Creative Quickwriting - How to Spice Up Quickwrites for Student Engagement

It’s pretty universal knowledge now that quickwrites are an effective tool for classroom instruction. (Fisher and Frey, 2008) Quickwrites are wonderful for checking student understanding, tapping prior knowledge, and promoting student reflection on their own learning process.

How should we use quickwrites, though? For as helpful as they are, they can quickly become a tired technique, eliciting groans from our students like creamed spinach on a 7-year old’s dinner plate.

The trick is to treat using the strategy -- or any strategy for that matter -- like a routine at the gym. Anyone who has worked out seriously knows that when a person continues to do the same exercise over and again for more than a couple weeks, progress plateaus and there are next to no gains. The body must be shocked into progress; so it is beneficial to change up the workout continually to work the muscle groups in different ways.

The brain is really no different. Too much of the same thing will cause boredom, no matter how interesting it may be, and progress plateaus. Like our various muscle groups, our brains need to be shocked into doing the work -- they must be engaged with novel approaches to the material. This means that while the strategy may stay the same, the approach doesn’t have to.

Classroom teachers know how to best manipulate their lesson plans to engage students, and obviously each discipline will have its own way of doing things. Regardless, here are some universal ideas for how to use quickwrites in novel ways.

Break up notetaking

The human brain is always seeking contrast to stay engaged (Sylwester and Cho, 1992): music that vacillates between quiet and loud, art that plays with light and dark, movies that punctuate the routine with high drama. This is especially true in the classroom. There are always going to be activities that are not very stimulating, but they should be contrasted with highly engaging activities.

One of the most repetitive, dull activities, is lecture-based notetaking. This sort of instruction is a necessity at times -- students need to learn how to listen and take notes. Brain research shows that a lecture should be kept brief and to the point as the brain begins to lose focus after a short amount of time, between 10-20 minutes, depending on the age of the child. (Khan, 2012) And in our digital era, there is some research to suggest that student attention spans are growing even shorter. The average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds, whereas in 2015 it is 8.25 seconds. (Statistic Brain, 2015)

So, consider breaking up those lectures with 2 minutes of quickwriting as the beginning of a think-pair-share activity. Students can have their brains re-engaged, and teachers can ensure the information was received and processed. Putting in the social element also helps students to see if anything was missed, and gives them opportunities to take ownership of the information by collaborating.

Provide quickwriting choices

No one has the same learning style. Howard Gardner’s (1983) research into multiple intelligences revealed that there are eight different ways in which people relate to and learn about their realities.

• Verbal-linguistic
• Logical-mathematical
• Visual-spatial
• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Musical-rhythmic
• Naturalist
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal

Quickwriting lends itself to the verbal-linguistic learner, but there are ways to shake up the activity to appeal to different intelligences. For example, a logical-mathematical learner can be encouraged to create a chart or a graphic organizer to help organize information. Naturalists could write about specific props or symbols that help them remember the information. And interpersonal learners could write a dialog, or consider the information from alternative points-of-view. Consider using a variety of prompts that engage different intelligences.

When requesting a quickwrite, especially as a means to tap prior knowledge, offering these sorts of choices provide students a variety of access points to a curriculum that may seem too difficult to understand.

Collaborative quickwrites

Who says that quickwriting has to be a solitary activity? Just as students can collaborate to write an essay, create a presentation, or design posters, they can just as easily collaborate to perform a simple quickwrite.

As with any grouping activity, each student would have to be responsible for his/her own part. But once that is determined and explained, the quickwrite becomes a constructive process in which students quickly discuss and process integral information and concepts.

Quickwrite journal

At first, many students -- especially struggling writers -- may not write much when assigned a quickwrite. Returning to the gym analogy, no one is benching 200lbs. upon their first trip to the gym. Strength has to be built through work. Writing endurance is built similarly, and just as most gym rats carry a workout journal, it would behoove our students to have a quickwriting journal to monitor their own progress.

A quickwriting journal serves a couple functions: 1) it provides additional study notes for students to review, and 2) it creates opportunities for self-reflection. A student who begins the year writing only 35-40 words in three minutes may be amazed to see that s/he is writing 100+ by the end of first semester. Think about how empowering and confidence-boosting that could be. When a student can see concrete evidence of their progress, that goes a long way to building the self-efficacy we long for them to have.

Certainly there are more ways to integrate quickwrites into a lesson plan that can kickstart a student’s mind in novel, engaging ways. In the comments section, please share some of your great ideas.

Sources

"Attention Span Statistics." Statistic Brain. Statistic Brain Research Institute, 2 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.

Fisher, Douglas, and Nancy Frey. Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area Strategies at Work. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York, NY: Basic, 2011. Print.

Khan, Salman. "Why Long Lectures Are Ineffective." Time. Time Warner, 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.

Sylwester, Robert, and Joo-Yun Cho. "What Brain Research Says About Paying Attention." Educational Leadership 50.4 (1992): 71-75. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.

Does SSR Work? Common Sense Says So...

“Before he can develop taste, he must experience hunger.”

As an English teacher, it’s pretty safe to assume I am an avid reader. I read everyday for my job, but for pleasure, too. It has been that way since I can remember. My parents used to tuck me into bed and when the lights were down, I would grab the flashlight and read comic books under the sheets. Dad was also a reader, too, with a few bookcases packed with sci-fi novels from the giants like Asimov, Niven, Simak, Heinlein, and Gibson. I would take those books off the shelf, and even when I didn’t understand the words, I pretended to read them like a grown-up. Maybe you have similar experiences.

From that young age, I had a voracious hunger for reading, and gorged on everything. Eventually, that hunger turned into a vocation defined by taste: English teaching. I recognized the classics, was able to separate the junk from the gems, and could build cases to defend these evaluations.

Today’s kids are starving, but they don’t even know that they’re hungry. According to a survey by University of Virginia professor Daniel T. Willingham, while the average American teenager has around 5 hours of leisure time everyday, they only spend roughly 6 minutes of it reading. He says, “most unmotivated readers have the self-assurance to persuade themselves that reading is not all that important.” And the amount of technology accessible to our students has caused a shift in their expectations for what they consider worthy of their time. “Digital technology has changed expectations -- made kids believe something must be worthy of their attention to maintain it. With technology, kids get an experience immediately with minimal effort…[They] have the continuous, nagging suspicion that ‘there must be a better way to spend my time than this.’”

Of course, this leaves the classroom teacher with a conundrum. How do we get our students to embrace reading when its benefits are not as immediate as those they receive from video games, Tweets, Instagram photos, or a Buzzfeed photo gallery about the 10 Hottest Celebrities? One of the longest standing suggestions is to use Sustained Silent Reading, in which a teacher sets aside instructional time for students to engage in reading something they choose.

Yet, going all the way back to 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP), sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), released a seminal study that seemed to put nails in SSR’s coffin. Even today, the echoes of the NRP’s study reverberate as SSR is removed from the classroom and more focus is placed on explicit instruction. Now, the NRP -- a panel composed of several educators and researchers across the country -- didn’t exactly state that SSR was a bad idea. They leaned against it, though, claiming there wasn’t enough causal data to support its inclusion as a component of quality literacy instruction. The key word in that sentence is causal, which requires experiments that show a direct relationship between SSR and student growth in reading. Unfortunately, with all the variables that influence a person’s ability to read, both internal and environmental, it is nearly impossible to get anything better than correlative results.

But there are lots of correlative findings out there. The work of Allington & McGill-Franzen (2003), Gambrell (2007), Krashen (2001), Trelease (2001), Stahl (2004), and Berliner (1981) all support the idea that when implemented effectively, SSR has the ability to support student improvement in reading. The National Assessment for Educational Progress stated: “The more you read, the better your vocabulary, your knowledge of the world, your ability to read and so on…”

And of course, our common sense tells us this as well. If you read a lot, you will become a better reader. After all, that’s what happened to us. I am the reader I am today because of all those late nights sneaking out on adventures with Spiderman and Daredevil as written by Peter David and Frank Miller.

Yet, there is another key word we have to address if we are to advocate for the restoration of SSR to our ELA program. That word is “effectively.” How do we “effectively” implement SSR in our classrooms? Anyone who believes you just need to set aside 10 minutes a day and throw books at the kids like fish at a group of otters is probably not going to see very good results, and waste lots of time in the process. There are 5 components to an effective SSR program:

1. Know your students

A teacher needs to know what interests her kids. Will Adrianna prefer a teen gothic romance like Twilight, or is she into classics like The Stranger? Is Malik interested in social issues explored by Walter Dean Myers, or does he want to explore the socio-psychological ideas of Malcolm Gladwell? And what about Dean? He rides his skateboard all over the place, but does that mean he wants to read a biography about Tony Hawk? It might be possible he actually wants to visit Middle Earth and fantasize about eating with hobbits. When we know our kids, we can help them find the books that will appeal to them, especially if they are reluctant readers.

2. Students choose their own books

Even though you are there to help kids find books, the ultimate choice should be theirs. If it turns out they don’t like the book, they should be able to put it aside and try something else. SSR is more about pleasure reading, not academic reading. When kids have autonomy, they have buy-in. And if we are to combat the immediate gratification/minimal effort belief system that seems to plague them (and us, if we are to be truly honest with ourselves), the only way for our students to attain that desired end is to pick their (nourishing) poison.

3. Teachers must get involved

One of the biggest criticisms of SSR is that students sit in their seats pretending to read. It’s a fair criticism, especially of teachers who do not pay attention to their students’ behavior. Again, you can’t expect to throw books at a group of kids and they will magically become better readers. It is integral we teach them, even during SSR. Walk around, monitor, answer questions (“What does this word mean?” “I don’t get it…”), and take some time to read what the kids are reading. I know that’s a Herculean suggestion, what with the millions of other tasks a teacher has to do, but nothing creates more buy-in for a kid than knowing you cared enough to take interest in what they are doing. Even if it means looking up the book on SparkNotes just so you have a couple questions to ask might make all the difference between getting a kid to read a book and getting her to love reading.

4. Create a community of readers

When Oprah Winfrey was dominating afternoon television, she was also dominating the New York Times bestseller list. On her show, she motivated millions of viewers to read the books she recommended. She called it the “Oprah Book Club,” and hundreds of chapters popped up across the country. Reading may be a private experience most of the time, but it is most rewarding when it is shared. Our students, most of whom have multiple social media accounts already, understand this well. So, we should use it to our advantage. Have students read the same book in groups. Make time for book talks at the end of the week. Encourage students to open accounts on GoodReads and share their experiences with the added bonus that GoodReads will suggest other titles they might like of which they hadn’t previously heard. There’s also an added bonus for us as well: it provides a means to hold them accountable for the reading they do during class time!

5. Students must reflect on their own progress and growth

The person who needs to hold a student most accountable is not the teacher, it is the student. A good SSR program should have built into it a reflection component. Students should have a means upon which to write about their experience reading, not just in terms of their enjoyment, but in terms of their perceived growth. This sort of metacognition is essential to their development, not just as readers, but as people.

Despite the “research based” ideas that SSR is an ineffective practice, both common sense and academic studies show us that when implemented with care and precision, SSR is a powerful tool in the teacher’s box.

Sources:

Garan, Elaine M., and Glenn DeVoogd. "The benefits of sustained silent reading: scientific research and common sense converge: once teachers unravel the facts from the misinterpretations and opinions, they will find that Sustained Silent Reading is not only intuitively appealing but also is supported by research." The Reading Teacher 62.4 (2008): 336+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Shaw, Michael L. "Sustained silent reading: another view." Reading Today 24.1 (2006): 16. Student Resources in Context. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Willingham, Daniel T. "For the love of reading: engaging students in a lifelong pursuit." American Educator 39.1 (2015): 4+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Grammar Basics - Research and Strategies for Teaching Grammar

Steve Peha, in his article “Teaching Grammar: There Has to Be a Better Way” (2011) writes, “The purpose of learning grammar is to produce well-formed sentences.”

I can’t imagine too many people disagreeing with this statement. We teach grammar and punctuation so students can write clearly. Well-formed sentences are keys to unlocking ideas and meaning for readers.

That being said, when most teachers complain about student writing, usually their biggest gripe centers around students’ ability to apply grammatical principles to their writing. “You should see some of the sentences these kids produce,” they say. “It’s almost like they don’t understand language at all.”

The immediate reaction to complaints such as these is to return to explicit grammar instruction. There’s a temptation to start planning EDI lessons for parts of speech, semi-colon use, and active voice; we want to start prepping editing worksheets and Daily Oral Language sponge activities. It’s natural to want to get back to basics, even if every bit of research tells us otherwise.

Since the 1970s, research has been showing that grammar instruction done in isolation is ineffective. Professor Beverly Ann Chin of the University of Montana cites the work of Calkins (1980), DiStefano and Killion (1984), and Harris (1962) in her work “The Role of Grammar in Improving Student Writing” (2000). This research has been echoed by the NCTE, and the Atlantic Monthly. Constance Weaver, in her book Grammar for Teachers: Perspectives and Definitions, said:

“Research suggests that we not return to emphasizing the parts of speech and the analysis of grammatical construction and sentence types in order to improve writing. This is a waste of valuable class time.” (1979)

So, let’s not get hasty and jump back into ineffective, albeit comfortable, instructional practices. Instead, let’s identify where the problems are and seek out some helpful solutions.

There are four major grammatical issues our students are facing that give us the biggest headaches:

1. Sentence construction, otherwise known as syntax.
2. Punctuation problems.
3. Use of the passive voice instead of the active voice.
4. Writing dull, repetitive, boring sentences.

Before we look at specific instructional strategies, it is important to get the most important strategy out of the way. This provides the framework for all instruction in grammar (and writing in general):

Teach all grammar lessons in context of the students’ writing.

This means we should avoid giving lessons on parts of speech separate from the work they’ve already written. All the research shows that when a student learns grammatical principles separately from their own writing, it has the following consequences: antipathy towards writing, a tendency to associate good writing with correctness, and discouragement as it relates to writing. (Navarre Clearly, 2014) Besides, when grammar is taught in isolation, how is the student supposed to connect the changes they make on a worksheet with the work they’ve written? Improving their own writing is more important to them than completing a Daily Oral Language activity.

So, that being said, let’s consider some strategies to help our kids.

1. Reading aloud

Generating language verbally is pretty easy for most people to do; generating language through writing, on the other hand, is a real challenge. It accesses a different center of the brain. Reading writing aloud forces the writer to hear what is being written. An engaged student will immediately recognize problems in syntax, voice, punctuation, and repetition. If a verb and subject do not agree, the writer is bound to hear it, and just as they do during a conversation, they are likely to correct it. The same is true for the repetition of words at the beginning of sentences, frequent use of the same words, or the lack of active verbs. This can be done in three ways: the writer can read to themselves, to another, or have another read it to them.

2. Sentence combining

Want to get rid of monotonous sentences? Want your kids to stop writing basic, simple sentences? Sentence combining is a great strategy to teach students. Start by using your own writing sample, and model the process of combining through the use of conjunctions, or commas. Or, select a student’s work and share it as an example. Students can practice on their own work, or have them practice using another student’s assignment.

3. Sentence unscrambling

It is very challenging to get students to understand how the parts of a sentence work together. We teach about subject, verb, object, prepositional phrase, gerund, appositive, etc., but they remember very little, and are even less capable of applying the knowledge they do remember. Fortunately the brain loves puzzles and patterns. Use student sentences from their samples and scramble them up. Have students try to find the pattern that sounds the closest to understandable language. You can also use sentences from the readings you are doing with your class, putting student focus on model examples.

4. Sentence imitation

In his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King wrote about how he, as a precocious kid, used to sit at his kitchen table, copying the text from his favorite books into notebooks as if he were the one writing them. Sure, it’s plagiarism, but what it did was cause him to recognize how different writers constructed their sentences and stories. Eventually he moved away from this and created his own sentences as he had something original to say; yet, the structure and sound of the language influenced him greatly. We can also use sentence imitation in our classes, by having students take sentences from the readings we are teaching and employ the reading’s specific style while using the student’s own words. Imitation leads to competency.

5. Editing groups

Late in the writing process, it is important to have students edit their work for errors in punctuation and spelling. Breaking students into editing groups in which they take turns reading each other’s work and marking up specific errors will help them take ownership for improving their writing. When doing this activity, it is valuable to have students looking for very specific issues. If they are being asked to check papers for capitalization, spelling, period use, comma use, semi-colon use, etc., the number of variables might result in poor results. Instead, try having multiple groups that focus on one specific area of improvement, and get all student writings being passed around the room.

Grammar is obviously essential to good writing, and there are some excellent strategies available to support student improvement. Yet, as Dennis Baron writes, “You can fix grammar and still have an unsatisfying essay.” (NCTE, 2008) Grammar and punctuation is the most controllable, and safest, element of writing. And because it rests right on the surface of a text, it is easy to critique. That does not mean that having all these conventions ironed smoothly will result in great work. Writing is about the effective organization of insightful ideas tailored to a specific audience. Tightening up the use of grammar and punctuation should result in revealing the strength or weaknesses in those other areas, but it should not be seen as the totality of our experience as writers.

Sources:

Peha, Steve. "Teaching Grammar: There Has to Be a Better Way."Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation, 23 May 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.

King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Scribner, 2000. Print.

Navarre Clearly, Michelle. "The Wrong Way to Teach Grammar." The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.

"NCTE Authors Weigh-in on Teaching Grammar and Writing." NCTE.org. National Council of the Teachers of English, 4 Nov. 2008. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.

Chin, Beverly Ann. "The Role of Grammar in Improving Student Writing."Sadlier-Oxford. William H. Sadlier, 2000. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.

Looking for Lesson Plan Ideas - Consider Using the Digital Library

If you’re like me, when the Smarter Balanced test was first announced, it was greeted with an eye roll. “Here’s another test we have to teach to,” I thought, “only this one’s on computers!” I’m not a fan of teaching to standardized tests, nor am I really a fan of standardized testing in general. While I recognize their value as a tool for gauging statistical trends across large populations of kids, I find them to be a force that subverts the teacher’s real job: building academic rapport with individual kids.

Yet, none of my opining matters; standardized testing is our reality. Great teachers find a way to integrate their test prep responsibilities with their goals.

Thankfully, it seems the folks at SBAC are meeting us halfway. On their testing website, they have an intriguing feature called the Digital Library. The Digital Library is a database of teacher created lessons built around the common core standards. Like TeachersPayTeachers, the Digital Library features lessons and materials uploaded by teachers from which we all can benefit…

For free! (Smarter Balanced Log-in required)

So, how do we use the Digital Library? Let me show you.

1. Log-in to Smarter Balanced’s website at smarterbalancedlibrary.org.

2. From the screen above, you have the option of clicking on drop-down menus for Formative Assessment Attributes, Subjects, Grades, and Common Core State Standards. You do not have to select something from each menu to access the digital library. Once you’ve made your selections from the menu, you can click on the Find Resources button.

3. When you select Common Core State Standards, a pop-up window will zoom out on the screen. From this screen, start by selecting your subject matter area. Next, you will be guided through prompts asking you to choose the appropriate grade level, domain/strand, and the specific standard from that strand (you can select multiple standards from each strand). For those of you in the social sciences, or science/technical subjects, you can find literacy lessons as their own domain under English Language Arts.

4. Once you select Find Resources, this page will appear. Voila! Scroll down and you will find tons of uploaded lessons that relate to the standards you have chosen. Resources posted with “distinction” are lessons the SBAC finds particularly appropriate (or most likely from their publishing partners). You even have the option to only look at lessons from this category by clicking in the box labeled “Posted with Distinction Only.”

5. To select a lesson resource, click on the lesson title. A viewing window will appear with lesson information. Underneath, you will find detailed information about the lesson overall, including a summary, assessment, goals, criterias, etc. There are also tabs for you to collaborate with other teachers, read teacher reviews of the lesson, share, flag for future visit, and other related resources.

6. To see more of the resource, click on the View All Materials button. This will open a drop-down menu will all the materials the author has uploaded. As you click on each item, they will appear in the viewing window. If you’d like to download these materials, click on the Download button, and you can add them to your computer’s hard drive. From there you can open and modify the documents as you need to.

7. If you are interested in discussing the resources available here, select the Forums tab. Get involved with a discussion already going, or start one of your own. This is a great feature in the event you are struggling with understanding a lesson idea, or want to bounce ideas off of other teachers who have already used one of these resources.

As you can see, the Digital Library is a pretty powerful resource. That doesn’t mean it isn’t without its limitations. On the English side, there are several lessons that feel unfinished, or materials that are not well explained, which seems odd being that in their Help FAQs, SBAC talks about the review process for submitted resources. Additionally, because many lessons have a multitude of standards attached to them, it isn’t uncommon to keep seeing the same resources over and again, which can be very frustrating.

Despite these peccadillos, you should definitely take the time to peruse the Digital Library. Every teacher, like every student, is quite different, and the lessons that won’t work for one could become an institution for another. There are a lot of gems in this database.

Using Quotations - Check Your Sources!

Recently, on Last Week Tonight, comedian John Oliver addressed the use of quotations in political speeches. This hilarious segment starts with current Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson misquoting Thomas Jefferson, but then shows us that even our current President, Mr. Obama, and former Presidents Clinton and Reagan were guilty of the same academic crime. No one is safe from the horrors of misquoting!

The Common Core standards in English/Language Arts puts a real emphasis on evidence-based argumentation. This translates to spending time teaching our students how to integrate quotes from sources into their writing. While some quotes, pulled from class texts, are easy to verify, more open ended research projects create concerns about the validity of the source.

The most important strategy we can use is to teach students how to compare sources to verify information. There are graphic organizers, including the always useful Venn diagram, out there to help students process the information they are pulling. And if they are going to quote a famous person, it's always best to direct them to trustworthy sites like Brainy Quote.

Lastly, if you are interested in some good online research evaluation materials, click here.

And, for good fun, check out John Oliver's "Definitely Real Quotes" website.

Source: 

Oliver, John, Kevin Avery, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, Scott Sherman, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, and Juli Weiner. "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver." Episode 31. HBO. New York, NY, 18 Oct. 2015. Television.

Will Choice Theory Work?

Nothing is more frustrating for a teacher than investing tons of time creating an engaging lesson, finding the right scaffolds, and providing relevant assignments, only for most of the students to do the work poorly, or ignore it entirely. Every year it seems that students take less and less ownership of their responsibilities and become increasingly accepting of failure.

The William Glasser Institute offers a suggestion (or a solution -- if you check out their website here, you might see it that way) in the form of a theory: Choice Theory. Choice Theory, which was first introduced by William Glasser in 1998, proposes the following ideas...

• Everything we do is a behavior.
• Every behavior is a choice.
• Every behavior is motivated by the desire to satisfy one of our five basic needs: love, survival, power, freedom, and fun.

In an article written for the NEA, teacher Charlotte Wellen suggests that this theory is quite applicable in the classroom environment.

It sounds very simple, and choice theory is simple. It seems counter-intuitive, or against common sense. Many adults feel that it is their job to "make" John get down to work. They'll often resort to threats like, "John, if you don't get to work, you're going to fail," or "John, if you don't get to work, I'll have to call your mother." 

They are trying to help John, but John often doesn't see it that way. His interpretation of these kinds of statements is often, "They're trying to make me do something I don't want to do and I'm not going to do it! What are they going to do about that!" And John doesn't do his work, or he does a mediocre piece of work, way below what he's capable of achieving, because he's in a power struggle with the teachers, administrators, and parents. In many schools, it's even become "cool" to resist, to act as if you don't care, to laugh when receiving an F grade, because it's a way to demonstrate that all the threats in the world can't make John do anything he doesn't want to do.

Wellen offers a sample script in the NEA article. At first it seems pretty Pollyanna-ish, but upon reflection, it is a great idea. At the heart of it is an assumption that the student is responsible for making a choice and the teacher's job is simply to provide encouragement and support. "Do you know why I came over here to check in on you?" "What would you like me to do to help you move forward?" It's an empowering technique, and at the end of the day removes conflict from the student-teacher interaction.

Will Choice Theory work in the CHS classroom? With all of our efforts towards becoming a PBIS school, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try out.

Sources: 

"Choice Theory." William Glasser Institute. William Glasser Institute, 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Wellen, Charlotte. "Getting Students To Complete Their Work." NEA.org. National Education Association, 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Welcome to CHS EduThoughts!

As far as portmanteaus go, you could do a lot worse than EduThoughts.

One thing is for certain: it gets the idea across. This blog is a place to go to get thoughts on current trends, research, and instructional strategies being discussed and employed here at Colton High School. Hopefully you will bookmark it so you can come back frequently for news, information, and...EduThoughts!

My name is Jeremiah Dollins. I've been teaching English for 16 years at both the middle and high school levels. Currently, I'm the CHS English Teacher on Assignment, tasked with coordinating a cross-curricular writing program, intervention efforts for low performing writers, and support services for our staff. This blog is just one of my efforts to provide that support and create a forum for our CHS staff to voice their ideas about what's happening here at our school.

So, let's get started!