Tagxedo: Word Cloud with Style

While Wordle is an excellent tool for celebrating key ideas and theme, Tagxedo actually creates a visual synthesis through the selection of a shape. For example, if Abraham Lincoln is the topic of an informational text sequence, students can choose a bust of Lincoln to enhance the theme or symbolism of the activity.

An interesting use of Tagxedo, and Wordle, is to take a constructed student response and create a word cloud. This powerful tool allows the learner and the instructor to see over-used words and/or applaud higher level vocabulary. For example, if the words 'the' or 'it' are the most pronounced, the visual connects students to the need for expanded vocabulary in writing. High frequency words can connect to theme or even begin a comparative conversation as to why the interpretation may vary by student.

Here is a link to instructions on using Tagxedo that will also connect you to the site: http://techietuesday.wikispaces.com/file/view/Tagxedo,+How+to.pdf

~Kathy Saunders, AHS English Teacher

When Kids Can't Read

About two years ago, teachers at North Asheboro Middle School and South Asheboro Middle School used When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teacher 6-12 as a book study.  Now, Asheboro High School teachers have copies to read and use for independent study.  Carla Shinn, media specialist at Asheboro High School has outlined Chapter 2 from Beers' text.  Here is a great review for the NAMS and SAMS crew and a warm up for AHS teachers.

When Kids Can’t Read

What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12

Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.  Print.

Chapter 2: Creating Independent Readers………………………….………….………..8

In order to determine why struggling readers cannot read, multiple aspects of reading must be addressed, beginning with defining the term struggling reader.  Beers describes various types of readers struggling with text and notes that anyone can struggle, given the right text.  The issue is what the reader does when the text becomes difficult for him.  She puts readers into two categories: independent and dependent. She describes strategies an independent reader can rely on when dealing with difficult text such as figuring out what is confusing them and setting goals for getting through the reading.

By contrast, dependent readers stop and may appeal to the teacher or an outside source for help.

1.    Lack of cognitive abilities to read. They might struggle with comprehension, vocabulary, word recognition, or fluency and automaticity.

2.    Negative attitudes toward reading. Students may have become so disengaged from the reading process that whether or not they have the cognitive abilities does not matter. She says that these readers lack social and emotional reading confidence.

3.    Readers who do not know what types of books they might enjoy or what range of genres exists for them to read.  Additionally they may lack the ability to stick with a difficult text or the stamina to find or complete a text.

When text is difficult:

Independent Readers	Dependent or Struggling Readers
Identify what is confusing them        Set goals to get through the reading          Use strategies for getting through the text	Stop reading          Ask for help       Read through without understanding

Over time, Beers came to realize that dependent readers’ problems could be grouped into three areas:

She goes into more detail of the three areas and emphasizes that as one area improves, others do, too. She also notes that the areas commingle and create a ricochet effect.  Dealing with one area creates a momentum that positively affects other areas.

Beers suggests that there are three types of confidences that readers need to be successful: cognitive, social and emotional, and text confidence.

·         Cognitive confidence allows readers to comprehend texts, monitor their understanding, determine meaning of words, and to read with fluency. 

·         Social and emotional confidence allows students to be willing and active participants in a community of readers, to read for enjoyment and information, and to have a positive attitude toward reading.

·         With text confidence students develop the stamina to continue reading difficult texts and to find authors and genres that interest them.

Three Types of Confidences Successful Readers Need

Cognitive Confidences ·         Comprehend texts ·         Monitor understanding ·         Determine meaning of words ·         Read with fluency

Social & Emotional Confidence ·         Be willing and active readers ·         Read for enjoyment and information ·         Have a positive attitude toward reading

Stamina and Enjoyment ·         Develop the stamina to continue reading difficult texts ·         Find authors and genres that interest them

~Carla Shinn

Vocabulary In Action

Literacy does not only deal with written words, but also spoken words.  It is important for students to be able to recognize the important vocabulary words when they encounter them in their texts, but students should also understand how to use the words properly in conversation.  Being able to use the vocabulary words in conversation allows for a greater and deeper understanding of the words, which will translate into a greater understanding of the overall text.


Keep vocabulary instruction to about 10 words per week; then attack 2 terms per day.  Here is a guideline for choosing appropriate terms:

• Important, critical content words from the reading
• Useful words, meaning they are transferable to other content areas
• Difficult words

There are many strategies for teaching vocabulary, but to get students to use vocabulary properly, challenge them to be a Word Wizard.  This post-reading activity is highlighted in Strategies for Building Academic Vocabulary in Social Studies by Christine Dugan.  

1. Choose both specialized content and general academic words.
2. Create a Word Wizard chart.
3. Explain that you want to record how many times they see, hear, or use a focus word.  Students will have to report where they saw the word and how it was used.
4. As an incentive, assign points based on where and how the word is used.
5. Occasionally, you may want to frame the activity by asking students to find a particular word in a specific place like an advertisement, newspaper, or novel.
6. As students return with evidence of their word use, set aside time to discuss their examples.  These discussions can be whole group, but also allow time to discuss in pairs and/or small groups.

If you need more information on the Word Wizard activity, click here.  

This is also a look at how you can differentiate this activity.

~Walker Smith, AHS Social Studies Teacher

The Ash Hi Chat Really Writes

Asheboro High School's newspaper, The Ash Hi Chat, rolled out its first edition of the school year today.  Last year, Jonathan Dillion took over the reins as adviser and worked especially hard to make reading the paper an important part of AHS.  Mr. Dillion emails teachers a few days before an edition comes out and provides ways it can be incorporated in various content areas.  He has added prize giveaways for students who complete the newspaper's crossword puzzle, which is always based on facts from the reading.  There is also a game show-style class take over called "Chat Challenge" where one lucky class is ambushed and challenged to correctly answer trivia questions based on the articles all for the chance to win big prizes.

Hey Social Studies, Art, and English/Language Arts teachers, how could you use this student-created political cartoon featured in Ash Hi Chat in your classes?

The cartoon compliments the editorial article written by Mariam Kahn, "Do Parents Influence Our Political Views?".  <--(click here) The article can serve as a great starting point for lessons with or about politics, argumentative writing, research, discussion, statistics, psychology, parenting, and more.

Image credit:  cartoon by AHS student Elizabeth Pruitt

~Chandra

The Times

"For the Times They Are A-Changin" may be a familiar Bob Dylan song for some.  The title really resonates with me because, for one, we are definitely aware of the need for a change in the way we teach to meet Common Core standards.  Shift one from the CCSS is to include more informational text into a student's daily instructional time.  That concept brings me to my second connection to the song.  The New York Times (commonly referred to as just The Times) are changing by providing help for teachers in incorporating their articles into instruction.

Please click here to see how The Learning Network has teamed up with The New York Times.  If this has been helpful to you, please share how you used the resource.

~Chandra

Student-Generated Higher Order Thinking Questions

Bloom's Taxonomy, in its various forms, represents the process of learning.  It was developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom and modified again in the 1990's by Bloom's former student, Lorin Anderson.

Many teachers create lessons and assessments based on Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT) question stems in order to promote higher order thinking skills (HOTS).  How many of us push our students to create their own HOT questions???

I recently visited two 6th grade ELA classrooms at North Asheboro Middle School.  Co-teachers Chris Burian and Matt Edwards collaborated with co-teachers Meredith Wolfe and Kerry Brooks to create a lesson that scaffolded HOT question creation for students.  Here are pictures of their key word "thermometers" that took students from mild to medium to HOT!

HOT Questions Lesson at NAMS on PhotoPeach

Now it's your turn to think about how you can get students to create HOT questions.  If you need another idea, check out this Youtube video about using your SMART board  for a student-generated HOT review  game.


~Chandra

9/11 Teaching Activities

Kathy Saunders, an English teacher at Asheboro High School, has found a great resource for a 9/11 remembrance lesson.  "The Man in the Red Bandana"  is a powerful video, courtesy of ESPN, that can lead into great writing or discussion tasks.

Kathy first shared it with me last year.  She started with the lesson EQ:  What would you do in the last hour? Ask the question, but caution students about writing to their audience (the teacher).  The video works great to teach symbolism.  I used it last year and it fit nicely with our work on epic heroes.  The cross-curricular potential is endless. 

I also found a LiveBinder with 9/11 Teaching Activities.

September 11th Student Activities

Please share any ideas you may have on this topic or how you could use the video in your class.

~Chandra