Literacy Now

My e-learning journey began when I joined Kidlink, a multicultural non-profit organization created by a Norwegian named Odd de Presno. His main idea was to establish a global network to promote collaboration and communication among youth from 10 to 15 years old. Within a few years of its creation, the Kidlink community grew connecting more than 190 countries.

It was an amazing experience as we explored not only the potential of the Internet but also the kids' creative learning. The organization has become an Association but still runs its projects all over the world. I believe this is a good example of the use of technology to build multicultural bridges and lessen the digital divide.

The first step to register in Kidlink is to answer four questions: (1) Who am I?, (2) What do I want to be when I grow up?, (3) How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?, and (4) What can I do now to make this happen? The answers to these questions populate a database that consists of rich material for collaborative projects implemented throughout the network. The material can offer good support to curriculum integration such as in writing, to express personal thoughts and compare and contrast ideas, or in mathematics, to analyze and interpret data using diagrams and graphics.

The role of such a project in a globalized world is highlighted through a range of issues involving citizenship trends. By sharing a range of opinions and developing familiarity with different ideas, students overcome communication barriers and solve problems in a more cooperative manner. This way, as adults, they will take a more global and long-term perspective on issues, rather than acting to maximize local, short-term interests. In addition, Kidlink's participants live in countries from all over the world; in societies that have very different views on social, ethical, legal, religious, and moral issues. Kidlink encourages participants to value these differences and use them to gain insight into multiple views of a particular issue. In all activities, kids are free to honestly express their own views.

Most of the projects had the goal of supporting students as they share information, experiences, and resources with their peers who have similar aspirations, and effectively use their knowledge and information tools. Together, they investigate alternatives and propose solutions to better their future world. Some of the projects, such as the multicultural calendar and the multicultural recipe book, also help students strive to protect their traditions and roots, which in turn, helps them understand and respect themselves and their culture.

Online collaborative and multicultural projects such as those associated with Kidlink develop cross-curricular competencies that form the cornerstone for 21st century learning. These competencies, along with the 4Cs—Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity—are key to student success in college, career, and citizenship. 

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

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

Recently, I was in a professional meeting and an administrator mentioned that the teachers who he considers experts in using technology to support student learning will not be the teachers who you will always witness using technology with students when you enter the classroom. He went on to explain that the key element in someone being an expert is knowing when and how to use digital tools to foster and promote student learning.

Upon further reflection, I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with these statements. Teaching in today’s digital world provides us with a plethora of opportunities and tools. However, our focus should still remain upon our students and what they need. The assertion that “good teaching is good teaching” still rings true today; just because we have more options does not mean that those options are intrinsically better than practices we have used in the past.

With that thought in mind, I wanted to share some strategies used with one tool that has proven to be very effective in promoting the learning of my diverse learners.

The Writing on the Wall

This year, I moved to a new school. Since I had the opportunity to totally re-think the classroom learning space, I did a lot of research about how to design an environment that promoted creative and reflective thinking. I wanted a space that would establish balance and calm while still sparking conversation and meaningful learning. (You can check out my Learning Spaces Pinterest board.)

One idea that continued to pop up in different posts was to create spaces where students could collaborate and notate. This needs to be a space that is readily available, but also can adapt based on the needs of the learners. I came to the conclusion that I needed to have an “idea wall.” This would be an entire wall in my classroom that I can paint any color and then put a top coat over it that turns the entire wall into a dry erase board. We chose to use Idea Paint, but there are other choices available to you in different price ranges.

Now I have this blank canvas that literally stretches from floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall. The first time I “accidentally” wrote on the wall, the students had a massive, collective gasp. Once they realized that it was a dry erase board, they cheered and ideas of ways to use it erupted.

Of course, like with any novelty, students need an opportunity to play with any new tool. We began by having students share their knowledge of different punctuation practices that can impact the successful conveyance of meaning in one’s writing to an audience. Students eagerly gathered around, dry erase pens in hand to add their bits of knowledge into one collective bank of information. As we discussed their choices, students began adding to one another’s ideas and justifying the choices that they made in adding to the wall.

A Fly on the Wall

When we participated in the Global Read Aloud, I added “Quotes That Speak to Me” onto the wall. I wanted students to think deeply about the text that they were reading in OUT OF MY MIND, by Sharon Draper, and WONDER, by R. J. Palacio. My goal was for them to consciously look at a text in the greater framework of their lives, making connections, drawing conclusions, and analyzing how an author writes to share others voices to teach all of us about different perspectives. 

The choices that they made in sharing quotes from each book throughout this project gave me insight into how each learner viewed the world and how they were changing as not only readers, but also as individuals in their perspective of the world around them and their role within it. One student commented at the end of the Global Read Aloud that she was sad to see us erase the wall because it seemed to be living and growing alongside us as we read those two amazing books. Immediately, students broke out their devices to shoot photos and videos to document that learning experience. It became very personal to each of them.

While involved in a mystery unit, we used our wall in two different ways. We were reading THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY, by Sioban Dowd, which included many British phrases and colloquialisms unfamiliar to my students.  The wall became a collaborative, evolving glossary to serve a resource while reading. Students became experts at using context clues to determine meaning. The other way we used it was as a “motherboard” in analyzing the text structure of a mystery. Students determined suspects, clues, and red herrings and wrote them on the wall. They learned to dissect the text critically to make valid predictions that could be supported by citing text evidence. The sharing of their independent ideas on our wall sparked many discussions amongst small groups of students. The wall was making their thinking visible to their peers, thus deepening the learning of all.

The Thunderous Silence

Yet another way that our idea wall had played an important part in our learning environment was when I facilitated a Chalk Talk. This is a strategy that asks students to respond to a quote, idea, text, or open ended-question, using only their written words. There must be complete silence while they reflect, respond, and generate new ideas. Students must actively read not only the text, but also one another’s comments and respond accordingly.

I wrote a poem up on our wall. It was one that included much imagery, figurative language, and some deep meaning. Like most poetry, much is left up to an individual’s interpretation. I explained Chalk Talk procedures with my learners, handed each of them a dry erase marker and stepped back to let them proceed. Initially, I anticipated that this learning activity would have the duration of ten to fifteen minutes. 

After thirty minutes of complete silence and active written conversations on the idea wall, they were still going strong. At the conclusion, my students demonstrated the ability to analyze a poem, identify elements, make connections with other pieces of literature, apply lines to personal experience, and value one another’s ideas, and empathize on a level many believe middle level students are incapable.

Wall to Wall

Could some of these activities have been done digitally? Yes, I will admit there are tools that provide students with similar abilities. However, what is missing with those tools that the idea wall provides is the human element. With our idea wall, every student had a voice. Having our idea wall strengthened the climate of our learning environment; everyone had a crucial role to play by sharing on the wall.  Without everyone sharing, the students realized their learning would not be as great. This wall facilitated thinking in a way I had not experienced using technology. It promoted the importance of each individual’s voice while fostering face-to-face conversation that some middle school students shy away from in class.

Does this mean we will stop using digital tools? Absolutely not. We use many different technology tools to support learning. However, one of the first things that my learners share with visitors to our classroom in person or when we Skype with others is the fact that “we get to write on the wall.”  It’s become an integral part of their learning and their learning space. Every student has different needs. That is why as a teacher, we must take time to find the right tool at the right time, whether it’s digital or not.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com. 

© 2014 Julie D. Ramsay. Please do not reproduce in any form, electronic or otherwise.

January is a time rife with resolutions—to be more organized, to work more efficiently, to spend more time researching new teaching ideas. When I am asked about apps for the classroom, my brain immediately begins cataloging the variety of programs that have been designed for students. But what about the teachers? We have so many needs—record keeping, parent communication, and lesson planning are just the beginning of a seemingly never-ending list. When apps for education are discussed, students get the bulk of the focus, and rightly so. But a great variety of apps also exist specifically for teachers, and we should be sharing these finds just as enthusiastically. So...just what is out there, exactly? What apps can help you achieve your goals for the New Year?

p: atmtx via photopin cc

In light of the tight budgets and lacking resources that many districts are facing, do-it-yourself professional development is a significant need for educators. And of course, there are apps for that!

TeacherCast Pro is an app that simplifies online learning for teachers. It puts app reviews, instructional videos, podcasts, blogs, chat rooms, and other professional content all in one place, making access quick and easy. The resources offered within the app address many education topics and are especially valuable for anyone who finds it overwhelming to sort through the clutter of internet searches—or for anyone who just doesn't have the time to do so. This app allows teachers to save time and effort while enhancing their own teaching abilities.

appoLearning is an app with a similar concept—it brings a collection of varied resources to one place, giving teachers an organized and easy to navigate final product. The difference is that appoLearning is focused specifically on apps for the classroom. It offers articles and expert insight on selecting apps, as well as suggestions broken down by grade level and content area. In addition, users can submit app suggestion lists based on specific topics. This is an excellent resource for language arts teachers using mobile technology in the classroom, whether they are looking for something specific or just browsing to get ideas.

Another area of great need for teachers is classroom organization and management. One of the many benefits of technology in the classroom is the array of available tools to simplify these tasks.

Status of the Class is an app that allows teachers to make lists and groupings in a digital form, replacing all the paper lists and notes that have an alarming tendency to go missing at critical moments. More than just a list-maker, notes can be added with student names, giving teachers flexibility in how they utilize this app. From creating guided reading groups to keeping track of permission slips to creating homework logs, Status of the Class is simple and easy-to-use, making it a brilliant classroom companion.

Another incredible selection, iDoceo, just might be a dream come true. This app allows teachers to track attendance, make seating charts, plan lessons, record grades, and store student contact information—for multiple classes! Data can easily be imported or exported, and sensitive information can be password protected. This app may take a little effort to learn, but it streamlines the process of organizing student information. Finally, all the necessary tools to accomplish the many daily tasks of teachers can be found in one neat little package.

Classroom management has another time-consuming component: data tracking. Whether you are working with IEP goals or RTI data, teachers know that organization is essential to keeping up with how students are progressing. Super Duper Data Tracker is an app designed to track student academic goals. Simply set up a profile for each student, enter goals, and can then record the time spent on each goal and the progress towards mastery. Data can be graphed as well as shared electronically, and students can be added to multiple groups. This app makes data collection a breeze!

What are you hoping to achieve this year? These selections are only a small sampling of the apps available for teachers, with more being added all the time. If one doesn't quite meet your needs, another offering may suit you perfectly. Whatever your resolutions for the New Year may be, chances are good that an app exists to help you achieve your goals.

Lindsey Fuller

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

In October’s column, “How Do We Know What They Know?,” I shared some ways that we can assess our students to determine exactly what they know and design our instruction to meet those needs. But, now that we have that data, where do we go next?

Often, when you are looking at a class of twenty five students that means you have twenty five different areas of need. If you are teaching an English Language Arts class, that is often compounded by the fact that each student has a different level of mastery in the standards of grammar and mechanics, reading, and writing. If you broke those broad areas down even further, the sheer volume of data that we would have for one class becomes mind-boggling. Does contemplating this cause anyone else to become overcome with overwhelm?

Getting Directions

The world of a teacher involves so much more than just the face-to-face time we have with our learners. Our attention and energy are pulled in so many directions, threatening to cause us to derail in our true mission: meeting the needs of each and every learner, each and every day. At times, it’s tempting to return to whole-group instruction simply because it is easier to manage the time. No matter how well we plan and schedule, the reality is that we live in a world with students, students who are always changing. How do we balance time and provide students with meaningful, personalized feedback to direct their growth?

The great advantage of living in the digital age is that there are tools that can help us meet our needs. The real trick is finding the ones that can easily be embedded to support not only our teaching practice, but also the individualized instruction our learners need to continue down the path of their learning journey.

One fabulous feedback option is through their individual blogs. Those of you who are familiar with my classroom know that blogging is an integral part of the learning process for my students. They use their blogs to reflect on their learning, connect with their global peers, publish their writing, set personal goals, and share their voices with the world. My learners are voracious writers because their writing is meaningful and purposeful. They have an authentic audience who will respond and push them to think deeper. And as amazing as all of this student-directed learning is, on KidBlog, the home of all of this fabulous-ness, my favorite feature is the private commenting.

With KidBlog, you can set the safety standards of who can view blogs or make comments and when they live online. For my students, I have the setting where every post and comment must be read and approved by me. With it set in this way. I read everything that my students are writing. Once a post is approved, the blog administrator (classroom teacher) has the ability to submit comments to students that can only be viewed by the blog’s author.

Private comments are the perfect opportunity to ask probing questions, redirect a line of thinking, conduct some reteaching, or provide a new link for further study. Many times, my comments request that the students make changes in a comment on their original post. Because blog posts and comments are published chronologically, it shows a student’s growth while also documenting the feedback and dialogue. Often my students will look back on a previous line of learning on one of their different blog posts as a reminder of their growth and how to push themselves further down the learning path.

A Different Route

While providing feedback on blog posts is a fantastic way to personalize instruction, most times those conversations are asynchronous. The dialogue may take place throughout the course of several days. However, there are times when synchronous conversation is needed. My students are involved in much collaborative writing. In those cases, since more than one student is working on a piece of writing, timely, synchronous feedback becomes more crucial to keep each individual headed in the right direction.

p: jonny goldstein via photopin cc

Enter Google Drive. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the benefits of Drive and probably use it yourself. However, the ability to have multiple students working on one document or presentation from different devices or locations takes collaboration to a whole different level. I can have one student curled up on the floor with pillows and his iPad while another one is sitting at a classroom desktop computer and another student is sitting at their desk using their smartphone all working on the same document at the same time.

I teach in a district where every student (and teacher) already has an assigned Google account. However, there are several tutorials online about how to assign students accounts using only one teacher Gmail account. All notifications will be sent to the teacher’s account, not the students’.

Once the students are logged on, one student from the group will need to invite the other students and the teacher to share and edit that document. Then students can begin working on their part of the document. What is fantastic about this option is that anyone invited can also make comments, which appear on the side of the document or presentation. That means that as the teacher, you can confer with many different students while they are writing from your computer (I usually have multiple tabs open and work on several pieces at the same time). Each collaborator is assigned a different color so that you can see the changes being made while they are making them.

You can reteach, redirect, and cause them to probe deeper. Your learners can respond to your comments; now you are having a synchronous conversation about their writing as they are writing. They can ask one another (or you) questions about the choices that are being made before they get to the end of writing their first draft. Once they have worked with the ideas from one comment, a student can mark it resolved.

The first time my students experience the synchronous conversation while they are writing, they are ecstatic. One student told me that this was the coolest thing she had ever done in school. I asked her to explain and she replied, “Well, with Drive, I’m able to see my writing from different people’s perspective. The comments make me think harder while I’m writing so I get a better piece when I’m done. I like that.”

Today’s digital age students live in a world of “right now.” They crave that instant feedback. Through Drive, I am able to give them guidance while not hovering over their shoulder. The feedback is timely and relevant for each student. Furthermore, the dialogue and learning are documented throughout each writing project providing a clear view of a student’s growth.

Full Speed Ahead

I realize that the options for providing student feedback are numerous. My intent was to provide you a map demonstrating how digital tools can support your drive to providing your learners meaningful, individualized, and timely feedback.

I am always on a hunt for new ideas. If you have a tool that you love using to provide feedback for your learners, please share it with all of us in a comment. With all of these ideas, before we know it, we’ll all be on the road headed to timely, personalized feedback for our students.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com. 

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A year and a half ago, I sat in my classroom on a late summer day and stared with trepidation at the giant vault-like cart that held the 24 iPads I would soon be integrating into my classroom. I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to enhance student learning through new technology, but it was already an overwhelming task. Here I was, with a new set of standards to teach, no curriculum to guide me in doing so, and a whole lot of devices which required me to change just about every aspect of how I taught. These concerns were only heightened as I came to realize that integrating technology into an upper elementary classroom largely focused on language arts instruction created challenges I had not anticipated.

p: teachingsagittarian via photopin cc

Ways to accomplish tasks digitally are pretty easy to dream up when it comes to math and science. But it is a little trickier with language arts. Sure, reading eBooks, doing research and typing instead of hand writing essays were no-brainers. But language arts instruction encompasses so much more, and truly incorporating mobile devices in such a way that made them vital to the learning process was a bit daunting. Especially once I came to realize that there was an obvious lack of language arts apps for older students. I needed graphic organizers, writing reference tools, games that reinforced language arts concepts. But few existed.

Fortunately, the incredible minds at ReadWriteThink.org have finally come to my rescue—and yours, too! If you are unfamiliar with ReadWriteThink.org, it is an amazing website bursting with free lesson plans and aids for teaching language arts. They also have wonderful online tools to help students practice language arts concepts. These have begun to be transformed into wonderful apps that are a huge relief to those of us who are working so hard to mesh technology with reading and writing instruction. My students and I have been using the apps in our classroom, and here are our thoughts:

Trading Cards is by far our favorite app of the bunch. Students enter the name of a topic, person, character, place, etc. The app then generates a trading card, and the student is prompted to answer some questions about their topic. The questions are excellent, and ensure that the student has a real understanding of the subject. The answers are then inserted into the card, and a picture is added to complete the project. My students first used this app while working on a social studies assignment that involved researching a famous event in history, and I asked them to do a trading card once they felt their knowledge was enough to teach the class. Many soon learned that they weren't quite ready to create a presentation and that more research and discussion was in order—the questions helped them to realize that they did not know their topic as well as they should.

Trading Cards is an excellent classroom tool that can be applied in so many creative ways. Saving, sharing, and printing the cards is very simple, and the app is even designed to allow for multiple users on the same device.

Venn Diagram is another ReadWriteThink.org app, and it is so simple, yet so necessary! It is really difficult to create a usable and readable Venn diagram on a tablet without using an app. This one fills the need perfectly. The default setting is for two rings, but a third ring can be added as necessary, and different colors can be utilized. Students create labels that contain the information to be sorted, and these can range in size depending on the needs of the user. It is very easy to use, and all of the ReadWriteThink.org apps provide easy sharing and storage options for finished products.

The RWT Timeline app is exactly what it sounds like, and it was the one I was most excited to see in the App Store. I use timelines often with my students, and I had tried several different methods for creating them digitally—with lackluster results, at best. Timeline allows students to create simple timelines with dates, details, and even pictures. It is very user-friendly, and my students were even able to edit their work without any difficulty. I was thrilled with how easy it was to create and share the timelines that so often accompany our research projects and book reports.

As if the apps already covered here weren't enough, ReadWriteThink.org also has three poetry apps on offer: Acrostic Poem, Diamante Poem, and Theme Poem. Each allows students to create original poetry in a different form, and they are versatile enough to use with younger students as well as older ones. The apps walk users through how to create the unique type of poem, making it fun for students and effortless for teachers. My students especially enjoyed the Theme Poem app, which offers a collection of shapes and figures to use as backgrounds in the finished products.

Alphabet Organizer is an app that is aimed at younger readers, and therefore my students did not spend any time with it. It is designed to allow students to enter words and pictures that are associated with each letter of the alphabet. The app is outside my range of expertise, but I am sure it has been designed with just as much thought and care as all the rest of the apps from ReadWriteThink.org  and would be worth downloading.

All of these apps are incredible resources for teachers who want to incorporate technology into their language arts instruction—students are practicing the application of new concepts and creating products to show their learning, using both technology and higher order thinking skills. In fact, these apps are so well-designed that students can use them independently—students are not only provided with necessary tools, but with instructional content that guides them through the process of applying skills and concepts.

With this collection, language arts concepts for older students are finally getting the attention they need in the world of mobile devices. We have enjoyed using them in our classroom immensely, and hope you will find them just as useful as we have!

The International Reading Association partners with the National Council of Teachers of English and Verizon Thinkfinity to produce ReadWriteThink.org, a website devoted to providing literacy instruction and interactive resources for grades K–12.