Literacy Now

There is little doubt that technology has exponentially increased our ability to share information and collaborate with a global audience. One of the challenges for teachers, however, often lies in finding tools that make this process authentic, user-friendly, and efficient while providing an “environment” that offers the security needed to ensure the privacy and safety of students. One tool I’ve found with the capacity to address many of the aforementioned criteria is Padlet, a free, web-based board where teachers and students can easily communicate, collaborate, express ideas, and share information.

In simplest terms, Padlet is a digital wall where users can post content of their choice, including text, images, documents, and videos. Users can even add their own digital drawings. The use of Padlet is fairly intuitive (see Padlet tutorial video or Padlet Junction) and the interface is very user-friendly. Sharing content is easy as walls can be imbedded into websites, distributed using a link, or posted on multiple social media outlets. One of the unique capabilities of Padlet is that it can be utilized on a variety of devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. As a result, students can create a wall on a computer at school and can even update content on the wall on the way to soccer practice using a web-enabled phone. Google Chrome users can also access an extension called Padlet Mini. This extension allows users to share content directly with an existing wall or add it to a new one created from the browser without direct use of Padlet. Finally, a Padlet wall can be exported and saved in multiple file formats, including .pdf, Excel, and image (e.g. .jpg), meaning if internet access is not available, there are additional options for users to examine content.

The opportunity for collaboration is enhanced by the fact that there is no limit to the number of people that can simultaneously edit a wall and changes are visible instantly. To ensure privacy, teachers have several options in the settings associated with a wall as well as the ability to provide oversight after content has been published. For example, the visibility of the wall can be customized to the extent that the wall is hidden from Google searches. Access can also be set to various levels, from public to password protected. Finally, comments on walls can be filtered as the administrator of the wall has ability to moderate posts.

Padlet has a variety of uses in the classroom for both teachers and students. Teachers could create a wall with information or resources for parents and students to view at home. Within instruction, a wall could be used as a point of origin to direct students to examine specific resources around a particular topic, including files, links, and multimedia. There are several examples of teachers using Padlet to collect responses and information from students. For students, Padlet walls could be used to showcase digital work, as a digital notebook, as a collaborative space to brainstorm about a topic, or to share resources with each other on a topic. Further promoting collaboration among students, Padlet walls could be used as “location” for students to engage in group discussions as well as for sharing reflections about learning.

Padlet is certainly a tool with a variety of potential uses for both teachers and students. I would encourage you to access the Padlet gallery to see the many examples of how others have utilized it. Afterwards, I am sure you’ll be inspired to try Padlet in your own classroom!

S. Michael Putman, PhD, is an associate professor and interim chair within the Reading and Elementary Education Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His areas of research include the impact of teacher preparation and professional development on teacher self-efficacy, including efficacy for classroom management; middle school student dispositions toward online inquiry; and the effective use of technology within teaching practices and for improvement of student outcomes.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Every June, I feel as though the warm weeks of summer will never end. And without fail, every August I feel as though the final weeks of summer break have snuck up on me and I'm not yet prepared to go back to the classroom. Ready or not, the time has come once again to get ready to welcome new students to my classroom and plan out our year together.

For many teachers, planning the new year now includes making decisions about how technology will be integrated into the classroom. As mobile devices become more prevalent in the school setting, this can be an overwhelming task. In the last few weeks, I've had teachers ask me which apps I would recommend for starting the school year. Here are a few of my favorites:

Subtext is by far one of my favorite apps to use with my language arts classes. It allows my students and me to conduct close readings and annotate text together as a class. Students can also use it to make notes during independent reading and work collaboratively on pieces of text. The app can be used with purchased books, downloaded books, PDFs, text or articles found on the web, or even with suggested articles found within the app. Subtext is a free app and offers students the opportunity to read and interact with text digitally, allowing them the chance to develop necessary skills.

Trading Cards is an app from ReadWriteThink.org that is always a big hit with my students. Users are able to create a digital trading card that depicts a person, place, object, event, or vocabulary word. The student answers a series of questions about the topic, allowing for comprehension practice as well as the opportunity to do research as necessary. Students are able to customize their cards for color and style, and add a picture to finish off the project. My students love creating these cards and presenting them to the class when finished, or printing them for display in our classroom. The cards are a fantastic way to integrate research into your language arts classes or as a final project when wrapping up a unit topic.

Strip Designer is an app that makes story creation and publishing a little more fun. Students use their device to take pictures depicting their story, and then use those pictures in the comic strip template of their choice. Text bubbles and other fun elements can be added to enhance the effect. This app is a great choice for encouraging students to use creativity in their writing, and the graphic novel format is especially appealing for the upper elementary and middle school age groups.

While the supply of apps for students seems endless, there are also a great number of apps created specifically for teachers. Read With Me Fluency is a tool for educators that is designed to streamline the process of collecting fluency and running record assessment data. Student reading sessions can be recorded and saved for parent conferences or to be scored later, the app will store class data and generate reports, and specific options are available for comprehension questions and time limits. This app has the potential to be a major timesaver in the classroom.

Another fantastic app created with teachers in mind is the Scholastic Book Wizard Mobile. The app is an extension of the Book Wizard at scholastic.com, except that the mobile app allows users to scan the bar code on the book instead of manually entering search information—which saves a lot of frustration and effort! Once the book has been scanned, the app will display the cover, title, author, interest level, and reading level. This is a handy, timesaving tool for any teacher in the midst of organizing a classroom library or adding books to one that is already leveled.

These apps are the ones that stand the test of time because they are tools that extend or facilitate learning, rather than being full of content that becomes stale after a month. Apps such as these will enrich your classroom throughout the year to come, and provide both you and your students with the means to make this school year an incredible learning experience for everyone involved.

Lindsey Fuller is a sixth grade teacher in Decatur, Illinois. Her interests are classroom technology integration, literacy instruction, and Common Core curriculum development and implementation. You can read more from Lindsey on these topics at her blog, Tales of a 6th Grade Classroom.

This year’s winner of the IRA Award for Technology and Reading, Stephanie Laird from Mitchellville Elementary School in Mitchellville, IA, uses technology to “level the playing field” for her students. Most importantly, she uses it to instill a love of learning and reading in her Title 1 fourth and fifth grade students. The most significant evidence of positive change is when she walks by a classroom or library and observes a student, who previously would not go near a bookshelf or book, engrossed in a reading and rushing over to tell her all about the story.

Stephanie uses various forms of technology to encourage students to read. In the process, students are developing essential habits of effective and critical reading. Some of the technology incorporated into her teaching and learning include iPads, MacBooks, Kindle Cloud Reader, iPad applications, TodaysMeet, VoiceThread, and iMovie.

Through Kindle Cloud Reader, Laird is able to offer high-interest reading materials on students’ reading levels. After getting an account, students access books chosen by Laird based on their interests and needs. The teacher found “students enjoy the variety of books available and they are free to choose what they read without the concern of peers noticing the size of a book or amount of text on a page.” Using Cloud Reader’s read aloud features and clickable definitions, students read at their own pace and are more successful reading with accuracy and comprehension. When finished reading a novel, students then use iMovie to create a book trailer to demonstrate understanding. These trailers creatively summarize a story, offer an overview of characters and their motives, and lure peers to read the book.

Another successful use of technology is TodaysMeet, an easy-to-use back-channeling site incorporated into small and large group instruction. Stephanie finds back-channeling an important opportunity to “push students’ thinking, to encourage them to stop and review what they have read, and to analyze an author’s purpose.” She also enjoys how back-channeling involves students in “real time” discussions about what they are reading. Positive change is again evident when students who typically don’t share ideas aloud open up through technology and back-channeling.

“One of the most encouraging results I have experienced from integrating technology into my Title 1 Reading program is the motivation and love of reading my students have developed,” states Stephanie. She finds that “students no longer shy away from text, and even those who are struggling readers are able to discuss a story with a partner.” Further evidence of technology’s influence on bringing positive change to students’ learning includes increased scores on the district’s Title 1 reading test and on the Iowa Assessment. Congratulations, Stephanie, for making an outstanding and innovative contribution to the use of technology in reading!

Tammy Ryan, associate professor of reading education, is from Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL. This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

The IRA Award for Technology and Reading is designed to honor educators in grades K–12 or equivalent who are making an outstanding and innovative contribution to the use of technology in reading education. Apply for next year’s IRA Award for Technology and Reading. Submission deadline is Nov.15.

Summers for middle school students in a mid-size city are a time for hanging out with friends, playing baseball, riding bikes, going to the local community centers, swimming, reading and going to the public library. What? Kids are reading and going to the library? Yes! For the last three summers middle school learners have challenged the summer reading loss, as reported by R.L. Allington and A. McGill-Franzen, and continued engaged reading through the use of e-readers and other technology. The Cyber Cafe Summer Reading Program has grown over the years with varying themes but consistent in digital reading and discussion, collaborative response projects, and communicating with authors and others online. Its success relies on great books, the collaboration of a public middle school, library, and university and the integrated use of multiple technologies.

We started with 25 e-readers, new to most, so we learned the features and functions. We read a common book, a dystopia novel, The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman and discussed it online using VoiceThread. Preservice teacher mentors from the university participated online and also met with students three times over the summer at the downtown public library. Discussion of the novel continued face-to-face and plans were made to create response projects (posters, books, leaflets, models, web games, and more) that addressed themes of peer pressure, among others. Students made predictions about the author and generated questions in preparation for a Skype session at our final meeting. With technology and the use of the library auditorium we reached Allegra Goodman, in Tel Aviv for the summer, who graciously chatted with learners exchanging ideas and showcasing response projects.

Year two we paired a science fiction, First Light by Rebecca Stead with Seymour Simon’s non-fiction Global Warming. We added color e-readers to experience the beauty of Simon’s book and search for background information while expanding the number of students participating. We discussed our readings online through Wiggio and Stixy. Unable to schedule the author for an exchange, we sought a local scientist from the university, Peter Lavrentyev, an expert on global warming who visited us in the library auditorium to share a Powerpoint presentation of his research in the Arctic and discuss issues of global warming. Seymour Simon agreed to answer our questions on his blog. Simon himself selected the exchange as one of his top five blog posts!

The program grew again in the third year with more students bringing their own digital readers. We read R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. While we contacted the author as soon as we selected her book, the acclaim she received for her novel that summer kept her so busy we were unable to Skype. She wrote us a personal email, however and encouraged us to visit the Choose Kind site where we could pledge our commitment. Through a YouTube video we learned of a real life “Auggie,” Peter who was affected by craniofacial like the main character in the novel. We contacted his mother and arranged to Skype with him from Michigan. Our learners prepared questions and exchanged precepts with Peter as he and his mom sat in their car in a campground with their laptop. Inspired by these experiences program participants returned to school in the fall and successfully launched a campaign to change their anti-bullying program to a “Choose Kind” focus.

As we move into summer four of The Cyber Café Summer Reading Program we realize kids no longer need instruction on the features of devices and many more have their own. Over the years they selected free downloads from the library and requested other e-books to build extensive digital collections on the e-readers, also used in book clubs throughout the year. They share favorite books with “lend me” features. There is great anticipation at the end of the school year for the unveiling of the summer readings from both learners and their parents who have begun to read the novels alongside their children. We will read a true crime thriller Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steven Sheinkin and Skype with the author as well as the curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

As researchers T.G. White and J.S. Kim noted, simply providing books for summer may not be enough. We have seen that technology can facilitate thoughtful reading, discussion and reaching out to others, deepening the experience of summer reading.

Denise Stuart is from The University of Akron, Ohio. 

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s 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 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, our school break is becoming a flurry of putting classrooms back together, creating exciting new activities for our fresh new learners, and the subtle creeping in of those back-to-school dreams (or is that just me?). Personally, the first day of school is one of my very favorite days of the year. Everything is fresh and new. The door is open to new opportunities and adventures. Students and teachers alike are excited by all the possibilities. But, as I watch all the tweets, posts, and pins, I can’t help but wonder if some of us are slapping a fresh coat of paint on an old rickety practice. Are we making things look really good and exciting on the surface without taking the time to reflect on our practice and how we can make changes to positively impact the learning of each and every student, each and every day?

There are two major areas in the world of the classroom where a strong foundation paves the way to a smooth and productive year: communication and getting to know our students.  I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you some of the strategies, practices, and tools I will be using in the upcoming school year in order to kick off the school year right.

Staying Connected

As teachers, we know that a big piece of our students’ success is building a strong bond between school and home. Practices, procedures, and expectations change each year for a student. And although students adjust quickly in school, often their parents may be confused and frustrated by all the “new” coming home each day.

We need to be prepared to deliver important information in a timely manner. At the beginning of our teaching career, we may have communicated with a weekly newsletter that we printed off and sent home. And although that may have been the most effective way of communicating with parents, times have changed. We need to think about the methods our parents and students use to receive their information now. Information gathering is quick, concise, and usually in the palms of their hands. We need to deliver updates in the digital places where parents already spend time.

In addition to our regular postings on our class blog (which my learners quickly begin maintaining), our class is active on Twitter and Instagram. We have set up a class account @RamsaysClass to let our audience know that everything being published is coming from students. Students post on classroom devices where we are logged into the accounts or they use their own accounts (with parent approval) and post to our hashtag (#RQMS6). Although my learners use both tools to share their learning and connect with their global peers, it also serves as a window into our daily learning activities. Family members cannot only see our active learning environment, but it also gives them the opportunity to join in all of the learning fun. Over the years, these tools have proven to be highly effective in keeping family members, near and far, engaged in our learning community.

In addition to social media, a major source of communication in today’s digital world is texting. There are several texting tools and apps you can use, but my preference is Remind (formerly Remind101). With Remind, you can set up different groups for free; if you teach multiple classes, you can set up a student and parent group for each class. When you send messages, you can send to multiple groups at the same time. You don’t have all the parents’ and students’ numbers and they do not have yours. You give parents and students a class code and they can receive your updates via push notifications, text messages, or email. You can even schedule updates in advance and attach files like photos, documents, PDFs, and presentations. Staying in touch couldn’t be simpler.

Getting to Know You

Life in the classroom is never dull. With so many different learners with unique needs, sometimes it can feel like we are balancing a plethora of spinning plates. How do you determine what a student knows on each and every skill and standard? How do you learn each student’s interests so you can peak his/her curiosity? The sheer amount of formal and informal data a teacher collects each day can quickly become overwhelming, especially at the beginning of the year when you are getting to know your students.

One practice I have found very useful is creating a survey in Google Drive. In a quick and easy form, I can get to know my learners’ likes, dislikes, goals, fears, challenges, hobbies, favorite books, and preference in learning styles. Setting up a Google account is simple. You can use an email address you already own, even if it is not a Gmail address. Once you are in your Google account, simply click on “create” and “form.” Type in your questions, publish, and you are ready to go. I have my students complete this the first couple of days of school. In addition to adding the link to our class website and blog, I turn the link into a QR Code so students can simply scan the code and go directly to the survey. All of that information is stored in your Google Drive as a spreadsheet, making it easily accessible.

Another way to gather data on students is through a free tool called Kahoot. Kahoot allows the user to create quizzes, games and surveys for an audience which interacts in a gaming format using any Internet capable device. In real-time, learners answer questions and teachers get an overview of the level of content mastery to drive their subsequent instruction all within the context of a game. Furthermore, learners have the opportunity to create their own Kahoot to challenge their peers’ understanding and mastery. Kahoot joins my toolbox as an engaging way to pre-assess students at the beginning of new content standards.

KWL graphic organizers have stood the test of time because they provide the learner and teacher with much valuable information before, during, and after a unit of study. Students typically have experience using them at least for the K (what they Know) and W (what they Want to know). However, often the copy they use has been lost or mangled before they ever get to the L (what they have Learned) or all of the sticky notes on the chart paper have long since fallen off the wall and walked out on the bottom of someone’s shoe. ReadWriteThink has created an online tool to bring the practicality of using a KWL back into your classrooms. Students can open the tool and add their own content; including curating any links they may discover or projects they created. Then they can save the file and return to make additions throughout their learning journey. It can be saved as a PDF and submitted to you as evidence of their learning. The KWL creator appeals to my learners because they can see their growth all within one working document.

Socrative is a powerful (and free) tool I harness to get to know my students. Using Socrative, teachers can create quizzes and exit tickets to pre-assess and formatively assess throughout a unit of study. Students can use any Internet-capable device to complete quizzes using a classroom code, which stays the same for the entire year. These quizzes can take the form of multiple choice, true-false, or open-ended questions. The teacher can view the progress in real-time and then a spreadsheet of results is available instantaneously at the conclusion of the quiz to drive further instruction. We use Socrative frequently as a warm-up at the beginning of a class or an exit ticket at the conclusion of a class. My learners eagerly anticipate the immediate feedback they receive on their progress towards their academic goals.

Making Plans

So as the time begins to escalate towards the beginning of the school year, let’s take some time to truly ponder our practice. Let’s think beyond the cute classroom décor and bulletin boards. What worked well? What could be improved upon? How can we grow to better serve the students who we will have for such a short amount of time?

Now is the time we have to prepare for a successful year. We can lay the groundwork for building a strong support system for our learners through our communication. As teachers, we have the ability to invite parents and family members into our learning environment. It’s time we remembered that although we may have a student for a year, the parents have been with them for their entire lives. We need to capitalize on that expertise for the benefit of each child’s learning.

We can spend the next few weeks strengthening our ability to get to know each one of our learners as individuals so we can not only peak their curiosity and creativity, but also help them become the person they want to be. We need to discover where they are on the learning continuum and guide them to where they need to be. Each student is unique; it’s our responsibility to adjust, change, and grow into the educator each one of our students need.

Best wishes on a successful start of a new school year!

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of  Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?: Collaborating in Class & Online, Grades 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.