since many of them carried cell phones in their back packs. According to the ongoing school regulations
of Principal, Kevorkian, they could not use their cell phones during class or
lunch, and had to keep them turned off in their back packs. If the phones were discovered being used in
class or lunch or hallways, they were confiscated for the day by the Dean and
returned later to be taken home at the end of the school day.
The students were excited about the Mayor and School’s
Chancellor created opportunity for their school to revise its ban on students
carrying and using cell phones during the school day. They listened intently to the news and
carefully read for details and arguments in favor of lifting the NYC public
school system citywide cell phone ban.
STEP 2: The students each wrote their personal
reactions to the news. These were framed
as persuasive paragraphs with the purpose of getting a peer or adult reader to
agree with the point of view presented.
The students worked in small groups of three to four, sharing their key
persuasive reactions to school law news. PowerPoint turned out to be an effective
resource to support this activity.
The students used the software’s “Callouts” feature
to insert dialogue bubbles of various shapes carrying portions of their writing. This process dignifies each student voice,
giving it enhanced presence and stature.
The students also included photos of themselves in their slides, as well
as searching for and importing images they felt enhanced their positions. Music
chosen by the students to accompany their text and images can be imported as
well, by the way.
STEP
3: While the slide presentations involve group
work and writing persuasive paragraphs, they do not have to be the only product
produced from this school law and literacy skills unit. The basic student
persuasive arguments can also become the written supports for conducting an
open public forum about a controversial school law topic; one that will be
recorded and posted as a podcast. This conversation can involve students first
sharing their reactions to the topic and then reacting to one another’s
commentary, allowing the student to learn and appropriately use statements such
as these: “Building on what ____
said,” “In response to _____ I must
respectfully disagree because
_______,” ”Another point not yet
mentioned _____” and “I also agree with what ____ said .” As each student takes the floor, he or she is
urged to speak loudly and slowly, enunciating every word. The students are alerted to the fact that
their discussion will be recorded for a podcast. They also sample some past school podcasts
from their website and the archives as preparation.
Step
4: A student host or emcee of the Podcast is
chosen and asked to prepare a short introduction to contextualize the student
research into the topic. A student sound
engineer is also chosen who will handle the audio recording (we use Audacity, a
free, downloadable software). The
assembled students are cautioned about shifting in their seats or tapping
pencils; things can ruin the quality of the sound recording. They are shown how to lean in to the mike
and how to pitch their comments so that the recording levels are
acceptable. The sight of the recording in
progress is one that can raise the spirits of any teacher, particularly one focused
on inculcating students into the ways of a discussant community, in which
students share views and listen to peers attentively.
Case
Story #2: The Department of Education Changes Student Suspension Policy
In New York City’s public schools, up to Spring 2015,
students were subject to two types of suspension
from school punishments: 1) In-school
Principal Suspension: for student actions like hitting another student or
harassing a teacher or fighting or being
disrespectful of authority on an ongoing basis.
This suspension, which could run from 2 days to a week, would take place
within the student’s home school. The
student would travel those days with a class other than his own, but would still
receive the homework assignments from his /her class for the week. During lunch, the student would remain in the
Dean’s or Assistant Principal’s office and not be able to eat with peers or
have the same scheduled outdoor recess.
2) Students who
committed grave infractions of
the school’s behavior or disciplinary code, such as stealing, fighting with
other students so that blood was drawn, hitting a teacher, or other adult staff
member, inappropriate touching, cyber bullying, bringing or using a weapon to school,
and bringing or using narcotics, alcohol
or other controlled substances into school, were subject to a different type of
suspension These types of infractions, once reviewed by school administrators and
confirmed by sufficient evidence, would
result in a Superintendent’s Suspension.
This suspension, which could run from a week, to a month, to even a year
would not be served in the student’s school.
It would be served in a specially designated school for a population of
students across the district who were suspended for these high level
infractions. While records of the Principal’s Suspension would be kept only
during the time period the student attended the school in which it was given, the
Superintendent’s Suspension became part of the student’s permanent school
record. It would follow with him or her to
high school, and likely would bar the student for consideration for admission
to some desirable high school programs that require application. In Spring 2015 the Chancellor of New York City Public schools proposed that
the suspension process should be changed so that it would be more difficult to issue
suspensions and schools would lessen their number of both Principal’s and
Superintendent’s suspensions.
We made news coverage of this change in suspension
policy a focus for discussion with our students. Our students were, at first,
asked to define suspension as part of a paragraph, based on their current and
previous experiences in school. Next, they listened to the Dean and Guidance Counselor,
who shared with them the actual definitions of violations of the school
behavior code which would lead to either of these suspensions. Using word processing and PowerPoint they
created presentations with vignettes of such discipline infractions or comments
from the Deans or teachers or Assistant Principals or the Principal about it.
Students in Newcomer
/ESL Classes were asked to compare and contrast some of the punishments given
in their home countries; places like Uzbekistan, Russia, and Mexico. In Uzbekistan students who misbehaved ran
laps or held up tables for several hours. Our students talked of punishments for students
who were disrespectful or got into fights; they were hit with long rods until
red or purple bruises formed. They described schools at which a student who
committed a severe behavior infraction would be expelled and unable to return.
They also told of teachers in Bangladesh or Yemen who prefaced their hitting of
the students with the comments- “I am your second parent, so I can hit you as
your parent will at home.” Students for
the most part did not mention any parental support in objecting to their
punishments or any meetings with principal or teachers before enduring the
punishments. Ironically, many of these
same ESL international students professed a love of schools in their native
country which had “rules” and “taught character.” Some even said they would like their own
children to go to school systems like those of their native counties.
Our podcast project
required 2 periods which were used as recording sessions. These were held as student
forums in which students aired their views and positions and responded to one
another. These took place after 4 previous periods during which the students prepared
themselves through research, writing, and discussion.
Our experience with
this project was very positive, as was that of our students. We feel certain
that fellow busy Technology, ELA, SS or other content teachers would find this
to be a practical and satisfying project to engage their students in, as well.
This content theme is one that is m while one of great relevance, is offered to
students far too rarely. However, because of its relevance, students quickly
embrace it, take ownership of their learning experience, and create products of
high quality that in turn, have the potential to affect their peers, engaging
them in researching and reacting to issues of law that hit home, as well.
The technologies used:
word processing, PowerPoint-based slide presentation, and digital audio, while
simple, are ones used very commonly in the workplace. The research, discussions, and individual
opinions and arguments on the topics studied are the stuff informed citizenship
is made of.
Literacy, informed
citizenship, technology use, this is very much a project for today’s students
and tomorrow’s leaders and contributors to society.
What
Our Students Did and Learned
The students worked in small groups to produce a
PowerPoint-based slide presentation featuring their research and persuasive
reactions to the CELL Phone use issue.
They enjoyed working in their small .groups. This truly engaged all of them in a
citizenship and school law issue being hotly debated in the newspapers; but
more importantly in their own school building with the Dean Ms. Rigger and
Principal Kevorkian available for commentary, as well as their teachers eager
to debate the issue. These title 1
students, many from ESL families and facing economic/acculturation challenges,
truly relished working on these presentations having them displayed at a school
wide expo.
These student presentations involved the students
reading print and online texts (some with videos
embedded) concerning school law issues. Thus they were engaged in reading for
detail, ideas, and point of view as required by the Common Core Standards.
Additionally, the students discussed their reactions to news
articles that presented the issues and wrote a short, persuasive paragraph
defending their point of view, using details from the print, online or visual
sources. This had them address Common Core required writing of persuasive
arguments and speaking and listening.
Further, the students worked in small groups on slide presentations
drawing on their writings and in-class discussions for source material. Photos
and videos may be imported. Importing photos and videos, too, they addressed
Common Core required writing, using graphic illustrations and videos to enhance
their message. They also addressed Common Core speaking and listening, by
working in their collaborative small groups.
Finally, students voiced their reactions
to these cases through a student directed podcast. Thus, they a broad
range of aspects of required speaking and listening skills through a single
project that had them focus on values, law, and citizenship.
About
the Author: Angelo Carideo is an award winning
Social Studies educator with recognition from Chase Learning, Pennsylvania
Social Studies Council and Representative Brad Lander. He co-founded
Ditmas Network News with David Liotta and collaborates with Mr.Liotta on the
Science Engineering Program. He collaborates with Dr. Reissman Writing
Institute on The School Law Citizens Now program.
About the Author: Dr. Rose
Reissman is a veteran English Language Arts educator who founded the Writing
Institute Program currently based in Ditmas IS 62. Under the leadership of
Barry Kevorkian, Principal, 18 educators collaborate with Dr. Reissman to
produce literacy projects. Mr. Downes (Head Advisor), Ms. Xavier (ELA
Editor), and Dr. Reissman are faculty advisors for the Ditmas Bulldog Buzz, a
student newspaper that reports on local neighborhood, New York State and
International News as it affects the students’ lives as citizens of the world.
roshchaya@gmail.com
