SMART Notebook 11 Literacy Activity

Using SMART Notebook 11, I created a picture sort featuring sl-, sn-, and sw- initial blends. This is an appropriate word study activity for first grade students that can either be done as a whole-class lesson or can be incorporated throughout classroom literacy centers. Students are provided with a brief introduction to the activity along with simple directions, as seen on the first slide.

“We are going to listen to the first sounds in some words. Listen to see where they will go. Will the picture go in the sl-, sn-, or sw- bucket? Drag each picture to the correct bucket! If you are correct, the picture will fall into the bucket. If you are incorrect, the picture will bounce out.”

At this time, it may be appropriate for students to stretch out each of these blends, allowing them to hear the sounds they make. Following the introduction, the activity will be modeled for students.

Using one of the pictures as an example, think aloud to model the process that students should follow as they complete the activity. “This is a swan. Listen to the first sound in swan. Will it go in the sl-, sn- or sw- bucket? Swan starts with sw- so I will put it in the sw- bucket!”  Drag the image to show students how to manipulate the objects on the SMART Board.

After modeling the activity, the lesson can either be continued in a whole-class setting, or can be revisited through literacy centers. Students will say the name of each picture aloud, stretching out the initial blend to determine whether the word should be placed in the sl-, sn-, or sw- bucket. If students are correct, the picture will fall into the bucket and if they are incorrect, the image will bounce out.

I utilized the Activity Builder component of SMART Notebook 11 to create this literacy activity. First, I found pictures of sl-, sn-, and sw- initial blends, such as a sled, slide, snowman, snake, swan, and sweater and imported them into the program. I could have used the gallery to find these images, but I have access to another website that provides pictures for particular words sorts, so this was an easier option. However, I found the image of the bucket from the SMART Notebook Gallery. Using the options of the Activity Builder, I was able to set which pictures would be accepted and rejected for each bucket.

Interactive word sorts such as this are an excellent way to enhance literacy instruction. First, the activity can easily be adapted and modified to meet the literacy needs of all students. The features targeted by the word sorts can be individualized to match students’ levels. Interactive word sort activities are an engaging and motivating center. Students will be eager to participate and will benefit from sorting words and pictures by specific, targeted orthographic features. They will increase their word knowledge, leading to gains in spelling, reading, and writing.    

 

Learning to Teach Literacy with Smart Technologies

The readings related to this week’s theme, “Learning to Teach Literacy with Smart Technologies,” reveal insights about how Smart technologies and tools empower students’ learning and enhance teachers’ teaching. The first article, “Interactive Whiteboards and Learning: Improving Student Learning Outcomes and Streamlining Lesson Planning” focuses on the positive impacts interactive whiteboards have on students’ learning and teachers’ preparation and lesson delivery. Throughout the article, research from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia support the use of interactive whiteboards and discusses the positive effects they have on student learning. First, interactive whiteboards increase student engagement by promoting interaction between students, the learning material, and the teacher. Interactive whiteboards also appeal to both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated students. Some students may enjoy demonstrating their individual achievement as they model an activity in front of the class, while others simply enjoy interacting with this exciting technology. In either case, students are motivated to participate and engage in the lesson. Aside from promoting students’ engagement and motivation, interactive whiteboards are also an effective means for addressing students’ diverse learning needs and styles. Visual learners, kinesthetic and tactile learners, deaf and hearing-impaired learners, visually impaired learners, and students with other special needs all benefit from the features of Smart technologies. For example, visual learners will benefit from the note-taking aspect of Smart technologies because these programs enable the teacher to incorporate diagrams, objects, and symbols throughout instruction. Research also found that students who received instruction via interactive whiteboards were more likely to retain and recall information because they were engaged and motivated to participate throughout the lesson, their individual learning styles were addressed, and notes can be printed or emailed for review at a later time. Finally, interactive whiteboards assist teachers’ lesson preparation by allowing teachers to incorporate a variety of digital resources and build a collection of learning materials that can be modified and updated over time. In conclusion, interactive whiteboards have many positive effects on student engagement and motivation, and also have the ability to address diverse learning styles, enhance content, and assist educators in lesson preparation.

The second article, “Creating Classrooms for Everyone: How Interactive Whiteboards Support Universal Design for Learning” discusses how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) standards can guide both the evaluation and use of interactive whiteboards in today’s classrooms. Education researchers at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) explored how education could be individualized through a flexible approach to teaching methods and materials and developed techniques that not only reduce the barriers for students with special needs, but enhance learning for all students (Technology, 2009). The three principles of UDL researchers developed were:

1. Provide multiple means of representation
2. Provide multiple means of action and expression
3. Provide multiple means of engagement

Interactive whiteboards allow for these multiple means of representation. Just as the first article, this article goes on to discuss the benefits of interactive whiteboards for accommodating learners with special needs. Whether students experience fine motor delays, are visually challenged, deaf, or have mental and/or behavioral challenges, the technology within interactive whiteboards allows educators to adapt materials and lessons to accommodate the diverse learning needs and styles of their students. Interestingly, the article references Mark Prensky, stating that interactive whiteboards are an excellent means of reaching the “digital natives” present in today’s classrooms. While students appreciate using interactive whiteboard technologies in the classroom to create, share, play, research, and organize information, parents, teachers, and administrators appreciate the positive effects this technology has on student achievement. As is evident from each of the resources provided, interactive whiteboards and other 21^st century technology are becoming a necessity in order to reach, engage, and motivate “digital natives” in the classroom. 

The “Interactive Whiteboards Workbook” lists various uses for interactive whiteboards in the classroom. The workbook suggests using interactive whiteboards to plan and conduct virtual fieldtrips and enhance English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Fine Arts content and concepts through interactive games and activities. Further, it provides a list of twenty-four real-life examples of how these concepts could be used in the classroom. Some ideas from this list include creating a collaborative play, writing poetry, building virtual fieldtrips, watching documentaries, and taking virtual tours of museums, planetariums, or birthplaces of famous authors. Each of the activities listed are highly engaging, motivating, and promote interaction among students and the teacher. At the ends of the workbook, additional resources (links to websites and activities) are provided. The resources are organized by content area, making it simple to locate the specific type of activity desired.       

These articles revealed many insights into the benefits of Smart technologies and tools in today’s classrooms. Not only do interactive whiteboards engage, motivate, and accommodate students, they also ease the process of lesson planning and preparation for teachers. Monday’s SMART Board training was a further example of how flexible and adaptable these technologies are. Before the training, I felt confident in my abilities to incorporate these technologies in my classroom instruction; however, by the end of the session, I realized how much my future students would have missed out on. Throughout the training, I learned so many tricks and tools that I didn’t even know existed. I took what I learned and utilized it immediately. I teach an afterschool Spanish class for students grades 1-4 at the local elementary school. For Tuesday’s class, I incorporated each of the activities I had recently learned. The students absolutely loved them – it was incredibly rewarding to see the students so engaged in the lesson and eager to come up and participate!

 

 

Portrait of Digital Learners

In addition to exploring the characteristics and implications of teaching the new "Net Generation" of learners, this week also involved creating a portrait of digital learners, both independently and as a group. For my independent portrait of digital learners, I created a Wordle. In order to collaborate on and create a portrait of digital learners as a group, we held an online WizIQ meeting. Using Google Docs, we were able to simultaneously edit our PowerPoint Presentation and group card.

Teaching to the Net Generation

This week was all about exploring the characteristics and implications of teaching the new "Net Generation." I was the facilitator this week, and therefore it was my responsibility to summarize the numerous readings and videos that discussed the "digital natives" present in today's classrooms. 

The readings and videos for this week focused heavily on the characteristics and implications of teaching the new “net generation” of learners. The “new” students of today are considered neo-millennials or “digital natives,” meaning they were born into the digital world. However, many of today’s teachers are considered “digital immigrants,” or individuals who were not born into the digital world, but have adopted aspects of technology. A common theme among both the readings and videos for this week is the idea that educators are not prepared to teach to the learning styles of these “digital natives.” Along with the changing face of today’s students, comes the changing definition of what it means to be literate.

Literacy no longer involves simply being able to read and write. Students must possess new “literacy” skills in order to survive and succeed in today’s digital world. Skills such as judgment, negotiation, appropriation, play, transmedia navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, and multitasking are essential to participating in digital contexts. Students are engaging with technology on a daily basis and expect to be able to utilize these technologies within the school setting.

Through his book, “Teaching Digital Natives – Partnering for Real Learning,” Mark Prensky suggests a pedagogy known as “partnering.” Through the partnering pedagogy, students and teachers work together, each focusing on the part of the learning process they do best. For students, this means finding and following their passion, using whatever technology is available, researching and finding information, answering questions and sharing their thoughts and opinion, practicing, when properly motivated (e.g., through games), and creating presentations in text and multimedia (Prensky, 2010). For teachers, this means creating and asking the right questions, giving students guidance, putting material in context, explaining one-on-one, creating rigor, and ensuring quality (Prensky, 2010). Partnering moves away from direct instruction, lectures, memorization, and multiple-choice tests and towards a more collaborative role between students and teachers, in which students are motivated to learn by following their individual passions. Although this pedagogy is a major shift from current educational philosophies, the positive effects on students’ learning are well worth the time and effort.

Introduce Yourself in a Creative, Digital Way

The first week of class was mainly devoted to introducing ourselves and getting to know each other. However, we were challenged to introduce ourselves in a creative, digital way. To introduce myself, I chose to create a picture collage using various images that I pinned on Pinterest. From the collage, you are able to learn a lot about my interests and hobbies. It is clear that I enjoy watching sports - my favorite teams are the New York Knicks, the San Francisco Giants, and the Oakland Raiders. You can also see that I love to dance (I've been dancing for 11 years), my favorite season is Fall, I love anything and everything Michael Kors, and I'm obsessed with zebra print. I really enjoyed making the collage and having the ability to use images rather than words to summarize who I am. It was interesting to see what other digital resources my classmates utilized to introduced themselves and it was a great way to get to know each other, without following the generic "Tell us your name, major, and certification." We were able to represent other aspects of ourselves, rather than solely the role of "student."    

...And So It Begins

After finally making it through week one of class, I have mixed emotions. I have taken an online class once before, but judging from week one, my online experience in this class will definitely be much different. This semester will be my first time using technology like WizIQ, and I'm not sure that I like it so far. The idea behind it is great - all of us meeting to discuss the course material. However, that is hard to do when our technology is failing us. I don't know about anyone else, but I was having a really hard time getting the program to work. Half of the time I couldn't hear and I had to restart my computer about three-four times over the course of the class. Hopefully our next meeting will run more smoothly!

Although the course can become overwhelming (we all know trying to balance working, classes, and school work can get really stressful), I'm confident that I will learn effective ways to incorporate technology into teaching and learning. I look forward to building upon my current knowledge of  technology and expanding my repertoire of resources to utilize in my future classroom. Throughout our next assignment, I plan on experimenting with technologies I haven't had a chance to use thus far in my education. Good luck everyone!