Laptops, ICT and Literacy

The Form One Laptops are here! Teachers and Administrators have gone for ICT infusion training and the next stage is to roll out training for the rest of staff as well as to create a bank of lessons for teachers to work and improve upon for their classes.

For the very least we have started the dialogue on how we teach today's students who are millennial learners. There is talk about differentiated instruction, learning styles, multiple intelligences and alternative assessments. Even more talk about instructional leaders, school leadership, motivation and curriculum planning.

Time for Literacy Action! I will be blogging about my efforts from next term as I seek to champion the literacy aspect of all that we do. Now that I am acting as Vice Principal (I don't know for how long but it is a learning experience) and as a soon to be Reading Specialist, I will see how much influence I can exert on my colleagues to collaborate on Literacy Matters.

Join me on my Literacy Quest as I take along my Literacy Bag!

For now all the best for 2011 and have a Holy and Merry Christmas!

Emancipate yourself from Mental Slavery!

YES!This is my twelfth post--I made it! No doubt I will continue blogging;it was a great tool helping me reflect on the 'learnings' from this course so it is fitting that my post is today, as we celebrate Emancipation Day.

Literacy is key to unlocking persons from mental slavery--Reading and writing skills will never go out of style no matter what technological discoveries await us in the future. They are necessary for economic, social, academic, spiritual and personal advancement.

My main focus for this blog was Reading and Writing as an integrated approach to Literacy Instruction using web 2.0 technologies. Here is another example I wish to share--

1)Voxopop: an awesome tool for language development (both oral and wriiten).
Voxopop talkgroup--Literacy Forward: Start a Conversation


You can click on the Literacy Forward link above and share your final thoughts with me about the course, the 'new literacies' or whatever is on your mind(you will need a microphone to talk!)

Go Brave into the New World

Click to play

This is an inspiring video that I hope will help us all to reflect as we practice integrating technology into our classroom practice and by extension our own lives. This is a journey that everyone living in the digital age has to take, so as educators and reading specialists we are not alone.

The internet has many such videos that we can download and share with our students, parents, administrators and colleagues. Videos that provide rich food for thought, that can refresh us, educate us and motivate us.We don't have to reinvent the wheel!
Delicious and Diigo are great sites for online bookmarking of resources

Start bookmarking and archiving videos that can be part of your presentation toolkit whatever the forum.

Screencasts, Screencaptures--Make your own action tutorials

A screen cast is an excellent way to record step by step how to do a task. If you wish you can include audio or use your webcam to include video in your presentation. As future reading specialists we will have to introduce teachers to the new web technologies and show how they can be integrated into teachers’ instructional practice.

Screencasts can add variety to our delivery by ensuring that our presentations make use of the technology. We can’t expect to get teachers on board if we use the same teacher directed lecture style and chalk and talk that result in disengaged and bored students.

We all know that teachers are a tough crowd to please so we need a varied repertoire in our presentation toolkit as future facilitators of professional development for our colleagues. If we can get them excited then they will want to try these tools and strategies in their classrooms.

Try and make your own how to video/tutorial using either screentoaster above or your choice of youtube, screenr or jing to name a few and let me know how it goes-It's easy and fun!

PS:Tool to teach Vocabulary--Check out Vocabgrabber Here

Are we writing and reading enough... books, ebooks,audiobooks...?

1) How to inspire a love of books and reading in today's adolescents?
2) As reading specialists are we well read?
3) Can we recommend suitable titles for students of any age, reading ability and
interests?

These are questions that we must ask ourselves as we reflect on our own reading experiences and how they have influenced what we consider to be a good read or good literature. Read and listen to this inspirational story here Librarian changes boy's life


The internet is a great resource that we can use as reading specialists to keep us abreast of the best reading material for students.

1. Candlelightstories--Not for those who only think that the classics are worth reading
2. Teenreads--One stop shop for books for teens

I signed up for NetLibrary at NALIS Port of Spain and I was able to subscribe to audio books ONLINE. I listened to Blubber by Judy Blume...great stuff that you can download to your computer or iPod to share with students and it is FREE!(nowhere near a kindle or ipad though).This is a GREAT resource so sign up now at a NALIS near you.

1. Storyline Online--Offers readings of children's books by actors.
2. Scholastic Stacks--Great site for great books for teens

We can create our own audio books using podcasts or design ebooks using powerpoint or free software:

1. Myebook--Create your own ebook for free
2. Storybird--This is a collaborative storytelling site.

There are social network sites such as Shelfari and Goodreads where you can participate in a community where members can share their interests about the books that matter to them. They are virtual book clubs. Check my book shelves on my blog, follow the links and leave comments. You can do this with students.

PS:Don't forget we need to create our own LOCAL CONTENT so that our children can have AUTHENTIC texts that REFLECT who WE ARE.

REMEMBER that WRITING is READING and READING is THINKING

Reflections upon Reflections

According to Richardson (2009) teachers have multifaceted roles to play in 21st century classrooms--the teacher as connector, teacher as collaborator, teacher as content creator, teacher as coach and teacher as change agent; I believe that these roles can also be extended to us reading specialists. We are not just about Literacy 1.0 (reading and writing print text)but Literacy 2.0 (reading and writing using digital media and web 2.0 tools)

Well the course ICT in Reading is almost over and now seems like a good time to reflect on all that I have learnt, for instance...'it is not enough to provide teachers with new technology; they need to learn how to integrate these tools meaningfully into their classroom learning...Silverman pg 118.

To be successful in this course I have had to stretch myself beyond my comfort zone of learning so I can begin to understand how difficult it will be for teachers who may not be net-savvy or who may be technophobes.

The course has really opened my eyes to the capacity of Web 2.0 technologies to be incorporated seamlessly into reading instruction for the benefit of students' learning.

The challenge will be as a reading specialist to find the time and space during the school day for professional development where teachers can plan and deliver lessons that integrate technology.

Get yourself a VOKI

This is a fun tool that you can use with your students to promote writing and reading skills. For instance you can give your students an exercise like 1. write a short introduction of yourself 2. imagine you are a character in book, movie, etc 3. create a poem on a particular topic/theme.

Log on to the Voki website www.voki.com/ and have students customize their free Voki--there are many options for students to chose from. Once they are finished they can type in the text or if you pay a fee you can use a microphone and include the actual voice of your students.

On the voki website they have ideas for using voki in the classroom check it out. You can CLICK on my Voki for an example of how it works--the eyes move in the direction of the mouse cursor--way cool!

Low Tech Reading and Writing

Some of my fellow colleagues' blogs have raised the lack of internet and computer access as an obstacle to our future efforts as reading specialists. My message is YES WE CAN!
While the internet is awesome-- many of the resources are FREE and promote collaboration and 'beyond the classroom' learning, there are still many 'low tech' tools available that can engage our students in reading and writing activities. You don't need a computer lab or internet access to incorporate ICT in literacy instruction.

A multimedia projector and a laptop/ desktop computer ( whiteboard-optional)can be used to involve students in whole group and small group activities using WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT and PAINT to name a few.
1. Excel-- interactive crosswords that can build students vocabulary
2. Powerpoint--create audio books, interactive games and presentations which build students’ writing , reading, text comprehension skills and fluency
3. Computer and a microphone-- record students reading of text and re- play it for them to listen OR you can record your reading of text and play it for them to repeat- also for students re-telling of stories build on decoding skills and fluency

4. Digital camera/ a camcorder-- take pictures of or record classroom work/activities, then download Photostory or use Windows Movie Player for digital story telling or creating videos of students doing Reading Theater.

5.Bring the internet to your class by downloading clips: video/audio from YOUTUBE, TEACHERTUBE or wherever on to a flash drive and play it on your computer to your class to engage them in writing and reading activities. You will need a 4-8 gb flash.

6. Many students have computers at home so you could make copies of files of activities for your students to take home on their flash drive to practice. There are also CD-ROMS and DVDs that are available.

My school for the first time has placed an audio book on the booklist for the Form one Literature class. Now the stronger students can read the text and the struggling students will have the scaffold of a CD of the book being read by an actor

I created google accounts for my students and whatever ICT assignments we start in school they can email to me to correct once they complete them whether they use the computers in school, at home or the library.

All you really need is some imagination and sharing with like minded teachers and we can move mountains

PLN's-having your own learning community

Collaboration, dialogue,sharing are just a few words that can be used to apply to the benefits of developing one's PLN--Personal Learning Network or Professional Learning Network.

In today's fast paced world taking the time to join or even start a PLN can be a great way to extend one's social network as well as to develop one's passion for lifelong learning. There are many online communities that one can become a part of to share similar interests and to explore and implement new ideas.

The only downside is the time-consuming nature of keeping up-to-date on what is going on within these online learning communities as you can spend hours reading and following comments, posts, blogs, feeds, webinars,etc, contributed by members.

PLN's can be a great way to communicate with persons in different countries and so gain insights into new and innovative ways of doing things. They provide the kind of support and encouragement needed to motivate you to try new things. As reading specialists we need to be individuals who are open and have varied interests.

This blog is an example of a PLN especially if I GET FOLLOWERS (hint, hint). I belong to several online learning communities such as TappedIn, Classroom 2.0, Teachersfirst, Tech4learning, just to name a few. I have been able to access resources that I may never have heard of anywhere else and I have exchanged ideas with persons in far flung places.

I am also following several rss feeds related to teaching, reading, powerpoint presentations, comics, food, and all areas of interest to me not just work related but things that I LOVE so your PLN can be as diverse as you are
Check out the bottom of my blog for examples from my PLN--Start yours today!

The Read-Write eConnection

I believe we need to support a balanced approach to literacy instruction in our schools--one that integrates both reading and writing and not compartmentalizes them as separate and apart. If we look to the cognitive/information processing theory the mind is compared to that of a computer and no doubt as we become more reliant on online/internet resources (whether for pleasure, business or academia)the way our minds interact and process information will be increasingly similar to that of a computer.

Our students are living in a digital world and we need to teach them to manipulate digital tools. While print material is still the foundation, what I will call basic literacy 1.0, there is no denying the differences between print texts which are linear and sequential and online texts which are non-linear, multimodal, interactive and intertextual (Vacca & Vacca et al 2010).There is now the New Literacies (Literacy 2.0) that we must prepare our students to navigate and critically evaluate --hypertexts, hyperlinks,etc..

Rumelhart (2004) posited that reading and writing are both mean making processes and so required an integrated approach. He viewed readers and writers as active learners who used knowledge and strategies to solve problems. Rosenblatt (2004) explained that readers' interpretations of text are individualised as they negotiate meaning based on their own experiences and background knowledge.

The cognitive/information processing theory lends support to my position that web 2.0 tools can be used to instruct, assess and motivate our students to read and write in authentic ways in conjunction with traditional printed texts. These tools can be used to provide individualised experiences for our students so that they can become owners of their learning.

Allington (2006) states that struggling students need to spend more time reading and writing, which is why I decided to focus on online reading and writing as the direction for my blog. The e-connection refers to using the internet to further integrate and reinforce the reading and writing processes that we must teach to our students. They spend most of their time online now: far more hours on facebook than watching television or reading books so why not use this to our advantage and their benefit?

Reading and Writing using Web 2.0 tool: Wordle

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This is a word cloud made by using the tool wordle (www.wordle.net). This online tool could be used as a great pre-reading and pre-writing activity with students of any age. You simply upload the text that you want to use and select the different options from the drop down menu.

I created this cloud by copying and pasting selected text off of myelearning that described our course edrl6004 and VOILA got this cloud of words: the bigger words are the ones that appear most frequently in the text.

The word cloud could be used to build students' vocabulary and fluency. Before doing a reading assignment you can upload the technical or difficult vocabulary and create a cloud that students could use to preview the assignment, they could use the words to activate prior knowledge about what they think the reading is about or they could use the words to do a 'quick writing' exercise.

The cloud could also be used in the diagnostic stage, for instance after doing a running record with your students the words that the students struggled with could be made into a cloud for them to practice and they could tick them off as they master each one. The possibilities are endless... can you brainstorm and share any other ways to use this great tool?

AdLit.org: Adolescent Literacy - All About Adolescent Literacy

AdLit.org: Adolescent Literacy - All About Adolescent Literacy

This is a great site packed with resources for educators and parents who want to assist struggling adolescent readers and writers. I consider it a 'must go to' for tackling adolescent literacy issues. You can sign up for the free newsletter which gives you updates on research based programmes and strategies that you can try with secondary aged students.
The site has webcasts that feature experts, videos that showcase current classroom strategies,it also spotlight books and authors that might interest our students and then there are lesson ideas and tips, and so much more to explore.
I strongly recommend that everyone take a look see at this site as you can gain insights and fresh perspectives on literacy issues that can not only help you to reflect on your own practice but the resources here can be used to stimulate dialogue in your school among your peers on ways to improve literacy in your classrooms or you can use the material here for professional development.

'i' am a literacy warrior

I am a business teacher for thirteen years and a head of department for much less than that at a mixed secondary school in the port of spain area. For me teaching is a challenging but rewarding endeavour.

Male underachievement worries me and I witness every day the struggles that my students face in mastering the textbook and the content matter. I wanted to be able to make a difference, if you will an informed attack against the problem. I have a passion for reading and I want to unlock that untapped potential in my students: reading and writing is for life not just school.

As a future reading specialist I want to be a literacy warrior and I believe web 2.0 tools can be valuable in motivating our adolescents to read and write in meaningful and relevant ways. I am willing to share and collaborate with my colleagues and all those concerned about the state of literacy in our schools and our society...so to borrow a popular/current phrase let's waka waka together-it's time for literacy action!