How do students and teachers use digital tools in literacy instruction in K-4 classrooms?

"Using digital tools, allows teachers to use print-based literacy skills while providing students with the opportunity to learn digital literacy skills."

- Amy Hutchinson

Ways that digital literacy can be used in the classroom:

 

Steps for teachers to implement digital technology into literacy instruction:

1. Choose learning goals:  Determine which areas students need the most support.

            Examples: comprehension, fluency, vocabulary

2. Make pedagogical decisions about the nature of the learning experience:  

·         Learning by listening – Teachers can record themselves teaching material. Then students have the opportunity to listen to the material multiple times.

·         Learning by Discovery – Students search for information and discover new information by sorting through resources to thoroughly construct better knowledge. This is generally self-directed and can be assessed in multiple ways.

·         Learning by doing – Students are given the opportunity to have a more hands on learning experience. Students would complete assignments via a digital tool, and then can write about their knowledge or questions, provide feedback to peers, and provide peer feedback for themselves.

·         Learning through discussion and debate – Students have the opportunity to discuss and debate context factors. This would be a great idea for a classroom blog, in which students discuss their findings!

·         Blended Learning – Students have the opportunity to have different kinds of delivery and learning methods.

Ø  This method is my personal favorite because it is a flexible way for both teachers and learners can regulate their learning.

 (Noordink, 2010)

3. Choose activities types to combine:  What do you want the students to do?

4. Select assessment strategies: Design a response to a text that demonstrates your learning goal, and helps to develop digital literacy skills.

            Examples: Create a video or audio response to texts.

5. Select the digital tools that will best help students to benefit from the learning experience: 

  a. Be sure to become familiar with your school/school district's technology goals. 

  b. Become familiar with apps, websites, and online resources that will help you to make a final decision on determining with technological tool will be most useful in helping students meet their learning goals. 

(Hutchinson and Woodward, 2014)       

(Hutchinson, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford, 2012)

Promising Literacy Apps allow students to:

·         Type on top of printed text

·         Record an audio recording as a response

·         Add pictures from the photo library

·         Insert symbols and stamps

(Hutchinson, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford, 2012)

Popular Instructional Literacy Apps:

App	App   Description	Literacy   Skill    Used
Doodle Buddy	Tool used for drawing, or doodling Forces readers to reread to modify images	Visualization Main Idea and Details
Sundry  Notes	Tool used for typing text, drawing, and recording audio	Cause and Effect
Strip Designer	Comic Strip Tool	Retelling
Popplet	Graphic Organizer tool that students can modify	Sequencing
iBooks	Virtual bookshelf Users can: tap any word to access a definition, add notes, highlight text	Independent Reading ·         Also great to use during the Daily 5’s Read to Self!

(Hutchinson, Beschorner, and Schmidt-Crawford, 2012)

Question:

What are two beneficial digital tools for teachers to build comprehension skills?

Helpful Sites:

Citations:

Hutchison, A., Beschorner, B., & Schmidt-Crawford, D. (2012). Exploring the Use of the iPad for                  Literacy Learning. Read Teach The Reading Teacher, 66(1), 15-23.

Hutchison, A., & Woodward, L. (2013). A Planning Cycle for Integrating Digital Technology Into                    Literacy Instruction. Read Teach The Reading Teacher, 67(6), 455-464.

Noordink, M. (n.d.). Different ways of teaching. Retrieved June 24, 2015, from http://marlijnenoordink.blogspot.com/2010/10/different-ways-of-teaching-different.html

What is Guided Reading and how do I structure a guided reading lesson?

Guided Reading

Guided reading is a time within the literacy block, where students are grouped together based on the text level or skills needed. When first creating guided reading groups, you want to determine your students instructional reading level. This means that students reading accuracy score would be 90-94% . This is important so that students can extend their learning by reading texts that are on the edge with regards to challenge level. Guided reading is also flexible in the sense that students are constantly moving to a new makeup of groups. Guided reading is actually the second lesson of the day within the literacy block, and should last approximately 20-30 minutes. During the literacy block, teachers should plan to meet with three to four groups per day. The aspect that makes guided reading so intriguing to teachers, is that students have their own leveled materials, which really allows teachers to apply differentiated instruction throughout their lessons.

Guided Reading from the researchers Fountas and Pinnell:

According to researcher, Anita Iaquinta within the article Guided Reading: A Research-Based Response to the Challenges of Early Reading Instruction, guided reading is a teaching approach that has three core aspects. Those three aspects include meeting the array of students needs within the classroom, teaching students to continually read increasing texts with fluency and understanding, and to construct meaning from the text while using strategies. Guided reading is beneficial to students because it allows texts to be explored in a deeper, more meaningful way. For example, students can think about texts in three ways such as within, beyond, and about the text. Within the text, students can monitor, use searching for information, and summarizing. Beyond the text, students can make connections, use prediction, synthesize, and can infer. When thinking about the text, students can analyze and critique the authors purposes, the flow of the text, and the word choice (Laquinta, 2006). 

Within the online text of Guided Reading: Making it Work, the authors Mary Browning Schulman, and Carleen DaCruz Payne, state the importance of using assessment data to group students together. However, one key aspect to guided reading is that the grouping are flexible, and require systematic data to be constantly occurring.  Groups can be put together depending on the developing skill or by the text level the students are on (Browning, and DaCruz , 2000).  

Structuring a  Guided Reading lesson: 

Before reading: 

1. Selecting the text - Teachers must choose text that is on the group's instructional reading level. 

2. Introduce the text - Explain important ideas and concepts through a picture walk, and then point out certain details to the text such as access features, descriptive words etc. 

During reading: 

Read the text -  Students read the text silently or quietly by using whisper phones. During this time, the teacher listens to students and provides support on  strategies/skills. 

After reading:

1. Discuss the text - Students discuss the text.  Ultimately, this aids students comprehension of the text. 

2. Teaching Points - During this time, the teacher would use text dependent questions. 

3. Word Work - When working on word work, teachers are helping students to become more flexible and knowledgeable when working with words.  

Question: 

Within the article Guided Reading: The Romance and the Reality, the authors Fountas and Pinnell state the importance of using assessment data to guide teaching. What are three aspects that you can assess by using running records within the classroom?

 Great Literacy Rich Blogs! 

Citations:

Browning Schulman, M., & DaCruz Payne, C. (2000). Guided Reading: Making it Work. Retrieved June 18, 2015, from https://books.google.com/books?id=yQzGpF85HGYC&pg=PA160&lpg=PA160&dq=guided reading using assessment data to group students together.&source=bl&ots=AKdT4RXrsS&sig=XhGKUH-Dad1bagKHsN_blPxY2UU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0kyCVfjsG8v1-AGNv4PICQ&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q

  

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (n.d.). About Leveled Texts. Retrieved June 18, 2015, from http://www.fountasandpinnellleveledbooks.com/aboutleveledtexts.aspx#GR 

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (2012). Guided Reading: The Romance and the Reality. The Reading  Teacher, 66(4), 268-284. 

Iaquinta, A. (2006). Guided Reading: A Research-Based Response to the Challenges of Early Reading Instruction. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(6), 413-418. doi:10.1007