Annotexting

The following is a collaborative guest post by Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi , of the Curriculum 21 Faculty.

The companion LIVEBINDER OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS IS HERE.

Expecting students to read deeply and draw meaningful conclusions is at the heart of the Common Core ELA standards. Students are asked to read closely, cite evidence, and make evidence based inferences when they read. They are expected to deepen their learning by valuing textual evidence and reading critically.  Annotating text is one way students can cite textual evidence, infer and deepen meaning as they read..

Annotations make thinking visible for teachers and students. We can use the words and features of a text to better comprehend it, ask questions, and note our thoughts while reading. One goal of comprehension is that students will be proficient annotators of texts to understand more deeply by interacting and making thinking transparent while they read.

There are many reasons to ask students to annotate text: for basic comprehension, to show evidence of conceptual understanding, to show what is implied, to identify the claims in an argument, to read like a writer and identify characteristics of genre, to notice the nuance of language…and many other reasons.   Giving guidance as to what we want students to annotate for will be beneficial for the reader. Otherwise, they will annotate everything that comes to mind, and the work may not be helpful to the reader or the teacher.

Annotations are often a singular, individual experience. Annotexting ups the ante all around.

Annotexting is a process that involves the collection of thoughts, observations and reactions to reading that show evidence of critical thought. These annotations, rather than being on paper, can be collected with different web tools so that students can collaborate, both locally and globally, around the conclusions that they will ultimately draw from their reading.

Students submit their annotations via their smart phones or other digital devices, and then analyze each other’s notations collectively.  They could be looking for main ideas, thematic and literary elements, or big ideas from the work.   They could be looking for evidence of connections to other texts, their own experiences, or world issues. They could simply be searching for meaning to support them when reading complex texts.

In addition, students could reflect on the collective evidence as a metacognitive activity to assess their own learning.  Perhaps the collaborative exercise raised new questions for them or offered them new ways of thinking about the text. Perhaps there is something else the student wants or needs to know?

Metacognition can be strengthened when citing evidence in text.  Textual evidence that supports the thinking behind what they are thinking is a gigantic first step into the depth and complexity that the Common Core is asking of students.  Annotexting kicks that up a notch by engaging task specific tools that offer opportunities for strategic thinking and globally connected opportunities.

Consider THIS ANNOTATED TEXT.

The student wrote all over this poem. The student underlined specific words and wrote annotations about them in line with the text. This student is engaging in a thoughtful, albeit singular, analysis of this poem.

What changes with multiple perspectives?

We have our own ideas about squat pens and writing utensils as weapons  (based on the student’s annotations) but they are different than this student’s collection of evidence. What would have changed in the interpretation of this poem if our perspectives were woven together? Does the collaborative process of conversation yield a greater product? Does the thinking extend when multiple perspectives are mixed? Does the evidence yield to strategic thinking when multiple viewpoints are involved?

Besides the strategic and capable use of digital tools, annotexting offers students the opportunity to value evidence, think critically and engage with different perspectives.  Rather than working independently to read, comprehend and analyze text, annotexting will allow students to engage with other audiences in tasks with an expanded purpose, supporting college and career readiness.

We’ve created an example of what this could look like in Corkboard using William Blake’s poem, “The Tyger.” (Click on the Corkboard tab in the Livebinder. The example is in a subtab.) You can see other examples in several of the tabs in the binder. We would also like to share this DISCUSSION RUBRIC (2007) that you can use as students submit annotations and begin to draw conclusions about what their evidence is pointing to.

In order to get students to own this process, we have to relinquish some control. Let them think, let them make mistakes and respond. Let them draw conclusions even they are not the conclusions we would have drawn. We can be there to coach them through misconceptions.

The college and career ready student (on page seven of the ELA Common Core document) is expected to attend to audience, task, purpose and discipline in both reading and writing. The standards also expect students to think critically and value evidence.  The document goes on to explain that the college and career ready student should use digital media strategically and purposefully.  Annotexting is at the intersection of all of these capacities.

In addition to collecting evidence with web tools, there are also digital APPS that we’ve come across that would work for Annotexting too. (These are represented in the LiveBinder as well.) Some are notetaking apps that let you collect evidence and annotations with a digital device and some let you edit and annotate PDF files and documents. There are resources in the binder for both iTunes and Android Market Apps.

Some Youtube tutorials:

GoodReader app
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIrBS8d_CCA

PaperPort (this one’s free)  it let’s me import my pdf files…and annotate them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yu1Fg4xu9E

Note Shelf- for notetaking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H7es6CkE8k&feature=related

iAnnotate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHoAGbQcp2o&feature=related

Phatpad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t55Y6M-hriQ

If you would like to explore this and other Modern Learning moments more in depth, check out Curriculum21’s Webinar Series and our all new LEAD21 Academy at this year’s Curriculum Mapping Institute.  We will also be exploring the Common Core as it relates to Curriculum Design at the upcoming Ohio Regional Conference in May. (Space is limited!)

Fisher, Michael L., Jr. and Nancy Cook.  ”Notice, Think, and Wonder: New Pathways to Engage Critical Thinking.” IN TRANSITION: Journal of the New York State Middle School Association. 25.1 (2007): 15-18. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nysmsa.org/associations/611/files/ITv25n1_Fall 2007.pdf>.

Follow Mike on Twitter
Follow Jeanne on Twitter
Follow Curriculum21 on Twitter

Skilled? Literate? Fluent?

I have written about 21st Century Skills, Literacies and Fluency before. I listed a definition and differences between being literate and fluent.

Fluency is defined by Free Dictionary as:

Ability to express oneself readily and effortlessly

The term is usually used in a language context, but I like how it was used at the 21st Century Fluency Project:

The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly.

Wes Fryer blogged about a presentation by Ian Jukes of the same title and described the difference between literacy and fluency:

- when you are literate, you still have to think about what you are going to do next
- fluencies are unconscious skills, you just know what to do next

I am continuing to be intrigued by the relationship between illiteracy, literacy and fluency.

• How do we define each stage? What are its characteristics and milestones?
• How does each stage look like at the end of 2010?
• How does one progress from one stage to another?
• What happens to the ones who do not move forward and stay illiterate?

As I am asking myself these questions I am reminded of the stages one goes through as you learn a foreign language. From being illiterate as you are not able to read nor write in the new language to becoming literate and (hopefully) fluent in speaking and interacting with other speakers of that same language. As I am exploring the analogy, I am asking myself:

• What does it mean to be fluent in a language?
• What is the difference between being able to read and write a language and being able to speak it? Are you fluent if you can speak but not read or write?
• Are you considered fluent if you know “a lot of vocabulary words”, but are not able to put them in the grammatically correct order?
• Are you fluent, if you can participate in a rehearsed conversation: “How are you?”, “Fine and you?”, “Good, how is your family?”, etc.
• Do you speak fluently, if you need to translate in your mind before you are able to form and utter a sentence?

Language Fluency

I was reminded of a story, I had heard at a TPRS workshop for Word Language teachers years ago. The story by Jack Engelhard titled “His French Comes our Greek” (.doc) describes well what fluency means. It is quite humorous too.

Speaking up and down versus sideways

An American, with High School French education, travels to French Canada and is surprised when native speakers do not understand his “conjugated” French. Although he knows the words and even the grammar rules of conjugating (speaking up and down) , he is incapable of making himself understood nor understand (communicating with) the natives (who speak sideways).

The analogy lies in the fact that learning or teaching tools, such as Skype, PowerPoint, Twitter, wikis, blogs or VoiceThread, will not make the user capable of knowing when it is appropriate to use each one of these tools nor will they be used unconsciously. When every step of using a tool or program becomes an effort (formatting, recording, dragging & dropping, editing, saving, inserting, posting, etc.) or when obstacles become insurmountable stumbling blocks then the objective of expressing oneself or communicating has not been achieved. The tools become the vocabulary words one needs to know in order to be able to start forming sentences. If you are at a “loss of words”or stutter, conversation stalls or becomes cumbersome. Standalone words are not considered a language. We just use them in order to create meaning.

Once you have mastered vocabulary and grammatical rules you might be able to read and write in the new language which gives you basic literacy…but are you able to fluently speak the language? Grammar rules tell you where to place a word inside a phrase and how to “format” it in the right tense, conjugate for the right person, but will you be able to speak without having to translate from your native language? Will it feel intuitive, smooth and fluid to express yourself, communicate and connect to others in more ways than just “using the same words”?

Language connects more than words and phrases

Should we not strive to learn 21st Century skills by using tools (vocabulary words) in order to become skilled? From possessing skills should we not push further in order to become (basic, information, media, network, globally) literate (stringing words together according to grammatical rules to form sentences and eventually to create meaning)?

As we immerse ourselves in the culture of others who communicate as we do (speak the same language) would we then not, by osmosis become fluent (speaking without translating or hesitations, smooth and unconscious of grammatical rules)? Being fluent means that the language will “just sound right” to your ears. It will just sound right to contact and skype in an expert to help your students learn about a specific subject. It will just feel right to use Google Docs (or whatever tool)  in order to collaborate intuitively. Fluency will come when you just know what to do next, when you don’t have to think about your next step or how you used to do it before.

I am interested in other analogies for 21st Century Fluency. It was natural for me to make the connection to speaking a language fluently. What connections are you making?

What does it Mean to be Literate?

What does it mean to be literate? I am asking myself this question more frequently lately.

Does being literate mean the same for this class?

School Class in 1912- Image licensed under Creative Commons by HistoricBeaverton

Image by Historic Beverton

than for this class?

Graduating Class 1986

or this class?

Class of 2022 ~ Image licensed under Creative Commons by Melanie Holtsman

image by holtsman

The official definition from the dictionary defines “to be literate” as:

able to read and write

There is change in the air though.

Being able to read and write seems to remain as the same definition. What is changing, at a rapid speed though, is the medium we are reading in and writing with.

No longer is reading a handwritten letter or note, a printed sheet of paper, a poster, a telephone book, a newspaper, a magazine or a book the only medium of communicating information. Since having access to the Internet has become mainstream over 10 years ago, being able to find and read a website has expanded the notion of what it means to be “able to read”. New forms of media are being developed and are allowing us to take information in , to be able to “read” in new shapes and forms. With the beginning of web 2.0, the shift from simply consuming (reading) information/content to having the ability of producing (writing) information and content has now expanded the notion of writing as well.

The options, that are available to us humans, to communicate in another form, other than speaking verbally to someone face to face, has exponentially grown in the last 5 years. Being able to expand the reach of our communication has opened up opportunities that have not existed before in history.

So, what does that mean for the initial question of this blog post:

What does it mean to be literate?

I have written often on this blog,  how I see the concept of “Literacy” changing & expanding. I am reminded of the Norwegian video clip about the Medieval Help Desk, when one monk explains to another how to use, this new way of reading text, called a book. The monk had tremendous difficulty in grasping the concept of the book, compared to the scrolls he was used to until then.

What if that monk would have thrown the towel in and refused to become comfortable with the new form of reading and writing? Would he still be considered literate in an era where information and learning is mostly transmitted in a form of a book? What about his job, as a scribe of the church, to write on the scrolls? Would it soon become irrelevant?

As I have been busy in the last few months with workshops about “Blogging with Students“, I am realizing that we can’t just assume that every teacher is web “literate”. Before we start talking about how blogging can support 21st Century skills for your students, we need to step back and make sure that the teachers are literate (enough) to be able to read and write through this medium called a blog!

We need to start out by establishing a common vocabulary base and understanding how printed material differs from digital content. I ask teachers to start reading, reading, reading other blogs before attempting to blog with their own students. Basics, such as knowing how to search for blogs, recognize blog structures, searching within blogs, and experiencing the “mechanics” of how a blog platform operates are important “pre-reading and pre-writing” skills.

Establishing common vocabulary

In addition to establishing common vocabulary, we also need to start a conversation about the importance to go beyond the traditional teaching of the traditional communication methods of reading and writing  (through books and with paper) that still dominates in most of our schools. Otherwise our teachers and students will be like the monk in the movie clip above…being left “illiterate”.

I would like to recommend the following book by Alan November titled Web Literacy for Educators. It is a wonderful resource in the process of  becoming web literate. It goes beyond the basics and talks about being able to “read” and “write” as a researcher, understanding the grammar and being able to decode the structure of the web towards pushing us to being critical thinkers in a an online digital world.

by Alan November

Below you will find my notes as I was reading Alan’s book, taken with iThoughsHD Mindmapping app.

Click to see larger version