Reader's Workshop & Technology Integration ... Yes It is Possible

You don't need me to point out that literacy is changing. Don't get me wrong, this digital girl still prefers to read books....that are, well, ... actual books. And my idea of reading is not to read to take a test. (Can I get an amen?) To quote The Book Whisperer (Donalyn Miller), "The only thing kids need to be doing during reading workshop is reading books, talking about books, and writing about books." And, oh, the ways technology can help kids do all three.

Reading Books:

First, let's have a balance of reading printed text and digital text. And let's examine the need to always have students read digital text just for research purposes. A terrific digital resource for elementary students is Epic Books. Did I mention it is free for elementary teachers and media specialists? Epic

offers thousands of high-quality children's books and even allows teachers to create a collection for students to read (think digital book box).

So by balance, I'm not just talking about reading printed and digital text, but let them respond to the text both digitally and with print. If they are reading a digital text, let them respond by writing their thinking, their stop and jots. If they are reading a printed text, let them respond digitally, perhaps a #booksnap. And yes, elementary students can do this, we just wouldn't use Snapchat.

Since digital reading requires a different set of skills than reading print, (clarity of words on a screen, hyperlinks, extraneous material on screen, etc) teachers have to model and teach students during mini-lessons how to successfully read digital text.

Talking About Books:

Turn and talk is prevalent in reader's workshop, we ask students to share their thinking about their reading, the action of the story, information about characters, and more. As a teacher, it is impossible to hear each child every single day. Let's harness the power of technology to get students talking about books. Have you tried Flipgrid yet? It's a digital discussion platform easy enough for Pre-K students, but also robust enough for adults. Give it a try with book talks and see what happens.  Build a community that talks about books, recommends books, and gives students an audience for their work. You will be amazed and surprised at the possibilities. Plus it gives you a chance to hear from your students more and adjust instruction to meet their needs.

Writing About Books:

Ever notice how popular Goodreads is? Ever notice how unpopular the reading log is? I have an idea...Let's use a digital tool such as Seesaw to transform the reading log. Students can use Seesaw to take a photo of their book cover, annotate on it, add an audio recording of their personal response, and even upload book trailers from other apps into a "Goodreads" folder. Students can comment and have conversations as they write and talk about the books within Seesaw.

Every tool I mentioned will work on iPads and Chromebooks. Every tool I mentioned is free. If you want help implementing any of these ideas or want to talk about ideas that have sparked in your head, please contact your ITF. We will be happy to help!

Tech Bytes September 2017

Happy Friday! I'm excited about the items in this post. I hope you find a tool that you want to try with your class. 

Be In The Know:

You may have noticed an additional extension that was pushed to you and your students called Share to Classroom. The extension supports your digital environment by allowing you to push websites to your students easily. The website will open on student devices as soon as you push. The extension also allows you to create an assignment, make an announcement, or ask a question in your Google Classroom right from the site. 

Watch this quick video from Google Guru to see how it works. By the way, you can also send them a visual to switch gears or stop working on the device.  

iPad App:

Camera app - Ever consider this is a powerful tool in the hands of our learners?

It's pivotal when doing app-smashing and it's a life skill. Imagine teaching our students how to be really good at taking photos. I found this course on iTunes, (lots of free cool courses) that you could use as a springboard for ideas to help students learn to be photographers. The course is called One Best Photo. Use the idea and think of your content to mesh the two. By the way, soon, iTunes courses will be found within the Podcast app on the device. 

Cool Tools Corner:

This news made my day, and I hope it will make yours as well. You have probably heard of Storyjumper. It's a great site that allows your students to publish stories easily. The site has tons of props, scenes, and characters that students can use as they publish or even upload their own images. Now, Storyjumper uses single sign on with our Google accounts. Yay, no extra user names and passwords to remember. 

As always, with anything mentioned in this post, if you want to give these things a try, let your ITF know and we will be happy to help!