I read on a blog that one teacher has students upload their fluency files, which are audio clips of themselves reading, and have other students post positive comments on it.  I thought that was a brilliant idea.  In my school, we are Dibeling our students and I feel like this would be a fantastic way for the students to practice their fluency skills.  It also creates a social responsibility throughout the class because students would not only have to critique each other’s reading but they would need to do it kindly. 

Another great idea is to correct, as a class, each of the postings capitalization and punctuation.  This way student will be able to the corrections on practical material.

One teacher does a Flat Stanley on Holiday project.  They have students log into Edmondo throughout the summer and post pictures and comments of themselves standing with Flat Stanley at different location.  This allows students to communicate with each other thus enhancing their communication skills.  The students love to see where Flat Stanley has been and they eager to comment of their classmate’s postings. 

I think Edmondo could be a great tool for educators.  It is really easy to setup I think students will be drawn to it because it’s a type of structured social network.  I also like that it is a voice for the most quiet of students.  On my classmates used Edmondo with his honors history class and I remember him telling me that even the shyest of students enjoys to converse on it.  Very cool and I can defiantly see it enhancing students learning experience.

Technology, Writing, & Student Engagement

The Author of this article decided to change his teaching medium because his students were “not actively engaged in writing”.  He decided to give blogging a chance.  He found that students enjoyed having an audience to read their writing.  They  began to post comments on each other’s blogs and actually began correcting each other’s grammar.   This article was light and refreshing and dare I say a bit motivational.  

Week 4, Assignment # 2 - Simple ELA lesson plan

Assignment#2 Create a simple ELA lesson plan

     Grade level: 4^th Grade

  Common core standards and learning outcomes:

• Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.

• Instructional activities (how does this game help develop language acquisition and development, both oral and written, be creative?)

• Students will be able to reinforce their phonics and word analysis skills by creating words from a given amount of letters.
• They will have rely on syllabication pattern and morphology awareness to create words.

Assessment:

• At the conclusion of the game, the students will take a screenshot of the board.  They will hand it in for the teacher to review.  The teacher will grade both students as a team.  The winner will get 5 bonus points.  For each vocabulary word used (from all year, the students will get an 5 points.  For each multi-syllable words, they will get 3 points per syllable.

       Debriefing:

Students will answer the following questions in their journals:

• What was challenging about this game?
• What word scored you the most points in the game?
• What letters were the hardest for you to place and why?
• What are some strategies you were able to use?

         Cognitive Skills:

Planning moves

• Flexibility – being able to change their move based on the outcome of the other players move
• Reading: decoding and recoding words
• Analyzing/evaluating – but playing the board.

        What new literacy skills do this game help to cultivate?

• Basic computer skills such as, turning on the computer, logging into the computer, accessing the Internet, finding the game, creating the game, communicating through the game, creating a screenshot of the game, and printing the screenshot, maybe emailing the screenshot, and word processing in their digital journal.  They might have to do some basic troubleshooting if something isn’t working correctly. 

Week 4, Assignment 1 - Gaming Elements

Facebook:  Words with friends

1. What gaming elements provide users the learning content and how? (Refer to the journal article page 4).

•  Text: The first time someone plays words with friends, they are brought to a tutorial.  WWF (Words With Friends) is just like scrabble but you are able to play your Facebook Friends.

•  Visual-graphic elements: The visual-graphic elements resemble the scrabble board.  The words that have been played on the board are yellow tiles with black letters. The word(s) that was played last is in yellow tiles with white letters.  This allows both players to see what word was added to the board. On the side of the board there is a pane with pictures of your friends that you currently have a game opened. 

•  Audio elements: The audio element of the game is very simple.  The sounds are present when a tile is moved, a word is played, or when a word is not accepted.

What is the goal of the game?

•  The overall objective of the game is take turns forming words horizontally and vertically on the board, trying to use the bonus tiles and scoring as much points as possible.  You win the game by scoring more points than your opponent when all the letters are used.

3. What are rules of playing this game?

•  The rules of the game are just like playing scrabble.  Each opponent is given 7 letter tiles, each with a different point value.  Players take turns placing words on the board so that at least 1 tile is shared with an existing word on the board. The words must be “REAL” and cannot be a proper noun, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone or words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe. 

4. Does the game have any scenario design?

•  No, the game does not have a scenario design.

Hands-on Helping ELA teachers practice new literacies in their classrooms

-      Grade Level:  Third Grade

-      Topic: The environment

Standards addressed: (The Common Core State Standards Initiative)

W.3.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

• Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
• Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
• Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.

Learning outcomes:

After completing the lesson, the student will be able to record his or her understanding/knowledge by creating a digital story about their environment topic.

Technologies needed: 

Digital Camera and/or Flip Camera, Internet Access, Microphone, access to a Slideshare, Qwiki or another digital storytelling platform and a smart-board or projector for their presentations.

Timeline for implementation:  8, 45 minute classes.

How can it be integrated and implemented in the lessons?

Students will use the digital camera and/or flip camera in school and use their own at home to capture pictures to support their stories.  Students will work on the Internet research in school but create the bulk of the narrative as homework.  Students will put the presentation together during the last three, 45 minute, lesson blocks.

Assessment (on writing skills and technology):

Students writing skills will be graded on a teacher created rubric.

Students technology skilled will be graded on students/teacher created rubric.

Minds-on “New Literacies Definition and Components

Which ideas from the video reflect what the ELA teachers you interviewed are currently doing to integrate technology with their literacy instruction?

The teacher I interviewed a couple of teachers from New Windsor School.  The first teacher, Heather, is a reading specialist. Although Heather is currently using some types of technology in her program, I do not think it is enough to be considered part of the new illiteracies.  She uses the smartboard with her lessons but she admits to not integrating technology they way she wish she could.  She says that she spends a large portion of her days DIBELING students, or teaching other teachers to DIBEL or do Running Records. 

The second teacher I interviewed is named Michelle and she is a third grade inclusion teacher. She has two computers in her classroom but has access to the computer lab.  She does some research projects that involve “Internet Scavenger Hunts”.  They are given a list of websites and options are told to locate information to help answer the teacher created questions.  The students have to research their project and then create a presentation using PowerPoint to communicate their findings.

How can you help change their instructional practices to include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area curriculum?

I can help giving them my link to my delicious bookmark and then show them some of great tools I have stored there.  I can also show them how to create a blog and encourage them to use it.  I can work with them to incorporate digital storytelling within their blog.  

What professional development and/or resources will they need in order to make these changes?

They would need to be trained on how to create a digital story while incorporating different types media styles within, for example, how to insert pictures, videos and voice threads.

What ideas do you have for grouping students so they will have equal access to technology in the classroom?

I would like to create small groups and have them rotate through stations or learning centers.  As teachers, it is important for us to differentiate our instruction and what better way then through stations.  Another idea would be to create teams of students with different strong points. They can work off each other and contribute their strengths to the group work.

Theory in Practice

Students are completely surrounded by digital media; therefore they need to become digitally literate.  Traditional means of literacy still plays an important role in education, however, we need to evolve our methods and teach our students to become literate with digital and media technologies as well.   With the new illiteracies, more and more teachers are incorporating tools such as laptops, smart boards, email, blogs, wikis, podcasts ands e-books to help students to become digitally literate.  

Interview with ELA teacher

I interviewed  Heather Todisco and she is a reading teacher at New Winsdor Elementary School.  She pulls kids out for small group instruction.  She has a smartboard in her room and has access to laptops.  According to Heather, she tries to incorporate technology in her program as often as possible.  She uses the smartboard almost everyday.  When asked about her challenges she faces when integrating technology, Heather said that hates when she relies too much of technology and the technology fails. Heather also takes the students to the computer lab often to post on blogs and play ELA games.  

Technology tool that can best assist each of the Five components of ELA

The technology I choose that can assist teachers to meet the five components of ELA is Digital Storytelling.  Students can create stories using computer-based tools.  Teachers can assign projects based on students’ research of a particular subject.  Assignments can range from personal experiences to the recounting of historical events. 

Skills that can be covered by creating digital stories:

• Research (reading and listening)
• Story Construction (writing & Language)
• Sequence and Summarize (writing)
• Edit and Proofread (writing and reading)
• Use of descriptive words (language)
• Use of words to create imagery (language)
• Speaking with clear expression and enunciation (speaking and language)
• Learn projecting and phrasing (speaking)
• Communicate ideas (speaking)

Digital stories can be created with basically any program where photo and/or movies can be edited and have sound and music added.  Here is a great teaching guide from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/guides/Pages/digital_storytelling.aspx

Reflection on my understanding of ELA instruction

With the new Common Core state standards initiative, the goal is to prepare students for college and for the workforce.  The instruction of ELA is not only the responsibility of the ELA teacher but it also lies on all the subject teachers within a school. 

It is my understanding that the push, for elementary students, is to further develop their skill levels with informational text throughout different subject areas.  The upper grades need much more attention focused on a specific content of informational text, literacy non-fiction.  Since the students will be studying literature in the ELA classroom, the other subjects must develop those skills.

There are five different components to ELA standards for instruction.  They are reading, writing, speaking, listening and language. 

The reading component focuses on comprehension and application. Students must be able to understand what they read and be able to synthesize thoughts from what they have read.

The second component is writing. Students must have the ability to plan, revise, edit and publish.

The third and fourth components are Speaking and Listening.  Students need to be able to develop their interpersonal skills and be able to express themselves clearly and concisely. 

Language is the final component and is about use and development of vocabulary.