Lit and Tech

Teaching literacy with technology in an era of educational innovation. By Jen Roberts @TheJenRoberts

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Digital Alchemy: Transforming Images with Adobe Express

July 18, 2024

Adobe Adobe Express AI art creativity Education generative fill

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Pedagogy for 1:1 Classrooms

Group Creator: Group Students Fast, but Not Random

I want to have my students work in groups and with partners as often as possible, but the process of making their groups or choosing their partners took me a long time. I kept looking for a digital solution that would speed up the process for me, but I could never find one with the features I wanted. Then I figured out how to make a group creator that works for me and I'm also sharing it with you. My Group Creator runs in a Google Spreadsheet. (Don't panic, it comes with directions.) After you add your class roster and sort by a score you put in, you can click on the different tabs across the bottom to see the different groups students should be in. The tabs include both homogeneous and heterogeneous groups of six, groups of four, and partners. Directions Page Click this image or any other to see it larger. Roster Page On the roster tab replace the sample names with your own students. Then add a score that you can use to rank your students, a recent quiz gra

NBCT: My Experience with Component 2: YA ELA

Assembling Component 2 Considering National Boards? I recommend the process, but you should know what you are getting into. Start early and get organized. In the spring of 2016 I began pursuing National Board Certification for teaching. I know eventually someone will ask me for my thoughts and advice about that process, so I'll capture them now while the experience is fresh. Because I teach 9th grade, and previously taught middle school for ten years, I decided to do my NBCT in the area of Young Adolescent ELA. (Yes, I also taught 11th grade for six years, but that was a while ago.) Though some do it in one year, I'm taking two years to complete my NBCT. Last summer, at a small local conference, I stumbled into a conversation about National Boards and happened to find out that my County Office of Education sponsored a support program. I was just in time to sign up. Through that program I got early advice and support to help me understand expectations and deadlines. The

Differentiation with Branching Google Forms

Branching Google Forms are a fantastic way to differentiate assessment and reflection in my classroom. Linear forms are great, but not every student follows the same path. Branching forms allow me to account for their differences in pacing, and outcomes. Let me share an example. Back in the fall, my students were working on projects related to novels they had just read in small groups. Early on in their progress I wanted an overview of how they were doing. Some students were still in the very beginning planning stages, some were almost done, and some were ready to submit their work and move on. I teach a de-tracked 9th grade English class. My students are always all over the place. Enter the branching form. It allowed me to ask my students where they were in their process and then differentiate their next questions based on that answer. Students who were still getting started needed to respond to questions that would help them plan. Students who had already finished were ready for

Making Your Own Teacher Toolbox

Over the summer, someone shared a teacher toolbox on Twitter and I went down a rabbit hole learning all about them and how to make them. I bought a set of labels online, but I decided I didn't like them much and they were challenging to customize, so I made my own one day. And, because I like to share all the good things that come out of my classroom, I am sharing my creation with you. I bought the large box on the left, but the drawers are only 5-6" deep, so I needed another solution for pens and pencils. I already had the shorter box on the right. It was stuffed with a hodgepodge of other things that fit well in the larger box, so reorganization worked in my favor. The availability on the large box I bought fluctuates. Sometimes it is only available with a red front edge . (And right now the price is higher than I paid. It might be worth waiting because the price fluctuates a lot on these. $30-$40 is the reasonable range.) There are lots of drawer combinations, though. T

Preserving Authenticity in Student Writing in the Age of Generative AI

Ideogram: student writing synth wave A huge part of the angst about generative AI centers around the generalized concern that students will use it to cheat. News flash, they will. Student will cheat with AI because there have always been students who cheat, this is just a new way for them to do it. Cheating is not new. But, let's put this problem in perspective. Risk taking is normal teenage behavior. All teens take risks, some drive too fast, some jump off roofs into swimming pools, some drink in excess, some lie to their parents, and some turn in work they did not do. Some teens are more cautious and some are less cautious. Brain science, and yes I have read about this with my students, shows us that teens value rewards higher in many risky situations, therefore making poor decisions seem more attractive. I am not trying to excuse academic cheating. It's just that I stopped viewing it as a moral failing, and I now see it as part of the risk taking, adventuresome, process o