School's in Session! Working Towards Goals - iPads, Common Core, and a Whole Lot More!

Last Tuesday, my 18th class of students rolled into Room 510 at Blue Ridge Elementary. Although I have experienced the opening day of school many times before, I look upon this upcoming year with the same excitement and wonder as those first few years of teaching! This year's new beginning comes with a room full of iPads and students ready to dive into learning in a whole new way.

Not only will we be implementing iPad technology into our daily subjects, we will also be aligning the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with our classroom curriculum. The CCSS focus on inquiry learning and real-life application. I believe the iPad classroom is going to offer an exciting and innovative way to meet these new goals.

Last week, I shared my proposal goals for my research classroom. This week, I will begin to share HOW I plan on meeting those goals, while working toward the implementation of the CCSS into our curriculum.

Goal #1 - Increase student engagement in lessons and content

This one is a no-brainer! Have you ever watched a classroom full of students working on iPads? It is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced as a teacher. By providing meaningful instruction through the use of apps and websites, students are enthralled in what they are doing - and they don't want to stop! Engagement data taken at the end of last school year, revealed students on task 100% of the time, while working on the iPads! This past week, we got started using iPads for our learning, and dove right into research using QR codes from websites and the free Scanner app. Below I've linked a video from our research on the key elements of maps and globes.

Goal #2 - Increase reading fluency

To help students increase reading fluency, students record themselves reading aloud 2-3 times a week using the free QuickVoice app. Students pick a paragraph from their independent reading, record themselves, listen to the recording, and then rate the recording on a T chart. They repeat the process 2 times each session, with the goal of improving the quality of their reading each time.

Last Spring my students participated in this activity and had impressive gains over a 9-week time period. According to pre and post fluency testing by our reading interventionist, reading fluency in these students improved an average of 6 times the normal rate over a 9-week period! I got the idea for this activity from a literacy project performed using iPods at Central Elementary in Escondido, California. Check out the link below for more information on the Central Elementary project.

http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/escondido/#video-escondido

Goal #3 - Increase reading comprehension

This goal is definitely the most difficult to gage, based on all the types of literacy instruction students receive during the typical school year. But, with increased engagement comes increased interaction with the content. It makes sense that more interaction with content will inevitably lead to better comprehension of material. There will be lots of activities that I will share throughout the year to help meet this all-important goal.