Reaching our students—easier or more difficult than before? To answer, go back to your first year of teaching or your freshman year of high school when your teachers were reaching you, or trying to.
In the digital era, we may feel like shouting or at least hitting Caps Lock before responding: more difficult! The sense of competition with digital tools breeds a kind of exasperation—how do I get my students’ attention, much less sustain it for an entire lesson and string enough of these together to cover the standards?
When we leverage the digital tools that define our students as digital residents and make their tools our tools, we get closer to reaching them at the very least. Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm have long advocated bringing together in-school and out-of-school literacies (Michael W. Smith, Temple University, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Boise State University).
The E-Book Experience
Daily independent reading on wide-ranging topics and across varied genres is a key way our students become proficient readers as they increase vocabulary, and apply metacognitive and comprehension strategies, while gaining information. This is not news to our ears! Using e-books can bring together our students’ digital residency with best practices we know that align to balanced literacy. CAN, but how? In conversations I’ve had with teachers in many school districts, I hear the concerns:
How do we provide students with appropriate texts, matched to their specific reading level with e-books? How do we support students, based on their reading levels so that they engage with text successfully? How do we address accountability?
As reading teachers, these questions haunt us—we want students to have the e-book, digital reading experience they will connect most readily to, but we also demand (rightfully so!) the same care we use to select print texts.
Consider an e-library, with precisely leveled texts, such that a student’s virtual library card provides access only to those texts appropriate to the student, taking reading level and (for our ELLs) language level into careful account.
Customization options in e-books are astounding and make differentiating the e-book experience easy and efficient. The ability to place support through virtual sticky notes on virtual pages at the point of use takes differentiation to a new level. You may have taught the vocabulary strategy of using context clues to determine meaning. So, in the e-book you have assigned to a group of students who need to practice this strategy, you notice the text:
Pourquoi tales often point out character flaws, or foibles, that people have, such as being boastful, proud, or impatient.
How helpful would it be to these students to place a virtual sticky note for them right in the margin that reads: “What is another word for “foible”? Give an example.” Students respond on the virtual sticky note.
With this feature, we serve quite a few “masters”: differentiation, strategy application, and accountability.
So, while the e-book experience may not replace the valuable experiences our students have with print books, they open doors that print books can’t and at the same time motivate and engage students, our digital residents who live in the same digital neighborhood as e-books.
You may enjoy perspectives on e-books from No Shelf Required as well as author Michael Pastore who has recently written, 50 Benefits of Ebooks, A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Digital Reading Revolution.
The other day, my son asked me why I like to read and his dad doesn’t. Good question! I really didn’t have an answer, other than thinking about the way I grew up. In my childhood, household reading was what we did. Every night before bed, my parents read to me. As I grew older, I was allowed to stay up thirty minutes past my bedtime to read on my own (motivating me even more—who doesn’t want to stay up late?). Reading was simply a habit I developed early on and luckily still enjoy doing today.
Now, as my own household winds down (kids in bed), I find myself heading upstairs to read as my husband heads downstairs to watch TV. What motivates me to want to read? The answer is that I enjoy it.
A few years ago, I read a great article when trying to find strategies to motivate students in classrooms. The article was called Motivating Children Who Don’t Like to Read* by Alan Haskvitz. He comments that, “Motivating a young person to read starts with a good example. And that is the parent. Research has clearly shown that the most important base for a successful student is a mother who conveys a positive attitude about school to her child. Without this role model the chances of a child becoming an avid reader diminish.”
It seems pretty simple, right? But as children get older, it gets harder to compete with sports, after school activities, and friends. So how can books compete? Haskvitz provides some really great ideas in his article, and I think the key idea that he states is to focus on the type of child you are dealing with. There seems to be two types of readers who may choose not to read. My husband is a perfect example of a reluctant reader. He can read just fine, but he chooses not to! He is a reluctant reader in the sense that he is “reluctant” to pursue reading as an enjoyable activity. The second type of reader is one who struggles with reading. We may call this reader a “struggling” reader because he or she finds reading frustrating (which obviously makes the task unenjoyable).
I think technology may be the key for both readers. We are learning quickly that technology is an important part of children growing up in this day and age. I noticed at my children’s school they have been encouraging students to read e-books. The newer e-books now even allow children to interact with the books. Books are not simply a passive event. Students can place sticky notes with comments, circle words they don’t understand, and highlight areas where they have a question. Any of this interactivity could motivate a reluctant or a struggling reader! As much as I love a traditional book in my hands, I really see the motivation technology can provide students, whether they are struggling or simply reluctant to read.
Below are some websites that may provide further support:
I love Benchmark Education. I always have. So when I was approached to write this blog entry, I jumped at the chance to share my experiences.
I’ve been a teacher in Eastchester, NY, schools (in 2nd grade, 1st grade, and Kindergarten) for more than 15 years and have used Benchmark Education products for the vast majority of that time. I feel like Benchmark knows what teachers need and offers it in so many different ways, for example talking talking e-books, audio CDs, and skill bags, which keep kids entertained.
I love two recent trends that I’ve seen in elementary classrooms to inspire literacy: Reader’s Theater and interactive whiteboards. I’ve tried to capitalize on these trends as much as I can, and Benchmark Education has helped me do that.
First, Reader’s Theater. I am a big fan! When I was a 2nd grade teacher, I built a very small theater with a curtain. It had wheels, and I would invite the students to learn a production and then send them “on the road” to visit other classes and share their vision. My favorite was Jacques Cousteau’s Under the Sea. I only wish that I had more props like puppets to help illustrate the tale, but often the money is coming out of my pocket, which can be challenging. Now I’ve been using the Reader’s Theater for Kindergarten, and am very excited about developing new lessons around these books.
Second, whiteboards. Wow, what a revolution! I am a techie, besides being a teacher, and I love teaching visually using the Smartboard. It’s compelling but also productive. I think that kids today need to know how to be familiar with and navigate electronics; otherwise they will be left behind. I use a wireless keyboard for the whiteboard, so I can sit anywhere in the class and facilitate the discussion successfully. The kids seem to love it, and more importantly, learn from it.
Outside the class, I find kids being consistently stimulated through the computer and other electronic devices. This is a trend that won’t disappear but will likely further grow. And Benchmark Education gets that the way other companies don’t. I am easily able to create lessons and have the support through Benchmark.
I don’t know where I would be without Benchmark Education.
Today at Benchmark Education we were reminiscing about the days when we used a typewriter to complete all of our school assignments and went to the library to do all of our research. Now a typewriter is as arcane as an abacus, and students look at me quizzically when I mention Wite-Out® (a staple in my high school English classroom).
New technologies have transformed every aspect of our lives. We now balance our checkbooks online; we buy our groceries online; and we chat with our friends online. No part of our lives remains untouched . . . certainly not our children’s education.
Students now use computers to complete their assignments and the Internet to do their background research. But computers and the Internet have done more than give students a one-stop shop for gathering and synthesizing information. The 21st-century classroom uses technology to become:
- More efficient: Through portals like Google Sites, Weebly, Edmodo, and Wiki Spaces, teachers can create engaging classroom websites to keep parents and kids up-to-date on the latest assignments, school announcements, and relevant news articles or videos.
- More connected: Through videoconferencing, chat rooms, and e-mail, classrooms all around the country can connect as virtual pen pals of information and support.
- More responsive: Through chat rooms like TodaysMeet or Chatzy, teachers can create forums in the classroom so students can work together on group assignments or offer real-time critique and/or questions when listening to a lecture or a movie.
Teachers are beginning (purposeful emphasis on beginning) to become more sophisticated in using the technologies that are part of the fabric of their students’ lives. Technologies like Twitter, avatars, and blogs, which have become newly embedded in the teenage lexicon and reality, can enhance the classroom experience if used thoughtfully and creatively.
Twitter has even gotten actively involved through a partnership with TechNet, an advocate for technological innovation. Together they have launched a new nonprofit called ConvergeUS, which will (among other things) explore the use of cutting-edge technologies to support and improve reading, science, and math.
At Benchmark Education, we offer innovative educational technologies as part of Benchmark Universe. Our Talking E-Books provide the same excellence, leveled content, and differentiated instruction as our printed products, AND they are available online 24/7 for teachers and students. Click here to view the Benchmark Universe demo.
Of course, these new learning strategies beg the question: Will (and has) all this technology made the classroom experience more effective at reaching and teaching students? What do you think?
Check out these articles in Harvard Education Letter and Education Week for more information.
