Blending Writing Learning

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Michael D. Smith

Professor Ferrell

SI18

19 July 2018

Blending Writing Learning

Trust the process

As a teacher of a blended learning classroom, I wondered how to incorporate writing in a course that is thing to do away with textbooks and essay writing. When I look at the course, when helping my students, there are not many opportunities to write. The course has daily lessons that require the students to first watch an introductory video to preview the content. Then, they have to read the essential instruction lesson. Next, the students have an instructional video about what they’ve read. After the instructional video, the students can take a quiz that consists of five questions. Students can only miss one question, but if they miss more than one that can go a reteaching portion of the daily lesson in which a summary of the major points are given. The students can take the daily quizzes as many times as they need to, and I can set preferences to only score the highest attempt. It sounds easy right? The kids can’t stand it. They say it is too hard. I even give the kids Cornell notes which is a notetaking resource. They still struggle with the course. The reason, they don’t read, but more importantly they don’t write. In order for blended learning to work, a writing to learn project would be most beneficial for students who are addicted to social media because it would allowing the use of technology, sharing of ideas, and the creating of meaningful understanding of concepts. Simply put, they need to read, think, share, and type now.

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Using block scheduling is ideal for Blended Learning and Writing to Learn. I use a few of the strategies and didn’t know I was using them. I first started my research on the benefits of blended learning. Michael Thompson, a writer for EducationElements.com, defines blended learning classrooms as “those that utilize online content and tools as integral aspects of instruction. He goes on to list 4 primary benefits of the blended learning classroom which are differentiated instruction, data-driven decision, accelerated learning, and sustainable programs. All of that sounds good, but the reality is rather grim. What I have witnessed in my blended learning classroom is most students’ needs are met with guidance. I could give them all the instruction and content the traditional way, and they seem to get it. However, when I allow them to use the computers to complete daily lessons on the same material, they do poorly. They ask questions about the lessons and I’m like “we just covered this; look in your notes.” The students even struggle to read and interpret their own notes. Most times, the answer is in the passage, but since most of the students I teach are reading below grade level, they struggle to find interpret the answers. If the answer is not directly stated in the passage, the students are unsure and guess the wrong answer. Another benefit offered is that it is data-driven and allows accelerated learning. I have students working on computers every day in class. Most of the students don’t take the online course seriously. Only a small percentage of the students are on the correct lesson. The majority are behind. There is no data because the students do not do the work.

I continued my research and read another article called “5 Benefits of the Blended Learning Approach.” This article written by Dimitris Kaplanis gave his benefits, and they were similar to the previous article mentioned. Two of Kaplanis benefits caught my attention. Kaplanis stated that it allows improved feedback and it can make learning fun. Again, the

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students have to work on the course for me to provide feedback. Also, my students that I’ve had in previous years of teaching blended learning don’t see the course as fun. The online courses do offer instructional videos and other interactive elements that give them the content in other ways than just reading, but I’ve observed students skip these resources that are available. The independence and self-pacing elements gives students the freedom to skip and not take advantage of the tools available to make the content more understandable. Students cringe when I mention the curse and which lesson they should be on.

The Adoption of the Process

Blended learning does not promote writing, but it can be used. How can writing go into a classroom where the use of textbooks for read alouds and critical thinking/reading seems to be discouraged? Of course, there’s always the “do we have to answer the essay question?” A small portion of the students answer the essay question when I give traditional exam using paper and pencil. Even with the online course, there are unit test that have 3 short answer questions that require students to type in a response. Those get left blank or they answer with IDK. I can’t get three sentences, three words, just three letters. They don’t even try because it requires thinking and writing. So how do include writing in a blended learning class?

Proposal One: Take away some of their independence. One of the “advantages” of blended learning is that allows for students to go at their own pace. In an article by V. Prountzos he describes one of the benefits as students are able to go at their own pace. That sounds good, but what tends to happen when you give students that freedom is procrastination. “I’ll catch up when I get home” they say. Also, once class is over they usually don’t think about the content

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again until the next time the student is in class. I assign a lesson or inform students which lesson they should be working on, and they say “yes, Mr. Smith, I better get to that now. I got to catch up.” I’ll see that they are 5 to 10 lessons behind and I tell them you should do this in class if you are struggling so I can help you. “Okay”, they say. After 10 or 15 minutes, the student may be watching YouTube or some other video not remotely related to the course. When you give students that independence, they are not focused and are easily distracted. Most of my students learn more when I am guiding them through a particular lesson. At my school, we have a computer monitoring program called Lanschool that is unreliable. I must actively patrol and monitor student progression of the course. And yes kids still know how to get past the firewalls meant to prevent certain sites from being used. As with most assignments, students will not work on the assignment until it’s almost due, or you guide them through it.

Proposal Two: Use creative writing to grab the interests of the diverse student population and put their own spin on social studies content. In his article “Creative Writing in the Social Studies Classroom: Promoting Literacy and Content”, Hilve Firek says that students, after participating in a Gallup poll, felt” bored” in school(1). When I taught a unit on the Constitution and its amendments, I got a variety of creative displays of understanding. I first used a textbook resource and tweaked it to allow students with different abilities to be successful. My directions were to perform a skit about the amendment that was randomly chosen, give a PowerPoint presentation, or create a flyer/brochure about a randomly chosen amendment. As you can see, this would require reading and some form of writing for understanding. Once I enabled them to have totaled creative control, as I call it, they did have fun. I had to teach them certain words to

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help them interpret the text, but once they actually read, they came up with ways to complete the assignment. Many wanted to do multiple amendments because they were having fun with it. Four of my students did a music video, to the best of their abilities with the limited resources, about the second amendment. I was so proud that they put so much effort in the assignment. And they were engaged.

Generally, if you ask students how he or she feels about a social studies class, they will say the same thing. Firek goes on to say “We must ask them to interact with ideas, to play with them, to explore them and to use them to generate something new, something creative.(1)” I am a huge fan of creativity. I don’t mind trying, hearing, or seeing something new as long as students are engaged and focused on the assignment instead of surfing the web for irrelevant subjects or music videos, lyrics that they have plenty of time to check on their own time. I say let’s examine it together. As long as it is not offensive, and students are engaged and focused on the assignment, let’s have a good time. They can try to be humorous, be poetic, or draw a political cartoon. Students are different. Everyone has their own way of thinking. Everyone has their own talent. Everyone has their own perception. Everyone does.

After all my research, I learned that writing can be used in a blended learning classroom. Although blended learning does allow students to go at their own pace, the teachers have to still push them to write at any opportunity. We have to make them write, even when they don’t want to. Teachers have to show students how writing can be used in a technology based classroom. We all have to share ideas and be ourselves. As Neo, from the Matrix, said, “There is no spoon”. Teachers and students, even with computers, can bend, manipulate, and see what you want others to see through words.

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Works Cited

Firek, Hilve, Creative Writing in the Social Studies Classroom: Promoting Literacy and Content Learning Social Education 70(4), pg. 183–186, National Council for the Social Studies, 2006.

Kaplanis, Dimitris, 5 Benefits of the Blended Learning

Approach, September 30, 2013

www.talentlms.com/blog/5-reasons-why-blended-learning- works/

Prountzos, V. When Should You Choose Self-Paced Learning vs Live Online Learning? www.talentlms/blog/organization- choose-self-paced-learning/ vs-live-online- learning/May 16.

Sharma, Pete, and Barney Barrett Blended Learning: Using Technology in and Beyond the Language Classroom 2 Update 8: March 2010, docshare04.docshare.tips

The Matrix. Directed by The Wachowski Brothers, performances by Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, Warner Brothers, 1999.

Thompson, Michael Definition of a Blended Classroom www.edelements.com/definition-of-a-blended- classroom, September 6th, 2012.