Continuing with the book report alternatives series, this blog post will focus once again on a small change you can make with your current literature strategies. In guided reading, reflection journals have been a very effective tool to build comprehension, make text connections, and respond personally to text. Adding technology to the reflection journal in the form of student blogs can greatly enhance student understanding.
It works exactly like reflection journals, only students will record their journaling in the form of a blog. This adds "wow" factor to the individual student and provides a wider audience for students, therefore, typically resulting in better quality work. Additionally, it allows other students in the class to comment on the reflection, add their own perspective, ask questions, or further discuss events.
It is important to remember that student comments are a critical piece to the enhancement of the learning. If students add new information or ask questions in their comments, the learning cycle continues. If students become critical editors or cheerleaders to a job well done, the learning stops. This article from eSchool News explains it best.
Blogmeister is a favorite blog site of mine. It allows teachers to not only create their own blog page, but one for each of their students. Student email accounts are not needed for this site, but if your school is not registered, you will need to obtain a school passcode from the site administrator. (Joplin teachers, see Klista Lawyer-Reynolds for this code) All student articles and comments can be set up so that the teacher monitors whatever is published.
Using blogs as reflective journals is meeting both the "Communicating" and "Collaborating" of the 4C's. It is assumed that critical thinking will also be utilized, therefore, meeting three of the four C's. What a great way to encourage reflection and technology in literacy!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Technology Integrated Vocabulary
How do you teach vocabulary with technology? That's a question frequently posed by teachers. First, we need to look at how vocabulary should be taught in the 21st century. Gone are the days when teachers handed a list of vocabulary terms and a dictionary to their students. Vocabulary in the 21st century focuses on making meaning rather than memorizing.
However you might be developing vocabulary in your classroom, whether teaching specific terms related to content specific curriculum or recognizing and expanding on vocabulary in literature, Marzano suggests including non-linguistic representations as well as defining the word in the students' own words. One way to both utilize these suggested strategies with content area vocabulary and incorporate technology is to use a graphics program, like Inspiration or Kidspiration. Students can use both written text and visual images from the image bank to create a graphic representation of the word. Finished products can be exported as .jpg files and inserted into a website, wiki, or blog so that all students have access to the definitions and their pictorial representation. For an example, see what these third graders have created using Kidspiration and a wiki.
In addition to this strategy, there are many websites that can enhance vocabulary development. Visual Thesaurus is a great site that creates a web of color coded synonyms and antonyms that can be collapsed and expanded for teaching purposes.
Tagxedo and Wordle are two sites that work similarly. They are word clouds students can use to collect and display chosen words from literature. The sites randomize typed words and enlarge those that are used more frequently. To include the visual representation that Marzano suggests, colors and fonts can be changed to represent the meaning of the words, and in Tagxedo, various shapes of the clouds can be chosen for deeper meaning. In addition, both sites can be used in writing practices to identify overused words.
These small changes made to your existing practices to incorporate 21st Century Skills and 21st Century Literacy can make a big difference in the retention and comprehension of your students.
However you might be developing vocabulary in your classroom, whether teaching specific terms related to content specific curriculum or recognizing and expanding on vocabulary in literature, Marzano suggests including non-linguistic representations as well as defining the word in the students' own words. One way to both utilize these suggested strategies with content area vocabulary and incorporate technology is to use a graphics program, like Inspiration or Kidspiration. Students can use both written text and visual images from the image bank to create a graphic representation of the word. Finished products can be exported as .jpg files and inserted into a website, wiki, or blog so that all students have access to the definitions and their pictorial representation. For an example, see what these third graders have created using Kidspiration and a wiki.
In addition to this strategy, there are many websites that can enhance vocabulary development. Visual Thesaurus is a great site that creates a web of color coded synonyms and antonyms that can be collapsed and expanded for teaching purposes.
Tagxedo and Wordle are two sites that work similarly. They are word clouds students can use to collect and display chosen words from literature. The sites randomize typed words and enlarge those that are used more frequently. To include the visual representation that Marzano suggests, colors and fonts can be changed to represent the meaning of the words, and in Tagxedo, various shapes of the clouds can be chosen for deeper meaning. In addition, both sites can be used in writing practices to identify overused words.
These small changes made to your existing practices to incorporate 21st Century Skills and 21st Century Literacy can make a big difference in the retention and comprehension of your students.
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