Using Google Drive to write, review, revise, repeat

Phew! I feel like I've been running a marathon for the past week and here we are back at Monday already. My students are about 1/2 way through our largest project of the trimester (it's morphed into something a bit bigger than planned because of testing interruptions and delay days), and I think it's going well. Students are in my favorite, and sometimes the most frustrating, phase of the project. The review & revision phase. I haven't posted in a week and half so I've been trying to think about how to write an update on our current project and it hit me.

Think about the process. How did we get to where we're at right now, technologically speaking. In other words, how has tech, specifically Google Drive, helped move the curriculum, collaboration, and student work along?

Here's a brief overview of the project:

• Driving Question learners will strive to answer - "How can we make America great?"
  *Disclaimer: This is in no way based on Donald Trumps campaign. It actually came out of the video we used for our Entry Event from the pilot episode of the TV show Newsroom ("America Isn't the Greatest").
• Objectives - Students will...
• Improve research skills as they enter into the initial inquiry process and research the topic of their choice
• Analyze the issue of their choice and attempt to figure out why it's an issue and what can/should be done about it based on past, present, and future facts
• Work towards understanding how to form a strong argument based on credible support
• Integrate support throughout an argument in order to persuade their audience of "Appropriate Decision Makers"?
• Review business letter format including layout and tone while considering their audience

This project was organized into three phases including research, writing/revision, and oral communication. As of today we're in the midst of the messy writing and revision phase which is both my favorite and least favorite part.

This, however is where I want to focus my post. As a part of the tech integration specialist team in my district we often hear people looking for the latest greatest websites and apps to bring into their classroom. While being innovative is all well and good, I'm constantly telling other facilitators, "Less is more". In my classroom, I will occasionally bring in a cool website or app or I'll suggest an extension to a student if I think it will be useful. However, the tech I most commonly rely on day in and day out is Google Drive.

For the writing/revision part of the project, the use of Google Drive was especially important for planning, feedback, and revision (over and over).

 

Top: Sample of a bullet outline created in Google Docs.
Bottom: Sample of a visual (flow chart) outline created
in Google Drawings. 

Planning

Students started the transition from research by creating an outline of their argument. Based off a previous reading they had to have claims/subclaims, counter claims, a proposition, and credible support. They did this one of two ways - through Google Documents in a bullet style outline or in Google Drawings through a flow chart style outline. Students were given an example of both the bullet outline and the flow chart outline to demonstrate what each looked like.

I did, however, need to clarify with students that those were meant as examples only and they weren't meant to be copied (ie-"Make a Copy" function in Google Drive). The visual outline posed an issue I didn't even think about. Students were copying the sample and then trying to make their arguments fit within that sample (2 claims, 1 counterclaim, 4 subclaims, etc.). I had to clarify the next day that they were to break from that and do what worked for their arguments (see visual outline sample 2 at the end of this post).

Writing First Draft

When, and only when, their outline had been reviewed and edited if needed, students could move on to the writing process. We talked about making sure they understood their direction before they just jumped into their writing. So often students just start typing on the keyboard and when they're done they've really said nothing, or it's just so unorganized that it seems like they've said nothing. This project also has the added difficulty of writing a letter as a group of three to four.

First drafts had to be formatted in proper block business letter format and when submitted needed to look like a full, complete letter (no more than 2 pages).

Give Feedback

At this point, I gave students feedback via Google Document's comment function. I did very little with the "suggesting" function at this point and tried to avoid simply "editing". I wanted to look for big ideas - claims, subclaims, counterclaims, and credible support. By commenting in Google Docs students were able o walk into class and get their feedback instantly, and the majority of students started discussing the feedback as a group and making revisions right away. I also LOVE that I have a history in both past comments and whether or not they accepted/rejected suggestions.

Check out the table below for different ways to give feedback in Google Docs.

Click to view the original in Google Drawings. 

Revise

Now, after they received their first round of feedback students went into revision mode. Something I like to use to track revision is the Draftback Add-On. While the revision history (Shift + Alt + Ctrl + H) is nice, Draftback provides much more data that revision history doesn't including when the students worked on the document and how long the writing session lasted. My students seem to push  themselves more when they can see that small Draftback revision number staring them in the face, and some even turn it into a competition.

Repeat

As we continue through 3-4 drafts and into the final draft, students will continue to receive feedback both from me and their peers. When we're ready for final drafts students must change the document name to "final draft", and they must resolve any comments and either accept or reject any suggestions to submit a "clean copy" of their document.

To view more samples check out the project folder in Google Drive!

YouTube Closed Captions - Uploading a Transcript

In a previous post, I talked about adding closed captions to flipped instruction videos. I said, "I will tell you that ideally you should write script before you record your video. You should do this whether or not you have to add captions, but I'm telling you it will save you a lot of headache if you have to put closed captions on your videos."

Today, I did just that.

This was not my first time writing a script, but it was my first time writing it with the intention of uploading for closed captions. It took me a few more tries when I started recording as I really like to ad lib or go off on a tangent. Having the script actually helped me stay focused on only the necessary information and kept my video short!

Here are the steps I went through before uploading to YouTube. They're very similar to what I outlined on my previous post.

1. Outline what I want learners to take away from the video
2. Write out the transcript
3. Practice a few times before recording, make adjustments to the script - KNOW what I'm going to click on and when
4. Start recording
5. Make any changes/adjustments to the transcript
   NOTE: This will be uploaded and added to the video exactly how it's written so if you change any words or add any information off the cuff, you need to add it to the transcript! 
6. Upload the video to your YouTube channel - if you used Screencastify you can simply click the "share" button a the top of the screen
7. Save the transcript as a Plain Text (.txt) file
   In Google Drive - click "Download as..."

The video below will explain the process of adding the captions to the video from your YouTube account.

Critical Reading Strategy: Central Question Diagram [With Graphic Organizer]

This trimester I'm currently teaching a class called Critical Thinking & Argumentation. The class is primarily juniors, and I knew I wanted the course to focus on research skills, critical reading skills, and written and verbal argument skills.

So far, I've discussed the critical reading strategy SQ3R on a previous post. We used that reading strategy at the very beginning of the year to read a chapter from a textbook that serves as the framework for the entire course.

The next reading strategy we used was the Central Question Diagram. I chose this strategy because it set the framework for our project up really well by introducing the students to the idea of a central question.

To introduce our week long research/argument project I chose an article about self-driving vehicles and gave students our central question, "Should research and development of autonomous cars continue?"

Students start at the top of the diagram by filling out the pros and cons with their own ideas or opinions. If students don't know a lot about the topic they may not have muh information in this section. It's OK to make assumptions here. It's not necessarily about the right answer, but about activating background knowledge and creating interest.

Next, students should read the article. I ask students to annotate as they read through the first time and set the diagram aside. Then we discuss any clarifying questions. When I prompt students to do their second read, I tell they they're searching for the pros and cons the author presents. They should list these pros and cons on the central question diagram. I allow either quoting or summarizing, but I do require proper in text citations for each pro/con entry.

For the article we read in class, students quickly realized that the author was very much against autonomous cars and the con side is quite full.

This strategy helps students analyze all sides of an issue before discussing or coming to a conclusion. You can also have students use the diagram to collect info from multiple articles on a single diagram.

Resources:

• Central Question Diagram Template
• Completed Central Question Diagram Example
• Central Question Diagram Step-by-step Video

Check out my Padlet page with other critical reading strategy resources. 

UPDATE: Boolean Search Phrases

Update 9/26 @ 1:06pm -- Just saw a student voluntarially referencing the cheat sheets we created in this workshop!! #teacherwin
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As learners are preparing to jump into the research phase of our next project, we did a workshop on Boolean Search Phrases today. Students, I think understand the big idea behind Boolean Search Phrases and why they should use them, however I think the missing piece was the fact that they don't quite understand what each operator does and why they would use each specific operator. You can read my previous post about the struggle with understanding what I've already taught here. 

Today in class I started by putting one of my research questions on the board (pictured on the right). Then, I created a set of two Boolean Search Phrases, both of which had issues.

I prompted students to take one minute to discuss the phrases with their group. Then we came together, and I asked them what was wrong with the phrases.

The first phrase needed a few adjustments, but the other phrase was not even considered Boolean Search Phrase because it had no Boolean Operators.

I stressed that I have been seeing similar phrases on the test they took last week as well as in their research notes from the last project.

We then corrected the search phrases together and talked about the following reminders:

• Eliminate any small, unnecessary words such as - in, it, as, so, the
• Search phrases MUST have Boolean Operators in them, otherwise it's just a plain phrase and you're not forcing Google to do anything special
• Use quotes carefully!! Anything in quotes means you're telling Google you want those EXACT words in that EXACT order. I also tell the learners they really don't want more than 3-4 words in quotes otherwise they're getting too specific. 
• Boolean Search phrases shouldn't be more than 5-6 words 
• A student suggested looking at the research question and eliminating small, unnecessary words. Others simply make a list of keywords to start their phrase

I also realized that a big problem students were having was that they really didn't understand what the Boolean operators actually DO. Why use AND? Why use "quotation marks"? 

To round out our workshop I asked them to pick one of their research questions, pull out the keywords, and then use operators to turn the keywords into a Boolean Search phrase. I then walked around to discuss each group's search phrase, ask questions, and clarify. 

Once they talked with me, they grabbed a piece of construction paper and listed the research question and Boolean Search Phrase.

Then, I asked them to explain WHY they chose to use the Boolean Operators the way they did. For example, if they put a phrase in quotes, they had to explain why.

I really think this was a huge point of clarification for them. If they can understand, "What are they telling Google to do by using the operators and keywords they choose?" I think they'll be more thoughtful in forming them. 

They jump into full research mode on Monday so we'll see how much of an improvement I see in search phrases.









More examples of their explanations. Now we have a ton of example Boolean Search Phrases along with research questions and explanations of each operator.

"boolean search phrases" AND students AND (confused OR perplexed) -understanding

Google searches. Most of us, including students, do Google searches on a daily basis. However, my students always complain that Google returns lot of junk or that it takes them a really long time to find the information they need, want, or can trust.

I've tried multiple times over the past year to teach students how to use Boolean Operators to create Boolean Search Phrases in order to narrow and improve their search results on Google.

They still don't seem to get it.

It's not that they're not trying. They are. They write long, wordy search phrases and seemingly randomly stick in quotations or parenthesis and sometimes an "AND". But I can tell they still don't quite grasp it.

My mission over the next week is to develop a set of workshops and class activities where we will just hammer how to create Boolean Search Phrases, what the different operators do, and how to put them together in a way that makes for more effective searches.

I'm planning to review the presentation I used previously to introduce operators and how they work, and then I'll have to come up with other activities that might help clarify the process.

If nothing else ask WHO and WHY when evaluating sources

Last week, I continued to work with students on their basic research skills. As juniors, they're mostly aware of the necessity of evaluating the trustworthiness of their sources, however most still lack the skills or motivation to do so.

My current course, Critical Thinking and Argumentation, focuses on evaluating, assessing, and creating arguments. I really wanted to focus on getting students to think about the websites they're choosing to get information from, but I didn't want it to be "yes, the website is good, or no, it's not". Instead, I wanted to focus on possible bias or ulterior motives within websites that may have quality information. It all falls back on author's purpose.

Anchor chart that I created
for my classroom that goes
over the basics of evaluating a
source using WHO and WHY!

After finding a blog post that really clarified and simplified website evaluation, I pulled an example website and planned a 15 minute workshop.

I created an anchor chart that encourages students to, if they do no other evaluation, ask two questions -- who and why?

• Who created or wrote the information? 
• Who published the information? 
• Why did they create it? (Intended audience, purpose, and ulterior motives)

Initially, students found the website to be trustworthy, and they thought it contained quality information. They felt the fact that it was a .org and a non-profit organization made the site even more trustworthy. Students also noticed the celebrity endorsement, and they felt Danica Patrck wouldn't endorse something untrustworthy. 

After I asked students for their decision and listened to their feedback we had the following conversation. Keep in mind that I'm summarizing the answers I heard from 3 different classes, so their wording may not match exactly, but I want to convey their overall thinking. 

Q1: What is the purpose of the website?

A1: To teach people about different types of insurance. To educate people about purchasing insurance and choosing insurance companies.

Q2: So they're teaching people what insurance they need out of the goodness of their heart? 

A1: (Usually) Yes. 

I then asked,

Q3: Who is the publisher? 

Screen shot from the Life Happens website
outlining who the organization is and how
they got started. 

A3: Life Happens - the non-profit organization

Q4: Who is in charge of Life Happens? 

A4: Most found the CEOs name, some found that it was started by a group of insurance companies. 

At this point, I directed the students to the About page and ask them to look at the page that says Who We Are. I gave them time to read through the paragraph and then we discus why that might make the website a bias source. If they don't catch on right away, I ask, "What do insurance companies do?" Almost all respond with, "Sell insurance".

Q5: Does the fact that this was started by insurance companies, make them bias?
A5: Most answer yes, but can't explain why. Most still truly believe the purpose of the website is to educate people on insurance options.

If they're still struggling we discuss the meaning of ulterior motives. I give them the example of doing volunteer work out of the goodness of their heart versus doing volunteer work to put it on a resume. Either way they're still doing volunteer work, but the reason behind it is different.

Then I ask,
Q6: What might be this non-profits ulterior motive? Why would they want to educate people about insurance?
Q6: To get people to buy insurance!

I also pointed out that everything on the website explain why I NEED insurance. Nowhere does it give me reasons a particular policy or type of insurance might be unnecessary.

We ended the discussion by explaining that this doesn't mean that the information on this website isn't quality. There might be an article on the site by an insurance expert that is very informative. BUT I use this to show students that you have to think about the author's/publisher's purpose. What do they want you to think/do/say as a reader? 

Students are used to the "assess your sources" conversation. It's something they hear over and over in our building, but they rarely actually do it. I think by narrowing the information they have to look for to the WHO and they WHY makes it a bit easier for students to digest and use. I actually had a colleague come up to me this week and say, "Hey, we're talking about evaluating sources and writing research questions in my Chemistry class and students said that they'd done that in your class already."

Students making cross curricular connections and realizing that sometimes the skills we teach them go beyond a single classroom or assignment.

It' a beautiful thing.

Surviving Sickness with Flipped Instruction

So sickness has hit my household hard this year! My 13-month-old daughter is in a corporate daycare
full time, and she is bringing home sicknesses I have never heard of. After two days out with my own illness she contracted hand, foot, mouth disease, which is terrible. It is also very contagious, and a week later it hit my husband and then me. So three weeks into school, and I've already been out of the classroom for five days, including one professional day for a meeting.

Needless to say it's been a rough start, however I'm happy to say I think the students are still learning something even in my absence.

I have to admit I have the concept of flipped instruction to thank for that. I've been using flipped videos in my classroom for the past few years, but only occasionally. Now, this year I've discovered how helpful they can be when I'm absent or even when students are absent!

In the wake of a new Learning Management System (LMS), new devices, and new course curriculum, AND this sickness, I've had to take advantage of the flipped instruction model more than I have in the past.

I wanted to take some time to share out the different ways I make his work in my classroom including:

• Using Screencastify (free Google Chrome extension)
• Editing in YouTube Editor
• Adding closed captions in YouTube

I won't go into great amounts of step-by-step detail because I have to take advantage of my current sick day to get some grading finished. (Teachers never truly get a sick day, right?)

Screen Recording with Screencastify

First, Screencastify is a fee extension for Google Chrome. If you haven't discovered extensions yet you need to browse the Google Chrome store and see what's available. Extensions are basically magical little buttons that get added to your Google Chrome browser for easy access. What Screencastify does is it allows you to record, up to 10 minutes, of video. It records your computer screen (single tab, multiple tabs, or entire screen) and audio with the option of also recording a video of your smiling face in the bottom right corner of your video. Check out this tutorial for step-by-step instructions on how to use this fantastic extension . 

When it comes to flipping my instruction, I've been using Screencastify to how students how to do various critical reading methods and how to use graphic organizers I've created to go along with the critical reading method. In the past I would sit in the front of the room with my computer and/or a document camera and demo how to do the reading method, however by using flipped instruction I can instead walk around the room and provide one-on-one instruction and/or clarification as needed. This allows students who understand the method faster to get right to work, and those who need a little extra instruction or prodding to access me right away rather than me sitting up front for 20 minutes for everyone. 

I've embedded one of my most recent flipped instruction videos below. 

Editing Flipped Videos with YouTube Editor

Second, I've learned to avoid hitting the stop button when I mess up recording my videos. It can be really frustrating when you get 3 minutes into your recording and someone comes over the school PA or your classroom phone rings. Take a deep breath, count to five, and start a little before where you got messed up. YouTube actually as a pretty basic editing function that can be helpful in cutting out these little bloopers and saving the edited video to your YouTube channel. Now, Screencastify's default is to save the video to your Google Drive, so obviously if you want to do some editing in YouTube's editor you'll need to first upload your first draft of the video to your YouTube channel. Don't worry, you can upload it with the "Private" setting and no one will be able to see the video with the mistakes. I usually delete the one with all the bloopers after I've finished my editing. 

Adding Closed Captions

Next, I recently had a hearing impaired student join my class and had to scramble to figure out how to add closed captions to my existing videos. I first turned to YouTube and got extremely frustrated with how their captioning worked, however I realized I was in the wrong function/setting and was making it way more difficult than it needed to be. I will tell you that ideally you should write script before you record your video. You should do this whether or not you have to add captions, but I'm telling you it will save you a lot of headache if you have to put closed captions on your videos. Here is the step-by-step document I used when I was trying to figure this out. 

When you get to the point that you have to select a method for how you want to add subtitles, you'll have three options. The first is "Upload a file", which is where having a written script that you followed while recording is helpful. The second option is "Transcribe and auto-sync", which is the method that I had to use with my first closed captioned video. It took a while to transcribe, but YouTube worked out the timing perfectly. The third option is the one that I wasted a lot of time with. Let Google do the timing for you, with option number two. It's actually more accurate than trying to do it yourself. 

My school uses our own LMS provided by New Tech Network to distribute work to students, which is how I get them my flipped videos. Once your videos are on YouTube though you can get the links to students via Google Classroom or even QR codes. If YouTube is blocked in your school, you can download the video from YouTube and place it in your Google Drive. Be aware that if you download the video, you lose your closed captions, however you can always provide the student with the original script. 

Critical Reading Strategy: SQ3R [with graphic organizer template]

A screenshot of my SQ3R notes from the Critical Thinking and 

Argumentation course. Students read an excerpt from the 

academic text, Argumentation & Critical Decision Making by Rieke.

This past week my Critical Reading and Argumentation class was a bit chaotic. I was out sick for two days (yes in the first five days of school), and had to alter my original plans for them a bit. It actually ended up working out pretty well because I was able to integrate an academic reading that I found this summer. I knew that I wanted students to read it because it laid a pretty good foundation about argument structure and gave us some good key terms to work on throughout the rest of the trimester. I hadn't, however, thought about when to use it.

Sick days and sub plans turned out to be a great opportunity.

One of my big goals this year with this course, and all my courses really, is to give the students multiple critical reading strategies that they can add to their "Reading Toolbox". I want to discuss how not all tools I teach them will fit their personal preferences or every reading they read. Students will hopefully realize that the tools we learn and practice will be helpful in their other courses as well.

So, it seemed only fitting since they would be reading an excerpt from an academic textbook that we start out with the SQ3R critical reading strategy. This is one that I learned from a co-teacher a few years back, and I always struggle to remember what the letters stand for so I knew I wanted a way to make it simple for my learners.

Survey - look over the reading and note anything that stands out or seems important (title, author, dates, headings, subheadings, photos, graphics, charts/graphs, captions, etc.

Question - turn each heading and subheading into a question using who, what, when, where, or why. Since you haven't yet read the section, you may be able to form couple questions but only answer one after reading. That's fine. 

Read - this one is obvious. Read the text. I do, however, discuss with students the fact that I cannot read straight through 12 pages of text and pay attention that long. I tell them that I like to read each section then stop and Recite or answer my question for that section. I encourage them to make stopping points for themselves, whether that's every section or every three sections.  

Recite - I mentioned this under read, but this is where students will stop and try to summarize what they read in a section in order to answer the question they wrote.  I encourage students to try to write their answer without looking back at their reading, then double check themselves. I explain that if I'm looking at the reading when I write my answer, I'm more likely to plagiarize and write an answer that is too close to the original text. 

**Note: Students may go back and forth between the Read and Recite steps multiple times. That's perfectly fine!  

Review -  This final phase may come immediately following the reading or later on. I stress to learners that when they're finished they have a great set of notes to use as review before discussion, a quiz, or a test. They now have one page to review with instead of having to re-read the entire reading. 

We're a GAFE school so I decided to make a graphic organizer template in Google Documents. Now, teachers are highly encouraged to go paperless so students typically read on their devices (Lenovo Chromebooks), which have pretty small screens. It's not logical for them to have the graphic organizer pulled up beside the reading. I encouraged them that if they wanted to print the graphic organizer and hand write their notes they could do that if it worked better for them.

After modeling how to use the graphic organizer with my first period class (I had to come in sick for the first hour of school to get sub plans together), I created a flipped instruction video for my afternoon classes.

Then, students went through and Read/annotated the reading while also going through the steps of SQ3R. In the case of this assignment, I actually had students complete the Review step with  partner and compare notes on the second day I was absent. They also used Quizlet to make flashcards for the reading's key terms.

If you have other SQ3R resources or suggestions feel free to share them in the comments section. If any of the links or templates don't work please email me!

Flipped Instruction Video - explains SQ3R and using the graphic organizer template
SQ3R Graphic Organizer Template - created in Google Documents, the link will force you to make a copy of it so the original doesn't get messed up

To check out this and other reading strategies and tools, visit my Padlet page. https://padlet.com/mamason0725/criticalreadingstrategies

What's Happened??

So what's happened since my last [November] blog post??

Some pretty big things...

1. I am now the proud mama of a one-year-old toddler (yikes!)
2. I completed my masters degree in Education and Technology (basically technology integration and curriculum design with tech in mind)
3. I signed on for another year as a technology integration specialist (one of two in my building)
4. I officially made it past the 5 year hump in teaching! (The start to year 6 has been my toughest so far...or at least it seems like it after week one.)