# data[].attributes.body
Neil Shusterman's Unwind

# data[].attributes.body
A letter to National Council of Fairy Tales on discrimination of mentor fairies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dear National Council of Fairy Tale Integrity

# data[].attributes.body
Using a variety of reflective writes and journaling at varied points in my instruction allows for short, exploratory, spontaneous writing, with a readers’ response stance. This informal writing allows me to provide dimension to students’ writing experiences in my classroom, while providing them opportunities to engage deeply with and reflect on content, build cognitive connections, and advance learning. In turn, this writing can also be used to inform my teaching and assess student learning. Reflective writes can serve as starting points for discussion, using student-driven questions and responses, which also allow for student-driven dialogic inquiry in the classroom. In addition, these can be used at the end of an activity to serve as review or student self-assessment. This strategy aligns with Writing to Learn (Daniels 2007). In using writing this way in my classroom, I am giving students a chance to act on the material, and “to grapple with their ideas, transform them, and put them into their own words” (Daniels 2007), which cognitive research like Edgar Dale’s cone-of-experience suggests that students writing in this way, rather than in transcription, are more likely to retain it and internalize it.

# data[].attributes.body
School Features

I teach at Whitehall-Yearling High School, located in the city within Whitehall School District. The student population is comprised of 801, 9-12th grade students, with 70% marked as economically disadvantage. Whitehall–Yearling is consistently ranked among the top 5 most diverse schools in Ohio with a 61% minority population. 37% of students are African American, 39% are Caucasian, and 16% Hispanic. The student-teacher ratio is 17 to 1. Current test data reveals the high school is at 18% math proficiency and 31 % reading proficiency, while college readiness is at 11%.

Current teacher requirements are changing and in a state of transition. The English Language Arts department is in its first year teaching the required curricula Study Sync, created by McGraw-Hill Education. There have been issues with student readiness and comprehension the Study Sync curriculum and the current curriculum is currently under going changes, moving from a full integration of Study Sync, to partial implementation of the curriculum. Due to this, some aspects of the instruction follows a script, while other are teacher-planned. Our curriculum does not have a pacing plan that is being utilized at the present time. Students are being tested and reassessed after the end of the second unit in February to track student growth and success of the Study Sync curriculum, as well as preparing for the AIR tests.

Class Features

Each of the 9 class periods are 44 minutes long with the exception of 4, 5, and 6, which are 50 min minutes. Throughout the day I have 5 academic periods, each with different students. Four of these periods are 10th grade English Language Arts 2 courses, with a few juniors and seniors in the class. The last period of the day is a honors 10th ELA 2 section. The school does not use tracking for its ELA courses. The sections for honors are based on teacher recommendation of a student’s preparedness and work ethic. The lack of tracking does not greatly impact instruction. Most of the students perform on a similar level and minimal differentiation accommodates those students who are performing above or below the majority of students in the class. There is not a significant gap between students’ understanding of material.

Currently the classroom uses the Study Sync Textbook that corresponds to the online software program. This is the instructional program used in the classroom, currently in its first year of use at the school. This book is also accessible online in a digital format at home and through the Chromebooks in the classroom, however most students prefer to use the printed version. Each student has his or her own personal copy to keep.

The classroom has a Smart projector that is used to display PowerPoint slides and access Study Sync materials. There is a Chromebook cart in the classroom full time, with 1:1 ratio of devices to students.

There are a total of 29 students in this class being used for this assessment. From these 29 students, 22 are 10th graders, and 7 are freshman students. 19 students are female and 10 students are male. There are no IEPs or ELL students. 5 Students are considered advanced, and 4 students are frequently absent. Currently, advanced readers have been completing additional reads of the Study Sync text excerpts with corresponding “focus questions,” which can be described as online modules that use guiding questions to help students reflect independently on texts, using questioning strategies that scaffold students towards more complex thinking as they progress through the module and questions.

# data[].attributes.body
Bean, T. (2003). Using young adult literature to enhance comprehension in the content areas. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates

Bentley, E. (2010). Literate lives: connecting literature with multigenre writing. Language arts journal of Michigan, 26(1), pp. 12-15.

Billings, L. & Roberts, T. (2014). From mindless to meaningful. Educational leadership, pp. 59-65.

Cury, C. (2014). What is the value of life and other Socratic questions. Educational leadership, 55, pp. 54-58.

Daniels, H. (2007). Writing to Learn. In Content area writing: every teacher’s guide. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, pp. 20-29.

Daniels, H. S. and Zemelman, S. (2014). How Smart Readers Think. In Subjects Matter: Exceeding Standards Through Powerful Content-Area Reading 2 nd ed. (pp. 27-43). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Dawson & Lee (2016). “Chapter 4: Activating Dialogue.” In Drama based pedagogy across the curriculum, Wilmington, NC: Intellect, pp. 59-72

Elish-Piper, L., Wold, L., & Schwingendorf, K. (2014) Scaffolding High School Students’ Reading of Complex Texts Using Linked Text Sets.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(7), pp. 565-574.

Johnston, P. (2012) Open minds: using language to change lives. Portsmouth, NH: Stenhouse Publishers.

Louis, G. (2007) Using Glasser’s choice theory to understand Vygotsky. International journal of reality theory, 18(2), pp. 20-23.

Williams, B. T. (2008). Tomorrow will not be like today: Literacy and identity in a world of multiliteracies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(8): pp. 682-686.

# data[].attributes.headline
Differentiation     Choice Theory  Aesthetic reading

# data[].attributes.subject
Differentiation     Choice Theory  Aesthetic reading

# data[].attributes.body
Assigning a multigenre project in my classroom not only aligns with research-based practices, but it’s also an engaging, open-ended project for students to respond to literature that aligns with standards. These projects encourage students “maintain their aesthetic reading (Rosenblatt 1978)” (Bentley, 2010, p. 14), as it doesn’t force students to look for the “right answer” in responding to an assigned essay prompt. Students can “make an aesthetic connection between life and art” (Bentley, 2010, p. 15). These project are the epitome of reader response. Assigning this project demonstrates I care about student voice and choice, as well as how they read the story, and the issues and topics they felt were important, which aligns with Choice Theory. In addition, differentiation is allowed for as these projects provide a unique experience for each student and their abilities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Writing to Learn,                     Multiliteracies or New Literacies,                         & Dynamic Learning Perspective

# data[].attributes.subject
Writing to Learn,                     Multiliteracies or New Literacies,                         & Dynamic Learning Perspective

# data[].attributes.body
Using online, multimodal platforms like Padlet, or others, to create learning logs for my students, provides all the benefits of reflective writes and  Writing to Learn (Daniels 2007), while also developing students’ multiliteracies and drawing on their funds of knowledge (Williams 2008) through its online visual and written environment. This demonstrates my goal of tailoring instruction to a variety of students’ learning strengths. By using these at the end of instruction with guiding questions within these learning logs, students can move to higher-order thinking and synthesize learning. Provides a space for reflective writing in these logs will also call attention to students’ learning and process, which aligns with Johnston’s (2012) dynamic learning perspective. Helping students to adopt this perspective will encourage students to take risks, find learning to be a reward, and find value in, and notice, the process of learning. In addition, by bringing these learning journals in at different points of instruction, allows routine not to become routine, and can provide additional benefits, such as to scaffold discussions and make predictions before learning; process new information, and analyze and interpret content during learning; or to reflect and synthesize information after learning. These can also be used to inform teaching and a place for student-self assessment.

# data[].attributes.headline
-Comprehension Strategies       -Activating prior knowledge

# data[].attributes.subject
-Comprehension Strategies       -Activating prior knowledge

# data[].attributes.headline
Why Anticipation Reaction Guides Are Important

# data[].attributes.subject
Why Anticipation Reaction Guides Are Important

# data[].attributes.body
These guides can be utilized for multiple purposes within my classroom. I can use these as a means of inventory before unit instruction to inform my teaching, demonstrate a focus on getting to know my students and relationship-building, as well surveying my students’ funds of knowledge. In addition, these guides can be used as pre-reading strategy wherein the statements in these guide serve entice students and activate funds of knowledge, as well as to scaffold rich discussion and engage in dialogic inquiry (Bean 2003). These guides can also be utilized to identify key concepts that will be emphasized in the text, invite students to make predictions, as well as to help me identify “student experiences and beliefs that may be challenged by the reading” (Bean, 2003, p. 8). Anticipation-reaction guides can also be used after reading. These guides allow students to debrief and survey their responses, considering the ways in which they feelings have changed or have been impacted by the reading.

# data[].attributes.headline
-Scaffolded Critical Thinking             -Questioning strategies -Vygtosky‘s theory of sociocultural development            -Student-driven learning      -Authentic whole-class discussions

# data[].attributes.subject
-Scaffolded Critical Thinking             -Questioning strategies -Vygtosky‘s theory of sociocultural development            -Student-driven learning      -Authentic whole-class discussions

# data[].attributes.body
Socratic seminars conducted in my classroom will provide students opportunities to learn through talking. In these discussions students reflect deeply on texts and learning, engage their perspective with other’s viewpoints, and form cognitive connections across learning. These seminars allow for critical thinking of the essential question and texts. In addition, using these types of seminars with research based questioning strategies I can increase the chances of authentic whole class discussion to occur. By using the questioning progression outlined by Billings & Roberts (2014) I can utilize maieutic questions and Socratic questions to position students to identify, analyze, and synthesize ideas, as well as help students realize their own and universal truths. This activity aligns with elements of Vygtosky’s theory of sociocultural development, which suggests social interaction is pivotal in cognitive development through the use of language in scaffolded activities that lie within the zone of proximal development (Louis 2009). Socratic seminars are “scaffolded critical thinking” (Cuny, 2014, p. 55).  They allow each student to begin at their own level, with their own ideas, and they become raised to the “level of the collective group ” (Cuny, 2014, p. 57). Since students enter the discussion at their own level and increase their learning through language and the sharing of connections and ideas, occurring with the help of others, Socractic seminars are an ideal strategy to foster cognitive development and engage in student-driven learning.

# data[].attributes.body
The RAFTs Technique is a strategy that provides opportunities for students to engage with the writing process in a fun and creative way. By using this assignment in my classroom I am providing an engaging project that allows my students to take on another person or character’s perspective and write with a form and audience of their choosing, allowing the students to participate in creative and higher-order thinking as they synthesize their imagination with newly learned information. This will also help students retain this learning as “reformulating ideas in writing and in a different voice helps students internalize them.” (Daniels and Zemelman, 2014, p. 169). This strategy aligns with theory like differentiation. I can develop a variety of RAFTs based on the same text or concept that can be adjusted to a student’s skill level and ability. In addition, RAFTs can be assigned to a theme or topic, but I can also offer a variety of ways for students to have the freedom to choose among the role, audience, format, and topic, meeting their needs for freedom through choice, and fun through the RAFT’s engaging, creative structure, which aligns with Glasser’s (1998) Choice Theory.

# data[].attributes.headline
Schema Theory     Funds of Knowledge /Prior Knowledge

# data[].attributes.subject
Schema Theory     Funds of Knowledge /Prior Knowledge

# data[].attributes.body
Using this strategy in my classroom demonstrates I’m taking steps toward ensuring my students are proficient in interpreting a range of complex texts. Through the use of linked text sets I am able to scaffold students’ reading of complex texts, while building on their funds of knowledge and interests. In addition, by using multimodal texts within these sets, I am able to link the “traditional and new literacies in and out of the classroom” (p. 566), and provide texts that appeal to the range of learners in my classroom. Linked text sets allow students to make intertextual connections (Rogers & Tierney 2002; Bean 2004) and engage in critical thinking, by fully exploring themes across a range of texts and media that offer multiple perspectives or interpretations of these themes. This strategy connects to schema theory as linked texts can serve as a method of activating schemas as it builds prior knowledge or prepares students for more complex reading, which allows students to take in new information, retain it, and synthesize it.

# data[].attributes.body
Demonstrates I am committed to creating engaging, low-risk opportunities for students to synthesize learning, practice metacognition, and gain exposure to multiple perspectives. Text-based dialogue offers structured opportunities to engage in polyphonic dialogue (Dawson & Lee 2014) where students create a new, shared understanding. This activity serves as an Activating Dialogue strategy (Dawson & Lee 2014), and by using writing as an entry point, allows me to include every student in the discussion and mean-making process. Implementing these strategies allow me to author meaning, using a tool to assess student learning through an authentic formative assessment, as well as dialogue to connect my students’ fund of knowledge to classroom inquiry.