Alaska Staff Development Network's "Blended Learning with Catlin Tucker" Fall 2016, Final Response.

Previously Submitted to ASDN

Lindsey Cassidy

EDUC 57127

Response and Application Paper

Implementing Catlin Tucker in the 9 & 10 ELA Classroom

I have recently relocated to Juneau, Alaska (from Kodiak, Alaska) and was lucky to find a .6 teaching position for one 9^th grade English class and two 10^th grade English class.  There are no requirements to be in an Honors class that I can find, so the students in my classes are the ones who have specifically chosen to not go on the Honors/AP track.  Therefore, my student make-up is students who are struggling readers, several ELL students, several students on IEPs due to reading skills and/or behavior, many with 504’s for anxiety and/or ADHD, strong readers who don’t want to put forth the effort in an advanced class, and students who are at grade-level reading ability and placed correctly. 

I learned an incredible amount during Catlin Tucker’s webinar.  Some of it I have already begun implementing, but much of it will be slowly added into the class as we continue our learning. 

One of the earliest points of conversation in class was the process for online discussions.  She shared ideas about how to set ground rules, examples to give students of “what to do” and “what not to do.”  Her use of the website Schoology and demonstrating its use was also incredibly helpful. 

I certainly plan on implementing Schoology with my students before winter break.  Unfortunately, because we created accounts as “students” with Catlin in class, I couldn’t also get a teacher account until Catlin either released us from the class or quit the class.  She responded to my email just the other day about de-enrolling me from the trial Schoology class so I can create a teacher account with my school email so that I can start getting students on the site.  Previous to this, in Kodiak where I taught for four years, the district was using Moodle as their LMS system that not only allowed me to upload documents, provide links, and assign activities, it also allowed me to create online discussions.  Since coming to Juneau, I’ve been learning about Google Apps for Education, particularly Google Classroom.  While it is a beneficial resource, it does not do online conversations as effectively as Moodle; Schoology is just what I was wanting and needing.  I look forward to using Catlin’s resources to set expectations and begin to use the site for these discussions.

Another resource Catlin shared I found intriguing was her approach teaching vocabulary.  I appreciate her tip to using vocabulary.com as well as the activities she does in class, particularly the one similar to the late night show host Jimmy Fallon’s skit.  I found the activities engaging and I’m certain students will, too.

Recently, my 10^th grade English students began reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and because I have just under fifty students in the classes, I started them using vocabulary.com with the new unit.  Students have only reviewed vocabulary for chapters one through six to this date, but with those twenty words, they have had an incredible amount of practice.  I also appreciate the leaderboard on the website that allows students to have a friendly competition with each other and their vocabulary.  Vocabulary.com offers new and different study practice options from the more commonly known site quizlet.com.

And finally, the other really appreciated resources Catlin shared with the class was the wealth of resources where teachers could find texts to share with students. She listed a variety of websites, some I had heard of like NewsELA and Diigo as well as others I had not including CommonLit and Smithsonian Teen Tribune.  One she did not mention that I have had great success with and is free, is ReadWorks.org. 

Allowing students to access information from texts is key to learning; NewsELA is a great resource that allows students to do this.  I have used NewsELA in the past, but I used it again quite recently after Catlin reminded me of its existence.  I was able to find a class text in NewsELA so that my students who were unable to access the information from the primary source and its 1330 Lexile score would be able to do so with a modified version.  All students were successful with the activity because of NewsELA.  I have used Diigo in my professional education—a professor required we locate resources and tag them—but I didn’t realize its full capacity for education until Catlin mentioned this.  I look forward to asking students to download the Diigo extension on their chrome books and asking them to annotate.  I have used ActivelyLearn to annotate, but it only allows a certain amount of documents uploaded a month with the free account and Diigo is always free.

Catlin gave so many great ideas that I had to purchase her text she plugged at the end of each class.  It has so much information that we didn’t cover in class as well as ideas discussed more in depth.  Again, I’m sure I’ll be using the rest of my year with my students to weave all of these activities in.  It’s been a very inspiring class!