Literacy Now

What do you know about Twitter?  Before the World Cup took over social media this summer, the largest number of tweets were sent by educators.  Educators worldwide are very willing to share what they know and Twitter is a huge resource for professional development. By following a simple hashtag title entire discussions can open up to you.

I have used Twitter extensively for the last year.  I love to follow educational  conventions in progress.  At the International Reading Association’s conference in May (#IRA14), I tweeted during every session I attended.  There is no way you can be in every session offered, so it is fun to go back and read the highlights of the day.  I love the on-site interaction these tweets bring, but I have also used Twitter for conventions I cannot afford to attend.  By going to the search bar and typing in the event, I was able to find the hashtags for the Texas Library Association Conference (#TLA2014) and the American Library Association Conference in Las Vegas (#alaac14).  Watching these tweets provided links to new books, outstanding presenters, and session highlights, though the Texas conference brings up an interesting issue. Sometimes a hashtag is used for more than one event/subject. You may have to wade through some unrelated tweets to get to the topic you want, be patient! 

Simultaneous to the ALA conference was the International Society for Technology in Education conference (#ISTE14).  How great is it to be in two places at once?  It is easy to click to follow someone on Twitter and on a daily basis you can read the headlines of what is important in education. 

The Children’s Literature Association Conference (#ChLA14), led to a lively conversation on “We need diverse books,” a huge topic at the moment. Sometimes conferences are entirely virtual.  Following #cyberPD leads to an ongoing discussion about Donalyn Miller’s “Reading in the Wild,” and the importance of reading and #TCRWP is the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and a Twitter chat on Colonial Williamsburg.

Last week Dr. Teri Lesesne led a workshop for teachers in my district.  Did I miss out? No.  Teri tweeted (#cisd14) so we could follow the book talks from her session.  Now I can go back and look for the books discussed. When my teachers come back to my campus I will know exactly what they are talking about!  It is also a great way to create a book list of new books you want to read to include in your lessons.  All of the participants in this workshop were introduced to Twitter.  Now they are off learning all that Twitter has to offer!

I urge you to sign up for a Twitter account and get started on the path to the best educational resource ever.  Follow #IRATODAY and #IRACHAT for some great educational resources, you will love it. And follow me at @marjiepodge.

Marjie Podzielinski is a member of the Advisory Committee of Teachers and a librarian at Coulson Tough School in The Woodlands, Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @marjiepodge.

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

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts note robust expectations with regard to students’ reading skills. While CCSS do not specifically suggest technology can play a role in helping students develop these skills, the increased access to computers and handheld devices in schools provides teachers with opportunities to tap into the array of digital resources focused on reading. Various free and inexpensive websites and apps can be used strategically to augment print resources, including with primary-aged learners. Sites designed for young learners require minimal technology skills beyond clicking a mouse.

Narrated Digital Text Sites

Students can access on hardware both at school and at home websites featuring digital text provide teachers with instructional resources at multiple reading levels. Several resources highlight text as words are narrated by a reader, a useful strategy for helping emerging readers. Narration allows students to access text at higher levels than they are able to read independently. Listed resources provide students with good models of fluent readers, especially since students can listen to the tone, pitch, and expression of the reader. The capacity to start, stop, and repeat passages provides differential support as needed for individual students, as do the visual cues provided at several of the sites.

• Storyline Online: Actors and actresses read a variety of stories. Click close captioning (CC) to display words as stories are read. Questions about story content are available.
• Reading is Fundamental: Informational stories and some fairy tales are included.
• Between the Lions: Fables and folktales with audio and illustrations are available by clicking “Stories.” Be sure closed captioning (CC) is on. The site includes other early-reading activities.
• Children’s Storybooks Online: Some books only have text with illustrations while others include audio narration. Click the link to books for young children. The site also includes links to phonics activities.
• Mama Lisa’s World: Children’s songs and poems, some with audio and video, are available. Many of the Mother Goose rhymes include narration.
• Clifford Interactive Storybook: Narrated interactive stories allow students to choose words to complete displayed sentences. The site also includes phonics-based activity options.

In addition to the sites above, Storia is an e-reader that includes five free books with a complimentary Scholastic account. Additional books can be downloaded, costing between $1.99 and $7.99 each. Storia allows teachers to create a bookshelf for each child containing read-to-me and activities options based on the lexile level of each title. The PC version of Storia can be downloaded at the Scholastic website, and an iPad version can be downloaded at iTunes.

For informational texts, search for e-books at sites such as iTunes and Amazon by typing keywords related to content—such as “caterpillar.” Some books are free for download, while others are minimally priced. Many e-books include features such as font size adjustment, link to a dictionary, and note taking options. Students can stop and replay e-book content as needed, and they can access the text with visual and audio scaffolds that help them develop phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. English learners may especially benefit from using eBooks.  

Text-Only Sites

While narration and visual cues can help students read text, there are times when the lack of such features may contribute to reading skill development. For example, assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards sometimes ask students to highlight evidence from the text. Available digitized text allows them to practice this task under teacher direction. After copying and pasting text from a site, students can be prompted to change words in sentences in ways that evoke a different meaning, an activity that requires them to carefully analyze the content. They could also be asked to highlight all of the words that rhyme with one named by the teacher, or even search for words as they ponder key ideas and details about the passage. Such tasks help to develop skills in using a word processor as well as build reading skills.

• Project Gutenburg: The children’s bookshelf contains a variety of content suited for beginning readers. Versions of stories suitable for web browsers and other e-readers are available. The reading level of content varies widely.
• Stories to Grow By with Whootie Owl: The stories are linked to various world cultures. The site includes text and some illustrations submitted by children.
• Fable Library: Simple illustrated stories and comics are available.
• Bedtime Stories: Some images accompany the text.

Apps

Apps, programs for handheld devices such as iPads or iPods, can be downloaded from iTunes and other sites. Even a limited number of hardware can be used effectively as part of rotations through learning centers or as timers prompt students to deliver the device to the next student on a list. Different apps can be loaded on each device, providing students with activities based on their specific needs and learning levels. Many apps focus on comprehension more than other reading skills, so they complement the resources noted above nicely. Several of the resources provide the learner with immediate feedback and several track student progress, providing teachers with useful assessment information. The table below notes titles available for download worth exploring at iTunes.

There are many useful literary and informational online resources that teachers can implement effectively to develop skilled readers. In fact, suggesting some of the resources to parents can extend learning opportunities outside of the classroom, providing students with rich practice opportunities at home. The sites offer students materials that are interesting and interactive, keeping students engaged in the learning process at levels consistent with their personal needs. With a little creativity, even teachers with limited classroom technology can engage their students using web resources and apps, contributing to broad reading skill development.

Dawn Poole is a Professor of Educational Technology at California State University Stanislaus.

Whitney Donnelly is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at California State University Stanislaus.

With the multitude of web resources available, it has become much easier to make classroom content available to our students.  The challenge, however, is how best to provide access to appropriate websites; sometimes it just helps to pre-select resources and web sites for students to use. This issue can be addressed by using Wix (www.wix.com)—a tool that helps you incorporate HTML web content. Using Web 2.0 tools also builds on the skills of the plugged-in generation of students currently in our schools. S.M. Sweeney emphasized that the way youth today read, write, and communicate is continuously being changed by modern information and communication technologies—they live in an environment where they are able to stay connected and communicate with each other constantly. “Their writing uses the mediums of instant messaging (IM), text messaging (texting), Twitter, and email, as well as shared electronic documents and postings on blogs and social networking sites.” Similarly, J.S. Blanchard and A.E. Farstrup emphasized that “today’s children are the most technologically experienced generation ever to walk through the doors of our schools and into our classrooms for reading instruction.”

Wix is a medium that appeals to this new generation of technology users. The Wix site uses a drag/drop, click/point approach to guide the user through website development.  Designers may select from numerous predesigned templates or simply create a template from scratch. It is then easy to edit, add, and/or delete any components that might be included on the page, such as menu titles, new pages, transitions, pictures, clip art, music, and video. You can also make information available to download in several file formats including Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word.

There are numerous ways to use Wix in the classroom, so be creative (e.g. personal webpages, professional information, or general information for classes). One way we’ve seen Wix used successfully is in the creation of inquiry projects. "The Freshwater Swamp Tour" inquiry project, created by Cindy Wallace, guided her high school students through a tour of Louisiana swamps. Once completed, their task was to use Microsoft Publisher to create a flyer featuring a real estate ad designed to sell the swamp. The flyers were shared via a Wix website.

"Historical Places to Visit" was created for Kim Bailey’s third grade class.  After her students finished their exploration of historical sites, they were tasked with using Wix to create a virtual storybook illustrating what they learned. Below is one example of the storybooks they created. 

Wix is so user friendly that it is possible to create a web site in a few hours or less. Wix is also free, which means it offers endless possibilities for augmenting more traditional textbook and paper/pencil activities by integrating new literacies within your classroom instruction. Take time to Wix today!

Elizabeth Manning is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership in the College of Education at Louisiana Tech University. A veteran K-8 teacher of 23 years, her areas of interest include content area literacy, writing workshop, and curriculum design and development. Dr. Manning can be contacted via email at lmanning@latech.edu.

Carrice Cummins is a professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership in the College of Education at Louisiana Tech University. She has 37 years’ experience as an educator with primary areas of interest in comprehension, content area literacy, and teacher development. She served as the 2012-13 president of the International Reading Association. She can be contacted via email at carrice@latech.edu.

Kimberly Kimbell-Lopez is a professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership in the College of Education at Louisiana Tech University. She has been an educator for over 25 years, and her areas of expertise include literacy and technology. She can be contacted via email at kkopez@latech.edu. 

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

In my December post (Language Arts Apps Save the Day), I wrote about the incredible apps being produced by the team at ReadWriteThink.org. I cannot say enough good things about these apps—they are a staple in my classroom and have allowed my language arts classes to become interactive and paperless to an extent that I was unable to achieve before discovering these amazing tools.

Recently, my personal favorite of the RWT app collection, RWT Timeline, has been recognized as a 2014 Best App for Teaching and Learning by the American Association of School Librarians, which is part of the American Library Association. This is a well-deserved honor for an organization that has done so much to finally bring language arts instruction for the intermediate and middle school grades into the digital age. Although I have written an overview of all the RWT apps in the past, this award is an opportunity to put the spotlight solely on RWT Timeline.

As a sixth grade teacher in Illinois, teaching students how to read and use timelines was explicitly required under the Illinois Learning Standards. In the first few years of my career, I taught this skill because it was a required part of our curriculum. As time passes, though, and the age of Common Core descends, I continue to teach this skill for its value to my students.

I work with a high percentage of students who are reading below grade level, as well as a fair amount with special needs. I was completely flummoxed the first time I realized I had students—quite a few students, in fact—who were unable to sequence a simple story. As my students and I have made the journey from strict curriculum to project- and inquiry-based learning, from paper and pencil to digital tools, from reading textbooks to researching online, I have seen the varied ways in which timelines can be applied, for both simple and complex tasks.

We use timelines to highlight important events in a historical time period, such as the Civil Rights Movement. This helps my students not only learn the history, but to discern between major and minor details. We create timelines for the lives of people we study, such as Robert Ballard, and events we want to understand better, such as the sinking and discovery of the Titanic. We create and use timelines to plan our research and presentation projects, so every person in my classroom has to think about the processes and tasks involved in accomplishing their goals and set their own reasonable deadlines, an important skill my sixth graders have had few prior opportunities to develop. We use timelines to lay out the events of a story, both to facilitate comprehension and practice a skill that is lacking for some, as well as dissecting plot development and author's craft.

I'll be honest—pre-iPad timelines weren't always my favorite thing. They took up a lot of space, ended up a scribbled mess due to the inevitable errors along the way, and if we used pictures or pre-printed events, they were a sticky mess. Contrary to popular opinion, most sixth graders aren't much better with glue than kindergarteners. But this is the beauty of RWT Timeline. My students create their timelines on their iPads, reducing the clutter. They can save and edit, allowing for the timelines to be an ongoing project—as they should be. The app is simple enough in design to be very easy to use, but functionally complex enough to be appropriate for intermediate and middle grades. There are no hidden catches or "in-app purchases," students can create any number of timelines with as many entries as they need. Students can add pictures to their entries which, according to my kids, is always the best part of the project. And my favorite part, finished timelines can be emailed—even if an email account is not set up on the iPad. The app itself has email capability and sends the finished product to me for evaluation or printing. Multiple projects can be saved to the app, so more than one student can use the same iPad to work on their own projects, without having to delete other in-progress pieces of work.

I am so impressed with the RWT Timeline app and all the possibilities it opens within my classroom. It is thrilling to see an organization recognized for producing quality language arts apps, which is still one of the areas of greatest need in the classroom. Take the time to download and try these apps and give them your support. Use them, talk about them, and share them on social media, so we can continue to see language arts treated as an important focus for digital instruction design.

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 and follow her on Twitter at @linlin8.

photo credit: Massachusetts Secretary of Education via photopin cc

In 2013, Nelleke Belo, Susan McKenney, and Joke Voogt conducted a review to further understand research outcomes in the use of technology for early literacy acquisition in the kindergarten classroom. Drawing on four academic literature databases, the research team narrowed 13,070 initial hits to 46 articles that met their selection criteria. These articles, explicitly focused on technology as an independent variable, were aimed at kindergarten-age students, included early literacy development, and were published after 2001. Drawing on previous research affordances as well as gaps in the literature, the authors asked:

• What is the content and focus of studies on technology and ICT applications in relation to early literacy development?
• What kinds of evidence do these studies provide about the affordances of technology and ICT for fostering early literacy development?

The 46 articles were representative of studies of electronic storybooks (11), computer-based training programs (11), and technology-based curriculum supplements (11). The authors also found studies related to full curriculum (5), assistive technologies (4), and other media such as websites and television (4). Based on these studies, the authors suggest two overall findings.

• There is positive evidence of the role of technology in supporting early literacy acquisition for this age group.
• In a majority of the studies used in the analysis, there was a lack of attention paid to the role of the teacher. The specific study outcomes may be promising but they may also be more difficult to replicate without this information.

Review articles like the one offered by Belo et al. are critical to our field. Where specific studies lend insight into the use of particular technologies or methodologies, reviews like this offer researchers and practitioners a chance to step back and paint a picture of the field. The portrait represents successes and areas that need improvement. In addition to the two broad stated conclusions, there are at least two other important outcomes that can be gleaned from the analysis.

First, technologies have affordances and constraints making them more or less useful in different circumstances. The review provided evidence that electronic storybooks can lead to significant early literacy gains. However, there were also other technologies highlighted in this review that were successful in literacy acquisition. More importantly, electronic storybooks impacted literacy skills differently based on the interactivity they afforded and the number of student interactions offered.

This all sounds like common sense: you would not use an electronic storybook for every literacy goal and you would not assume all electronic storybooks work the same. However, there seems to be an innate desire, often verbalized by reporters, who attempt to glorify or villainize emerging tools and technologies. Technology can positively impact emergent literacy acquisition, however, it does not mean it always will. Some electronic storybooks used in certain ways can positively impact literacy skill development, however, it does not mean all e-books will work all the time, even if they demonstrate success in one environment.

Literacy researchers should be promoting a deeper understanding of the role of such technologies by asking a different type of question. Instead of wondering if technology can promote literacy acquisition or even if electronic storybooks work, it is more prudent to ask under what situations or circumstances will certain technologies work. The answer to “do electronic storybooks work?” is not yes or no—it’s sometimes, and under certain circumstances. Literacy practitioners should thus be cautious about interpreting results of research studies in terms of broad-sweeping claims. Instead of asking if it works, practitioners should push to understand when it could work or the conditions under which it works or fails to work.

Unfortunately, as the authors conclude, researchers seem to understand—and then forget—the importance of the teacher. Knowing how to teach and understanding literacy acquisition are both obviously different than knowing how to teach literacy.  Arguably knowing how to teach literacy with technology is yet another set of skills.   As such, it would be prudent to know more about the teacher involvement and requisite professional development of technology and literacy implementations. These were left out of many of the stated studies, reducing the ability of researchers and practitioners to further implement or confirm the outcomes.

What is striking about the 46 studies is that most of them seemed to be about technologies or experiences where children consumed media. That statement is not meant to be a definitive description of the 46 studies, there were obviously facets of many programs where children were producing artifacts of learning. Nor is it meant to be an indictment against consumable media, these are important in scaffolding learning.

It simply demonstrates a lack of published research on technologies and experiences rooted in student development and production for those age and date ranges. Compare this to the movement of production as literacy as evidenced by the coding movement or the notion that production can lead to literacy gains (e.g. see Jason Ohler’s resources about Digital Storytelling in the Classroom).  Think about the “maker movement” (e.g. http://makerfaire.com/) identified through tools like 3D printers and Lego Mindstorms (http://mindstorms.lego.com).

In the end, such analyses help us evaluate our current literacy stances. Are we creating new technologies that mirror our pedagogical stances? Are technologies pushing our pedagogical strategies in intended and unintended ways? And/or are we utilizing the technologies outside of literacy to better inform our pedagogical needs in literacy acquisition and instruction?

Dr. Richard E. Ferdig is the Summit Professor of Learning Technologies and Professor of Instructional Technology at the Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University, rferdig@gmail.com.

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