Group items tagged

"Conversation is key . Sawyer succinctly explains this principle: "Conversation leads to flow, and flow leads to creativity." When having students work in groups, consider what will spark rich conversation. The original researcher on flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, found that rich conversation precedes and ignites flow more than any other activity.1 Tasks that require (or force) interaction lead to richer collaborative conceptualization. Set a clear but open-ended goal . Groups produce the richest ideas when they have a goal that will focus their interaction but also has fluid enough boundaries to allow for creativity. This is a challenge we often overlook. As teachers, we often have an idea of what a group's final product should look like (or sound like, or…). If we put students into groups to produce a predetermined outcome, we prevent creative thinking from finding an entry point. Try not announcing time limits. As teachers we often use a time limit as a "motivator" that we hope will keep group work focused. In reality, this may be a major detractor from quality group work. Deadlines, according to Sawyer, tend to impede flow and produce lower quality results. Groups produce their best work in low-pressure situations. Without a need to "keep one eye on the clock," the group's focus can be fully given to the task. Do not appoint a group "leader." In research studies, supervisors, or group leaders, tend to subvert flow unless they participate as an equal, listening and allowing the group's thoughts and decisions to guide the interaction. Keep it small. Groups with the minimum number of members that are needed to accomplish a task are more efficient and effective. Consider weaving together individual and group work. For additive tasks-tasks in whicha group is expectedtoproduce a list, adding one idea to another-research suggests that better results develop

Starter and Closure ideas via AP Lit teacher

I start my English classes with "Observations". Students can state anything they have observed since the last class (as long as it's appropriate). We then explore how the observation can be used in writing. Not just as plot/narrative, but any aspect of English- as a metaphor, a character note- whatever we want to emphasize, and that the observation suggests. It not only gets kids past writer's block, but it promotes a mindset of finding the unique in the ordinary.

novel recaps. Might be a good teaser for Lit class.

Research on Distance and E-Learning

Google Earth trips that go hand in hand with novels.

Download .kml/.kmz files for Google Earth to explore literature.

hope this isn't a repeat - looks to be a good quick reference for award-winning children's lit!

Interesting read and super materials for teachers looking to add/enhance literary criticism in HS English classes.

Teen Read Week is Oct 16-22. Author and spokesperson this year is Jay Asher, author of Thirteen Reasons Why.

You should try Poetry Genius for this. It is an amazing and growing app: http://genius.com/tags/poetry It's a place where you post your poem and your students can annotate in real-time. You can restrict it to just your class, or you can open it up to the community. They also have Literature Genius with some awesome pages (so far I have looked at Hawthorne and O'Connor--but there are a ton more http://lit.genius.com/.

"A strategy to support pupils improve their spelling strategies, by circling words which they think require attention. The Standards & Testing Agency have in some ways made the marking of spellings more problematic than it's ever been. They state quite clearly, that individual spellings should no longer be pointed out to children if you wish to mark it as an independent piece. This, coupled with Ofsted's move away from heavy amounts of marking needing to be seen in books, could make the marking of spelling seem tricky."