Literacy Now

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School is out for summer! Is there anything better than the first days of summer break? I always have a ton of plans for the productive things I will do with my time off—after taking a few days for myself, of course.

Summer break provides teachers with a much-needed chance to relax and regroup after a stressful school year, but it also presents us with an opportunity to continue our own education without having to be absent from our classrooms.

My favorite way to engage in professional development activities during the summer months is by finding sources of online content that is geared towards my needs and interests. By engaging in online learning, I can remain in the comfort of my own home and even follow my own schedule. As an added bonus, many of the opportunities offered online are free, and some even provide Continuing Education (CE) credits. (And don’t think I forgot about apps—there’s one of those, too!)

TeachersFirst is a website that offers tons of teacher resources, including both live and archived professional development sessions on topics that range from blogging in the classroom to working with parents. The sessions are short and easy to manage on a tight schedule. Certificates of completion are available for live session participants, which allows teachers to get CE credits.

Coursera is available both online and through a mobile app, which adds an element of flexibility to the resources that are offered. Coursera's content includes a variety of college-level topics, including teacher education in subjects such as student assessment, using 21st century skills in the classroom, and educational philosophy. Some content is even available for non-English speakers. The courses are free and typically last around six weeks, with a statement of accomplishment being awarded upon completion. Many courses offer a Signature Track option; for a small fee, you’ll receive a verified certificate issued by Coursera and the partnering university.

Concept to Classroom is a website that offers free, self-paced workshops for professional educators. The range of topics is somewhat smaller on this site, but the workshops are intended to cover "hot topics" in the educational field. Some of the current offerings include “Cooperative and Collaborative Learning” and “Teaching to Academic Standards.” Participants can print completion certificates to be used for professional development credits.

EdWeb is another web-based professional development resource that conducts both live sessions and houses a library of archived sessions to aid teachers in completing professional development. Live session participants will receive CE credits, but in the event that you are unable to participate in the live session, you can view the archived material and complete a quiz in order to earn credit. Upcoming topics include digital citizenship, early literacy instruction for students on the autism spectrum, and integrating stretch texts. The topics are timely and highly relevant for practicing teachers.

The Teaching Channel takes a little different approach than the rest of the resources listed here. The professional development is informal, and all the resources are created by teachers to be shared with their colleagues. The website houses a massive collection of videos that range from subject area lesson plans to models of best practices and new teaching methods. The variety is incredible, and the videos are an excellent source of inspiration for a teacher who is looking to bring something new to the classroom.

Engaging in continuing education is essential to staying up-to-date in a profession that changes at such a rapid pace. Online sources such as these allow teachers to work from home while taking advantage of the extra time that summer break provides. If hiring a babysitter and spending warm, beautiful days in a conference room doesn't appeal to you, take the time to explore these options. Kick back, relax, and learn at your own pace!

Lindsey Fuller is a sixth grade teacher in Decatur, Illinois. Her interests are classroom technology integration, literacy instruction, and Common Core curriculum development and implementation. You can read more from Lindsey on these topics at her blog, Tales of a 6th Grade Classroom.

In October, our article, Science Writer and Universal Design for Learning, Stacey Reed, a seventh grade life science teacher in Wayland, Massachusetts, presented ideas for how to use Science Writer, a free interactive web-based instructional tool to support students’ writing scientific reports. Based on the framework of Universal Design for Learning, Science Writer provides students with many choices and levels of support for learning. Student engagement is increased by the fact that each student makes decisions about how much or how little support they require while they develop the report. Stacey also shared a chart that she developed highlighting the process she uses to engage students in designing good experiments, asking good questions and communicating their thoughts in a scientific manner. In this article, Stacey will share additional ideas she uses to support student engagement with the scientific process.

The culminating assignment of a course I took a couple of years ago was the seemingly mundane assignment of giving a presentation to the class on a topic with a partner. One twist, however, was that I had never met any of the classmates I had been working with for the past several weeks. There was also the small detail of my partner living in Singapore with a 12-hour time difference. My partner and I had to work out how to work asynchronously online to create a product. In the human body unit, I strove to provide my students with a similar experience in order to prepare them for the asynchronous collaborative environments of their future study and work.

Before researching, we built some background knowledge in a flipped classroom. Students accessed information via my website and completed Google forms before conducting experiments during class. The information included videos from TedEd, BrainPop, and news clips, as well as articles. Many students found the text-to-speech feature (found in many browsers as Edit--->Speech) particularly useful while developing technical vocabulary. Students are intrinsically interested and have many specific questions during this human anatomy unit of my life science classroom. Conducting a research project is a great way to channel these questions and, in the process, tap in to various CCSS standards while accomplishing major NGSS content standards. This project was heavily influenced by the NGSS cross-cutting concept of structure and function, and the body system content standard of MS-LS1-3. Students also evaluated resources and collaboratively published a research project, utilizing standards from CCSS, specifically ELA.W.7.6-8.

Reed's students present their posters
about life science

In order to accomplish these goals, students from different sections of my science classes then chose health issue topics and were matched, with each topic being unique. Many were matched with unfamiliar classmates. A few students remarked that being able to work asynchronously instead of sitting next to their partner allowed them to feel less stressed and work at their own pace. About a third of students worked only face-to-face with their partner, whereas the majority of students used at least one asynchronous communication tool.

Students used a common Google Doc of research cards from my copied template to record their research. Each card had space to record the keywords used, the relevant subtopic, the direct quote, a paraphrase, and bibliographic information. Having both the direct quote and the paraphrase on the same page allowed me to evaluate their understanding and, if needed, direct towards more accessible reading. Google Advanced Search and many library catalogs allow students to search for information at various levels. Students devised many different strategies to organize the information on the shared document, many using color-coding to signify subtopics and card ownership.

Students then took their information and created a research poster in Google Slides, copied from a template. The template was modeled from research posters I had created in college and graduate school to explain my research during poster sessions. Students could choose to use a guided template or work from a blank version. When the information was complete and all of the sources were cited, students submitted their work to a shared Google Drive folder. I then printed and hung the 24”x36” posters, and students had their own poster session. Students had prepared answers for at least five mandatory questions that faculty would assess, but also for the back and forth of a conversation. With technical vocabulary like “anterior tibial tubercle” and “leukocytes” used in conversation during the session, students demonstrated how expert in their fields they had become.

Sample Google Slides Projects

Sample Research Card

Peggy Coyne is a Research Scientist at CAST, Inc.

Stacey Reed is a seventh grade life science teacher in Wayland, MA.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG). 

photo credit: magnusfranklin via photopin cc

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets provide students with digital tools without being tethered to the confines of the classroom the way other computers do. As you plan your next class trip to museums, historical sites, or even to the backyard of your school, consider how these unique devices can support your students with content area learning and research in the field. 

Answering Questions 

While on a trip, student questions can be answered through apps to help personalize their learning. Questions can be dictated to the device or a picture can be taken to identify a painting or landmark using Google’s search app to gain context.  There are specialized databases that help students identify and analyze objects in their surroundings. For example, the LeafSnap app helps identify and provide information on a tree based on a picture of a leaf you’ve taken, while the Merlin Bird ID app helps you to identify birds through a series of questions. Other apps such as Google Earth or NASA’s Earth Now app  provide students with geographic, climate, and other useful information from satellites to help explore beyond the classroom.

Documenting Learning in the Field

Mobile devices can also help students document the experience of the trip. One of the easiest ways for students to record their experiences is through the mobile device’s built-in camera.  Even our youngest students can take pictures of places, events, or artifacts found in museum exhibits or historical sites. Students can also use free audio apps to dictate notes and record interviews with experts or tour guides. There are many note taking apps (such as Evernote or Notability) that integrate both photos and audio recording within writing. Some of these programs allow you to work offline and synchronize your notes when you are back online. All of their documentation can be reviewed and referenced when you return to the classroom.

Sharing With Others 

After the trip, there are many publishing tools students can use to communicate what they’ve learned. Many of these apps allow students to publish with multiple media through different formats. Students can annotate their photos using Skitch, create a narrated slideshow using Adobe Voice, or create multimedia e-books through apps such as Book Creator. Aurasma allows students to create their own virtual reality tours in which they embed pictures, documents, or videos within a location so that others can view them when they use the program there. There are a number of possibilities for students to create and share their thoughts!

Teaching Toward Success

Similar to teaching literacy skills and strategies, students need explicit teaching, modeling, and practice to become independent and creative with these unique tools. Prior to the trip, students will need time to use the devices so they are less of a distraction and are seamless during the trip.  

To help students engage with the practice of being fluent with these tools, consider using a structured activity such as a digital scavenger hunt. Students use their mobile devices to track down a person, place, or thing in order to record it, learn about it, and to share it with others. Some middle and high schools have used this format to help freshman learn about their school community as they use the device to scan for clues and locate important places within the school. Students then take pictures of those locations and ultimately construct a multimedia student handbook that they can share with others. 

By engaging students with the inquiry process, class trips, and digital tools, learning in the field with mobile devices can be a memorable and enriching experience. 

William Yang (william.c.yang@gmail.com) is an Educational Technology Teacher and Staff Developer for the Scarsdale Public Schools in New York. 

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association's Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG). 

Each time I get an email from Dr. Julie Coiro, the organizer and leader of the International Reading Association's Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG) article efforts, I get excited. I can’t wait to see what the next group of authors will target as part of the “Technology in Literacy Education” segment of Reading Today Online. What is even more exciting is the moment when the e-mail arrives that shows it’s my turn to contribute to this growing body of information for literacy educators. This opportunity is both exhilarating and a bit daunting as I begin to think of my assignment to share helpful blogs and the many excellent teacher education blogs available to highlight in my article.

I typically begin my work by reviewing the “best teacher blogs” through several sources. Scholastic, Edublog, and Education World, among others, offer great lists of notable education blogs to assist readers as they begin to consider using blog information as part of their personal professional development activities. Of more recent interest has been Teach 100, a daily ranking of the top 100 education blogs. Teach 100 evaluates blogs using four weighted criteria:    

1. Social (40%): Engagement based on shares in social media spaces including Facebook, Twitter, and Stumble Upon and the number of shares pointing back to the 10 most recent posts and main area of interest
2. Activity (20%): The frequency of blog updates
3. Authority (20%): Authority and influence based on the number of sites linking to the blog
4. Teach score (20%): The only subjective measure in the rating system which addresses the use of media in the blog, the timeliness of content and how it is discussed, the ability of the blog to inform, and the overall blog presentation (Teach 100, 2014)

What is interesting about this rating system? Look closely! How does this weighting match or contradict your own ideas related to what makes a quality education blog? A full 40% of the rating is based on the social engagement of others in the reading experience. One might ask whether popularity is an indicator of blog quality and if so, should it be weighted at this level? 

The Teach 100 rating system is indicative of one of the fast trends outlined in the 2014 New Media Consortium Horizon Report and the continuing impact of social media on the way quality of content is judged by the reading public. Horizon fast trends are projected to drive change in higher education within the next one to two years, but one might argue that this trend has already hit the mainstream with a vengeance. The Horizon Report notes that “As social networks continue to flourish, educators are using them as professional communities of practice, as learning communities, and as a platform to share interesting stories about topics students are studying in class. Understanding how social media can be leveraged for social learning is a key skill for teachers…” (Johnson, Adams-Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2014, p. 8).  Becoming involved in the educational blogosphere is one way teachers can begin to drive the discussion of what is important in today’s classrooms and leverage social media to influence educational policy.

As you continue to consider educational blogs for your own learning needs, you might test the credibility of the Teach 100 ratings, by checking out one of the top blogs listed today! (Number 3, Edutopia, definitely deserves a look.)

Joan Rhodes is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Reading Program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

References

Teach 100. (2014, May).  About teach100.  Retrieved from http://teach.com/about-teach100

Johnson, L., Adams-Becker, S., Estrada, V., Freeman, A. (2014). NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium.

Spring is finally making an appearance, and with it many teachers are enjoying a spring break—or beginning to make plans for summer break. For many of us, time off means an opportunity to invest in professional development. The IRA 59th Annual Conference is just around the corner, and many other organizations take advantage of the traditional school schedule to hold conferences during the summer months. 

Technology has become an ever-present facet of our lives, and few of us are without our means of staying connected regardless of where we are. Phones, tablets, and laptops have allowed us to freely utilize the benefits of technology when we are away from home. When it comes time to attend a conference, these apps and websites have many advantages to offer the tech-savvy traveler.

KAYAK
Available as both a mobile app and a website, this service not only has the functionality to allow travelers to book flights, hotels, and car rentals, but will also help you manage on a budget. It is an efficient search engine with a reputation for finding the best deals available. Even better, you can set push notifications to let you know if a price drop occurs that might change your plans.

TripAdvisor
Similar to KAYAK, TripAdvisor offers the ability to make arrangements for flights and lodgings. Users can also find restaurants and attractions, with the ability to search from the user's current location. The biggest advantage of this service is the user reviews and photos, which are essential for visiting an unfamiliar location. Another great feature is a discussion forum, which allows travelers to interact with other users and glean useful information.

HootSuite
Conferences offer incredible opportunities to learn, but it is impossible to be everywhere at once.  HootSuite can help by allowing you to monitor all of your social media accounts—as well as specific hashtags, such as #IRA14—all from one app. Attendees want to get the most out of their limited time, and sometimes the choice of which session to attend is excruciating.  Maximize your learning experience by keeping in touch with other attendees through social media—find out the important points from sessions you couldn't attend, learn where the action is if you find yourself in a session that isn't what you hoped, and interact with others to reflect on what you have learned.

TripIt
This travel organizer imports reservation information from confirmation emails and sets up an itinerary to keep you organized and running on schedule. You can also add your own events, check weather conditions, see time zone changes, and more. Even better, it integrates with Apple, Outlook, and Google calendars to keep all of your events and notifications in one place.  From travel details to conference session locations to dinner plans, every part of your travel experience can be brought together to maximize your enjoyment of your time away.

Concur
If you are traveling on someone else's dime or are able to deduct your expenses, it is vital to keep excellent records in order to be properly reimbursed. This service allows you to keep track of all of your expenses, photograph receipts so they won't be lost, and itemize costs. The entire process of organizing and submitting travel expenses can be paperless and worry-free. As an added bonus, Concur integrates with TripIt to give travelers an even more streamlined experience.

Evernote
When attending conference sessions, taking notes is a must. Simplify things and go the paperless route—no more searching for a pen or losing loose pages. Evernote is one of those apps that does just about everything you could want—import slides and pictures, type notes, make lists, record audio, and more. When you are finished, email the final product to yourself or your colleagues or share via social media. 

Triposo
This service offers downloadable travel guides for destinations around the world—including New Orleans, if you are planning on attending IRA 2014. The guides offer general information and photographs for locations. It also suggests points of interest and boasts interactive maps that allow users to zoom in, find a nearby attraction, and tap for details and social media reviews. Users can also find contact information, book tours, and bookmark favorites within searches. If you aren't sure what to do with your downtime, this app has all the information you need!

IRA 2014 App
Finally, as a tech savvy conference attendee, you should always check to see if there is an app available for the big event. If you are heading to New Orleans this week for the IRA’s 59th Annual Conference, make sure to download the official app. It allows you to plan your itinerary, search for sessions, learn about upcoming events, speakers, and exhibitors, and get the most up-to-date information. You can even download maps of the event site and find sessions based on your current location!

These apps and services are only the tip of the iceberg—an enormous variety of similar products are available to meet your needs and suit your tastes. The learning opportunities offered by attending a conference aren't confined to the physical location of the event, so take advantage of the chance to put some technology tools to the test while you travel and reap the benefits!

Lindsey Fuller is a sixth grade teacher in Decatur, Illinois. Her interests are classroom technology integration, literacy instruction, and Common Core curriculum development and implementation. You can read more from Lindsey on these topics at her blog, Tales of a 6th Grade Classroom.