Robin Talkowski’s Blog

Technological resources should be evaluated as to how they further student learning.  Technology can help students learn, reinforce learning, or showcase learning.  These are some of the resources that I have found helpful to teach vocabulary to middle school students.

Most educators would list lack of sufficient time as one of the big teaching frustrations. Consequently, all instruction and support activities must be directly connected to the curriculum and standards of performance.  Reading instruction has four major foci:  decoding, reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  At the middle school level, the decoding aspect of reading often emphasizes morphology, i.e. the smallest unit of language that carries meaning such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  This approach to decoding blends into vocabulary expansion.

When evaluating what technology resources to use with my instruction, I look at what purpose technology can serve.  1.  Does it aid or enhance the actual learning itself?  Does it reinforce things learned?  Or 3.  Does it showcase student’s demonstrated learning?  Many technology applications serve more than one purpose.  Also, as a teacher, I know that our minds like new things, unique things, or exciting things.  Consequently, I look for at least 5 different ways that I can use technology to accomplish the same purpose.  For example, I know how excited my students have been to play the “Mouse” hang man game on Spelling City, but if that is the only reinforcing activity I do for a week, they will soon tell me how boring it is!  The task, then, is to use sufficient resources to keep the students interested and learning; and yet not overwhelm the students and teachers with too many options.

Since the technological resources vary for each instructional area, I will focus on each reading instructional area and some of the resources used one at a time.  The resources cited should in no way be considered inclusive.  They are simply ones that I have used and found effective.  Part 3 will focus on Decoding and Vocabulary instruction.

A question I often hear posed is how does one encourage teachers to use technology with their students. As a teacher who loves technology, I have found that it is not always easy for me to use some of the tools that look like they would be very engaging and effective with students. For those teachers who are not predisposed to technology, the integration of web 2.0 tools and resources must be even more daunting. So, what encourages teachers to use the resources that are available? There are three things that usually influence my integrating technology into my instruction. First, there must be an evident connection to the curriculum. Second, it must be easy to use, and lastly, the amount of classroom time must be considered.

Well, sales of poster boards are not really plunging, but it is my hope.  Every time I see students carrying those big sheets of poster board into the school covered with a few pasted pictures and words, I cringe.  I think about the wasted paper.  I think about the work that is so large that they cannot be displayed.  Most of all I think about an opportunity lost to allow students to use their creativity and some of the fun tools now available on the web.  One easy place to start is with Glogster.com/edu.  Now that they have created a glogster specifically for educators there is more control over the material that can be seen.  You can register your students as friends and see what they have created.  It is a good place to start.