In Guided Reading activities, students are involved in a variety of reading strategies while the teacher provides support to small groups. There are many engaging ways technology can be used in these lessons to stretch and enhance student thinking.
Student Led Discussions
Skype
Students can discuss topics and ask questions with other classrooms using Skype, a free application that allows users to call others. Students can see each other through the web cam and communicate in real time, asking questions and discussing readings.
Chat
Using various chat features, students can discuss and question readings. Try Typewith.me to chat and create writing and Gaggle chat so students can meet in virtual rooms to discuss teacher given prompts and topics.
Reflections
When students use journals to reflect, they are putting their ideas, questions, and thoughts in a paper form of a response log. Blogs are the electronic version of this same idea. By allowing students to reflect in the form of a blog, they will not only verbalize their ideas, but publish them for the world to see, which typically increases effort. Additionally, by publishing public reflections, other students reading the same book can comment with their own ideas, which can develop into a discussion, mimicking the dialogue students would have if they were meeting face to face.
Blogmeister is a good site that is free and safe for kids. Teachers can set up an account and provide kids with their very own page, which can demonstrate growth over time.
Questioning and Notes
As students read, comprehension can be increased by writing notes and questions on post-its or stickies. These are then saved until students have the opportunity to either discuss their reading in small group format or make the connections themselves through further reading. The same practice can be carried out virtually by using either a wiki or virtual sticky notes. By storing the notes and questions in a public forum, students benefit not only themselves, but also the other students in the class. Other students can answer the questions and make comments on the notes; therefore, accelerating the timeliness of feedback and the ability to make connections.
There are many good wikis that are free for teachers, including PBWorks and Wikispaces. The same is true for virtual sticky notes. Check here for several links to free, virtual stickies.
