English classes today focus too much on self-expression. “It is rare in a working environment,
“narrative nonfiction
New Journalism could be applied to most student writing. It benefits from intense reporting, immersion in a subject, imaginative scene setting, dialogue and telling details. These are the very skills most English teachers want students to develop. What’s odd is how rarely such literary nonfiction appears on English — or other class — reading lists.
Narrative nonfiction also provides a bridge between the personal narratives students typically write in elementary school and the essays on external subjects that are more appropriate assignments in high school and beyond.
Models of narrative nonfiction are everywhere, on programs like “This American Life” and “Radiolab,” in nonfiction books for young adults, like “Sugar Changed the World” (which is about slavery and science in the pursuit of the food additive), and even in graphic nonfiction works, like “Persepolis,”
Students are a natural (and the future) audience for serious, in-depth reporting.
The vertical axis on the left is Complexity, with explicit reference to rigor or new Bloom’s taxonomy from basic on the bottom to higher order at the top. The horizontal axis is Instruction from teacher centered or didactic instruction to student centered or constructivist instruction. The diagonal axis ranges from more abstract, artificial activities to authentic, real world or relevant activities.
The goal of CFF is to create more learning opportunities that are where the three axes meet in the upper right hand corner of the chart.
To make these changes, teachers and school leaders participate in extensive professional development on how to best harness the power of technology to increase student achievement and ensure students are ready for college and the high-tech global job market.
Interesting PA high school reform effort. The graphic details the "Range of Instructional Use" for using technology as a facilitator for transforming classrooms into 21st century T&L environments.
Some Ed Tech heavy hitters will be presenting/attending this conference in Long Beach CA March 3-5. Would be great to check out if you have the opportunity.
How the workforce is changing in the 21st Century. "Ten years ago, Facebook didn't exist. Ten years before that, we didn't have the Web. So who knows what jobs will be born a decade from now? Though unemployment is at a 25‑year high, work will eventually