The Key to Differentiated Learning - Develop Student Experts

When you enter Dr. Lou Lahana's Tech Cafe at PS/MS 188, you aren't entering a classroom with a teacher preparing students for the future. Instead, you enter a space where social activists are working hard doing the real work of making the world a better place today addressing causes about which they are passionate. Lahana is a self-described passionate educator in search of technology to support talent development and social action in teens. 

Here is how he does that.

If students aren't sure about which cause they want to address, that's okay. Dr. Lahana has collected research and resources on numerous causes such as those below. The resources are always being updated by Lahana and the students.

Once they select their cause, they determine a course of action to address the issue using tools they chose.  Here are some tools in the toolbox.

Once the issue and tool are selected, students use them to select their own project and tools to make real-world change.  But how does Lahana manage to conduct a class where students own and lead the learning? Where every student may be working on a different project, with a different tool? 

The Key to Differentiation

Dr. Lahana's key to differentiation is the students. In Lahana's class it is students who rise up as the resident experts. Lahana's job is that of a conductor and environment creator. He points the students to the right resources and experts in coding, jewelry making, clamation, music and movie making and more.  Then he ensures students have the environment conducive to learning. This means there is a sound studio to make music, a wood working area, sewing machines to create wearables, a place to bake clay for claymation, 3D printers and more.

In short the students are empowered to own the learning and help one another to make the world a better place.

Here are some of the projects students have addressed.

Gun Control

Gun Control March
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Students organized to march in support of those affected by the Parkland shooting and against the NRA. These 5th-8th grade students created compelling signs, marched, and listened to speeches. This movie which captured the event features a song performance by one of Lahana's students, Kayleen who used Soundtrap to create her song. Her track is available for free download at: soundcloud.com/techbrarian/sets/social-action-1

The Island School's Gun Control March from Lou Lahana on Vimeo.

Building A Greenhouse

This student wanted to address animal cruelty in the food industry by creating a greenhouse that produces fruits and vegetables students at the school can eat rather than meat. He used a 3D printer to prototype the greenhouse.  He used the woodworking tools to make planters for the greenhouse that currently stand in the school's schoolyard with plants.

Tolerance for Wearers of the Hijab

This student knew that other students didn't understand her and possibly misjudged her because she wore a hijab. She decided to make a movie inviting others to wear a hijab, explain how they felt, and she explained what it meant to her.

The Hijab Experience from Lou Lahana on Vimeo.

Deter Cigarette Use with a Smoke Detecting Shirt

This student wanted to address the dangers of smoking. He coded an Arduino to create a shirt that can detect smoke. When it does, it lights up with sayings to embarrass the smoker such as "stinky breath," "yellow teeth," or "lung cancer."

Your Turn

What do you think? Are there ideas here you could consider using with your students? Are you already doing this type of work? What excites you about it? What challenges do you see?

Keep Students On the Cutting Edge of Learning

While Internet Explorer has joined the "product graveyard," Microsoft Edge has entered the scene as more than the standard web browser. Innovative Educators will appreciate the learning tools and extensions proven to improve reading comprehension, strengthen writing, level the playing field for struggling learners and help teachers personalize learning in less time.

Learning Tools are built into the Windows 10 Edge browser. They allow your device to read aloud text using a voice of your choosing. The tools also allow for content to be accessed via "Reading View" which increases text readability by removing distracting content, adjusting font and line spacing, as well as identify syllables and parts of speech.  

Here is an overview of some of the features and benefits.

Feature	Benefit
Line focus	Sustains attention and improves reading speed
Immersive reading	Improves comprehension and sustains attention
Adjustable line and font spacing	Enhances reading speed by addressing "visual crowding"
Parts of speech	Supports grammar instruction and comprehension
Syllabification	Targets word recognition and pronunciation
Comprehension mode	Improves comprehension by an average of 10%

In the next several screenshots, I will share various ways students and teachers can use Edge to enrich teaching, learning, and make content more accessible.

Grammarly Extension

When you add an extension like Grammarly you have a tool that will check spelling and grammar. It will also define and give synonyms for any word. Just double click.

Read Aloud

Right click on any word to begin read aloud.

Customize Voice & Speed

Next you can adjust the speed and add voices.

This is the screen where you add voices. I selected Catherine from Australia.

Track Reading with Highlighted Text

It's important to notice when the screen is reading to you, the line it is reading is highlighted and the word it is reading is emphasized.

Translation

If you have students for whom English is not their first language, you can use the translation feature to read the text aloud.

We all know that machine translation is not perfect, and that's okay. It still helps make language much more accessible than without it.  Do a lesson on this with students to help them do as good of a job as possible to make meaning of what they're reading.

Read with fewer distractions

Reading View

Reading view, in the address bar, provides a clean and simple layout with fewer distractions.  You can change the reading view style (light, medium, or dark) and font size to customize the reading experience.

Here's one view.

Here is another view. Notice also that as it reads in this view, the spoken word is highlighted.

Focus Assist

You can help students limit distracting notifications by selecting "Focus Assist" in the action center.

View Syllables & Parts of Speech

Using the "Grammar Tools" accessible from the "Reading View" you can choose to have syllables and parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives) displayed.

Annotate a Webpage

Teachers will enjoy being able to be untethered from the board in the front of the room with the ability to annotate a web page right from Edge using the pen shaped "Write Notes" tool. The tool allows you to highlight, draw, add comments, and then save or share the screen with others. To unteather use Skype to share your screen (or that of a student or expert) with the projecting device. 

Student Anecdotes

This video highlights some student feedback on using learning tools.

Your Turn

What do you think? Are learning tools something that could be helpful to students where you teach? How do you see using this in your practice?

#NYCSchoolsTechChat: Teacher Report Cards! June 7th at 7 p.m. EST

Join us for our monthly #NYCSchoolsTechChat on Thursday, June 7th where we'll be giving ourselves a report card: How do you think you did this year? Join the #NYCSchoolsTechChat as we discuss the good, bad, and the ugly from the 2017/18 school year.

#NYCSchoolTech teacher Eileen Lennon moderates with me throwing in my two cents. 

You can prepare for the conversation by thinking about answers to these questions:

Chat details are below:
Date: Thursday, June 7
Time: 7:00 pm
Topic: #NYCSchoolsTech Summit
Your Host: @eileen_lennon (@NYCSchools)
Co-Host: @InnovativeEdu (@NYCSchools)

Remember to respond using the hashtag #NYCSchoolsTechChat and include the number of the question you are answering in your response i.e. A1 and your answer.

We hope you can view the chat live, but if you are unable, please visit our archive at https://www.participate.com/chats/nycschoolstechchat. You can also participate in the chat at that link or if you have an iPhone download the app at https://www.participate.com/apps.

High & Low Tech Techniques to Organize Lessons & Track Standards

How do you keep track of all your units, lessons, and track what standards you have addressed? 

Bullet Journal

When I asked #NYCSchoolsTech educator Eileen Lennon how she does this, she shared her analog method. She has a section in her bullet journal track lessons across the year. This provides a great, at-a-glance tool for parents, administrators, and also the students themselves. 

Here is what she shared.

I ask #NYCSchoolsTech educator @eileen_lennon how she keeps track of the standards for students i.e. @iste #CommonCore. She shows me this #BulletJournal pic.twitter.com/DTNzOuOxZP

— Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) May 16, 2018

OneNote Notebook

The actual lessons themselves are all stored in her digital notebook using OneNote. There is a link to every lesson in the lesson agenda accessible from her laptop, phone, or any device. Because the lesson agenda is digital and hyperlinked, she has access to all materials anytime, anywhere and can make changes and updates to adjust to student needs on the fly. 

She spends her Friday prep period each week planning for the next week's lessons.