Lit and Tech

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

NBCT: Component 1: The three hour test

Stock Photo: Not from the testing center. In the summer of 2016 I began the process of National Board Certification. I stumbled upon a program from our county office that supports teachers through the process over two years. I just finished Component 1 and 2. For more on Component 2 see my previous post . While Component 2 is a year long process of collecting student work and writing about it, Component 1 is a test I took last weekend. This test counts for 40% of my overall NBCT score, and that's more than any other component. Of course it is a three hour test, and yes, every time I say that I hear the theme song to Gilligan's Island in my head. So just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful test... Actually, I can't tell you anything about the test. I agreed to a confidentiality statement when I sat down to take it. I can tell you about my experience, and how I prepared, and what the day was like. The testing center is a 20 minute drive

How I convinced my students that I could tell if they used AI

Part of preventing students from using generative AI to do their work for them is showing them ways it can be helpful without violating academic integrity. I wrote about that process here. But another big part of keeping students from using the AI unethically, is convincing them that I will be able to tell they "cheated." This is how I showed my 9th graders that I could tell when they used AI to respond to a question. One of my colleagues came to me because she thought one of her students had used ChatGPT for one of the short paragraphs about a book we were reading as part of a novel study. We talked about the student, why they might have done that, why she thought it was AI, etc. And then I ran it through an AI detector. As predicted by this expert educator colleague of mine, it was flagged as entirely AI written. She pursued her own actions at that point, but I saw an opportunity. The Opportunity: I took the AI generated response and put it on a page with two other res

Self-Evaluation Google Form for Students

Today my students self-scored their memoirs and reflected on their writing. They used a Google Form to do this and that has provided me with some invaluable data, while providing them with a chance to answer specific questions about their progress (or lack of progress) and learning. For those of you who like research, check out what John Hattie has to say about the impact of students grading their own work . In 2009 he found the impact factor of that to be 1.44. He revised it in 2015 to 1.33, but that's still a huge impact from a simple activity that all students can engage with. The form I made for my students self-evaluation branched, that is to say there was a question on the first page that asked if their memoir was complete, almost complete, or would be complete by Friday. Based on their answers to this first question students answered different sets of questions on their next page. If a student said his/her memoir was complete the form had questions like, "What do yo

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