Literacy Now

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning. 

For many of us, summer is a time when we can clear our minds and truly think about our teaching practice. Questions like “What was successful?” or “Where can we grow?” ring in our minds even when our bodies may be engaged in fun summertime activities. Like many of you, my mind also delves into thinking about the possibilities for the upcoming school year. We peruse Pinterest or other digital mediums for new ideas or practices. With new ideas often come the questions that begin with “What if…?”

What if students didn’t sit in a desk all day listening to teachers talk? Learning is an action verb, so shouldn’t students be active to truly learn? How actively involved are students if the teacher is doing all the work and the students are passive? We know that our students become experts at playing school: appearing to be engaged in class when a teacher is talking while being a million miles away mentally. Wouldn’t that change if students had the opportunity to work with their peers, both locally and globally?

Students could share their strengths for the benefit of others while developing in an area of their weaknesses by collaborating with their peers. They could ask questions of one another and get many more perspectives beside the one that a teacher might have. If students are actively involved in learning, they won’t be able to go unnoticed and slip between those proverbial classroom cracks.

What if learning weren’t a “one-size-fits-all” proposition where every child is doing the exact same things at the exact same time? What if students actually had a choice in how they learn content?

We know that students have different learning styles; they learn best across different modalities and learning environments. Some students may learn best by reading and writing a reflection while others may learn best by creating something new to show their learning. Others may benefit from creating podcasts, videos, or interviews.

What if students were given the opportunity to share their mastery of learning standards in a way that was meaningful for them? What could happen if we let students create their own rubrics, break down standards, and assess one another?

Students would become experts at understanding standards while understanding where they stand on the learning continuum. Instead of every student creating the same teacher-directed project with very little variety or ownership, students can build an entire interactive digital world in Minecraft while others publish an anthology of writing or create a board game for peers to play. They learn how to take what they have learned and apply it in a way that is meaningful to them and impactful for those around them. With these opportunities, students gain a much deeper understanding of the content and how it fits within the framework of their lives.

What if students became their own advocates for learning? What if, while they are with us, they learn how to articulate their learning?

Students need the tools to communicate successfully with educators and other adults how they learn best. They need to be equipped with the terminology and research to argue for the types of learning experiences they need to get the most out of their education. If our students spend a school year discovering themselves as learners—their strengths, weakness, and goals—they build the confidence and the ability to explain to anyone not just what they need as learners but also why they need it.

So the question that may be ringing in your head is whether this works within a regular classroom of a diverse population of students. What does it look like? How can it be managed with everything else we juggle as teachers? I would love to show you what happens when students take the driver’s seat in their own learning. Be sure to join me on Sunday, July 19, at 9:00 a.m. at ILA’s Annual Conference for my session, “License to Learn: Putting Students in the Driver’s Seat of Their Own Learning.” I’ll be sharing many of my students’ stories, their projects, and our adventures down the “what if…?” path. I hope to see you there.

Julie D. Ramsay is a National Board Certified Teacher and the author of “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?”: Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3–8. She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, AL. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog, eduflections.

As a teacher, I have long thought that if I could know which strategies were the most important for novice online readers to develop, then both my pedagogical efforts and my students’ learning efforts could be tailored for results. The logic here is somewhat economic and linear: Return on investment (ROI) is likely to be maximized if teachers and students focus efforts on the particular learning strategies most likely to support advanced reading comprehension.

If we consider the example of inquiry-based activities we often ask students to do online (e.g., “go online to learn about climate change and then write a report”), studies have shown that appropriate use of particular online reading strategies can lead to better understanding of the topic. The logic of ROI is not, therefore, misguided. During online inquiry, studies have shown that experts are more likely to ask questions related to purpose, generate search terms to allow quick access to relevant information, and evaluate its trustworthiness. Experts also engage recursive processes of connecting background knowledge with the salient ideas they read in the texts they find. Experts synthesize understanding and then communicate it using (at a minimum) knowledge of genre, medium, and audience. Experts also persist in the face of challenge. They are critical, recognize gaps in understanding, and adjust strategies seamlessly to find meaning. It is truly a wonder to see this unfold.

When presented with the same tasks, novices can struggle. They are more quickly overwhelmed. They can lose their focus. Teachers and librarians who have seen novices struggle with cognitive overload have asked me to advise them of the order in which this array of known expert strategies should be taught. Sometimes, they ask me how to chunk the strategies so that they can be presented discretely, in more manageable parts for their novice learners to practice and acquire.

Lately, I’ve been thinking that the appropriate response to my colleagues should be a set of questions that explore the fit between the complex thinking we would like students to develop, and the pedagogies we adopt to scaffold their emergence.

I’ve come to think our pedagogies should be inspired more by an integrated, ecological view of literacies systems and less by the belief that complex literacies activities can be deconstructed and taught piece by piece or strategy by strategy. Knowing what experts do is a fundamental starting place, but lately I’ve wondered whether ROI is the right way to frame my thinking as a teacher of online literacies, especially when, as a field, we don’t yet understand all of the interactions at play as diverse online readers construct meaning.

This morning, the intricate blooms of the peonies in my garden made me wonder whether ecological models could inform online inquiry and strategies instruction and, if so, what that might involve.  

Looking at the peonies, I remembered how I waited for them to bloom. I planted them first in one spot, and then another but, for years, they didn't seem to do anything. They had stems. They had leaves. I watered them. Nothing happened. I fertilized them. Nothing changed. My mom encouraged me to be patient. “They take a while to get established,” she said. I didn’t think she meant seven years.

Now, when I see the intricate swirling of the petals, I am reminded that this beautiful flower emerged from complex systems. The conditions for peonies are multifaceted and interconnected. There are no blooms if the roots haven’t had time to grow deeply. There are no blooms without a balance of nutrients, or a slightly acidic pH. There are no blooms without sunshine and rain. There are no blooms without repeated cycles of growth and senescence. There are no flowers in June without December’s frost. Which of these conditions is most important, or which should come first or last?

If, as teachers of digital literacies, our goal is to enable learners to develop complex and similarly beautiful processes of meaning making through online inquiry, then maybe peonies can help us to plan instruction.

Just as we know that peonies need nutrients, sun, and rain, teachers must know which online reading strategies are important. However, adopting a systems view of strategies instruction may be more appropriate than one that is too discrete or linear.

What would happen if students were offered repeated and diverse opportunities to engage with a range of online inquiry tasks over time and with diverse disciplinary, rhetorical, and communicative purposes driving their work? What would happen if every teacher, every year, in every subject area helped students to identify and explore the many important and recursive online reading strategies required for inquiry across disciplines, texts, media, and contexts but without emphasizing particular strategies as more essential than others?

June brings flowers and time for teachers to reflect. Systems, complexities, interactions, context, and conditions. Could peonies inspire us to think differently about digital literacies instruction next year?

Michelle Schira Hagerman is a newly appointed assistant professor of Educational Technology at the University of Ottawa. Michelle is also an enthusiastic gardener. You can learn more about Michelle's teaching and research on digital literacies instruction by following her on Twitter. This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Digital tools open up powerful possibilities for informing teacher instruction and enhancing student learning. It takes time and thought to integrate traditional teaching methods with technology. Teachers need to consider their objectives and goals, seek tools that will improve understanding, and decide how best to incorporate them. In working with younger students, I have found three digital practices particularly worthwhile to use: researching with online sources that read text to the student, using online resources that provide classroom materials and multimedia experiences, and sharing opportunities that go beyond the classroom. 

There are countless ways technology can be integrated into any and all areas of study. For example, my first graders examined elephants in a three-week, mid-year interdisciplinary unit. I included digital tools for research, resources, and sharing to enrich inquiry, literacy, and content area learning. Prior to this endeavor, my students already had experience with accessing, navigating, and reading online sources. 

Online research and resources

To acquire background knowledge, the students researched elephants on an online site that could be read aloud to them. They used PebbleGo, which provided text, map, video, and audio resources intended for young students. First graders are typically capable of understanding information at a level that is higher than their independent reading level. Digital tools like this assist students in gaining knowledge because they can listen instead of reading independently. Students also have the benefit of being able to use this feature at their own pace. Using this tool was an effective addition to my typical way of introducing topics, exploring new vocabulary, and preparing students for independent reading.

Because I needed more reading materials for my students, I created a class set of guided reading books using Raz-Kids, which provides printable resources on a variety of subjects. I selected two books on elephants that contained similar content but were at different reading levels. Because I was assembling them, the website also offered me some flexibility regarding the content. I was able to take out a page about elephant poaching that was not appropriate for my students and construct the book without it.

Throughout our study of elephants, students viewed videos I had found online, helping them to gather facts, understand concepts, as well as thoughtfully analyze and synthesize their ideas with classmates. Students grasped why an elephant’s trunk is so strong after observing the inside of it and seeing the rings of muscles. My first graders more deeply appreciated elephant families through the captivating real-life story of a patient mother helping her baby, who was born with bent legs, learn how to walk. While watching a video of a mother elephant instructing her baby on how to move a rock, my students used what they had previously learned to keenly analyze the actions of the elephants. 

Online sharing

My students were eager to share what they were learning, and online resources made it easier to communicate this with their families. We used Alphabet Organizer from ReadWriteThink to create an ABC book as a culminating project. Students created pictures using Pixie creativity software and wrote the accompanying text. Their book was stored and saved so it could be completed over the course of a few days before sending it out to their families.

In the end, technology offers a number of advantages to classroom learning. Technology makes it possible for young students to more easily acquire knowledge at their comprehension level, rather than their reading level. Online sites provide multimedia materials that are both engaging and substantive. Students are better able to understand concepts and share their work through the use of these platforms. Although effectively digitizing curricula takes time, practice, resources, professional development, technical assistance, and the freedom to make mistakes, the outcomes are valuable and meaningful for students, teachers, and families.

Karen Pelekis is a first grade teacher at Greenacres Elementary School in Scarsdale, NY. This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Can a public school with a tight budget re-envision learning by giving every student a MacBook Air? This is exactly what my school did last August for all 1,150 students in grades 9–12. This decision was not a knee-jerk reaction to the pressing need to outfit students with devices to take the PARCC test, but rather it was the next phase in a three-year implementation plan designed with careful thought and input from all stakeholders. Our goal for a 1:1 device program was to transform teaching and learning to be more relevant, engaging, and personalized.

How did it go? Administration looked at test scores, attendance records, and teacher survey feedback, among other data. These methods are fine, but what about asking the students for their opinion? Student voice is a key element in improving schools, and research shows what students have to say matters in their learning.

The power of student voice motivated me to conduct interviews. As the school library media specialist, I was interested in finding out about student literacy experiences using laptops on a daily basis. Over the course of a week, I engaged in conversations with a diverse sampling of students and focused on three key questions. What was it like reading on their laptops? What kinds of digital resources were they reading? Were their comprehension skills different while reading from a screen versus print? These are my anecdotal findings.

Reading text on laptops is an adjustment. Students indicated that, although they were now fairly comfortable reading text on a screen, it took them some time to adjust. A common observation was that they had to re-read text on a screen more often than they did reading print text in order to understand it. They also preferred short texts because their minds tended to wander while reading longer texts on screens.

E-textbooks have advantages to traditional textbooks. Students liked the easy navigation of an e-textbook. The tabs at the top of the page were helpful to find their place and to get to the correct chapter. The dictionary and highlight tools were valuable aides in comprehension. Students also found it a useful option to save annotated text in their e-textbook account.

Print text still has some benefits. Students continued to read print fiction books for required class reading and for pleasure. Many students said they like the feel of a book in their hands and needed time off-screen to rest their eyes. Students who complained of eye strain said  their teachers were sensitive to it and would give them time to rest or switch to print text.

Digital note-taking tools are helpful. The district loaded every student’s laptop with the basic version of Evernote, a tool to help take notes and organize work. When students were reading text online, they would split their screen with Evernote on one side and the text on the other. This strategy enabled them to copy and paste or type notes of what they were reading onto the notecard. The district also loaded Adobe Acrobat Reader DC on every device.  Under the guidance of teachers, students learned how to use the note-taking and highlighting features in this program to help break down and annotate PDF texts for understanding.

Access to current information engages students. Students liked how the laptops gave them access to current information in a variety of formats on the Web. Instead of being handed photocopies of older articles, students were given links to relevant and timely information in the form of text, videos, images, graphs, and more. In addition, students could immediately look up information on the Web if they had a question or wanted to learn more. On-demand access to information on the Web provided a richer context, allowing students to self-direct their learning.

Students talk less during school. Speaking and listening are important literacy skills and students are not getting as much practice in this area. Now that they have laptops, they spend more time staring at a screen rather than talking, especially to each other in social situations. I noticed my library was a lot quieter this year. Unintended consequences like this need to be examined and it was interesting that a student voiced the observation negatively.

Conversations with students about technology and literacy in education can inform our practice from a multitude of angles. As my school moves forward, we will reflect on the experiences of all stakeholders, including students, to better understand how they best learn with technology.

Mary Moen is a library media specialist at Chariho Regional High School in Wood River Junction, RI. This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this regular column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners, moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning. 

For many of us, the school year is winding down. Memes about exhaustion dominate social media and checklists of end-of-year duties and tasks fill our email boxes. For teachers, students, and parents, it feels like a mad dash to the finish line in the school year marathon. How will we not just survive but thrive with our students until the last minute of the last day together?

In our classroom, my students and I designed one last engaging project as an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of many of their ELA content standards coupled with the  International Society for Technology in Education Standards for Students.

In collaboration with the social studies classes which were creating decade projects for a living timeline of the time periods they studied this academic year, my students created “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories of historical fiction; each student was tasked with creating a story set in the decade they were working on in their social studies classes. With these stories, students had the ability to provide readers with an interactive reading experience. As an active character throughout the adventure, readers made choices along the way that shaped the final outcome of their story.

As a writer, students employed standards in informational text, research, citing textual evidence, and domain-specific vocabulary in conjunction with narrative writing. The complexity of this project challenged my writers as each student created multiple storylines to provide readers with an engaging reading experience.

This project required learners to understand writing organization. I created a graphic organizer to help them see the basic outline of a choose-your-own-adventure story. They created an opening scenario with two options from which the reader could choose. Each of those choices had two additional scenarios for the reader, and each of those choices concluded the story. As with everything else in our classroom, students could go beyond the expectations we set as a group if they were so inclined.

Students worked in Google Drive to create their outlines, curate historical information to weave into their narratives, create a bibliography, and write their drafts. In addition to these reading and writing standards, students agreed that they also wanted to hone their skills in providing specific actionable feedback to their peers. Through this feedback—comments on Google Drive—students were able to demonstrate the ability to analyze another’s writing and provide in-depth, specific suggestions on how the writer could improve his/her writing. As their teacher, I was impressed with the complexity of understanding students demonstrated and how they strove to help each peer publish their best possible project.

As challenging as these stories were for students to create, we wanted to find the best tool to publish (and showcase) their amazing projects. Enter inklewriter. This Web-based tool is designed specifically for this type of interactive story. The user interface was very intuitive for my learners to create links to continue the story for each choice a reader might make. My students set up using their district Google accounts.

It should be mentioned that inklewriter is currently in Beta. We did experience some glitches while the students were trying to publish. My students discovered they could usually log out and log back in or even move to a different device to continue their work.

The students enjoyed this project so much they couldn’t wait to share it. Inklewriter, like many tools today, provides a way to easily share stories across different tools and platforms. Students inserted links of their final projects into their Google Drive documents and their blogs. Then we designated a day in class just for sharing. We borrowed a Chromebook cart and each student opened his or her published stories. Learners rotated through the different stories around the classroom in what my students nicknamed “reading-go-round.”

They had a blast reading one another’s stories. Many of them expressed to me that this was their favorite project of the year. Was it complex? Yes. Did it challenge them? Absolutely. But the students never complained or lost focus. This gave them an avenue to apply what they’ve learned this year in a meaningful way for an authentic audience. It was the perfect end to a yearlong epic adventure of learning.

Wishing all the best as you end what I’m sure was an amazing adventure with your students!

Julie D. Ramsay is a National Board Certified Teacher and the author of “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?”: Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3–8. She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, AL. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog, eduflections.