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• Elona Hartjes, Ontario Certified Teacher

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I try to engage my struggling, reluctant students by using a variety of online applications as teaching tools for me and as learning tools for my students.  There’s so much available online now that I can use. Finding engaging teaching and learning tools is not a problem. Finding the time to learn how to use all these tools in the classroom is a problem sometimes.

Bitstrips which is a user- friendly, online comic strip maker is an excellent teaching tool and learning tool. I’m presently using it to have my students demonstrate their learning.

I’ve asked my grade nine students to use Bitstrips to create a graphic-non-fiction booklet about the teenage brain based on the PBS video Inside the Teenage Brain. The the  booklet  would be for grade seven students to read so they could understand  how changes in the teenage brain might affect them as they enter their teen years.

I teach my grade nine students  about the teenage brain, and how it  is responsible for the characteristics we associate with teenagers- sullenness, difficulty going to sleep, difficulty getting up, engaging in risky behaviour, just to mention a few behaviours.  Students enjoy learning how their brain affects their behaviour because they finally can understand why they behave the way they do, and why adults react to them the way they do.

I planned the unit on the teenage brain  mindful of two things.  First,  my students enjoy spending  lots and lots of their free time online watching videos of one sort or another and little time reading, and second my students enjoy novelty. When I introduced the teenage brain assignment, my students  were quite keen on learning why they  behave as they do, and when I asked them to demonstrate their learning by creating a graphic-non-fiction booklet, they seemed to relish the idea.  If someone had complained about creating the booklet using Bitstrips, I would have entertained other options.  But, no one did, so we were good to go. I suspect  my students would  rather create a graphic-non-fiction booklet than write an essay to demonstrate their learning.

I introduced the teenage brain unit by asking them to do a placemat activity to generate the characteristics of  teenage behaviour.  After we talked about teenage behaviour, I asked them why teens acted the way they do.  Hormones is the answer I got.  I told them it was more than hormones that caused teenage behaviour.  It  was the teenage brain itself that caused teenage behaviour.  The teenage brain is different from the child’s brain and different from the adult’s  brain.  The teenage brain is unique, and they were going to find out why and how. I had their interest!

After our introductory discussion, I outlined what they would be doing during the unit. They would be learning about the teenage brain and how and why it affects teenage behaviour. They would be

• watching the  PBS video  Inside the Teenage Brain;
• taking notes from the video and a transcript of the video using the note-taking  graphic organizer;
• using the note-taking rubric to be mindful of  note-taking expectations;
• using the story board to plan the graphic-non-fiction-booklet;
• using the rubric for the story board to be mindful of the storyboard expectations;
• using the Bitstrips application to create the graphic-non-fiction booklet;
• using the rubric for creating the booklet to be mindful of booklet expectations.

I asked my students  to take notes during the video using the  Inside the Teenage Brain note organizer I created just for this assignment. I’ve  noticed  my grade nine students take notes better if they aren’t faced with an empty 8.5 x 11 in.  lined page. I think they’re intimidated by an entire empty 8.5 x 11 in.  lined page, so I  create graphic organizers to help them.  I’m hoping that given more practice note taking and more confidence, my students won’t need these graphic organizers or if they do, they can learn to create their own using Word.

I’m using this kid friendly  note taking rubric I created for the note-taking assignment.

Since many of my students have difficulty taking good notes while watching a video, I provided a link to the  the transcript of the video so they could read what was said during the video  and add to their notes.  Then I met with my students and we evaluated their notes using  the note-taking rubric to discuss strengths and next steps.

My students have almost  completed their note-taking activity and are ready to go on to planning their graphic-non-fiction booklet using the Inside the Teenage Brain Story Board legal size .

I haven’t had my students complete a graphic-non-fiction booklet before, so I’m not quite sure yet how many frames or pages would be reasonable to expect from my students. I’ll discuss this with my class,  and once we’ve decided on a range of possibilities, we’ll create a rubric to use as a guide for the booklet.  I’ll share all this in my next post.

If anyone has any hints about creating graphic-non-fiction booklets, I’d sure appreciate hearing them.  Creating a graphic-non-fiction booklet is all new to me.

Graphic organizers are great learning tools for students no matter what their preferred learning style. I have written here and here about graphic organizers and how I use them, but  I have to thank Richard for a new- to-me  link to even more graphic organizers.   I’ve found visual learners love using organizers once they’re  introduced to them, while auditory and kinesthetic learners aren’t too interested in them, that is until I tell them what graphic organizers can do for them.

I teach my students a process when I get them to write a paragraph, an essay, create a poster, a PowerPoint presentation, etc. The process starts with brainstorming. The students generate and record all kinds of ideas about a topic during this part of the process. They then select the most appropriate ideas to use for completing their assignment. That’s where graphic organizers come in.

Graphic organizers can be used to do more than organize ideas in a visual way.  They can be used to store ideas for later reorganization. Students regardless of their preferred learning style can park the ideas they select after brainstorming into a graphic organizer and need not worry about forgetting the ideas. who have short term memory challenges. This is especially useful for students who have short term memory challenges.  Once the ideas are parked in graphic organizer, students can organize or reorder the ideas as they see fit. Students won’t get overwhelmed trying to remember everything and trying to organize it all in their heads if they use an organizer.

I show my students how to break down assignments into manageable chunks. Sometimes that involves using several graphic organizers. For example, if I assign a five paragraph essay, students can brainstorm ideas and park them into a mind map they’ve created by hand or by using software like Smart Ideas or Inspiration. Once they’ve created the mind map, they can take those words and create phrases and put those phrases into five paragraph essay organizer. Once they’ve parked their phrases into the five paragraph organizer, they can create sentences out of the phrases and paragraphs out of the sentences.  I encourage them to insert appropriate linking words to help their essay flow.

My students regardless of their learning style appreciate graphic organizers  more and  more when they see how powerful a tool they can be.

It’s that time of year again.  Time for students to create a learning plan in preparation for taking  their final exams.  Many of my students who have learning disabilities have difficulty knowing how to plan to study for exams.  They don’t realize that having a learning  plan will make studying more effective  and help them get better outcomes.  I remind my students from time to time if  they want different outcomes then they need to chose to do things differently.  The problem for some students is that they don’t know what to do when it comes to studying. The learning plan I have them complete helps them structure their exam or test preparation and helps them achieve better results.

In class, we have talked about learning styles and students have completed questionnaires to determine their preferred learning style.  We also talked about which strategies are useful for which learning styles.  Armed with this information, students can create a differentiated learning plan that meets their specific  needs.

Learning Plan

Name______________________ Date _____________________________

Subject ____________________________________ Exam Date ________________________

Location __________

A. What I Need to Know

Topics you have studied this semester	Key Points
1
2
3
4

B. When I’m Going to Study

Plan at least three study dates and times.

Date
Time

C. How I’m going to Organize What I Need to Know

Organize the information you need to learn in any of the strategies below.

1. Create a list of what you need to know.

2. Create a graphic organizer for what you need to know.

3. Use mnemonics to help you remember what you need to know, eg BEDMAS

4. Draw a picture of what you need to know.

5. Other _______________

D. How I’m Going to Remember What I Need to Know.

Choose at least two methods to help you remember the information . Refer to the strategies for each learning style in the online article above.

Examples-

1. Draw pictures so you can see the info in your mind.(Visual learners)

2. Highlight important information in notes. (Visual learners)

3. Read the material aloud so you can hear it. (Auditory learners)

4. Listen to someone read the material to you. (Auditory learners)

5. Write the material out repeatedly and read it aloud as you are writing it out. (Kinesthetic and auditory learners)

6. Walk around the room while you are reading the material aloud. (Kinesthetic and auditory learners)

E. How will I Know That I’ve Learned What I Need to Know

Choose any method of self-testing and submit the self-test.

1. Answer questions from examples in your text books.

2. Answer questions from your homework.

3. Answer questions from other students.

4. Other_____________________________________

If you have any suggestions for improving this learning plan, I would appreciate hearing them.  I’m thinking that it could be better.  Perhaps you even have a learning plan of your own for your students that you might like to share.  I would be delighted to post it here and share it with others, giving you credit of course.

“I don’t remember going to the Internet and downloading the essay”

“It wasn’t me. It was my sister. She probably did it.”

” It wasn’t me. It was my brother. He helped me with my essay.”

“I used dictionary.com and found some synonyms so some of the words are different. It’s not exactly the same.”

These are some of the excuses I got recently when I caught some of my grade nine students handing in essays they didn’t write. The irony of all of this is if these students could craft fine essays like the ones they handed in, they wouldn’t be in my class. My class is for students who struggle with writing essays. The minute I see one that is finely crafted like these were, I’m suspicious.

I try to prevent this kind of thing happening by having my students show me their entire writing process from start to finish. I tell them that writing an essay is a process and they have to show me the process.  The process involves

• brainstorming
• using  a 5 paragraph graphic organizer to organize their thought before putting them to paper
• having a peer edit the first draft of the essay and have the editor sign acknowledging this
• making corrections to first draft
• having another peer edit the second draft of the essay and have the second editor sign acknowledging this
• making corrections to the second draft
• submitting  the final draft

None of the students who plagiarized could show me the entire writing process.  The fact that the students weren’t  able to show me the entire writing process would have tipped me off as well if the plagiarism hadn’t been as obvious as it was.

Here’s an excellent link about plagiarism that students find engaging.

This link teaches students how to evaluate creditable sources

Sometimes they take a bit of time loading.

Hope you find the videos useful.

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