The three blogs I've previously posted were written as an assignment for an Instructional Technology course. This was the first time I've truly blogged; Almost ten years ago, I did post to my "blog" on MySpace a few times, but I certainly didn't treat those posts the same way I treated this writing activity. I enjoyed this blogging experience and was pleasantly surprised by how user-friendly Blogger is. My future students should be able to handle posting their responses to discussion questions or posting reflections over novels we read in class. Like me, I hope they realize how audience can affect writing; I certainly put more time and effort into these blog posts, knowing that they would be public and anyone could see them (not just the teacher that'd be grading them). I hope they will take the time to think about their audience, using respectful language and putting an effort into their writing (by following conventions and paying attention to mechanics, as well as doing any research to back up their stances), so they can sound as educated and knowledgeable as possible.
As I said, I enjoyed this blogging activity. I had initially proposed blogging about grammar rules and usage mistakes, but I knew that would turn into more of a rant, rather than a blog that could be of any use to others. I also wasn't sure how I would use resources in blog posts like that; that is why I chose to write about reading comprehension strategies. Finding good sources to include in my posts was probably the most difficult and/or time-consuming aspect of this assignment. I had to find sources that were trusted, that gave good suggestions, and that meshed with my way of thinking. I luckily did not have any troubles with internet access, as that can pose problems when using online or cloud-based applications. The benefits of using a technology tool like a blog in my classroom definitely outweigh any of the limitations or concerns. I will take the time to teach my students the important aspects of digital citizenship, and I will be diligent in my supervision of their blog posts and comments to others.
Learning how to synthesize information and how to articulate feelings are important lessons that can be taught using blogs. I hope students will realize that posting to their own or reading others' blogs can be a great way to share information and develop their own PLNs (Personal Learning Networks). Continuing to post to my own and to follow other blogs will help me teach my future students about this worthwhile personal, professional, and educational tool.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Tech Tools 3: Assistive Technology
In my previous blogs, I have talked about various technology tools or websites that can be used to help with students' reading comprehension. An overview of technology that can be instrumental in supporting reading comprehension would not be complete without some mention of assistive technology. According to greatschools.org, "There is a wide range of assistive technology (AT) tools available to help individuals who struggle with reading. While each type of tool works a little differently, all of these tools help by presenting text as speech. These tools help facilitate decoding, reading fluency, and comprehension. AT tools that assist with reading fall into several categories: audio books and publications, optical character recognition, paper-based computer pen, speech synthesizers/screen readers, and variable-speed tape recorders (Stanberry and Raskind, 2010)." (For a general overview of each of these categories, visit http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistive-technology/948-reading-tools.gs?page=all.) Since this article's publication in 2010, there have been changes and advancements in AT, but the type of AT I am going to focus on is still in use: audio books.
I have personally seen audio books used to help students with fluency, but more importantly, with reading comprehension. Too often, students can get wrapped up in the mechanics of reading: pronunciation, sentence set-up, identifying the subject or verb, or defining and contemplating every single word. When they become so concerned with each little part of the sentence or sentences, they lose out on the meaning and can have a harder time comprehending what is being said. When they read along with an audio book, it keeps them moving. It identifies words for them that they might struggle to pronounce, and helps them keep things in context (or use context to understand the meaning of difficult words). Students can control the audio, pausing or rewinding as needed. "Recorded books allow users to listen to text and are available in a variety of formats, such as audiocassettes, CDs, and MP3 downloads. Special playback units allow users to search and bookmark pages and chapters. Subscription services offer extensive electronic library collections (Stanberry and Raskind, 2010)." While it is true that you can pay for subscriptions to different collections (such as Audible.com), can buy audio books to load onto popular devices such as Nooks or Kindles, or can be granted a free subscription to websites like Bookshare (if you have a documented disability), using audio books is actually easier and cheaper than one would imagine. Most libraries now offer a selection of audio books; some teachers have even invested in the audio version of popular books to add to their classroom library. Some bigger libraries (such as the Sioux Falls Public Library) even offer digital copies of audio books to be "checked out": you are given a code to access the digital file, and you can access it for a set amount of time. Students can hook their headphones up to their laptop or desktop computer at home and follow along in their printed book. I have even seen students "rip" audio CDs to their iTunes account, download the book onto their MP3 player, and take their audio and printed book along on car trips. There are also special MP3 players that resemble regular players, "but they only have one thing on them: a read-aloud version of a book... the format of these MP3 books is attractive to tech-savvy students (Cook, n.d.)." (You can see a version of these players at http://recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.playaway.) Using an MP3 player is also nice to "camouflage" the fact that the student is using an assistive technology; to peers or others, it looks as if students are multi-talking: listening to music as they read their book, when they are really listening to and reading along with audio versions of their books.
Downloading audio books from CDs to your computer, as well as finding the audio to popular books online (YouTube has many audio recordings of books), is a cheap and easy way to use this assistive technology, but it walks a fine line of copyright infringement and/or when dealing with distribution rights. Knowing what rights you have (for personal use, for non-commercial reasons) can help you determine whether or not using audio from certain sources is legal or morally sound. When obtained in the correct manner, recorded audio is an excellent assistive technology to help readers with reading comprehension.
Cook, J. (n.d.) How to Improve Reading Comprehension with Technology. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from eHow: http://www.ehow.com/how_5877429_improve-reading-comprehension-technology.html
Stanberry, K. and Raskind, M. (2010). Assistive Technology Tools: Reading. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from Great Schools: http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistive-technology/948-reading-tools.gs?page=all
www.audible.com
www.bookshare.org
http://recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.playaway
I have personally seen audio books used to help students with fluency, but more importantly, with reading comprehension. Too often, students can get wrapped up in the mechanics of reading: pronunciation, sentence set-up, identifying the subject or verb, or defining and contemplating every single word. When they become so concerned with each little part of the sentence or sentences, they lose out on the meaning and can have a harder time comprehending what is being said. When they read along with an audio book, it keeps them moving. It identifies words for them that they might struggle to pronounce, and helps them keep things in context (or use context to understand the meaning of difficult words). Students can control the audio, pausing or rewinding as needed. "Recorded books allow users to listen to text and are available in a variety of formats, such as audiocassettes, CDs, and MP3 downloads. Special playback units allow users to search and bookmark pages and chapters. Subscription services offer extensive electronic library collections (Stanberry and Raskind, 2010)." While it is true that you can pay for subscriptions to different collections (such as Audible.com), can buy audio books to load onto popular devices such as Nooks or Kindles, or can be granted a free subscription to websites like Bookshare (if you have a documented disability), using audio books is actually easier and cheaper than one would imagine. Most libraries now offer a selection of audio books; some teachers have even invested in the audio version of popular books to add to their classroom library. Some bigger libraries (such as the Sioux Falls Public Library) even offer digital copies of audio books to be "checked out": you are given a code to access the digital file, and you can access it for a set amount of time. Students can hook their headphones up to their laptop or desktop computer at home and follow along in their printed book. I have even seen students "rip" audio CDs to their iTunes account, download the book onto their MP3 player, and take their audio and printed book along on car trips. There are also special MP3 players that resemble regular players, "but they only have one thing on them: a read-aloud version of a book... the format of these MP3 books is attractive to tech-savvy students (Cook, n.d.)." (You can see a version of these players at http://recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.playaway.) Using an MP3 player is also nice to "camouflage" the fact that the student is using an assistive technology; to peers or others, it looks as if students are multi-talking: listening to music as they read their book, when they are really listening to and reading along with audio versions of their books.
Downloading audio books from CDs to your computer, as well as finding the audio to popular books online (YouTube has many audio recordings of books), is a cheap and easy way to use this assistive technology, but it walks a fine line of copyright infringement and/or when dealing with distribution rights. Knowing what rights you have (for personal use, for non-commercial reasons) can help you determine whether or not using audio from certain sources is legal or morally sound. When obtained in the correct manner, recorded audio is an excellent assistive technology to help readers with reading comprehension.
Cook, J. (n.d.) How to Improve Reading Comprehension with Technology. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from eHow: http://www.ehow.com/how_5877429_improve-reading-comprehension-technology.html
Stanberry, K. and Raskind, M. (2010). Assistive Technology Tools: Reading. Retrieved June 19, 2014, from Great Schools: http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistive-technology/948-reading-tools.gs?page=all
www.audible.com
www.bookshare.org
http://recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.playaway
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Tech Tools 2: Reading Comprehension Websites
I have personally seen technology used in classrooms in many ways: cartoons used to summarize the events in a chapter, webquests used to activate prior knowledge, or YouTube clips used to build background knowledge. I have seen many websites used to augment learning, but my two favorite sites can directly enhance reading comprehension; those sites are ReadTheory and ReadWorks.
ReadTheory (www.readtheory.org) is a free website that helps teachers assess reading comprehension and reading level. It is a "powerful educational tool that offers online reading activities for all ages and ability levels. Using custom web application software and carefully crafted and tested content created by our team, we provide students with a dynamic reading experience that adapts to their individual ability levels and presents them with a seemingly endless array of skill building exercises. What is more, as students continue to use the site and see their scores gradually improve, the system adapts to match their progress, and the materials presented get incrementally more advanced (ReadTheory, 2014)." Teachers register on the website, then create a class (or classes) and fill it with their students. Teachers can manage usernames and passwords; analyze student or class performance using percentages, bar graphs, and tables; and track individual student and/or class progress using quiz history and line graphs. I have seen teachers use this data to pinpoint what each student is going to work on individually on ReadTheory or on other online resources (such as ReadWorks). They have also used this to develop their lesson plans when they see what the class as a whole needs to work on. I have been impressed with the use of ReadTheory because it really does provide students with content that is tailored to their individual levels and needs.
ReadWorks (www.readworks.org) is similar to ReadTheory; students take tests and work on skills related to reading comprehension. "The non-profit ReadWorks is committed to solving the nation's reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students. ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly (ReadWorks, 2014)." The nice thing about ReadWorks is there are more options for the teacher to individualize students' learning, rather than the site responding to students' scores and adapting their content. Teachers can choose the lexile level that each student tests at and what skills they'd like each student to work on. The list of skills and strategies that teachers can choose from is impressive and includes author's purpose; cause and effect; character; classify and categorize; compare and contrast; drawing conclusions; explicit information; fact and opinion; figurative language; genre; genre studies; main idea; plot; point of view; predicting; pronoun reference; sequence; setting; theme; vocabulary in context; and voice. Besides reading passages, ReadWorks also includes skill and strategy units, comprehension units, and novel study units, all complete with accompanying lesson plans. ReadWorks is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states; teachers can easily see which lessons align to which standards.
I have been impressed with the use of both of these websites in classrooms to help students with their reading comprehension skills. I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of both ReadTheory and ReadWorks; too often free websites leave you wanting more or only provide you with so much content before you have to pay for a subscription. This is not the case with these wonderful websites. I look forward to utilizing both ReadTheory and ReadWorks in my own classroom, as ways to assess students' ability levels and improve their comprehension skills.
ReadTheory (2014). Retrieved June 3, 2014 from http://www.readtheory.org/how-it-works
ReadWorks (2014). Retrieved June 3, 2014 from http://www.readworks.org/rw/about
ReadTheory (www.readtheory.org) is a free website that helps teachers assess reading comprehension and reading level. It is a "powerful educational tool that offers online reading activities for all ages and ability levels. Using custom web application software and carefully crafted and tested content created by our team, we provide students with a dynamic reading experience that adapts to their individual ability levels and presents them with a seemingly endless array of skill building exercises. What is more, as students continue to use the site and see their scores gradually improve, the system adapts to match their progress, and the materials presented get incrementally more advanced (ReadTheory, 2014)." Teachers register on the website, then create a class (or classes) and fill it with their students. Teachers can manage usernames and passwords; analyze student or class performance using percentages, bar graphs, and tables; and track individual student and/or class progress using quiz history and line graphs. I have seen teachers use this data to pinpoint what each student is going to work on individually on ReadTheory or on other online resources (such as ReadWorks). They have also used this to develop their lesson plans when they see what the class as a whole needs to work on. I have been impressed with the use of ReadTheory because it really does provide students with content that is tailored to their individual levels and needs.
ReadWorks (www.readworks.org) is similar to ReadTheory; students take tests and work on skills related to reading comprehension. "The non-profit ReadWorks is committed to solving the nation's reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students. ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly (ReadWorks, 2014)." The nice thing about ReadWorks is there are more options for the teacher to individualize students' learning, rather than the site responding to students' scores and adapting their content. Teachers can choose the lexile level that each student tests at and what skills they'd like each student to work on. The list of skills and strategies that teachers can choose from is impressive and includes author's purpose; cause and effect; character; classify and categorize; compare and contrast; drawing conclusions; explicit information; fact and opinion; figurative language; genre; genre studies; main idea; plot; point of view; predicting; pronoun reference; sequence; setting; theme; vocabulary in context; and voice. Besides reading passages, ReadWorks also includes skill and strategy units, comprehension units, and novel study units, all complete with accompanying lesson plans. ReadWorks is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states; teachers can easily see which lessons align to which standards.
I have been impressed with the use of both of these websites in classrooms to help students with their reading comprehension skills. I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of both ReadTheory and ReadWorks; too often free websites leave you wanting more or only provide you with so much content before you have to pay for a subscription. This is not the case with these wonderful websites. I look forward to utilizing both ReadTheory and ReadWorks in my own classroom, as ways to assess students' ability levels and improve their comprehension skills.
 |
| This photo shows the options on ReadWorks, if a teacher searched for passages above a lexile level of 1000 that worked on the skill of drawing conclusions |
 |
| This photo, also from ReadWorks, shows the results for 6th grade lesson plans that deal with the skill of character |
ReadTheory (2014). Retrieved June 3, 2014 from http://www.readtheory.org/how-it-works
ReadWorks (2014). Retrieved June 3, 2014 from http://www.readworks.org/rw/about
Monday, May 26, 2014
Technology Tools for Reading Comprehension
In my five years working as a para, I have learned many things from the teachers I've worked with (like not to end a sentence with a preposition - whoops!). One of the most eye-opening has been the use of technology in education. When I went to school, technology in the classroom consisted of an overhead projector and a screen. We used computers as word processors or occasionally accessed the internet for research. Students today have hundreds of technology tools literally at their fingertips, and one area teachers are utilizing these tools is in teaching reading comprehension strategies.
Why are reading comprehension strategies important enough for me to blog about? They are too often overlooked or under-taught. According to the Reading Next report, "Very few older struggling readers (between fourth and twelfth grade) need help to read the words on a page; their most common problem is that they are not able to comprehend what they read (Biancarosa and Snow, 2004)." Students leaving middle school need to have reading comprehension strategies because the material they are expected to read in high school is increasingly difficult, and their inability to understand it affects their educational career (Anderson, 2006). I will be teaching at the secondary level one day; I will either be responsible for making sure middle school students are taught effective reading comprehension strategies, or I will be a high school teacher wishing someone had taught them before they made it to me.
If I was taught the strategies of making connections, visualizing, asking questions, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing (Scholastic, 2005), I don't recall the explicit instruction. I was always adept at comprehending what I was reading; I think I took these steps or used these strategies naturally. When I started working as a para, the classrooms I worked in covered these, but did not emphasize them the way they have started to in the last two years or so. This school now has a non-credit class called Reading Strategies that all sixth through eighth graders take. I have seen students use technology to activate prior knowledge, to build background knowledge, to visualize, and to summarize information. Students can use the internet to look up unknown words using dictionary.com or Word Hippo; to make graphic organizers; to organize the events into a timeline using Popplet or Dippity; to visualize the settings or characters; or to build background knowledge by searching for keywords or the subject of the story/article/book. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg; there are many other websites that can be used to help with reading comprehension. I have been very impressed with the strategies I have seen taught and used firsthand, and with the websites available to help both teachers and students. I will delve deeper into websites used to test and develop reading comprehension skills - tools I plan to use in my own classroom - in my next blog post.
Why are reading comprehension strategies important enough for me to blog about? They are too often overlooked or under-taught. According to the Reading Next report, "Very few older struggling readers (between fourth and twelfth grade) need help to read the words on a page; their most common problem is that they are not able to comprehend what they read (Biancarosa and Snow, 2004)." Students leaving middle school need to have reading comprehension strategies because the material they are expected to read in high school is increasingly difficult, and their inability to understand it affects their educational career (Anderson, 2006). I will be teaching at the secondary level one day; I will either be responsible for making sure middle school students are taught effective reading comprehension strategies, or I will be a high school teacher wishing someone had taught them before they made it to me.
If I was taught the strategies of making connections, visualizing, asking questions, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing (Scholastic, 2005), I don't recall the explicit instruction. I was always adept at comprehending what I was reading; I think I took these steps or used these strategies naturally. When I started working as a para, the classrooms I worked in covered these, but did not emphasize them the way they have started to in the last two years or so. This school now has a non-credit class called Reading Strategies that all sixth through eighth graders take. I have seen students use technology to activate prior knowledge, to build background knowledge, to visualize, and to summarize information. Students can use the internet to look up unknown words using dictionary.com or Word Hippo; to make graphic organizers; to organize the events into a timeline using Popplet or Dippity; to visualize the settings or characters; or to build background knowledge by searching for keywords or the subject of the story/article/book. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg; there are many other websites that can be used to help with reading comprehension. I have been very impressed with the strategies I have seen taught and used firsthand, and with the websites available to help both teachers and students. I will delve deeper into websites used to test and develop reading comprehension skills - tools I plan to use in my own classroom - in my next blog post.
Anderson, D., (2006). In or Out: Surprises in Reading Comprehension Instruction. Intervention in School and Clinic, 41(3), p. 175-180.
Biancarosa, G., and Snow, C.E. (2004). Reading Next – A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Scholastic (2005). Retrieved May 24, 2014 from http://teacher.scholastic.com/LessonPlans/pdf/oct_nov05/9SixComprehension.pdf
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