Guest Blogger - Mrs. Shannon Townsend: Interactive resource using Depth and Complexity

Note: Mrs. Shannon Townsend is a top notch ELA educator in the Eagle Mountain- Saginaw ISD.  Please leave your contact information at the bottom of this blog post if you'd like to request her resources and/or make contact with her. 

Break the Pandemic Barriers: interactive resource using Depth and Complexity 

Walking into my classroom during a global pandemic doesn’t look very different from any other year. The differences are so minimal, had you not been in my class prior to the pandemic, you wouldn’t notice many changes beyond the masks that cover the mouths and noses of the young minds I have the pleasure of helping shape each day. 

As teachers, we find new and exciting ways to engage our students no matter the circumstances, and this year is no different. Yes, there are students who aren’t in my class each day for one reason or another, but I’ve learned a few techniques that maintain as much normalcy in the classroom as possible. Hopefully, some of them will help you as well.

At the front of the room you might not notice the little computer set up.  It holds a dozen or so icons on the screen, each housing a student in the comfort of their own device at home, each learning in much the same was as those in my room who are attending in person. You wouldn’t notice these students yet, because your eyes would automatically be drawn to the students scattered around the room, distanced, but facing one another, engrossed in discussion about the literature they got to choose themselves. 

While planning the most recent lesson for independent book studies, I reached out to Charles at ESC Region 11 in hopes of obtaining another copy of the Depth and Complexity Model he had shown me the previous year during a voluntary classroom coach opportunity. Of course, he obliged, and I had the document within a few hours of the request. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the Depth and Complexity model, it is an amazing tool with topics and questions that are high level and very engaging when used properly. I took the document with these questions and one-word topics and created an activity my students thoroughly enjoyed, and I had no students unwilling to participate. It was so engaging, in fact, we did the activity on Tuesday, had a reading day on Wednesday, and when they entered the classroom on Thursday and saw the spinner on the Promethean board, each one became excited. Our kiddos are so engrossed in and used to staring at a screen all day, they now enjoy giving their eyes a break and getting to collaborate with their peers. 

Here are the steps I took to create an engaging lesson my students love.

1.     I began with the Depth and Complexity model Word doc. Charles gave me (which can be found here >>>>). 

2.     I copied and pasted each little icon into a Word doc. in order to save space and paper. I’ve done the work; you just need to print the icon doc. found here>>>. I did include a “Wild Card” for the 12^th slot to give the students a chance to choose their own topic if the spinner landed on their Wild Card slot.

3.     I then found this little spinner board online. It can be found here>>> **Print at 220%**

You’ll need 2 spinners, 2 Depth and Complexity Model Word docs, and 1 Depth and Complexity icon doc. since I was able to fit 2 sets of icons on each page.

Cut out each spinner and all the little icons. In random order for each set, I pasted one set of icons per spinner. No two spinners are alike. This is important to me because it provides variety. 

With COVID protocols and caution in mind, I had each completed spinner and each Depth and Complexity Word doc. (it contains the questions) laminated. Please note, I require ALL students to use hand sanitizer before and after touching any shared documents. All masks are worn properly throughout the duration of my class with no exceptions to either of these rules.

My desks are spaced as much as possible, but during group work, students rotate their desks towards peers nearby, keeping them in the same spots, and they are able to get into groups while maintaining social distancing protocols to the best of our ability.

Each group of three to four students gets a Depth and Complexity Word doc. and a spinner. 

The Depth and Complexity model doc. is embedded into my canvas, so my virtual students see this in their assignment for the day. here>>>> is what my Canvas looks like.

There is a spinner on my Promethean Board directly in front of my computer screen where my virtual students wait patiently for their altered instruction.

I spin the digital, 12-section spinner found here>>>> on the Promethean Board.

Tap the board, the spinner spins, lands on a number, and the students match the number to their spinner, find the corresponding icon on the Depth and Complexity doc., and that is their topic for this round. In Independent Reading Circles, they discuss the book they’re reading. Their group members are asking questions generated from the Depth and Complexity model doc. The far-right hand column has one-word topics to help generate these questions. 

Each group decides whether or not they will discuss one at a time or have back and forth discussions throughout the allotted time.

I set a 1-minute timer. At the end of the timer, if students are speaking one at a time, they will switch speakers. This ensures everyone is participating. When we have reset the timer enough times for everyone to speak, we spin again to get a new topic and repeat the process.

Because virtual students don’t have the spinner, they count down the document embedded in Canvas to get their number to see which topic the spinner chose for them.

Virtual students are required to participate, or they will be accountable for the paragraphs assigned. I mute my side, so the class discussion doesn’t disturb them. They can choose to speak verbally or use the chat. When speaking verbally, they will write their name in the chat as they speak during their turn. This is an accountability system to ensure everyone is participating. 

Finally, I always give a few examples of questions that could be generated from the provided topics to ensure high level questions are being discussed. I’m always making my way around the room and online to check on the groups and helping facilitate questions as needed in case they gets stuck or don't quite understand a topic. 

 

 

 

 

No, I won't back down - Creation, maintenance, and the educator

If you can't pick the outcome, then you gotta chose how you process the situation that is standing in front of you.  

(Skip the next paragraph if you're not a fan of edu-stories)

I'll try to be brief... I was born in Costa Rica (this'll be a short story, promise).  I was made fun of and beat up because of the way I spoke or simply because I wasn't "from here".  During my 6th grade year I was surrounded by 8th grade boys on bikes who were, previous to this moment, my friends.  They were led by a guy who was never my friend.  They all got off their bikes and had a long Algonquin discussion concerning who would get to beat me up for "being from ...uh....uh... uh Puerto Rico" (close enough, I thought when I heard them say this instead of Costa Rica).  The biggest guy walked up to me and, all I could think of as a pretty normal and likeable 11/12 year old, was "I'm not going to be able to get away... and I don't like any of the other obvious options... what do I do? How badly will this hurt?".***

Welp... we're all in that moment right now.  Covid aint going away.  We are barreling through a new world together.

We can't get away.  So our choice is the same as the one I had to make back in my South Central Irving, Texas days.  How will I act in this moment where none of the options are ones I'd care to go through.

In our convenient 7-11/Target/Amazon.com world where we get what we want, when we want... we have to finally face something as a world that deeply affects us all.  There is no quick solution to this.  We can't put it on our credit cards and pay this decision off over the next few years.  

In our previous life, a few long months ago, we lived in a system that was largely about maintenance.

We drove the same routes to work, talked to largely the same people, ate largely the same things, and compared ourselves to a similar past.  It was a life of maintenance.  We maintained the good stuff and worked hard to move forward for even better stuff.  Even when we took chances, it was from a fairly stable foundation.

We were and are Sisyphus rolling our massive bolder up hill, knowing it would roll back down eventually.  The next school year, we'd begin our eternal task again...but at least we were familiar with the bolder and the hill.  

Covid, our new boulder or hill or maybe both, slowly (and not so slowly) destroyed our routine.  We are left to cobble together a new normal.  We are now in creation mode and, for educators, we know that creation is at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy.  In other words, it's hard and there isn't a fill in the blank template.

When I work with teachers in their classrooms, I take lots of notes.  Like, a lot... a lot.  

I do this so I can be as detailed as possible when sharing my lens with the teacher.  We can better triangulate the reality of the classroom and move forward and celebrate together when we compare contrast what I saw, what the teacher intended, and what the students (via interviews and surveys) experienced.  A 3-D view of the classroom develops out of this so our celebrations can be real and meaningful ones (for all of us).  

We NEED to celebrate as much as we can in our current climate.

However, I also keep track of challenges.  Not to demean or focus on problems, but to connect to challenges that may be experienced campus-wide.  

When a teacher, in their isolation, is trying to address a campus-wide issue while thinking it's a classroom issue... well those teacher tend to get super stressed, burnt out, and wonder why they can't "fix" the issue.  It's that proverbial iceberg that is monstrous, but mostly hidden.  For example, if administrators are not monitoring the hallways during passing periods and students come into the classroom late (and this is happening campus wide) then teacher efforts, in isolation, will only go so far and help so much.  It will be an emotional and energy drain on that teacher to try to "fix" the campus issue. 

Likewise, with COVID, we have, not a campus wide issues, but a global and historical issue that has found it's way into our classrooms.  The old rules barely apply.  We have to create new ones.  Your students who used to get distracted by SnapChat pics are now distracted by mom and dad not having a job.  Your students who are at home learning... they're doing it in isolation with little support network and little motivation.  

Teachers are putting in a Sisyphean effort as they try to run a "normal" classroom while they... oh, I don't
know... keep at bay the distraction of a Global Pandemic.  Within their four walls, they are forced, we are all forced, to confront this pandemic as we experience it... we almost have to treat it as a classroom issue.  

But, you can't and you shouldn't.  It's not your fault and you will not fix it using the old ways and the old system.  Heck, you may not be able to "fix" it at all... but you can model for your students how to process it. 

You are creating a new system which will be wrought with trial and errors...and errors...and errors.

All of the education books you read in the past and the educations classes you took, didn't take into account a pandemic and therefore all will, to a degree, fall short of the moment. 

Advise?

Start with Maslow's before you move on to Bloom's.

What I mean by this is that if Maslow's needs aren't being met then students won't even care about the lowest level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

There is a nice alignment between Self Actualization (top of Maslow's) and all of Bloom's.  After all, don't we self actualize via education? 

And, to continue, if student's Esteem or Love/Belonging levels on Maslow's aren't met... will they ever get to the Knowledge or Comprehension levels? 

So, in this Covid maelstrom or craziness... In this creation or (re)creation of the system of education... In this death of the old maintenance system of education... Start your day and start your classes off with Maslow before you get to Bloom's... and don't back down. 

*** To circle back to the story from the top, for those of you who need answers and finality... John did punch me pretty hard in the face.  Without thinking, I reached up and punched him back.  His reaction? "You have five seconds to walk away."  I knew I had won at that point... which is another reason why I love those lines "Hey, baby, there aint no easy way out.  Hey, I will stand my ground. And I won't back down."