History Textbooks - Are They Equal?

During recent years, I have come across several different Canadian History textbooks. Many have been left in classrooms during room changes or slated for disposal. Either way - as a teacher, I always seem to be drawn to keeping a copy of these texts for a "just in case" moment.

Sitting at my desk this week, I realised that I have 5 distinctive different Canadian History textbooks, and wondered how equally or differently they covered the same subject...so naturally, I select the largest subject possible - World War Two (excluding the War At Home) While I realize that teaching from a textbook is the least interactive way to teach history, I figured it would be interesting to compare.

Textbook #1 - Spotlight Canada 4th Ed. (2000)

This textbook features the usually seen visuals that are associated with Canada and World War Two. However, it is extremely limited on its information. Limiting the war to approximately a dozen pages. The most notable subjects that I believe are not adequately served are the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Normandy Campaign, the Pacific War, and the Holocaust. These subjects are either mentioned in passing or not at all. 80,000 Canadians served in the Pacific, and this textbook mentions Hong Kong in 4 small paragraphs. The one positive note from this text is its clear explanation of the convoy system and the Canadian naval Corvettes.

Textbook #2 - Discovering Canada (1983)

This is is the oldest textbook in my collection. Of all the textbooks I examined, this one has the clearest timeline and synopsis of major events during the World War Two. I enjoy this synopsis because one cannot accurately analyse Canada's contributions to the war without knowing what else was happening simultaneously. The text also provides a (very short) list of key terms, as well as a decent introduction with the invasion of Poland. Compared to textbook #1 - it has more detail on D-Day and Normandy, but again fails to discuss the Pacific, while limiting its discussion of the Battles of Britain and the Atlantic.

Textbook #3 - Canadian History: Patterns and Transformations (2003)

Perhaps this is the weakest text if your intention is to teach how the war impacted Canada. This textbook does not focus on international events. It focuses solely on what was happening in Canada. Therefore, there is a single paragraph on Prime Minister King during the war years. I found this extremely surprising as Canada transformed dramatically during the war - how could a text with this title overlook the impacts of the Second World War?

Textbook #4 - Defining Canada: History, Identity, and Culture (2003)


Similar to books #1 & 2 this text does a good job providing a basic summary of events. It does a decent job at explaining why the world was in conflict in 1939, as well as solid summary of the rise of Fascism, and the Western policy of Appeasement. The battles of Dieppe and Normandy are covered in slightly more detail than any other text, but again it has no coverage of the Pacific War.

Textbook #5 - Canadian History: 1900-2000 (2000)

My biggest criticism with this text is that it claims to include Canadian history in 2000, yet was only published in 2000...However, it does the best at describing the lead-up to war (5 or so pages) as well as the causes of war (an additional 5 pages). It touches on the war in the Pacific, even mentions Pearl Harbour in addition to Hong Kong. This text also has the best section about Women at war (5 pages) as well as several pages on the legacy of the war and its effects on the global political sphere. Perhaps it is for these reasons that this is (from my experience) the most common history textbook in Canadian History classrooms.

Closing Thoughts:

I never advocate teaching history out of a textbook. Experiential learning is the best way to engage students in History. Far too many students consider history to be boring and their least favourite subject. This honestly makes me sad. History is engaging by nature and should be taught through story-telling with critical and analytical thinking. Where I believe textbooks come in handy is for critical thinking activities and analysis of reliable sources for research. I found this to be an extremely interesting exercise, they are not equal in how they approach the subject matter.

I have not yet had the opportunity to work with any of the newly published/approved textbooks

History Uncovered: Canadian History Since World War I (2014)
Creating Canada: A History - 1914 to the Present Second Edition (2014)
Think History: Canadian History Since 1914 (2016)
Canadian Sources: Investigated (2014)

What are your thoughts? Have you recently analyses the effectiveness of your texts for your classes overall expectations?

Questioning the In-Class Essay

While I am relatively new to the teaching profession (3+ years experience) I find myself questioning more and more the practice of having students write literary essays in-class. Why are we forcing students to do this, especially when we know it leads to lower quality papers?

I am a high school English teacher and I spend a great deal of time teaching formal writing; especially how to write a proper literary essay. I also privately tutor high school students, often supporting them in similar English courses to the ones I teach and I am struck every time a student informs me that they are writing an in-class essay on the novel/play they just finished studying.

From my perspective, an in-class essay evaluates two things. 1. How well a student can write under pressure in an uncomfortable learning environment. 2. How well a student can memorise points and research they completed outside of the classroom for their in-class essay. That is it.

I honestly believe as teachers, and school boards, we implemented in-class essays to prevent plagiarism, yet with services such as Turnitin being used, there is no longer a benefit of the in-class essay. Besides, every senior level English course I teach has an essay question on the final exam. Therefore, if I want to assess how well a student can write under pressure and based on memorization, I get an opportunity anyway.

Plagiarism will likely occur in essays. It is a common understanding that at least one student will attempt to cheat, and hope that you will not catch it. To deter this from happening, I show my students Turnitin, and how it find everything on the internet, even provides the URLs to where the information was retrieved. I have found that by showing students that we have the technology to detect plagiarism, it is less likely to occur. Turnitin even detects if the same essay has been submitted to another teacher in another school.

The other part that prevents students from plagiarising is a strict school policy. In my school board, a plagiarised assignment is automatically assessed a failing grade (30%) and the student is not automatically allowed a re-write opportunity. Re-write are assessed on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, there is no reason not to allow students to write essays at home.

I have asked other teachers why they use in-class essays, and another common response is that they want students to learn proper peer editing.

Alright, I agree that there is a benefit to learning proper peer editing skills, but this can still be employed when a student is allowed to work on their paper at home. Besides, once a student leaves your class and moves on to post-secondary or employment, there is rarely a moment in real life that a student will be forced to work without adequate resources (word processing, the internet, and a magnitude of other resources that are not available in in-class essays).

In my opinion, if you want to adequately prepare a student for college or university, they need to learn proper time management skills, and how to write an essay on their own time. This is not accomplished with in-class essays.

Finally, the level of writing is always better in essays written at home. This is because the strong students will use peer editing at home to improve their essays. As an English teacher, I hate reading poorly written work, it is a waste of my time, especially when correcting spelling and grammar errors that would not be present in a word-proccessed essay. That is why when I receive a well-written paper, it is a joy to read, and easier to assess. That is why I want the practice of in-class essays to end!

What are your thoughts?

EdTech: Code Cademy

I will be the first to admit I have neglected this blog...

It has been nearly three months since I have posted a new topic on EDTech 4 Professional Development. I am sorry - the end of the year is busy as a teacher- and well...I was more focused on my other blog; as well as starting to learn HTML code.

So here I am today to introduce Code Cademy. 

I will start by indicating that I have not used the "Premium" content - as I believe it is far too expensive at $19/month. 

However, if you (as a teacher) or your student are looking to learn HTML code to better understand the internet, Code Cademy is the place to start. 

Code Cademy makes learning not only HTML, but CSS, Java, Ruby and many other programming codes easy -even if you have never coded before. I personally have not explored anything outside the HTML and CSS courses as of yet but I can tell you I have pages worth of notes  and lessons that I can revisit when I forget what I did. 

Code Cademy has set up each course into numerous lessons; broken down and made as simple as any steps you would find in a For Dummies book. (No lack of respect for the For Dummies series, as I have several of their books, including Dreamweaver CS4, HTML5 and CSS3, just to name a few). 

Each lesson provides directions and an explanation of the feature you are learning about; and will include references to previous lessons as you go along. 

In the image above - the area in white titled "Supporting Content 1" is the description/explanation of the skill being learned for this particular lesson. directly below this is the "instructions" which provide you with a specific task for this part of the lesson. 

In the center of your screen you have your plain text - coding area; line numbers, and code colors are included in this (even the free version). On the top right you have a preview screen so you can see what changes you are making have an effect on the webpage itself if it were live online. 

At the bottom of the page there is the blue submit button where it will either move you onto the next lesson (if you are correct) or provide a hint if there is an error in your code. 

I have found the free version of Code Cademy to be absolutely amazing, and even more surprisingly addictive. I expected the free version to cut me off during my course and ask me to upgrade to finish the course - this was not the case. I was able to complete 95% of the HTML & CSS course in the free version. The only parts of the course I did not have access too were the course quizzes and the major course projects. 

While I have no intention of ever leaving the teaching profession to enter web design - I want to be able to manipulate my course webpages, blogs, and other online resources I use as I see fit for my classroom - and therefore I knew I needed to start learning HTML and CSS. Next up will most likely be Java - but that will only be once I am comfortable with HTML - and I will definitely turn to Code Cademy to learn Java as well. 

So, if you are a teacher who wants to learn HTML or more advanced coding - or your intro to computer science students want to learn HTML - visit Code Cademy today. 

EdTech: Google Hangout in the Classroom

While many of us use Google Apps for Education (GAFE) it seems many have skimmed over the usefulness of Google Hangout - I know I sure have.

My wife brought Google Hangout to my attention after Prime Minister Trudeau used Google Hangout to talk to High School students across the country after being sworn in as Prime Minister in November of 2015.

Prime Minister Trudeau, a former teacher himself, even used Periscope to stream the ceremony live to classrooms accords the country.  Trudeau and his team are not amateurs when it comes to digital media.

So after seeing the Prime Minister use this free google service I had to check it out.

So what is Google Hangout? 

Hangouts allows users to have voice and video conversations from your computer. The plugin is free and installs in seconds. You can call anyone with an email account, a microphone, and/or webcam (the webcam is needed if you want a visual). 

	Talk face-to-face from your computer Make free video calls with up to 10 people.
	Connect from any device Start and join video calls from your computer, smartphone or tablet. Learn more
	Start a video call in Gmail Instantly go from an email conversation to a group video call.

Hangouts even allows you to make phone calls to anyone in Canada and the US; the majority of the time for free - and international calls can be connected for extreamly low rates (rates varies; so I will not get into details here) 

Hangouts has a downloadable app for Android, iOS and Google Chrome so you don't always have to open the URL. 

So when will you as a Teacher use Google Hangouts? 

• Guest Speakers: Hangout can allow you to connect with Guest Speakers around the world - no need to bring someone in to the city; and worry about cost coverage. Chris Hadfield has used similar services to talk to students across the country, and around the world. Just imagine; with Google Hangout, your guest speaker list can grow exponentially. 
• Conference with Students while Sick or on Vacation: Many students and parents ask teachers for work while they are on ill or on vacation. In most cases teachers often send work home for ill students and don't bother sending work on vacation (it's not going to get done); but with Hangouts you can actually speak with a student face to face; to make sure they understand the lessons that occur while they are away. 
• Why phone home when you can Hangout Home? The best part about Parent-Teacher interviews is reading body language and actually getting to know the other people. Hangout allows you to do this without actually meeting face to face. For struggling students, this could be a huge help; being able to speak to parents and the student together. 
• Broadcast and Archive conversations; hangouts lets you record and save a session. You can use it live for your current class; and replay it for future classes. (This requires the Hangout's on Air add on) 
• Virtual Book Clubs: Most classroom learning takes place with peers within the four walls of your classroom. Hangout can allow your students to connect with other students studying the same texts. (This does take a fair amount of planning) 
• External/Expert Audiences for Student Presentations. A guest speaker is one thing, but what about inviting guest audiences to student presentations. Research has show that students perform better when creating work for an authentic audience (Sorry teachers - we tend not to count) Invite industry experts/leaders to be guest audience members to student presentations; and allow them to interact and ask  your students questions based on their presentations. 

Teachers need to Consider Student's Lack of Critical Literacy/Writing Skills

It would seem that I am on a literacy bend right now.

Perhaps this is because the OSSLT is now a month away, and every school has their after-school literacy programs up and running (a separate problem that these are really only utilised before the test - but that could be another article all together); or perhaps it is just because the growing poor results that are seen on a daily basis.

As a follow up to my post yesterday about whether or not digital literacy skills were beginning to affect traditional literacy skills; literacy rates (at least in Ontario) are static, stuck at 82%...

So today, during my lunch break I did some more reading about critical writing and literacy skills. This was prompted largely thanks to a great back and forth conversations with Keith Donaldson (@klgdonaldson) on Twitter;

I think many profs seeing new undergrads having more difficulty with reading and analyzing even article-length texts https://t.co/ViBbGQ9Qp4

— Keith Donaldson (@klgdonaldson) February 25, 2016

.@Avro_ArrowRL201 If they even try to analyze... Regurgitation without interpretation or contextualization is more and more common it seems.

— Keith Donaldson (@klgdonaldson) February 26, 2016 

It would seem that I am not alone in this assessment. Don't get me wrong, students are basically literate in the sense that they can read and write; but they cannot interpret, contextualise, or even analyse what they read. Which makes sense, as the current acceptable form of assessment of learning is largely regurgitation. Including in large part the OSSLT; as students are prepared to previous versions of the test.

If they [students] are unable to think about what they are reading; then it is no wonder that they are not able to write about it either. So if you are a teacher that continuously gets poor reading response journals back - this is most likely the reason why.

I currently teach workplace and college level English; and the increasing student population that does not read anything outside of their English classroom has become unacceptable. It is largely to the point where students complain when they are asked to read the instructions to the latest video game...

English is just like other subjects, in the sense that you need to use it to practise. Practise is the only way to get better. It would seem that largely the students who participate in sports understand this reference better than others. However, this could be another result of the lower critical literacy results.

Almost every student today has access to MSWord, OpenOffice, or GoogleDocs, yet their writing is still filled with grammatical and spelling errors. Even when they are provided the tools that can help them write - they still struggle. Perhaps this is because they are only writing for you - their teacher.

In my upcoming Blogger Tutorial for teachers, I explain what I believe is the most important aspect of blogging in the classroom - students writing for an authentic audience on a classroom blog.

We as teachers need to spend some of our professional development time looking at how we can return to producing student who are critical readers and writers; not just students who can read and write.

Thoughts? Let me know; even if you think I am way off base.

Is Technology and Digital Literacy Affecting Traditional Literacy?

I should probably preface this post with the notion that I am currently completing an additional qualification in information and integration communications technologies... yet I have come to wonder whether or not a massive push by Education systems to teach digital literacy skills is starting to affect traditional literacy skills. An important question, especially as we are now a month away from the 2016 OSSLT.

I am raising this question after reading The Toronto Star's article, "Young grads need to brush up on 3 Rs, employers say"

I currently teach several levels of English, ESL, Workplace and College level. I have also taught University level in the past; as recently as last summer - and I am continuing to see a decline in student literacy rates. Most students have trouble navigating electronic resources, and hardly consider ever consulting physical resources (*Books or a Library). They sit online and only look for information that they tend to agree with. Students are spending an unprecedented 10+ hours per day connected to media. This should be seen as problem.

Internet access among Canadian students has reached an unprecedented level; 99%.

Nearly all Canadian Students have a basic understanding of how to use the Internet. However, only 61% of students use more than 1 search engine (outside of Google); and the same 61% of students restart a search if they are not happy with initial results. Only 35% know of and use advanced search tools.

 Only 50% of student scan a pages results before deciding on a link. These numbers indicate digital literacy concerns; by themselves; let alone when we ask a student to read and analyse a physical text or write anything formal.

When being graded on their work, 89% of student will verify online content. However, only 71% of students will verify information when it is for a family member or friend. This drops to 66% when research is for personal interest.

Only 60% of students will verify information found on a blogs, social media, or news sources. An alarming 80% of students will seek teacher support for assessing the reliability of sources! This clearly indicates that digital literacy strategies are not working as well as we believe.

 Horrifyingly, only 51% of students actually want to know if information they find is true or accurate.

Where are students learning their skills?

• 45% of students responded to learn their online skills from teachers, while 47% learned their online skills from their Parents.The remaining 8% were either unsure, or believed they taught themselves. These numbers indicate, that Parents and Teachers have a shared responsibility in helping students become Digitally Literate. They need to know how to Question what they are reading online, and how to deeply analyze what they are seeing. 

So as we as teachers push must of our focus to digital literacy, are we neglecting traditional literacy? 

In 2015, of the 25 971 students who wrote the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) and who had not met the reading standard in Grade 6, fewer than half (48% or 12 383) were successful. Of the 27 361 students who wrote the OSSLT and who had not met the writing standard in Grade 6, 14 904 (54%) were successful.

Most of the first-time eligible students who were unsuccessful on this year’s OSSLT also had not met the provincial standard in one or both of reading and writing in Grade 6.

Reading 

Of the 19 777 students who were unsuccessful on the 2015 OSSLT and who had written the junior-division assessment in 2011, 69% (13 588) also had not met the provincial reading standard in Grade 6.

Writing 

Of the 19 777 students who were unsuccessful on the 2015 OSSLT and who had written the junior-division assessment in 2011, 63% (12 457) also had not met the provincial writing standard in Grade 6.

Furthermore, of the 17 875 students (17%) who had not met the standard in reading in Grade 3 and had also not met it in Grade 6, 60% (7233) not were successful on the OSSLT. This number slighly decreases when compared to the writing standard (54%).

Are we doing enough? 

These numbers would indicate no. Although the government seems to skim over these results. Saying, of the 127 867 first-time eligible students who wrote the test, 105 309 (82%) were successful and 22 558 (18%) were unsuccessful.

An 18% failure rate on the Literacy test in the 21st century is horrible, yet somehow it is acceptable. The 2015 rates are about the same as the past 5 years. Therefore, our students are not getting more literate.

Test Results for the OSSLT: 2011-2015

2011	83% Success Rate
2012	82% Success Rate
2013	82% Success Rate
2014	83% Success Rate
2015	82% Success Rate

I believe a re-think is necissary for both teaching digital literacy and traditional literacy skills.

Thoughts?

Resources: 

 “Experts orAmateurs? Gauging YoungCanadians Digital Literacy Skills” created by Media Smarts study, Young Canadians in a Wired World (2014)

"Highlights of the Provincial Results: OSSLT 2015" Education Quality and Accountability Office (2015)

EdTech: GAFE Sample Letter Home

Does your school board already use Google Apps For Education (GAFE)?

If so, you probably already have some form of letter you send home to parents explaining how and what GAFE's are and how they will be used in your classroom.

If your board is new to GAFE's, here is a sample letter home:

Dear Parents and Students,

As part of your learning here at ______________, you will be introduced to Google Apps for Education (GAFE); primarily your very own email account. Your new email address will appear as firstname.lastname@______student.com (Your School board acronym is usually placed here)

How is this different from your own personal email or GMail? It comes with access to a multitude of applications that you either won’t have previously heard about, or never used before signing up for your new course.

GAFE also has a number of important distinctions when compared to free email services, beit either outlook or GMail. GAFE is far more secure than your personal free account. GAFE is used at almost all grade levels within the board, and therefore needs to be safe and secure for all of our student users. Two major important distinctions: GAFE does not allow for any adverting within its accounts; and it does not mine your personal data. Both occur regularly within your personal free account.

GAFE will allow you to work in the cloud with all of its apps, from the most basic Google Docs, to more complex ones like Hangout. It will allow you to collaborate with your peers without having to actually meet face to face when your schedules do not align. GAFE also grants its users additional storage and space on both your GAFE GMail and Drive. What is a Google Drive? It is an online hard drive that keeps track of all your work. The dog will never even get close to eating your English homework again!

Have you been worried about not owing a word processing software, and don’t necessarily trust the free download equivalents? That is no problem with GAFE. There is nothing to install or download (unless you want to work offline). Working in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides is as easy as using any MS-Office suite; with the added benefit that your work will save every few seconds so you will rarely-if ever lose your work again. Almost all GAFE’s will allow you to export your work into a compatible file format to use should you ever get a word processing suite.

It is important to note, that you will continue to have access to your GAFE account as long as you are a registered student with the ______.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Please keep an eye on the school newsletter, as we will be planing a GAFE Information Session to show students and parents how to use applications and Google Calendar as an agenda in the coming weeks.