2/9/15 Assignment:
Preparing Students for the 21st Century; Incorporating Technology into the Classroom:
The parallels between typical reading comprehension and internet specific reading comprehension were interesting. The comparisons are obvious when you think about it side by side but it was interesting to read about the necessity of the basic skills: decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension in addition to the higher level skills needed when doing an internet search (making inferences, predicting what a web link might contain, piecing together information from several sites, and evaluating the usefulness of the information.
When working with students that have a Speech Language Impairment in the area of Language, the skills of summarizing, finding important information, and asking important questions are very challenging. It makes me realize that I should be doing more with my 4th and 5th grade students to create a foundation for web searches so they aren't so overwhelmed in middle school when the demands for independence and higher level thinking are exponentially more stringent.
I also liked the idea of having other students share their strategies of searching for information and deciding which information would be relevant.
I agree, Rachel, that we need to give them more opportunities to find information digitally. They definitely need lots of practice doing this in a safe and organized environment as they approach middle school. Asking important questions is certainly challenging for these kiddos. Thanks for reminding us about our language-impaired kiddos and how this may be especially difficult.
ReplyDeleteThis is great, Rachel. We are trying to build our students' knowledge in so many ways. In order to keep preparing them for what is to come we need to keep these strategies in the back of our minds and eventually I think it will become a part of our daily routine just like what we do now. I am so glad you mentioned the language students because we truly have so many different types of leaners in our classroom each day.
ReplyDeleteI agree Rachel, so many of our kids do have significant language needs! We have been focusing so much on vocabulary that I think we should put our heads together and see if we could do more with it digitally. Instead of using the paper/pencil approach it would be fun to see how they do with searching the words online to find the meaning, synonym etc. Then they could download an image to represent the word and they could share their information with classmates digitally. It might be a fun way to explore those vocab words.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel, you are right in that there are different demands of reading paper text and text on the computer. I teach third grade, and third grade is the first year that students take any standardized test on the computer (a.k.a NeSA). We practice reading and test-taking skills through the Wonders curriculum. However, Wonders doesn't provide all the highlighting and crossing-out options that the NeSA does. Oftentimes, we assume students know how to read and navigate on a computer. But in reality, we have to teach students these skills. Instead of underlining information in the passage, students have to learn to highlight. Instead of crossing out multiple-choice questions with their pencil, students have to add a red line to cross out an answer choice. Practice, practice, practice!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is different from traditional reading. Actually, I believe that the reading mode chafes greatly due to the widespread use of computer at an early age. A lot of skills that we learned as teenagers or even at a rather more mature age are learned not taught from pre-k. It is a challenge to us teachers and educators and the readers as well as how to be a successful reader.
DeleteMy initial response to Rachel was lost. So here again. I read somewhere recently that the learning of new apps or technology involved in reading and writing help struggling readers. Your post goes even to kids with special needs. Great!
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about Google searches in regards to what I do for vocabulary currently. I search images for the Wonders vocabulary and show the students multiple images to give examples of ways to use the word. Can I put a filter on my Google search so the students can freely search on ipads during group without the worry of inappropriate images appearing?
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