Nicole Hasenbein

About Me

Name: Nicole Hasenbein

Site: Alhambra High School

Grade(s): 9th-10th

Technology ability: Between proficient and advanced

A little about me:

I attended Cal Poly Pomona and received my B.A. in English. I obtained my M.A. in Education at the University of La Verne. I am in my fourth year of teaching at Alhambra High School. I completed my student teaching at Blair Middle School in Pasadena and Alhambra High with Melissa Fu. Technology is a vital tool that has to be implemented in the classroom. When I am not teaching, I enjoy reading books, rock climbing, and baking.

Technology I Recommend

I recommend using Class Dojo to keep track of participation, HW, behavior, etc. I also use Educreations, Noteshelf, Remind, Piktochart, Prezi, Mematic, Newsela, Socrative, No Red Ink, and more. There are so many useful apps that can aid you and your students in the learning process. For teachers who are afraid to use technology, I would suggest exploring one website/app at a time. Essentially, we cannot ignore technology. Instead, we must embrace it and show students that learning can take place without a computer/ipad/phone. Students will be expected to perform tasks on a computer in college and for their career.

Lesson

"Precision Revision" using Grammar Codes

Technology used: Google Classroom

Subject: Literacy

Common Core Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.5

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.6

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.10

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1

Depending on how fast you grade, the revision process can be a 1 to 2 week process. The "day" listed below follows what you can do for each step.

Day/Step 1: Students respond to the prompt by writing their essay in class. I believe there is value in having students write their own draft in class. To be honest, Ernest Hemingway once said, "The first draft of anything is shit." Also, I make sure to reserve Chromebooks cart for Day/Step 2 and 3.

Day/Step 2: I have students type their essays,then using Google Classroom they submit them. If they do not finish in class, I allow them to finish at home and set the assignment to be turned in a certain time. Once the essays are submitted, I give myself time to read the essays. Depending on how many classes you teach, the grading time can vary. While I am grading essays, I write codes for specific grammatical errors each student commits. I type the codes by adding comments to each students documents instead of write long messages about what they need to fix. Eventually, this process can be done by students; however, I would not attempt this for the first semester.

Day/Step 3: Students fill out a chart to keep track of which errors they are repeating. As a result, students can see what they need to work on in order to move their focus to content over grammatical errors. This process allows students to be more self-accountable for their own work and writing process. Then, students correct their grammar mistakes and focus on content. I give students a two day period to finalize their essay for a second submission.

Day/Step 4: Then, I have students partner up with their writing buddy and leave a series of comments and questions for their peer's essay. Each student answers a series of questions that focus mainly on content. Finally, I have students submit their final draft in two days with a time constraint.

Overall, students are working with 3 drafts of their essay (in class, grammar codes, peer edit) before submitting the final draft to me.

Technology Insight & Tips

Writing anything can take time, so be patient with each student's individual needs when tackling the revision process. And, using Google Classroom has made it possible for me to not take home tons of essays.