Writing Made Easy: From Remembering to Creating Racquel Francis Adjunct ESL Instructor Montgomery College Adult Education & Literacy Program

Agenda Review Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson, Krathwohl, & Airasian, 2001) Explore the benefits and limitations of EDpuzzle Define collaborative learning (Smith & MacGregor, 1992) Examine an example of classroom integration View student writing samples

Objective Use EDpuzzle and various collaborative activities to develop students’ writing skills efficiently and interactively

(PC Network Solutions, 2016) WHY? (PC Network Solutions, 2016) (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2015) (Creative Commons, 2014) Live in a tech driven society. How many times have you used technology today to share or retrieve information? Text driven society and the interwoven nature or reading and writing “The more our students read, the more they become familiar with the vocabulary, idiom, sentence patterns, organizational flow, and cultural assumptions of native speakers of the language.” Ann Raimes, Techniques in Teaching Writing (1983) WIOA is the law that outlines the requirements for funding programs like ours. Within WIOA there is a strong focus on the CCRS because one of the primary goals is to teach learners the basic and advanced skills they will need to pursue post-secondary education or training opportunities that will lead to our students obtaining mid-level jobs.

HOW? (Armstrong, 2017) (Grafton, 2015) Flipped Learning - using time outside the classroom to introduce topics so that class time can be used for activities that deepens the students understanding of the content Bloom’s Taxonomy - a description of thinking abilities. Each level has verbs that describe the types of actions to elicit lower order and higher order thinking skills. Collaborative learning - process that relies on working with others to (1) find meaning (2) Solve Problems (3) create products (Smith & MacGregor (https://collaborativegrouplearning.com/2015/06/04/159/) (Armstrong, 2017) (Grafton, 2015) (Flipped Learning Network Hub, 2014)

Instructions - EDpuzzle Assignment Go to EDpuzzle.com Use the login credentials for the student account Complete the assignment iPhone users must download the EDpuzzle app from the App Store If a participant has a student card with a name that includes the letter “L”, the “Ls” and ones look the same. The only number one in the username is the one that starts the series “1,2,3”. All of the preceding characters are “Ls.” Ask participants, which level of thinking do they believe EdPuzzle best supports?

Benefits Limitations Get a quick view of the whole class performance Identify areas to focus on in class “See” every student Access from various devices Class access is limited to one teacher Unable to collaborate with other teachers within the site iPhone users must download the app

Collaborative Learning “‘Collaborative learning’ is an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together” (Smith & MacGregor, 1992, p. 11). Approach of creating understanding through the shared efforts of the learners involved in the process. (Cornell University, 2017)

Classroom Integration Objective: Students will be able to write a basic paragraph with the appropriate formatting and content. Demographic: 14-20 students Low intermediate English proficiency At least three different native languages spoken Various meeting schedules

Classroom Integration

Collaborative Activities - Error Correction If a paragraph’s structure is correct, write “correct” in the box. If the paragraph structure is NOT correct, rewrite the paragraph with the correct structure in the box.

Collaborative Activities - Reading Puzzles Put the story in order. Identify the topic sentence, supporting sentences and the concluding sentence. Rewrite the paragraph in the correct order with the correct structure. (Adapted from Future: English for Results 2 Workbook (audio script), 2010)

Collaborative Activities - Group Writing Read the supporting sentences. Write a topic sentence for the paragraph.

Collaborative Activities - Group Writing (cont.) Read the topic sentence. Write three supporting sentences for the paragraph and a concluding sentence.

Collaborative Activities - Peer-editing Read your partner’s paper. Use the checklist to help them correct it. Have it! Need to add it! Structure 1) Indent the first line of the paragraph. 2) Capitalize the first letter in the sentence and the pronoun “I.” 3) Use a period at the end of every sentence. 4) Didn’t use point form. (EnglishLessons4U, 2013)

Student Writing Sample

Student Writing Sample

Student Writing Sample

Tips Limit videos to seven minutes or less. Ask basic comprehension and critical thinking questions. Only post one video at a time. Introduce the writing topic in class through a reading activity.

Questions?

References Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D., & Airasian, P. W. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman. Armstrong, P. (2017, January 5). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy. Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M. R., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2015). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (6th ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited. Cornell University. (2017, January 5). Collaborative learning: Group work. Retrieved from https://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/collaborative-learning.html. Creative Commons. (2014, May 21). Missouri funding report: Health outcomes sciences, KE2 therm lead pack in March. Retrieved from http://www.missouribusinessalert.com/entrepreneurs/43748/2014/05/21/missouri-funding-report-health-outcomes- sciences-ke2-therm-lead-pack-in-march/. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED357705 (Collaborative learning original)

References (cont.) EnglishLessons4U. (2013, October 4). How to write a basic paragraph. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2_pZWdF7ujA. Flipped Learning Network Hub. (2014, March 12). What is flipped learning? Retrieved from http://flippedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/FLIP_handout_FNL_Web.pdf. Grafton, R. (2015, June 4). Three principles for constructing collaborative learning groups. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from https://collaborativegrouplearning.com/2015/06/04/159/. PC Network Solutions. (2016, October 10). Understanding the benefits of cloud technology. Retrieved from http://pcnetworked.com/2016/10/10/understanding-benefits-cloud-technology/. Raskin, J. (2010). Future: English for results 2 workbook. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman - Pearson Education. Smith, B. L., & MacGregor, J. T. (1992). Collaborative learning: A sourcebook for higher education. In Goodsell, A., Mather, A., & Tinto, V. (Eds.). University Park, PA: National Center on Post-Secondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.