My driving question is - What is the influence of e-readers on struggling students? My DQ is innovative in terms of my classroom.
Ipads have slowly worked their way into my classroom. First, I had a teacher ipad. Then, my grade level had a cart of 30 ipads for 70 students. Finally, my classroom has its own set of 22 ipads for 22 students. This slow integration of ipads came with very little support. All progress with the ipads was individual or information shared by my 2nd grade team. When my colleague's and I finally had a handle on the organization of the ipads and the addition and subtraction of apps then the district took away that autonomy wiping the ipads clean and rebooting with all the apps we had weeded through and gotten rid of, as well as the ones we wanted to keep. Frustrating, and time consuming, and a big set back.
So, with the advent of my taking on this Master's Program I decided to investigate the e-readers on the internet, as part of our Language Arts program, and through the local library. I did this with two particular students in mind. These students were struggling with their reading. When reading time came they did everything to avoid it, even with books that they had chosen. Motivation. It was/is all about motivating students to pick up and enjoy books. So I decided to research the influence of e-readers hoping that one of the influences would be to motivate.
The e-readers that I have used with my students are Storyline Online,
Ipads have slowly worked their way into my classroom. First, I had a teacher ipad. Then, my grade level had a cart of 30 ipads for 70 students. Finally, my classroom has its own set of 22 ipads for 22 students. This slow integration of ipads came with very little support. All progress with the ipads was individual or information shared by my 2nd grade team. When my colleague's and I finally had a handle on the organization of the ipads and the addition and subtraction of apps then the district took away that autonomy wiping the ipads clean and rebooting with all the apps we had weeded through and gotten rid of, as well as the ones we wanted to keep. Frustrating, and time consuming, and a big set back.
So, with the advent of my taking on this Master's Program I decided to investigate the e-readers on the internet, as part of our Language Arts program, and through the local library. I did this with two particular students in mind. These students were struggling with their reading. When reading time came they did everything to avoid it, even with books that they had chosen. Motivation. It was/is all about motivating students to pick up and enjoy books. So I decided to research the influence of e-readers hoping that one of the influences would be to motivate.
The e-readers that I have used with my students are Storyline Online,
HMH Readers, Tumblebooks and only recently Storia.
Children, as we all know, do not fit conveniently into any category. One of my struggling readers was engaged and incredibly motivated to use the e-readers. Being read to by the e-readers really filled a void for him. Before, he could not access an entire story and now his language arts time and read to self time are flush with books. But my other struggling reader is a tougher nut. Not much captivates this student. This is why I need to fine tune the use of Storia. I've had access to Storia for about a month and it has so many features and varied uses that so far I have only scratched the surface.
Is this innovative? For me and my practices it is. On the SAMR model it probably only falls into the Substitution level although with the addition of Storia it may push it to Augmentation. I don't think innovation has to be mind blowing. I think it should fill a need and make a difference. So far it has made a positive difference.
Is this innovative? For me and my practices it is. On the SAMR model it probably only falls into the Substitution level although with the addition of Storia it may push it to Augmentation. I don't think innovation has to be mind blowing. I think it should fill a need and make a difference. So far it has made a positive difference.