I read K-6 Literacy Learning Activity Types and was impressed by how many ways you could use technology to tie to the activities.
During the summer I took a class which required me to tutor a student in reading. There were many key components to the tutoring session which included Easy Books, New Book, Mini-Lesson, Writing Activity, and a Challenge Book. Reading this article and comparing my tutoring experience brought to light some positive things I did during my sessions and really showed me how much more I could do!
I very much agree that there needs to be three crucial parts of teaching a child how to read and write. The pre-reading activities, during reading activities, and post-reading activities are the three parts. Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Fluency come into play throughout those 3 areas of learning to read and write.
I was surprised to find that I have not used many of the technology examples listed in the article as I thought I would have by now. Reading through all the ideas and thinking in my head how I would incorporate that piece of technology, or what my lesson would look like really got me pumped up. I would really have to take the time and effort to learn how to use and incorporate this technology with students that was simple for them to use.
I know that one of my fears, and possibly for others as well, does not know how to use the technology provided or not sure how it will help my student’s progress in reading and writing. For instance, I know that I have never used a Reading Pen. I don’t even know what it is…but after googling it… I feel as though this would be a great tool to bring into a classroom with young emergent readers. It would help with 1:1 correspondence, comprehension and pacing of reading, and also fluency.
The one Activity that I personally think is the most important is the Discussion during the reading. When I was younger, discussions were my favorite! I absolutely loved talking and sharing my thoughts and answering questions. I also know there were students in my class who were silent and just listened. I think that discussions have really grown to where everyone and anyone can be involved and feel comfortable. Blogs, wikis, and online chat rooms/sites can be a place that is used for these discussions with class members and isn’t so ‘on the spot’ like in the classroom. This allows the students to be creative, think more about what they want to say, work on their writing abilities, and put their thinking onto ‘paper’/the web.
I’ve had the chance to use many of these activities in the classroom before with my students. Most of these opportunities came during student teaching. I just want to say that I think a teacher has to think outside of the box sometimes and get away from the normal routine. Sparking up a lesson plan for reading and writing which is possibly very boring to a student may spark their interest and the technology will help engage them. When I did these activities, I only incorporated technology with a few of them. This has opened my eyes to what I could have, and will eventually get to do in the classroom with my students.
I’ll cut this short, but I really enjoyed this reading and it really opened my eyes to all the other technology tools out there to use and learn about.
I thought your notions about literacy learning activities were very accurate. As we progress through this literacy and technology course, I am consistently amazed by the various technologies available for innovating literacy instruction in the classroom. I often find myself looking back at my student teaching experience and thinking about different ways to bring technology into my instructional units. Have you thought about any lesson plans or units you would enhance with technology if you were to teach that lesson plan or unit again?
ReplyDeleteI think it is a fairly common fear among educators that technology will be difficult to incorporate, or that the technology will not help students learn. I think there are a few ways to avoid these two problems.
(1) To avoid having difficulties with the technology you want to incorporate, you could have a "trial run" a few days before the lesson plan. This will help you work out any problems ahead of time, and also help you become more acquainted with the technology in general.
(2) To avoid incorporating technology that will not help students learn, you could ask yourself the following questions, "What learning outcomes are students accomplishing through this technology?" and "Does the availability of technology in the classroom increase the quality and/or quantity of student work?"
I thought your comments about classroom discussion were insightful. I remember disliking classroom discussion as a child, because I was always worried my comment would be "wrong" or "stupid." By incorporating technology into the classroom instruction, the teacher is more likely to have higher participation and more quality responses in web-based classroom discussions. The only drawback of web-based classroom discussion is students' safety. It is important to find a safe online application that can only be accessed by the teacher and students in the classroom; this will help prevent endangering children if they put too much information about themselves on the discussion thread.
I enjoyed reading your blog, and I look forward to more! :) - Caitlin T.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your specific comments on the literacy activity types! They were really helpful to me as the author to see if "real teachers" can apply those ideas. I sometimes think we make using technology in classrooms too difficult. Really, it isn't. We just have to focus on what we want the student to learn, how will we have them learn it and then decide if technology could be used to make that learning easier or more understandable. Now, how do we make others do it?
ReplyDelete