This chapter focused on the importance and practicality of
classroom reading workshops and minilessons within any of our content areas.
What grabbed my attention the most out of this chapter was reading about how
web tools can be used for sharing, publishing, and responding to class readings
(p.232). I found this topic to be very ironic; after I read about how to use
technology to allow students to respond to class readings, I then turned around
and performed this discipline of
responding to what I read in this chapter on a class-made web blog. Talk about
inception…
 |
| INCEPTION |
Just like this section mentions, technology can be such a
valuable tool in your lesson plans for minilessons and workshops. There are
multiple cool websites available for students to use to facilitate discussions,
make presentations (paperless!), as well as store their reading assignments in
case the teacher doesn’t wish to print out articles all the time. I’ve actually
seen a lot of these websites in practice at the middle school I’ve been observing
in this semester. At Hilsman Middle School, each student has a personal
laptop—from the One-to-One program—and their teachers take full advantage of
them. Students use Edmodo to complete assignments and communicate with their
teachers, as well as use Google Classroom for day-to-day and homework and class
activities. With Google Classroom, they have the ability to collaborate with
their peers on documents and projects, and the possibilities are endless when
it comes to the different medias that can be used within the program. What’s
great about these different technology platforms are that they’re much more
interesting than writing a paper about what you read. With technology, students
can make their responses and discussions really unique and incorporate all sorts of media to demonstrate what they learned and if they enjoyed it.
So shout out to Mr. Robinson for practicing what this book preaches by having us blog our responses to our course readings!
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Emily
Hey Emily!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was nice of them to include several online classroom sources! I think I’m pretty old fashion (PAPER IS BEST) but I do see the benefits of having an online source for every student to have access to. The student showing us around the school at Clarke Middle promoted these types of online classrooms saying that they are beneficial for even sick students, allowing them to access the materials online from home! [76 words]
Hey Emily,
ReplyDeleteI think that having online resources is very helpful. By letting the students have access to the material without having the teacher as a middleman, you are giving them some power to control a part of their learning. I do think there is a balance of online and paper materials that works the best for each classroom. Personally, I like to read on paper, but I like to have my class notes on my computer. It would be helpful to talk to your students and see where they are as well as what you prefer in the class.
[100]
Thanks, Emily! I'm glad you've emphasized the potential for technology to help enrich content area reading. There is a very good chance that every single one of you will end up in a one-to-one environment, so thinking about what that means now will help better prepare you for your future classroom.
ReplyDelete