Introduction
One method that can help students, learning to read, achieve their goals is by implementing technology into their lessons. Each student learns differently so giving them access to various tools, instruction, and different methods of learning is extremely important. ISTE Standards for Students helps teachers integrate technology while achieving learning goals. Being able to be an innovative teacher while instructing students on valuable reading skills can be achieved by the following ISTE standard 6-Creative communicator.
"Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. Students: a. choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication. b. create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations. c. communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations. d. publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences."
A lesson plan that meets this standard for kindergarten students and has the ability to be differentiated for students ,is having students create, dictate,retell, or read a story and using a platform like Seesaw to record their individual stories. This digital resource allows students to learn how to manage voice inflection, use technology to record themselves, playback their recordings, share their recordings and creatively learn to become a storyteller. As Kolb states "The technology should allow students to build skills that they can use in their everyday lives. The technology should build on prior knowledge skill sets as well as build other soft skills,such as digital-age skills from the Partnership for 21st Century Learning's Framework for 21st Century learning"(Kolb, 2020, p. 22) This particular lesson allows students with various reading skills build on prior knowledge of both reading and technology. Students may just be able to dictate a story, while others may be able to write out and read a story, but each student can creatively compose a personalized story and use a digital platform to record and publish it for others to see and hear. We also learn from Kolb that "making digital as personnel and human as possible" can help integrate technology driven lessons that "measure up to face-to-face" interactions. "A recent Stanford study (Doss et al., 2018) found that when teachers sent personalized text messages to parents of kindergarteners with activities to do with their children, this boosted literacy outcomes" (Kolb, 2020, p. 24). Sending parents personalized stories their student has created and recorded can have the same positive outcome.
Resources:
ISTE Standards•S © 2016 International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE® is a registered trademark of the International Society for Technology in Education. If you would like to reproduce this material, please contact permissions@iste.org.
Kolb, L. (2020). Learning First, Technology Second in Practice. International Society for Technology in Education.
I think your drive to become educated to help students with reading impairments is inspiring. I do not have children yet, but my reason for starting this graduate program was this: I had three students last year who I did not know how to help with their reading. I felt a responsibility as their teacher to do better and make myself better prepared. I like your idea of letting students record themselves. We use Whisper Phones for reading: students hold the plastic, hollow phone up to their ear and mouth and they can hear themselves better when reading aloud. I also believe that the parent communication you mentioned at the end is very beneficial. If nothing else, it is encouraging when the parents communicate back to their children that their teacher informed them of what they were up to that day. It makes them feel loved and supported.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Thank you Dawson, I understand completely about how you felt not knowing how to help your students. I felt that way when my son began showing struggles in reading and nothing we tried seemed to be helping. It is so awesome to see educators like yourself take time to not only reflect on but act on becoming a teacher that is equipped to help all their students. I have no doubt that you will be able to help each student in the future.
DeleteHi, Rebekah. I enjoyed reading your post! I am the dyslexia district designee for my school and I agree early intervention is so important. I am a second grade teacher, but I also have a certification in special education and have taught it. I loved your focus on technology being used to aide differentiation. AT is so much more now than just communication devices and text to speech. It is becoming more versatile and resources are becoming more accommodating. I think technology can help teachers that especially struggle with differentiation. Thank you for your post. I look forward to working with you this term.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind comments Grace. I have so many questions about your position as the dyslexia district designee, my mind is like Tell me more!! One thing about having a personal experience of something like that, it drives you to help others and I am always looking for other reading advocates and educational advocates in general to align with and learn more.
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