The basic idea? Show the learners a range of example 'profiles' (students with particular backgrounds and study/career agendas) with 'portfolios' (a step-by-step explanation of how they applied the course outcomes to match their own personal, work and educational goals). Learners choose one or more of these profile+portfolios and attempt to map these activities back onto a course outcomes grid, commenting on them critically and according to their own learning preferences and agendas.
A big difference this year has been a newly upgraded version of the Profiles and Portfolios tool (embedded above), with instructional video and embedded mapping documents, applied at the very start of the course rather than mid-way through. Bear in mind that last year the Profiles and Portfolios tool was developed as the needs of my learners became more apparent as the learner-directed course progressed. This is what makes the beginning of a new academic year exciting for me as a course developer: you get to reorganise and reapply the gems you've developed along the way the year before and put them to better use with a new cohort!
By having this up and ready right from the start of the course, the results with students have been very interesting. There is some initial bewilderment and frustration with the request to skim through example portfolios of work and use a mapping document to (a) align the activity choices to formal learning outcomes and (b) think critically about the content/activity choices, but it has faded relatively quickly as students start to engage with the application. The rationale appears to make sense to them.
More importantly, the speed with which learners have launched into their own self-directed content and curriculum has been much more impressive than comparable 'uptake' the year before. The Profile and Portfolio Discovery Activity (as I loosely term it) seems to have a real impact on students' capacity to not only understand the rationale behind a learner-directed program, but get 'stuck into it' relatively quickly. In turn, the learner-directed approach has resulted in more and better work appearing from students compared to previous years with a more lock-step teacher-designated course design.
Of course, the application here emphasizes literacy (which, being more along the lines of a mode or application rather than a specifically targeted content-based training course, makes it flexible to a variety of learning priorities). But this sort of case study approach incorporating noticing, critical thinking and personalisation might be a useful technique to consider in any course where a learner-directed portfolio is being considered as a valid and productive way to facilitate learning.
Or even just any course with a lot of complicated 'to dos'; so many learners become so bewildered and overwhelmed right at the beginning of their course, no matter how clear we attempt to make the introduction and guidelines. Rather than asking them to study and remember/absorb the course requirements and recommendations, a discovery approach like this one might help them build that understanding.
And the fact they built that understanding on their own could make a huge difference.
It certainly appears to be making a difference with my new learning cohort this year.
In the learning material featured below (from a Physical Education course unit) you may notice and react to two key features--ones I personally think are extremely important--the notions of interactive discovery learning and embedded language support to cater to variable levels of literacy proficiency (in what is essentially content-based learning material).
Admittedly the facilitation of both discovery learning and language support in this particular resource is (at this early stage of development) a bit simple and limited (less kind readers with deep instructional design experience might even call it a little crude and one-dimensional). Then again, being geared at about Certificate II level, it's supposed to be reasonably simple and have an approachable 'rhythm' in terms of what learners are asked to do and show.
It is interesting (to me at least) how authoring tools for what are essentially 'pre-programmed' learning resources can be applied in ways to help the learners build and document their own learning about complex concepts from initial guesses to edited reports.
This online application, created in Articulate Storyline, was adapted from a more traditional paper + powerpoint resource at the request of the colleague who authored the core (content) material.
It was already set up as a limited 'discovery learning' activity, with learners looking at a table with three columns. The first column listed nine key aspects of fitness. The learners were asked to complete the second column (alongside each key aspect/term) with their initial guesses as to what they meant. They then watched a simple powerpoint presentation in class (or accessed it in self-paced mode from their Moodle course page) and wrote down the more formal/technical definitions for each term alongside their own initial guesses.
The online version applies this as well, with some important variations.
First, it begins with a visual guessing activity where the learners make as many attempts as they need to apply the nine fitness terms to appropriate pictures. I often like to start with something that is visual, guessing/trial and error, (inter)active and 'failproof.' Get the learners seeing things, doing things and experiencing simple success right from the outset.
Secondly, I thought there was too much pressure in terms of the request to 'punt' and then compare that punt to a very technical definition. I was also somewhat worried that learners might initially develop a 'relevance' resistance factor. So I built in some 'help' explanations to take the potential sting out of what the learners were being asked to do, and two more layers: (1) a chance for the learners to edit and improve their own definitions for the terms, and (2) a challenge to think about how the various fitness aspects could be relevant to their own work/work roles.
Third, there was the challenge of the technical definitions being not only miles away from learners' initial guesses, but also potentially intimidating based on the level of language used. From the language and literacy angle, rather than just 'dumbing it all down', I felt that--on the condition that the language was adequately explained and supported--this could be a chance to extend and consolidate language and literacy. Hence mouseover functionality was applied to difficult words to trigger simple definitions and explanations, drag-and-drop activities were added to reinforce those words and their meanings, and a help prompt added to the edit/improve layer to remind them yet again of those complex words (and to encourage the learners to try and use them).
So exploring ways to cater to variations in language and literacy proficiency or confidence was a priority, with the important condition that those who need it can access help and scaffolding, while those who don't can basically 'get on with the job.' There was also some deliberate restraint: despite all the different language and literacy highlights and interactive activities possible, it was important to keep things reasonably quick and short. Leading the learners into a forest of literacy with/after every slide could not only cause them to lose all sight of the fitness aspects, but also erode their willingness (or belief in their ability) to try and complete the overall resource.
Finally, I wanted more in the way of overall consolidation to show the learners their own work and development. A 'Learning Stage' summary was added after work was completed with groups of three fitness aspects. This summary lists the learners' own input in a sort of report documenting initial guesses, edited/improved explanations and their thoughts about how that particular aspect of fitness applies to real working life. This in turn becomes excellent outlining/drafting material for a follow up written report.
So there you have it: some simple content and activities to address basic applications of discovery learning and language/literacy support and/or development. If you haven't already done so, you might like to work through the sample embedded above and look for some of those features in the learning material.
There's also a YouTube video about somewhere (at the time of writing, currently lost in the lands of uploading and processing) which demonstrates how I built out this particular resource and what I was thinking with each stage/tool. If you're interested, leave me a comment and I'll come back to the post later and embed that particular screencast.
I had a bit of a two-step epiphany recently as I was developing and experimenting with an online resource for a Year 12 literacy course, with emphasis on composition.
Putting Articulate Storyline through its paces, I found that I was able to set up a series of text input boxes (small ones, lined up next to separate parts of a video documentary) that sent any of the information the learners typed in individual text entries to a single slide that put all the entries into order in one text.
So, in other words, the learners could type six separate summaries as they worked through the six parts of the documentary, and this would all end up as the six paragraph body of a report text. They could then enter an introduction and a conclusion and this would also automatically adjust the combined overall text.
This is potentially very useful for the sort of cohort I teach. Ask them to write a page and they'll either give up on the spot or rebel.
Ask them to complete a smallish textbox (of about average paragraph size) and they're much more likely to give it a shot. With a task broken down into stages like this, they are both much more amenable to working through it and also pleasantly surprised to see a final result with multiple paragraphs and, overall, a significant amount of writing they wouldn't initially have believed themselves capable of.
So that's all good, except for one small problem: editing the final combined piece of writing.
I couldn't combine the input texts into another input text box (which would have allowed the learners to work with the combined text and send it along to another combined summary box). I also couldn't get all this input text into a summary text that could be copied and pasted (for example, to a MS Word document - where it could then be edited). And in a sort of 'three strikes and you're out' sort of way, I couldn't get the input text sections to drop into a quiz or survey essay box, from where they could then be submitted with one click into the LMS for a teacher to check and respond to.
No, if I wanted the learners to edit their overall composition in a format that could actually be submitted, it was going to have to be retyped from start to finish.
RETYPED?
I could almost hear the gasps of shock and dismay. Why on earth, given the wonders of modern technology, would you create a writing 'tool' which forced learners to completely retype something, when clearly with all the common programs out there you should be capable of simply clicking in and just editing the parts that need it?
That's when it hit me.
I remembered what I and everyone I went to school with had to do. Writing was pen and paper. You wrote out an essay, and generally it got feedback from a teacher. You would then re-write the whole essay as a second draft. And then possibly a whole third/final draft - or even more than that, if it was something you cared about doing well.
We certainly never had the option of just writing over the indicated mistakes with whiteout and a quick flourish of the pen (essentially the pen and parchment days equivalent of what something like a modern word processing program does).
Now I'll admit this process of re-writing whole essays multiple times had a negative impact on certain kinds of students when it came to motivation to write. The feeling of heaviness (associated with having to come up with a long essay) combined with the common 'where/how in heck do I start?' reaction didn't do wonders for some student's confidence and willingness to engage in a writing task.
But it also ensured that--with good teaching to help overcome the outlining and getting started gremlins--all writers, from poor through to outstanding, became better writers. You were careful about what you wrote, mindful of mistakes (perhaps thinking out your full sentences in advance before you wrote them down). You paid attention to feedback--at sentence, paragraph and whole text level--as you wrote out your second draft, and usually found a few others things you wanted to change based on thinking your way through the whole idea a second time around. The good paragraphs and sentences were retained and written again, solidifying them in your writer's brain.
Overall, writing something out from start to finish multiple times was what helped us become better and better at this whole writing and thinking gig.
Current learners don't want this, feel they don't need it and (increasingly) are never asked to go anywhere near such a process. Just type your essay out once and simply edit the words or sentences pointed out to you as being problematic. You probably won't even have to think about the whole text anymore--just the little parts of it that require corrections.
It is certainly convenient. Some would even say it is important for learner 'motivation.'
Perhaps because, in today's world, written communication is predominantly tiny fragments in the form of text messages or fashionably imperfect Facebook or microblog comments of 1-5 lines (lines according to Facebook's feed column width, anyway)? And that's the real world and all the real world really needs from them now and in future, right?
Unfortunately, given the bleak levels of overall literacy I see in today's teenagers, I can't help but conclude that there's no genuine convenience or motivation in reinforcing what are--overall--sub-standard literacy skills and awareness. Nothing I've seen in written Facebook interactions or text messages so far comes even remotely close to convincing me that these are the literacy skills that will suffice when it comes to producing informed and articulate members of a progressive, patient and thoughtful society.
So many teenagers can't think or reason beyond a short paragraph anymore. It becomes too tiring or boring for them. Literacy and things like essays are only a symptom here of a broader malady. If you want a full scale topic, it will need to be a movie (or at least something in video format), because a written story or article will exhaust them too easily. If you want their attention or critical thinking for anything beyond 20 minutes, it had damn well better be visual and entertaining. Until all of the classic texts and stories come out as movie adaptations or comic e-books, then they couldn't possibly be relevant or useful...
So as a modern day literacy teacher, I have to admit this represents a quandary for me.
I know what they want/prefer and I do want them to feel capable and motivated. I also know that this current state of reading/writing is seriously dumbing them down and/or out. And I know the processes that helped my generation become at least reasonably literate across a larger percentage of the student population.
Perhaps a compromise could be forged here: I'll work the technology in a way that helps you build up larger compositions without the process feeling so heavy and impossible at the start. Then you'll retype a full second draft with changes and edits because I bloody well know that this is a process that helps you become a better and more capable writer over time.
Funnily enough, the bizarre epiphany here on my part was that it was a 'failure' in the technology to complete a process of convenience (the text boxes gathering into new text input boxes that can be edited, copied/pasted or directly submitted) that opened my eyes to something important I feel the learners are seriously missing out on.
And being convenient certainly doesn't automatically correlate to being conducive.
Or am I just be(com)ing unreasonable and old-fashioned?
Click here to see these posters in higher resolution
As you can see from the images, I've just completed first drafts of a range of text types I need to address as part of the Applied Learning program I deliver to Year 11 and 12 students. I'm not entirely satisfied with their accuracy or usefulness just yet, but they're a start (in the usual process that begins in late November to prepare curriculum and materials for the following year's enrolment).
It's been an interesting exercise, because as part of delivering the Literacy component of VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) the learners are required to address four broad domains with specific text types within each. These are:
Writing for Self Expression: Write a recount, narrative or expressive text
Writing for Practical Purposes: Write an instructional or transactional text
Writing for Knowledge: Write a report, explanatory or expository text
Writing for Public Debate: Write a persuasive, discursive or argumentative text
In all honesty, most of those text types come across as complete gobbledygook to not only my students, but many other teachers as well. It's not helped by the fact that there isn't exactly complete agreement across educators and education systems as to what each of those text types calls for.
Consider the Writing for Knowledge text types by way of example. Depending on whom you ask, a report, explanatory or expository text is basically defined and presented the same way: as an expository text. But just for some added confusion, it appears now in at least some parts of the officialdom of British and Australian education systems that an expository text is all about arguing a position.
Given we already have the persuasive, discursive and argumentative text types in Writing for Public Debate, we have a choice in the Knowledge domain to either stick to expository being essentially about information/explanation/description or making it about argument/debate strictly in relation to knowledge-based topics. I'm inclined to stick to the informative/explanatory application - that's what I was brought up to believe expository writing was about.
I'm also not satisfied with the bare bones interpretation of what a report should be about. Most guides present it in the same way explanatory texts are laid out, and it's pretty darned dry and boring. I've interpreted it the way I think reports helped me as a high school student: actually reporting something based on what I've been reading, learning, experiencing and thinking.
I'm still mulling over my own interpretations and recommendations, but it's clear that if writers and writing teachers can't quite agree on what the different text types are (and what they require), what chance do students have of getting it right?
I'm sticking to the notion of Applied Learning and focussing on how the texts can actually facilitate, describe and supplement students' learning experiences. If that means I am incorrectly interpreting some text types in the eyes of certain literacy experts, I'm willing to take it to the judge and hope its defensible!
"Here's your essay topic (that SOMEBODY ELSE decided was yours)."
For so many learners around the world, this is what English/Literacy courses are like. Pre-loaded.
When you get an opportunity to use an Applied Literacy program (as I have), with broad learning goals ready for rich contextualisation and personalisation, at a level that designates Year 12 as being a time for independence and leadership to emerge in one's learning, it can feel incredibly liberating. Learners themselves can choose what to read and what to write about.
Unfortunately, morbidly mesmerised by the English classes they've had for the preceding eleven or twelve years, this liberation can be a bit daunting for learners. Many of them have never really liked the food on their literacy platter, but have become very accustomed to having it served up to them. Taking them from the line up at a school lunch hall to a lounge with a BYO-style smorgasbord can be hard for them to swallow.
I've blogged in the past about this issue of the learner-directed literacy program (The difference between a syllabus and a silly bus?), and also the issue of utilising alternative methods of assessment to help in avoiding the burn after reading reaction, and some months on I have to admit the more emergent, learner-directed literacy approach is paying off very nicely.
However, for many learners, the whole notion of their own, self-directed literacy program can still be complicated, if not daunting.
Grasping the formal outcomes is one complication, but what I'm starting to find is that learners lack models and contexts to really get a grip on how they might make their own literacy program work for them.
To that end, I've come up with an interactive set of literacy profiles and portfolios, featuring learners of different genders, interests and trade/career goals:
I used this with my Year 12 classes last week. They skimmed through the portfolios and completed a worksheet grid featuring all the formal outcomes, the actual context/task applied by each of the different profile students, and then drew arrows and bubbles to show how various outcomes had been combined or linked up via topical or situational 'sets.'
I was frankly surprised how well it worked. The learners really dug into it and looking at their completed grids and connections it was clear this made for a powerful discovery/noticing activity. Classroom discussion hints that the learners now grasp what this independent/applied approach to literacy is about a lot more clearly, and are more ready to give it a shot themselves based on the the contexts and samples they've analyzed.
This was an interesting resource to research and develop. It presents two different versions of the same core song - Beds are Burning; the recent version produced as part of the Tck Tck Tck Campaign to promote awareness of climate change in the lead up to the Copenhagen Summit, and the original version from the band Midnight Oil, which was inspired by the Pintupi tribe and their move in from and then back out to the isolation of Australia's Western Desert.
Two very different 'causes', and it is interesting to look at how the lyrics are different for each version according to their purpose.
To best showcase this, I've built a webpage featuring both music videos and the lyrics for each in a scroll box beneath, side by side for easy comparison. In addition, for each version I've added a series of key words and links to graded (or gradable) texts on Google Search that explore a variety of issues or topics relevant to each rendition of the Beds are Burning song.
For ESL application, just listening to and comparing the lyrics can be a really interesting exercise. The main ideas and 'roots' in each set of lyrics make for clear comparisons, but at phrase level there are also some great opportunities to explore language (for example to take a stand versus to say fair's fair, or turning back versus give it back).
These texts are also well set up for Certificate III in ESL (Access) and the following element/performance criteria:
Unit C24 (VPAU505): Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts.
Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts
Performance Criteria 1.1: Scan informational text and identify the context and topic
Performance Criteria 1.2: Identify the main ideas or issues
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or examples
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify conventions of informational texts
Performance Criteria 1.5: Analyse the structure and discourse features of the texts
Performance Criteria 1.6:Respond to the text, outlining any opinions expressed, and state own opinion about the topic
Learners could be encouraged to tackle both texts as part of this outcome, or the one that interests them most. Alternatively, they could follow the links featured alongside each set of lyrics and source their own reading text on a more specific topic (anything from climate change to The Pintupi Nine). This is a great way to marry extensive reading with some basic tech skills oriented around particular themes.
Besides reading, there are plenty of opportunities to have classroom discussions or negotiate writing topics feeding out of the content available on the web page.
One or more of the texts available through this resource could also build towards any of a number of ESL Framework Elective Units (for example, Current Issues, Indigenous Australia, Environment of Australia, Australian History, etc.)
See more of this these sorts of resources over at the English Oz section of this blog.
The lucky country. Bright weather, bright people, bright future.
Those were the messages that were consistently drummed into me as a young person growing up on this island continent. But as Iva Davies would tell you, it can also be a prisoner island hidden in the summer for a million years.
For all its brightness, this is a country with a shadow; and nowhere is that shadow more evident in the geographical and spiritual red centre of things, in a town called Alice.
The English Oz materials and activities on this page represent a collection of learning resources that can hopefully bring this issue to the ESL classroom. You can cherry pick from them as you please, or tie some or all of them together to create a larger ongoing project. Generally speaking the resources are selected and sequenced in a logical way that helps explore what is a very complex issue via a series of interlocked steps.
The first three resources target listening skills and align well with Certificate III in ESL (Access) unit VPAU503 (Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructional and informational texts) - in particular Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text.
The three that follow that are geared towards VPAU505 (Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts), in particular Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts.
The astute teacher will also find ways to tie in speaking and writing elements from the various units in a nicely integrated way; the opportunities to do so are there in abundance.
At the very bottom of the page you will find a resource to facilitate the ESL Elective unit VPAU560: Investigate Current Issues, with the preceding materials and activities making for a nice resource list to draw on and (again) useful opportunities to extend out into speaking and writing elements.
All the relevant performance criteria has been built into the resource sheets, and you will find both blank versions for students and a TG version with some notes to help you scaffold the learners through the activities.
Okay, let's start with a bit of a contrast, shall we? Two very different sides to a red centre coin...
1. Get ceNTred in the Red Centre
Nothing like a good tourism advertisement, is there? Present the following video to the learners and apply the activity resource that follows:
Hang on... What happened to the lovely hot air balloons? And the glasses of bubbly and sparkling stars at night? And the amazing galleries of indigenous art?
So, poor old Alice is copping it because indigenous people can't drink out on their home turf and need to head into town... So has the so-called INTERVENTION improved the situation out in the camps, and was it worth the price of applying the equivalent of apartheid?
So let's get closer to the bottom of this whole idea of interventions and race discrimination acts. The BBC are sure to be a nicely reliable outside impartial observer, surely...
A song by one of Australia's most popular bands of all time, whose lead singer eventually decided to go into politics... Spot the current Federal Minister for Education in the clip, but also look at the lyrics and take a journey into the dying soul of a fiercely proud people.
(Another good one for blending reading and listening, and your students might enjoy a song at this point if they've been wading through the texts and listenings above):
So, what's the issue exactly? What is the significance? What do your learners make of it all?
Here's where you can tie on an ESL Elective Unit incorporating current issues in Australia, bringing together the 'research' conducted above and coming up with some conclusions. The material can then become a drafting process for a writing element or an oral presentation or discussion of some sort:
As I said at the beginning of the post, lots to choose from or work through here, but there are certainly multiple opportunities to help your learners meet a plethora of their ESL outcomes through this sequence of activities.
More importantly, the dialogue about how Australia handles its indigenous people needs to continue. Goodness knows the locals (both newer and older) haven't come up with too many effective answers; perhaps the newest migrants of all might have some better suggestions...
Last week I ran some sessions with my Year 12 Applied Literacy students based around helping them design their own curriculum. It consisted of a sort of open worksheet/grid, with the broad literacy outcomes listed in one column and three open/blank columns with the headings 'My Trade', 'GTEC projects' (meaning the projects they are involved in at or as part of school), and 'Personal Interest'. From there it was just a lot of chatting as the groups negotiated with me about what sorts of material would best fit where, some note-taking on the grid, then reviewing and typing out the self-directed learning plan and uploading it on their Moodle course page.
Here is a sample self-designed literacy curriculum made by a carpentry student:
And here is one designed by a heavy (diesel) automotive student:
They only need to meet each outcome through two separate tasks, so having three is a bit of a safety measure, bearing in mind that topics we think of today may not be topics we want to do in 3-4 months' time. They can change any part of the grid they want at any time (including the column headers), except for the Literacy Outcomes one -- which we are obliged by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority to address if we plan to hand out Certificates in Applied Learning at the end of the year...
Basically, now they work to their own plan at their own pace in the order they feel most comfortable with from one lesson to the next. They find their own texts using the Internet, or texts they already have access to (magazines, Trade School books, etc.), access a range of writing and reading report templates I've created for them, and from there my job is to just facilitate (especially with regards to the generic program outcomes) and then assess.
In other words, we have 47 separate syllabuses running for Year 12 Literacy at GTEC this year, and there is nothing frightening about that at all.
Funnily enough, towards the end of the week I returned to my desk after a class and found a publisher's brochure sitting there waiting for me. I glanced through and found a Literacy Skills textbook on offer. I scanned through the archaic looking list of unit and topic items there, thought about the 47 syllabuses we'd generated that week, and couldn't help but notice that this coursebook someone was trying to sell to me and my students only had something that looked like a single silly bus.
I couldn't for the life of me see that book, or any other single book, ever making the cut for the classrooms I work with now.
Using Moodle to complete coursework isn't always a walk in the park for a lot of learners, depending on the course content, design and relative online learning experience of your students.
One way to facilitate understanding of where to go, what to do (and how) for your learners is to create a unit walk through resource for each Moodle unit/topic block. You could do this with text and images, but I've found that an audio-visual resource like a screencast gets things across in the most dynamic and effective way.
Here is an example unit walk through video I've just finished as part of a new Moodle course:
That's fine, and perhaps that's all the learners will need. We could create a link to this video at the start of the unit it applies to, perhaps supported via a direct email with the same link.
However, I've generally found it's better to go a bit further than just showing an instructional video. I feature my unit walk through as an introductory 'assignment' that learners need to complete before engaging with the main unit materials. They need to take notes about the video to help them pay more specific attention to it, and to show me just what each learner has understood about what they need to do in the unit.
This process can help answer a lot of questions or misunderstandings before learners get into their coursework, and it helps me target the students who need more specific or hands on assistance.
Here's how I do that in Moodle using the Lesson -> Essay Question function (basically, access to the unit walk through an embedded video and some prompts in 'essay mode' for the learners to take notes or ask questions in response to:
If you're curious about the screencast angle here, I've got an extensive tutorial on how to make screencastselsewhere on this blog.
Good luck with it!
;-)
All of my Moodle tutorials are available in an ongoing bank of resources featured here.
Our Year 11 Applied Learning students have completed their intensive foundation literacy course in Term 1 (mainly geared around some literacy basics and integrated with tool and workplace safety considerations) and next week many of them will commence the next (Intermediate VCAL) level.
Based on a revision of what we did with students last year, and bearing in mind we teach 16-17 year old learners preparing for trades, here's what we have in store for them...
The learners read a complex text written by a teacher, talking about a particular skill or attribute he has. The text explores where the skill might have developed from (in childhood experience), how it helps in professional life now, and how it might be developed further for different future applications.
Following a range of comprehension tasks targeting purpose, main ideas, supporting ideas and effectiveness of the text, students then compare this text with one they did themselves last term listing their own skills and attributes (with the comparison being more about how the texts are organised and presented).
Students then write their own 'in the know' texts, talking about a particular skill or attribute of their own.
The learners work their way through an assignment that helps them identify all sorts of important information about their given trade and regulations governing apprenticeships. It features everything from trade-specific union details to government regulations and minimum wages for different years of an apprenticeship.
Based on what they find and read, the learners compile a detailed report to present the important information.
The learners read an advisory/instructional text from one of the country's most popular recruitment websites explaining what should go into resumes for school leavers. After demonstrating a comprehension of the text, they compare it to an actual resume made for an apprentice electrician and see how and where the resume applies the specific advice from the article.
Of course, from there the learners go ahead and create their own work resume.
The learners read two very different texts that both present information about they key (pun intended) tools for locksmithing. They complete comprehension questions and a detailed comparison of the two texts (particularly in terms of which would be more useful for a beginner level locksmith apprentice).
Following that the learners create their own 'tools of the trade' texts, targeting 4-6 of the most important tools they think new apprentices need to know about for their own trades and emulating the more informative of the two texts they read about locksmithing tools.
The learners read two different texts explaining how to do or build something. They demonstrate comprehension of both texts and compare them in detail, commenting on their effectiveness.
Based on the text they found to be clearest or most useful, the students then create their own how to texts, based on a process or outcome common to their personal interest or work experience to date.
The learners compose work journals based on a period of work placement, integrated with material they already put together for their Work Related Skills modules.
Following this they then look at two fellow students' work journals and complete some comprehension and comparison/effectiveness notes. This, in addition to comprising reading comprehension outcomes, becomes a feedback process for students to adapt and improve their own initial work journal drafts.
The learners read an extensive comment made on a forum about the topic of bullying apprentices at work (in this case an older experienced tradesperson reflecting on his own experiences and lambasting some of the comments from younger people on the forum claiming that bullying is just fun and games). They then compare this with a recent report on a news website explaining new laws and punishments for workplace bullying in the wake of the suicide of a young person who was bullied mercilessly at work.
Based on what they have read and explored, the learners are asked to respond to the question: Should workplace bullies be sent to jail? They have the option of completing an argumentative or discursive piece on the topic.
Students read a text from a newspaper about the issue of Lewis Hamilton being fined for 'hooning' and having his car impounded while in Melbourne for the Grand Prix a couple of years ago. In the same article, Mark Webber is quoted as saying that his own state (Victoria) has become a 'nanny state'.
This text is explored and compared to two other texts: one about a journalist who lost his own brother at a young age from a road accident (in response to Mark Webber's comment and quoting all sorts of statistics based on Victoria's TAC campaigns), and an obituary article written by our school's own principal following the horrific road accident death of one of our own students (weeks after he obtained his license) a couple of years ago.
Based on these readings, learners are then invited to respond to the question: Do we in fact live in a 'nanny state' in Victoria, when it comes to road rules?
All of this material is facilitated through our Moodle LMS, with both in-class and distance mode options available. And of course, in support of the 'emergent' curriculum, learners are free to replace any or all of these units with ones of their own design -- so long as they can show that they are meeting the VCAL Literacy outcomes at Intermediate level.
Later I'll present Part 2 of this applied literacy curriculum business and try to demonstrate how we do things at Year 12 level. Very different!
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)?
My Year 12 students are moving along to this outcome now in their VCAL Senior Literacy coursework, and I thought I would share the outcome overview video I have prepared for them as part of their Moodle course.
Based on the video, my students need to prepare a detailed report explaining, in a logical and concise way, what writing for practical purposes involves.
Sort of like writing about writing for practical purposes, for practical purposes...
One of the great things about being a literacy teacher in a vocational/applied learning program is the regular opportunity to integrate literacy tasks with real world applications, but also to use literacy to reinforce knowledge or awareness about important considerations students really need take on board.
The example above shows how we have taken our students' Practical Placement Invoice Book -- a really crucial piece of documentation for our students' workplace experience blocks -- and reinforced students' awareness of it via an applied literacy task.
Leesa, our eminently talented ILO (Industry Liaison Officer), made good use of our GTEC team PD sessions last December (on how to make screencasts) to produce this very clear and professional screencast demonstrating how to complete the practical placement invoices and why various sections were really important:
[Note: Personal details in the screencast version of the form are purely fictional examples!]
This follows up from in-class demonstrations and instructions and one-on-one checking and follow up, but the aural as well as visual approach is really important in making crucial information accessible to the students in our particular cohort. And yet, there are still many individuals who forget things or don't pay attention when they really should...
... which is why a literacy task applying the video and asking students to write an email to a classmate explaining all the ins and outs of the invoice book can be just the ticket to check and make sure every student has really been paying attention.
Literacy gets a VCAL Foundation Writing for Practical Purposes outcome task out of it, learners get a real world application, and Leesa gets some reassurance that students are actually watching the video and paying attention to it.
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.
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.
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...
After one of the most pleasant breaks I can recall, and then a deliciously frantic couple of weeks mastering a new online delivery system alongside all the content I needed to gather together, tomorrow morning I finally get to meet a new cohort of 60-70 applied learning Year 11 students... and welcome back a similar number of Year 12 students from last year.
The eve of a new school term always intrigues me. Non-instuction periods can often feel great in terms of having the time to really think your way through and around your course offerings, but it never really feels quite right. Over the years I've come to realise that, without the learners in the building and in contact with you from day to day, it's never quite possible to capture the pulse of what is likely to work well and why.
I mean, we can do our very best to be professional and prepared. Like this (the introduction to one of my courses, followed up with a quiz to see how much of it has been absorbed and then a needs analysis activity):
However, in my final checklist of what I needed to have ready and waiting for the first day back at school tomorrow (today, actually, as I write this post), I ended up visualising the seat of a pair of pants.
"Those'll need some wings," I thought to myself.
Then, finally, I felt prepared.
Ready.
Excited about all the things Idon't know about the term ahead... Yet.
In a couple of previous posts (Part 1 here and Part 2 here) I looked at the rationales for blogging with students and what sorts of platforms I was considering.
In the end what I've decided to go with is Mahara, which includes a basic blogging platform but incorporates it into a range of features to build a full, highly logical and engaging e-Portfolio tool.
I think Mahara has enormous potential and given we have automatic access to it at our institute via our Moodle set up, I'm ready to give it a red hot go with our Year 12 cohort. As part of my preparations for the new school year I've gone into Mahara and made my own portfolio to really test it out, see what's possible and what could be potentially complicated or easy for my students.
The following screencasts have been put together to help get my students started with this e-Portfolio tool. Although they are obviously course and context-specific, if you're wondering what Mahara is and how it can be set up then these peeks might help to give you a better idea...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 1
How to access the tool, set up a basic profile and get some file folders in order...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 2
How to get a specific portfolio (or 'View' using the Mahara vernacular) set up...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 3
How to select, store and apply images for some basic decoration...
GTEC Mahara Set Up Tutorial 4
How to 'show' the e-Portfolio by connecting with other users (teachers and classmates, etc.)...
GTEC Mahara Application 1
How to upload written work into a Mahara e-Portfolio in a way that captures final drafts as blog posts but also attaches a full file of all drafting work...
This is all for one subject (VCAL Senior Literacy) and Mahara allows for different Views/Portfolios for things like multiple subjects. It will be intriguing to see whether students and teachers go for it and add other portfolios for other subjects, and from there I will be interested to see how an e-Portfolio of this nature could be useful for things like job applications.
Funds of knowledge refers to those historically developed and accumulated strategies (e.g., skills, abilities, ideas, practices) or bodies of knowledge that are essential to a household's functioning and well-being (for details, see Greenberg, 1989; Veléz-IbáÑez & Greenberg, 1992; Moll, 2000).
Contemplating and preparing for 'funds of knowledge' can be an excellent way to start your planning for a new school term. Without knowing what the students already know or can potentially know (and teach us and others) based on their home, family and community contexts, how can we really have an effective plan?
Try googling 'Funds of Knowledge.' Everything I found on the front couple of pages there of search was interesting, appealing and helpful.
Realistically, not many of us have the time to go out and 'research' our students and their families in their homes and communities. Some might not even find that prospect appealing, for potentially valid reasons. However, it IS possible to draw on funds of knowledge to a greater or lesser extent through the curriculum itself.
With my new batch of Year 11 students this year, one of the first things I have to 'knock over' is a set of foundation literacy skills in combination with some basic OH&S priorities. This could, in fact, get done pretty quickly by just throwing the ready to roll OH&S documents, videos and worksheets at the learners.
What I have done is expand this considerably by beginning first with a series of FoK activities. Learners will be invited to talk and write about accidents and injuries they've witnessed in their homes and communities. How did these incidents happen and how did people handle them? They will identify and explain a variety of things they know how to do -- especially with tools, basic or complex -- and how they've learned to do them safely.
Using that as the nucleus, we'll expand out to look at what they need to know about workshop and tools safety. Hopefully they'll have the beginnings of some awareness, that they already know more than they or our program might haven initially given them initial credit for, but there is also more to learn (and it is important to learn).
When I was a language teacher, this sort of thing generally got labelled 'schemata' or 'schema activation.' However, funds of knowledge is a more robust and pragmatic way of looking at it, methinks.
Does funds of knowledge feature in your initial planning for coursework in 2012?
In my first post based around the idea of getting students to blog, I explored the important question of Why? Following that, and assuming we've come to the conclusion that there are some strong rationales for using blogs with high school literacy coursework, the next important questions become Where? and How?
As in: we've decided blogging can be a great thing for learning outcomes, but where and how are they going to do that?
And of those, I have to admit I think that Tumblr would be the one that would appeal the most to my 16 and 17-year-old students. If fact, I've already heard some students talking about finding things on Tumblr, so perhaps there is already a link there. Posterous would have been an equal favourite, but their recent transition to something called Posterous Spaces does, I think, cloud their offering with a bit too much information and the potential for confusion or overload.
In the end, however, I realised that the best person to evaluate and eventually choose the blogging platform for each student will be the student him/herself. In fact, this becomes a very useful way of making the blog platform selection a learning task in itself.
So basically, I think I will start by presenting the four free blogging tools above as initial options, give my own opinions about each, and then give the students an assignment to choose their own blogging platform (they may, of course, go outside the selections I've introduced) with some rationales for their choices.
Before my kids even blog, there are chances to make blog platform selection an active part of the Literacy and Oral Communications outcomes in our VCAL curriculum.
Thanks to the very useful tutorial here, I learned how to embed YouTube videos directly into Microsoft Word documents. Gosh, what a great tool to have at your disposal.
In the example above (an application for a rather prestigious award one of my VCAL students asked me to help him out with), I was able to start his application with two videos covering a major project he accomplished. The first video shows him discussing his CAD drawings and rationalising his design alongside the first couple of planks of wood he'd prepared. The second video, from about six months later, shows his completed project in full action.
Given that his application is due to be submitted in Word format electronically, the first thing the judges are going to see is the applicant presenting himself in the flesh and a completed project from initial design to finished (and very functional) product.
I'm going to take this a few steps further next year. As we help our VCAL students prepare resume documents for apprenticeship and job applications, we'll be inserting two videos along the same lines as above. I think it's important in a CV (for a young person in particular) to show a bit of a quick journey and demonstrate their capacity to grow, learn and achieve.
This adds so much more texture and context to the rather bland document that a CV usually represents. It creates a real 'point of difference'; I mean, out of a stack of 50 electronically submitted resumes, tell me you're not going to remember the one that included quick videos of the applicant actually doing stuff and presenting themselves in person?
We can do this with PDF documents as well, but in that case the video file needs to be embedded lock step and barrel and it inevitably adds a huge amount of weight to the original PDF file size. The beauty with the YouTube-in-Word format is that it's basically just an in-built i-frame linking to the hosted video on YouTube.
Given I have a lot of teachers reading this blog, I think it's also something to think about adding to your Teaching CV as well. How about a quick self introduction, and/or a screencast of some of your materials and/or a video of you in action in a real classroom setting?
Create a point of difference. Be different by showing more of yourself in more of the real world.
In any case, I'm looking forward to applying this as a curricular tool with my students next year. I'll update you here later when I get some idea on how well it works in attracting prospective employers!
One of my more ambitious and exciting projects for the 2012 school year will be to get my VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) teenage students blogging.
I would have started it this year, but I commenced my teaching role roughly mid-way through the year and it would have made integration of blogs into the curriculum somewhat messy. More importantly, I needed to develop appropriate relationships of respect and trust with the students before floating the idea of blogging with them. The response was very positive and I think I have the all-important green light from them along with the break between academic years to get it organised and set up properly.
At this very early stage, it feels important to establish a solid rationale for making blogging part of the Literacy curriculum. "Everyone blogs" just doesn't cut it (and it's obviously not true anyway: out of 100 VCAL students I informally surveyed this year, only one of them had and maintained a blog). The blogging rationale is crucial, I think, in selling the idea to all the different stakeholders in our VCAL endeavour: school, teachers, students, parents and prospective employers.
So here, in no particular order of priority, is why I'm really hopeful I can get my VCAL students blogging next year.
1. Blogging facilitates many aspects of the VCAL curriculum
There are eight specific outcomes involved in the Literacy part of VCAL alone, and of them things like Writing for Self Expression and Writing for Public Debate are almost taylor-made for delivery via personal blogs. Quality posts can also facilitate the mirror outcomes of Reading for Self Expression and Reading for Public Debate.
But it could, depending on the commitment and interest of the student, reach much further across the outcomes than that. Reading/Writing for Practical Purposes and Reading/Writing for Knowledge can also be catered to via appropriately planned and delivered blog posts.
Also, it needn't be limited to just Literacy. I see a lot of potential for blog posts to cater to VCAL's WRS (Work-Related Skills) and PDS (Personal Development Skills) units. Via audio and video postings (or just through discussion and response in class to various blog posts), we can also incorporate Oral Communication unit outcomes.
Unsurprisingly (remembering that blogging is about a platform and a mode), the composition and maintenance of a blog is potentially nothing short of a curricular winner, and I think it has the power to cater to pretty much any curriculum model out there.
2. Blogging encapsulates the notions of purpose, audience and public expression
My students are very capable consumers of Internet and Social Media, but not necessarily all that savvy in the way they use and contribute to these media. I see what they post on things like Facebook and how they respond to each other and, while respecting this mode of communication amongst their peers, I quite frankly blanch at times and realise that they are missing out on -- at a relatively crucial age -- some very important social skills which could very well become important in their adult lives.
Having them think about, plan, draft and produce for a potentially public audience represents a very important opportunity to rethink the way they communicate and express themselves.
Beyond that, I think blogging is a unique opportunity to escape the audience of 1.8 (the writer him/herself and the teacher checking and responding to the writing). Not all of my students write well, but almost all of them have incredibly interesting things to say. It feels like such a waste for such textured and unique expression to live on paper that is very briefly read by an instructor and then filed away into oblivion. There is a potentially massive audience of peers who can benefit from and add to the issues and experiences my students are capable of expressing, but they are shut out if I continue to facilitate yesteryear's closed-shop approach to Literacy.
I think blogging can change that.
3. Blogging represents a chance to create a positive digital footprint
This is somewhat related to (2) above, but in this case I don't so much see blogging as a tool to rectify poor judgment on Facebook as a chance to (a) connect with other people based on mutual interests and (b) create a really positive stream of evidence that could become useful for future work opportunities. When you consider the weight given to blog posts in search engine listings, this digital footprint can become very rich in potential.
Looking at (a) first, if my students use their blogs to explore their personal interests (and these vary hugely) I think it becomes a great way to find others beyond their immediate location who like similar things. Relationships and recognition beyond the 'home town' can mean a lot to young people, especially if the situation in the home town isn't always all that rosy.
And as for (b), well I'm assuming that many of my students will be open to the idea of blogging about their trade education and work experience. If they can learn to be expressive but savvy about the way they portray and discuss this, the blog could make for a useful inclusion on a resume (or a useful thing to pop up when a prospective employer does an online search about them).
There are some risks here, as well, but I think learning about and managing risk is an essential part of progressing through teenagedom. My learners will have a mentor and a guide (me!) with their first forays into blogging, and I think that counts for a lot.
4. Blogging can showcase talents that lead to alternative opportunities
One of the biggest disadvantages of almost all education systems is that, to a greater or lesser extent, many young people become pigeonholed at a relatively early stage based on apparent skills and proficiencies (and bits of paper to prove them).
I have students who have really unique talents that would never make it anywhere near (or beyond) the qualification papers they currently have access to. This year I had a plumbing student who also turns out to be quite a brilliant amateur photographer with a targeted interest in cars. I had an automotive student who is an absolute gun online gamer, and a carpentry student who -- beneath all the gruff and bluff associated with his trade -- is one of the most eloquent writers I've ever come across in my teaching adventures around the world.
I think blogging can become an excellent way to encourage these extra talents to float up closer to the surface of things. They might even facilitate extra avenues to income, whether it is via being 'noticed' or just through advertising and promotions connected to future blogging activity itself.
5. Blogging can turn my students into trailblazers
Most of my students are involved in the 'hard' trades. They're school-based apprentices, or looking to get an apprenticeship.
I did some extensive searching this year, looking for blog posts written by and/or for teenage apprentices and it turned out to be rather futile. Searching even for just general teenager blogs can result in a very mixed and limited bag.
So perhaps my students can become relative pioneers in this space. If they blog about their trade education and experiences, the skills they are picking up, the transition from school to work life, etc., then perhaps they can start creating the content that future applied learning students will be able to access and benefit from.
And perhaps, just perhaps, this will motivate my students with another sense of purpose and worth.
Those are five of the areas that appeal to me most at the moment as I contemplate the hows and whys of blogging with teenage students. In your opinion and experience, have I missed anything? What else can blogging potentially bring to my students? In my enthusiasm and drive, am I overlooking any major caveats or risks?
Worried about having to pay for access to all the Englishraven.com resources for teaching English to young learners and teenagers?
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
2012 is going to be a year of changes and new directions for English Raven, and pay-for access to the (3000+) resources created and gathered over the past decade isn't part of the plan.
So if you teach English to children and/or teenagers, I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year, and draw your attention to the new Open Access Downloads Page where a rather large sack of teaching gifts awaits you.
The only things I ask in return are:
1. You pass the gifts along to other teachers you know as well!
2. You respect my authorship and rights to the material and don't go uploading it on your site or blog without my permission, and (heaven forbid...) don't go trying to pass it off as your own work.
Enjoy, and see you about in 2012 for some exciting new adventures!
I've decided that I'm not comfortable charging for access to these resources (and there are a good many of them, built up over several years). It can be depressing making all of your online teaching income based around a loathsome English test, and it has always irked me that the people needing that test result are often some of the most disadvantaged people in the world.
The eighth instalment in the Teaching Materials Design Masterclass Series really throws the gauntlet down and showcases a rather long list of design skills integrated with content writing and presentation considerations.
At close to an hour in length, it is not for the faint-hearted... But for those blog visitors who have been following the Masterclass series so far and have a genuine passion for professional materials design I think there is nice full spread meal to chew on here.
Here's the final product of the tutorial in terms of the materials themselves:
And here are the hows and whys in terms of building and design:
If this all feels a bit too much for you at this stage, you might like to check out some of the earlier (and shorter and simpler) tutorials in the series at the link here.
Oh, and I've just noticed that this year's Edublog Awards have opened for nominations (hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge).
I've just deleted a rather lengthy post on this topic with the expectation the depth and length would turn blog visitors off reading it properly and responding to the central issues explored.
So I'll put it to you as a simple notion instead...
Do you think texts written by students are potentially legitimate sources of reading skills outcomes for the other students in the class or -- by extension -- any other learners of the same age and/or level in a variety of other contexts?
In other words: is it possible or even desirable to use the texts our students write as actual reading texts for peers?
This is a question that has been brewing in me for almost a decade, and has come to a sort of head over the past six months in particular.
The sixth instalment in the Open Source English series goes with the theme of 'For Rent'. While the grid presented here is precisely the same as that featured in instalment five ('Time Flies'), in this case I explain how to use it for a chain story application, one of my favourite collaborative and interactive writing activities.
GTEC Catapult Day, October 2011. Aden prepares his unique trebuchet for action...
I work in a teaching and learning environment which is special in all sorts of ways, but probably the most special thing of all about it is what our 17 and 18-year-old (so-called 'disengaged learners') manage to achieve.
Let me tell and show a little story about a student named Aden Nadoh, one of our GTEC Year 12 VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) Building and Construction students...
Let's start with a quick interview I did with Aden in June, as part of the Oral Communication section of his curriculum (Outcome: Oracy for Practical Purposes), when he was just getting into the workshop to actually start building the catapult he'd finished designing through meticulous work with CAD (Computer Assisted Design):
There were all sorts of other tasks integrated into this project across several subjects. In the Literacy strand (for example), the students needed to complete design briefs, essays about the history of various catapult designs, assembly instructions, safe operating procedures and evaluations, etc.
Anyway, back to the story...
Five months later, I watched Aden testing out his finished catapult in the school courtyard (with adequate safety precautions in place, of course) and made the prediction he would get a distance of 100-150 metres in the official Catapult Day competition our design and tech teachers had so painstakingly organised.
Brett Smith (one of our carpentry teachers) scoffed in the staff meeting when I announced this prediction, and enjoyed a series of jokes about how the literacy teacher had no skills in numeracy or estimation (hey: this is an Aussie staff room after all!).
Rightio Smithy... Watch and see what happened on Catapult Day:
125 metres on the full. Well and truly beyond 150 metres once the projectile had stopped rolling!
Not bad estimation skills for a mere literacy teacher, eh?
And I think this pic shows (in addition to the secret mechanism that makes Aden's catapult so effective) just how well our wood and metal teachers pass on skills to our students:
Anyway, congrats to Aden on a brilliant piece of work from start to finish, and congrats to the design/tech/wood/metal teachers who helped him achieve it.
Here is the fifth installment in the Open (Source) English series of materials I've been presenting on this blog. Open Source (I also like to think of it at time as 'open sauce'!) is a very apt name for this sort of material, because you can adapt it at will for your own classroom use but it also works very much from the idea that we are opening the learners (and the learning space itself) as rich sources of potential communicative content and language.
Here's a quick look at the Time Flies edition, why it was made this way and how you might use it.
Here is the sixth tutorial in the Teaching Materials Design Masterclass series, and here we look at how 1:3 design (see last week's tutorial for more information on that, or use the link above to access all the previous tutorials) creates a simple template for you to experiment with different sorts of teaching methodology and a variety of different practice or extension applications.
This tutorial isn't so much about technical aspects of building or designing something; it looks more at the interesting interface between your teaching methods and the materials used to express or facilitate those methods.
Next week's tutorial will introduce a new kind of background option, one that might be more appropriate for younger learners or just as an alternative way of presenting your material.
Hope you're enjoying and getting something out of the materials design series so far -- see you same time next week!
One of the most important parts of reading, from a skills and foundation point of view, is building vocabulary. This is particularly true for young readers engaging with texts in their second language, but is generally relevant to first language learners as well.
How robust the approach to building vocabulary is can depend on a variety of factors. Some readers can sort of 'absorb' new words just through the process of guessing from context and doing a wide range of extensive reading. Others can get by reasonably well enough by occasionally referring to a dictionary or asking an adult for explanation and elaboration when it seems called for. Some readers benefit from writing up word lists with basic definitions.
Working with learners of all ages in a context where English was a foreign language and a major priority of reading in English was to develop vocabulary, some years ago I developed a workbook approach to supplement reading texts called 'Word Hoard' (and later: 'Word Wise'). It worked so well that I thought it would be a good idea to apply it as an optional resource for the World Adventure Kids stories as well.
What follows is an overview of how to use the World Adventure Kids Word Wise resource (available as a free PDF download here) and what it covers and why. I've also included an introductory/instructional video specially made for the children-users themselves (though I'm sure teachers and parents could benefit from it as well!).
Basically, Word Wise WAK 2-1 is a 69-page workbook designed to be used in conjunction with the World Adventure Kids reading sets. It can be printed out and added to progressively as learners encounter and explore new words in the story texts. It caters to 8 'units' of 20 words each (hence 160 words altogether), but these numbers can be easily adjusted upwards or downwards based on reader and classroom preferences.
The first step involves the Master Wordlist at the start of the book. As learners read through and experience World Adventure Kids, the idea is that they look for words that feel new or that they would like to explore more. When a word has been chosen, it is entered first in the Master Wordlist at the front of the book (to create an initial reference point) -- the example used here is the word 'adventure'.
Each word is then placed into a special work grid, presented in the workbook as above, with three word grids per page and twenty per 'unit'. This is where the word is going to be really worked with and explored in a much more robust fashion, and the video below explains and demonstrates how it all works (this was specifically made for young readers to understand the process, by the way!):
So, in essence, a word grid features the following exploration:
A. Listing the word
B. Translating it into a learner's first language (or writing a definition for it)
C. Writing the word out three times neatly
D. Identifying the word's part of speech
E. Finding words that represent related ideas (building 'convocation' and lexical sets)
F. Writing the word in context using the full example sentence initially encountered in the World Adventure Kids text
G. Writing the word in a new sentence of the learner's own creation, using it accurately in a new context and/or personalising its use
H. Drawing a sketch or diagram (or pasting on a picture) to help visually conceptualise the word
Having experimented with vocabulary development for children over many years, I've found this has been one of the most comprehensive when it comes to really exploring the notion and use of a word.
Note that the grid doesn't necessarily need to be filled out in that order, and I have in fact seen children complete the grid in all sorts of different sequences. Great! Let them find what works for them. I've also found that a basic dictionary, physical or online, is a great help for filling out some of these sections.
When a word grid has been completed (or completed to the best of the learner's ability), it can be checked by a parent or teacher (you'll probably find it easier to check several at a time) and have 'stars' allocated for each complete 'row' on the grid. There are six star rows in each grid, and many of them represent 'easy points' (for example, writing the word out, finding its part of speech, copying the sentence it comes from in the main text, etc.). This star point allocation is meant to be reasonably flexible; I have, for example, been willing to circle a complete star in cases where most of the row was successfully completed.
The star points can be tallied on each page of the workbook (there is a space at the bottom of each page to do this) and then a points tally can be made for an entire 'unit' of 20 words. There are basically 120 star points per unit up for grabs, and I've divided them into grade rankings (not very scientific or statistical, mind; I've just found that this allocation tends to reward learners willing to put in the hard yards without slapping an unnecessarily shocking grade on those who aren't quite as dedicated!).
There is also a chart at the end of the workbook that allows learners and teachers/parents to track how well they performed across all of the units.
The final part of a unit features an integration/use activity encouraging learners to write 'a report, article, short essay or story using at least 15 of the vocabulary items from the unit'. This is strictly optional of course, and one of the great things about this printable resource is that, if you feel this is going just that little bit too much overboard, you can always not include it!
The basic idea here is for the learners to do some extended writing of their own, using the words they've explored for a targeted writing purpose.
Here are just some of the ways this section could be used for readers of World Adventure Kids:
1. Write a quick report about what has happened in your adventure so far.
2. Write about some of the new things you've learned so far(World Adventure Kids is rich in subject-based learning, so this ought to be a relatively rich area to choose from).
3. Rewrite key parts of your adventure so far, using past tense (the adventure itself is written in the present tense, so this can be an interesting way to highlight differences between the two tenses).
4. Create a spin-off story (take one or more parts of the adventure and add new narrative to change or extend it in some way).
5. Rewrite the key points of the adventure so far from the perspective of one of the other characters (for example, pretend to be a different team member or even Golden Sky or a Jump Jet/Heliporter pilot observing the adventure from a distance).
6. Create a timeline or map with labels summarising the adventure so far (good for learners who aren't confident with extensive writing but may like more visual activities).
Generally speaking, I've found this section to be a great way to encourage reviewing and rethinking over what one has read so far, with the new vocabulary integrated into the process. There is a second listing in the summary at the back of the workbook which allows a score to be allocated for this writing section alongside the actual word building grid work.
I've gone into quite a lot of detail here, which I hope hasn't been off-putting, but I would remind you that this sort of word work isn't a necessity when it comes to engaging with World Adventure Kids. For those who want to squeeze a bit more out of it, however, this can be a particularly rich resource.
Funnily enough, and despite the work involved, I've found that most children actually like the Word Wise approach and get into a nice rhythm with it. Many of them are very proud of the end result and get a real sense of having learned a lot of new things. And the pictures/conceptualisations... my goodness, kids are brilliant with that part and make us adults look very one dimensional indeed!
If you're interested in using the Word Wise approach in other sorts of language learning contexts, you might like to also check out my post here:
There is a more extensive instructional video there for teachers as well as adaptable open source versions of the Word Wise resource for you to download and use as you will.
Waaaay back on October 2nd, I launched a Halloween lesson materials design challenge here on the blog. I offered up some initial materials and sound files in open source format (for those who wanted a starting point) and challenged teachers to finish, adapt or replace it according to their preferences.
There are some excellent contributions there from teachers, and if you're looking for some great materials for Halloween I suggest you check them out in the comments thread for that post.
Just to follow up from that challenge, I did of course complete the templates myself and create a full Halloween lesson resource, and here are the open source files for it if you are interested in checking it out:
Note that the PDF version has the sound files embedded in the actual document; if you want to use the sound files for either the MS Word or open/compatible versions, they are available for download back on the original Halloween materials challenge post here.
Blog visitors may be satisfied with just that if they are simply looking for free, ready-to-use stuff to download and use for Halloween...
For those of you interested in the actual design process and the underlying teaching methodology principles, however, you're in for a bit of a treat (and tricks--hopefully of the more helpful sort!).
I'm bringing forward three of my teaching materials design video tutorials (I'm up to tutorial number 5 in the weekly release schedule here on the blog, but what you see below constitutes tutorials 9, 10 and 11 in the series) to show you not only how I made these Halloween materials, but why I've made them the way they are. So basically there is a blend of practical design techniques and teaching methodology principles.
Tutorial 9 (below) shows how I set up the basic template (using a design made earlier) and developed the first page of the handout, focussing on the Halloween notice and follow up prompts. The last third of the tutorial explains in detail why I've left so many gaps on the page...
Tutorial 10 demonstrates how I developed the second page of the handout, featuring a listening text to complement the Halloween invitation notice on the first page. Again, the design stuff is followed up with my teaching methodology rationale(s), for those who find such detail of interest...
Tutorial 11 is shorter and more targeted, demonstrating basically how I've managed to embed sound files into the PDF version of the Halloween materials using Adobe Acrobat. Having embedded sound files can be great when you want to send materials to students electronically and/or don't have an actual Internet connection working at the time of access.
There is more than an hour of materials design demonstrations and tips just on this individual post; and given that (apparently) blog readers aren't interested in anything that can't be absorbed in less than 3 minutes, I'm not sure how much of an audience it will have! If you do watch these tutorials and get something from them, then thank you and I hope they prove useful in improving your materials design skill set.
P.S. If you are/were wondering what the heck 'Wrap your pumpkin's laughing gear around this' implies... The pumpkin simply refers to the theme of Halloween, but the rest of the line comes from Australian 'ocker' slang meaning 'try (eating) this: it's good!'
('Laughing gear' = mouth)
('Wrap your laughing gear around ___' = try/eat ___)
There is, of course, a solid rationale behind using multiple choice questions in educational materials designed to 'measure' what students 'know'. Actually, the description that accompanies the image above on Flickr is a reasonably good summary of some of the most important issues multiple choice questions address.
Over many years in education as a teacher and materials writer, I've used more than my fair share of multiple choice questions. It's what many teachers expect. My Boost! series has thousands of them (especially in the reading and grammar strands). I have folders with hundreds of tests I've designed for schools over the years, and multiple choice is a mainstay of the overall approach in many of them. An online reading program I acted as consultant to specifically asked me to format comprehension questions predominantly in mutliple choice format. The relationship with that company petered out when I refused to make the so-called writing section of their program all pre-set and multiple choice...
However, looking over some recent projects I've been involved in, I am seeing a huge demise in multiple choice questions. My online Trade-Lit program uses them very sparingly indeed, and mostly as a way to mix up the task work a little. I've been working on an online reading program for the English Raven site, and looking over the initial design I realised there are almost no multiple choice applications at all.
I've come to the realisation that they are just a very second rate means of facilitating and checking comprehension and critical thinking, no matter how scientifically you look at and apply them. They can never compare to short answer and open-ended questions, and reliance on them seriously blinds a teacher to what is really going on in students' heads and how to best address their cognitive and learning needs.
Admittedly, there is an exception to this rule: when students create their own multiple choice questions in response to a task or text. This can be a wonderful way for them to really think their way through content, analyse it and learn at a deeper level. But clearly this is a very different application we are talking about.
I also don't entirely subscribe to the view that pre-provided multiple choice questions save time for teachers. Sure, it can be much quicker to mark a test or task using multiple choice. But is that our job? Just marking tests? Allocating scores? I'm under the impression (and feel free to correct me if you disagree) that our job is to educate and really get to know what our students need in the way of strategies and tasks. Multiple choice is a dangerously enticing shortcut across a corner of a forest for a park ranger whose job it (technically) is to know the overall forest rather more comprehensively.
And anyway, these days I find myself reading and marking those short answer and open-ended questions at a speed not all that much slower than the time needed to sort through multiple choice answers. The difference is that the former inform me a lot more and in the longer run I think this enhances my understanding of learners and my ability to help them progress. Compared to the multiple choice application, overall I think this is saving me time.
Those arguments of mine all might sound fine, but we all know multiple choice will remain with us. The reason for that is very simple. Multiple choice removes the time required for analysis and thinking. It speeds things up and makes it all more convenient. Time is money. Multiple choice saves time and therefore ensures certain stakeholders make more money.
Personally, I believe multiple choice questions epitomise the extent to which education has become industrialised in the pursuit of monetary profit. I also believe the extent to which teachers become addicted to it embodies--to some extent--how much we are losing out as well-rounded, receptive and generally aware educators.
Avoiding the multiple choice temptation for Trade-Lit is fine, because it is a small program made for a small group of teachers. However, I feel a little grim when I contemplate the English Raven online reading program prospect. Just what percentage of schools and teachers am I potentially missing out on by refusing to use multiple choice and auto-correct options (that is, by making a program that requires teachers to actually check and think about the students' responses)? Such a program still represents the opportunity for profit, in my opinion. Profit more of the learning and not monetary kind, perhaps. But still: mouths need to be fed (and not just in my kitchen) and it can be a hard ask to stick to your principles.
So what's your take on the multiple choice questions issue?
I happened across this site (Geelong's Active in Parks initiative) while perusing my tweetstream yesterday and it immediately appealed to me as a learning resource for literacy and language learning.
My quick ideas (some or all or none may appeal to you!):
1. Discuss the notion of parks and community parks, what they're for, how many and what kinds of parks the learners have access to locally, etc.
2. Launch the website on a screen for the whole class to see and let the pictures run on auto speed. Get the students into teams and have them try to get a caption for each picture/section (great for reading and note-taking fluency, as the pictures skim through relatively quickly, but also very well supported visually). After a set time, run through the pictures/captions again but leave the mouse hovering over the main picture each time (this will 'freeze' it) so that it can be adequately checked out, compared to the learners' initial notes, and discussed further.
3. In class (if your learners have access to computers) or at home, ask the learners to try and find the site using Google Search. Discuss which keywords would be best to track down the site.
4. In teams (in class) or individually (at home), have students choose and check out one particular park type they would be interested in visiting or exploring. They should research it, make a summary of the information, then present this to the class along with a quick rationale as to why they chose that particular park type. (Part of the research could involve finding and following @ActiveInParks on Twitter, looking at the tweets there and even asking the organisation some questions!)
5. Compare the Active in Parks Geelong initiative to parks and park activities available locally in the learners' own context.
6. Have the students write up a proposal for their local city council on ways they could improve park offerings, and/or improve the way local people could find out more and access their parks more effectively.
Got any other teaching/learning ideas for this sort of resource? Let's hear it!
For the sake of hypothesis, I'd like to ask you a question. And present you with an interesting choice.
You're teaching English to children who are aged about 10-11. They've been at this English caper for about four or five years already, and have a pretty good level. Let's say they're a bit beyond Cambridge YLE Flyers level, and somewhere in the vicinity of mid-PET (or getting reasonably close to pre-Intermediate).
You're on the hunt for some new ideas and materials to use with these kids, and you roll around to good ol' English Raven's site and you see two versions of an extended teaching/learning endeavour. We'll assume for now that both versions basically match the existing language level and learning needs of your students (in terms of the linguistic demands).
Version A is a fully scripted out adventure story, complete with excellent pictures, audio files to accompany each passage of text, review questions with answer keys, and quizzes to help you with overall assessment. Oh, and a bunch of supplementary activity ideas.
Version B is the same adventure story, but almost none of the content has been provided--just the pictures. The general idea is that the learners, with assistance from the teacher, make the story up as they go, either as a class or in groups or--for those who prefer it--individually. There are prompts to help things along, as well as extensive teacher notes explaining ways to facilitate the story and to help the learners make it their own.
Please forgive me here, but I don't want any fence-sitting. It's not a crime to prefer one of these versions over the other (and yes, I know, they both have their positives and negatives).
In essence, which of them appeals to you and excites you in terms of what it could achieve in your classroom with these pre-Intermediate learners of English aged 10-11? Version A or Version B?
In some ways, I might dare to label Version A as the preference of the teacher who is coming (to the learners with planned and controlled input, first and foremost), while Version B is the tool of choice for the teacher who is going (with the learners away into new and mostly unplanned territory, working more or less from output).
So, remembering again that this is not about judging either kind of teacher, which teacher are you: the one who is coming or the one who is going? What is your instinct telling you?
Would absolutely love to read your responses to this!
I stumbled upon a neat way to apply literacy today in our applied learning context, thanks mainly to the initiative of a colleague responsible for teaching technology and design to our students.
We are in the middle of writing mid-term reports for our learners, and this teacher thought it would be an interesting exercise to have his students compose their own reports (about themselves) in relation to their performance and learning in his subject. He initially did this to create a comparison with his own assessments of the learners, but as we were to later discuss and ponder, this turned out to be a brilliant way to have the students reflect on their own performance in a much more salient way. Our students are fairly unlikely to read or take on board the formal reports written by their teachers, but when they do them for themselves there is much more likelihood of real reflection and uptake.
This in itself was something I thought of as being 'blogworthy'; it is a great example of what I like to call 'integrous teaching' -- a process that facilitates and promotes learner integrity.
The learners completed a paragraph about themselves addressing 3-4 key points suggested by the technology and design teacher in relation to performance in that particular subject. This teacher then approached me to see what we could do with this work in terms of facilitating extensions into literacy development. I was happy to give this a shot, and the initial integrous activity then became an integrated one (from subject to literacy skills).
Based on the initial paragraphs of about 100 words, I had the learners extend them to about 300 words basically by identifying the key ideas and thoughts, turning these into topic sentences for independent paragraphs and then 'growing' each paragraph to include supporting details and examples. They were then shown how to add short introductions and conclusions, along with signpost language to create progression and cohesion across the body paragraphs.
This created a 3-4 draft process (relatively untaxing based on the electronic format of their texts) which was precious in terms of meeting our VCAL literacy outcomes but also developing and applying real literacy skills in a fairly logical and organic fashion. From single paragraph 100-word accounts we had grown 4-paragraph essays of about 300 words in length and it was interesting how much easier for the learners this was compared to the 'traditional' approach of planning out a full essay in advance.
Aside from the literacy skills perspective here, I think this was really valuable from the integrous and reflective angles as well. By visualising and describing actual behaviours and experiences to support their initial assessments of themselves, it forced them to not only rationalise them but also genuinely notice their own performance.
This application across two teachers and two subjects was particularly fruitful. Like so many of my better teaching experiences, it sprang out of someone else's initial application and then grew in a very collaborative way. Cheers Robin!
The really juicy thing to consider is how this could be extended and reapplied across other subjects and tasks as well. For now and the future, I think I'd like to bear in mind those two terms 'integrated' and 'integrous'; I think there's a tremendous amount of potential mileage there for the applied literacy teacher.
Those readers who were familiar with this blog before my switch out of EFL/ESL into Applied/Vocational Literacy won't be surprised to see me post about emergent learning and teaching; there is ample evidence of my inclinations in the Teaching Unplugged directory on this blog...
Well, I've been up to '(no) good' again. I threw the regular, highly pre-set curriculum for our literacy program right out the window today to tackle writing with a group of quite reluctant literacy students. The ones who have become quite infamous for spending as much of their time in class playing simple browser-based computer games as possible, only ever retrieving their writing document when a teacher walks past or actually sits down right beside them. Even then, it's basically a waiting game (the very literal pun intended there).
I started by gathering them all together at the start of class today to have a chat about these games they like to play. They were hesitant at first, and some were even bold enough to feign looks of sheepishness; they figured this was some sort of friendly build up to a stern (but pointless) lecture about classroom behaviour and dedication.
After our little chat, I announced that I wanted 300-word written pieces from each of them describing in detail what their favourite online games were, how to play them, and what the best tips were for excelling at them. I wanted final drafts from each student by the end of class.
They were gobsmacked.
Then they got to it.
Eagerly.
Seventy-five minutes later I had final drafts from eight of the ten students. They were more than passable at Intermediate level in the VCAL Literacy program (their designated level), meeting the outcome of writing for practical purposes, with full evidence of planning, drafting and editing (as well as teaching/feedback from myself).
That's all well and good, but selected texts from this stash can now be uploaded and used as reading for practical purposes (another outcome) -- with a fair chance the students will be willing to read them. We can then have some discussions together and cover oracy for practical purposes, and most probably oracy for self expression and oracy for knowledge as well.
We might finish with a discussion and debate about whether students should be allowed access to online games at school. From that can stem oracy for public debate and writing for public debate, and reading for public debate as well.
In essence, with this one particular fire, I can probably cater to up to eight of the twelve official VCAL Literacy outcomes over 3-5 lessons with these chaps (more if they need it and the engagement is still running hot; if not, out the window it goes and mind that pre-set curriculum stuff on your way out, if you please!).
I've seen the same group struggle along like Frodo and Sam across the plains of Mordor for similar periods of time (3-5 lessons or even more) and not complete a task that met one of the twelve outcomes.
My point in writing this wasn't to slag off pre-set curriculums. Some pre-set tasks work quite well. Others don't, and need to be put to the sword. The pride that accompanies selecting and designing all the tasks in advance needs to take a back seat when it becomes obvious it is sneezing into a strong wind. The quite unfounded need for (and belief in) authority/control based on this sort of program design needs to be relegated to a Pink Floyd song.
The starting and finishing points are the learners. We can't keep excluding them from what is supposed to be their curriculum -- especially when we are working towards outcomes that are officially described as being necessarily flexible and designed to be adapted to meet the needs and interests of learners.
I deliberately added (Part 1) to the title of this post. In reality, it isn't my first time as a pre-set curriculum chuck-outer (or chucker outer, or chucker outerer, or whatever works best here), and it most certainly won't be the last time, either.
... but don't do much of any sort of writing on a reasonably regular basis yourself (and school reports and comments on students' essays can't really count here), I figure you have basically two options -- not at all mutually exclusive -- to redress this potentially distressing situation:
1. Get to it, start writing regularly and make sure you experience at least as many writing genres and outcomes (and word counts) as you expect your students to tackle;
2. Be willing to negotiate the writing curriculum with your learners, at every stage and every layer.
I'm not going to feel comfortable or committed to learning something like automotive skills from someone who has never actually fixed a car (or only fixed one decades ago as a contrived demonstration activity) and figures, on account of his/her shinier and more spectacularly emblazoned overalls, that I have no right to venture some opinions of my own about what may or may not need to happen under the bonnet.
Are you?
=D
(Ouch! Twisted my bloody ankle getting down off my soapbox!)
Jim's fortified himself in the back corner of the classroom. He's taken hostages -- a good half dozen classmates -- and he's threatening them with distraction and possibly worse (like a virus, whereby they start to develop Jim's feelings about learning on an ongoing basis; the pedagogical equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome).
The teacher stands near the doorway to the classroom, looking relieved now that a few co-teachers and the head teacher herself has arrived.
Negotiations are well under way. Jim's being encouraged to surrender, through the megaphone of authority wielded by the head teacher. In her other hand she grips the shiny black barrel of suspension; she hasn't pointed it at Jim yet, but she will if she has to. Parents will be notified either way.
Rewind. Three weeks earlier...
Jim's looking down at the writing task. The word count stipulated has filled him with a sense of woe, and the 10 pointers outlining elements to appear in his report swim like black sharks in a milky bottomless sea.
Jim's despair is acute, almost like a knife. He wasn't ready for this surprise. He's been doing well all through the preceding class time, getting answers down to questions, receiving moderate praise from the teacher. He's not all that keen on reading and writing, but he appears to be holding his own.
Until now. Until this.
Screw it. Can't do it.
The teacher eventually appears over his shoulder, offers to help. But nothing the teacher says really seems to help at all. Jim tries to give it a bit of a go, trying his best to take on board the seemingly irrelevant advice, but it's just not happening.
"Can I write about something else?"
"No, unfortunately. But if you just... (assortment of Greek, Latin and Swahili drifts past Jim's ears)."
A little later: "Could I just, you know, change some parts of it a bit, to make it a bit simpler? I mean, I think I could maybe still write 400 words, but --"
"Look, I understand it's a bit hard, but no -- you really have to do it this way. That's the way everyone has to do it. So bear with me, Jim. You need to think about... (more Greek, Latin and Swahili)."
Eventually the teacher takes Jim's silence to be agreement or acceptance, and his baffled (frayed around the edges with frustration) look to be one of thoughtful deliberation. That's if he actually took a proper look at Jim's face. He wanders off towards another student's bowed head.
Tragically, the laws of this particular realm did in fact allow for (and even encourage) plenty of scope for task adaptation and personalisation. It isn't always the case, but in this instance there was actually more than one potential path through the forest.
The all-important negotiator just arrived three weeks too late, dressed in the wrong clothes, trying to measure temperature with a metre ruler.
Our state government here in Victoria has recently decided to go ahead with policy and laws that allow police to apply on-the-spot fines for foul language. The basic fine is about the same as what you'll get for speeding in a motor car.
This is an interesting issue in itself, but given that the lads I teach do have recurrent problems with swearing, I thought this would be excellent fodder for reading and discussion materials. As part of the general VCAL Literacy outcome requirements, learners are always asked to compare texts on topics, and I have sourced the following:
Swearing is one of those public issues that has resonance across language and culture, so I thought these articles might be of interest to teachers in other parts of the world as well. They basically provide a fairly neutral expository text followed by two different opinions/reactions to a rather strict public policy.
Is it truly so surprising and remarkable that the current generation of teenagers, finally given genuine purposes to write for genuine audiences of peers in something close to real time (but without our direct involvement or interference), are seeding what is possibly the greatest (r)evolution ever known in the written forms of our languages?
It oughtn't be (surprising), really.
The real question, perhaps, is how long we will continue to insist that they scratch away at five paragraph essays, the same way we had to, for no other audience besides a teacher, in styles the vast majority of us never saw come to practical fruition in our daily lives.
It has never been a more interesting and challenging time to be a teacher of literacy than now.
I think one of the most challenging things about teaching writing is that, as someone who enjoys and has few inhibitions about doing a lot of writing, the writing teacher can be universes in distance from learners who have little time, patience or inclination for it. For example, being asked to write a 5-6 paragraph essay of some sort appeals to me as an opportunity. For most of the learners I have encountered over the years, it has been received like some kind of long term penal sentence (pun somewhat intended).
One of the ongoing challenges then, to me, is to think outside the box and come up with different ways to present and organise writing tasks. And by 'outside the box', I mean the rather crusty academic cardboard one that stipulates that one shall plan, draft and re-write all in one sequence until a particular topic is addressed in full and a certain kind of text has been ticked off in the preset syllabus.
I've been experimenting with this recently with VCAL learners who are preparing to enter the traditional 'hard' trades (building, plumbing, electical, automotive, etc.), and while far from being perfect in approach, I do seem to have struck upon something that is starting to yield positive results.
Some of the basic principles here were:
- No individual writing task should take more than 10-15 minutes for the average learner to complete
- The tasks should, whenever possible, relate to specific trades or trade-related activity
- Each task should represent something new (in relation to the previous couple of units)
- Certain tasks should represent a format or approach that is repeated regularly
- There should be regular use of pictorial/image-based and video input
- Whenever possible, tasks should be digital in delivery
- There should be the possibility (later) to slot the individual tasks together to create drafts for longer texts (which in turn tick off our formal VCAL Literacy outcomes)
What eventuated was a curriculum that looks somewhat like this:
To keep this simple, and for the purpose of this particular post, I'd like to focus on the aspects of this approach that build on writing short chunks which can be strung together later to create longer texts (as drafts).
Units 1, 5, 11 and 15 represent paragraph-based tasks which slot together to create a personal text (introducing oneself, talking about background, present and future). Taking this one step at a time, but not in a direct sequence of tasks, seems to help remove the potentially laborious feel from it as an overall 'longer text' task.
Units 7, 8, 12, 13, 17 and 18 feature a documentary broken into six parts. In each of these units, the students quickly summarise what they have seen and their own personal reaction to it (hence two quick paragraphs). Later, this content can be retrieved and slotted together into a six paragraph expository or report-based text, or a six paragraph personal response to the documentary (or a combination of both).
The big plus here is that the breakdown of tasks prevents boredom and removes (at least to some degree) the inhibition associated with being asked to write extensive texts right from the get-go. It also means learners often have more initial writing to choose from than they need, which creates options.
The intervening units focus on other things, mostly short (real world) text tasks in their own right, sentence-level writing skills, vocabulary building, basic grammar, or discovery/noticing tasks based on re-writing short texts in various ways.
Enagement has been high, and there has been a good task completion rate. And in the end, it is a beautiful thing to be able to show a reluctant writer that they have already essentially written a 5-6 paragraph draft, without really realising it as they went along through the syllabus.
So far, so good.
Has anyone else out there experimented with doing a writing curriculum in this sort of way? Or another way entirely?
Let's see what else we can find outside the box, shall we?
I've just completed my second full week of teaching literacy to what could only be described as 'challenging' learners: 16-17 year-old (mostly male) students enrolled in an 'applied' variation of the regular high school certificate which incorporates preparation for trades.
I wanted a challenge in taking on a new role like this, and I certainly got one: these lads can be really tough going. And literacy, in comparison to the more hands-on subjects they take, is by far and away their least favourite subject.
The classroom we teach literacy in has computers on every desk with full access to the Internet. That includes things like YouTube and Facebook. I've heard about and seen this issue of access to these sites discussed robustly in several places, and I might as well confess here and now: I have no major problems with my learners having reasonably unlimited access to these sites whilst taking my literacy classes.
Do these sites distract them from their regular work? Absolutely.
Would removal of access to these sites result in less distraction from their regular work? I seriously doubt it.
In essence, the kids I teach don't appear to be any more or less distracted from their work than my mates and I were in high school way back in the dim dark days before computers and World Wide Web in classrooms. In that respect, things like Facebook and YouTube appear to be easy scapegoats for people who want something to blame for the lack of attention and engagement on the part of students.
While I will freely admit that I really do wish there was some way to have my learners focus more on their set coursework, I think FB and YT represent far more benefits for the literacy classroom than disadvantages.
First, for YouTube, I love the fact that my students can listen to music while they do their work. Nine times out of ten, this is what they are using YouTube for in my classroom (with one headphone in). I often listen to music while I'm writing -- I'm doing so right now, in fact. If this makes them relaxed and comfortable, I'm all for it. I quite often like their selections, too!
Sure, occasionally there is the stupid clip being shown around and chortled at, but it doesn't usually get out of hand. No more than any other disruptive behaviour (like gossip or anecdotes) I can remember from my own school days. Most of the kids I teach, for all their roughness, seem to know there are boundaries when it comes to this kind of media in the classroom. Most don't appear interested in testing or stretching them too much.
And Facebook...
This one fascinates me. Almost all of my learners have it open in the toolbar and check on it regularly between tasks. They don't 'stay on' there for very long at a time, unless there is some sort of major commotion in the FB world involving their social circle(s).
But beyond FB not being a constant or unacceptably prolonged source of distraction, one of the reasons I don't mind it being there is because... well it IS literacy!
Oh, I fully realise it isn't the sort of literacy the powers that be set out in our official literacy outcomes. But I've come to the curious realisation that my learners are actually quite literate and brilliantly effective communicators online - just not in the ways that a rapidly aging previous generation expects or mandates from a postion of qualification/gatekeeping power.
In many ways, the 'literacy' my teenagers exhibit in FB represents an L1 (first or native language) while the literacy I'm expected to teach them is an L2 (second language). Just as when I used to teach English as a second language (and I realised how advantageous it was to learn more about my students' native languages), in this role I'm seeing how important it is to know more about the learners' native literacy before I attempt to teach them the 'other' one (the one that determines whether they graduate or not).
I might even go so far as to suggest that a literacy teacher who mercilessly bans something like Facebook in their class is acting rather like the second language teacher who zealously ignores and never allows the learners' first language into the classroom.
But getting back to the central issue of 'distraction', essentially I think it really comes down to how engaging your classroom activities are -- irrespective of subject. I recently (and informally) calculated that my classes went from 40-90% of class time 'off-task' to more like 10-30% off-task.
What caused that change?
It had nothing to do with access to YouTube and Facebook (or lack thereof). That stayed constant.
That change and massive improvement in time on-task came about when I brought in activities more relevant to their specific trades and interests, broke writing tasks down into manageable 10-15 minute activities (instead of tasks lasting for hours or even days), integrated the tasks with things like video, and made almost everything screen- and online-based (removing the requirement for extensive writing on paper).
And all the while, those regular forays back onto Facebook help me to continue to get to know my students as young people. People who 'speak' a different kind of native literacy to my own.
A literacy I need to learn (about) if I'm to ever have a chance of teaching them mine.
Is this the final raven appearance in an ELT workshop? A snapshot of my ‘teaching unplugged’ workshop (thanks very much to Daniel Craig for the pic!) at the KOTESOL National Conference in Daejeon, Korea, on May 14. Two of the participants very kindly agreed to write the guest post that follows.
As promised in my previous ‘the last hurrah’ post, here is the follow up account of my workshop on teaching unplugged. Somehow, if feels appropriate that the final post on this blog (at least for some time to come) not only focuses on the concept of teaching unplugged, but is written in the form of a guest post from two of the participants in the workshop.
Leanne Priestley and Kevin Arnold are two Brits teaching English to adults in a private language academy in Korea. Interestingly enough, they are working at the same chain school company I first started my time in Korea with all those years ago! I had already connected with Leanne and Kevin via Twitter prior to the conference, and at the event itself enjoyed a great chat with them and a number of other teachers over lunch.
Leanne and Kevin represent, to me, all that can be great about teachers and teaching. They are friendly, polite, down-to-earth, sensitive to their local context while looking for the very best ways to innovate and create positive change. They also have that absolutely essential ingredient for making the teaching/learning elixir actually work: MOTIVATION!
They attended my workshop on teaching unplugged in the afternoon, and in follow up correspondence very kindly indicated they would be happy to write this guest post about what they experienced and thought (think) of teaching unplugged.
So, over to you Leanne and Kevin!
A Workshop on Teaching Unplugged
by Leanne Priestley and Kevin Arnold
When we were first asked to write this guest post, it was terrifying but we saw it as an exciting new challenge as this is our first one, ever. We hope it’ll give others an idea of how Jason’s workshop at the National KOTESOL Conference in Daejeon, South Korea on May 14th helped two (and many, many more) ELT teachers.
Jason ended his plenary with an image that has now, for us at least, become synonymous with what his workshop was about. That image was of a plug, unplugged.
We’ve been very intrigued for a while by teaching unplugged, and were pleased to have the opportunity to find out more. And it didn’t disappoint! The workshop, all 90 minutes of it, although we honestly never even noticed the time, was thoroughly enjoyable and informative.
Our particular workshop began very simply with the question “Have you heard of teaching unplugged?” A few hands went up. Initially we hesitated. Should we put our hands up or not? After all we weren’t entirely too sure what it is, or isn’t for that matter.
The ‘lesson’ part of the workshop then began with Jason asking someone to leave. This was our very first introduction to the world of unplugged teaching and gathering content directly from the learners, which involved removing a learner from the classroom! A very intriguing technique, that was for sure.
Two participants, one now outside the room and one inside, chatted on the phone, while the rest of us listened to this one-sided conversation and wrote down as much of it as we could. The participant returned, and the part of the conversation we had heard was elicited and written on the board. Working in pairs with this emergent language, we guessed what the other side of the conversation might have been. Now we had our content/material for the rest of the session and there still wasn’t a course-book (or handout) in sight. After each pair had completed their own version of the call, a few groups role-played what they had produced. Needless to say there were some interesting variations. As a group we talked about these variations and what made each conversation unique. This was followed by brainstorming some further activities which could be used to continue working with this material. The ideas just kept coming, and we couldn’t help but smile, as this was why we were there – to exchange ideas.
The second half of our workshop took us in another direction. We were introduced to ‘live-reading’.
The quote in the picture was created with just a few simple questions – “Where are we? Why are we here?” Throughout the activity all the questions were very simple, but more importantly thought provoking, including “Are you sure?” and “Do we need this?” This was then followed by, as Jason calls it ‘Going, going, gone, (in)’ – a technique of reducing the text to mere lines to show where words once were. A technique we’ve already borrowed, since experiencing it firsthand and seeing how affective it can be. We can’t get that passage out of our heads!
If we were now asked “Have you heard of teaching unplugged?” Neither of us would hesitate to raise our hands. We won’t pretend for a second to know as much as we’d like to about this particular methodology, but we now have a better understanding. Thanks Jason for giving us this glimpse into the unplugged world and helping us discover a few new things.
One question still remains “How well can it work in Korea?” The only place this can be answered is in the classrooms of Korea. Korean classrooms are traditionally teacher centred and book based. So with our new-found confidence, techniques and ideas neither of us can wait to give it a go. The good thing is we’re pretty sure we’re not going to be the only ones in Korea trying it out. There was genuine excitement in the room about it and we look forward to hearing about other people’s experiences.
Thanks also to KOTESOL Daejeon for providing an opportunity for so many great people to come together and exchange ideas in Korea.
And once again thanks Jason for inviting us to write this guest post. All the best in the future with your new challenge.
No, thank YOU Leanne and Kevin! To your excellent account here, I would just like to add (from the presenter/facilitator point of view) how truly energising the workshop was based on all the creative contributions of the participants. The two 'students' who performed the impromptu telephone conversation were brilliant, and the follow up variations and teaching/learning suggestions from all the other participants were outstanding - much better than any quick list I could come up with on my own.
This was an absolutely fantastic way to finish up (this particular stint?) for me in ELT. Thanks so much to Leanne, Kevin and all the other wonderful people who contributed to the workshop.
And... erm, Leanne and Kevin? Methinks it's high time for you two to get that ELT blog happening!!!
For those interested, this week's articles (at 'Eagle' level) are now up on World News for Kids, featuring the interesting news that Liechtenstein is apparently happy to hire itself out to visitors (and up to 150 guests) at the very reasonable rate of $70,000 per night!
For English Raven members, the complete study kit is also available in their individual download portals, with 8 pages covering:
- The original article script
- Reading skills and comprehension
- Follow up listening ('News Extra') providing background information about Liechtenstein
- Talk Time dialogue feature (where two students discuss the idea of 'hiring out' their country)
- Class Discussion prompts
- Email response to a notice asking for advice on how to attract visitors to the students' city
- Essay topic (advantages and disadvantages of tourism)
- Discussion topic for online submission via Voxopop
Right, we've got some news... now where do we go with it? Image: Cyberslayer
On my World News for Kids Teacher's Page, I demonstrate how I build extensive 'kits' based on initial news articles, working through reading, extending into listening with additional topical content, then working through a variety of different speaking and writing activities.
I figured some teachers out there might be interested in the how and why of this sort of kit creation, and even might like to work on making their own extensive study kits based on news articles. Or (and even better) they might like to explore how this could become more of an 'unplugged' learning application where learners choose and work with the content more on their own.
So here are some quick audio-visual guidelines I've produced, starting with the more 'teacher-led/created' side of things and finishing with some thoughts about taking it 'unplugged'...
Of course, this is only a small selection of ways to build materials and activities around news articles for the ELT classroom, but I hope they at least give you some ideas to think about.
On the WNK Teacher's Page, towards the bottom, you can access four full 8-page samples (across four levels of difficulty/challenge) to see how my approach works on paper. I also heartily recommend a good look at Sean Banville's outstanding BreakingNewsEnglish.com for an alternative range of activities based on news articles.
It took a while (I had to discontinue the initial foray with World News for Kids in late 2009), but I'm happy to say that World News for Kids is now BACK on English Raven!
My problem with the first try at this was producing too much each week (8 stories with listening files and 32 pages of worksheets) in an endeavour that doesn't exactly earn me any income. In the end, it needed to be shelved to allow me to concentrate more on making a living!
The new approach cuts things back to one level (of four) per week, hence two news stories and 8 pages of worksheet material. This will hopefully be a manageable enough load that I can produce news articles on a more regular basis without burning myself out.
So, the latest story (covering April Fools' Day and Google's Gmail Motion prank) is now up here.
To see how it all works and what is involved in the supplementary worksheets, check out the Teacher's WNK page.
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