My students have been working on digital video projects in response to their most recent outside reading. I grouped them according to books with common themes and asked them to discuss what their books might say to their own contemporary lives. My original plan was simple:

• 1 day for discussion
• 1 day to storyboard the video
• 3 days for production

Because we had not done this before, some groups needed two days to storyboard. All groups needed 5 days for production, and a couple could have used a 6th.

For the past 4 days I have been She Who Knows How To Do This. I helped get video off cameras and into iMovie. I showed them where the transitions are and how to delete a bad voiceover, where to find sound effects and how to change fonts on the credits. On this last day, I expected constant requests for help and perhaps some frustration as the period neared an end.

But no: they had learned what needed to be done and how to do it. They were quiet (except when they were doing voiceovers) and intent on their work. For long periods I just stood in the background, unneeded.

Can I use that as an assessment of the project? It feels like success to me.

I spotted this ad today. Do you suppose we can use it in class as an example of what NOT to do?

Everyone makes typos — I’ve certainly made my fair share! — but someone should have caught this before it was uploaded to multiple national websites.

What do you think — is this a teachable moment, or will kids roll their eyes and say “Nobody’s perfect”?

Earlier this week, Yahoo closed all its Geocities sites. Last night, as I deleted dozens of now-dead links from Web English Teacher, I couldn’t help reflecting on what had been lost.

Geocities was a great resource for its time. (”For its time” –  just 10 years ago!) When it was launched, teachers were starting to see the possibilities of the web. They didn’t have time, though, to learn that perplexing HTML code or to deal with the complexities (and cost) of server space and FTP uploading.

Geocities made it easy and free. Early sites may have reflected an unfortunate enthusiasm for garish colors and graphics that spun, flashed, and winked at visitors; but we outgrew most of that, redesigned, and moved on. We recognized that content was what really mattered.

And content was there. Teachers created WebQuests and hotlists of resources, and they generously posted lesson and unit plans for others to share. One of my favorite My Popper’s Penguins sites was at Geocities, along with theater resources, background information on the Roaring Twenties, and an introduction to The Crucible.

Now it’s all gone. I felt for a moment like the last day of school, when the halls are dark and empty, and I’m handing in my keys. All the energy of the year,  for good and for ill, is just a memory. The same is true online: everyone blogs now, and I haven’t seen an “under construction” graphic in years. But it’s good to remember how we started. The same energy that went into Geocities (and Angelfire and Tripod) will transfer into products like Google’s Wave, no doubt, and we’ll move on.

I wonder what we’ll be eulogizing 10 years from now?

Earlier I blogged about a writing task inspired by a visit to the post office. Last week I used it, and it went well. The kids had fun writing about programs like Monk, House and NCIS, among others.

But as I read their short paragraphs , I couldn’t help noticing how wordy they were. I did a followup lesson on writing concisely that worked about as well as anything I’ve ever tried with that skill.

I pulled one student’s paragraph at random and put it on the screen at the front of the room:

South Park is about four third graders Stan, Kyle Kenny and Cartman. They live in Colorado where it is always snowing. South Park is the town they live in where almost anything can happen. Funny things are happening all the time. Some of the material isn’t appropriate for children though due to the cursing.

First we talked about mechanical issues like commas. Then we started talking about concise writing. I kept asking, “How can we express the same ideas with fewer words?” By the time we had reduced the first 4 sentences to one, they had the idea.

Then I asked them to let a partner look at their writing and make suggestions first. Finally, students revised their writing and handed in both versions. Their grade will be based on the improvement between the first and second versions.

Because the writing was so short to begin with, students could practice the skill without getting tired of it. They were improving a piece of writing they had enjoyed working on, so they enjoyed revising, too.

I’ll soon see if the skill transfers — book reports are coming up!

The  Valley Girl expression Whatever may have run its course. It was trendy in the 80s, along with gnarly and gag me with a spoon. Those locutions faded, but whatever remained.

In a recent poll, however, whatever was rated the single most annoying expression for all geographic areas, income and education levels, races, ages, and genders in the United States. Its competition in the poll included You know, Anyway, It is what it is, and At the end of the day. If it’s annoying people, then it’s on its way out.

I’m hopeful that like, as in “I was like, what time is lunch? and he was like, why are you asking me?” may one day join it in retirement.

Special thanks to Michael Quinion at World Wide Words.

I was planning an inservice on writing for the faculty at my school. I had a double whammy against me: inservice is never popular, and inservice about writing, even less so. The time had come for the hardest part: an email to the faculty telling them what was coming and asking for their input.

I spent 45 minutes of prep time composing that email, trying to get just the right balance of cheerful tone and useful information, trying to make sense of all the notes I had taken during the planning, checking for spacing, paragraphing, typos, and all the other lapses I would be horrified to have another English teacher see in my writing. I was rather pleased with myself by the time I clicked “send.”

The first response was a single word: “Ugh.”

The colleague knew I would understand the humor he intended. But he really didn’t give me any useful feedback.

His comment caused an epiphany. My mild frustration was comparable to what happens when a student writes a paper and gets back nothing but a grade at the top, and a grade “C-” at that!

I personally provide student writers with more feedback than that, but I have known colleagues who just slap a grade at the top and hand back the papers. Still, I do tend to write notes on the papers more than I talk with the students.

I don’t care how time consuming it is — I’ve got to do more conferencing. It’s the only way I can coach the kids and prevent that frustration of not really knowing what part doesn’t work. Feedback should be more than just “Ugh!”

The two of us exchanged a few television memories (How big were those TV sets? How small were those screens?) before I turned the sheet of stamps over and noticed on the back 2-3 sentences describing the background of each stamp. Here’s one:

The Ed Sullivan Show: Through more than 20 years on the air, host Ed Sullivan kept Broadway buffs, jazz fans, rock-and-rollers, and others entertained on Sunday nights. His long-running variety show — called Toast of the Town in its early years — provided a showcase for virtually every kind of act, from classical musicians, ballet dancers, and comedians to popular performers such as Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Beatles.

Each summary reveals extensive research and very dense language. Not a word is wasted.

What a great writing task! I began to wonder what students might write about TV shows they watch now or have seen in reruns.

• Mad Men
• Survivor
• Seinfeld
• Punk’d
• Oprah
• Dancing with the Stars

You get the idea. Extensive research condensed to 3 sentences. Add your own graphic, carefully selected to be a typical scene.

The resulting graphic + writing could even be dropped into Powerpoint slides and looped continuously during Open House, presenting parents with a microcosm of expectations.

(10/27 Update: Here is Stamps project handout I gave my students.)