Balanced Literacy and Technology

How do you integrate technology into a classroom whose primary focus is literacy?  It was a little bit tricky at first, but after digging into a new reading curriculum we have found a few ways that technology can enhance that learning!

Interactive read-alouds are one of the main components of our reading curriculum.  This is a time when students engage in the text with the teacher and the other students.  Students are also learning about specific literacy strategies such as visualizing and summarizing.  Students are then required to provide an informal response to the text.  The open-ended prompts allow students to find meaning from the text.   A few tools that we have used to accomplish this task are Flipgrid and Autodraw.com. 

Flipgrid:
Students use Flipgrid to respond to the text.  This type of video response allows students to share a window into their thinking and understanding.  Since the students are responding to a common text they can even reply with a comment to other videos!

Autodraw:
Autodraw allows students to create visual illustrations that help them explain their thinking. Students begin to draw a sketch and Autodraw guesses what you are trying to draw and then turns that rough drawing into an image!

Students draw and label the parts of an elephant that were described in the story.

Another component of our new reading curriculum is Phonics and Word Study.  To incorporate technology into this time, we have used the app Clips.  Clips is an iOS app that is designed as a video editing software.  You can quickly record video, add text and effects and save it to the camera roll or share it with others.  Students can record and edit video of the different phonics skills they are working on that week!

Using these three technology tools has helped engage students in their learning and has provided meaningful enhancements to our literacy instruction! 

April 15-19

April 8-12

April 1-5

February 18-22

February 11-15

February 4-8

January 28-February 1

January 21-25

January 14-18

Comprehension Breakout

Have you ever been to an escape room?  Most people really enjoy the experience of finding clues and "breaking out" of the escape room!

How about bringing that same experience to the classroom?  An escape room is a super fun way to engage your students in ANY topic!  The idea is to find clues and use a code or key to unlock the next task with a prize or reward at the end. 

For our very first escape room challenge, we used The Grinch Comprehension Breakout by Kori Markussen.   This breakout provided five challenges that covered five different ELAR skills. 

First, we read the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Students then started the escape room with a challenge that required them to write a summary of the book.  

Once they had written a summary they were able to find the code that would unlock the next challenge.  Each group started with the hardest challenge.  This allowed me to be able to provide support to all of the groups as they worked through the first challenge.  It also helped stagger the groups as they finished up with the first task and moved on to the next one. 

The students then completed cause and effect, theme, synonym, and character trait challenges.  

When the students worked their way to the end of the escape room they were able to find and enjoy their prize! 

The breakout challenge provided a fun and innovative way for students to practice their problem-solving, critical thinking and team building skills!

Another quick and easy way to create an escape room in your classroom would be to use Google Forms.  You can use the response validation option that requires students to type the code in the correct order to unlock the next task.  You can turn any worksheet or activity into an escape room.  This is an easy, no prep way to bring this same experience to YOUR classroom!