I've spent a considerable amount of energy this summer trying to figure out this difficult problem: How do you flip reading instruction, particularly in a self-paced, asynchronous mastery environment?  

I don't know that I have an answer yet.  But I have thoughts.  These thoughts were HEAVILY influenced by lots of people (yes...the usual suspects).  In fact, let me make that more explicit.  These ideas are not mine.  I can't claim them and I refuse to claim them.  They only exist because of the amazing people on Twitter who process with me constantly.  They only exist because of the webinar we had last Tuesday.  They only exist because of Andrew Thomasson and Karl Lindgren-Streicher.  Andrew said it better here...and that's how things tend to work.  I talk forever and in circles, and then he just puts it so simply and beautifully, in a way that is perfectly understandable and yet so profound that I just shut up and agree with him.

So I agree with him.

That being said...writing "we" instead of "I" just sounds weird.  So mentally, when you read "I" know that there are multiple "I"s represented in this amazing collective of colleagues.

I'm going to start by listing the general ideas, then I'll give specifics after the list.   This got really, really long.  And it's probably confusing to anyone outside my own head.  For that I apologise in advance.  

Guiding Principles
1. Flipped reading is more than "reading at home" and "talking about it in class."
2. Flipping reading requires way more creativity than flipping grammar or vocabulary or even writing, and it greatly depends on instructional context.
3. Flipped reading works better with shorter texts than with longer texts.
4. Flipping reading has to be about process and skill rather than content.

Explanations of those Guiding Principles

1. Flipping reading is not reading at home and talking about it in class.
This pops up every now and then, and I just have one thing to say:
How is it flipping when you're just following the commonly accepted instructional paradigm?  That's not flipping.  That's traditional.  

So stop saying that is flipped English...please?

You can read Troy Cockrum's thoughts on the matter here.

2. Flipping reading requires creativity and depends on instructional context.
The first part is obvious - the reason there are VERY few strategies for flipping reading is because conceptually, it's really difficult to get your head around.  It takes creativity, which is where the Explore Flip Apply model comes in (more on that later...and there are tons of entries if you look back through my post history).

The second part, about instructional context, is really important.  What will work with me at Redwood High School is not what worked at San Lorenzo High School, and it may not work in your school either.  I don't know.  You're the teacher, thus you're the expert on how to teach your kids.  I can only tell you what I do, and give you guiding principles for how to structure your units and instruction.

When I flipped Night last year, I made videos of myself reading the text.  We had Today's Meet live discussions in class as the videos played (basically, it allowed me to participate in the discussion and manage the room instead of trying to read + do all of that).  Then students compiled theme and figurative language examples in separate Today's Meet threads and on Edmodo.  Then we did a lot of writing and discussion questions.  We watched a lot of related documentaries and film clips to give context.  We discussed them all.  I had a few skills videos, but not many - probably because the skills were mostly higher-level and based on lower-level skills they had learned earlier in the year (either on video or back before the flip, by direct instruction).

I consider that unit flipped.  But a lot of people wouldn't.  This is why we need to come to a common understanding of what flipped English is and isn't.

It also leads to my next Guiding Principle:

3. Flipped reading works better with shorter texts than longer ones.  
Jessica McGrover lays out in this post why this is true.  When you're having students flip a longer work and go at their own pace, they will inevitably do what you want them to do and end up working at their own pace.  And you can't have discussions about the book unless kids are at roughly the same point.  Imagine trying to discuss the theme of fate verses free will in Romeo and Juliet when one student is in Act I, scene v (after R&J meet), another student just finished Act III scene i (where Mercutio/Tybalt are killed), and another student just finished the play.  Unless you explicitly give them permission to talk about the entire play (which "ruins" it for the student in Act I), you are going to have frustrated students and a flat discussion.  Which ruins the whole experience of collaborative conversation.

The plan I've got for my flipped classes this year is to have some strategies for flipping shorter texts, and some strategies for flipping longer texts.  

Read the second part of this entry here.  It was way too much content for one post.

I've been in a frenzy of collaboration in the last few days.  First, I participated in a webinar with other English/Social Studies flippers: Troy Cockrum, Andrew Thomasson, Karl Lindgren-Streicher, and moderator and blogging-flipping-extraordinaire, Math flipper Crystal Kirch.  Kate Petty tried to join us on video, but due to technical difficulties wasn't able to be there the whole time. She did participate in the comments and wrote up some blog posts afterward that were really helpful to clarify and crystalise the thinking behind flipping English. 

We screencasted the entire webinar so anyone could watch it.  Here it is!

I've also been working intensely on a definition for what Flipped Humanities is and should be.  Andrew Thomasson and I will be recording a video about it soon, based on the five page (in-progress) collaborative Google document we developed with Karl Lindgren-Streicher.  

It's one of the coolest things I've done.  Karl and I started it with nothing, and within an hour, we had argued (in different colour text, obviously) back and forth and clarified our thinking and come to something that I think is the most clear and well-composed definition I've seen.  It's about 90% there, and still needs some work, but you'll hear more from Andrew and me about that soon.

It also came out of the debrief we had after the webinar and a conversation that started on Twitter the day after the webinar, and included Kate Baker, as well as the others mentioned above.  

Working with the people I've been blessed enough to meet through Twitter and the Flipped community is making me a better teacher, and giving me SO many great ideas and projects that it's just staggering.  I want to publicly thank everyone I've mentioned so far, for making me a more reflective teacher and helping me bring my ideas to life.  I also credit you guys for most of those ideas because they wouldn't exist without the collaboration we've shared.

More than anyone else though, I want to thank Andrew for the role he's played in my life the past few weeks.  It is an intense privilege to have him as a collaborative partner, and I have learned so much from him, both professionally and personally.  I can't say thank you to him enough, really.  None of this would be possible without you, homie.

Something else Andrew and I have been working on all week is the video Jon Bergmann asked us to make describing our collaborative video process.  We shot the original footage on Monday.  On Wednesday, after spending about 15 hours editing, not to mention the original 3 hour shoot, we decided it wasn't good enough and started over...even though it was VERY late in North Carolina.  That footage can't even compare to the original.  It's so much better, probably because we did what we do best: make an explicit plan, then ignore that plan and just talk to each other candidly. 

Then, with a TON of help from Crystal and Karl, we edited it into two videos:

1. The basics of what we're doing:

As well as the longer and more complete video that covers 

2. The applications and pedagogical underpinnings of what we're doing:

*******

I'm looking forward to the next series Andrew and I have planned: writing an analytical essay.  We will also start making some flipped reading videos as we start to plan our year of curriculum.  

So that was my week.  

Spending it with the Cheesebucket Posse makes it pretty much the best week ever.

And if I haven't convinced you that you need to be on Twitter, go back and read every entry tagged with Andrew Thomasson.  Then tell me why you want to miss out on potentially creating this kind of awesome collaborative partnership.  

If Twitter scares you, let me know WHY and Andrew and I will make a video that addresses those concerns.  Seriously. 

ETA: here's what Jon Bergmann thought of the video.  He was the one who asked us to make it, so it's totally relevant.

Can Jon Bergmann write a blog entry about our video?  Seriously?

I don't know if I can handle how awesome that is.

As promised, here is the story of why my blog is now called Ion Lucidity.  It was written by my good friend, Andrew Thomasson (although I wish I had written it.  It's that good).

I don't even want to ruin this post by putting any more of my own words in.  Here is his beautiful explanation for why my blog is titled Ion Lucidity.


The Creation Myths of Ion Lucidity
by Andrew Thomasson

All great and beautiful creations need stories about how they were birthed into the world.  The sun rises, sets; the sky explodes into a million shades of blue and sunset; babies are born & begin to cry; ions become lucid. We all know this, deep in our hearts: it's human nature to want to explain the unexplainable, the mysterious, and the sublime. 

And this blog is sublime. Here is its story.

Once upon a time, high up on Mount Olympus, hiding in one of Zeus's most special thunderbolts, lived a little ion. 

Once upon a time, two teachers living on opposite coasts of a very large nation wanted to create a band--a band with a name that would inspire the proper amount of fear, trembling, and reverence on concert flyers. 

Or this: once upon a time, a lie was told, but it contained an ion of truth.

Even better: once upon a time, a group of students--a nation and world of students, really-- needed a jolt of energy, a change of pace, a bringer of Zeusian-level light. 

Once upon a time, a wise friend demanded self-confidence out of his partner-in-academia, partly in hopes that when he needed it, she would return the favor, the ion, the positive charge, and the light that came with it. 

Once upon a time, there was a blog. 

And once upon a time, before coffee, there was a typo. 

If you're interested in attending the Flipped Class Webinar, where Troy Cockrum, Andrew Thomasson, Karl Lindgren-Streicher, Crystal Kirch and I talk about the future of flipping English and History, you should check out our google document.  It has all the information you'll need to attend, and it includes a list of questions that we've generated from conversations, blog comments, Tweets, etc.  

This is a crowd-sourced event, so feel free to add your question to the list!  If you do add a question, it would be great if you could include your name and/or twitter handle so we can credit you.

As always, it will be a great conversation with a lot of dynamic and innovative teachers.  We hope you can join us on Tuesday, 10 July at 5 PM PST.  If you can't join us, then I'll be (hopefully) screencasting the whole thing and posting it to our YouTube Channel.

Here is the link to the google doc.  Here's the full document if you can't/don't want to access it:

Language Arts/Social Science Webinar
This event will take place on 7/10 at 5 PM PST

The presenter line-up is:
Troy Cockrum (@tcockrun), 7th-8th ELA (St. Ignatious, Indianapolis, IN)
Cheryl Morris (@guster4lovers), 11th-12th ELA (Redwood High School, Marin, CA)
Andrew Thomasson (@thomasson_engl) 11th-12th ELA (King’s Mt High School, King’s Mountain, NC)
Karl Lindgren-Streicher (@kls4711), 9th-10th Social Science (Hillsdale High School, San Mateo, CA)
Crystal Kirch (@crystalkirch) 9th-12th Algebra 1 & Pre-Calculus (Segerstrom High School, Santa Ana, CA)
Kate Petty (@techclassroom) 12th grade ELA, ELD 1 (Trabuco Hills High, Mission Viejo, CA)

Discussion Questions
How does an English teacher flip their class?
What does flipped reading instruction look like?
What role do the CCS play in flipped pedagogy?
How can we learn from/work with other subject area teachers to figure out how to flip English?
Does Explore Flip Apply work in English and history?
What kinds of skills make good videos and (if any) which should remain “unflipped”?*
How can collaborative videos make flipping English more reasonable?
What kinds of project based learning can you do in English?
How can WSQ (Watch Summary Question) & SSS (guided note-taking packet) be used in ELA?
What colour hair do you think Crystal Kirch has?
Any other questions you’d like to add for our consideration can go here:

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE!
Question/Poll is found here: http://tinyurl.com/ELAflip

Link to Webinar is here: 
http://www.anymeeting.com/WebConference/default.aspx?ip_ek=FlippedEnglish1

Technology Notes:
--You should run AnyMeeting out of Firefox, as Chrome and Safari seem to have issues.
--Before the meeting, you’ll need to create an account and do a system test (http://www.anymeeting.com/webconference/systemtest/AnyMeetingSystemTest.aspx)
--If you are unable to get into AnyMeeting, Crystal will be checking the hashtag #ELAflip and taking questions from there
--We will make every attempt to record the session and host it on YouTube afterwards (at least on the ThomassonMorrisInstr channel)

TECHNOLOGY BACK UP PLAN:
If the AnyMeeting site crashes for any reason, we will switch to Google+ Hangout and we’ll add the link on Twitter (hashtags #flipclass and #ELAflip) and our blogs, as well as on this document.  You will need stream through YouTube using the link we send out.

This is what I woke up to this morning.  I haven't included all 50 or so tweets, but here's enough to give you the picture....

So here's the deal we struck:

Look for that in the near future.  And update your bookmarks please!

And the most hilarious part of the whole exchange was this:

I'm pretty sure you automatically win the internet if you get retweeted by ButterChallenge.  So bravo, Andrew Thomasson.  I look forward to your explanation of why this blog is now called MorrisFlipsEnglish Blog: Ion Lucidity.

Before I tell you about my exciting unit plan, I'd like you all to go read my friend Andrew Thomasson's NEW BLOG.  Follow him.  He may not have much there yet (he literally built it in a couple of hours today) but he is definitely an amazing writer.  Just sayin'.

On to the main post.

So I got my first REALLY GOOD IDEA about teaching the Essay and Exposition class to which I'm assigned this semester.

I was reading this awesome article.  If you haven't read it, go read it now.  

Thinking through all the typical "first day of class" activities, one thing I just can't NOT do is have them write something describing themselves.  But I hate the way I've done it in the past.  Either I give them a million guidelines and it sounds more like a shopping list than a "here's who I am" letter, or I give them few guidelines and they turn in five lines that describe their epic love for sleeping, hanging out with family, and video games.  

That's when it occurred to me that I could have them write an essay in the style of "Snapshot of a Modern Learner" as their "introduction letter" assignment.  Then this unit plan just fell together in no time.  It's based on a (slightly asynchronous) mastery model, and the bell schedule is M, T, F 55 minutes, and one 90 minute block day (either W or Th depending on the class).  

As always, please tell me what you think about it.  




Unit Plan in the Explore-Flip-Apply Model


Explore:
Students can put the article into categories like I just did (see the bottom of this post if you care to know how I analysed the text).  I will either:

1) Give them four categories (description of action/inaction, and description/antithesis of self).  I will then ask them to add one more category they see in the text to those four categories and justify their choice.

2) Tell them to find their own categories of language and justify why/how they see them developing in the text.

General "inquiry"-type questions:
--Which categories have more?  Why?
--Within the categories, what language patterns do you notice?  
--Why are those important?  
--How do they tell you about the author’s purpose?

They will then write that up into a textual analysis blog entry.

Flip Video Sequence:
1. Finding and analysing patterns/themes
2. Text preview/model conversation questions [for the three options of texts]
3. Essay guidelines for Snapshot of Me as a Learner

Apply:
--Students read another text and apply patterning to it.
--Students have a reflective conversation or write a blog post about the patterns in the piece (similar questions to the ones in the Explore phase)
--Students write their own “Snapshot of Me as a Learner” essay

******

So those are the activities and how they fit into the Explore Flip Apply model.  But I still needed to understand how it looked in a week.  So here's what I mapped out:

Unit Outline
Monday: explore activity (including textual analysis blog entry), first video as HW

Tuesday: debrief video and check for understanding.  The task in class is to read and pattern a second text, and then create an analysis similar to explore phase, so students who can do it on their own will do so (or they can self-select into groups).  Students who need more guided practice (based on my CFU or self-identified need) will work with me on [possibly an easier version of] the same text, with scaffolding along the way to help them prepare for the next activity.

At the end of class, we'll have a short discussion about the patterns they found, which will allow me to assess understanding and assign remediation as necessary.

HW is to watch text preview video and come to class ready with which text they are most interested in reading

Block day (90 minutes): debrief video and give out the text to students based on their own choice. Divide into stations/groups based on chosen text.  After reading and patterning, students will do one of the following:
1) pairs/small groups that have reflective conversations and film it (advanced) 
2) write a blog post about the text and comment on others’ posts, or 
3) re-watch the patterning video with guided analysis questions that will lead into writing reflective questions 

HW is to watch the video on starting their SOMaL essay (many students will probably finish early in class, and therefore will watch the video and start the essay that day)

Friday: debrief video and write essay in class. If students are not ready, they can continue the tasks from block day or work on their Blank White Page project.  If necessary, they can finish the essay over the weekend.


Required tasks for the week:
--Analysis of SOML article and one more short article (everyone does the same)
--Textual analysis blog post
--Watch three videos with CFU assignments (probably an embedded google form) 
--a third [student choice] text/pattern assignment and assessment [have a reflective conversation or do a reflective writing on the second text - students who need remediation may use the guided notetaking, but it won't give them the full 85% for the week]
--write a short definition essay (Snapshot of Me as a Learner)

Grading/Mastery:
If students complete all of that work to the required standard in the week, they get an 85% in classwork (if they fail to complete it to the standard, they will earn lower than 85%). 

To get the last 15%, they need to either 1) show at least "an hour's worth" of work on the BWP project, complete an additional task (like finding another model text and doing a reflective blog post/conversation) AND they must show excellence in the writing task.

The Snapshot of Me as a Learner writing task is on a mastery grading system.  They will not “pass” this unit until they get at least a 75% on the essay.  They can complete as many revisions as they wish, up until the end of the quarter (8-9 weeks).


Additional Texts I'm Considering for this Unit:
--Myth of Latin Woman
--The Key to My Father
--Sanctuary of School
--Mother Tongue
--Why I Want a Wife
--On Being a Cripple
--Why I Write (Weisel) 
--Fat
--Shrouded in Contradiction

All of these are from either Essay Connections or The Blair Reader, both of which are class texts.  I'd also love other suggestions, so long as they are readily available and around the 12th grade reading level (higher is preferable actually).

*******

I had one more additional revelation while I was writing this unit.  I don't have to have all the students read the same texts, because as long as I offer different choices in each unit, they never have to read the same text twice.  So if a kid reads "Mother Tongue" in this unit, when we do the "Politics of English" unit, they will just read another of the choices.  I just need to have the "Explore" text not be an option for any of the self-selected options in any unit.

If you want to know what that paragraph looks like at midnight, here it is for your enjoyment:

AAAAAHH!! I don’t have to use diff texts for diff units if there are choices every time!!

Yeah, I'm not all that grammatically correct past 11 PM I guess.  I forgot that was in there, until I was sharing a draft of this document with my good friend Karl, and he laughed at me.  To be fair, I'd laugh at me too.


*******

If you're interested in my textual analysis of the article, here you go!


Stylistic Notes about the Article:
[I left my own stylistic notes in because I thought it might help you understand my pattern system a little.  Sorry if they are unintelligible] 

Style: paragraphs have contradictions/parallels in them, all in present tense, except for when referring to what he “learned” in his history project; switches to imperative in the end (they MUST); the definition of himself is built implicitly throughout, but finally defined explicitly in the end (reverse pioneer - important defining language), becomes an argument at the end.  It really blends a whole lot of styles - narrative, observation, definition, argument and evaluation
Patterns: Santos/He is always the subject of the sentence; language of disconnection/connection, he thinks/they think/the reality is; mixing what is/isn’t “acceptable”, language of involvement but not creation

The thesis/antithesis in this article is interesting - maybe make a list of competing descriptions?

Linguistic Patterns in the Text:
These are the patterns I notice in the way the text is constructed.  These are literally just copied and pasted from the article.

HE DOES:
Santos sends approximately 125 texts per day. 
He sneaks his phone into his classes either in his book bag or his jacket and 
is online just about all day. 
He posts messages to Facebook during class. 
He looks up answers to definitions of words online. 
He checks sports scores, 
plays games, 
posts his location so his friends can find him easily, and 
streams music through an app on his phone.
Santos opens books and is frustrated when he can’t click on the words or pictures for more information.
Santos listens to his teachers lecture, feeling strange that he can’t pause, rewind, fast-forward, or have anytime access to the information
Santos often helps them when his teachers have trouble with technology or web tools
He knows how to bypass his school’s internet filter and often helps his teachers access Youtube videos to aid in instruction.
he can articulate every detail if you ask Santos what he DID for his History project, 
he recites the definitions to a couple of the words he defined.
Santos participates in school as if it were a giant check-off list
he is always DOING something
When he finishes one task, he moves on to another. 
He does okay, though
When Santos is assigned a big task at school, he goes home and creates a Facebook group around it. 
He shares what he finds on the topic with others and they share back. 
He creates his own opportunities for collaborative learning. 
Santos knows where to find information
he knows where information lives: everywhere
He is more likely to find and copy information without attribution
He learns about these things at night on his own.

HE DOESN’T:
Outside of school, he doesn’t separate technology from other activities. 
think about [technology] because it’s always available.
When asked to give an example, he falters. 
He’s not necessarily always learning at school,. 
His grades are better when he’s interested in what he is doing at school, and marginal when he’s disinterested. Unfortunately, that happens more and more often as he gets older.
He does not necessarily discern what information is relevant and 
he doesn’t necessarily know what he needs to learn from the information. 
he is not likely to connect ideas and create something new from it.

HE IS/WILL BE:
he is misunderstood.
he would be really good at developing Augmented Reality programs or designing nanocircuitry that would enable the creation of incredibly small computing devices
Santos is connected to kids in China, England, Germany, and Australia
he is translating the language with an online tool so that they can effectively communicate
He is connected to these kids because of a mutual interest in nanocircuitry. 
Santos is a good kid. 
Kids like Santos are reverse pioneers, navigating worlds that everyone older than them values. 
he is constrained by system frightened by “what ifs” rather than magnificence of “what could be.”

HE IS NOT:
Santos is not an enigma, 
His parents think he would make a good lawyer or doctor. Santos thinks. He told the Career and Technology teacher at his school what he was learning. The teacher handed him plans for a canned cardboard rocket project.
he isn’t thinking about distances or time when he interacts. 
Santos is not being adequately prepared for the world he will graduate into, at least in school.

HE THINKS (or other thinking tasks):
He accepts the role he has at school, like most of the other kids, and like most of the other kids, Santos thinks that school is largely a time machine.  
He leaves his world and goes back in time at 7:30 AM Monday through Friday. At 3:30 PM, he re-enters his world.
Santos recognizes that the topics he is really interested in are largely blocked/ignored at school. 
He thinks it’s funny that he goes to school to learn a few things that he will be tested on, but don’t really represent his current or future worlds. Santos believes he learns more outside of school than he does inside of school.
Santos knows that they are accountable for specific content, delivered in ways to help him maximize his score on state assessments
he stays up late at night to learn about nanocircuitry, w/a worldwide cadre of like-minded peers.
Santos knows that technology doesn’t move backwards

HIS TEACHERS:
His teachers can’t dismantle his reality to maintain comfort in their professional practice. 
His teachers are going to have to embrace all that modern learning means, though, act on it with purpose, and make technology as ubiquitous as a pencil. Right now, 
His teachers mean well, but Santos knows that they are accountable for specific content, delivered in ways to help him maximize his score on state assessments, which leaves little time for anything that would matter to him in a meaningful way.

Thesis: If kids like Santos will become the future innovators, then they need opportunities to innovate with the tools and technology of tomorrow, not yesterday.

So this project on which Andrew Thomasson and I have embarked is exciting.  The filming has become less of "how do I write a research paper adequately?" and more of friends hanging out, and oh, we just happen to also be writing a research paper.

And that makes it really hard to edit the videos well.  There's also the fact that our last session clocked in at nearly 70 minutes, and is breaking down into five videos.

I've finished videos six, seven and eight.  They're posted up in the Thomasson & Morris Instruction tab if you want to see them.  Just keep in mind that I haven't added YouTube annotations yet (all the places that say "click here" will eventually redirect to the other videos in the series), mostly because I didn't want to do it before all ten videos were on YouTube.

This whole problem is compounded by the fact that Mr. Thomasson left for the weekend and so I'm missing half my filter for "is this good or not?" - which is one of the reasons our partnership works so well.  

Posting this blog entry is also sort of procrastination.  The hardest video is yet to come - the actual "writing the draft" one includes a lot of me just sitting there typing, while Andrew gets up and leaves a few times.  We're figuring we'll need to do a voice-over track on it...which means waiting until Andrew gets home tomorrow.

Other things I've done to procrastinate:
--posted to Facebook about my project with Andrew
--tweeted and surfed my timeline
--started planning my courses (i.e. assigned a different colour pen to each class, counted the weeks in the semester, then gave up)
--made some Blue Bottle coffee (if you don't live in the Bay Area, that reference is probably lost on you...and that's a shame.  Best coffee in the Bay).
--pretended to do some dishes
--filled up my water bottle
--posted a question on Ask Metafilter (my other favourite time-killing website) to solicit the best humourous works to use in my Language of Humour class
--started reading an essay about writing essays in The Essay Connection (Bloom)
--responded to the following Tweet:

Okay.  Back to work...


...after I check Twitter.

So one of my biggest challenges in switching from my home of four years, San Lorenzo High School, to my new home, Redwood High School, is that I will now be in charge of planning my own curriculum.  I used to do that, but when I moved to SLz, everything was planned collaboratively.  It taught me a lot about scaffolding and structure, and I am SO thankful that I learned so much while I worked there.

But Redwood isn't just asking me to plan my own curriculum - they want me to plan curriculum for three different upper-division electives (for 11th-12th graders) at a college level.  Seriously.  Last night, I brought some of the texts I'm using over to my church home group, and everyone said something like, "That's for high school students?  I didn't read that until nearly the end of college!"

One of the biggest challenges is a class called Essay and Exposition.  It's not quite an AP class, but it's still the "best and brightest" in the school who sign up.  

That being said, I was reading a fantastic article by Mike Fisher, called Snapshot of a Modern Learner.  If you haven't read it, you should.

The basic premise of the essay is that the modern learner approaches learning differently than school offers it.  

That got me thinking...what if I had students read the article and then write a portrait of themselves as a learner in the style of Fisher's essay?

It serves myriad purposes:

• working on style imitation, which is a goal of the class
• it tells me about them and their own learning context
• it leads into the unit on definition essays

It also ties in nicely with my White Blank Page project and the goals of a flipped class.  I think part of why I'm freaking out about this year is because I want to have something planned out fully and I don't.  But I also know that personalisation is a major factor in my flipped class, and without knowing the students, I don't know what they need.  Those two competing forces have made my head a really unpleasant place the last few weeks (and I'm sorry to my friends who've had to hear verbalise the neurotic personality inside my head).

In fact, Crystal Kirch, Karl Lindgren-Streicher and I were talking about planning for the year last night on Twitter.

Planning for a flipped class is really, really hard.  And even more so in English.  I mean, I can prepare content (see: Thomasson and Morris Instruction), but I can't prepare for what they know and what they will need to know.  That is only compounded by the fact that I have a very vague sense of Redwood's school culture and student makeup. 

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I'm not sure how this post descended into my own insecurities.  It probably has to do with the fact that, as a learner, I always feel like I should know more than I do.  I always feel like I am so far behind everyone else that I'll never catch up.  There are reasons for that (none are relevant for the purposes of this post), but it certainly impacts how I teach.  

I think I need to write my own "Snapshot of a Modern Learner" essay first.  

Patterns are everywhere.  Whether we realise it or not, our life is dominated by and surrounded with patterns.  

Teaching students to harness the power of patterns to help them make sense of reading, writing, and critical thinking gives them a toolkit that will allow them to understand the entire world.

The way I teach my system, which I simply call "Patterning," is fairly straight forward.  And what I realised is that it's Explore-Flip-Apply without me even knowing it.  There are two systems, one for shorter works (generally it works best with non-fiction), and one for longer works.  I'll describe my system for longer works first, and I'll address the other system in another post soon. 

I could go on and on in words, but I think it's much easier to understand Patterning if you look at this document:

That is the first page in Virginia Woolf's The Waves.  You can see that we found and traced seven patterns.  Some of those are the ones that I showed them (shapes and colours), and the rest are student-found patterns.  

Here are the instructions I gave:
Anytime an author uses a word, it is intentional.  They thought about that word and the way in which it fits in to the entire work.  They use related words, phrases, images, and ideas to create patterns.  In this section, there are lots of patterns - your job is to find them.  If you think it's a pattern, it probably is.  

Then I give them about 10 minutes and instruct them to mark them in different colours.  A requirement of my class is that they have 5-6 colours of highlighters.  Short of having all my students on iPads with Notability, I'm not sure I can make that part digital...yet.

After they found patterns, they shared out with the class.  You'll notice that some patterns intersect, but that's okay.  I love using Virginia Woolf for this exercise because her writing is so freaking intentional.

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In a novel, I'll sometimes give them the patterns ahead of time, and have them trace them through the work.  Here's an example from Toni Morrison's Beloved, which I taught to 11th graders in summer school last year:

You can see the pattern groups at the top of the page.  

Yes, I photocopied the entire book for my students.  But it only took 30 pieces of paper for the whole novel because I put 8 book pages on a single sheet of paper.  And I wasn't allowed to bring them from my school to the SS school site, so it was the best option I had.


After we read a section, I would give students time to find ANY evidence of their pattern and highlight it.  Then they would choose their Crystal Quotes - the one or two quotes per section that best illustrated their pattern.  When they were ready, they would come mark them on the class copy.  After all groups were ready, we marked them up as a group so all students had all the Crystal Quotes for every pattern in their packet.


You can probably see the +5 next to some highlighting.  The way I motivated groups to find the best quotes was that I chose two  Crystal Quotes of my own, and if they chose the same ones as me, I gave them extra credit points.


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So basically, they're finding evidence of a theme, but I'm not using the word "theme" because it's unnecessary.  And when the time comes to write the essay for the novel, they have already selected all of their evidence for a variety of themes.  


I'm sure I'm not explaining it perfectly, but that's my system.  My kids find it incredibly useful, because finding "patterns" is so much more concrete than "analysing a theme" or "choosing evidence to prove a claim" (but it's the same thing).


This system also fits in to my first day activity (White Blank Page - if you haven't read it, you should!).  When I pull them out to do their video interviews, I'm looking for their ability to make inferences and find patterns.  We'll cover the explicit vs. implicit evidence, finding patterns in their own life and in the world around them, and how to apply that to reading, writing, and thinking.  


I'll probably show Derren Brown's AMAZING TV show, The Heist to show them how  one person manipulates others using only patterns.  I am (not so) secretly in love with Derren Brown (side note: he's British, but some of his work is about to be put on Hulu!!!!  You should definitely check him out...you will be entertained and amazed).


Then we'll use those skills in the research unit and in the White Blank Page project I talked about in the last post.  And thanks to Karl for posting the Google Doc description we (really, he) wrote.  I didn't have permission to share it... :-)

In terms of how to use this in my flipped class, I think I'll push all the "here's how you use this system" to video, and then have them mark it up for homework, rather than in class.  That way we can spend class time discussing and analysing the text.  If my guiding question is "How do I use my face-to-face time most effectively?" then I think the best use of in class time is not having them highlight for 30 minutes.

In the next post, I will probably cover my text-coding pattern system.  Probably.  

So in the last week, I've recorded and edited about two hours worth of content with my co-conspirator, Andrew Thomasson.  I wrote about what we've been up to in the previous post, so I won't spend too much time on that.  Right now, I have a few exciting announcements:

1. ShowMe, the iPad tool I use to create videos on an interactive whiteboard (you can see all my videos here), named me one of the first ever Master Teachers.  If you go to my profile, you'll see the little title next to my name.  It's a big honour, and I really appreciate the value they see in my work.

2. I will be co-presenting a Language Arts/Social Studies Flipped Class webinar, with Troy Cockrum, Andrew Thomasson, Crystal Kirch, and Karl Lindgren-Streicher, and another presenter TBD. We will be discussing lots of questions Troy and I have received in the last few weeks, and I think it will be a good introduction to flipping English for those who struggle to know where to begin.  We'll also address Social Studies because of the links in the Common Core Standards (for ELA people and others unfamiliar with them, the CCS in Social Studies aren't content-based - they are literacy/skills-based), with Karl as our resident expert History teacher.  Crystal will be there to help moderate and take questions from viewers.

We will publicise the link on Edmodo, Twitter, and our personal blogs (e.g. here) on Monday, as the webinar will take place on Tuesday at 5 PST.  All you need to join in is an internet connection!  I hope we'll have a good turn-out, and that it will prove useful to people.

3. Finally, I will be starting a project based on a previous blog post about my first day of school activity, White Blank Page.  Here's some additional information, as we're seeking 1-3 more high school teachers to join us (because I'll have seniors, it just seemed wrong to open it up to 6th-8th graders, as it will be heavily collaborative between students).  So far, Karl Lindgren-Streicher and Andrew Thomasson will be joining me on the project.  We'd love to have other teachers of ANY discipline, so long as they teach HS and can commit to the project.

Students would add their questions to a Google form, and then we would archive it on the project's website.  Each semester, students would choose a minimum of one question to work on.  There are lots of ways to do this, but the three of us will probably use it as a Google 20% project, where students get roughly one class session a week to work on it.  Finished projects would be posted to the project website, where students could comment on other projects and get ideas for their next project.

This project is constantly evolving, but we'd like to have at least four, but as many as six, dedicated teachers signed up to the project before 10 August.  If we have more interest than that, we would be HAPPY to help you set up your own project (this would be ideal if a lot of middle school folks wanted to do their own!).

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Also, if you didn't notice, I have made some changes to the organisation of this website.  I added a tab for Thomasson & Morris Instruction, which is where you'll find updated information about my collaboration with Andrew.  Our future plans are HUGE, so check back frequently to see what we're working on.  Right now, I'm attempting to cut together something coherent out of our (ridiculously fun) chaotic 65 minute recording session from yesterday.  As we go on, it's feeling more and more like two friends hanging out, rather than doing "serious work" - and I think that's great.  We want students to see us having fun, but also working hard, and I think we're finding that balance.  

I'd also like to publicly thank Andrew for being the best collaborative partner I could wish for.  He keeps our crazy ideas in check, and has allowed me to be more excited to be a teacher than I ever have been in the last nine years.  I look forward to seeing what we'll accomplish together over the next few years.

If you have questions for us, you can contact us here, on Twitter (@guster4lovers and @thomasson_engl), or at our shared email address: [email protected].  We also have our own YouTube channel, where all of our videos will be housed.