Technology Specialist Design….
Technology isn’t going anywhere; it is here to stay. As teachers, we shouldn’t be fighting against it but embracing it and looking for ways to use it to help create a meaningful connection with our students. As a future technology specialist, I have been exploring ways to utilize technology to enhance a lesson and classroom.
As part of the class EDU 777 that I am taking at Dominican University, we have been asked to look deeply into our classrooms and schools and find a problem/area that technology could help meet or solve and enhance the learning of students and/or teachers. In this blog post, I am going to share with you my thoughts and expectations of this project, and hope it inspires you to do the same with your teaching.
Step One: Finding a Problem…..
This at first was a little overwhelming. I felt lost and not sure where to start. I am a specials teacher; I teach elementary art and I see my students once every other week. So often because of our little time together, our class activities typically are more focused on hands-on art building and less use of technology. While I try to incorporate technology into my curriculum, it isn’t always hands-on for student use.
So I racked my brain to think of ways that I could take stuff that I already teach and could
perhaps use technology to enhance it. Before a lesson, I often incorporate a book, I sometimes read it aloud to my students, or if our library doesn’t have it (which is more often than not), I play a recorded read-aloud or get the book outside of our school library. (buying it or getting it at my local library) . This got me thinking about how many art books my students truly had access to. This is when I realized that I could use technology to enhance that access, allowing multiple students to read the same book at the same time and have a diverse range of art books to choose from.
I thought: “Why not make a digital choice board of art book read-alouds that would allow my students access to a multitude and variety of books on artists and art concepts?”. I already incorporate many read-alouds in class but now my students could access them on their chromebooks and could either listen/read independently prior to the assignment or as an early finisher activity in class as well as at home for outside reading enjoyment. This independent reading/listening would allow them to build their reading fluency.
Step 2: Assessing the Need
Now that I had an idea, I needed to assess if this was really needed and how it would help my students. As specials teachers, we are asked in our evaluation how we are helping students learn toward the school or district goals. So when looking for a problem to address I looked at one of our district's goals; to increase our IAR testing scores by 5% this year.
This technology plan definitely will help my students work towards that goal. Where I might not be teaching them the basics of reading, they are able to practice these skills and be exposed to written and verbal texts that will help build their fluency and become proficient readers. Also being able to access them on my Schoology page at any time allows them to be exposed to artists and art concepts outside of the art room; helping foster their passion for art as well as becoming lifelong readers.
Secondly, my library has some artist/art books but not a huge collection of them. There is typically only one copy. This digital library of books not only helps build reading literacy but helps me give my students access to more books and allows multiple grade levels and students to read the same book simultaneously. It will also help expose English to my ESL students and help them become more proficient and fluent in English. Not all our students have easy access to our local public libraries or have parents/guardians read to them at night. Having a resource on my Schoology page that allows my students to have access to a wide range of books at home that can be read to them, lets them build their love of reading, and improve their literacy and fluency outside of the classroom.
Step 3: Researching Technology Tool/Plan
Not only did my idea for my project have to fill a need the school lacked, but it also needed to help my student’s learning. So to help prove that my idea of a digital read-aloud library for my art students was valid, I needed to find research that backed that up.
I found this part of the process interesting. I found several articles that helped support and show that allowing read-aloud stories to be utilized in my classroom as pre or post-activities within a lesson would help build the fluency of both my English and ESL students. It would help build their vocabulary and foster a love for reading. It also let me think ahead of any challenges that I would encounter.
ex) Challenge: my library had a small selection of books
Solution: To put together a broad range of books, access some from my local library, and purchase some. If I find a book is no longer in print, I would see if I could find a pre-recorded video on YouTube.
This 3rd step of the planning process let me discover the learning theory that helped support my project.
It is……..
Emergent Learning Theory: This theory combines the skills, knowledge, and attitude a child develops throughout their childhood in relation to reading/writing. This relationship can start as early as birth.
As emergent learning suggests that reading is something built upon since birth, providing reading in early years and in elementary education is optimal for their development, and it has been shown by a variety of researchers that it is beneficial for multiple areas of development. In Katelyn Denio's article, “The Art of Reading Aloud'', she mentions the research done by pediatrician and neuroscientist John Hutton. “Hutton’s studies on shared reading experiences show that when children are actively engaged and participating in a read-aloud, their brains are “turbocharged” in certain areas of the brain related to foundational emergent literacy skills like decoding, comprehension and language” (Denio, 2021, p. 39).
Conclusion:
I knew that reading at a young age was beneficial, but the analysis of research and looking at how my idea supported state standards and district goals, let me know that I was on the right track and supported my project’s concept. Overall, my research concluded that the use of technology wouldn’t hinder what I was trying to achieve, but it would enhance it. and, hopefully, will help my district achieve its goal for reading scores. I am excited about his project and implementing it into my classes.
Cited Sources:
College and career readiness skills - Illinois state board of education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.isbe.net/Documents/ELA_common_core_standards.pdf
Computer book knowledge base concept laptop stock vector (royalty free) 1826482376. Shutterstock. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/computer-book-knowledge-base-concept-laptop-1826482376
Denio, Katelyn, (2021, May) “The Benefits of Read Alouds for Young Readers” (2021) California State University, Stanislaus Retrieved on Nov. 14, 2022, from https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/8623j374g
Dominican University Home: Dominican University. Dominican University Home | Dominican University. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.dom.edu/
Giphy. (n.d.). Be animated. GIPHY. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://giphy.com/
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