I have narrowed it down to five books that I would like to be able to read before starting school again in the Fall. I chose the following three books thanks to @CoLeeSensei, +Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell and +Laura Sexton and the #langbook initiative. I did not get to participate in the chat, so I decided to check out all of the books that were on the list to choose from:
Who Owns the Learning by Alan November
Make It Stick by
The next book that I will be reading is Learn Like A Pirate by Paul Solarz because I was so inspired by Teach Like a Pirate by +Dave Burgess two summers ago and I think I am ready to make the shift to a learner-centered classroom.
The final book on my "Tour de Livres" will be Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner per my new Principal's suggestion.
Halfway through summer and I have finished the first book on my list. Who Owns the Learning is a short book and a great read. +Alan November presents four ways to help take the responsibility for learning off the teacher, and place it onto the students. As a language teacher I sometimes struggle to find ways certain methods of teaching will fit with my content, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that ALL of them fit well and I can see how some might even be a seamless transition in September.
I have the pleasure of teaching two groups of juniors who I had as sophomores last year, but I also will have three classes of freshmen who do not know any better and will just assume that this is the way I have always taught! In order to work out some of the kinks, I have the option of using these new techniques with just the freshmen, or if I think it will help things run smoothly-I could branch out to my juniors as well.
The four classroom responsibilities that Mr. November suggests are:
- Tutorial Designers
- Student Scribes
- Student Researchers
- Global Communicators and Collaborators
Student Scribes: I do not have students take a ton of notes in my classes but I think that when I do, I would love to have one or two people be responsible for taking notes for their class. Others would not be exempt from paying attention, but some struggling learners could better focus if they are not constantly worried about getting the correct information onto their page. I wonder how I will do this though, as we are not a 1:1 school yet. I do have access to a computer cart, and I could ask to have just one in my room at all times. All of our students have a Gmail account through the district, so it would make the most sense for the notes to be written on Google Docs and shared through Google Classroom. I would check the notes before sending out to all students to add their interpretations.
Student Researchers: I have my students put their phones in a shoe organizer that I hang on my door as they come in the classroom. Phones tend to be a distraction if we are not using them for a specific purpose, but if I had a job assignment of "Student Researcher" that person could keep their phone at their desk and use it when questions arise. I am not a native speaker and I often question myself with regards to vocabulary or cultural knowledge. It will be fantastic to have one person who has the responsibility of researching the information to be sure what we are learning is correct. Something else in this chapter of the book that was relevant to language learning was teaching the students how to use Google and search for other perspectives. Google has algorithms that help narrow our searches, but when we are looking for a perspective that is not from the Northeast United States, it is difficult to find. It will be well worth the time for all of us to learn how to use search engines more effectively. In the book there are even instructions on how to create a custom search engine with Google so that when students use it, they will get results more applicable to the content.
Global Communicators and Collaborators: THE. BEST. PART. Obviously teachers of world languages want their students to be global communicators and collaborators! Just look at our standards! I have struggled with finding an authentic audience for my classes. In Maine, there just aren't many ways to interact in the language. I have tried epals.com, I have tried connecting with schools through other colleagues, but I have never thought of giving this responsibility to the students. They are global citizens. They are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. They have friends and relatives who live abroad. Why can't they be the ones to set up Skype appointments with these people? This section had a ton of ideas for students in the classroom from @shellyzavon:
- Maintaining the calendar with the appointments
- Greeter-person who says "hello" during the Skype connection
- Sharer-gives information about our school
- Interviewers who do all Q and A-these people prepare in advance
- Photographer
- Videographer
- Back Channelers
My take-away from this book is that it is possible. I have read so many blogs about classroom jobs and pushing the responsibility for learning onto the students, but I was always overwhelmed to introduce it in my classroom and follow through with it. This was a short book with small changes that can make a huge difference in motivation for students and teachers. I highly recommend it.
Have you read this book? What did your take away from it?
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