Pecha Kucha Script/ Narrative

 

1	I teach 9th and 10th grade English and ESL at Central High School in PPSD. Throughout this year, I’ve noticed three important things when it comes to their writing and school life. 1) My students need instruction and practice with grammar and punctuation 2) they need practice with technical writing, especially emails 3) not enough communication between families, students, and I.
2	For both the first and second observations, I realized that these skills are not explicitly part of the curriculum, yet students are supposed to know these things for tests and life post grad. Here’s an email I received this year from two 10th grade boys. This is just one example of writing, along with formal assessments, that shows why students need more instruction and practice.
3	As for the third observation, I realized that the communication between students, families, and I could improve and become more meaningful. Not everyone can attend conferences or respond to ParentSquare, and I wanted to ensure that we all have the capability of and access to becoming a team to work together for our student’s success.
4	The project I created makes a combined solution to all of these observations in the form of email writing. Next year, students will write emails to a selected adult, whether it is a coach, family member, teacher or other, updating them about their life, school, and whatever else they’d like. I will be BCCd on the email to create the line of communication.
5	Students will be graded on their technical writing skills and formatting. Here is a one-point rubric draft I could use to ensure that expectations are clear. Students will receive explicit instruction on how to write an email, including procedure and format, and how to use embedded grammar checkers like Grammarly to ensure their email is correct before sending.
6	Next, every other Friday, students will receive a 30 minute block to write their emails. I will offer a list of suggested prompts, but whatever they decide to write is their choice. The emails can include pictures and personality, but must have the correct format and grammar. I have a model email here that I wrote to my dad for students to use if they get stuck. Models are an important part of the writing process.
7	The two goals of this project is for students to practice their technical writing skills and to foster communication between their support network. I will encourage their recipient to respond and keep an open dialogue if they wish amongst any member of the support network! This helps the student keep everyone, including themselves, in the loop.
8	This project is important to me because it has both a practical and SEL benefit. For one, it helps students’ writing in an appealing way. It has practical benefits that can be useful to them outside of school, which is something that they often ask for school work to reflect. The first time they write a professional email will not be when it “matters.”
9	The project also shows them that they have people who support them. Students need to feel like they belong to a community that cares about their success in order to then become successful. It also creates a dialogue in their network all year long, which will make it easier to communicate if something arises at any point.
10	This flows into my why, as it reflects how I think students learn. I believe that people need to feel safe, comfortable, and supported in order to learn. This philosophy is rooted in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, as students need to have their basic needs of belonging, safety, and esteem met before accessing higher level thinking in the form of self actualization
11	This belief also represents both Rita Pierson’s in “Every kid needs a champion” Ted Talk and Mike Wesch’s Ted Talk about “Learning from Baby George” because both speakers highlight how every student needs to feel cared for. This is a way for students to feel like they have multiple champions in their corner. And similar to how Wesch takes students to lunch, this project intends to foster connections all year long.
12	Overall, students need to know that adults are committed to their success. This will allow for an internalization of the belief that they can be successful, which is incredibly powerful. It also holds them accountable for their part in school and their commitments outside of it, including clubs, jobs, or sports by keeping others updated on their life.
13	My tech identity as an educator is techo-traditionalist. I use the online platforms given by the district such as Canvas, Skyward, and ParentSquare, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. I was opposed to students using chromebooks in class this year because I felt that it led to a lack of engagement and learning. By the end of the year, I mostly used paper.
14	This course has shown me that technology is not the source of all evil. It can be used as an accessibility tool, which is a benefit for many students, including differently-abled students or multilingual learners. Emails can be written in any language and translated into another instantaneously. This allows for quick and meaningful communication.
15	This course has also shown me the importance of instilling technological and literacy skills in students. As a result, I want to not only use Outlook for the emails, but also peruse the app and see its many features. Similarly, this course made me open to using the Grammarly add-on as a resource for checking the email’s flow and content.
16	Using Grammarly as an add-on to the chrome browser does use AI. The reason I feel more open to this now due to this course are the articles “The Opposite of Cheating” by Gallant and Rettinger (2025) and Ferlazzo’s “AI Can Save Teachers Time and Stress” (2025) and Molly Gardner’s lecture in class. These show the helpfulness of AI as a tool to many different types of learners, and why it could be useful in this capacity.
17	I am not as opposed to this because it is an actual feature that students can use outside of the classroom. As long as students are aware of the basics of grammar and punctuation rules after instruction and practice, I do not mind them using Grammarly as an assistive tool to make their emails more polished. It is 1-1 instruction, and actually can explain why it's correct.
18	The caveat with this is that students need to learn how to use this technology responsibly insofar as it does not generate their work, but rather refines it. The point of the project is for students to practice reflection and writing to a person of their choice, which I think will help them not go to ChatGPT to write for them. Hopefully this will translate to other pieces of writing for them when they realize they can do something they haven’t done yet, and do it well.
19	Similarly, students have frequently expressed interest in learning skills that will be more applicable to them post-grad. While I don’t want to support the notion that education is merely a preparation for the workforce, it is important to help them develop skills that are important in all fields of life after graduation, to help them be successful. This will help engagement.
20	The next steps are creating instructions for how to write an email and then implementing it on a schedule early in the Fall. I also want to make a printed email option for students that want to give emails to people with no computer/Internet access to make the project accessible for everyone, as this is the original purpose of the project. I don’t want this to be a barrier to something that seeks to get rid of barriers. Thank you!