Of course portfolios is my #1 strategy! This long-term carrot drove my classes to the finish line in 2020 when school was out for the final four months and in 2021 with its hybrid nuttiness. If there is one piece of advice I love to pass along to young teachers, it's this: Begin at the End. 

I begin by saying, "You have to end this year with a portfolio. It will be due around June first. It will have about 50 pages worth of your creativity: writing, poetry, visual art, reflections, and other original material that you will create this year. We will do a little bit each quarter, and build it throughout our year together. If you meet the quarterly goals, then you will easily accomplish a great portfolio."

Then, I show them samples.

Even with the pandemic limitations, I coached these students as much as any others I've worked with the past 27 years. They accomplished authentic, meaningful work that they NEVER thought they could do. Through this work, they improved their literacy skills in inspiring, unknown and unexpected ways. It didn't seem to matter if they were at home, in class, or somewhere in between ... students are passionate about their literacy when they feel like their writing, reading, reflections, and art matter to them and might mean something to another person.

The portfolio is the most effective way to both begin and end the course. I just love setting this long-term goal and then working together with each student to accomplish it.

Click here for a sample pandemic portfolio just finished in June 2021.

Turns out, Google Classroom was ready for pandemic teaching. Fortunately, I had already been using GC for a few years and had some experience with it. My GC techniques evolved over the past two years, and I'm looking forward to a new start in September. Even if I have 28 students in the room, I'm still going to run most of the class through GC.

List: Some things I do through GC.

1) All my grades. Assignments fall into two categories: ungraded and graded.It's so easy to let GC do the grades -- especially with the new direct link to Infinite Campus.

2) Discussion questions. I love getting all students to contribute. I "create" a "question" -- and that lets me show all answers to all students on Meet/Zoom. I use these questions to take the class temperature, emphasize writing skills, add variety, etc. -- and I review student responses. EVERY student writing his/her thoughts is SO MUCH better than calling on one student whose hand is raised.

3) Ask for pictures of work. It's so easy for students to submit screen shots of their work, especially for notebook pages and visual response art.

4) Inspire revisions. Formative assessment is so easy and palpable on GC, students are eager to do revisions for more points. 

5) Post the lesson plan the night before class. It's effective for me to get my thoughts into a post before I go to bed, and then I just follow my own road map for class.

Photos: My Google Classroom posts from the first day and the Portfolio Assignment. Some sample lesson plans. You can see exactly how I "begin at the end" and use GC to convey all information I need my students to know.

You can also see how I use "student samples" to teach everything.

Pandemic teaching immediately necessitated learning and utilizing A LOT of technology in order to keep our students engaged and learning. For me, it was just as important to lean on my tried-and-true strengths -- like portfolios, student samples, and encouraging students to "bleed on paper" and "experience the therapeutic value of writing and other arts".

Notebooks go hand-in-hand with portfolios -- they are the daily playground where students will "fill pages" to figure out what they are thinking, set goals, reflect on the past, conceive of new works, and so much more. I went "all-in" on notebooks this year by telling students they could, "Keep a notebook on their iPad or in a real notebook ... or a mix of both!" This flexibility opened the doorway for all students to experiment and succeed with keeping a notebook and advancing their literary (and technology) skills.

Through Google Classroom, it was easy to coach students through a ton of exercises to get them consistently exercising their literary muscles. I ended each quarter by asking students to submit "10 Notebook Pages" for a grade. I had been collecting real notebooks for a few years now, but I will never go back to that strategy. Using GC to look at photos of their notebook pages was easy, interesting, and gave them a choice of what to submit.

Through FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT, I could say to a student, "This is worth 80/100 because a lot of pages aren't filled and I'm not seeing enough of our classroom exercises. Resubmit it for more points."

Again, Google Classroom is really perfect if you like to use formative assessment to coach better work from your students. Their portfolio reflections indicate they really enjoyed being taught in this manner and being given the opportunity to improve their grades if they improve their work.

Regular readers know that for decades, I didn't grade creative work: I only evaluated it as "final" or "not yet final". But that didn't seem to work as well in the hybrid era.

For me, the pandemic experience opened the doors to effectively using formative assessment -- ant not just for notebook submissions. EVERY ASSIGNMENT I gave this year had built-in opportunities to "resubmit for more points". And Google Classroom is PERFECT for this -- very easy to change a 65 to an 85 to a 100 if the student does the revisions.

I consistently open class with notebook ideas and timed entries.

List: Some favorite notebook exercises.

1. 10-minute freewrite. "Draw, doodle, write ..... just keep the pens and markers moving for 10 full minutes. Then, I put a timer on the screen (very important!!).
2. 15-minute quickwrites. This journal-prompt strategy is based on an exercise in figure-drawing classes, where the model moves every 30 seconds. Here, I change the topic every 3 minutes. I love to find topics from all over the internet, especially "self-help journal ideas". I always get them to set goals in these sessions, too. Might be "Bucket lists" or "things to accomplish this week" ... I gained great experience this year using Google Slides to present the topics.
3. Topical mind maps. Mind-mapping still works amazingly well even in the hybrid classroom .... so I will guide them to "Make a mind map of important settings in your life..." if I'm going to teach some  setting poems later in the class.
4. Connect to literature. I always ask them to set reading goals: short-term to life-long. Then, I have them "loop back" and reflect on goals they accomplished or failed to accomplish. I mostly teach through independent "reading" -- and encourage students to consider Ted Talks, podcasts, and YouTube instructional videos as "Alternative Literature".
5. Outside item. This is when a student has to put something into their notebooks and reflect on it. "Inside items" are most of the notebook -- the ideas come from "inside" you. But, here, tape or glue in a ticket stub, letter, photo, or some other item of note. Or, draw it in. It's all about writing the response to something.
6. Looping & Reverse Looping. The first term means you look back in your notebook and find a detail to bring forward for a new mind map or written entry. Maybe you mentioned Paris earlier … so you “loop” back to that idea and devote an entry to Paris. “Reverse Looping” my classes invented this year: When you go back and add details, shading, drawings or anything else to further develop an old page.

Photos: Notebook handout, Quarterly Notebook Assignment, and some student submissions.

When I'm designing a course, whole-class literature is the first sacrifice I will make to fit in notebooks, portfolios, and a constant flow of creativity. I doubled-down on this strategy for my pandemic teaching -- with tremendous success! (In my Junior English class this past year we read Macbeth and Death of A Salesman together. The rest of the curriculum was independently chosen works.)

Although I encourage students to pursue "alternative literature," I never stop encouraging books. And we know that simple encouragement, book talks, suggestions from friends, and self-selected literature are the KEYS to getting students to read .... not threatening them with tests and teaching students to hate books.

I engage my students in self-select literature with some of these techniques:

1) Reading Goals Mind Maps -- This is a stock exercise of mine, and it works wonderfully submitted through GC.

2) Visits to the librarians. I love to let librarians do their thing: Talk books! (Meanwhile, I guide them in their note-taking. "Take out your notebooks while the librarians are talking ..." I say.

3) Constantly asking them to reflect on their reading. and set new goals I use my ungraded "Discussion Questions" to achieve this purpose. These are posted through GC and students know their comments are public. This is no-opt-out, introvert-inclusion, literacy-development work ... and it feels so easy!

4) Requiring "Literary One-Pagers" for points. Again ... this stock exercise works so well if you encourage students to use technology or not, show them many samples, and encourage them to create meaningful response art. GC and formative assessment pair wonderfully to get students to add layers, do revisions, and earn more points.

5) Incorporating "Personal Development" literature in my suggestions and reading. A lot of students don't even know about the self-help genre and these books can be quick reads that change lives.

​6) Encouraging students to try graphic novels, audiobooks, and alternative literature. These flexible strategies can really help you engage ALL students.

One of my favorite strategies is teaching students that MUSIC IS LITERATURE. Almost every day, I opened class with music. I constantly asked them to do mind maps or respond to discussion questions about songs, great lyrics, favorite artists.... etc. The 2nd-Quarter essay was a "Song Analysis" that always goes over well (pick any song and analyze the meaning of its lyrics while practicing our essay-writing lessons).

I tried hard to play music and videos that students suggested while at the same time incorporating lessons on Bob Dylan, Eminem, Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and a bunch of other favorites.

Of course, for decades I have been encouraging students to "Put your headphones on and write ..."

All these strategies worked wonderfully in the hybrid classroom.

Photos: Music pieces, GC Ungraded Discussion Question, Reading pieces, Personal Development lit.

What worked for me during these unpredictable times was playing to my strengths while incorporating some new technology. In the beginning, we had SO MANY ideas and apps and online platforms thrown at us -- it was overwhelming. I utilized Padlet, experimented with Actively Learn, and figured out how to record myself on Zoom. 

Instead of learning EVERYTHING, I did what I know works: notebooks, portfolios, and authentic student-art.

I just modified it a bit, trusted the students at home, and believed in the virtual workshop.

To solidify a lot of this, click here to see the "Open-School Night" video I made.

To sign up for an on-line class I'm teaching in the fall, click here.

 The Mandate: Exactly one year ago, I was informed that in 2018-2019, I would be teaching "Themes In Literature." This would be a new prep for me, and a strange one for a guy who's been teaching "Creative Writing" for 20 years.

​ My first thought? Panic!!

My second thought: This is a great opportunity to try a reading workshop!




This blog entry looks back at what I did and how I did it. So, read on if you're interested in seeing what happened ....

the
​The Class: "Themes in Literature" is a half-year senior English class. It's been taught in the department forever, and teachers are encouraged to design their own literature course. Any teacher would kill for this opportunity, and we are fortunate to work in a department and for a school that give us such wonderful support.

The Pre-Game: I decided to structure the course around my usual philosophies --
The Workshop Environment
Student-Choices
Bold color
Portfolios
Notebooks
and Visual Response Art.

I wanted this to be exactly like my Creative Writing class, but the intake/output in Themes had to be based on literature. In Creative Writing, much of the work is inspired by the personal lives and experiences of the student-artists.

The Bible: I read and re-read Penny Kittle's "Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers."

Penny Kittle: A few years back I went to Kittle's session at the NCTE Conference. It was an eye-opening experience, and my learning can be summed up in what she said: "We can teach kids to love reading ... but we have to stop pretending to teach them the old classics." She means that teaching canon literature to teenagers is a pretty fruitless endeavor: "The kids who don't love to read won't read. The kids who love to read would rather read their own choices," Kittle said. (Or maybe it was Kylene Beers who said that ...?)

Kittle's book builds on all of my (our?) old favorites: Elbow, Atwell, Graves, Beers and Probst, et al.

I did not exactly follow this book step-by-step. (I never do...) But it served as the basis for many of the core structures and base ethos for my course.

Short Books: Despite everything I just wrote, I knew I had to order some books for the course. It couldn't ALL be self-selected literature, right? My guiding principle in choosing literature was this: short books only. Any book I was going to teach would be a week-long break from their self-selected works. I ordered the following: The Outsiders, Siddhartha, Night, War of The Worlds, The Giver, Maus, Thee Four Agreements, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 and Doubt.

I became so obsessed with researching novellas, one acts, and other short pieces that my colleague Margaret started joking that I was teaching “Themes in Short Literature". She's funny, but she was right. I didn't want to drag the class through six weeks of a book that very few of us were particularly interested in reading.

I only ended up teaching the last four listed above -- one short book and one quick play each quarter.

Begin at The End: On the first day of class I did what I always do. I told the students they had one goal in this course: Create a Portfolio. I can't imagine ever teaching a class without an end product - and the perfect PBL/final exam is  a portfolio of EVERYTHING you created in the class + reflections about your art and experiences. The portfolio gives structure to the whole course. It is the END GOAL.

It's important to explain about portfolios on the first day of the class -- and show alumni examples.

Students are encouraged to make either a book or a website portfolio -- the choice is up to them! (Students also made podcasts, songs, videos ... etc.)

Reading Goals: The First Mind Map: We started with a notebook exercise the next day - Reading Goals. I've been doing this mind map ever since my first experience with Kittles, when she said, "real readers set goals." She has students keep lists in their notebooks; my students turn those lists into visual art. It doesn't take long to teach mind-mapping ... honestly, you just show them a few, explain the basics, and say , "Make something just like these samples." I encouraged the students to get on GoodReads or Amazon, utilize the available technology, and talk to each other about books. "Start a first draft mind map in your notebook," I said. "Use our markers or colored pencils. Get colorful even in your notebooks!"

The next day we went to the library and our two fabulous librarians talked up all kinds of books as the class continued creating their mind maps. "Take notes as the librarians are talking," I said. "Keep your markers moving." I am always, always, always coaching my students to take notes.

Possible Responses: I did a session with the class about possible responses to their literature. What could they do? I talked about everything I do in Creative Writing and showed them samples: Mind Maps, Calligrams, Pie Charts, Cartoons ...  Visual Response art of all kinds.

​We also discussed poetry, essay, and research paper as acceptable submissions. And, of course, I encouraged them to do what they wanted. "Surprise me," I said. "My best students, ironically, don't do what I tell them to do. Instead, they tell me what they want to do."

The Process and The Grading: I used this first mind map to teach them about the drafting process: "Create the first draft in your notebook and then make a polished version to submit for credit," I said. You can see on the syllabus that students needed to turn in 15 "final" pieces to get a 100 in the "Responses" category.
​
This is my tried-and-true method for grading art: I don't grade it! I only evaluate if it is "final" or not. If it's not, I advise the student on what I want (too sloppy, too many errors, not enough details, add color, study the examples ... etc) and have him/her re-submit the work. It's so easy -- and it lets me coach student-artists instead of grade assignments.

The Notebooks: For all things Notebooks, you have to read anything by Linda Reif. Or, better yet, go see her speak. She is so sweet and so smart you'll be a better person just for meeting her.

On the back of the syllabus, I printed the Notebook Rubric - and I used that rubric when I evaluated the notebooks at the end of each quarter.

Again, I was "frontloading" by showing the class the notebook rubric and letting them know the expectations and the grading method way ahead of time. This set me up to be able to say "work in your notebook" during a workshop session and students know exactly what to do and why.

​The Typical Class: My BFF Howie likes to say, "You know what good teaching looks like?" Then he puts his feet up and drinks from a pretend coffee cup. (They keep giving this guy awards for his great teaching, so he must know what he's talking about.)

I took this philosophy to the extreme with this course: I revved up the motor with all the structures I just explained, then gave them the freedom to create in the workshop environment I love so much.

​"Get working! You guys know what do," I would say to start many classes. "Read. Work in your notebooks. Develop response art ..." I would troubleshoot, encourage, get kids on task ... and do some of my own reading and note-booking. Mostly, I coached, encouraged, and applauded.

What I Didn't Do: Book Talks. Kittles emphasizes the importance of having students give 5-minute book talks. I admit, I should do more of this. I should probably have one or two book talks each period. Nothing fancy and not too time-consuming.

​I didn't do them because I didn't want to disrupt the flow of the workshop. It was amazing to see 28 kids really getting into their reading and response art. This class was amazingly on task and absorbed in achieving our literacy  goals.

However, incorporating book talks is a goal of mine for next time.

The First Essay: After about two weeks, I said to the class, "Time to start preparing for the first essay. This will be OPEN NOTES and you have a week to get ready. The task is to write about a book or books that have impacted your personal growth."

I encouraged them to make mind maps of books they had read and to stay away from books taught in school.

I love open-notes tests like this because it gives the class a strong focus, sets a goal, emphasizes long-term thinking, encourages thoughtful writing, and creates structure to balance the freedom of student choice.

The students wrote about John Green, Shel Silverstein, and Shakespeare. They wrote about heartbreak, death, and divorce. "Remember that your personal growth must be at the center of the essay," I encouraged. "So, your thesis should be something about you growing ... and connect it to this book."

Whips Around the Room: I always love a whip around the room. It's the easiest technique and invites everyone in class to participate.

"Share with us your idea for the first essay," I said. Then we did a whip around the room (No Opt Out!) and heard all sorts of great ideas.

What I lack in book talks, I make up for with whips. I do them three or four times a week, giving students a voice for a wide variety or purposes.

​The whip is fantastic for public speaking skills, collaborating, sharing ideas, community building ... and teaching listening skills. "Put away all technology and make eye contact with the speaker, please," is my typical instruction here. 

The Four Agreements: About four weeks into the course, I handed out The Four Agreements.

I decided to teach this book because I know it is a favorite our fantastic school psychologists, and I wanted to introduce the students to self-help literature. This proved to be an amazing lesson and many of the portfolios I just read included reflections on reading other self-help books throughout the course.

Also, it gave me the element of surprise: Who teaches this?? I love for my classes to be unique, unexpected, and authentic. It took a little over a week to get through the book before we went back to open workshop.

Note-Taking and Whole Class Lit: "Open your notebooks, take out your colored pencils or markers, and start a mind map about the first agreement," I instructed.

"When I check your notebooks I expect to see four mind maps - one for each agreement. You can also polish them up and submit them for finals."

Then we started reading the book together. In fact we read the whole book together, out loud. We just went around the room, each student reading a page before moving to the next student.

I love this strategy because it builds community, adds focus, and gives me a chance to coach note-taking skills. Also, I don't even have to address issues like, "Are they reading? Do I quiz them?"

I would frequently end class/begin class with a whip around the room to share something from your notes or a 5-minute session to swap notes with other students and augment your own notes.

Twilight: Los Angeles 1992: After a few more weeks of self-selected literature, we began a whole-class reading of an experimental play about the Los Angeles/Rodney King riots.

When I was assigned this course, I talked to our amazing Theater Guy about options. I knew I wanted something different, bold, and interesting. This play was the perfect answer.

First of all, the kids had no idea about these events -- which occurred just as I was graduating college and made a powerful impression on me.

Also, I knew I wanted to do a play because we could read it all in class ... no assigned reading!

​Anna Deavre Smith wrote an incredible series of monologues for this journalism/drama genre-buster, and I guided the students through the note-taking and reading aloud processes. I encouraged them to hit Wikipedia, listen to Sublime, surf YouTube for related content, and watch the Oscar-winning ESPN documentary "OJ: Made in America".

​First Quarter Wraps Up: It was a wonderful first half of the class. Students were reading everything from Manga to Dale Carnegie to George Orwell. My constant reminders were often heeded: "Read something for your future. If you want to go into business, read a book by a business leader." And, "Read a classic that you've heard of but never read before." I evaluated their notebooks, had given them all 1-on-1 grading sessions with their essays, and kept a spreadsheet of their submissions. "I was so afraid of this class," I told my chairman. "But it's turned out to be the most perfect workshop environment I've ever seen!"

​Second Quarter: The syllabus and the goals were very similar to the first quarter. There was an essay ("Explore how you were impacted by something(s) you read first quarter"), notebooks, workshop time, finished pieces, two whole-class selections, and a portfolio. We got the term going with a few weeks of open workshop before we started reading a graphic novel together.

​Maus: I always wanted to teach a graphic novel - because I never read them. They look so special and appeal to a certain segment of the population, so what was I missing? I chose this one because it goes back to the founding of the term "graphic novel" and has a powerful impact on the students in "Facing History".

I was not disappointed.

We whipped around the room to read it together; each student read aloud one page. I insisted they create one mind map in their notebook per chapter - and encouraged them to submit second drafts for response-art finals. 

​Maus delivered pure education on all fronts: the Holocaust, the artistic process, parent-child relationships, and plenty more. End-note: About 1/4 of the class read Maus II when we went back to workshop mode.

Alternative Literacy: One day in the second quarter I led the students through an exercise. "Make a mind map of what you feed your brain. Put 'alternate literacy' in the center and tell me about the podcasts, audio-books, YouTube instructional videos, Ted Talks, and other ways you educate yourself," I said. "You should also start making one for your goals -- what alternative literacy do you want to consume?"

I have been doing this activity in other classes for a few years, and it is always successful. It adds whole new element to the class, their goals, our discussions, and everything else.

"You can do as much in your notebook as you like on 'alternative literacy' but can only submit up to three final pieces to count for the quarter," I added.

​Doubt: Another play based on the suggestion of our Theater Guy. This cutting edge drama is fairly well known, and it delivered exactly the kind of thoughtful education it would. it took about a week to read together, and the student responses confirmed that it was a great choice.

​The Portfolio: As I do with Creative Writing, i ended the course with one week in the computer lab to develop our portfolios and ended with a 'Portfolio Party". The portfolios were similar to those developed in my Junior English classes and CW - they could be websites or books, but they had to be some kind of presentation of all the work you did in the course plus several pages of reflections.

Click here to see a collaborative website-portfolio done by two former ENL students.

Click here to see another website-portfolio.

​Portfolio Reflections: This was a big change from my usual portfolio because all the reflections had to be literary in nature. So, I changed all my usual ideas to make them about literature. 

Final thoughts: I feel so proud about this course's success!

The students enjoyed and appreciated the workshop environment and were on task almost all the time. They developed important Reader's Notebooks, invested themselves in the polished pieces, and produced portfolios of which they can be proud.

 Many of these techniques will be applied to other courses I teach as I continue attempting to inspire my students to love reading.

1) The First Assignment. "ID Cards" are a great way to kick off a year. You lay down the basics of mind mapping and students immediately begin learning about themselves. "Write your name in the center," you can say. "Then mind map about your interests, hobbies, and passions. Try to get as detailed as possible. Use any art skills or mediums you desire."

Assignments like these are student-centered because the child's life experiences are at its core. Most of school is about adults dumping massive quantities of information INTO the students.

"ID Cards" is the opposite: It asks students to pour OUT. Authentic Language art opens powerful and unexpected doors to discovery and inspires growth. This assignment creates momentum, too. The rest of the course relies on mind-mapping skills and repeatedly asks students to explore themselves through creative arts.

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