Book Love by Penny Kittle shares stories on how readers develop depth, stamina and passion. Though written with adolescents in mind, the message is absolutely appropriate for elementary age. She states that the path to difficult reading begins with books that students enjoy. To build capacity for reading requires practice and lots of it…
Tag: reading
Access Raz-Kids Through iPad
Some news that I’ve been waiting for from Learning A-Z, which will offer increased flexibility – Raz-Kids has launched their app for ipad! Students can now access our Raz-Kids accounts from the ipad. You should use a headset [the speaker jack from your headset goes into the jack on the top of the ipad]. The recordings…
Communicating – the Art of Presentation
Consider the many times you present an idea, or tell a story. Haiku Deck on the iPad, takes the art of presenting to a whole new level. Take an idea or a message; synthesize it to a few words that represent the deep understandings. Haiku Deck will use the words to locate images from Creative Commons that…
App Support in Reading
Apps come and apps go. All of them serve a purpose. It is the teacher who makes “magic” happen through the lesson experiences. Our iDevices Blog is where you will see an ongoing vetted list of apps. (Click Apps Collection list) Please add to the list if you run across an app that you love. Here’s one you may…
Sharing Books…Modeling Strategies…
Sometimes locating just the right book to share or use as a piece of mentor text appears impossible to find. Or have you ever wanted to expand opportunities for your students to read at home? We now have access to TumbleBooks and TumbleBookCloud. [See links under District Links.] These online resources provide a fabulous array of e-texts…
Welcome back September
Welcome back September. And what a spectacular summer it has been – Olympics energy, warm sunny weather, family and friends laughter. Though it’s always great to get away and get recharged, I look forward to the start of each new year. A new year to test out some crazy ideas (yes I’ve read and reread…
Growing Readers – Literature Circles Gone Digital – Part 1
I wasn’t quite sure how to title this, swinging back and forth from “Passionate Conversations” and “Growing Readers”, both of which I believe Lit Circles to be. I’ve been working with a fabulous teacher on engaging her class with Literature Circles. Oh not the process with all the jobs/roles (which I’ve done many times before), but the approach…
Little Tools that Do Big Things
Do you ever want to do something with your class and the whole technology thing is just too much? I get that a lot so I’m always on the hunt for tools that “take the mystery out of things” and just work. Remember that we are also in a world of constant change so…
How do we support "e-Readers" in schools?
An e-reader or e-book reader is a portable electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital books and periodical s. However, with technology advancements, digital reading has been extended to a broader medium that includes using static or mobile devices versus using smaller portable ones such as the Smartphone/iPhone. The…
How Readable is the Information?
Readability may be defined as ‘reading ease’ or how content can be successfully understood. Teachers know that comprehension is dependent on many variables, one of which is the readability level of information whether online or in print. It matters little if you have the best list of websites for research but the students have difficulties…
Words Their Way – Making Connections…Session1
Today we started our first of 4 learning sessions on Words Their Way, by Invernizzi, Bear, Templeton and Johnston. In a nutshell, the program provides a developmental curriculum for phonics/spelling instruction, while also promoting reading fluency and vocabulary development. Its hands-on approach marries well with what we know about how the brain uses categories to…
Kurzweil #2: Annotating – Making Thinking Visible
When you read anything, many things happen in your head that nobody notices. But good readers know and can identify these things. Sometimes we call them “movies in our head, thinking abouts, connections, questions or just plain wonders…”. The Study Skills toolbar in Kurzweil 3000 allows great flexibility in making this thinking visible so we…
Blogs – Learning Series – Challenge #2
Here is your homework for Oct 20th: Challenge Activity #2: To get a feel for how your blog will act in posts, please create a few posts and create categories (logical words meaningful to you) to organize them. (Some examples may be homework, events, news of the day, questions to ponder, questions to launch a…
Blogs – Learning Series – Challenge Activity 1
Before the next Blog workshop, please try to complete the following tasks: A) Upload 2 – 3 images to your media library. 100 pixels by 100 300 pixels by 300 original file upload and resize in editor B) Create a List of 3 Links C) Change your current theme and identify the changes observed? What…
Learning Sessions Focused on Connecting, Communicating…
Imagine a simple way to share and connect information with your parent community, your student community, your teaching community. Imagine being able to update that information or receive comments anytime, anywhere. In our busy schedules it is increasingly difficult to share everything that we feel is important — enter the web world. Using platforms like…