English Raven

Who exactly is out of tune here?

 

 

 

LM is one of my brighter and more dedicated Year 12 VCAL Literacy students. He made tremendous strides throughout last year at Intermediate level and is now a very capable and confident VCAL Senior level reader and writer. From his particular trade group (Carpentry) he is probably one of the best performing students.

 

His Mahara e-Portfolio is looking great so far. He has finished the Writing for Self Expression outcome with flying colours, with two pieces of writing that really express him and the trade he is involved in. His first piece is a thoughtful presentation of how he believes his trade will change over the next 5, 50 and 500 years. Following up from that is an introspective piece about himself as a carpenter, where he has come from and where he plans to go in work and life. He wrote the second one using the second person point of view, which subtly changes the way certain things are expressed and come across to the reader: it's rather like seeing an articulate young carpenter writing on a mirror.

 

 

Now this is all great, but as I perused his online portfolio late last week I wandered over to the left hand column to check out the music clips he'd embedded there. What I saw and heard there had me scratching my head because it represents a bit of a dilemma.

 

Embedding favourite music clips from YouTube is something  I've encouraged all the learners to do, to make their portfolios their own and to create a space that expresses them as young people. The idea is to make the portfolio a place they want to visit and spend time in and, as we explore notions of audience, a place for friends and peers to visit as well.

 

The idea of audiences for writing has changed dramatically for our learners this year. No longer is writing about handing in something to 'please' a literacy teacher, cater to an audience of '1.8'  and simply 'get through' a VCAL-imposed outcome. Many of these young people, via their linked up e-Portfolios, are attempting to write for and entertain their peers.

 

I'm proud of and intrigued by this development. However, when I browse over LM's excellent portfolio and think about how it could be something brilliant to show his parents and potential employers, I get to the music clips and pause.

 

The Sydney-based hip hop group doing their moves there in the left hand column are actually pretty cool. The music gives the e-Portfolio a nice background sound which adds to the picture we get of LM as a young person (and young carpenter) in the world.

 

It's when the repetitive lines about girlies 'shaking their titties' and various acts of oral sex and more specific features of female anatomy start booming through your speakers that I, as a teacher, a parent and citizen, can't help physically flinching.

 

To be perfectly fair to LM, almost every single one of his carpentry peers has featured very similar 'bad boy gangster hip hop' music on his e-Portfolio page. This is what they listen to on their iPods and on YouTube at home or at parties, on the way to school and during breaks at work. And when you actually listen a little more closely, you realise the lyrics aren't quite as insensitive and throw away as they first seem. These artists are making a variety of points that reflect contemporary ways of self expression and it's not always as inherently shallow and offensive as us 'crusty oldies' tend to reflexively assume.

 

Let's face it, there was a time when the Beatles and the Doors had parents in uproar over their 'sexually explicit' lyrics. The stuff I was listening to as a 17-year-old had my parents frowning, too. I guess what tends to be hard is that over the generations music artists' lyrics have become progressively (some would say regressively or aggressively) less subtle and more direct.

 

This goes well beyond what I'm seeing in writing portfolios. I recently heard my (then) 9-year-old niece listening to the Katy Perry album she'd bought herself with birthday money and almost fell out the window in shock when certain lyrics came blaring out.

 

 

So, as you can see, I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands.

 

If these portfolios truly are 'theirs', and they want to feature music that reflects their tastes, what right do I have to say what is or isn't appropriate?

 

Okay, well these portfolios are being made at school as part of the school's pay-for e-Learning tools. I'm hunting around now for the school's official social media policies and requirements, and I'm pretty sure that (1) potentially offensive lyrics won't be part of the school's social media vision, and (2) the decision to keep these e-Porfolios in private group mode to start with was a very wise one!

 

And then there was the idea, mainly suggested by me, that these portfolios could be used to supplement work applications. I'm not sure, but I doubt any self-respecting carpenter in his 50s or 60s would be impressed by the lyrics coming out of these pages, no matter how interesting, articulate or trade-specific the actual writing is.

 

However, we've established that the portfolios can be just their own space, about them, for themselves and their peers...

And the school has an established 'youth engagement' policy...

And we pride ourselves on treating these 'kids' like adults, in line with our role as being a secondary provider in an adult context (and not a secondary school per sé).

And these songs and lyrics and artists give me so many insights into my learners, as well as valid talking points to facilitate debate and discussion...

And I seriously doubt many carpenters in their 50s or 60s (or even 30s or 40s) would bother to look at/for an online e-Portfolio when considering applicants for apprenticeships...

 

And yet, in the end they'll probably need to go, these YouTube clips.

 

I have a very good relationship with my students and I know they will understand. But there is a significant part of me that feels that I will be betraying them in a way, shutting down a very real part of them as well as the sorts of windows that shed useful light on how to engage a traditionally hard-to-engage cohort.

 

 

Can you see the dilemma?

 

How would you handle it? What would you say to LM, the articulate and motivated young carpenter who has shown you a very real side of himself as well as music his peers would all appreciate (as well as be willing to discuss and debate with some degree of genuine interest)?

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

Always out of time as a teacher? Try bottling yourself from time to time...

 

 

 

To guide a single student through the multiple and occasionally complex procedures involved in setting up a Mahara e-Portfolio (according to the requirements I have created for our overall senior literacy course) takes something like 20-30 minutes.

 

I have approximately 50 students in the senior literacy cohort. To give them all the 1-1 attention to set up e-Portfolios would take around 20 hours.

 

Okay, admittedly there are more efficient ways of guiding groups of students through processes like this one.

 

I could, for example, work through the set up procedures on the wall screen while students watch and follow along and apply the same procedures on their own computers. Generally speaking, given the different pace of each student (for various reasons), the pausing and checking and fixing involved would probably mean something close to 1 hour to get a whole class up and running on Mahara the way I've planned for them to.

 

One hour is a lot less than 20. But given we have at least five Year 12 groups attending separate classes at separate times, the process is still going to take at least 5 hours. If all goes well and nobody is away...

 

So, depending on circumstances, let's conservatively estimate that getting 50 Year 12 students thoroughly set up on Mahara and submitting their literacy tasks there is going to involve somewhere between 5 and 20 hours of (my) overall classroom time.

 

Considering that I planned, rehearsed, recorded and uploaded a series of four screencasts demonstrating how to do this for students in a period of about 2 hours, and that every student has managed to follow and apply them (not always on the first try, but certainly by the second or third) almost fully indepedently, I have saved myself -- depending on how you calculate the alternative measures -- somewhere between 3 and 18 hours of overall classroom time.

 

If that isn't enough bottled time to impress you, consider the fact that I also use screencasts for a whole range of things from outcome overviews to practical applications and skills demonstrations, supported with a range of automated quizzes to check students' understanding... I'll do the math at some point (and perhaps, recognising my limitations as a mere English teacher, enlist the help of my Numeracy teacher colleague) but I figure that I'm firmly on track to make time something I have more of for the things that really count.

 

That's time I have been able to put back into the sorts of teaching/learning activities (getting to know learners as people, discussing and negotiating tasks, giving feedback on writing efforts, etc.) that make teachers indispensable in classroom contexts. 

 

Just as importantly, I think that 20-30 minutes each learner has gone through setting themselves up with an e-Portfolio is a crucial confirmation that they can do complex multi-layered tasks on their own at a pace they personally find manageable.

 

 

;-)

 

 

                    

VCAL Literacy and how I learned how to build a desktop computer today...

 

 

 

It's not every day you learn how to build a desktop computer from the ground up, and it's not every day you see a student sit there in front of you and write something like this out as if it is the easiest thing in the world to remember how to do (and how to explain).

 

 

 

 

I daresay this fellow has met the requirements for the Writing for Practical Purposes outcome in VCAL Senior Literacy...

 

He has uploaded this to his Mahara e-portfolio and plans to edit it a little (along with the inclusion of some instructional pics he hopes to take while out on work placement at a biggish computer store).

 

His e-portfolio has progressed to the point that we're ready to 'go public' with it, so once he's decided that's what he'd like to do I will happily link to it from this blog. This kid is quite a find, believe me.

 

 

;-)

 

                              

Exploring VCAL Writing for Self Expression

 

 

 

Of all the great things we experience as teachers, I think trying out new things and stumbling upon new revelations about what works and what doesn't would have to be right up there. In my field (literacy) with my learners ('disengaged' students aged 16-18 preparing for work in the 'hard trades' area), the challenges can be steep and the rewards quite remarkable.

 

Three weeks into a new term in a new year, I've really been enjoying VCAL Senior Literacy. The curriculum I inherited part way through the second term last year (when I commenced) ticked all of the boxes when it comes to overall VCAL cross-curricular integration, but it had been built from a teaching and teaching team perspective with very little input from (or scope for negotiation with) the actual students. The result was a constant struggle for traction on a track the learners found themselves slipping and sliding all over (if not off completely, with the muffled sound of crashing amongst trees in the wilderness), in the end made to happen/work through the painstaking building of rapport and trust with the teacher.

 

Let me just point out that these sorts of programs are not inherently poor. A lot of painstaking work and sincere effort goes into them. They occasionally feature real gems and meet audit requirements admirably. They just don't always work all that well, and sometimes--based on over reliance on and misplaced faith in design and documentation features--it is the learners who get the automatic blame if they don't perform all that well within certain parameters.

 

This year has been very different.

 

The first formal outcome listed for Senior VCAL Literacy is Writing for Self Expression. This can be a hard one to pitch to lads who are disengaged from the broader high school landscape and want to qualify themselves to become tradesmen. Builders don't generally want to 'write about me' and young plumbers and mechanics generally don't want to engage in any sort of storytelling that isn't strictly audio-visual and available on YouTube.

 

Despite those challenges, writing for self expression is actually working this year, and here's how it has gone so far...

 

 

 

1. Starting with and focussing on the outcome

 

In a move that some teachers might find themselves instinctively disagreeing with, this year I have avoided an attempt at subtle 'embedding' or 'naturalisation' of the outcome. I've approached the learners from the same perspective I find myself approaching courses I've recently done or am currently doing -- qualification stuff that doesn't always passionately interest me but has to be done if I am going to get through and advance my prospects.

 

Basically, that means explaining the outcome in formal and logical terms somewhat similar to the way it is presented and documented in the official VCAL curriculum guide. To successfully pass this outcome, you need to do a, b and c (etc.).

 

So we start with a short screencast explaining the outcome...

 

 

 

 

... which is followed up by an interactive quiz in their Moodle coursework page to check what they've understood and how they think the outcome might be applied.

 

So far so good. My learners always respond well to screencast tutorials, and they seem to appreciate having the learning requirements spelled out for them. I'm not hearing (as many) complaints about having to do tasks as part of this outcome, and this is very different from the cacophony of objections I heard last year about having to write a work journal entry or respond to an 'expressive' newspaper article nailed down and pre-embedded in the curriculum.

 

Which brings me to the next consideration...

 

 

 

2. Learner-selected topics for self expression

 

As nice as it can be to have a limited number of ready-to-use writing topics and tasks that address the outcome and help to tick off outcomes in other parts of the overall VCAL curriculum (and as convenient as it can be to look at and grade learners according to consistent topics across the whole cohort), I've done away with this completely and let the learners choose and negotiate their own topics.

 

Of course, this can result in the blank stare and despair of not having a clue what to write about, so what I have done is create an extensive list of thematically grouped writing topics which they can pick and choose from and adapt and negotiate with me. 

 

 

 

As you can see, this goes beyond a simple list of writing topic suggestions. It includes a range of suggestions covering things like titles, audience(s), purpose(s) and text types.

 

It also includes links to my own writing in response to some of these topics. Learners who really need samples to work through and emulate in terms of style and topical focus appreciate this, and I think most all of the learners appreciate the fact that the teacher is willing to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

 

So far, no complaints about not having a topic to write about (or not knowing what to write about in response to a topic), and that's a welcome change.

 

 

 

3. An emphasis on literary devices

 

Before the learners choose and write in response to topics, their Moodle course page includes an interactive tutorial about a small range of literary devices that can help make creative/expressive writing more interesting and effective. These cover, as a base, things like point of view, similes, effective use of adjectives and what I like to call 'expressive action words' (for example, saying a nailgun spat a nail into some wood, or a song roared out of the living room).

 

Extensive examples are given for each literary device, including ones from my own writing attempts (mentioned above) to help showcase them in the context of full length texts. The learners then need to create their own sentences applying each literary device via controlled practice and then an overall review incorporating them all.

 

Some of them have grumbled a bit about this, but most have had fun with it. The building and construction student who turned 'the hammer is old' into the hammer is as old as my grandpa's balls showed how creativity and vivid imagery aren't lost in/on trade students, but also sparked a useful conversation about the notions of audience, purpose and appropriacy...

 

Following first drafts I now ask students to point out the literary devices they've used. Some have had go back to the tutorial again to re-examine the devices and then make them the focus of an improved second draft. Most, however, are already using them quite readily in the first draft and can point them out to me on the page without hesitation.

 

Generally speaking, this emphasis on literary devices has resulted in far more creative and expressive writing right from the start (compared to what I saw last year).

 

 

 

4. Multiple text types and points of view

 

Given the outcome requires two or more complete writing pieces, I've asked the learners to ensure that each one applies a different text type and point of view (as in, writing 'voice' from the first, second or third person).

 

In essence, what the learners see and are expected to choose and plan their different pieces according to is:

 

 

So to meet the outcome, we need at least one of each text type, and one of each point of view.

 

To some degree the identification of text types in topic suggestions (see point 2 above) has helped the learners here, as has the emphasis and controlled practice with points of view (see point 3 above), but this has been a real revelation in terms of getting the learners to widen their writing experience and express themselves in different ways from different angles.

 

As an example, the plumbing student I have who always claims to 'HATE writing stories' found it was a bit of a different prospect to write one from the second person point of view. The challenge of writing the story 'to' a reader ended up capturing his interest and moving him away from his automatic dislike for story writing. 

 

Another student discovered how much more freedom there was in writing an 'expressive' piece from a third person point of view (rather than the first), as well as protection (he could make it not look or feel like a 'this is me' piece). A couple of other students have written some quite fascinating stories based on (or 'inside') songs and video clips, with different points of view resulting in very different effects. 

 

Some are struggling slightly with the two angles to consider, but the result has been a lot of questions and requests for confirmation in response to attempts to angle a piece of writing this way or that way -- not automatic or outright negativity.

 

I see more width and depth developing in these kids' writing (as well as overall critical thinking and empathy) based on different text types and points of view, and it makes my spirit soar. 

 

 

 

5. Published pieces of writing in an e-Portfolio

 

Last year completed writing work was printed and stuffed away into a folder. This year it gets published on the Internet in an e-Portfolio platform provided by Mahara, which allows them to integrate their writing with images and video clips.

 

First person narrative fiction...

 

 

Third person expressive/narrative based on music clip (featured alongside) 

 

 

I've written about these e-Portfolio developments elsewhere and it's a bit of an ongoing project I have going this year. Let's just say these notions of using technology and the cloud, applying multiple forms of media and actually 'publishing' finished writing are having a majorly positive impact on most of my students. 

 

 

 

So all up, VCAL Senior Literacy and Writing for Self Expression have progressed wonderfully for us so far this year.

 

More to live and learn in this process, of course, but I suspect a lot more to enjoy as well.

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

Oberon High 'Porn Teacher' to star in another Geelong classroom...

 

 

... only he won't be there in the (a-hem) flesh and the discussion will be about his actions, subsequent resignation and the rather startling relevation that the teacher who was exposed as a porn star was also a VCE Media Studies teacher.

 

You may not have heard about this (given the very wide world from which visitors pop in to visit this blog), and the snapshot is basically this: A teacher from Oberon High School in Geelong made a porn video with his girlfriend and sold it to a porn site for something like $1,500. It was discovered (presumably by one or more Oberon students) and distributed around Facebook, and in the process it was also revealed his girlfriend and co-star in the video was also his ex-student.

 

In the bonfire and subsequent investigation, the teacher resigned.

 

But this goes beyond just local news for us here at GTEC in Geelong. Oberon High School is one of our 'feeder' schools; many students move over to us to complete Year 11 and/or 12 VCAL.

 

Hence a lot of students had already seen the video on Facebook, and many of them knew the teacher personally. He was described, without exception, as a great teacher and many went so far as to say he was the best teacher at the school.

 

Of course, being 16-18 year-old boys, very soon talk about the issue descended into (a-hem) innuendo and humorous rebuke. But the issue seemed to strike a chord somewhere in many of them. This wasn't just any teacher up to no good on the Internet. This was a teacher many of them knew and respected. The general talk was that there was no way he should be forced to resign.

 

Following the interview John Walsh and his girlfriend Sarah Bradford did (see above) on Friday night, I see this as an excellent opportunity to really try to explore the issue in a mature way and knock over some of our Senior VCAL Oral Communication outcomes (especially Oracy for Self Expression and Oracy for Exploring Issues and Problem Solving).

 

Given that most of our students are preparing to become tradesmen, I was VERY intrigued by John's comment that, had he been a plumber, there wouldn't have been any issue. The message there is almost one of: unless you belong to a white collar profession, acting however you like on the Internet isn't going to affect you or your business. Let's see what they make of that...

 

Below you can see the scaffolding worksheet I have put together to help my Year 12 students prepare for the discussion:

 

 

 

Download GTEC VCAL Senior Oral Communication - Oracy for Self Expression and EIPS

 

We'll (a-hem) video record the classroom discussion, so that I can go back through it later and apply the outcome assessment elements, as per the form here:

 

 

 

Download GTEC VCAL Oral Communication Assessment Form 1-4

 

From there, we might see how the whole topic could be extended into reading and writing outcomes as well.

 

I'm looking forward to this, because it's not often you get a truly local issue as big as this... one that is guaranteed to get your students interested and talking. Given we are also embarking on Mahara e-Portfolios with their embedded social media elements, I think the whole privacy and the Internet issue, digital footprints, etc. will be really engaging to explore.

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

GTEC Mahara e-Portfolio Showcase 1

 

 

 

In a recent post (E-Portfolios Away!) I demonstrated the initial building process for our VCAL Literacy e-Portfolios using Mahara.

 

I was very excited today to see several students go beyond those templates to start submitting full writing pieces, complete with images, using the writing work file in the margin to document their draft work. It was also a joy to see them start personalising their general interface, including favourite YouTube music tracks and images that have particular meaning or appeal to them as individuals.

 

Here's a small showcase...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, the best thing in all of this was the buzz... the lads were seriously into it. Students still engaged in their draft work were glancing over at the Mahara portfolio pages appearing and getting into their work with renewed vigour in order to get them up to this 'publishing' stage.

 

This is SOOOO different from literacy work that appears as printed out pages of text to be filed away in plastic folders...

 

Disengaged students?

 

No such thing down around GTEC way.

 

 

;-)