October 27, 2017

October 27, 2017: Using Technology to Teach Informational Text Standards:

The Common Core Reading Standards for students are heavy in informational text. It’s very important to have technological resources that can be used to instruct and support students as they tackle the informational text. There are many resources available to teachers. This blog will be dedicated to those resources that can be used to teach the informational text standards. Some previously discussed resources may be listed here, but their informational text focus and use will be highlighted.

https://www.readinga-z.com/commoncore/informational-text/

This is a website that is literally a treasure trove of instructional ideas. It hosts all kinds of resources that teachers can use while planning and differentiating instruction for students. This website is organized in such a way that teachers can search based on their needs. If they want to target a particular skill, sequence of events, or decoding, for example, they can find texts and lessons dealing exclusively with that skill. The website also hosts a great deal of leveled informational text that is differentiated to meet students’ reading levels. This website also hosts content based texts such as science and social studies as well. Teachers can plan a unit topic -- such as the rainforest or ocean life-- and find a plethora of informational texts that they can use in the class. If available, teachers can select the text on an upper or lower level so that every student in the class is reading the same material, but it’s more geared to their abilities. Additionally, there are full lesson plans and other activities on the website that can be used in the classroom as well. And since everything is online, it keeps all the materials organized which is another plus! It is a subscription site, but one that I think should be in every teacher’s toolbox!

Rob says: I love Reading A- Z and use it frequently when planning individual lessons and/ or to supplement the curriculum. Most recently I planned a STEM thematic unit for a fifth grade class where I selected texts about STEM and inventors so that students could read about the “greats’’ in history, such as Einstein and Edison, who have influenced the field! From there students read about inventions and where people get ideas and then created their own! It was great!

Shantelle says: Although I’ve personally never used Reading A-Z it does seem like a great resource. I’d definitely give it a shot!

https://www.timeforkids.com/g56/

It doesn’t get any better than reading the news! Informational text can be interesting, current, and relevant to students’ lives! Time for Kids, along with Scholastic and various other news websites are great because they help with motivation and engagement and get kids reading informational-- “real” information that they actually care about. Teachers can plan whole group reads around an article or allow students to select their own, practice summarizing news articles, and presenting the most relevant information to the class. Students can then become journalists and practice writing in the style about events that are happening in school or their own lives. This website can be supported by Google Read & Write’s tools that make the reading much more comprehensible to all levels of readers.

Rob says: I love these websites, because it makes for a nice conversation about current events. In addition to the benefits of reading informational text where students learn about the different text features (such as captions and headings,) associated, they are also learning about what’s going in the real world! I think if we want to create literate and productive citizens, it’s very important that they know current events. This presents the news, that kids care about, in a very engaging and reader friendly way!

https://wonderopolis.org/about

Wonderopolis is a website that provides students with informational texts and resources based around those texts. Everyday, Wonderopolis poses a wonder of the day question and helps students to explore the topic in a variety of ways. The website encourages students to play around and explore the informational text based topics included on the website. This website provides beneficial information for a multitude of core contents, making it accessible for more than one portion of the school to use! Teachers may also find it useful to utilize Wonderground, which contains resources, created by the team behind Wonderopolis, for for teachers to access and use within their own classrooms. Videos and articles can both be found on the website as well.

Lauren says, “Wonderopolis is a fantastic alternative to Newsela. The website is free to use, but if you really like the service provided you can donate to the cause! Students are provided with an article that helps them to define harder vocab words, which can help them to figure out the more difficult parts of an article! Also, because this website is sponsored by the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) teachers can rest assured that the content is appropriate for school! The topics are relevant to what students and teachers aim to cover and talk about in an everyday class setting which is also wonderful!

Another great website to use for informational texts is SmithsonianTweenTribune. Similar to NewsELA, this website provides news articles for elementary through high school aged students. Teachers can select articles based on grade and lexile levels. The articles are current and relevant to the students lives. As the teachers you must be careful when selecting articles based on grade level. Some of their articles in the “K-4” section have beginning lexile levels ranging from 490L to 690L.

This website allows for diversity. If you have Spanish students but you do not have the ability to and/ or the resources to conduct a dual- language and/ or bilingual classroom. This website could be used to create similar assignments for different language learners. All the articles can be accessed in Spanish as well. Upon further investigation, it appears SmithsonianTweenTribune is working towards providing the articles in other languages but as of right now, Spanish and English are all that are available.

The website has a tab labeled “Teacher”. Under this tab you will find lesson plans, and an abundance of resources that coincide with the articles.  A new feature is the teacher store. There are teaching materials for sale, that correspond with the lesson plans. Smithsonian has provided ample ideas to incorporate current informational texts within upper elementary through high school classrooms. Check it out! https://www.tweentribune.com/

Shantelle says: It’s always great to find websites with current events to use in the classroom. What I like about Smithsonian Tween Tribune is that many of their articles have interviews with professionals as well as school aged children. This allows students to be make more connections with their text.

I’ve recently come across a wonderful website called ProCon.org. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s worth taking a look at. Students in the middle and high school love reading about controversial issues. It’s also beneficial to introduce them to other opinions other than what they may hear at home. Pro/Con is a website dedicated to discussing both sides of controversial topics. I wouldn’t recommend this website for the elementary levels, but it’s great for history, english, and language classes. Debates are a part of the history curriculum and this website provides informational texts in ways students will understand.

ProCon.org is user friendly. It categorizes it’s articles by Most Popular, Health and Medicine, Education, Politics, Science and Technology, Elections and Presidents, World/International, Sex and Gender, Entertainment and Sports, and Economy and Taxes. There are them subcategories under each one with information as to why the topic is controversial and statements from both sides of the argument. There are also videos and interviews. The website provides current articles regarding all the topics. Students have all the information needed for any debate right at their fingertips. There are resources students can utilize for citing their information as well. If you’d like to explore ProCon.org Click Here!

Shantelle says- The English and Social Studies teachers I work with always send their students to this website to prepare for argumentative writing assignments and debates. I’ve only recently discovered it, but the articles are very interesting. I’ve suggested it to my seniors who need to find current events and write about them in their Participation in Government (PIG) classes.

October 20, 2017: Using Tech  to Support Language and Writing Standards:

 This blog will be dedicated to sharing resources that can be used to both instruct and support our students' grammar/ language and writing skills inside and outside of the classroom. There already exists fantastic resources such as grammar and spell check on Word, and "Grammarly,'' but there are other websites and apps as well that can be just as beneficial.

Brainpop
www.brainpop.com/english

Brainpop is a great website for teaching students about the content areas. However, it can also be used to teach (or supplement) ELA and grammar lessons as well! On this subscription website, there are quick and engaging videos (about 3 minutes) that explicitly teach the students about the particular topic. Teachers can stop the video, or re-play multiple times, to assess students' comprehension of the topic. After the video, there are multiple activities which can be used as a whole group or individual student activity to practice and assess the students' understandings as well. The "Quiz" can be projected on the screen for all the students to respond chorally, on white boards, a "four corners'' or a "stand up, sit down,'' or they can work as partners/ tables to answer the questions to review the material. There are also other games, activities, and graphic organizers to print out that can be used to accompany the videos as well. For grammar and language, Brainpop is a perfect resource because often times these topics, such as adverbs still might be too abstract and confusing for them; however, the videos are engaging and simple to understand. This will allow students to master the topics and use them in their own writing!

Rob says: Who doesn't love Brainpop? I've used it in every classroom I've been in including 5th and 6th grade! The videos are quick and informative; they hold students' attention  and get right to the point without any "fluff'' information. But I've only ever seen them used to discuss science or social studies content so the idea of using them for ELA and writing is foreign to me. I would definitely use them especially for students who struggle with simple concepts like identifying nouns or adverbs and their jobs in sentences. The activities -- including the quizzes which I usually make interactive with my students -- are GREAT!


Scholastic Story Starter
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/

Like reading, one of the problems we have with writing is motivation. If it's not "fun,'' students struggle to do it! The responses of "What do I need to write about?" or "I don't know what to write about'' always plague us when it comes to writing. As teachers we know that we need to provide students with authentic writing opportunities in order to build their motivation, stamina and engagement with writing as they work toward the academic/ content driven writing expected of them in 5th and 6th grade. Scholastic Story Starter is an interactive writing prompt in which the students can pull the bar and be presented with a variety of writing genres,  tasks and prompts to respond to. They can alter the parts of the task as desired and then use the interactive writing template as a guide to help them write and ultimately publish and print (among other options) their stories at the end. This is a great resource to assign as a class writing project or for students to explore independently during writing time or as a center.

Rob says: I LOVE Scholastic Story Starter! I can't even remember how I first found out about it. I think I may just have Googled "Writing prompts'' for my students because I wanted them to do some writing every day and found that just giving them a worksheet with prompts was too boring and didn't really inspire true creative writing. This lead me to the website where I played around with the tool. I was eager to share it with my students whom absolutely loved it as well. They love the interactive component and there's choice as well because they can change parts that they don't like. It provides an interesting challenge as the prompts are totally random but that's the fun of it. It gets the creative juices flowing. Students often times want to take it as an independent writing task and complete additional prompts alone. I tell them to go for it!

Grammaropolis

https://www.grammaropolis.com/

Students across all grades struggle with the different aspects of grammar usage. Thankfully there's a fun user friendly website to help students gain a better grasp of grammar. Teachers will have to pay to use this website, but the benefits are enormous and the website does school/district bundling to help them save some money! Using Grammaropolis, students can watch videos, play games, read stories and take quizzes to help them build their skills. There are two great aspects to Grammaropolis for students, teachers and parents. One awesome thing about Grammaropolis is that each student has a progress report on the website that breaks down the student's progress into individual categories, and overall yearly progress! This is great for those times when your Principal or Super Intendant wants to make sure that Grammaropolis is helping students to actually learn, as well as to provide evidence that the website is beneficial to the students. 

Lauren says, "Grammaropolis is a ton of fun! While I personally have never had the chance to use this in the classroom, one of my good friends uses it all the time with her fifth grade students that she works with and they have an absolute blast! Sometimes she says they get so into it that they ask to her the music videos over and over again, which can derail class a tiny bit, but ultimately the students are learning and having a wonderful time doing it."

Quill

https://www.quill.org/

Quill is a website that is similar to Grammaropolis, but will better fit the needs of students who prefer an 'older' student styled website. This website provides free writing and grammar activities for elementary, middle and high school students. Teachers can ask students to complete quizzes, lessons or review activities. Similarly to Grammaropolis, Quill provides teachers, students and parents a diagnostic review of the student's progress as they move through their lessons and quizzes. Teachers can also organize their students into class categories, to make it easier for them to quickly pull up a student's progress reports. Quill, though for older minded students, is easy to use and navigate, which is great for younger students as well! It's also a great for students to complete independent work during their free time at the end of class, or as a bellringer at the beginning of the class period.

Lauren says, "Based on the reactions of the students that I've worked with, I don't think that they've been as excited for Quill as they sound like they've been for Grammaropolis, but this website really helps students to work daily on their writing and grammar. The subject of grammar isn't always fun for students, but Quill makes the process a lot less painful by getting students onto the computer, which is something that they absolutely love to do."

If your school has the money an amazing program that helps support writing while developing language skills is ThinkCERCA. ThinkCERCA is software that can be used by your entire district.  Once your school buys the software a ThinkCERCA specialist will come and train your staff. They'll then work closely with you as you use the program to find out what did and didn't work for you. The ThinkCERCA team is constantly monitoring their software and making updates to continue to make it user friendly.

You may be asking yourself, okay so what exactly is it? ThinkCERCA is a tool sort of like NewsEla but on steroids. There is an assessment program students take when they first begin to use the program. This assessment is extensive and helps the program determine their grade level reading. It also sends this information to the teacher. ThinkCerca will then assign your students articles and short stories based on their skill level. Students should never struggle to read the information in their texts. After they have completed their reading they will then answer comprehension questions. Students have the ability to go back and reread, which is a skillset we want to promote. They can annotate the reading using the highlighter and sticky note features. At the end of the comprehension questions, students will be given a writing prompt.

I think now it's time to explain what CERCA stands for. Claim Evidence Reasoning CounterClaim Argument. The program scaffolds the writing process in this way. The comprehension questions asks students questions that coincide with each of these aspects of the writing process. When they have answered all the questions they will have “notes” on their claims, evidence, reasoning, the counterclaim, and will have chosen an audience for their writing. The students can then take their notes and create an argumentative writing piece that is both logical and evidence based.

For more information check out ThinkCERCA.com.

Shantelle says:  I've used this program when I taught a summer reading program. The program was specifically for 8th graders coming into the high school curriculum. The 9th and 10th grade teachers use the ThinkCERCA program and it was a chance to get struggling readers as well as students preparing to go into the honors program acquainted with the software. None of the students became aware of the different passages based on reading levels and all were able to work at their own pace. It was a fun summer and the feedback from the students was positive.

October 13, 2017

October 13, 2017: Using Technology to Differentiate Literacy Instruction
Our first blog provided a general overview of some of the technology and how it can be used to support students' literacy in the classroom. This blog will be dedicated to providing specific examples of how technology can be used to support the various learning needs of the students in your classroom including English Language Learners, Students With Disabilities and students who struggle with reading/writing difficulties (e.g. dyslexia). I think it's important as educators that we have resources in place to assist our students so that they can be successful with the lessons and create an inclusive, and cohesive community of learners.


"Dragon Naturally Speaking Software"
Dragon Software

Dragon Software is a sophisticated and advanced speech- to - text software that will help many of your students who have difficulties with typing including English Language Learners and Students With Disabilities. The software is more sophisticated and intuitive because it's tied directly to an individual's voice, which means that there will be fewer -- to no -- errors when transcribing the speech. Common speech - to - text software currently exists including dictation by Apple, however, if the software doesn't easily recognize an individual's accent or speech pattern, it will make errors, which may be incomprehensible and lead to frustration on behalf of the user. Dragon Software is pricey, but is worth the cost if you have students in your classroom who need it. There was a research study done which outlined the benefits of using such software for  diverse students:


1. Total words written in a composition increased
2. Multisyllabic words written in a composition increased
3. There was an increase in the correct writing sequence (two words written next to each other that are correct in punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and syntactical and semantic usage)
4. Increase in student's attitude (and motivation) about writing
I

References:

McCollum, D., Nation, S., & Gunn, S. (2014). The Effects of a Speech-to-Text Software Application on Written Expression for Students with Various Disabilities. National Forum Of Special Education Journal, 25(1), 1-13.



Dash Pro:

If you have not yet heard, the world's first translating earphones have been released.  “The Ear Translator” or iTranslate using The Dash Pro may not be the greatest news for language teachers but it could change the lives of  ELL or ENL students in full immersion classroom.

Benefits

• Simply put The Dash Pro in your ears and it can translate up to 40 languages.
• Students no longer have to miss important information in classes because of their inability to comprehend the teacher.
• If schools do not have the resources to hire teachers who speak multiple languages in order to participate in dual-language programs, this new technology could be used to bridge the gap.

Downfalls:

• The technology is meant to be used with apple devices
• Each Dash Pro cost $329.00.

For more information about the iTranslate using the Dash Pro click here

Inside and Outside of the Classroom

ReadWrieThink

A useful website for students who struggle with organization and keeping information readily available is ReadWriteThink. It is a free tool that is available both inside and outside of the classroom ReadWriteThink is a website that has literacy activities for grades K-12. The website includes teaching tips and tools for all the resources available. Students have the ability to complete online graphic organizers. There are a multitude of resources you can browse. One useful aspect is the Cube Creator tool. It allows students to answer questions about a topic and print out a completed paper that can be made into a cube. Students can use the blank cubes and create their own or the teacher can create cubes as well. It is a great way for students to condense information and can be used across multiple disciplines to create study guides. The resources  offered are categorized by grade level.

By clicking here you'll be directed to specific resources for early middle school students/educators/parents

Often times we want our parents involved in our students education as well. The challenge for parents is they often are not comfortable or lack the resources to support their children at home. ReadWriteThink contains a section on Parent and After School Resources that would coincide with whatever is going on within the classroom.

Reading: Foundational Skills


Tied with helping diverse learners, we will also explore tech. resources that can be used to scaffold students' reading foundational skills. We all know that some students still struggle in the upper elementary grades, which leads to a lack of motivation and interest in reading. This ultimately leads
to academic difficulties. If students struggle to read, then they struggle to learn.

''Storyline Online''

http://www.storylineonline.net/

"Tumble Books''
http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com/Default.aspx

Both Storyline Online and Tumble Books help students with a multitude of reading skills at the upper elementary grades. First, listening to the books online increases student's engagement and motivation to read! We need to think about that when planning lessons and tasks. The students can engage with the texts in a multitude of ways. First, they can just listen to the story as it's read aloud. They will become familiar with the story and be confident readers. They can also think about presentation as the stories are being read. Then they can listen to the text a second time  and read aloud as it's being read. They can pause and go back as needed to practice and perfect their reading. This will help develop student's fluency with reading. Students will also build up their vocabulary and word knowledge. Words that they may have struggled with before or completely omitted while reading, they can now include in their knowledge base. Students will also begin to notice patterns which can help with decoding unknown words while reading. All of these are skills which will lead to a student's comprehension of text! When students read fluently and accurately (and aren't hindered or bogged down with thinking about how to say the words or what they mean,) they can comprehend. Listening to the stories online and out loud will help students as they practice and develop these necessary skills. Common Core standards addressed are: 5.RF.3; 5.RF.4; 5.RF.5A; 5.RF.5B and 5.RF.5C all are standards that deal with foundational reading skills at the fifth grade level.

Libby, by OverDrive
Libby (Library App)

This is an app that can be downloaded onto your smart phone and is associated with your local library's "e media library.'' It's free to use, but you must have a valid library ID and a library that has partnered up with the service.  You can browse a wide selection of books and borrow audio books and e- books just like going to a library, but from the convenience of your own home. This will help our diverse students, especially those who struggle with fluency, because they can listen to the audio books alongside the e-book or hard copy, which promotes student's engagement, improves fluency and ultimately leads to stronger comprehension. This is great for students particularly at the 5th and 6th grade level (and beyond,) because it hosts a library that offers more than the children's selections of some other websites.


In Class Fluency Support:

Educational based websites and applications that continue to support student's literacy during their 'down time' is just as important as the technology used during structured class instruction. If teachers find that they are going to end their lesson early, they may ask students to spend their free time on a website or an app that allows them to practice their literacy skills! Phrasing this request by asking students to play 'games' is often more enticing than telling them to take out their flashcards.

"Duolingo"
https://www.duolingo.com/ 

Through a multitude of games, students work to become more proficient in both vocabulary, as well as creating sentences. As many students will be quick to say, they would rather be playing on the computer than studying for class, and thankfully for both students and teachers, Duolingo combines the fun of playing on the computer with exercises to build student's vocabulary, and support their sentence compositions! Each unit asks students to practice their vocabulary, as well as the grammar that's required to become fluent in English, and works to support this growth of knowledge with fun pictures to reinforce student's knowledge.

Students can also work their way through short stories, or "mini-stories" to work on building their language fluency. The stories help students to build on their reading and listening comprehension skills. Until the student unlocks three stars working through the text, they are not allowed to move on. This ensures that the students are taking their time and only moving forward when they are ready. The mini-stories segment of Duolingo helps students to recognize patterns typically formed in English. The website also asks students to continually review words that they have previously learned, ensuring that students are striving to build these words into their vocabulary, not just memorize them for the sake of winning a game.

The CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4 standard asks students to "Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes." Duolingo is a free website, and phone application, that allows students to practice to meet the needs of this standard both in the classroom and at home! 

October 6, 2017

October 6, 2017: A Quick Glimpse at Technology & Literacy

Using technology in the classroom has been proven to enhance the educational experiences for students. As a teacher, differentiated instruction is key and expected by administration. The question that many educators ask themselves is "What technology resources are available to me that are not only meaningful, but beneficial to my students?" and "How do I use them?"

Below is a list of resources that we think will help enhance ELA (and content) instruction in your classroom:

1. Google Read & Write

Google Read & Write is an extension for Google Chrome that makes reading more accessible to all students. While reading text online (including PDF's) students can use the various features on the toolbar to make the reading more engaging and understandable. To add the extension simply go to www.google.com and type in "Google Read & Write'' and add the extension. A Google account (Gmail) is required and you get a 30 - day free trial. A subscription is required, but I think it’s well worth the money!

The most important features to highlight are:

• The dictionary and picture dictionary allow students to select words and get kid - friendly definitions and images as they’re reading the text. This saves them the time and trouble from having to stop the reading and go look up the words in outside sources which disrupts their reading and comprehension.
• The play, pause, and stop feature allow students to click text and have it read aloud to them which helps with reading fluency and comprehension.
• Screen mask will darken out everything on the screen but the selected text so students can focus their attention on the words that they are reading.
• The highlighters will allow students to highlight different text in different colors and collect highlights will put the similar colored text together in a new document. This is great for doing research where students are categorizing different information. This helps students keep their information organized.
• The simplify page will allow students to change the reading (or Lexile) level of the text, but keep the same content and meaning.
• The practice reading allow allows students to record themselves reading the text and send it off to others (the teacher) to hear it!

2. Grammarly

Grammarly is an automated proofreader. It is a Google Chrome extension that checks for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Grammarly works to enhance vocabulary usage, and suggests synonyms to enhance students' writing. As students continue to use Grammarly the smart technology predicts appropriate words to enhance their level of vocabulary. It improves communication by helping users find and correct writing mistakes. The extension is simple and will continuously help students improve their vocabulary throughout their writing process.

3. NewsELA

NewsELA is a database of articles on a broad range of subjects. It encourages differentiated instruction by allowing the instructor to change the lexile level of the articles to meet the needs of students. Articles can be researched by subject, grade level, or reading level. There are elements of the website that allow for annotations, the ability to monitor student progress, and the opportunity to enhance literacy skills in a meaningful way, specific to the content area. This app is perfect for creating interdisciplinary unit plans and is useful for creating a various text sets!

4. Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a free for everyone website that allows students to study and review core subjects by selecting the subject itself, as well as by breaking down the subject by what students are expected to know by grade level. Teachers can set up a classroom for their students, monitor their progress, and better suit their classroom instruction to help support students based on the progress monitoring system on Khan Academy.

5. Flocabulary

Flocabulary is a website similar in style to Schoolhouse Rock! Teachers can share educational hip-hop videos with their students concerning subjects such as Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Flocabulary also offers videos to help students with vocabulary, current events and life skills. If you’re not sure if Flocabulary will be helpful for you or your students, you can sign up for a free forty-five day trial! If you and your students think this website is helpful, there are options for individual, school and district subscription plans. With content that ranges from Kindergarten to twelfth grade, students of all ages will love to sing along with content specific Flocabulary videos!

6. Bookopolis

One of the challenges for teachers to instruct students in reading is to first get students to want to read. We all know motivation is HUGE! Bookopolis is a website that really helps solve the motivation problem with reading. It's set up a social media website in which students can locate and share books with each other. They can rate and review the book, write a "book buzz'' in which they share brief information and explain why a reader HAS to read it, and they can recommend books to each other. Additionally they can earn badges, keep track of all their progress such as total minutes read and participate in events to earn free books! As teachers we can keep track of updated book winners and find instructional resources tied to the standards to help supplement our instruction and make it more meaningful and engaging! The reading log allows students to track their book progress on the website and write comments. It's a great way to digitally build a community of readers! 
A companion website as the students get older is Goodreads. By introducing them to Bookopolis  it serves as the perfect transition to the website.