Lessons from National History Day (NHD): How my students improved their use of projects and how I learned to work more closely with the arts (Post by Guest Blogger Dennis Yuzenas)

NationalHistoryDay.org is a national treasure.   Before reading this post, please click here to navigate the site a bit and get oriented if you are not familiar with its features.

GUEST BLOG by Dennis Yuzenas  WhatDoYaKnow.com     Contact Dennis at  dyuzenas@oapb.org

According to a recent report, many states have yet to practice a critical 21st Century skill: Common sense. The report reveals that although most states have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), their diplomas remain CCSS deficient.

Here’s part of the solution to the problem cited above: National History Day. 

Never heard of it? Go to www.NHD.org and click on “Contest.” It’s a lot like Science Fair only not as anal or OCD. It’s nothing like a spelling bee. Sorry, Alex Trebeck. It’s made for “every kid”.  A complaint I’ve heard from parents over the years was that only freaks and geeks win “the big competitions.” True or not, that’s the perception that’s out there. Every kid has a different mix of intellectual strengths. Remember all that work Howard Gardner did a few years ago? NHD is made to allow students to nurture and develop every intellect. No, really!

I’ve been “doing” NHD for about a decade at both the middle and high school level. In both public and private schools. I have, quite literally, seen this project turn unmotivated, disinterested, and worst of all, disengaged students into learning machines. 

Then there’s the “F” word. It’s fun. I get really jazzed when the “NHD Drop Dead Due Date” approaches. Students are in my room before school, after school, and during lunch. Multiple teams working feverishly to get ‘er done. 

Now that the vice grip that was the FCAT has been released, and not a second too soon, it’s time to get back to educating.   Congress apparently felt the same:  just today a bill was introduced to leave No Child Left Behind behind. The Common Core standards being phased in this year are great simply because they’re not the FCAT.  Why they’re limited to just Language Arts and Math is anyone’s guess. The last twenty years of standards-based education looks an awful lot like a bad case of the “minimum basic skills blues.” Doesn’t maximum skills teaching sound better? 

There’s a great paragraph from an article in the PB Post today [July 19, 2013--centered on Common Core workshops being held around Florida] that is reproduced here:
The standards provide an outline to teachers about what their students are required to learn and understand, but still give teachers flexibility to teach their own way, said Mary Jane Tappen, the state’s K-12 deputy chancellor.

A couple of paragraphs later:

“We’ve moved from just information about the standards now to ‘What do lessons look like?’ and ‘How do we build instruction?’” Tappen said. “Some (teachers) are very ready and eager. Some are hesitant and need a lot of support.”

I have a suggestion for the ready and eager teachers: Do NHD. For the hesitant and those that need a lot of support: There are a million reasons NOT to do NHD. If your heart’s not in it, don’t waste your or your students’ time.

Since the “F” word has already been used, let’s use the “P” word. Passion.

NHD allows teachers’ and students’ passions to bubble to the top of the educating experience. NHD aids teachers in building a classroom culture based on cooperation, team planning, goal orientation, task centered, hands-on experiential, shared control, centered on high interest material, in a discovery-based, interdisciplinary, environment. Oh, don’t forget to include nurturing creativity. I shared this with a friend of mine who works for a successful public relations firm and she said it sounded like her job description!

Interesting coincidence that her job description fits the NHD project description. 

Let’s add one more layer to this discussion: There’s a lot of talk lately about “21^st Century skills.” Remember the first paragraph? Google Tony Wagner, that Harvard fellow that has written extensively on what our schools need to do to prepare our students for the future, for more on this tangent. Going back to the NHD description earlier: The skills fostered in creating an NHD project are all 21^st Century job requirements! 

NHD projects can be custom-made for every teacher and any classroom. I’ve seen it work in Gifted and AP and ESOL and ‘regular” and ESL—the whole acronym gambit. 

Last year’s NHD projects constructed for my class included input from no fewer than 16 other staff members. A huge contribution to a project focused on the Vietnam war was made by a member of the custodial staff. Guess where this fellow spent his last days of adolescence and experienced a huge dose of manhood? 

When projects are all completed, we do a “Gallery Walk.”  Each team or individual presents their project and, as a class, we talk about them. Other staff members are presented with the criteria for what makes a superior project in the eyes of the good people at National History Day World Headquarters and tasked with choosing the projects that go on to represent our school at the Palm Beach County NHD competition.

NHD works for my students and me. Parents love it. Administration loves it. It’s cool. Or phat. Or tote. Whatever means really good in the current vernacular.

Guest Blogger Dennis Yuzenas
Contact Dennis at  dyuzenas@oapb.org
His website:  WhatDoYaKnow.com

LINK to seven survival skills:  http://www.tonywagner.com/7-survival-skills

What does a student need to start earning money (and building a host of followers) from a blog and a YouTube channel? The answer: An AdSense account

A student can earn money from blogging and from posting videos on a YouTube account.  The student who wants to earn "passive income" from blogging or posting videos needs an AdSense account.

Here are the steps to getting an AdSense account.
1.  SIGN UP

1. sign up for AdSense - Google

   www.google.com/adsense/apply‎
   

   
   

   Google AdSense: Select your Google Account ... Please be aware that you will not be able to sign up for AdSense without a valid postal address. 
2. 2.  Learn how to use the AdSense number
3. 
   

   Google AdSense – Maximize revenue from your online content

   www.google.com/adsense‎
   

   
   

   GoogleAdSense is a flexible, hassle-free way to earn revenue

   
   

If you prefer a video to explain the steps, here is a video:

Anyone can post this sort of video:  (1) Explain how to do something.  (2) Post the video on a youtube account.  (3) Put a title that is easy for people to find.   Look at the name of this video:

How To Set Up a Google Adsense Account and Receive Payment From Google ...  That is a brilliant name for a video.

These steps are straightforward.  Now, what do you do with the AdSense account number?

You'll "monetize" the blog and the YouTube accounts that you set up.  I like Blogger.com for making a blog because it allows me to post 100 photos at a time.

You will see options.  You can read about the options (by click on the grey "?" marks) or you can click and see the items in action.

Remember to add the key words: "labels" in Blogger and "Tags" in YouTube.


Safety
(1) The student should not post items that can be tracked to the student's family.
(2) If the student lives in Miami, then post photos only of places that s/he does not visit often.  Perhaps "tour of Palm Beach" or "a visit to Key Largo."
(3) In general, don't post photos of daily life.  Instead, post photos and videos when you travel.
(4) If you post an item from your neighborhood, create a persona who lives in another part of the country.  "Here are photos that my cousin sent me"  or "Here are photos from a recent trip to Miami."
(5) Keep your parents informed.  Let them see the blog.
(6)  Show your blog and youtube channel to other adults.  Ask for hits.
(7)  When making a video, use steady hands or a tripod.  Think about how the video will look from the other person's perspective.

Tips about writing blogs and posting videos
(a) To earn bigger rewards, think about topics that are close to your heart and that you are passionate about.
(b) Give a clear title that is easy to find.
(c) Click on OTHER PEOPLE's channels and hope that they will subscribe and click "LIKE" on your channel and blog.
(d) Ask your friends on Facebook to visit your blog and youtube channel.  Each hit is helpful in raising your rank on the Internet.  Higher rank = more money per click or view on AdSense (at least that is what appears to be the case).
(e) Check your spelling.  It's helpful.  You have one chance to make a good first impression.  Spelling is part of the package.

Topics
The blog could be about an internship.
A student who has an internship at a vet's office could post a daily journal about what he saw or learned that day.  Without exposing the privacy of the patients, he could write about the cases that were analyzed and report how the doctor responded.  "I really admired how calm the doctor was.  I would have been annoyed by the situation, but the doctor smiled and showed no animosity.  I'm really impressed by his people skills."

The blog could be about a skill.
I know nothing about rugby.  I went to Youtube and typed "Teenager explains rugby rules."  I found this link:  http://www.youtube.com/user/bethhalldorson.  It turns out that this person posted videos made by a rugby association.  She didn't create the video.  (No value to me as a teacher.  I'm looking for a personal view and explanation of the game.)

Learn more

Here is an amateur coach's blog.   This is clearly written by an adult.  But why couldn't a teenager who wants to explain the game write a blog?
That's what a college admission officer might look for:  Look at this clear explanation of a difficult sport.  This blog / youtube channel clearly gets into my head and helps me understand the challenges of the game.  What could this person bring to our campus?   

The blog could be about a sickness and the recovery.  For example, Heidi, a student in Miami, wrote about the trauma she felt when she learned her mother was dying from leukemia.  Only after a bone marrow transplant was done (a match was made with a distant relative) was the worry removed.  Heidi's journal could hav been placed on the Internet with the personal bits (which could be linked to her) removed from the blog.

Contact the author of this blog

A teenager's journey
Here's a blog by a teen who became a novelist.

Why not write about what it's like to learn a new skill?  My students are between the ages of 14 and 18 and they are preparing for university by taking a college prep test called SAT or ACT or PERT.  These students need to hear from a peer or near-peer that "life is not about getting a better test score.  It's about learning to deal with failure and finding out how to pick up and move ahead" or "Even with the high score, I needed to show that I was special.  That's why I started keeping this blog:  I wanted to show that I could communicate about something."

Look at this entry from the Teen Novelist:

See the full listing

Friday, April 19, 2013

My Blog is Migrating

Hello everyone!

First of all, I want to apologize. I haven't posted in months and I don't really have a good excuse. I am a busy college student and all, but I've also just been lazy and I waste a lot of time doing other random crap on the Internet.

Secondly, I want to thank everyone who follows this blog for reading my posts and putting up with my craziness for ... how long as it been? Four years or something?

Unfortunately, I will no longer be posting on My Life as a Teenage Novelist. A quick explanation as to why:

A. Quite simply, I am no longer a teenager. I'm 20 now, so the title of this blog doesn't really apply to me anymore. I've thought about changing the title, but it just didn't feel right to me.

B. I think this blog is kind of a mess. It was my first experience blogging and I didn't really have any idea what I was doing. I was writing my first posts on here when I was 16 or so and I just wasn't that great at organizing my thoughts/advice or posting frequently enough. So, in other words, I feel like this blog is a bit outdated.

If you want to continue following me, my writing, and my advice, I will now be posting about writing on a Tumblr blog called Brigid Writes Things. (I decided to keep it simple, haha.) So, don't think of this as goodbye. Think of it as a new beginning. *Cue the corny music*

Once again, I'm sorry for taking so long to post this. And I'm sorry that I'm shutting this blog down. But it's been fun, and I hope to see you all on Tumblr! Thank you, wonderful followers! I love you all! 

Go ahead.  Click here
http://mylifeasateenagenovelist.blogspot.com/2010/10/ten-commandments-of-writing.html


So, in addition to studying the techniques that I advocate on my SAT test prep site FloridaTestPrep.com, perhaps students can also create blogs and youtube accounts... and earn some money.

Would you want to look at a dead cat after you gave a correct answer?

Thanks to John Vornle for passing this post to me.

To make it easier for readers to look at this article, I've reproduced it here. Please click on the link to take you through to the article (and whatever hits might then be produced). I'm posting the material here in case the link is corrupted. The data in this article is perplexing and I invite you to comment on it.

See also John Vornle's comment at the end.

========

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2011/07/improving-peoples-memory-by-punishing.html

Comment by Steve:

I have tried to imagine implementing this study's findings in my class. What is the downside of getting a stronger memory? REVULSION. Why would I want to bring negative images of dead animals into my class? Less mature students are surely going to disucss the ugly photos and some might react by running away from the photo. how could that enhance the new connection to

This is a study that I will use cautiously. I prefer to surround my students with positive influences. WE TEND TO MOVE toward the things we think about.

---------------------------

Improving people's memory by punishing their correct answers

A well-established finding in psychology is that successfully retrieving information from memory serves to consolidate the storage of that information. Each time your brain's filing clerk tracks down the right information, the more likely he is to find it another time. Psychologists call this the testing effect - practising retrieval of information is far more effective than simply re-studying that same material.

Can this benefit of testing be enhanced? Yes it can. A new study has provided the first ever demonstration of how to enhance the memory consolidation that occurs after correctly answering a test question. Bridgid Finn and Henry Roediger's important and somewhat surprising new finding is that following a correct answer with an aversive stimulus serves to enhance the consolidation of that memory. It's like punishing the filing clerk after each correct retrieval makes him even more accurate in the future.

Forty undergrads studied multiple lists of ten word-pairs, each featuring a Swahili word and its English translation. After each list of ten, they were tested. Presented with the Swahili, they had to answer with the English. Here's the important bit. If they answered correctly, one of three things happened immediately: a blank screen appeared, a neutral picture appeared (e.g. a fork) or a negative, aversive picture appeared (e.g. a dead cat).

After this pattern of study period and test had been followed for ten lists of ten word-pairs, the participants were then given a jumbo test of all 100 Swahili words. Here's the key result: for those items answered correctly in the earlier mini-tests, it was those that were followed by a nasty picture that were most likely to be accurately recalled in the final jumbo test. Earlier correct answers that had been followed by a neutral pic or blank screen were not so well remembered (and performance was equivalent across the blank/neutral conditions).

"These data are the first to show that arousal following successful retrieval of information enhances later recall of that information," the researchers said.

A follow-up study was similar to the first but this time correct answers in the initial mini-tests were followed by neutral or aversive pictures that appeared two seconds later, as opposed to appearing immediately as they did in the first study. This was to see if there was a narrow window beyond which a negative stimulus wouldn't any longer enhance the consolidating effect of correct retrieval. The results were just the same as for the first study, so even two seconds later, a nasty picture is still able to enhance the memory consolidating effect of a correct retrieval. Future studies are needed to test just how long after a correct retrieval this process is still effective, and to see if positive images exert a similar benefit.

Finally, the researchers looked to see if the presentation of a negative pic has its memory enhancing effect after items are merely re-studied, as opposed to recalled. A similar protocol with Swahili-English word pairs was followed as before, but this time, instead of mini-tests after each set of ten word pairs, the participants were simply given the pairs to study again, with each pair proceeded either by a blank screen, neutral picture or nasty picture. This time, there was no benefit of the negative pics. In fact, there was a trend for pairs to be recalled less often if they'd been followed by a nasty pic in the earlier study phase.

Why should negative images boost the consolidating effects of answering a test item correctly? Finn and Roediger aren't sure but think it has to do with links between the amygdala, which is involved in fear learning, and the hippocampus - a brain area involved in long-term memory storage. This is a rather vague account and doesn't explain why aversive stimuli only enhance memory after correct retrieval, not further study. By way of further context, a 2006 study showed the presentation of aversive images after to-be-learned stimuli was beneficial during the initial study of that material.

Post-script

I couldn't help wondering what Milgram would have made of this study. Recall that participants in his classic obedience research thought they were taking part in an investigation of the effects of punishment on learning. In Milgram's mock set-up, the "learner" was subjected to an electric shock each time they answered incorrectly. Of course, Milgram wasn't really studying memory, but this new article suggests that he could have been onto something. Somewhat paradoxically, though, it seems it's correctly answered items that ought to be followed by an aversive stimulus, not incorrect answers.
_________________________________

Finn, B., and Roediger, H. (2011). Enhancing Retention Through Reconsolidation: Negative Emotional Arousal Following Retrieval Enhances Later Recall. Psychological Science, 22 (6), 781-786 DOI: 10.1177/0956797611407932

This post was written by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

JOHN's COMMENT: .... he retrieved this article using an iPad.

I'm not convinced by the manner in which this apple technology forces me to communicate with others. I can sense how it completely dominates the communication of inexperienced youth. In my opinion, it does not allow for the reflection necessary for a worthwhile communication. In my world, the individuals with whom I work, they don't have time for the luxury of wasting other people's time. It reduces the value of each communication.