iPads in the Classroom - A Work in Progress for Students AND Teachers

One thing about piloting iPads in the classroom is that there is a lot of experimentation and frankly, extra work!  Not only do you spend time researching and looking for appropriate apps, there is the time spent introducing the students to the appropriate uses for the apps.  Luckily, teaching is a profession where people are willing to share!  
This week all of our classroom teachers received an iPad for professional and student use.  Many of our teachers are tech savvy - but there are those who aren't quite sure where to start.  For that reason, I want to share with my fellow teachers apps that are easy, free, and helpful in our daily jobs.

iPads come equipped with several apps that I use each day.  These are my favorite and most used:  Calendar - put in all your appointments, meetings, etc.  It will sync with your iPhone or Mac computer and will also pull in email appointments from Outlook Mail accounts.  Notes - a handy tool for jotting down information, those "aha" brainstorming moments, and note-taking during meetings.  It saves everything automatically in the order that it was created.  PowerTeacher - This one you can get free from the App Store.  I love being able to put grades in easily while I am sitting on the couch and don't want to move!  It beats getting up and going to my office upstairs or doing it at school, on those days when I am to busy or to tired to think.  iBooks is another free one from the App Store, but you do have to purchase many of the books you are interested in reading.  Also, it is different reading from the iPad, but I have found that I actually like it more than I thought I would.  I use the Weather Channel a lot - you can program in your home town or your favorite cities.  Since most of my family is out of state, I have my own children's, parents', and siblings' towns saved as favorites.  That way I can feel good about living in the South in January!  If you are willing to spend $9.99, I would definitely recommend getting Pages.  This is a word processing program.  It saves your documents automatically, is easy, and you can use it anywhere at anytime. You can also email the documents as a PDF for printing.  Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands more of good apps - these are just the ones I personally rely on each day!

Have a great week and be sure to share your great ideas with others!

A Gentle Nudge or a Big Push - Acquiring Independence in Reading

A big part of being a fourth grade teacher is helping students to become more independent in their academic environment.  I have always felt strongly about this notion of independence and each year have tried to instill that in my students - mainly by providing a structured environment with an ample amount of modeling in my instructional practices. But with the implementation of Common Core, students are being required to problem-solve and think for themselves, beyond what my past teaching strategies may have provided on a daily basis.  So this past week I got a good lesson in "letting go" thanks to our wonderful Science coach!

The Science Lab at our school has been booked with activity and our coach has been busy supporting teachers in their Science lessons.  My students were scheduled to set up their animal habitats as part of our life science curriculum.  When we arrived, another class was leaving.  Our materials had been gathered but were not set up and organized.  In the past we would have had this activity a little more structured and given the students specific instructions about the procedures of building the habitats.  But instead Ms. Science Coach told the children, "We are building a frog habitat, turn to page 14, read the instructions, come get your materials, and build the habitat." Amazingly, they did it - ALL BY THEMSELVES and DID IT WELL!  They proceeded to build their crab habitats as well, with the same lack of direction!  It was a highly successful moment for my students and myself. The time crunch forced us to let go and see what would happen and it worked!  That one activity has made me believe that it's going to be okay! My students can be independent thinkers and problem-solvers.  I am now determined to take that success and carry it over into other lessons in my classroom.

The Science activity was a perfect example of reading for information and then performing a task.  The Common Core State Standards have a greater emphasis on non-fiction reading and informational texts.  According to the CCSS, Fourth Grade students should be reading about 50% literature and 50% non-fiction.  Unfortunatly, many of our students may initially lack the skills to read informational text with great comprehension.  But, fortunately the iPad classroom can now offer the students support and independence at the same time.  I discovered over the summer that the iPad 2 can read any highlighted text out loud - whether it is on a web page, a text document, or a reading selection from iBooks.  To make the iPad read, go to your Settings, choose Accessibility, choose Speak Select "on", and then set the speaking rate.  Then while reading on the iPad, highlight the text to be read and choose "speak".  It's that simple!  Although I haven't implemented this in my ELA block yet, I am excited about the possibilities it may offer my low to average readers!  I plan on trying it out over the next couple of weeks through our Native American research projects, and some new Discovery Ed non-fiction readers I am purchasing through iBooks.  I'll let you all know how it goes!

I've got to give Ms. Frankie Broom a BIG THANK YOU for giving this structured teacher a gentle nudge . . .  I hope it makes a big difference for my students.

Few Steps Forward, a Few Steps Back

A successful beginning of the year has a lot to do with setting the stage for learning - getting students into the routine, classroom expectations etc.  Some days seem to go magnificently, while other days we may want to beat our heads against a wall!  Consistency is the key, of course, but these past two weeks have been a bit on the inconsistent side in our classroom.  First, I took a couple of personal days to spend time with family visiting from out of state.  When I returned, one of my students said, "It's about time!"  Well, if that didn't speak volumes!  Students really do need to feel that security we provide through our daily routines and classroom structure.  On top of that, we are in the midst of our Fall MAP testing.  So, with that being said, our classroom has been a little off this past week - including the teacher's schedule, up-to-date blog posts,  and at-home routines!

We have been making some progress with our iPad implementation, but these minor kinks have set us back slightly.  This past week we were finally able to complete our Photo Wall projects with success!  I believe my students are really becoming engaged in the uses for several of our apps.

As mentioned in earlier posts, the use of the Scan app is a great tool for guiding students through research.  For it to work, you need to create a QR code for each website.  Follow the link below for a QR code generator site.
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
I typically save the generated code to my photo album, then paste it into a word document to print for the students.  It's a handy little trick that keeps the students active and engaged in research!

I'll discuss those "talking iPads" next time . . . have a great week!

Small Steps Can Bring Giant Leaps! More on Goal 3 - Reading Comprehension

Last week I delineated my goals for the year and some of my proposed startegies to meet those goals.  I was much less specific in my strategies for addressing reading comprehension in my students for a variety of reasons.  One of my friendly teacher colleagues even asked, "What apps are you using for reading comprehension?"  Honestly the short answer is there are not a lot of apps to address this specifically.  I've found that most reading apps focus on decoding words and phonics at the primary level.  To review many of these apps as well as other subject-specific apps, Apple has created a special link for teachers and education apps.  If you go to the App store, choose the Education Category, scroll down to Quick Links, choose Education Collections.  From there you will see that Apple has divided this page into subject categories - love it!  There you will find the educational apps dedicated to Reading instruction.  The majority of these apps are wonderful for beginnning readers through the primary level grades, but there is really not much in this category for the middle and upper grades. 

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMultiRoom?cc=us&fcId=432100011

Addressing reading comprehension in the middle and upper grades has more to do with helping students employ strategies and build understanding of text elements. Reading comprehension encompasses three parts: 
1.  The reader
2.  The text to be read and understood 
3.  The activity in which comprehension is a part 

It is the strategies that we teach our students that will help them become readers with understanding.  These strategies must be introduced, practiced and repeated to help a reader grow.  Students must become aware of text elements and features within the selected material and learn how to effectively use those elements to improve their comprehension.

We teach these strategies and elements in a variety of ways - balanced literacy frameworks like the Daily 5 and CAFE or a version of, give educators a way to introduce those strategies and elements and offer students a chance to practice becoming aware of their reading habits.  These best practice strategies help students become more deliberate in their reading - helping them to remain alert throughout the process and organize the information in the text.

So with all of that being said, how will the iPad help this?  Well, the iPad becomes yet another tool to help engage and motivate students in their learning.  For example, last week I taught story elements in fictional books.  We read Freckle Juice by Judy Blume together which is at an independent level for many of my students - easy to understand, so that they could focus on the elements being addressed.  We are now using the iPads to create a story board about the story elements of the story -including the characters, setting, main idea/problem, important events, and conclusion.  The iPad becomes that "hook" to engage students into deliberate thinking about the story.  To complete this assignment students are using the Scan app (free!) to locate pictures that go with the different elements.  I created a page with QR codes for the students to scan that links to an image page for each of the main elements.  This week the students will take the images they selected and place them in the app PhotoWall.  In this app, students can choose background colors, borders, text, etc.  For each image, they will use the text options to create captions about each particular story element.  We will then share our work via the Apple TV.  A concept that in the past I would have assessed through a graphic organizer, writing notebook, or poster project, now becomes an exciting, engaging learning experience infused with technology!

FREE Scan App

Being the beginning of the year we are taking baby steps with iPad integration, and this simple project is just the tip of the iceberg for using iPads to improve reading comprehension!
I can't wait to introduce my students to all the ways we will be using our iPads in our ELA curriculum.
 
In upcoming blogs, I will address using iBooks for novel studies and nonfiction reading - AND as a sneek peek - Did you know your iPad 2 can read to you?  Yep!  If you didn't know, I'll tell you how in my next post . . . have a great week!