Coolest App EVER! (if you’re a student or academic)

The title might just be an example of hyperbole (aside to students, hyperbole will be on the final), but I’m amazed by Easybib’s new iPhone app. Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers (great blog) for pointing it out. The short of it: use your iPhone to scan the ISBN of a book, and the app generates an MLA, APA, and Chicago Style works cited entry from it. You can then email the entry to yourself.

I’m going to have a hard time not lecturing students on how in my day I wrote works cited entries in blood from paper cuts inflicted while thumbing through the card catalog.

Grab the app here.

Context Clues and Big Kid Books

In a discussion with colleagues this morning, we started talking about reading “big kid” books to our own children. We agree that experiencing works like Little House on the Prairie, religious stories, Hardy Boys, Wind in the Willows (and for today’s kids Harry Potter) before we were actually capable of reading and deciphering the books on our own was a cherished childhood memory. The discussion veered into how this experience probably paved all sorts of neural pathways leading us to be the successful book nerds we are today.

One skill is the ability to tackle vocabulary thought context clues. As we’re listening to stories and truly trying to understand them (as we’re motivated to do when listening to our parents read to us), our brains struggle for comprehension. We have no choice but to assign meaning to words we don’t understand. As this happens time after time, we get better at it. We also learn that not knowing the precise definition of a given word doesn’t always destroy comprehension, but sometimes it does. We learn to tell the difference in the two, and how to respond to each.

All of these are skills that good readers employ, but poor readers lack. I contend that we first start learning these skills when we listen to stories being read and then translate them over to reading when the time comes.

Getting students to read

I dedicated a couple of blog posts recently to an excellent article by William J. Broz in the latest English Journal. Basically, he argues that many students don’t read assigned texts, and we’re going about encouraging them to read them all wrong.

He feels that we need to use social pressures to get students to read. Put them in meaningful discussion groups, let them have meaningful, rewarding discussion, and give them responsibility for creating that discussion. Don’t waste time on low-level comprehension questions (reading quizzes), instead reward those who read and prepared for the discussion by allowing them to engage in authentic discussion. Those who didn’t bother to prepare spend their class time reading so they can get caught up while the others are “rewarded” for their preparation. Don’t spend time “discussing” the reading by summarizing it through low-level, leading questions. Don’t spend time rehashing the chapter for those who didn’t read. Instead, let them read in class (minus the points for not preparing) and let those who did read discuss.

We did something similar in my class this year with Lord of the Flies. We had weekly Socratic Circles on the book. Students were required to create a given number of level questions to prepare. We gave points for preparation. I like Broz’s idea of not allowing people to participate who didn’t prepare, instead giving them reading time to catch up. Peer pressure is a powerful thing, let’s see it used for good. One of the coolest things I saw this year was one student taking another to task for not being prepared for the Socratic Circle.

A Little Inspiration. It’s a Book!

I really don’t want this blog to devolve into a place for me to repost things I find amusing. I also realize that I’ve been doing it a lot lately. What can I say? It’s easier than writing up a bunch of content from scratch. So without further ado, I give you today’s inspirational, amusing video shamelessly gleaned from the interwebz.

Let’s haggle!

Tis the season to haggle over grades. This video was clearly made for higher education, as I can’t help but think, “Wow, you mean you can drop a student after they miss your class more than 4 times?” Still, it’s funny and all too familiar.

The Stockholm Syndrome of Long Novels

Mark OConnell recently blogged about big novels and how they hold us captive. This post struck a chord with me. At some point, I started reading big novels (that weren’t fantasy, big fantasy novels were one of my early literary addictions). At some point, I actually started enjoying reading big novels. Gravity’s Rainbow, Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Under the Volcano, and just about everything that Neal Stephenson has ever written, including the entirety of the Baroque Cycle. Yes, I do enjoy big novels. Unfortunately, when I started reading YA, I found myself reading fewer and fewer big novels. I wanted to read as many books as possible so I could recommend them to my students. Additionally, I knew that my reluctant readers (and that’s really who I’m reading YA to inspire) are intimidated by big books. So, I’ve strayed away from them, opting instead for quantity over depth. As a result, I think I began reading less. Reading had become a part of my job instead of something I enjoyed. Sure, I still like reading, but I seemed to be reading for my students more than my own enjoyment.

On the plus side, I think that these longer books serve to counteract the ADD hyper-connectivity of our twitterfied society (something I’m far too guilty of wallowing within). These books take commitment, dedication, and an attention-span. They allow me to get lost in their world, and in so doing, disconnect temporarily from my own.

Summer is here, and I’m giving myself permission to read big books. I’m ready to get captivated. Right now I’m plowing through Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn. I’m open for other suggestions. I’m thinking that Franzen’s Freedom may be next up.

Lip Dub

It’s sort of old news now (at least at our school), but I thought I’d share our take on the increasingly ubiquitous lib dub:

If your school ever gets the chance to shoot one of these, be prepared for resistance. Plow ahead, though, because the experience and product is well worth it. I honestly feel that half of my new, positive attitude is a result of this lip dub and the positive energy it created.

A great local journalism site, Ozarks Unbound, did an interview with our film teacher to discuss the experience.
Interview with Peggy James