Baggetta_Ware Ramblings
June
1, 2007
Volume III
Hi,
folks. Well, summer's coming on. Here in New England there are some
days that seem like a hot, sultry summer is already upon us. Everyone's
anxious for school vacation, but there's probably still some time to squeeze
some learning in. In this issue I'd like to offer you a little tip on how
to get your students to do their reading assignments. It takes a little
conniving, but I've found that it really works. I'd also like to tell you
about a little program I've developed and used in my classes that keeps me in
touch with what I have assigned. If you find that the heavy work load you
have is taking its toll on your memory, this might be just the program for you.
I've also included another tip on how to cure a spelling bugaboo that is quite
common. Show your students how to properly spell this word common to all
graveyards. I've posted another free program at the website -- just in
time for the end of the school year. Take a look at Summer Reading Log.
Perhaps you can use it with your students or your students-to-be. I've
also included another Writer's Almanac for this month, a look at some
abbreviations for cell-phone plagued teachers, a book collecting tip, an
internet tool you might find interesting, and a reminder about the newest
Computer Instruction Video's available for download from the site.
We've also got news about an upgrade for our Midsummer Night's Dream Test
Generator and Othello Test Generator. For
July and August, I'll give you a rest from my ramblings by just issuing an
abridged version. But I'll be back in September with more details,
software, and tips for the technology oriented teacher. As always you can write me with comments about the newsletter and the
software along with suggestions you might have for new programs that will help
making teaching a little bit easier. Send your emails to
abaggetta@comcast.net. Read on and see what this rambling is all about.
Have a great summer.
Best,
Al Baggetta
READING ASSIGNMENTS: Give Your Students What They Think They Want
(My secret to getting students to read the pages I wanted)
Whining students always irritated me. This whining
usually reached a crescendo when I gave out reading assignments. At first
I just announced the pages that were to be read for tomorrow or the next day and
then just weathered the storm of protests: "That's too much reading, Mr. B." "I
have a job after school, Mr. B., how can I do all this reading?" "Why do we have
to read so much?" Then there was the inevitable student who would try to
wangle me down: "How about just giving us half that to read?" "Yeah, Mr.
B., maybe some of us would read it then."
Well, I listened to my students and devised a plan that would
allow me to set the number of pages I wanted them to read as part of an assignment but
make them think that they dictated the number of pages that were going to be
assigned. Surprisingly, it worked, over and over again, and eventually my
plan became a little game the kids loved to participate in -- and even the
complaining became a part of the fun.
With my plan most
students (you'll never get 'me all) were happy to read the assigned pages and
actually had them ready for the next day. You might want to try this plan
in your classes, but I have to warn you that you will have to bring out the
actor in you -- there's a little deceit involved -- and you'll have to
gauge your assignments according to the type of class you are handling.
Here's how it works.
First of all decide
how much of a book you want your students to read for their next assignment.
Let's say you want them to read three chapters of a novel, maybe a total of
thirty pages for the night. Well, most kids will finger-flip the pages and
sit there stunned at the huge demand you are making of them. Good
readers will usually just take it in stride, but the complainers will make it
known that this is too much reading and in the end probably won't do it all.
So, I don't assign three chapters when I get to class. I assign ten
chapters instead -- perhaps over 100 pages for the night's reading.
When I announce this
ten chapter reading assignment the class experiences a period of shock and awe.
They can't believe that they are getting such a huge amount of reading due for
tomorrow. Right away the complaints start coming. "What!
That's...(finger-flipping)...a hundred and twelve pages." "Yeah, come on
Baggetta...what'a ya trying to do to us?"
Here's where the
acting comes in: "Oh," you say coyly, "Do you think that's too much reading?"
A cacophony of sounds
fill the air -- all in agreement with me."
"Well, I don't know"
I say, "it seems when I was in school that this wasn't a lot of reading.
Actually, you might enjoy it. Just shut off the TV, turn off the iPods,
and put away your cell-phones for a while, and you'll have plenty of time to
read it."
Just the thought of my suggestions brings retorts of how
preposterous my ideas are. So I start to bend.
"Ok, ok... I guess
it's not like the old days. I tell you what. Just read eight
chapters for tomorrow."
"No way, Mr. B.
You're trying to ruin our social lives. Besides I have a game after school
today and won't get home until late. More rumbling in agreement with the
latest complaint is heard throughout the classroom.
"Boy, you guys are
killing me. If I cut this any shorter it will take us longer to get through
the book."
"That's okay, Mr. B.
If we read it slower maybe we'll actually get to enjoy it more.
"Hmmm," I murmur as I
scratch my chin. "You really think you'll get more out of it reading
slower?"
A chorus of yea's
fill the room. All in agreement with this wise fellow.
"All right.
We'll slow it down. You only have to read five chapters for
tomorrow.
Some of the students
nod to each other. Some reach over and pat the wise student on the
shoulder, but there are still some doubters. Here's where I get
them.
"You know," I say,
rather excited, "maybe I am being a bit harsh with you. After all, I
forgot that you have other subjects to study for tomorrow. I can see
in Harry's eyes (pick a student of your choice) that five chapters could still
be a problem. What do you say to just three chapters for tomorrow.
That ought to get you into the story, and just about anyone can read three
chapters with no problem."
At this point you
will probably hear a cheer -- so close your book and start the students reading
for a bit in class to give them an added advantage.
Reading this might seem a bit long winded, but in reality
this should move along very quickly. Not all classes will react with the
dialogue I used here, but you'll find many similar responses, so go with the
action, and you'll enjoy the complaining and maybe even get your assignment
accomplished.
End Assignment Doubts
Speaking of students
complaining about assignments. . . . As I grew older in teaching
(something that happens rather quickly, I might add), I sometime began to doubt
what I assigned, and experienced students learned how to play upon this.
"You didn't assign that," a bold student would ploy -- and have several others to
back him up, of course. After a while you begin to wonder if you did
assign something, even though you are sure you did. You can check it in
your plan book, but as they will quickly tell you, "You must have
forgot."
Well, I put a stop to my doubts with the help of computer technology, of course,
when I invented the Student Assignments
program for Windows PC. If you find yourself wondering what it was you
assigned yesterday (or a few days later for that student that's always out), you
might want to give this program a whirl. You can prepare a nicely
formatted assignment for your students, Save assignments to a file, and Open
these files for later use. When your assignment is all set up, you can
print a copy from the program and then use this copy to make photocopies for
your students -- or you can print them all right from the program.
Hand these assignment
sheets out to you students and maybe post one on the bulletin board (keep a
folder of them on your desk as they accumulate). The next time a student
says to you that you didn't assign that, all you have to do is point to
the printed copy. You find out more information about the program and
download a FREE demo version from our
Student Assignments page.
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Important News:
Baggetta_Ware now supports instant downloads when
you order programs using Pay Pal or your credit card via Pay Pal. Now you
don't have to wait to get your programs. Click "RETURN TO MERCHANT OR RETURN TO BAGGETTA_WARE" and you will
be delivered to a page from which you can download your purchase immediately.
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Is it CEMATERY, CEMETERY, SEMATARY?
(Here's a little trick that will guarantee that you and your students will never
miss-spell this word again.)
Want to have some fun in your
class. Ask your kids how to spell that place where the deceased are
buried. It's amazing how many different spellings you'll get. I use
to do this with all of my classes at least once a year and was amazed how rarely
the word was spelled correctly. I became so assured that my students
wouldn't get the word right that I even offered extra credit to the first
student who could spell this enigmatic word correctly. Usually it took
four or five students (if I was lucky) for the correct spelling to ring forth.
I started on this
crusade to have all of my student at least spell this word correctly every time
because it became so annoying to see it miss-spelled once I learned how to spell
it properly. It's right up there with A LOT and ALLOT, THERE and THEIR, etc.
You get the idea.
I walked by a store one time that was selling CEMITERY boxes.
Once you learn how to spell the word correctly this glaring error jumps off the
sign. I took the sign off the box and went into the store and showed it to
the manager, asking him if he noticed anything wrong with the sign. He
looked at me suspiciously (probably thing...hmmm...what's this guy up to) and
then studied the sign f
or
a few moments. Suddenly I saw a glare of recognition on his face.
"Oh...yes, I'll take
care of it." He called over the young clerk who was in charge of the sign
making and pointed out to him that the word is not CEMITERY but rather CEMATERY.
I left the store glad I cleared that one up.
I have to say I blame
a lot of our language problems on the media. It's amazing how often I see
miss-spellings, miss-pronunciations, and grammatical errors on television, in
magazines, and in literary works. Sure, some of them are on purpose.
Take for example the classic Stephen King miss-spelling of our star word: SEMATARY.
Ok, ok...I know this is for literary effect, but unfortunately the world has
grasped this spelling, and it has become a part of our everyday writing.
Ok, Baggetta, get to
the point. How do you spell CEMI...CEMA...CEMMA...uh, that word?
I learned a little
trick to remember the proper spelling, and you might want to pass this on to
your students, telling them they will never again get this word wrong when it
comes to spelling. Just give them a copy of this cartoon and tell them
that when Norman ran through the cemetery he screamed EEE! -- Those three E's
are buried in the word CEMETERY. Easy, isn't it. Another victory for
proper spelling.
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Important News:
Baggetta_Ware NEVER charges for UPGRADES. If we fix or improve a program
you can
download it for free with proof of purchase. Most companies thrive on the
money they make from upgrades,
but we feel you should
have the security of a well running program from the start, so we offer upgrades
and
fixes at no charge.
Hey! We make mistakes like everyone else, but we also make amends.
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Summer Reading --
Free Program of the Month
Some are reading and some are not,
goes the teacher lament after summer is over. If your school insists on a
summer reading program
(which it should), you probably have the usual pile up of fall work just
evaluating the work students did over the summer. Well, this month I'm
offering a free piece of software that might help lighten the burden for
students and teachers alike. Summer Reading Log for Windows PC is a
little tool you can give to your students. Have them install it on their
computers (desktop or laptop) and tell them to go to it and enter the short
requests for information about the books they read over the summer break.
The program can handle up to 10 books and allows a quick on-screen print for
students to review their work and for teachers to eventually evaluate the
students' reading. It won't guarantee that students will read more, but it
might give them a bit more incentive to get with the program. It also
saves paper and teachers can quickly view the student work on screen.
Logging information can help students stay focused and
looking back on your work can actually be kind of fun. But summer reading
can be made even more enjoyable by creating projects for your student to do.
They can use the information they collect for all kinds of creative projects:
Writing a poem about the story they read or drawing pictures related to the
literary work are a couple of examples. Traci Gardner in her
blog gives some great ideas for making the summer reading experience more
profitable for students and teachers alike. Take a look at her list and maybe
you might even like to join the blog with your ideas.
I hope you and your
student enjoy using Summer Reading Log. Please send us an
email with suggestions on how we might improve the program and let us know how
it went with your classes, if you use the program.
WRITER'S ALMANAC
This is a partial list of some of the more well-known authors born in the
month of June
William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, June 13, 1865 - Jan. 28 1939
Pearl S. Buck, writer and humanitarian, June 26, 1892 - March 1973
Nikki Giovanni, American poet & civil rights promoter, June 7, 1943 -
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (1926)
Texas novelist Larry McMurtry (1936)
Children's author Richard Scarry (1919)
Boston-born poet, critic, and translator John Ciardi (1916)
British futurist George Orwell (1903; born Bengal; aka Eric Arthur Blair)
Ohio-born African-American poet, novelist, and short story writer Paul
Lawrence Dunbar (1872; d.1906)
French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900)
Cel Phone Brouhaha In the Classrooms -- Helpful Index To Terms
Lately I've been reading a lot
about the big squabble about students having and using their cell phones in the
classroom. Parents insist that their children be allowed to carry cell
phones to school for emergency purposes, but I don't recall any of them saying
it's okay for little Brandon or Dakota to use them in classes to A. Converse
with buddies, B. Cheat on tests, C. Play video games (watch TV, etc.), or D.
Take compromising pictures of other students or -- heaven forbid -- their
teachers.
Teachers of course don't want their students to have cell phones in the
classroom because they know darn well that the
overwhelming majority of students who possess these devices will give in to the
temptation of using them as fast as an aardvark will suck up a bunch of honey
coated ants if given the opportunity.
On goes the battle. I used
computer technology a lot when I was teaching and I recall the constant battle
of keeping kids on track while they were at the computers. They always
managed to find a game built into Windows or a connection to the internet or
some other activity not-related-to-the-class-work to indulge in.
I found I always had to be on the alert when my students were at the computer,
and I also found I had to be with it when it came to the current
technology ling.
This is true today with the cell
phone issue. If students are allowed to have these in the classroom
teachers will have to be diligently on the alert and they will have to be savvy
about the cell phone and messaging lingo.
One of the problems with learning the lingo is that the current trends don't
follow standard English patterns most of the time. You'll have to become
familiar with e-mail, chatting, instant messaging, and SMS. You can
find a lot of the language clarified on sites that explain these terms and the
infernal abbreviations being used every day by your students.
Below I've given you some references to a page that will help you translate
foreign languages to English and vice versa. But if you go to this
Abbreviation Dictionary page you will find a lot of the abbreviations used
by cell phone and text messaging users. It's one way to stay ahead of the
game.
End-of-the-Year Book Collection
Keeping track of books loaned out to students is a pain in the neck. First
of all you have to get the books to your room (unless you are one of the lucky
ones who can store sets in your room). Then you have to hand out the books
and keep track of who has which book (on those silly book slips). You'll
have to store the book slips away somewhere safe (like secret codes that will be
revealed again at the end of the year). At the close of school the real
fun begins. It seems that from the time you first hand out the books and
record that information so much has changed. Book covers become damaged
(water stained, graffitied -- I even had one kid who drilled holes in his book
because they got a new drill press in the shop and he was dying to see how it
worked), pages get torn, and the grand daddy of them all -- some books get lost.
Collecting books at the end of the year was always fun. After I got
over the trials and tribulations of matching students to their books, I then had
to collect them and temporarily hold them in my room until I could get to
deliver them to the bookroom. I usually recruited the kids to help with
this. I'd call out a number, check the book and then have the student
place it on the shelf along the back of the room. Yearly I envisioned the
students stacking the books maybe four or five high with the binding facing in
one direction, neatly organized. Ha! By the end of a collection, of
course, I had a pile of disheveled books -- binding facing in all directions
some of the stacks were teetering towers ready to topple to the floor.
This was the norm until I discovered a psychologically strange phenomena.
I went to the copy room and collected a bunch of covers for the paper cartons
and brought them back to my room and lined them up along the back shelf.
When it was time for the students to place their books, I told them to neatly
place them in the carton covers at the back of the room. Well, halleluiah!
Each kid brought his paperback to the back of the room and neatly place his book
next to the previous -- side by side with the bindings all facing up. I
didn't even have to tell them. This also worked for hard bounds with
bigger cartons. I guess there was something about capturing books in a
selected area that clicked in the minds of the kids. Well, give it a try.
Hey! Until students have to buy their own books and we never have to see
them again we have to be happy when anything works on cue.
So Many Languages, So Little Time -- A Language Tool
Did you ever
need to translate some text on the fly. Maybe somebody said something to
you in Russian, or you read a phrase in Spanish or French and wondered what it
meant? We'll there's a handy little tool available on the internet (excuse
me if you are already aware of this) and it's just a Google away from your
keyboard. It's called Google Language Tools and you can quickly get to it
from the main Google page: www.google.com.
Here's how to use it to translate text:
1. Go to the Google
main page www.google.com
2. Click the link off
to the right of the page Language Tools.
3. You'll see a Translate box on this screen. Simply
type the phrase you have in hand and then use the
dropdown menu list to choose the method of translation and click Translate.
This is a great tool. You can translate phrases back and forth and you can
even translate whole web pages you encounter in foreign languages.
Try it with these phrases below by copying them and pasting them into the
translator box.
Russian:
Укажите название этой книги?
German: Schauen, bevor du springst.
Portuguese: Onde está
o departamento inglês?
You can have some fun with this in your classes.
New Instructional Step-By-Step Videos Now
Available for Download from Baggetta_Ware – No Charge.
I've added some new instructional videos to the website, so if you'd like to
view them, go to the Baggetta_Ware Computer
Lessons via our main page. Just click on the logo and start viewing.
You can download the files to your machine if you like (use right click and Save
Target), and you can even download a printed version of the video, if you need
to slowly study it. Most of the material is relatively simple and geared
toward new users of Windows and our programs, but anyone is welcome to view and
comment.
Upgrade Notice
We'd like to alert all
Midsummer Night's Dream Test Generator and Othello Test
Generator users that there are now new
upgrades to 3.0 available. We have made some changes to the programs, fixed
some problems, and added some more questions, with better categorization. We
have dropped the pseudo multiple choice generator since some people did not like
the way it worked. We will be working on this with hopes of improving it and
reintroducing it at a later date. If you like using the pseudo multiple choice
generator, just keep the old version installed on your machine and you can
switch between the two, if you like, for now. We've also added a new feature to
these versions which allows you to add your own questions to the mix that
already exist in our databases. Lots of other features have been added to the
programs to bring them in line with the rest of our TG's version 3.0, as well.
If you are a current owner of the program, just drop me an email at
abaggetta@comcast.net telling me when
and where you purchased your copy of the program. I'll send you the
download link, and you can be right up to snuff.
Shameless Plug for Baggetta_Ware
Well. This brings us to another conclusion of my Ramblings. Hope you
enjoyed this issue, and please send me your comments and ideas for future
issues. Remember to come and visit us at Baggetta_Ware. We have lots
of interesting Windows software for student reading and teacher
Classroom Management.
Also be sure to check out our
Literary Test
Generators -- the programs that will allow you to quickly generate hundreds
of tests or worksheets and variations as well. We also have
Social Studies,
Grammar,
and the versatile
Anything Academic Test Generator, for teachers of any subject. For
those who need ready-made tests, take a look at our newest section called
Literary Exams with
dozens of tests ready to go.
We also have another
software gift for you, if you recommend our site to one of your colleagues or
friends.
Al Baggetta
Baggetta_Ware
Teacher Tech
On the Web:
www.baggetta.com
Tel:
413-786-8241
eMail:
abaggetta@comcast.net
baggetta@baggetta.com
abaggetta@yahoo.com
Baggetta_Ware
177 Adams Street
Agawam, MA 01001
U. S. A.