Keystone+Integrator+Essay

=Essay Submitted for Keystone Integrator District Level:=

Major improvements to reading and writing noticed in my classroom and others from integrating technology into instruction are student interest, engagement, and motivation. Students are reading online and creating written pieces that are published online for a variety of audiences. Student collaboration has increased as they work together on writing projects making sure that everyone has a role that he/she must fulfill.

Students are interested in reading because they can read text online as if the text is “alive” rather than just the typical text within a book. The online stories have animation and sound rather than just words. They can read along with the audio to increase their proficiency in word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. This can be individually through simple pdf files or web stories that have flash animation; or as a group using the interactive white board where students can read as groups, see the pages of the book turn, and have the story read to them or read the story aloud themselves. Reading the story on the interactive whiteboard allows me to provide links to actual videos that relate to the topic being read. Students can be reading a story and then click on a link that will take them to a video for them to watch and listen to, before going back to their story. This provides the students with additional information to help them comprehend their reading. Students can access these online stories outside of school from our class wikispace that also provides the related videos.

Students are willing to create written projects due to the flexibility in the type of assignment being completed. No longer are the students just writing a short story or a simple research report. The students have been encouraged to write personal narratives that have been published as digital stories. They find photos from home that relate to their story, use their own voice to narrate and use software entitled, Photostory, to create the digital story. They transform that simple personal narrative only seen by me, their teacher, into a digital story/movie, viewable by their friends, family and the community.

My students have also worked both independently and as small groups to create stories for our classroom newsletter. They type their stories and then insert them into a single MS Publisher file used for our newsletter. The students then decide on the formatting for their story and the desired images to place with their article. Some images are simply clip art but others are pictures taken with a digital camera. These tasks allow the students to take ownership and pride in their work.

Students have also been motivated to work more as a team and fulfill an assigned role in that group rather than rely on one or two people to complete a project. The students access our class wikispace to find directions, assigned tasks, role descriptions, and resources for the project. The rubrics and scoring guides are also listed. They have used this method to complete a PowerPoint presentation in which they were researching various planets or topics related to space and then combined their research to create a group presentation.

I have an interactive whiteboard to allow students the opportunity to practice their spelling and grammar skills by writing and correcting various sentences. Reinforcing these skills helps them to use the skills correctly in their writing. They have also used the interactive board to brainstorm writing tasks, organize thoughts and details using a graphic organizer, and analyze a piece of writing in order to identify the main idea, details, and closing sentences found within a paragraph. These are skills they need to use when writing independently.

By using the technology in the classroom, students want to write and read. No more is it just reading the "reading book" or "writing" a story within their journal. They are enjoying reading in various subjects throughout the day and writing constantly because they want to do it; not because I assigned a task. Students are able to get back to enjoying learning and I can make school fun again even with all the high stakes and standards that they must meet.

Bonnie Dilling Northern Bedford County School District Northern Bedford High School (814) 766-4723 bdilling@nbcsd.org bdillingtchr@gmail.com