Clear & CLoudy

Focal Strategy: Clear/Cloudy 

The What: 

This is a self-assessment strategy in which students specifically identify what was clear about a lesson, content, skill, etc. and what was cloudy.

The What

This strategy is extremely versatile and can be used at a variety of stages of the writing process, specifically with getting students to productively struggle and with pushing them to identify how to improve their own writing. It is also something simple that I can easily start to use as a routine in my classroom and requires minimal buy-in from students.

I applied the strategy in two different ways based on the needs that I was seeing from the different courses that I was teaching:

1. AP Language and Composition: In AP Lang, there is an extensive amount of on-demand writing and students are expected to read the prompt, any provided sources, and then just jump into their response. Many students have felt paralyzed by this, since it is not something they have been exposed to in past courses. Therefore, many students would overthink the task and ask counteless questions while getting started. Therefore, I used the  CLear/Cloudy Dice Continuum. For the first 8 minutes, I was not taking any questions and students had to work through their challenges. Then, after that time, each student had a Clear/CLoudy continuum on a whiteboard and would place a die on it. I would prioritize the students that were farthest on the cloudy side of the spectrum. 

2. ELA Students (C Band): The issue I noticed in 9th grade was different yet connected to what I described in AP Lang, since both deal with student independence. With my 9th graders, students struggled with how to improve on their first draft of writing - even when written feedback is provided. Therefore, I applied Clear/Cloudy by having students identify what was clear and what was cloudy for the reader. 

• Active Learning Strategies Toolkit

• Michelle: She gave me the idea the idea of the clear/cloudy continuum during on-demand writing to encourage productive struggle.   

Clear Cloudy Continuum Reflection:

I spent too much time with each student during the one on one check in portion, so some students aren’t receiving super immediate feedback. Therefore, I want to do a better job anticipating student needs. Moving Forward, I will come up with quick cue cards based on the challenges that I am anticipating. For example, for a student who is struggling with thesis, I could have a cue card that has a sample thesis structure and an example to look at.

Revision Protocol Reflection: 

Even with the examples and non-examples, some students did not provide enough specificity when determining those cloudy areas.  Therefore, next week we are planning to have a full group lesson in which we provide students a sample paragraph and identify as a group the areas.