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LITERACY SPECIAL INTEREST Journal of the LITERACY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP OF ISTE International Society for Technology in Education Spring 2014 V1 N2

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LITERACY SPECIAL INTEREST Journal of the LITERACY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP OF ISTE International Society for Technology in Education Spring 2014 V1 N2 Rights and Permissions Submitting writers assure the journal that the works they provide for inclusion are their own and present no infringements on any rights associated with them. Submitting writers assure that these works are original and the property of the submitter (unless otherwise specified) and their submission represents no violation of copyright or trademark or other variety of intellectual property rights, anywhere. Submitting writers retain rights to their work, other than for inclusion in this journal, for which they receive no compensation. All parties interested in reprinting or republishing these works, in whole or in part, should contact the submitting writer directly. The journal will not be responsible for rights issues or considerations associated with the works that appear in it, which are the sole responsibility of the submitting writers. The sole purpose of the journal is to promote the professional knowledge of educators, is free of any commercial considerations, and does not seek to promote any products or services offered anywhere for profit or other consideration.

Submissions Those interested in submitting articles for inclusion in this journal should first submit a summary to: literacyspecialinterest@gmail.com, putting the words “Journal Article Summary� in the subject field of the email. On receiving feedback from the journal, prospective submitters may complete and submit a full manuscript.

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Table of Contents •

Forward Editor, Mark Gura Page 4

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Text Meets Video in the Blogosphere: Complex Informational Content for Today’s Students

By Dr. Rose Reissman Page 6

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Using Creative Technology to Engage Struggling Readers and Writers as Producers of Literature

By Melinda Kolk Page 12

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The Future Is In Their Hands: Using Cell Phones for Literacy Learning

by Lisa Nielsen and Willyn Webb Page 21

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Boosting Oral Language Fluency through Technology Intensive Literature Exploration (TILE), a Learning Centers Approach

By Kevin Amboe Page 32

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Learning to Teach with Edmodo: Social Networking-based Activities

by Kathy D. Shields Page 44

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Using Online Discussions to Develop Literacy Skills and Integrate the NETs Sandra Wozniak Page 54

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Student Led Podcast Projects Make Common Core Literacy skills Come Alive

by Dr. Rose Reissman Page 64

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Using Technology To Enhance Reading Skills For English Language Learners

By Kimberly M. Thomas Page 74

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Forward…

It wasn’t so long ago that teachers debated the relative value of online content vs. ‘serious’ and ‘worthwhile’ print materials like the NY Times. A funny thing has happened over the past few years though, the Times has become the very kind of online content that those educators puzzled and worried about. In fact, it’s probably one of the best examples we can find of how the experience of reading has evolved organically, as digital communication technologies have become more and more functional, available, and popular.

The Times publishes its paper primarily online now and proudly and deftly embeds videos, photo slideshows, and other varieties of digital media in its pages to accompany prose journalism and opinion content. Hyperlinks offer the reader paths out of the ‘paper’ and alter and enrich its format. Ancillary blogs expand its daily content and offer the reader the opportunity to comment directly to writers and other readers alike who, in turn, may just as easily respond to comments and suggest further reading. In so many ways the Times uses technology to improve the content and experience it offers. Truly, this formerly staid print institution has become a powerful virtual laboratory in which the ways communication can best be accomplished and how far its boundaries can be pushed are explored daily.

And of course, it is just one example of the many profound ways that Literacy is evolving.

What does all this mean for teachers? Clearly the rules and the landscape have changed in ways that require a new set of attitudes and understandings. These can be confusing times to teach in, but also exciting ones full of the possibility of not just keeping up with advances and trends, but also the inspiring possibility of going further and better in the ways we foster Literacy learning. Colleague-to-colleague discussions are one of the very best ways for practitioners in our field to gain and share clarity about all this and the body of articles that makes up this 2 nd issue of the Literacy Special Interest journal represent that very strongly. From Dr. Rose Reissman’s piece Text Meets Video in the Blogosphere: Complex Informational Content for Today’s Students on how she uses a Student Robotics blog to have her middle school students address important Common Core ELA standards – to Lisa Nielson’s and Willyn Webb’s article The Future Is In Their Hands: Using Cell Phones for Literacy 4

Learning on how CELL phones can be used as powerful Literacy learning resources – to Melinda Kolk’s powerful piece Using Creative Technology to Engage Struggling Readers and Writers as Producers of Literature on how supporting students as the creators of literacy products can be key to their success as learners - you’ll find much to expand our understanding of Literacy and how it may best be learned in every one of the 8 insightful articles here.

Kevin Amboe’s piece Boosting Oral Language Fluency Through Technology Intensive Literature Exploration (TILE), a Learning Centers Approach provides a description of how common technologies can greatly enrich literacy experiences and make them far more accessible to students. In her piece Learning to Teach with Edomodo: Social Networking-based Activities Kathy Shields explains how Edmodo (a webbased, social learning platform) has changed the way she teaches and the way her students learn. In Using Online Discussions to Develop Literacy Skills and Integrate NETs Sandra Wozniak’s shares how she harnesses tech savvy students’ enthusiasm for today’s technology tools, fuelling classroom discussions, and building skills they’ll need for the 21 st Century.

Rose Reissman shares in Student Led Podcast Projects Make Common Core Literacy Skills Come Alive how podcasting transforms literacy learning, and does so alongside the acquisition of essential life skills. And finally, in Using Technology To Enhance Reading Skills For English Language Learners, Kimberly M. Thomas illustrates how Technology helps teach reading readiness to middle school and high school aged English Language Learners (ELLs) who are experiencing their first taste of the English language.

This is an impressive body of thought and practice. Please enjoy and share!

Collegially, Mark Gura, President of ISTE Literacy Professional Learning Network Journal Editorial Committee Mark Gura Michele Haiken B. J. Neary

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Text Meets Video in the Blogosphere: Complex Informational Content for Today’s Students Dr. Rose Reissman I recently came across a digital text resource online that I’ve applied with great success in my Literacy work with middle school students. This simple blog has proved to work wonderfully for assuring that their experience involves Text Complexity as prescribed in the Common Core Standards.

I’m talking about a type of blog that marries high interest, STEM-based, traditional news articles with videos on the same theme. The result of this pairing is a blend of media types that combine synergistically to give students a very rich, complex text, comparative, literal, figurative, craft and word domain experience. This blog genre is not only replete with videos and print articles, but also text-based questions to prompt and focus collaborative discussion and writing. Responding to these, my middle school students eagerly understood, discussed, interpreted and evaluated both types of informational text as an outcome of their own fascination with the blog focus.

At Ditmas Intermediate School in Brooklyn, NY, I work as a Literacy Professional Development/Instructional Support Specialist, often ‘pushing in’ to classes to work alongside the regularly assigned teacher to enhance literacy instruction for students as well as to collaborate with master teacher educators to enhance, stimulate, and engage requisite student CCSS ELA and multi-content literacy. One sixth grade Title 1 class I’ve worked with this year is Mr. Grzelecki’s 6th grade Informational Literacy class. This class meets twice a week and its purpose is to ensure that the students are focused on all CCSS ELA informational reading and writing standards with an emphasis on text complexity in multi-content subjects. Mr. Grzelecki had already actively engaged the students in qualitative and quantitative review of various print and online book reviews and consumer product reviews. He printed out online reviews for the students to use as texts to cite the reviewer’s explicit response to books and products (qualitative measure). In addition, the students, as collaborators and accurate text readers, also discussed the print and online reviewers’ style – word length, frequency, sentence length, and text cohesion. This served as a springboard for them to develop and to create as writers and then as speakers reading from their 6

writing book reviews and product reviews reflecting their own values and arguments as readers and as consumers.

It was to this group that I introduced a few of the posts I found on a blog titled Classroom Robotics. From the students’ point of view, these were simply interesting and entertaining; how could a story about a real robot that washes your hair for you, be otherwise? But from my point of view, beyond my pleasure that these students were reading and deeply reflecting on what they read, I identified the blog as providing the very sorts of Complexity in Informational Text needed for the range of texts that Anchor Standard Ten - Range Of Text Complexity mandates. In this single blog, there was a built in library of text types and ranges which could be used to differentiate instruction for special needs, ESL and newcomer students as well as to accelerate and engage students already demonstrating an interest in STEM content area. Beyond that, as an ELA teacher, I could also build on the science fiction and pop culture student fascination with robots in fiction and in movies. I could tap the enthusiasm of those students who had friends involved in the annual FIRST Lego League robotics competition. Further, because the resource I had introduced was a blog, there was a built in mechanism (the Comments function) with which the students could respond to what they read. This topic of a prototype robot that was actually being used in a city in Japan as an assistant hair washer, working alongside human salon hair washers, turned out to be highly accessible as a video text to all students (including those who did not grasp the special domain vocabulary of the article and the voice over of the narration of the video). What was even more compelling about its efficacy as a multi-dimensional, complex set of interrelated STEM video and print texts, was its capacity to engage the entire group of multi-level reading and writing, sixth graders. It strongly held their interest in our whole group, general viewing of the video followed by a qualitative discussion of its explicit message, and then by a differentiated discussion of its structure as a video. In fact, our students continued enthusiastically with a discussion of the videographer’s message and finally, the extent to which they agreed or differed or could argue the print text and video centered question: Would such robots be useful in our current society? What might be the impact of their use in our current society?

In addition to this blog’s argument-focused print and video texts for students to compare and contrast as to text qualitative literal quality of author/film 7

maker meaning; the synergy of visual /print/electronic texts had a single “robot hair washer� focus that all students could equitably and arguably address, pro or con. They literally started with themselves and whether they would want to have their own hair capably washed and scalp massaged by a robot. But then, the combined texts, allowed them to step back and to frame arguments using the qualitative or quantitative structure of the visual text or the electronic prompts to frame whether replacing human hair washers with robots was economically feasible and to analyze the reader task from the perspective of physically disabled or elderly persons who could not effectively wash their own hair. Even better, the blog format serves not only as a platform from which content can be obtained, but one in which the reader can participate by entering written comments, making it a platform on which students can publish their writing.

How does a blog post about a hair washing robot and its paired news text and related video format engage students in reading and using Complex Informational Text?

First and foremost a blog post which mixes video and electronic print text focused on Stem concerns involves all students, whatever their different personal reading levels may be, in reading and viewing complex texts as a community of student citizens. The provocative content fosters conversations to understand and respond to either or both of these texts, as well as the text-based focus questions provided by the blog. It fosters a critical audience of informed and alert citizens. These texts help students summarize and synthesize (qualitative), analyze and critique (quantitative) and design and create (reader based task argument) responses grounded in multi-text, evidence-based arguments for or against a real societal issue.

Should we be spending time and money on mass producing robot hair washers? If we have the capacity to do so, is it ethically and economically worth our while to do so? Importantly, through technology (the use of such a blog and its videos and electronic text scaffolds) the teacher is enabled to engage special needs or ESL or newcomer students in text complexity that is at the heart of the CCSS ELA literacy curriculum.

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Deep Comprehension Across Content Areas Such a blog resource immediately makes available material for STEM comprehension. In this case the science of robot development, the possible economic impact of the prototype described, the cultural capital of its tryout in a Japanese salon, the health/diagnostic/rehab value of its use for the elderly, the disabled and in rehab, and the psychological consequences of the hair washing experience coming from robotic digit massage versus human hands.

My partner teacher and I provide support in moving through increasing and challenging levels of text complexity in several ways. We moved around the classroom to help students with special domain vocabulary and content words. We also scaffolded the discussion so that they understood words and concepts as well as implicit messages in the video by their quantitatively analyzing it in their own discussions with our focusing them on the voice, music, and culture in which the prototype experience was displayed.

Mr. Grzelecki and I had the students identify and relate domain specific vocabulary to the academic (e.g. “prototype”) and domain specific (e.g. “sensor”) content the blog provided. They also discussed how the video, shot in Japan, included cultural and social studies, as well as robot science, robot fiction, and language arts dimensions.

In short, using this blog, although any similar content bearing resource could work as well, our students had a high energy, learning-rich experience from start to finish. There was high interest as the group read, viewed, and discussed the articles and videos. Our class conversation might well be described as passionate, as students not only expressed their views on what they had learned, but because the material clearly involved significant impact on their own lives, as well as those of their fellow humans, they strongly took and debated personal positions on the issue.

Based on our experience with several class sessions involving student interactions with posts from this blog on robotics news (vetted for relevance and appropriateness for k-12 students), my partner teacher and I will be on the lookout for sources of content that offer a similar format: online text news articles paired with embedded video. Further, I see in this a great 9

opportunity for teachers who are willing to do a little 21 st Century content preparation themselves, to come up with their own pairings. All that’s required is some online searching, thoughtful review, and downloading materials. In fact, creating a free blog like the one that triggered my own teacher-as-researcher experimentation with this content format for our students is an easy matter for teachers who are willing to simply follow directions and experiment with a new resource type. Best yet, I will be assigning students to research and create their own pairings and share them with peers this way, making students their own source of Complex Informational Text.

The Classroom Robotics blog can be accessed at: http://www.classroomrobotics.blogspot.com/ The blog post referenced in the article “Next! But first let the robot wash your hair...” can be accessed at http://www.classroomrobotics.blogspot.com/2013/04/nextbut-first-let-robot-wash-your-hair.html Text-based Question prompts provided with this post: “Yes, it's a cool idea, but does the world need a hair washing robot?”

“Would you let a robot wash your hair?”

“Who could take advantage of this technology?”

“Do you see any problems with this?”

Bibliography - Calkins, Lucy, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman. (2012).

Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement. NH: Heinemann.

- Hiebert, Elfrieda H. 2012. “The Common Core’s Staircase of Text Complexity-Getting the Size of the First Step Right.” Reading Today (Dec.2011/January 2012): 26-27.

- Piercy, Thomasina. 2011. “The text complexity ‘Staircase’ in the Common Core standards.” The Leadership and Learning Blog.

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Dr. Rose Reissman is a veteran teacher educator who most enjoys working with students in student led projects. She is also a teacher researcher and author who has been published by: NCTE, ISTE, ASCD, Corwin, Penguin, and Kappa Delta Pi to name a few publishers. She takes pride in running the Ditmas Writing Institute with the support and leadership of Principal Barry Kevorkian and teacher leaders: Michael Downs, Angelo Carideo, Amanda Xavier, David Liotta, Rosinda Rodriguez, Sofia Rashid, Heather Barron and others. Among her products and projects are: student print and e-publications, museums in school, podcasts, oral history forums, Expos and more.

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Using Creative Technology to Engage Struggling Readers and Writers as Producers of Literature Melinda Kolk Technological innovations continue to make the world a smaller place, changing the nature of work and communication. In order to fully participate and thrive in a world rich in information, students must be able to effectively locate and qualify information, apply it to solve problems, and effectively communicate ideas and solutions.

While they may now be filled with Digital Natives, our classrooms still include students who are unprepared for work at grade level and who are not interested in traditional activities.

The instructional response to these at-risk students is often merely the application of more drilling, which drops their interest in school even further.

Rote practice may seem like the fastest way to improve reading scores, but this tactic does nothing to foster an essential lifelong love of learning.

In my role as editor of Creative Educator magazine and lead trainer for Tech4Learning’s professional development team, I‘ve collaborated with hundreds of educators and heard innumerable stories about their classroom experiences and successes. Following, are some of my favorite examples of applying creative digital learning opportunities to support struggling readers and writers.

Like all students, at-risk learners yearn to express themselves creatively, do things in non-traditional ways, and demonstrate their success. They are rarely asked to create literacy products and have few opportunities to demonstrate their successes and abilities. But "when students publish their own books, you tap into their innate desire for recognition as they learn to connect to literature, play with language, and beam with pride at their accomplishments," shares California educator Linda Oaks.

Creative multimedia technologies allow for multiple forms of representation, providing an opportunity for students to demonstrate understanding while simultaneously practicing literacy skills through writing (text), reading (audio), and illustration (picture walks and visualization).

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Creative technology tools can help when project work requires extensive reading, writing, and the creation of student learning products. Creating, publishing, writing, and producing with multimedia tools not only provides necessary practice, it helps students learn to effectively navigate information, apply it to solve problems, and communicate ideas and solutions.

Taking Retelling to the Next Level Young students are often asked to retell stories and we can use the same strategy for struggling readers and writers. But instead of distributing a worksheet asking students to put scenes in order, have students publish their retellings as electronic books. To move beyond basic comprehension, have students create new endings or even completely new variations of the same story.

Repeated patterns are a hallmark of literature aimed at young readers.

Books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Eric Carle and The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown are two great examples of books that utilize patterns at much different reading levels. Customizing your own version of a book like Mary Wore Her Red Dress by Merle Peek gives students an opportunity to include themselves in the story as well as practice descriptive writing.

After reading Judi Barrett's Things That Are Most in the World, Miss Alia's 2nd grade class at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia created their own version of the book. They worked as a class to brainstorm superlatives. Then, each student chose their favorite superlative and wrote a sentence that provided a clue to the meaning of the word.

Students then used Pixie creativity software, to type their sentence, create an illustration to support it, and recorded themselves reading their sentence.

Their teacher combined their work and published it as an HTML storybook to share on the school web site. "Knowing that their final product was going to be published to the Web for a potentially global audience encouraged the students to do their best work,� shares Shelley Paul, Woodward Academy’s Director of Instructional Technology.

Multimedia products like these lend authenticity to student work because the resulting artifacts look and feel like products students sees around them 13

every day. Combining visuals with text gives students an opportunity to demonstrate learning without struggling to tell their story using only words.

Recording student’s narration provides an opportunity for nonthreatening practice as they record, listen, record again, listen, and finally save. The recordings also provide performances you can use to assess fluency.

Student-created Grammar Tutorials In a flipped classroom, students explore a variety of resources (such as videos, web sites, simulations) at home and then return to class to address misconceptions and explore additional questions with their teacher. One way to help students cement information in the classroom is to have students create their own video tutorials. As students work to convey information, they grapple with and more deeply cement concepts and rules. Publishing student-created videos for others to use in this process demonstrates that you value student time and effort.

Second-grade teacher Katy Hammack found that after innumerable worksheets and countless review activities, many of her Title I students still lacked mastery over grade-level grammar and language skills. When a grant provided iPod Touches for every student in her classroom, she began creating grammar tutorials in Pixie that included pictures, text, and voice narration, exporting them as podcasts for students to review on their iPod Touches. She quickly saw the benefits of having her students create the tutorials to internalize grammar concepts and demonstrate their knowledge for the benefit of their peers. She explains, "Students enjoy building tutorials themselves and were so proud when they saw their work being used by other students!”

Video Poetry Older students need more sophisticated projects, but they are less willing to take risks. You can build their skills, decoding subtleties, and grasping the meaning of new words by having them create video poems. Video poetry is a fun way to analyze word choice and explore meaning and vocabulary.

The point here is the process, so it might not be best to pull out a dusty sonnet. Find modern poetry that speaks to student’s lives, or have them create a video that interprets the lyrics of a popular (and appropriate) contemporary song. You could also start with a poem like “Sympathy” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar and show how the symbolism is used by Maya 14

Angelou in her poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and Alicia Keyes in her song “Caged Bird.”

To implement with students, have them read, reread, and explore the words in each line of the poem, discussing meaning and author’s intent. Then, have students create images that illustrate the author’s word choice or search for images at education-friendly sites like Pics4Learning.com.

After students collect their images, import them into a program like Frames, Pixie, iMovie, or Photo Story. Students should record themselves reading the poem, add text and titles to represent the entire poem or caption the images with keywords, add music consistent with the emotions the poem evokes, and create a video poem for others to enjoy.

Multimedia Writing Prompts Practice is essential to mastery, but practice that feels disconnected to students’ lives leads to uninterested students. Work that feels irrelevant is often seen as meaningless and unimportant.

When Tiffani Brown, a middle school writing teacher at Rio Seco School in Santee, California began noticing that her daily journaling didn’t seem to be interesting her students, she changed her approach. She began by playing a popular contemporary song at the beginning of class. Her students sang along, then eagerly began discussing - analyzing, finding metaphors, connecting to their own lives.

Sharing photographs, videos, and more music, she noticed that all of her students were writing exponentially more. “I tried meeting my students where they already were — in the land of MP3s and YouTube — and my classroom was forever changed.”

When she noticed her advanced students making connections and deeper analysis, but her beginners still struggling, she moved the writing to a blog.

She then posted a multimedia style prompt (or link to) each day they journaled and students did their writing as comments on the post. With comments available to everyone, lower level students were able to see analysis by advanced students.

Book Cover Design A visual approach to classroom project work can also provide a reason for students to read. Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida hosts an annual “Create a Cover Contest” as an alternative to a written book report. This project is designed to encourage low performing readers by giving them the opportunity to creatively express comprehension.

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Students choose a specific title from an approved book list. They read their book and prepare a character sketch to explore traits and relationships within the story. They research how book covers are designed, determine the audience for the book, and write a proposal for their cover design, describing their vision for how they will convey meaning and mood. They discuss their vision with peers to clarify and refine their ideas before working to create the actual design. They are graded on how well their cover design communicates the vision in their proposal.

Hillsborough has seen an increase in both participation and quality every year. Bradley Smrstick, developer of the program, says "those that participate come away from the experience with a better understanding of their own abilities and strengths."

To create their cover, students used their proposal to guide their search for images that represent the physical and emotional characteristics of the characters, plot, and setting. They then utilized the layers function in an image editing program to combine images, add effects, and adjust colors.

Students chose a font for the title and author’s name. After covers are printed, they are posted around the school to generate interest in literature and encourage reading.

Book Trailers With computers, tablets, and smart phones providing ubiquitous Internet access, students would never consider going to an unfamiliar movie without first watching movie’s trailer. Without access to a quick summary designed to entice, how can we expect nonreaders try a new book?

Rather than just providing students with a collection of book trailers, you can encourage their development as powerful communicators by asking them to create their own versions. To make an effective book trailer, students need to read the book and connect the story to their own experience. Creating a book trailer designed to encourage others to read a particular story focuses students on relating their experience to that of others. As they learn to think about audience and how to persuade, they build powerful skills for effective communication.

Book trailers can be created using the same tools students already use to produce videos. They can consist of a collection of still images, as in the process of a video poem, or a combination of still images and video. While built-in web cams make capturing short videos easy, combining recorded narration with students’ photos and images related to the story can be equally effective.

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Video Biographies and Character Scrapbooks We don’t have students write biographies or complete character analyses because they will be doing this for a living, but rather to help them learn to think critically, analyze information, and communicate effectively through storytelling. Rather than completing another worksheet or writing another 5 paragraph essay, give student work more authenticity (and meaning) by connecting their work to products they see in the world around them.

Many students have seen documentaries on television. Asking students to take information and transform it into a compelling story for a video biography script lets them “play” with words and gives them insight into how authors choose words to communicate viewpoint. This improves student motivation to write and information sophistication.

Instead of assigning a worksheet to analyze character traits, have students create a scrapbook for this person. Many kids today have parents who have been documenting their lives with scrapbooks. What students choose to put in the scrapbooks will indicate their knowledge about the character and their actions.

Digital scrapbooking lets students collect images and explore the use of visuals to tell a story without the headache of scissors, glue, and construction paper. In addition to being less messy, digital scrapbooking promotes valuable organization and management skills. These digital collections also make it easier for teachers to drop into the process, check in on student learning, and facilitate high-level thinking.

Digital Portfolio Development Identifying important information by collecting and publishing scrapbooks builds skills students can apply to their own work in a digital learning portfolio. A learning portfolio is a collection of student performances over time. Today’s technology tools make it easy to include performances as attachments, images, videos, text, and audio.

By asking students to “collect and reflect” on their learning, you celebrate their success, help students see progress, and build their metacognitive skills. Building a portfolio also provides students an authentic opportunity to practice reading and writing without focusing on rote drills.

Digital portfolios can be a collection of links to student work posted online. A digital portfolio can also be a comprehensive multimedia presentation that showcases learning over time. Regardless of the format, digital portfolios encourage students to start thinking about and reflecting on their learning.

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The Big Picture Regardless of the activities you choose to do with your students, keep the following ideas in mind.

Read and write in authentic ways Students need (and want) to practice reading and writing in real-world situations. Technology helps us make this connection by asking students to use tools to create products they see in the world around them.

Try to make sure every day includes time to apply literacy skills in projects that also have value and meaning outside of a specific learning goal.

Publish for a real world audience At the very least, make sure students are doing work that is similar to work done by people outside of the classroom or would have value to someone outside of the classroom. Even better, ask students to do work that will actually be seen by, evaluated by, and used by someone outside of the classroom. All of these things indicate to students that their work has value and meaning. Technology makes it easy to share student work with a wider audience, whether they are creating PDF comic strips, posters, podcasts, or public service announcements.

Give students a voice Student work should be a reflection of the creator, not the instructions. One student’s final work should not look the same as another student’s. Sure, we can scaffold early work with templates, but too much structure focuses student work solely on “correct” content, not meaning.

Asking open-ended questions and using open-ended and creative technologies can help you engage your students in important reading and writing practice as well as help them develop powerful literacies that will serve them in our rapidly changing world.

Find out more about these projects online at: http://www.thecreativeeducator.com/literacy Melinda Kolk is the editor of Creative Educator magazine and the author of Teaching with Clay Animation. Melinda has authored articles on student technology projects for Virginia's VSTE Journal, Australia's The Educational Technology Guide, and the UAE’s Didactics World magazine. Melinda is one of the founders of Tech4Learning, Inc. an education company that develops software tools that provide platform students can use to share knowledge 18

and understanding, communicate original ideas and solutions, and share their passions with a worldwide audience.

Common Core Standards in ELA Reading: Literature

Key Ideas and Details: RL._.1 RL._.2 - RL._.3 Craft and Structure: RL._.4 - RL._.5 - RL._.6 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: RL._.7 Range of Reading and Complexity of Text: RL._.10

Reading: Informational Text

Key Ideas and Details: RI._ .2 RI._ .3 Craft and Structure: RI._.4 RI._.5 RI._.6 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: RI._.7 - RI._.8 Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI._.10

Writing

Text Types and Purposes: W._.1 W._.2 - W._.3 Production and Distribution of Writing: W._.4 - W._.5 - W._.6 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W._.7 - W._.8 - W._.9 Range of Writing: W._.10

ISTE NETS for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation: a – b 2. Communication and Collaboration: a – b– d 3. Research and Information Fluency: b–c 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: a – b – c – d 5. Digital Citizenship: a – b – c 6. Technology Operations and Concepts : a – b 19

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The Future Is In Their Hands: Using Cell Phones for Literacy Learning

by Lisa Nielsen and Willyn Webb

INTRODUCTION If understood properly, educators will go from fighting cell phones, tools students love for learning, to embracing them. Because cell phones are the most ubiquitous digital device in households today, harnessing their power helps bridge the digital divide and increase student engagement and achievement in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. A study by the National Literacy Trust found, “Almost 9 -in-10 pupils now have a mobile device, compared with fewer than three-quarters who have their own books in the home,” (Paton, 2010). While we all understand the value of books, we also need to work with what young people do have, cell phones. What would happen if we allowed them to come out of hiding and welcomed them in the classroom? Teachers across the globe are finding out by using phones to enhance learning.

In this chapter we’ll share some ways educators are engaging in this work by 1. Introducing some commonly used cell phone resources; 2. Sharing ideas for how they are used in the classroom, and; 3. Providing stories called “Text Talks” that are inspired by or based on innovative educators and young people.

You can find more stories, ideas, and lessons in the “Teaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning” book and blog by visiting http://TeachingGenerationText.com All of the practices are applicable to any level of student, as long as they have phones.

CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION If you are in a school where cell phones are banned, using them to enhance learning does not require that they be used in class. The ideas shared here are applicable for use outside of class, as well.

Some see cell phones as distractions, cheating aids, and the cause of discipline issues. However, by setting your classroom up for success, they can become a valuable learning tool. Before you get started, ask yourself the following: 1. Do I have a parent/guardian and student agreement that covers the use of student owned devices?

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2. Are my students familiar with cell phone safety and etiquette?

3. Does my school or classroom have an acceptable use policy in place in language that is kid and parent friendly?

4. Have my students and I developed classroom management procedures that account for the use of cell phones?

5. Have I considered how my students and I can plan activities that incorporate the use of these devices?

6. Have I ensured that students without devices can access school equipment?

You can find sample plans, policies, and agreements at The Innovative Educator blog in articles such as 10 Proven Strategies to Break the Ban and Build Opportunities for Student Learning with Cell Phones http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/11/ten-building-blocks-tobreak-ban-and.html ASSESSMENT Cell phones provide a great way to increase the amount of time you have to teach students in class by allowing formative assessments and post lesson enhancements/assessment to happen outside of class. For example, instead of starting your class period with a question/problem/thought of the day written on the board that students respond to when they come in, you can have already accomplished this before class with a group text. Instead of making copies of homework worksheets, chapter reviews, or take home problems, just send out a few text questions each day that students can answer by text. Depending on the assignment, the answers can be compiled with resources like those shared in this chapter, such as Voki or Google Voice, just locally on the student's phone, or in a group text site for reference or discussion in class. After a quick review of the answers you'll know who needs remediation and who’s ready to move forward.

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READING / WRITING Cell phones support student engagement and achievement in reading and writing. In fact, “Children who are heavy users of mobile phone text abbreviations... are unlikely to be problem spellers and readers, a new study funded by the British Academy has found. The research*, carried out on a sample of 8-12 year olds over an academic year, revealed that levels of “textism” use could even be used to predict reading ability and phonological awareness in each pupil by the end of the year.” (Plester & Wood, 2009).

Also, “…a new study from California State University researchers has found that texting can improve teens’ writing in informal essays and many other writing assignments” (Miners, 2009). In this section we’ll explain how students are doing just that by using cell phones in the way they are most commonly used among youth -- for texting and group texting.

Texting Our students are reading and writing more than ever. In the 21st century, this reading and writing often takes place through the lightning fast thumbs of teens. Although some parents and teachers complain that text messaging is ruining the language, research is showing that it is, in fact, a benefit to students’ phonemic awareness, spelling, and use of words (Yarmey, 2011; Plester & Wood, 2009, Malson & Tarica, 2011; Fresco, 2005; Dunnewind, 2003; Miners, 2009; McCarroll, 2005; Elder, 2009). When we reflect on what’s happening when our teens and tweens text, all sorts of learning possibilities come into focus.

1. Ideas for the Classroom 1.1.

Texting has become the shorthand of the 21st century.

When writing first drafts, allow students to draft on their phone, if they choose, and use text abbreviations to get their thoughts down.

Encouraging the quick, free flow of ideas in a format they prefer can help young writers capture, compile, and create new ideas. Students can translate these as they edit and revise, resulting in a standard language final draft.

1.2.

Translate difficult passages of poetry, classic literature, or even content heavy textbook passages into textese in order to facilitate student interactions with the material and understanding. The result is great summaries.

1.3.

Have students use texting to journal or answer each other’s discussion questions. When the audience changes to those who are other than peers, have them use standard English, a shift that illustrates the importance of writing that is appropriate for a particular audience.

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2. Text Talk: Working With Students "I never see this with hands," was Sandy Riggs’ response to all the text messages she received when she asked her freshman Biology students to text her what they thought DNA precipitation meant. Riggs teaches at Collegiate High School in Texas. Texting has increased her student's confidence and allowed them to participate without embarrassment.

Group Texting Through the ease and time saving means of group texting, educators can connect with groups of students for many literacy activities such as vocabulary development, questions about assigned readings, polls, or summaries. Tools like Celly (http://cel.ly) provide a code for students to enter and become part of a group. No personal numbers are shared. All texts sent and received are documented on the website. This adds structure and documentation to communicating with students through the reading and writing of text messages. ●

●

Ideas for the Classroom ○ The teacher sends out a critical thinking question to the students after school. The next day she shares all their responses and class time can be used for critical discussion rather than response collection. ○ Book clubs can keep the conversation going by interacting and discussing questions through an anytime/anywhere open group chat to which the teacher is invited. The teacher gets to be a part of every group and hear every student voice. ○ Have students set up a Celly for themselves and use the @me feature for easily taking notes, writing questions, or making connections while reading at school or on the go.

Text Talk: Working With Students At Delta Opportunity School in Colorado, Sandy Vickrey says, “I had learned the benefits of cues and questions to activate prior knowledge in my college education classes. In my school, however, class time was very short and I always had to start the lecture, play the video, present the lesson immediately in order to finish by the end of class. I rarely took the time to cue students, ask questions, or discuss prior knowledge.

Wait time did not seem to exist. When I learned about free group texting services, I began using a group text for a cue or a question before school to all of my morning classes and at lunch to all of my afternoon classes.

This really helped students come to class aware of the lesson content and ready to learn more.

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Novel Writing A new genre of literature, perfect for Generation Text, is the cell phone novel, which offers short chapters full of cliffhangers, dialog, and dramatic plot twists to get students engaged in their reading. Writing cell phone novels challenges students to show narration, poetry and even visual art by choosing line breaks, punctuation, whitespace, and rhythm. Textnovel (http://www.textnovel.com) is a free, fun resource that supports students in reading, as well as writing for a real audience, gaining feedback and revising serial fiction.

Educators choosing to use Textnovel will need to become familiar with the site and the settings where the stories are given movie type ratings. ●

●

Ideas for the Classroom ○ Even if cell phones are banned, choose a G rated cell phone novel and have students read it and make comments as homework. ○ Collectively write a cell phone novel as a class project, or within cooperative learning groups. The social nature of the site will bring students together to create, revise, and develop their stories. ○ Use the Textnovel site for journal writing that will never get lost or destroyed. They simply send their entries to their journal where the teacher can comment. Updates are sent via text or email.

Text Talk: Student Success Like most students, highschooler Krystal Swarovski was never given an opportunity to write for a real audience in school but with www.textnovel.com Krystal has a large fan base and was awarded the Text Novel Editor’s Choice award for her story Slices of Pie. Here’s an excerpt from Krystal’s bio on the site which provides a glimpse into what contributing to the site has meant for her.

“I'm in high school, my writing career to date has been a short story (B-), a collection of poems(A+), and many, many, many informational essays and literary criticisms, grades ranging from C+ to A+. More on the A side though... :) Anyway, point is, the only writing I have ever really done has been for school, with varying degrees of success. However, last year, a good friend of mine (whose pen name here is Anabelle) was telling me all about her story and this fabulous website during study hall, and she convinced me to get an account on textnovel, and that's where I started writing. I have to say I am surprised by the amount of votes my stories have received.”

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Speaking, Listening, and Oral Reports Google voice is one of many tools to capture student voice. It is free, easy to use and enables educators to capture voice messages from students without providing them with their direct phone number. The power of this kicks in when you realize that Google Voice can become a repository for oral reports, assignments, or sound bites sent from a cell phone. Teachers can also write notes on each clip, share, and post them. To get an account, visit www.google/voice.com. ●

●

Ideas for the Classroom ○ Have students do their oral reports using Google Voice. If they don't like how they sound the first time, they can re-record until they have something with which they are happy. ○ Use Google Voice as an assessment tool to easily capture students’ reading levels. This provides a transcript too, and a place to keep notes. Rather than talk to a parent about how a student has progressed across a year, let them listen to their child directly. ○ Have students share something interesting about themselves and post the recordings on a class page or blog where other students can listen or comment.

Text Talk: Working With Students John’s elementary grade class practices language skills on the phone. On their own time, students call his Google Voice number and read something or create a dialogue which is sent to his Google Voice account.

The kids respond really well to it and instead of taking class time, they dial in to his phone number, and he can go online to hear what they've done. He listens to their recordings and e-mails them feedback. Many students are afraid to make mistakes in front of their peers. When they receive a Google Voice-based recording assignment, they're more apt to take risks because they have some privacy. The end result is students are reading aloud more and getting more feedback.

Video Most phones today come with the ability to shoot video. This can be a powerful learning tool, even if there is only one video enabled phone in the classroom. Video can help students with speaking and listening skills by providing them with the opportunity to see and listen to themselves speak as well as listening to what others have to say. ●

Ideas for the Classroom ○ Have students act out and record chapters of a book they are reading using video. Acting out a chapter helps solidify understanding.

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Record mini lessons and How To’s using the video on your cell phone.

These can be stored on the class’s online space as well as emailed or texted to students. ○ For teachers using the Reading Workshop approach, taping accountable book talk between pairs or in book clubs is powerful practice. Students can review their talk to see how they did and what they might change. Teachers can record conversations they wouldn’t usually be able to hear, as documentation of student growth.

Text Talk-Working With Students You’d never know students were less than inspired about reading once video is introduced. Students at PS 4 in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan read Island of the Blue Dolphins. They were motivated and fully engaged as they dispersed to various parts of the room acting out the scenes from the script they had written days earlier. Often when a student writes, it’s not clear when something doesn’t sound right.

However, when students act out their writing, it immediately becomes clear and they jump back to their scripts to revise. Additionally, words and concepts they may not have understood previously really come to life. Their teachers are convinced that they’ll find that students understood this story better than others they’ve read. Read more at: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/02/5th-gradersdiscover-you-dont-have-be.html ○

●

Oral Stories Voki http://www.voki.com enables students to call into a personally created digital avatar with a code on their phones and use their voice for the avatar.

Students of all ages enjoy creating their character and watching it speak with their voice. Voki allows students to re-record by calling in as many times as needed to get their report just right.

Ideas for the Classroom ○

○

○

When students are experiencing writer’s block, have them call in and speak ideas through their Voki. This gets them started and a great oral (and/or written) report results.

Use Voki for public speaking practice. By practicing in the privacy of their own home into their phone, they get to listen to themselves for feedback. Speeches are rehearsed and memorized through Voki.

Storytelling benefits both the listener and the teller. Use Voki to pair middle school students with elementary students for storytelling, without ever leaving the classroom (or home). As middle school students tell stories they are creating, acting, and engaging with 27

●

language. As younger students hear the story and comment they are tuning their listening and thinking skills.

Text Talk-Working With Students Brandy Sparks, English Teacher: My students could not write their experience with the novel we were reading. I kept hearing, “I don’t know what to write.” However, when I had them call into and give a voice to their Voki avatar, they talked all about how hard it was, how they did it, what character they liked and how they think it should have ended. They never would have read each other’s work, but they loved listening to each other’s voki. I used the Vokis to “sell” the novel to my next class.

MANAGING STUDENT WORK ONLINE We’ve seen how to use cell phones to support students in creating innovative learning products – everything from a Voki avatar presenting the students’ writing, to recorded oral performances, to texted book responses, video dramatizations of books, and more. While these ideas are exciting and engaging, “How do we manage and keep track of it all? How can we easily access and review it whenever we need to? The answer is by selecting an online space for student work. Some teachers use blogs like Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), others use wikis like Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com), and others a website like Google Sites (https://sites.google.com).

A terrific feature of the tools shared in this chapter is that student products that result from their use have an embed code, allowing teachers or students to embed the products into any of these online spaces. Thus, teachers might have a page with all student work (i.e. a page of poetry Vokis from the entire class) or each student might have his own page with all their work embedded. What’s nice about this is that students can begin to develop a portfolio of their work and parents can see anytime/anywhere some of the great work of their children.

Not only are cell phones an important resource in the 21st Century educator’s tool box, they also provide more opportunities for students to use real-world tools. It’s time we began thinking of our cell phones as computers. Even the simplest, voice/text-only phones have more complex and powerful chips than the 1969 on-board computer that landed a spaceship on the moon! Children deserve nothing less than for their teachers to embrace the power of this technology, to support students in using these 28

powerful computing tools, to which they already have access. They’ll to soar to new heights!

Common Core Standards in ELA Writing

Text Types and Purposes: W._.1 - W._.2 - W._.3 Production and Distribution of Writing: W._.6 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W._.7 Range of Writing: W._.10

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration: SL._.1 - SL._.2 SL._.3 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL._.6

Language

Knowledge of Language: L._.3 Vocabulary Acquisition and Use: L._.4 - L._.5 - L._.6

ISTE NETS for Students

1.

2.

3.

4.

Creativity and Innovation: a – b Communication and Collaboration: a – b – d Research and Information Fluency: a – b – c – d Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: c 5. Digital Citizenship: a – b – c 6. Technology Operations and Concepts: a – b – c – d

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BIOGRAPHY Authors of the book Teaching Generation Text (www.TeachingGenerationText.com), Lisa Nielsen, and Willyn Webb are experts in the use of technology in education. Nielsen works with schools and districts to innovate learning with technology. She has experience as a literacy coach and librarian. Best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator http://TheInnovativeEducator.blogspot.com, she also writes for publications such as Tech & Learning, The Huffington Post and MindShift. Webb is currently an administrator, adjunct professor, and licensed professional counselor. She has experience as a middle school Language Arts teacher and a high school English and Speech teacher. Webb has published five books, is a mother of three girls and has developed an innovative alternative high school with an emphasis on literacy, technology, and service learning. Nielsen and Webb speak to audiences around the globe and teach classes for educators interested in using student-owned devices for learning.

References Dunnewind, S. (2003, April 29). Generation text: Teens ‘IM lingo evolving into a hybrid language. Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. Retrieved from http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/? date=20030412&slug=immain12 Elder, J. (2009, October 27). Teachers putting texting to use. Charlotte Observer. Retrieved from www.newsobserver.com/2009/10/27/159701/teachers-putting-texting-touse.html

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Fresco, A. (2005, October 31). Texting teenagers are proving “more literate than ever before.� The Times. Retrieved from www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article584810.ece Malson, G. & Tarica, E. (2011). Textese gr8 training 4 poets of 2moro.

Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digitalliving/5606638/Textese-gr8-training-4-poets-of-2moro McCarroll, C. (2005, March 11). Teens ready to prove text-messaging skills can score SAT points. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from www.csmonitor.com/2005/0311/p01s02-ussc.html Miners, Z. (2009, October 29). Could texting be good for students? [Web log post] U.S. News. Retrieved from www.usnews.com/blogs/oneducation/2009/10/29 Patton, G. (2010). Children 'more likely to own a mobile phone than a book'. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7763811/Childrenmore-likely-to-own-a-mobile-phone-than-a-book.html Plester, B. & Wood, C. (2009). Exploring relationships between traditional and new media literacies: British preteen texters at school. Retrieved from http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/news.cfm/newsid/14 Yarmey, K. (2011). Student information literacy in the mobile environment.

Education Quarterly. Vol 34 No.1. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazi neVolum/StudentInformationLiteracyinth/225860

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Boosting Oral Language Fluency through Technology Intensive Literature Exploration (TILE), a Learning Centers Approach

By Kevin Amboe Using Technology to Bridge Crucial Oral Fluency Gaps Many students don’t have the skills needed to be successful learners.

Literacy is critical; students who don't start off with strong literacy skills will continue to struggle. Further, Oral Language Fluency is a cornerstone to communication skills, the heart of a child's successful school experience.

Children from non-professional families start school with a listening deficit of 19 to 32 million words. If the school “expects teacher to get this child caught-up, she'll have to speak 10 words a second for 900 hours in order to reach the 32-million mark by year's end.”7 If we don’t find a way to increase the variety and volume of words heard by working class and impoverished families, we leave these students on a path of failure.

In Jim Trelease’s The Read Aloud Handbook1, the connection is drawn that much of literacy relies on listening vocabulary. “Inside the ear these words collect in a reservoir called the Listening Vocabulary. Eventually, if enough words pour into it, the reservoir starts to overflow into the Speaking Vocabulary, Reading, Vocabulary, and Writing Vocabulary.”2 Oral Fluency, therefore, is foundational for education by virtue of building vocabulary for learning by listening, reading and writing.

Learning a language is best done early in a child’s development. Not all students have “Digital” rich or vocabulary rich childhood experiences and it is important to make efforts to mediate the deficits in oral fluency to set students up for success. Technology integration can mediate oral language deficiencies.

Hyltenstam

4

states that the age of 6 and 7 seems to be a cut-off point for 32

bilinguals to achieve native-like proficiency. For many students to fully participate in school, they will need to be bilingual; proficient in English, and Digital. Young students that struggle with the English language are disadvantaged from their peers. Young students that aren’t supported in learning ‘Digital’ are also disadvantaged from their peers.

It is educational Malpractice to not use every tool for student success.“ 6 Creative use of available technology can help to bridge the gap with extensive language rich exposure and interactions for both oral and digital. In 1997 Smith & Elley highlighted a New Zealand study where students listened to a recorded book while reading the print copy for 20 to 30 minutes daily for 7 months. Normally we would expect 7 months gain for 7 months of learning; the gains from the intervention were 2.2 years instead. 8

This article will provide a lens of five guidelines for targeted technology integration, and a description of what a technology intensive literature exploration (TILE) may look like.

What does it look like to support diverse student needs for language experience to reduce the vocabulary gap? We need to model oral fluency, increase exposure to vocabulary, and offer supported practice. Strategic integration of technology can maximize the volume and variety of words read, heard and used on a daily basis through extensive rich oral language experiences.

Five Strategies and aspects of oral fluency that we can focus on to foster the acquisition of Oral Fluency include: 1. Listening to proficient speakers a. b. c. d.

vocabulary, syntax, phonological exposure recognizing language patterns pronunciation tracking written with oral 33

2. Listening to self and peer speakers a. self recording b. self assessment c. self correction 3. Digital Storytelling a. providing details and examples to enhance meaning b. expressing ideas clearly and fluently c. sequencing d.

creating learning artifact without written word.

4. Conversation opportunities b. practicing delivery c. staying on topic and sustaining concentration d. sharing and explaining ideas and viewpoints 5. Organizing information / Learning task organization – sharing thinking orally a. sharing learning b. explaining ideas c. accessing prior knowledge d. organize words by sound, letters, meaning Applying these five strategies through Technology Intensive Literature Exploration (TILE), a focused morning for a technology and oral language rich classroom, may look like the following:

(Have students bring their “stuffies” to help anchor their learning personally and have ‘actors’ for their interactions.)

Group introduction -

Pre-read and have students predict story from images only Read Aloud Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems 34

-

Discuss the key elements of the story o Stuffy lost, has adventure, returned Identify new words and strategies to figure out o Add new words to the word wall Brainstorm and record on paper places that their stuffy could go Side Bar: for each the activities described here, the potential NETS addressed are identified in [ ] Creativity and Innovation (CI) Communication and Collaboration (CC) Research and Information (RI) Critical Thinking (CT) Digital Citizenship (DC) Technology Operations and Concepts (TOC)

Have the students move to a selection of activity centers working as partners. Set up the centers to offer students as many of the following as possible: 1. On an iPad - students read an ‘email from Trixie’ asking for help to find Knuffle Bunny (in preparation, teachers write an email appropriate for their group). Or, alternatively Students can have it read to them.

Then, they record themselves reading the email (use the iPad’s microphone.) Next, they can take photos of their stuffy helping to look in various places for Knuffle Bunny in the classroom.

[CI,CC,DC,TOC] 2. On a Laptop (or iPad) – students take photos of the book using the built in camera (see the How To section at end of chapter). Next they can arrange the photos to retell either the same story or create a different story. If a movie creation software is available, they could add next text and voiceovers. [CI,CC,DC,TOC] 3. Search (either on Internet, pics4learning.com, or local folder with 35

preselected images) for places their stuffy would have an adventure.

With Photobooth or similar software select the green screen option, import the adventure background to place their stuffy in the scene background, import the image and take photos or movies with their voice-over of the adventure. [CI,CC,RI,DC,TOC]

4.

4.

4. With digital camera – take ‘day in the life of’ photos of their stuffy – connect to computer or projector and share the oral story told by their photos. [CI,CC,CT,DC,TOC]

5.

With a voice recorder or iPod – Listen to Knuffle Bunny Free again (read 36

by teacher or an audio recording by teacher or senior student), then students record themselves reading the story. Listen a final time where students can choose to listen to the ‘author voice’ or other student readers. [CI,CC,DC,TOC] 6. With an easy to use video camera - Groups of 3 or 4 tell a story with their stuffies as the actors, while 1 student records using the video camera. Watch their story – or stories of their peers. Alternatively, students could import photos of their stuffies into a live stage recording software such as Polished Play’s Puppet Pals app and move the images on the screen while telling their story. [CI,CC,DC,TOC] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puppet-pals-pocket/id395844666?mt=8 7. With Garageband – Students create musical accompaniment to be played while reading the story or sing a song of Knuffle Bunny’s (or their stuffy’s) adventure. [CI,CC,DC,TOC] 8. Kidspiration – (Preload with sentences and phrases from story) Students can sort words by size, sound, first letter, type (places), actions and use the listen button to have words read to them.

[CC,RI,TOC] a. Kidspiration is a mind mapping software by Inspiration Software Inc that includes additional features for younger learners such as reading selected words or bubbles. The conversation between students to accomplish the tasks is more important than the word being read aloud; however, it is more engaging with the audio feature. http://www.inspiration.com/Curriculum-Integration/Kidspiration 9. With iPod or iPad or other interactive eReader – students read and interact with eBooks (apps) such as The Flying Books of Morris Lessmore. [CI,DC,TOC] http://www.bestinteractiveebooks.com/2011/07/the-fantastic-flyingbooks-of-mr-morris-lessmore/ 10.

With a folder of 15 related images, have students choose 5 to 6, place in order, then tell their partner a story. (Same sample as above could be used) [CI,CC,DC,TOC] Each station could be 20 minutes of work time followed by 3 minutes to share with another group before choosing another station. As the series of centers time comes to a close, bring students together and share with a student they have not yet shared a center with yet.

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There is no lock step method; however, like anchor papers to writing, the TILE example above takes the strategies and provides specific examples to meet expectations. As you can see from the examples, it is not about the technology, rather it is deciding on an oral fluency activity that technology can support. The table below extends the strategies beyond a specific lesson and includes an analog method to support oral fluency as a comparison.

Strategy

Technology Tool

Analog Tool

Notes / Cautions

Listening to Proficient speakers

Computer generated voice – iBooks, Google Translate, Speech to Text

Peer reader

Computer generated text reading is not as ‘accurate’ as real voice but more available

Audio book, Book on Tape

Peer reader

Recording of older student / adult reading

Older student reading

Skype / Face time an expert / author

Guest speaker

Read along software/ app

Buddy Reader

Voice Recording / Listening

Tape Recording, Choral reading, Paired Reading

Listening to Self and Peer speakers

Rerecording

Digital Story

Creating movies from still images or Creating

See tool options under Digital Story Telling

Even tape recorders are technology integration; however, tapes wear out

By listening to their voice, they are self assessing, then they can record and self correct Reading Buddies, Self

iMovie, PPT, Movie Maker all have this 38

Telling

Conversatio n Opportuniti es

Organizing information

Slide Shows with Voice Over

Adjusting Reading after Listening

ability

Filming live action drama

Classroom skit Can be done with flip camera, <$200 digital camera,<$300 Digital Video camera, iPod, iPad,

Creating Movies with Web 2.0 tools

Voki.com

Creating Movies from Video and adding voice over

iMovie, Coaches Eye, Movie Maker, Google Earth Pro

Creating Movies from Stop Motion / Animation

Animoto.com / Scratch (MIT)

Creating Podcasts

Self Adjusting Reading after listening

Garageband or Audacity

Working in partners and learning together new tools

Working in Partners

Technology is highly motivating and students eagerly talk about what to do.

Asynchronous conversations

Pen Pals

Students become experts with specific technology tools to help other students

Student experts with other classroom activities

Digital Storytelling with content, retelling

Journaling, drawing

Learning together new tools

VoiceThreads.com

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- Learning Tasks – sharing thinking orally

purposes

diagrams, flash cards, sort and predict

Kidspiration – generate ideas, sequencing, summarizing, synthesizing, comparing, analyzing

Draw diagram, organize flashcards

Labeling and explaining a diagram (Kidspiration) (Co-create – see conversation above) make their learning visible to others (e.g., maps, diagrams, photographs, models, and drawings)?

Labeling and explaining a diagram (paper / pencil)

Technology can remove requirement of specific skill level and fine motor skills.

Pride in ‘professional’ results. Even 10 year olds report “My hand doesn’t hurt” when I write electronically

We need to intervene for students with low oral language and low digital language exposure. Ensuring targeted technology integration also provides tools for students to use with learning involving reading and writing. A turning point in my teaching was interviewing students after a laptop writing project – Both girls and boys responded, “I like writing now because my hand doesn’t hurt.” While they still may struggle with writing their thoughts, we can build their oral fluency and technology fluency so they have both digital and oral tool to express their learning.

With the pervasive amount of technology in society, students of most 40

backgrounds are likely to have access to at least one tool (or equivalent such as leaving a voice memo on an answering machine or iPod Touch or Dollar Store recording pen). Teaching students how they can improve their language skills with techniques they can apply in a 1:1 application at home can extend the learning and impact into the home for self and for other family members.

Oral Fluency is the cornerstone to speaking, reading, writing and learning.

We have opportunity with using methods like the Technology Intensive Literacy Explorations (TILEs) to enhance student NETS-S capacities as well as remediate oral fluency deficiencies. It is essential to think strategically with the five strategies described above as a lens to target learning opportunities to truly meet student learning needs.

Further Resources • • • • • •

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity by Jason Ohler.

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease Are you Listening by Lisa Burman Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century by David Warlick Oral Fluency and Extensive Reading Activities http://ihjournal.com/oral-fluency-and-extensive-reading-activities

References 1 – Better Schools for BC – BC Teachers Federation 2 – Jim Trelease, The Read Aloud Handbook, Chapter 2, Penguin, 2006 4 - (1992, as cited in Wikipedia, 2012) found Hyltenstam 5 - Table - Hart and Risley (1997) Meaningful Differences – accessed cited http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch1-pg3.html March 26, 2012 6 - An impactful quote from keynote presentation at an Alberta online learning conference, “

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7 - http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch1.html accessed March 26, 2012 paragraph 11 8 - Smith, J. & Elley, W. (1997). How children learn to read: Insights from the New Zealand experience. Katonah, NY: Richard C. Owen.

How To Items and Resources iRecorder: A free voice recorder for iPad http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/04/irec order-a-free-voice-recorder-for-ipad/1 -

How to Take Pictures With a Built in Computer Webcam

http://www.ehow.com/how_5972242_pictures-built-computerwebcam.html#ixzz20dX6C2xA - Green Screen Effects in Photo Booth and iChat http://basics4mac.com/article.php?story=green_screen -

The author has established an online gallery of photos that may be used for the several of the activity centers: www.flickr.com/amboe_k/tags/doggy/

The Common Core Standards for Reading don’t explicitly describe Oral Fluency, but I have adapted the BC Ministry of Education Elementary Language Arts curriculum, within the strand of Oral Fluency, to identify goals of improving Oral Fluency: -

provide students opportunitiesto develop their capacity to listen, interact, and present effectively with peers and adults. increase students’ awareness of, develop strategies and engagement in the processes, skills, and techniques of oral interactions connect language to text, develop ideas, increase vocabulary repertoire, and use metacognition increase students’ knowledgeof the forms of oral expression, syntax, and diction

About the Author

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Kevin Amboe has been a teacher in Surrey, British Columbia for 17 years.

Kevin is fluent in both “Digital” and Analog and in the last eight years, he has focused on developing Information and Media Literacy with Surrey students.

Kevin was a lead researcher in an internal Grade 5 Writing with Laptops project. In addition, Kevin worked with Simon Fraser University coordinating and mentoring teachers in a self-directed inquiry based professional development program called, “Teaching and Learning in an Information Technology Environment”

Kevin has presented numerous times at several local, provincial and national conferences including ISTE 2010,11,12. He has been a CUE-BC executive for over 10 years and was selected as one of Canada’s Apple Distinguished Educators in 2007 and in 2008 as a Google Certified Teacher.

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Learning to Teach with Edmodo: Social Networking-based Activities

by Kathy D. Shields Edmodo has changed the way I teach and the way my students learn. If you are looking for a fast paced way to spark engagement, build connections and develop critical thinking within your classroom, read on.

I speak with the confidence of one who has seen great change in a very short period of time. It was September 2011 when I first introduced my 5th grade Reading/LA class to Edmodo, a social networking platform free for teachers and students.

My fellow teacher, Heather Temske, an active Atlanta area Discovery Educator Network member, had raved about her experience with Edmodo.

She and her 4th graders participated in a global read-aloud. From the sound of it, Edmodo was a catalyst for writing that offers authenticity, and a forum for sparking project-based learning. My interest was piqued.

I informed my students that we would be testing a new way of communicating and would be joining a global book discussion with over 1200 grade 4-8 students from around the country. Suddenly I was pelted with excited questions. The hook was set!

Who benefits from Edmodo?

Edmodo is a blended learning tool. Students who are able to save and upload images and are able to read fluently are ready to use this interface.

A new format for learning, responding, and grading; Edmodo is 24/7 and will change the way you interact with your students. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a limited Learning Management System that lends itself to collaborative projects that employ Google Docs and to individualized instruction based on lessons, assignments, and groups. While not all students will embrace a web-based platform for learning, you will have a significant number who prefer this modality. It is up to you to determine, based on the individual needs of your students, the degree to which you integrate Edmodo into the classroom.

Getting Started It took six months and several conversations with peers to get comfortable with the idea of using social networking in my classroom. I like to jump on a band wagon when I see the advantages, but in this case, I could also see some red flags. Doing my due diligence, I set up my own account early on in the process to get a feel for how it would work. If you are a complete newbie 44

to this platform here is your first tip. Sign up as both a teacher and a student. The only way to find your way around is to experience the site as a student. One more important detail, In order to join as a student, you will need to create your first ‘group’ as a teacher.

The Edmodo home screen makes getting started a snap for teachers as well as students. What isn’t quite so obvious is their use of ‘group codes’ to establish boundaries between groups of students or even groups of teachers.

In order for a student to join Edmodo, they must have a ‘group code’ to plug in.

Edmodo’s system of organizing by groups is a thing of beauty and simplicity, but know this: they can be created and destroyed with the click of your mouse. They can also be renamed if you make a typo or just want to call them something more meaningful once in use. Create a ‘playground’ group to keep the classroom chat separate from the assignment groups. This really helps in the area of online classroom management.

Name your experimental group playground by clicking the CREATE button on the left of the screen. A confirmation will appear with your group number. It will always be available to you when you click on the group. Now that you have the group, you can join as a student. This requires logging out and then selecting ‘I’m a Student’. I tell my students they do not need to enter their email address. They simply need a user name, password and an initial group code to get started. Learning to use Edmodo makes more sense when you experience it as a student.

A New Way of Doing Things The Edmodo site promotes teacher learning and shares established practices through free webinars. One such webinar is called, 20 Ways to use Edmodo.

I watched and listened to see if I could learn something new. When I say new, I’m referring to a new way of doing things probably already done before. Here’s a sampling of things that resonated for me: blogging, role playing, peer evaluation, conversations, grammar checking, tutoring, parent communication, calendar events, grading, quizzing, polling, book clubs, scavenger hunt, alumni group, after school activity, PBL preparation, teacher collaboration, reading assignment, writing prompt, international pen pal, audio messages, reading fluency, flipped classroom.

Grades 3-5 Literacy Instruction Supported by Social Networking I have taught grades K, 3, and 5 and I think Edmodo is best suited for the upper elementary classes and above. The print is small and the pages 45

somewhat complex. I do think a willing teacher could make it work for younger students, but would probably do more work.

In my classroom, Edmodo was used primarily as a way for students to communicate their understandings and misunderstandings about content.

My goal was to stretch their thinking, to generate questions that would lead to deeper learning. Edmodo tracks student activity online. It allows you to hold them accountable for their contributions. Their work may also be tracked by parents using the parent access code.

I have incorporated the use of Google docs by creating small groups and designating one person as the recorder. They add all of their content to a shared document (Google doc) which I embed as a link on Edmodo. Thus, students work collaboratively in small groups to create something for the whole class.

Implementation and Classroom Organization Students sign in to their personal accounts making it a 1:1 interface.

However, small group projects also work well if one student is the designated poster for the group. In a school with a lack of 1:1 access to computers, students can take turns posting.

The real challenge of social networking is teaching students how to filter their comments and to develop a sense of digital citizenship. My advice is to provide several very good examples of misunderstandings that result from inappropriate use up front. Ask students to work in small groups and to rewrite their conversations so they yield better outcomes. I also reviewed our Acceptable Use Policy with the students and notified parents about our classroom social networking efforts.

Time is an important implementation consideration. Classrooms have different numbers of computers and varying amounts of time in the day to offer access to students. How much time are individual students able to use the Internet each week? And what are they expected to accomplish? Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say students have about 50 minutes a week to spend online. This may become compromised due to schedule changes such as assemblies. If you budget 30 minutes realistically, will they be able to complete their Edmodo assignments in school? I have found this to be the toughest part of my 46

planning. Several of my students either donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have home access or their parents prefer they remain off the computer at home during the week. Try to anticipate limitations. Next, try out your lesson. Time it. Make sure that most students will be able to complete the task in the allotted time, then plan provide partners for those who need extra help.

Edmodo can be used on any platform although some may offer limited functionality. With iPad, for instance, access is by an APP or using the full site. Using the APP, it is possible to upload images. Students tell me they use Edomodo on their iTouch devices and on their parentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iPhones, in addition to using it on their home computers. I suggest you have at least 3 classroom computers available for student use and make time to spend at least an hour every other week in the computer lab if you have limited resources in your school.

Your Edmodo Library: Save all of your links, embed code, and more The Edmodo library offers a unique way to save, share and distribute content. Anything you store is available for assignments or posts and can be made available through folders that appear to different groups depending of their purpose. The same item can be shared in numerous folders simultaneously. Students have a library but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called a backpack instead.

They can save their images and documents. Once you sign up for some of the wonderful Edmodo communities, you will see loads of posted resources to add to your own library. I use several social networking sites but this one is perfectly targeted for educational use.

Assignments Starting the year off with some Edmodo challenge assignments will help you see who is most adept and who needs the most support. I like to start with three challenges designed to familiarize my students with some web 2.0 tools. They address different learning styles and offer opportunities for extension and remediation as well as for student exploration and reflection.

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In addition to fostering learning in the area of Vocabulary and Reading, the first assignment introduces students to skills needed to use Edmodo, like: how to save and upload an image. Student generally enjoy making word clouds, so I begin this first challenge with a very easy to follow procedure to create one that is saved as a jpg graphic file. Following that, they upload it.

If you feel your students need more instruction in how to accomplish this than online directions provide, employ theâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; each one - teach oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; method and start by demonstrating to a small group and allowing them to gradually teach the rest of the class. I often use peer teaching to facilitate the learning process because it leads to greater collaboration and group problem-solving.

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Another assignment describes how some students in Uganda must risk their lives crossing a perilous, makeshift bridge to get to their school which is on the other side of a raging river. My students must respond to the question â&#x20AC;&#x153;How far would you go to take a test?â&#x20AC;?

Here are several examples of student responses to the previous assignment (along with my comments): Student - If I was one of those kids going to school I would go! No matter what the young kids would of said I still would of crossed. It is like an obstacle on Test Track in Disney. Everyone should have an education, no matter what size or age. If could not get educated, I could not be a vet.

Even those kids have dreams to be what they want to be. It is so sad that some can't go to school. Their parents could be dying or even very sick. It is just an obstacle in life and it is so sad. Everyone should have an education and a good life. Sometimes you feel that you should try to help those kids in Uganda, and give them proper medications. That is what I think we should help those kids.

Me - You are a compassionate person with a big heart. I like your simile, about the Test Track at Disney. I also see that you acknowledge that all kids have dreams. It's easy to forget this when we look at people so far away in a different world.

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Student - It is important for these kids to cross this bridge and the trees around it, so that they may be able to inherit the education that separates our country from theirs and can make them knowledgeable to the point that someday they may be able to live in a country as great as ours and that they may establish their own understanding of life. To me, this bridge symbolizes life. Life is full of risks and chances that you must take in order to be successful.

Me - With your permission, I would love to share this with the Springs Alive Community School. The sincerity of your words moved me and I know it would mean the word to them.

Student - Thank you Mrs. Shields! I really appreciate your kind words.

In many ways, this kind of lesson is an assessment. It reveals unique perspectives and allows students to see other points of view. As a teacher, I was moved by many of the responses. Posting images and asking for thoughtful reflections teaches students to ask questions about what they see, pay attention to details and connect prior knowledge in drawing conclusions.

A third activity centered on the way the use of multimedia and simulations helps engage students and foster higher order thinking skills. This year I used an interactive simulation (Discoveryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Virtual Volcano) for a geography unit. Students were asked to create an eruption. Check the resources at the end of the chapter for this link. Below you can view this assignment as I posted it in Edmodo for my students.

Become a volcano designer!

How are volcanoes alike and different?

Use your graphic organizer to complete this task: 1. Design 4 different volcanoes by adjusting the levers on Viscosity and Gas. 2. Create different combinations and then START the ERUPTION! 3. Mark your settings and note the type of volcano and a brief description.

4. Illustrate what you see.

Answer the following question in the TURN IN section: What is your favorite type of volcano? Explain why you chose it.

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Students were required to illustrate their favorite volcano and explain how it was formed. They tended to work side-by-side, sharing their excitement with each other. Social learning requires thinking aloud and hearing how your ideas sound to others. For many students, this gives them the confidence they need to make a post.

All of these assignments utilized the Edmodo social networking resource to establish a flexible learning environment in which student writing became the principal means of communication and exchange. Further, they all involved thinking, reflecting, and collaborating, all facilitated greatly by social networking, mirroring its tremendous impact in the real world beyond school.

Standards Addressed - Common Core ELA Standards The new Common Core standards and for ELA, create a shift from just reading, to reading more informational texts. It suggests that students will benefit from exposure to a wider range of nonfiction texts related to core content areas. I view the adoption of Common Core as an invitation for greater collaboration among teachers. Edmodo is a learning management system, and like your classroom, it will reflect your personal focus. I think Edmodo will assist me in building my Common Core materials through my connections with other teachers. Now that most states are sharing a common curriculum, the content will be more easily shared and more readily available.

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ISTE NETS for Students Here are examples of how to incorporate technology standards for students using Edmodo: 1. Post a picture of an unusual global phenomenon. (Students facing extreme challenges.) Ask students to identify the reason for the phenomenon and ask them how they would solve the problem. (3,4) 2. Students can manage their assignments by using the grade book and calendar features in Edmodo. It adds a new dimension of accountability for students to complete their work in a timely manner. (4,6) 3. Students develop a social networking identity and learn digital citizenship using Edmodo.(2,4,5) 4. Post a simulation website link related to science or social studies content.

(I used the Virtual Volcano)Ask students to study the scenarios and hypothesize how the events might have been different? What is the cause and effect relationship? (4,6) Assessment Students will be assessed using the following methods a) Participation - Edmodo tracks all student posts and assignments. b) Formative - Edmodo allows a teacher to create quizzes and polls to collect snapshots of how students are doing on a given standard. c) Summative Assessments - Edmodo can serve the purpose of preparing students to take summative assessments by providing skill-building activities, teacher power points reviews and possibly podcasts of content for test preparation. Projects are easily posted and may be assigned and graded as summative assessments.

Resource to Learn More about Using Edmodo in the Classroom http://help.edmodo.com/edmodo-mini-lessons/ http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit/82344 http://cybraryman.com/edmodo.html http://help.edmodo.com/teacher-rollout-resources/ http://youtu.be/F1SXlLtmJ_Y DCSDonDemand http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/using-edmodo-in-elementaryclassroom.html http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/interactive/interactive.html A brief bio: Kathy D. Shields 52

I am a second career teacher with a passion for learning. I have two wonderful adult children soon to become college graduates and a loving husband of 25 plus years. My book club is like a second family to me. I like to keep my ear to the ground, consider many facets to a story or solutions to a problem and view teaching a wonderful way to glimpse the future through the eyes of a child. I admire my coworkers who have endured long years in this profession, because they are all tireless champions for students. I live to learn, so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m currently pursuing an Ed.D. at Kennesaw State University, with a focus on Teacher Leadership and Instructional Technology. Follow me on twitter @kathydshields

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Using Online Discussions to Develop Literacy Skills and Integrate the NETs Sandra Wozniak Do simple writing prompts freeze the minds of your students? Do your students know the fine art of arguing? Do your students glaze over when faced with informational text? How can you help them avoid "I don't know what to write, so I’ll write the same thought 16 different ways”?

As a middle school teacher, curriculum developer, and district technology Yoda, I always say you need to sneak some beans into their brownies and develop activities that are good for them in a manner that excites and engages them. Studies show that students’ writing improves when they have an audience and purpose, an interest or passion, and time to think about it. Today’s Net Generation comes with access to an audience 24/7 and a penchant for online discussions. Let’s harness our tech savvy students’ enthusiasm for these tools, fuel classroom discussions, and build skills they’ll need for the 21st Century.

We’re all in this together Developing deeper understanding of content, appreciating different perspectives, and being able to synthesize new thought is a common goal of all curriculum areas - not just language arts or reading class, according to the new Common Cores Standards. Online discussion tools will help students develop “argument, ideas and voice”, integrating all six NETS-S standards with the 3R’s (reading, writing, and relevancy) of good literacy practice.

Online discussion activity

NET-S

Common Core

Students read text, content, primary documents to support claims or arguments in discussion

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

W-9 Draw Evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

Students develop and present conclusions, recommendations and issues

Critical thinking and Problem Solving

W 7-1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence

Creativity and

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Innovation Students interact online to examine complex issues from multiple points of view using guided questions and discussion

Communication and Collaboration

Students critically and constructively examine their own and others’ perspectives while supporting their arguments in a clear and persuasive manner

Communication and Collaboration

Technology Operations Digital Citizenship

W7-6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.

SL9.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence

Although Facebook enthusiasts feel we need to be “where the students are,” many practicing teachers find obstacles to using social web sites (including blocked sites, lack of control over content, student age and privacy issues) too overwhelming. This holds particularly true in middle school, where many students are not legally old enough to have Facebook or other accounts with profiles attached. Fortunately, there are many educational online discussion tools available to use as viable alternatives that offer features our students love. These tools are not only free, but are easy to use.

Working through a district initiative to develop tech infused problem-based learning opportunities for students, I’ve collaborated with many educators to develop engaging, interdisciplinary units that support literacy. Attending national conferences (like ISTE, NAMLE, NCSS) has given me opportunities to discover and share a wealth of collaborative tools and their implementation in the classroom. I’m hoping my experiences can help you learn the power of (and avoid the pitfalls of) using online discussion platforms.

Start Simple Beginning by implementing these tools in simple ways will help build confidence in developing activities that produce results. As these tools are web-based, I highly recommend that you log onto them in school to avoid 55

the first obstacle - the blocked site. School IT departments have all sorts of parameters set up that are not the same as yours at home- what teacher has not found that out the hard way? Our district IT department has always been very responsive in helping me get a web tool going; however, “responsive” was never quick enough so that I didn’t need a plan B. Setting the stage Before using any online collaborative tool, it’s important that we give students a jumpstart with the rules of netiquette and set the stage with our expectations. Our students understand simple classroom citizenship rules.

What they may lack, however, is a sense that there is also a unique set of rules for online discussions (be polite, don’t use all caps, remember the person behind the avatar, etc.). It’s up to you whether you want students to use their real or screen names. Using screen names is another great lesson on putting your best foot forward online and it gives shyer students the opportunity to participate more freely. I‘ve found that students who never contributed to a class discussion were “in it to win it” when it came to online discussions. Using screen names can also avoid legal problems. Maintain a record of screen names and real names to identify who is who. Many of the “social problems” that find their way into the middle school these days have spilled over from cyberspace as our students see the internet as a place where “anything goes.” Teaching digital citizenship (Nets Standard 5) is a must.”

Digital Discussion Guidelines The good news is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel. There are some great resources for online discussion rules like “Interact with Tact” (http://onguardonline.gov/articles/0033b-interact-tact) or the “Dos and Don’ts of Online Student Communication” from Collaborize Classroom.

Setting these guidelines as standards is a great way to get your students started. Using these tools is a great way to model and monitor skills as well as giving students the opportunities to practice good digital citizenship (NETS 5) in a private protected community before they go “global.”

Now, you’re both ready Online collaborative tools range from simple “post-it” boards such as Stormboard or Padlet to customizable content-oriented discussion tools such as the SCAN tool, Edmodo or Collaborize Classroom. What they all have in common is the power to engage students by allowing them to interact with each other combined with the ability to integrate the 21st Century higher order thinking skills.

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One of the simplest “discussion tools” is “Today’s Meet” (www.todaysmeet.com) – it takes only seconds to set up a private discussion board that does not require participants to register or log in. Simply fill in the URL www.todaysmeet.com/XXXX with your topic or class and send them there. Just as we use “discussion questions” to guide our students while showing a video or reading an article; you can put the actual “discussion” in right from the start. Students could set up a discussion to collaborate on a group project from home or brainstorm ideas for a project.

Using this discussion tool is a great way to get your feet wet in the online discussion world.

These tools come with a built in audience and models of good thinking.

Students are more apt to take time, thought and care with their writing when they know that their peers will be reading it. They also can get new ideas and perspectives and see models of good writing when reading others’.

We modeled using Today’s Meet in a staff professional development meeting, posting questions and discussion as we watched videos of classroom teachers. In the classroom, we used this tool to post questions for students as we watched some scenes from “Remember the Titans.”

Instead of worksheets with rote questions to get students to focus, we were able to have them discuss things like: “How do you think those black children felt on their first day of attending the previously all white school?”

It was easy for students to see different points of view and build empathy for characters and express themselves in the online chat. Teachers can join in and monitor the discussion. Transcripts can be saved for assessment and documentation. Consider inappropriate comments as “teachable moments.

There are also some very simple “post-it” note boards where students (and teachers) can collaborate and discuss issues. Padlet and Stormboard are two great examples of these free brainstorming tools. We’ve used these boards to have students post possible topics, share issues or points of view, etc.

In this Padlet example we asked a 4th grade social studies class that was learning about why laws are important, to 57

brainstorm issues that we might need rules for on the playground. Students went to the activity’s unique URL and clicked on the grass to add their ideas. Students were able to contribute to the brainstorm and see a wide variety of issues brought up by their peers. Students could physically build their ideas and post related issues around others that were posted.

Teachers register, set up a site, name it (example: www.Padlet.com/playground) and then share the URL. Padlet, a little simpler and more graphically pleasing than Stormboard, might be better suited for younger students.

Caption: Stormboard (formerly Edistorm) was used by educators to collaborate on developing activities around upcoming NASA mission.

Stormboard gives you the ability to organize, comment on, and vote on ideas. It was used as a springboard for a group of educators developing new activities around an upcoming NASA mission. Teachers from across the globe were able to post ideas, comment on others and eventually group themselves according to topic area. We also used this same tool to help a Gifted and Talented class to prepare for writing a mock trial based on the First Amendment. We had students first post ideas in Stormboard on how the First Amendment might apply to their daily lives. From there they were able to post ideas and brainstorm possible scenarios, and vote on the one they were going to produce. Stormboard allows you to divide your ideas into sections, so you can have your class do a group KWL activity around a topic. Setting up areas for Knowledge you have, for what you Want to know, and for what you Learned. Teachers register for a free site, select “create a storm” and get a private URL to give to students. Participants can also be invited by email. They join in the conversation by adding a sticky note.

Teachers can delete or rearrange sticky notes as they see fit.

Perhaps the strongest argument for using tools like this is the potential to get all students engaged in the discussion. Typical class discussions are often dominated by three or four “quick thinkers.” All conversations are generally documented and archived so that “participation” grades can become objective rather than subjective and qualitative rather than 58

quantitative. These tools also provide many of the prerequisites for good writing: organizing and clarifying information, incubation time to think, discuss and digest, and active participation. They also provide visuals for those learners that favor that modality.

Collaborize classroom is another tool that I have found to be a great way to develop good writing and increase student exposure to informational text as required by the new common core standards. (http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/res ources/common-core-standards/commoncore-standards-english-language-artshigh-school-9-12th-grade) This platform allows teachers to pose higher level thinking questions in a number of ways in a private classroom setting using videos, photos, primary documents, articles and other informational text.

Teaching them to Argue Do kids really need to be taught to argue?

Arguing in a civil manner with logical assumptions is not something they see every day! The new Common Core Standards state: “the ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing – a basic form of argument- extending into the earliest grades.” The SCAN tool, developed by the nonprofit TregoED, is a little known gem, offering the perfect opportunity to hone argument writing, problem solving, and civil discourse skills. Our school was fortunate to be on the ground floor of the development of this tool.

SCAN is an online discussion tool that provides content and a critical thinking strategy. SCAN provides an issue or historical event that has different perspectives. The variety of these runs the gamut from cell phone policies and genetic engineering to the Boston Tea Party and bullying. The SCAN tool features a library with many of these, as well as allowing teachers the post their own with a relatively inexpensive subscription ($45/year).

Students work through the SCAN problem solving strategy (Stop and think things through, Clarify the Key issues, Ask yourself what’s most important, and Now, what’s your next step?) entering their point of view, commenting 59

on others, and collaborating on a solution.

We used SCAN as the cornerstone of the ISTE Technology Innovative Award winning lesson “Who Owns History,” (submitted by Media Specialist Cynthia Cassidy and Language Arts teacher Michelle Cook). They tailored the SCAN library’s “Egyptian Artifacts: Where do they belong?” lesson to their students’ needs and linked additional resources and media elements in a livebinder to the lesson on deciding who should own Egypt’s numerous artifacts that are on display throughout the world. The tool not only gave us a built in problem solving process, but it gave us the ability to differentiate the lessons to meet the diverse needs of our language arts students. Their students selected specific points of view (Egyptian citizen, American museum curator, U.S. archeologist, and Egyptian director of Antiquities), and followed the prompts of the four-step critical thinking strategy to explore and promote their viewpoint. Links to articles, videos, and resources allowed us to enrich the reading and frontloaded students with information to enrich their writing.

Using the SCAN tool is easy, teachers register and follow three easy steps to set up a lesson and get a unique URL for their class.

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The final page of the online SCAN session supplied concrete evidence of student participation by providing a summary of the activity for students and teachers. This streamlined the assessment process.

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We were able to provide instructional text, a relevant and authentic topic, perspectives, practice with formulating logical arguments, and critical thinking. Putting it all together- problems, resources, communication, and perspectives, students are frontloaded with the information to be able to synthesize real solutions to real problems and write persuasively with a purpose while touching on all six areas of NETS-S. Based on the transcript of the discussion, we were able to asses focus, organization, and development of ideas, voice, and conventions – all foundations of good writing. Using this tool across various subject areas in our school, we have increased our students’ reading of informational text by 50% and have seen an increase in student writing skills (particularly for special education students). We’ve used SCAN to have students take on the roles of characters in literature, practice historical thinking, examine ethical debates in science or make action plans for problems like bullying.

Bottom line We have found many benefits of incorporating online discussion platforms in developing literacy skills and integrating the NET-s. The most obvious is the increase in enthusiastic participation by students. Some of our students have used these and other tools to “flip” their classrooms and deliver content outside of school. Given proper guidelines and expectations, the quality of student discussions and writing has increased as they are motivated by the audience of their peers and view models of good writing by others.

Common Core Standards in ELA Writing

Text Types and Purposes: W._.1 Production and Distribution of Writing: W._.6 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W._.7 , W._.9

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration: SL._.3

ISTE NETS for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation: a – b – c – d 2. Communication and Collaboration: a – b – c – d 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: a – b – c – d 5. Digital Citizenship: a – b – c – d 6. Technology Operations and Concepts: a – b – c – d

Author’s Bio: Sandra Wozniak continues to teach despite being recently retired after 33 years at the Mt. Olive Middle School. While there, she 63

developed and taught courses in Robotics and 21 st Century Skills. She was NJ Middle Level Educator of the Year in 2010. She recently wrote curriculum for the NASA ISTE MMS Mission project. She works with the nonprofit TregoED whose mission is to teach students how to think, not what to think, is a featured blogger for Technology Integration in Education and blogs at http://scanwerecriticaltothinking.blogspot.com/

Sandra Wozniak 21 The Rotunda Andover, NJ 07821 sanwoz@gmail.com @sanwoz

http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/resources/common-core-standards http://www.tregoed.org/files/CCS-SCAN_Can_Help.pdf

Student Led Podcast Projects Make Common Core Literacy skills Come Alive

by Dr. Rose Reissman BROOKLYN, N.Y. 1. A team of five sits around a conference table with a cell phone serving as a time clock. They have a script in front of them, but often stray from it as they rehearse their conversation, a review of financial literacy resources available on the web. The moderator, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also the leader of the team, watches the clock to make sure they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t run over their allotted time. After the rehearsal, the team listens to what it recorded and their leader conducts a reflective debriefing on its strong and weak points. He adjusts his outline for their upcoming final recording.

2. A team of newcomers to the United States who are studying English rehearse the lines of a script based on The Sign, a story from Simms 64

Tabackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kibizers and Fools (Viking, 2005), before they record their performance of it for a podcast . They are led by a student director who explains to them the type of voice projection, elongated diction, and voice levels necessary for successful podcast recordings. As they practice, he supports them, suggesting how they can best read their lines in character. Both the speakers and the director are satisfied with the recorded performance that results.

3. Teams of students who have designed their own fan author websites stand up in front of an audience of peer website creators to share their site design ideas, use of web creation software, and problems encountered during the fan site creation process. As they speak, the group leader, a peer who had the original idea for doing a fan site, advises the others as they research and design fan sites of their own.

Their oral presentation is recorded for a student podcast to be included as a part of an adult, online book study for teachers.

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Behind the Snapshots: Common Core ELA Connections All of the above are snapshots of Podcast, Project-Based Learning activities, which enhance the in-place, grade 6-8 ELA curriculum and that support the Common Core ELA shifts in instructional focus. The participating middle school students come from (Special Education) Resource Room, ELL, Enrichment, general education, and newcomer classes. They are all busily and productively engaged in developing authentic podcasts for target audiences of peers and adults and must meet set deadlines.

In each of these projects, students serve as leaders for their peers or for younger grade students. Literacy Leadership is an important dimension of the instructional program at the school. These projects lead to improved Literacy outcomes, as well as personal growth for individuals and enrichment of school culture. Students view a leader as someone who generates the initial idea for a podcast theme or develops a script, as well as having an auteur vision for directing other student podcast participants; including speakers, sound effects and music score technicians, and others involved in creating the final podcast product.

Podcast Literacy Leaders have very specific ideas about how recordings should be edited, as well. Further, even though some of them are just 11 and none are older than 14, they can all effectively communicate their vision of how they want their podcast projects to evolve. Beyond preparation for the podcasts, these leaders analyze the finished products to suggest the next podcast project, being mindful of relevant themes and their ELA curriculum. They also carefully listen to them to improve their direction and scripting skills. The leaders have volunteered to work several lunch periods and after school to acquire boot camp leadership training. During this training they are taught how to work with younger peers to support these peers in accomplishing project goals. The leaders learn the basic elements of: project organization, adhering to time tables, using a microphone, voice quality and delivery for a podcast, coaching peers and communicating project goals to various audiences (teachers, students, administrators, graduate education students, parents).

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Under peer leadership, the teams enjoy working together as a unit toward a common goal, the production of a podcast to be shared with an online audience of peers and adults.

As they enjoy the college readiness and career training aspects of podcast production, all student team members are validating the 5 pillars of ELA and content area literacy (CCSS). For instance, as they worked on their financial literacy resource review program, they were reading texts that reflect informational text –staircase of complexity concerns. This is the thrust of the instructional shifts that result from adoption of the Common Core Standards in ELA. In their planning and recorded conversations, students discerned the key points of web-based financial literacy resources (informational texts), asked one another relevant questions, and cited specific text-based evidence when offering an interpretation. In examining this body of resources created for middle school students, students addressed the adult perspective on financial literacy from their own point of view. The topic of financial literacy helped the students focus on academic and domain specific vocabulary. This type of podcast-based literacy project includes writing and research that analyzes sources and uses relevant evidence from the online sources to support team members’ viewpoints.

Students in the second group described above, from a sixth grade (Special Education) resource room/ESL class, used the contemporary young adult classic text of Taback’s “The Sign” from Kibitzers and Fools, to build their cultural knowledge about life in Poland in the 19th century. They learned Jewish Folklore and Yiddish phrases that have become part of the English language. This addresses shift 2 of the Common Core standards by enhancing student knowledge of the disciplines and enhances shift 6 students’ academic vocabulary.

As they focused on comprehending the text of the print narrative they were working from, identifying domain specific vocabulary by using punctuation marks as anchors, and marking potential script lines for their podcast; they were seamlessly practicing use of text dependent questions and tasks. This addresses shift 4, text based answers, since the scripts were developed directly from text based tasks.

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This folklore tale involved students in using a quality text to consider what, for these students from Uzbek, Afghanistan, Iraq and other cultures, was a new culture. The task of transforming a narrative story into a podcast script engaged the students in writing and research that analyzed sources and forced them to reference their final script to evidence in the folktale.

Students in the third group described above, who were designing fan author sites, experienced shift three, text complexity, as they reviewed a range of other publisher and fan sites to get a feel for the electronic author site genre.

They observed the standard components of published author web sites: Author Bio; FAQ section, list of the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works, interviews, blogs, videos, etc. Then, they were given the text-dependent task of working from those sites in order to author their own text and design content for the pages of their own author fan site. They focused on specific vocabulary: home page, tab, html, public domain, easy navigation, quick loading, interactive, and blog. As all creators of fan sites must, they had to do writing and research plus use relevant evidence from multiple sources to support the construction and purpose/message of their sites.

School Community Context and Applicability Ditmas IS 62 (a Brooklyn middle school), helmed by Principal, Barry Kevorkian, has a long standing history of offering a menu of rigorous academic and engaging arts programs. In addition, Ditmas offers a plethora of opportunities that authenticate literacy learning through real life leadership activities (Wilhem and Nowak, 2011).

The students for which the body of practice covered in this chapter was developed represent the broad spectrum of learners taught in a typical, inner-city, public middle school. They range from on-grade level ELA students to enrichment class students to newcomer to special needs students, as well as CTT students (Collaborative Team Teaching students-a mix of special needs and regular education learners).

The objective of these podcast projects is to guide students through a broad spectrum of ELA achievement, second language acquisition, special needs challenges and learning styles, as well as to learn to work collaboratively within their individual classes or in partnership with older peers. Once completed, they can listen to their podcasts and reflect on their achievement 68

and potential for enhancing their speaking and listening skills. The podcast format allows these students immediate feedback from peers in their classrooms, on school public address system, and beyond.

Teachers Pool Expertise to Support Independent Student Podcasting Projects For the Financial Literacy podcast, I worked with a group of self-selected students who were eager and willing to tackle the issue of how and why financial literacy should be taught in middle school. With the support of our school technology coordinators, they reviewed online resources designed by adults for middle school use. They read a range of electronic texts and focused on the text-dependent task of deciding the extent to which the resources were appropriate or not for middle school audiences. They had to defend their point of view with reference to evidence in the resources themselves- all, ELA shift 3 staircase of complexity tasks.

To foster podcast recording and production skills, Mr. Angelo Carideo (technology coordinator) spoke to the students about how to nuance, slow down, and lengthen their speaking for the purpose of podcast recording. In doing this he modeled aspects of leadership for students interested in assuming that role. Students became real podcast creating insiders as they learned about the problems of ambient noise and proper use of the microphone for effective podcast recording. They rehearsed and realized the difference of small group and large group recordings for target peer and podcast audiences. All of these routines and strategies allowed the students to accomplish the core ELA goal to teach text complexity through effective student engagement routines, as well as assume the role of podcast project leader.

Ms. Amanda Xavier, master ELA teacher and I wanted an approach which would engage her sixth grade resource room class in gaining fluency and competency with the Common Core staircase of complexity text dependent questions and tasks. We used the printed narrative text of “The Sign” from Taback’s Kibitzers and Fools to scaffold student engagement through following reading routines and close reading of text. The podcast project 69

allowed us to set a reading purpose (how the students would adapt this narrative for a podcast) for our theatrical model of fluent reading and metacognitive processes as the students followed us along. They “wrote” the adapted podcast script themselves. An upper class student leader coached and directed them in the techniques of rehearsing and recording the podcast.

How To Adopt Podcast Project-based Literacy Learning •

First decide on a specific manageable length text (i.e. group 2 Taback short narrative) or topic (i.e. group 1 - financial literacy or group 3 - individual student author site web designer teams) focus.

Make certain that the goal aligns with the key Common Core and ISTE skills and content/genres you already teach. Plan for a podcast length of 15 minutes for which anywhere from 30-45 minutes of material (before editing) might need to be recorded.

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Next, schedule the date for the end-product to be ready and identify an audience for it BEFORE you present the project to the students. A class podcast blog or an area on the school website with an invitation to parents and school community stakeholders will serve for this very well.

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Next search the Internet yourself for podcasts that offer the students age and English language appropriate model podcasts for listening. Treat the podcast format like a genre for students to master, before they try to accomplish an “in style of” podcast of their own design. Devote at least one class lesson to listening to these model podcasts as a class and discussing specific speaking/special effects/music appropriate for them.

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Make certain that the usual ELA/other content/skills you teach within your Common Core ELA curricula (novels, persuasive writing, small group, large group presentations, text dependent questions, reading routines, close reading of text, text dependent tasks) are explicitly suggested and outlined.

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Even if the students will independently adapt the printed text to podcast format, make certain to model that task by first reading the text aloud yourself or having students read it aloud. Next, lead the whole class in starting the first lines, setting and role details for the podcast. Lead a whole class discussion of what the roles, setting, and sample dialogue lines extracted from the printed text of the original narrative will be and how that evidence is to be identified (include use of quotes, punctuation, and other details in the original text so that students can identify them for further use as they complete the text).

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Finally, put the assessment piece you will use with the students front and center within the project description. Make certain you include a student-friendly ELA skills (Common Core) and Technology Skills (ISTE) aligned rubric for them to use in assessing their own achievement. This rubric should parallel those for writing, speaking and listening which you have already used with your students.

Why adopt this practice to suit your classroom curricula content and objectives?

In this tense time of teacher accountability (in terms of test scores and Common Core ELA skills application) why should teachers engage in a series of podcast projects? Won’t spending the necessary time to practice and record podcasts detract from their scoring well on tests and demonstrating their mastery of Common Core ELA skills/competencies? Won’t taking time to review the texts of print narratives to adapt them to podcast demands and rehearsing and recording them take too much time and attention?

Ironically, podcast projects make all the Common Core mandated Literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking & listening, presentation of knowledge and ideas) come vividly “alive.” Students who engage in the text dependent questioning, note taking and writing design, for a podcast, are preparing to “score” high in attained skills mastery and test sophistication as they meet the “test” demands of real audiences.

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Unlike other technology literacy products, podcasting is immediately available to educators with a minimum of expensive equipment and editing necessary. At Ditmas, podcast project-based learning seamlessly integrates and invigorates rigorous Common Core multi-content one podcast at a time.

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Products Podcast- financial -literacy, financial resources peer software review round table, Taback podcast, Author Fan Sites podcast

Resources Audio Recorder, Editing Software (Audacity, Garage Band, etc.)

Standards ISTE 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6 Common Core ELA RL 1-10, W 1-10, S and L 1-6 Language 1-6

Piercy, Thomasina and William Piercy. (2011). Disciplinary Literacy: Redefining Deep Understanding and Leadership for 21 st Century Demands.

(Englewood, CO: Lead and Learn Press).

Scholastic. (2012). Common Core State Standards-Complex Content Text.

New York: Scholastic.

Financial Literacy Buzz Podcast (episodes #15 and #16 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ditmas Middle School): http://financialliteracybuzz.blogspot.com/ ISTE Literacy Special Interest Group Book Study (with podcast that includes Ditmas students recorded conversation about creating author fan web sites): http://siglitbookstudy.blogspot.com/2012/06/final-session-student-createauthor.html

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Podcast team leaderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s show outline.

Ditmas podcast as it appears in the Financial Literacy BUZZ blog.

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Common Core Standards in ELA Reading: Literature

Key Ideas and Details: RL._.1 - RL._.2 - RL._.3 Craft and Structure: RL._.4 - RL._.5 - RL._.6 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: RL._.7 – RL._.8 - RL._.9 Range of Reading and Complexity of Text: RL._.10

Writing

Text Types and Purposes: W._.1 - W._.2 - W._.3 Production and Distribution of Writing: W._.4 - W._.5 - W._.6 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W._.7 - W._.8 - W._.9 Range of Writing: W._.10

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration: SL._.1 - SL._.2 - SL._.3 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL._.4 - SL._.5 - SL._.6

Language

Conventions of Standard English: L._.1 - L._.2 Knowledge of Language: L._.3 Vocabulary Acquisition and Use: L._.4 - L._.5 - L._.6

ISTE NETS for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation: a – b – c – d 2. Communication and Collaboration: a – b – c – d 3. Research and Information Fluency: a – b – c – d 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: a–b–c–d 5. Digital Citizenship: a – b – c – d 6. Technology Operations and Concepts: a – b

Dr. Rose Reissman is a veteran teacher educator who most enjoys working with students in student led projects. She is also a teacher researcher and author who has been published by: NCTE, ISTE, ASCD, Corwin, Penguin, and Kappa Delta Pi to name a few publishers. She takes pride in running the Ditmas Writing Institute with the support and leadership of Principal Barry Kevorkian and teacher leaders: Michael Downs, Angelo Carideo, Amanda Xavier, David Liotta, Rosinda Rodriguez, Sofia Rashid, Heather Barron and others. Among her products and projects are: student print and e-publications, museums in school, podcasts, oral history forums, Expos and more.

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Using Technology to Enhance Reading Skills for English Language Learners

By KIMBERLY M. THOMAS REASONS AND HYPOTHESIS: English Language Learners have an extremely difficult time learning how to read in their second language. Technology can be a very useful tool in teaching reading readiness to middle school and high school aged English Language Learners (ELLs) who are experiencing their first taste of the English language.

Reading readiness is one of the biggest obstacles facing ELLs because of the vast differences between English and most other languages. Reading readiness skills/emergent (beginning) reading skills are very important because they lay the groundwork for all other literacy related learning.

Without reading skills, students do not excel in any subject area, nor do they have a good chance of graduating from high school or achieving higher education (Slavin 2008).

Research shows that utilizing technology in English as a Second Language classrooms (ESL) and Dual Language/Immersion classrooms can vastly improve reading readiness and reading fluency in ELLs. Using technology to improve reading skills in ELLs can be especially beneficial in the elementary classroom. Using technology in the ESL classroom can positively affect the overall high school dropout rate of ELL students; specifically that of Hispanic students.

According to Padron (2002) information from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction indicates that the number of English Language Learners in US schools has increased by an astounding 150% in recent years. This increase in ELLs dictates a demand for better ESL programs in our public schools. For this reason, I am researching how technology can be useful in the English as a Second Language and Dual Language/Immersion classrooms when teaching reading readiness and basic reading skills; specifically, how this topic pertains to students at the middle school and high school levels.

An article by Joftus and MaddoxDolan (2003) states that in the US, â&#x20AC;&#x153;roughly 6 million secondary students read far below grade level and that approximately 3,000 students drop out of U.S. high schools every dayâ&#x20AC;?.

There have been vast improvements in technology as it pertains to education in recent years and we, as educators, need to be aware of how to 76

use technology to reach all of our students and increase their learning ability. Technology has been shown to dramatically increase ELLs second language acquisition skills and reading ability.

A journal article by Constantinescu (2007) states that ELLs use their knowledge of L1 to understand and comprehend their L2 by using a “wide variety of skills, strategies and background knowledge.” Technology can help ELLs bridge this gap between their L1 and L2, thus improving their overall academic achievement and lowering the high school dropout rate. This article will discuss the answers pertaining to how technology can help ELLs bridge the achievement gap. It will also demonstrate how, by bridging the gap between L1 and L2, more effective learning can take place. In addition, we will learn how this can have an impact on the high school dropout rate, particularly that of Hispanic students.

Let’s explore these issues by using literature reviews to answer the following questions: QUESTION 1: How Can Technology Effectively Improve Reading Achievement In ESL/Ell Students?

Technology can effectively improve reading achievement in ESL/ELL students by offering a bridge between their first and second languages. One way technology can have an impact on the reading achievement of ELL students is by “increasing the interest for older students while keeping the text simple and easy to read.” (Ybarra 2003) In addition, technology can offer immediate feedback on students' performance. This increase in interest can give older students an incentive to grow their reading skills without making them feel as though simple texts are too “young” for them. Technology has also been shown to improve sight word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension (Case, C. & Truscott, D. 1999). Utilizing technology in the ESL reading classroom can provide students with alternative ways to learn common sight words. This can lead to an increase in vocabulary and fluency, both very important factors in reading comprehension.

By learning these specific words and consequently increasing their other reading skills, ELLs can become better overall readers. These reading skills carry over to other areas such as science, math and social studies, allowing for better comprehension of these core subjects and, subsequently, better success in these courses. Better understanding and success will motivate and encourage ELLs to complete their education thus positively impacting the overall high school dropout rate.

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Because technology lends itself to multimedia lessons and projects, students are better able to associate words with pictures and concepts, providing for a better understanding of vocabulary and thus, better reading skills and comprehension. Equally, utilizing technology in the classroom allows for more multilingual educational aids and lessons than those found in basic print material. In an article by Snow, Burns, and Griffin (1998), the authors discuss research that shows that if students have a strong grasp of literary elements in their primary language, they are able to transfer those skills to reading in English, hence the usefulness of technology.

QUESTION TWO: Which Types Of Technology Would Be Most Effective For English Language Learners?

There are many different types of technology available for use in the classroom, some more effective than others. In the ESL classroom, one of the most effective forms of technology for teaching reading readiness and other skills are computers and computer software (Fletcher 2011).

Computers offer an easy, fairly cost effective way (they are already found in most schools) to incorporate technology into your ESL classroom's reading curriculum. In addition, there are a wide variety of computer programs, both free and for purchase, that can be used to promote literacy and scaffold reading skills among ELLs. In an article by Waters (2007) he states, “Specialized ESL software is designed to help ELL students develop English language listening, speaking, and reading skills.”

This being said, in addition to basic programs, there is a great deal of software that specifically teaches reading skills to ELLs. One of these programs is Kurzweil 300. This software offers ELL support in the form of a picture dictionary that can be used for associating images with words in both English and Spanish. It also offers bilingual pronunciation of words for read text (Tassistro 2010). Another software program that can be used to enhance language acquisition for ELLs is Rosetta Stone. Lexia is still another technology based resource that can help improve language skills (fluency, patterns, phonemic awareness) in ELL students.

In addition to computers and computer software, IPods are becoming a big part of reading programs in ESL classrooms. An article by Demski (2011) states, “Every aspect of English language learning: reading, writing, listening, and speaking was enriched just by having these devices in the classroom.” IPods offer ELL students the ability to practice their reading and vocabulary skills everywhere they go (NooNoo 2012). In addition to increasing reading levels, IPods also encouraged more parental involvement in ELL students' learning (Demski 2011). Providing technology such as Ipods and laptops for student home use provides at risk students the ability to 78

study and complete technology based assignments and projects at home. In today's society, access to technology is a critical component in overall academic success. These steps can go a long way towards curbing the Hispanic high school dropout (and overall dropout) rate. Students are more likely to finish school when they are given the proper means to adequately complete their work and advance their studies.

One other form of technology that is finding an increasing place in the ESL classroom is blogging (online journaling). Blogging offers ELLs the ability to practice reading and writing skills. According to an article by Campbell (2003), there are three kinds of blogs that are available for use in the language classroom. These are the Tutor Blog, the Class Blog and the Learner Blog. Campbell stated that the Tutor Blog provides students with varying reading material written by their instructor. This helps ensure that the material is written at a level they (the student) can understand and pertains to information and ideas that interest them. The article states that in addition to this, “a casual, natural writing style can be used by the tutor to develop learner familiarity with native language patterns.” Campbell also discusses how blogging serves as a resource of links for self study. His article states that, “In the right and/or left margins of the blog, permanent links can be setup and organized to aid the learner in self-study, for example links to online quizzes, English news sites, keypal networks, audio and video files for listening practice and ESL interactive websites.”

In a separate article, Stanley (2005) discussed the ways blogs can help ELL students with reading comprehension, vocabulary and writing skills. He stated that, “This reading can be produced by the teacher, other students in the same class, or, in the case of comments posted to a blog, by people from all over the world.” Stanley also said that Blogs provide a “real audience” for student writing, encouraging them to use their newly acquired vocabulary and comprehension skills.

QUESTION THREE: What Is The Difference In Reading Readiness Between Those Students Who Utilized Technology And Those Who Didn't?

Overall, studies show that those ELLs who utilized technology for reading instruction showed a higher level of comprehension compared to those who used traditional methods. In one article Wang (2005) states, “We can definitely agree that technology has done a great job in helping language learning, but this is just the beginning of the age of technology enhanced education. In the future, wireless networks, video conferencing and other multimedia enhanced communication methods will be more popular in the language classroom.” According to research done by Slavin (2008),” four 79

programs met the criteria for moderate evidence of effectiveness. Two of these were the cooperative learning programs The Reading Edge and Student Team Reading. READ 180, a mixed method approach that uses computers in a broader comprehensive model, also fell into this category, as did the early CAI program, Jostens.” This study indicates that technology can, in fact, improve reading readiness and comprehension more than traditional, text based methods. A paper published by the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (2011) states, “Technology has become a universal motivator. Use available technology resources to motivate ELLs to invest and engage in their learning.” The same article shows that in certain districts, 60% of 5th graders who participated in technology based reading programs made significant progress and increased their English language skills.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION: All the research studied shows how technology can and does have a positive impact on the level of reading readiness and comprehension among ELLs. It is important to remember that all students learn in different ways and that technology can appeal to a wide range of learners (Traore 2010). This makes it possible to engage more students in the learning process, thus creating a more successful ESL reading program. In conclusion, it is reasonable to state that more school districts should utilize technology whenever possible in their ESL curriculum. By doing so, districts will give their ELLs a better opportunity to learn the English language and to transfer their knowledge of L1 to L2 and become better readers, in turn, giving these students the ability to succeed in all aspects of their education.

References: Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents. (2011). English Language Learners: Incorporating Technology into the Academic Achievement Strategy.

Campbell, A. (n.d.). Campbell Weblogs for Use in ESL Classrooms (TESL/TEFL). Internet TESL Journal (For ESL/EFL Teachers). Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/CampbellWeblogs.html Case, C. & Truscott, D. (1999). The lure of bells and whistles: Choosing the best software to support reading instruction. Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 15 (4), 361369

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Constantinescu, A. (2007). Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension. The Internet TESL Journal, XIII, None.

Demski, J. (2011, May 2). ELL to Go THE Journal. THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education THE Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/05/02/elltogo.aspx?sc_lang=en. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html Fletcher, J. (2011, November 8). Teacher Training Should Start Before iPad Deployment THE Journal. THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education THE Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/11/08/teacher-training-should-startbefore-ipad-deployment.aspx Joftus, S., & MaddoxDolan, B. (2003, April). Left out and left behind: NCLB and the American high school. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education. Reading Research Quarterly.

Noonoo, S. (2012, March 7). At One School, iPods Help Improve Reading Scores THE Journal. THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education THE Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/03/07/ipod-audiobooks-help-improvereading-scores.aspx Padron, Y. (2002). Educating Hispanic Students: Obstacles and Avenues to Improved Academic Achievement. Educational Practice. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Slavin, R. (2008). Effective Reading Programs for Middle and High Schools: A Best Evidence Synthesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 43, 290322.

Snow, C., Burns, S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Tassistro, E. (2010, August 3). Kurzweil 3000 Expands Content Sources, ELL Support THE Journal. THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education THE Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/08/03/kurzweil-3000-expands-contentsources-ell-support.aspx Traore, M., & Kyei Blankson, L. (2010, November). Using Literature and Multiple Technologies in ESL Instruction. Ed/ITLib Digital Library. Retrieved 81

February 27, 2012, from http://www.editlib.org/p/35485 Wang. (2005, May 1). The Advantages of Using Technology in Second Language Education THE Journal. THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education THE Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2005/05/01/the-advantages-of-usingtechnology-in-second-language-education.aspx Waters, J. (n.d.). ESL Technologies: The Universal Language. THE Journal.

Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2007/01/01/esl-technologies--the-universallanguage.aspx Ybarra, R. (n.d.). Ybarra & Green Using Technology to Help ESL/EFL Students Develop Language Skills (TESL/TEFL). Internet TESL Journal (For ESL/EFL Teachers). Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ybarra-Technology.html

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Please also look for the special interest group’s podcast, also titled Literacy Special Interest The podcast and show notes are available at http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com and at ISTE Casts the trusted voice in EdTech http://iste.libsyn.com/ •

Episode #8: Non-Fiction Books and Literacy Learning Featuring Host, Mark Gura’s Interview with Young Person’s Author, Vicki Cobb http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2013/08/non-fiction-books-and-literacylearning.html

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Episode #7: Robotics and Literacy Learning - STEM and English Language Arts Connected http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2013/07/episode-7-robotics-andliteracy.html

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Special Episode: Professor Garfield, a Rich Source of Powerful, FREE Instructional Resources - OR - How to “Garfieldize” Your Classroom!

Featuring an interview with Madelyn Ferris, who, on behalf of the Professor Garfield Foundation, introduces the wonderful Professor Garfield online resource for teachers and learners. http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2013/06/special-episode-professorgarfield-rich.html

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Episode #5: Classroom Blogging… For Real... Finally!

Featuring an in-depth interview with Jeff Piontek, author of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, Oh My! Electronic Media in the Classroom http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2012/11/episode-5-classroom-bloggingfor-real_2056.html

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Episode #4: The Drama of Literacy Learning Featuring an interview with Scholastic author Mack Lewis http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2012/05/featuring-host-mark-gurasinterview.html

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Episode #3: Every Kid Should Write and Publish!

Featuring an interview with education author and speaker, Bernard Percy

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http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2012/04/episode-3-every-kid-shouldwrite-and.html •

Episode #2: “Author Study for the Connected Classroom” Featuring an exclusive interview with T.A. Barron, author of The Lost Years of Merlin. http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2012/02/literacy-special-interest-episode2.html

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Episode #1… “A Keeping Quilt for Literacy Education” Featuring an exclusive interview with author, Patricia Polacco http://literacyspecialinterest.blogspot.com/2011/11/episode-1-notes-literacyspecial.html

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LITERACY SPECIAL INTEREST Journal of the LITERACY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP OF ISTE International Society for Technology in Education Sprint 2014 V1 N2

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