Best Practices: Knowledge Through Text

October 25, 2017September 19, 2019 ~ iMrsHughes ~ Leave a comment

“Having children engage in books of high quality introduces them to new words, ideas, and events outside of their daily experience.” (Roskos & Neuman, 2014)

As teachers, our job is to expose students to ideas, concepts, and realities they have yet to experience. Whether through class discussions, reading a novel, or analyzing a video, it is imperative to help student build knowledge of the world around them through the texts we choose to incorporate. And the integration of Educational Technology provides opportunities for learning that were simply not possible before. In fact, using technology to help create learning experiences for students is one of the Best Practices of the 21st Century Literacy Classroom!

Check out some of the links compiled below that can help your students BUILD KNOWLEDGE THROUGH TEXT.

Virtual Field Trips: Check out the extensive list of virtual field trips on this blog post! Tons of options for all ages and all subjects!

E-Books: Yes, there are tons of websites available to make e-books with students, but to be honest, PowerPoint or Google Slides works just fine! E-books can become companion readers! Every time we visit a new location on Google Earth or find the answer to a question, have students create a new page of their Companion Reader! Looking for additional ideas? Go here!

GAFE: The Google Suite is the best and easiest way to build knowledge. Reading a book and the students have a question? Simple! Google it! YouTube it! Google Earth it! We have answers and virtual experiences to help our students build background knowledge in order to further understand a text by simply using the Google Apps for Education Suite!

Share to Classroom Extension: This Chrome extension pairs with Google Classroom users! Teachers can push websites to students with one click! Simply locate the site, click Share to Classroom, and select the Google Classroom you’d like to share with link with! The website on your screen immediately is sent to your students and opens on their screens! AMAZING!

Take a STAND! One of my freebies! After building the knowledge through the text, I like to have students formulate opinions on the things read! Have students Take a Stand on the issue… literally!

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Ed Tech & Literacy Best Practices

June 27, 2017October 22, 2017 ~ Christina Hughes ~ Leave a comment

From the start of my teaching career, I integrated technology into my classroom. I used to be a rarity! People would come observe me using tools and ideas that today are commonplace in schools across the country. As education begins its transition into the 21st century, schools are quickly adapting by purchasing technology to aid instructional practices. Teachers are beginning to use these tools to have students conduct research, create multimedia, and take the lesson plan to a different, exciting level!

All of these are steps in the right direction. However, we must remember that this venture into the new land of Ed Tech must be rooted in best practices.

Using Roskos & Neuman’s article from The Reading Teacher as a guide, we’ll be discussing how educational technology can help teachers be more effective and engaging while being sure to implement best practices.

Best Practices in Reading: A 21st Century Skill Update by Roskos & NeumanPIN:

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How can you integrate technology into your literacy block while still holding true to the best practices highlighted by Roskos & Neuman?

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Classflow: Make Your Presentations INTERACTIVE! ::cross post!::

July 6, 2016May 15, 2017 ~ Christina Hughes ~ 1 Comment

Like many of my teacher readers, I like starting class with a Do-Now, and since I teach English, we complete a daily grammar practice. Prior to having a one-to-one school, this would be a worksheet students would complete, and every day a different student set would come to the board. We tried to make it collaborative, tried to assess every student quickly and daily, but it took time… too much time for a warm-up.

But there is good news! I’ve discovered a new tool that has revolutionized my classroom, especially this section: Classflow.

Classflow turns any presentation interactive, allowing me to send individual slides to the entire class, small groups, or specific students and have them engage with the material. I can conduct polls, formative assessments, and even summative assessments using Classflow. The image beside shows the options for the polls; my favorite is the creative response!

For the creative response, students can use text, images, and even a marker to annotate the slide and return it to the teacher. But here’s the best part. Remember those daily grammar practices?

Well, now I can send them to the students through Classflow, have the students individually annotate them, and when the students submit their responses, each student’s answer comes on the screen and I can review them all quickly and easily! The students receive instant feedback, I can assess the entire class on the skill quickly and accurately, and best of all, I have data collected from the kids in front of me to guide the instruction for the class period!

I use Classflow for so much more than these grammar exercises, but it’s a quick and easy example of how my teaching has changed!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about this tool!