Literacy Now

As literacy educators return to their classrooms, some may look to online spaces for fresh ideas. Recent posts on this blog have suggested following Twitter hashtags or provided numerous sites for online professional development. Similarly recognizing that social networking tools can be a great source of learning for teachers, we offer this review of the English Companion Ning (ECN), an online community “where English teachers go to help each other.” ECN, first mentioned on this TILE-SIG blog post by William Yang, has become a valuable resource in our own work with university English language instructors in Pakistan (for Khan) and pre-service secondary English teachers in the U.S. (for Lammers).

With more than 42,000 members discussing all aspects of the English curriculum and contributing to numerous forums that offer collegial support, ECN is “a community dedicated to helping you enjoy your work.” Jim Burke, a high school English teacher in California, speaker and author of more than 20 books, created ECN in December 2008 to support novice and experienced teachers in developing their professional skills. In 2009, ECN won the Edublog award for “Best Educational Use of a Social Networking Service.”

ECN encourages English teachers to seek help from members in a friendly and informal way. Described as “a cafe without walls or coffee: just friends” (see the ECN homepage image), ECN is a free resource for connecting and sharing. After creating an account on ECN, teachers can chat, blog, upload images and videos, participate in existing forums, create their own discussion groups, join the ECN book club, and share lesson plans, activities, links, and other teaching-related resources. ECN offers online professional development from anywhere, anytime.

Being a new teacher can be overwhelming for even the best prepared in our profession. While beginning teachers may be hesitant to ask questions or request feedback from within their school building, ECN can help novices specifically due to the supportive nature of interactions between experienced and new teachers. For instance, one ECN member, a new teacher, posted that she needed help teaching Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Her question yielded a variety of lesson ideas from experienced teachers who previously taught this text. Some members shared links for engaging activities regarding Julius Caesar, while others pointed her to existing threads on ECN about teaching Shakespeare, because their great ideas for teaching Julius Caesar came directly from this site. Similarly, when asked to teach a new course or text, even experienced teachers can seek mentorship by tapping into ECN’s vast network of teachers willing to help and share ideas.

The helpful and cooperative environment of ECN develops a sense of social connection and belongingness among community members. Teachers need not feel isolated in their classrooms, they can reach out on ECN to receive almost immediate support from others. In one of many such examples on the site, one ECN member posted she was stuck in the midst of a project with her class and asked for suggestions for completing it soon. She got seven replies to her post that very day, each with different ideas. ECN members took interest in her project and provided constructive feedback. In return, she shared the revised project plan she completed with the help of ECN members. As members ask and answer questions, ECN fosters a sense of connection and collaboration. 

ECN’s members teach in classrooms around the world. The global nature of ECN connects members to a network of international colleagues, which is particularly helpful for English teachers in remote locations without access to professional development by other means. In addition to providing curriculum ideas, ECN serves as a source for career guidance. For instance, an English teacher in Iraq received assistance from a U.S. teacher in developing his research proposal for admission to a U.S. university. ECN is an international English department, connecting peers all over the globe.

ECN discussions are participant-driven and focus on what teachers want and need. When they get tasked with teaching something new, run into challenges in the classroom, feel lonely or isolated, or want to share successful lesson plans and strategies with others in the field, ECN can be a rich online resource for teachers.

Asma Khan is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester. She studies English as a Foreign Language teachers’ use of online spaces and can be reached at asma.yousafzai@gmail.com. Jayne C. Lammers is an assistant professor and director of the secondary English teacher preparation program at the University of Rochester. She studies adolescents’ literacy learning and can be reached at jlammers@warner.rochester.edu or on Twitter at @URocProf.

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

Screencasting tools such as Explain Everything allow teachers and students to create and share content with a wider audience. These dynamic applications allow users to annotate, animate and narrate slides. Slides can be illustrated by drawing, importing images from the web, or taking pictures with a device such as a smartphone or tablet. Presentations can also be uploaded using PowerPoint, Prezi or Keynote. Next, users simply click on the record button to narrate and explain the content of each slide. After completing the slides, the application compiles a movie file that can be exported and shared via the Internet in a variety of ways, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, e-mail, YouTube, or saved on the device for future viewing.

Explain Everything can be used in a myriad of ways in the classroom including publishing student writing, illustrating audio journals, and creating book trailers. In this column, we share how Chase Young used Explain Everything with 2^nd graders to create book trailers to recommend books to their peers. Book trailers are similar to movie trailers in that students write a script and publish a movie that gives an exciting overview of a text, and leaves the audience in suspense. This link shows how 2^nd graders used the Explain Everything app to create book trailers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se4qF3H6q2Q.

Here are two examples of 2^nd grade book trailers:

• Dumb Bunnies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0PeQVzmsgc
• Maybelle in the Soup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJRcvv6JVvk

This screencasting app can also be easily integrated across the content areas. In Social Studies, students can research famous people that impacted the United States. As a final project, students used Explain Everything to share their learning. Here is a second grader’s report on Betsy Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZBhSGETfTY. Students can become experts in science by conducting inquiry-based research and publishing their expository writing using screencasting tools. For example, one 2^nd grader used Explain Everything to create a digital essay on butterflies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juyHu0nZhWQ.

When considering the possibilities for classroom use, we thought carefully about screencasting’s capabilities and how we could utilize them to enhance our existing curriculum.  For instance, students can demonstrate learning in a variety of ways, such as digital storytelling or explaining mathematical procedures. These projects can be easily uploaded to a class blog to make sharing with family, friends, and a wider audience easier. Screencasting is also a great tool to use for flipped classroom design. For example, the teacher can record a lesson for students to watch at home before coming to class so in-class time can be devoted to hands-on learning, projects, and discussions.

Although there are numerous screencasting tools, we selected the use of Explain Everything due to its easy-to-implement design. With extended time to explore and utilize the app, the students became more proficient and successfully implemented the tool independently. Through this experience, students learned the benefits of using digital tools such as screencasting both in the classroom as well as beyond the four walls of the classroom. Listening to their peers’ book trailers inspired students to extend their reading plans and fostered a sense of excitement about reading and sharing about books using this digital application. We encourage you to try this app out with your own students and hope you’ll share about it using the comment feature below.

Katie Stover (katie.stover@furman.edu) is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at Furman University in Greenville, SC.

Chase Young (chase.young@tamucc.edu) is an Assistant Professor of Education at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, TX.

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

There is little doubt that technology has exponentially increased our ability to share information and collaborate with a global audience. One of the challenges for teachers, however, often lies in finding tools that make this process authentic, user-friendly, and efficient while providing an “environment” that offers the security needed to ensure the privacy and safety of students. One tool I’ve found with the capacity to address many of the aforementioned criteria is Padlet, a free, web-based board where teachers and students can easily communicate, collaborate, express ideas, and share information.

In simplest terms, Padlet is a digital wall where users can post content of their choice, including text, images, documents, and videos. Users can even add their own digital drawings. The use of Padlet is fairly intuitive (see Padlet tutorial video or Padlet Junction) and the interface is very user-friendly. Sharing content is easy as walls can be imbedded into websites, distributed using a link, or posted on multiple social media outlets. One of the unique capabilities of Padlet is that it can be utilized on a variety of devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. As a result, students can create a wall on a computer at school and can even update content on the wall on the way to soccer practice using a web-enabled phone. Google Chrome users can also access an extension called Padlet Mini. This extension allows users to share content directly with an existing wall or add it to a new one created from the browser without direct use of Padlet. Finally, a Padlet wall can be exported and saved in multiple file formats, including .pdf, Excel, and image (e.g. .jpg), meaning if internet access is not available, there are additional options for users to examine content.

The opportunity for collaboration is enhanced by the fact that there is no limit to the number of people that can simultaneously edit a wall and changes are visible instantly. To ensure privacy, teachers have several options in the settings associated with a wall as well as the ability to provide oversight after content has been published. For example, the visibility of the wall can be customized to the extent that the wall is hidden from Google searches. Access can also be set to various levels, from public to password protected. Finally, comments on walls can be filtered as the administrator of the wall has ability to moderate posts.

Padlet has a variety of uses in the classroom for both teachers and students. Teachers could create a wall with information or resources for parents and students to view at home. Within instruction, a wall could be used as a point of origin to direct students to examine specific resources around a particular topic, including files, links, and multimedia. There are several examples of teachers using Padlet to collect responses and information from students. For students, Padlet walls could be used to showcase digital work, as a digital notebook, as a collaborative space to brainstorm about a topic, or to share resources with each other on a topic. Further promoting collaboration among students, Padlet walls could be used as “location” for students to engage in group discussions as well as for sharing reflections about learning.

Padlet is certainly a tool with a variety of potential uses for both teachers and students. I would encourage you to access the Padlet gallery to see the many examples of how others have utilized it. Afterwards, I am sure you’ll be inspired to try Padlet in your own classroom!

S. Michael Putman, PhD, is an associate professor and interim chair within the Reading and Elementary Education Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His areas of research include the impact of teacher preparation and professional development on teacher self-efficacy, including efficacy for classroom management; middle school student dispositions toward online inquiry; and the effective use of technology within teaching practices and for improvement of student outcomes.

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

This year’s winner of the IRA Award for Technology and Reading, Stephanie Laird from Mitchellville Elementary School in Mitchellville, IA, uses technology to “level the playing field” for her students. Most importantly, she uses it to instill a love of learning and reading in her Title 1 fourth and fifth grade students. The most significant evidence of positive change is when she walks by a classroom or library and observes a student, who previously would not go near a bookshelf or book, engrossed in a reading and rushing over to tell her all about the story.

Stephanie uses various forms of technology to encourage students to read. In the process, students are developing essential habits of effective and critical reading. Some of the technology incorporated into her teaching and learning include iPads, MacBooks, Kindle Cloud Reader, iPad applications, TodaysMeet, VoiceThread, and iMovie.

Through Kindle Cloud Reader, Laird is able to offer high-interest reading materials on students’ reading levels. After getting an account, students access books chosen by Laird based on their interests and needs. The teacher found “students enjoy the variety of books available and they are free to choose what they read without the concern of peers noticing the size of a book or amount of text on a page.” Using Cloud Reader’s read aloud features and clickable definitions, students read at their own pace and are more successful reading with accuracy and comprehension. When finished reading a novel, students then use iMovie to create a book trailer to demonstrate understanding. These trailers creatively summarize a story, offer an overview of characters and their motives, and lure peers to read the book.

Another successful use of technology is TodaysMeet, an easy-to-use back-channeling site incorporated into small and large group instruction. Stephanie finds back-channeling an important opportunity to “push students’ thinking, to encourage them to stop and review what they have read, and to analyze an author’s purpose.” She also enjoys how back-channeling involves students in “real time” discussions about what they are reading. Positive change is again evident when students who typically don’t share ideas aloud open up through technology and back-channeling.

“One of the most encouraging results I have experienced from integrating technology into my Title 1 Reading program is the motivation and love of reading my students have developed,” states Stephanie. She finds that “students no longer shy away from text, and even those who are struggling readers are able to discuss a story with a partner.” Further evidence of technology’s influence on bringing positive change to students’ learning includes increased scores on the district’s Title 1 reading test and on the Iowa Assessment. Congratulations, Stephanie, for making an outstanding and innovative contribution to the use of technology in reading!

Tammy Ryan, associate professor of reading education, is from Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL. This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

The IRA Award for Technology and Reading is designed to honor educators in grades K–12 or equivalent who are making an outstanding and innovative contribution to the use of technology in reading education. Apply for next year’s IRA Award for Technology and Reading. Submission deadline is Nov.15.

Summers for middle school students in a mid-size city are a time for hanging out with friends, playing baseball, riding bikes, going to the local community centers, swimming, reading and going to the public library. What? Kids are reading and going to the library? Yes! For the last three summers middle school learners have challenged the summer reading loss, as reported by R.L. Allington and A. McGill-Franzen, and continued engaged reading through the use of e-readers and other technology. The Cyber Cafe Summer Reading Program has grown over the years with varying themes but consistent in digital reading and discussion, collaborative response projects, and communicating with authors and others online. Its success relies on great books, the collaboration of a public middle school, library, and university and the integrated use of multiple technologies.

We started with 25 e-readers, new to most, so we learned the features and functions. We read a common book, a dystopia novel, The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman and discussed it online using VoiceThread. Preservice teacher mentors from the university participated online and also met with students three times over the summer at the downtown public library. Discussion of the novel continued face-to-face and plans were made to create response projects (posters, books, leaflets, models, web games, and more) that addressed themes of peer pressure, among others. Students made predictions about the author and generated questions in preparation for a Skype session at our final meeting. With technology and the use of the library auditorium we reached Allegra Goodman, in Tel Aviv for the summer, who graciously chatted with learners exchanging ideas and showcasing response projects.

Year two we paired a science fiction, First Light by Rebecca Stead with Seymour Simon’s non-fiction Global Warming. We added color e-readers to experience the beauty of Simon’s book and search for background information while expanding the number of students participating. We discussed our readings online through Wiggio and Stixy. Unable to schedule the author for an exchange, we sought a local scientist from the university, Peter Lavrentyev, an expert on global warming who visited us in the library auditorium to share a Powerpoint presentation of his research in the Arctic and discuss issues of global warming. Seymour Simon agreed to answer our questions on his blog. Simon himself selected the exchange as one of his top five blog posts!

The program grew again in the third year with more students bringing their own digital readers. We read R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. While we contacted the author as soon as we selected her book, the acclaim she received for her novel that summer kept her so busy we were unable to Skype. She wrote us a personal email, however and encouraged us to visit the Choose Kind site where we could pledge our commitment. Through a YouTube video we learned of a real life “Auggie,” Peter who was affected by craniofacial like the main character in the novel. We contacted his mother and arranged to Skype with him from Michigan. Our learners prepared questions and exchanged precepts with Peter as he and his mom sat in their car in a campground with their laptop. Inspired by these experiences program participants returned to school in the fall and successfully launched a campaign to change their anti-bullying program to a “Choose Kind” focus.

As we move into summer four of The Cyber Café Summer Reading Program we realize kids no longer need instruction on the features of devices and many more have their own. Over the years they selected free downloads from the library and requested other e-books to build extensive digital collections on the e-readers, also used in book clubs throughout the year. They share favorite books with “lend me” features. There is great anticipation at the end of the school year for the unveiling of the summer readings from both learners and their parents who have begun to read the novels alongside their children. We will read a true crime thriller Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steven Sheinkin and Skype with the author as well as the curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

As researchers T.G. White and J.S. Kim noted, simply providing books for summer may not be enough. We have seen that technology can facilitate thoughtful reading, discussion and reaching out to others, deepening the experience of summer reading.

Denise Stuart is from The University of Akron, Ohio. 

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