Tech Talk

Tech Talk

Shelley Martin-Young

Technology Tools for the Reading Classroom

I was recently told by a doctoral cohort that now that COVID-19 is over they are struggling to keep their students’ interest in the classroom. They described that their students are used to relying heavily on technology because of staying home to learn the past couple of years. They wanted a way to engage their students with technology in their classrooms in meaningful ways. Below is a partial list of some of the technology tools I shared with these students. I did warn them that they need to know their why before they insert technology. Remember, technology is a tool. Identify your learning goals and use technology to enhance and engage –tasks before apps! That said, let’s look at some tools to engage our students, explore with our students, and help explain to our students.

Engage

This section of technology tools introduces you to ways to hook your students. These include videos, podcasts, memes, quotes, polls, quizzes and discussion.

AnswerGarden is quickly becoming one of my favorite tools to gather immediate responses from my students. It is a feedback tool that you can use in real-time with your students. It can be anonymous, or you can have your students add their names. I often use it for brainstorming or getting a quick feel of how my students are understanding classroom discussion. This tool is great for both synchronous and asynchronous learning, polling, and formative assessments. This blog gives you plenty of ideas on how to use AnswerGarden in your classroom.

Padlet is a reliable mind mapping tool that is easy to use and is free for your classroom. With Padlet you can create an online bulletin board to share with your students. This tool is perfect for brainstorming on a topic, gathering student work, literature circle discussions, accessing prior knowledge, and even communicating with parents. More than just a place to write your thoughts, users can also post images, videos, files, and links. Padlets can be customized easily by the creator. It is so easy to use that even young students will be able to use Padlet. Add your thoughts to this Padlet and maybe get some new ideas. You can watch a Padlet tutorial here or here, get Padlet graphic organizers here, or get more ideas here.

Adobe Spark is a free online video maker. Spark has themes available to help your students create the perfect video. It is easy to use and edit. Spark is great for creating book trailers or to give book talks digitally. If you are tired of the same old book talk, use Adobe Spark to add some spark to your reading lessons. Spark would also be great for students to create a digital exit slip. Spark pairs seamlessly with Google Classroom where students can easily share their creations with their peers. Read this blog for ideas on how to use Spark from kindergarten through high school. Here is an Adobe Spark tutorial.

Storymap is a fabulous mapping program that I have just discovered. This free tool lets students use maps and images to create a map for a book they have read or invent a place all their

own. Students can include historical maps and works of art to create their map. Here is an example of a story map created by Georgia Humanities called the Southern Literary Trail.

Try these other quick ways to engage your students:

Poll Everywhere – engage your students from anywhere Kahoot – a great assessment or review too Mentimeter – visualize your students’ responses and participation in your presentation Quizizz – assessment, instruction, and practice all in one great tool Dotstorming – small group brainstorming tool

Explore

This section of technology tools encourages students to explore topics – on their own or with a small group using text sets, YouTube, or Infographics

Visuwords is a great place for students to begin their research on any topic. This tool is an online graphical dictionary. Unlike a typical dictionary, Visuwords creates diagrams to illustrate the meanings of words and their associations with other words and concepts. This free program allows students to simply type in a word, press enter, and a “network of nodes” appears. Students touch a node to see the definition of the word. Also on the screen are synonyms. Students can click and drag the words around for clarity. Click here to see the nodes for the word censorship.

One of my favorite strategies is for students to take literary virtual field trips. There are a great number of field trips already planned and organized. Enjoy the virtual field trips below:

Night and a virtual tour of Auschwitz Anne of Green Gables Henry David Thoreau’s Walden The Diary of Anne Frank Esperanza Rising Ditch that textbook has free virtual field trips on just about any topic you can imagine from theme parks to historical sites and famous landmarks. Bound to Stay Bound Books is another great resource for virtual field trips Google Arts and Culture has over 1,000 places your students can “visit.”

Flipboard is a great tool to use as your students begin their research. “Flipboard was founded as one place to find the stories for your day, bringing together your favorite news sources with social content to give a deep view into everything” (Flipboard.com, nd). This tool would be better used with high school students. It allows students to research topics or create their own magazines.

Another tool for older students is AllSides. Allsides is a company that promotes balanced news, media bias ratings, and diverse perspectives. Along this same line is KQED Learn which shares videos with students giving both the pros and cons. Students can also interact with kids from all across the country about topics that are relevant to their lives. Here is a discussion on

what needs to change to make college more affordable, another on what’s more dangerous–banned books or the act of banning them, or should the voting age be lowered to 16?

Try these other quick ways for your students to explore:

Piktochart – easily create infographics, reports or videos Thinglink – create visual experiences for student-centered learning Venngage – create infographics, timelines, reports, or presentations Quizlet – build digital flash cards Turn your tablet into a recordable whiteboard with Lensoo Wonderopolis – explore and discover for all ages.

Explain

This final section are ways that you can use technology to teach lesson objectives through direct instruction

Podcasting is a great way to give your students a voice. A podcast is an audio story that is made to share ideas. Students can use podcasting to interview each other, tell stories, hold debates, host a radio show, make announcements, and so much more. iPhones, IPads, or other tablets are a great way to record these podcasts using apps such as VoiceMemo, RecForge II, or GarageBand. Once the recordings are made, editing software can make these recordings more professional. Free audio editing tools include Audacity, Soundtrap, or AudioTool. Once their podcasts are finished, it is time to publish them. You can share these with family and friends via your class website or Google Classroom. Other resources for podcasting include: ● Project Audio – a step by step guide to creating podcasts with your students ● Anchor – for painless podcasting ● 8 Great Educational Podcasts for Kids ● Clyp – audio editor ● Google Keep – adding voice to pictures ● Edshelf – collection of audio creation tools

I am sure everyone is familiar with Google Slides and PowerPoint for presenting information. Have you heard of these fabulous ways to present your lessons to students? Emaze allows you to turn a boring presentation into a unique visual story with many visual effects. There are templates to use to create presentations, websites, photo albums and more. Nearpod is a student engagement tool. With Nearpod, students can actively participate in the lessons you are teaching. Nearpod has a vast library of already created lessons, but is also very easy to create your own. Pear Deck is a Google Slides add on that easily enables the teacher to quickly launch formative assessments and activities within your presentation. Pear Deck works seamlessly with Google Classroom.

Try these other quick tools for explaining content:

Educreations – teach anything from anywhere Explain Everything – a digital whiteboard Insert Learning – allows you to add instruction content on any webpage

Breakout EDU – gamifies your lessons Simpleshow – video maker Sketchboard – online collaborative whiteboard

Incorporating technology into your classroom is not always an easy task. Knowing when and how to use technology can be daunting. There really is no substitute for great teaching; however, technology is a tool that can be used to enhance many of your lessons. Remember to identify your goals first, then add in the technology tools. This column has focused on technology used to engage, explore, and explain. In the next column, I will explore technology to apply, share, reflect, and extend.

Note: For reasons we have been unable to determine, some links in this column work only if you click at the far left edge of them.

Dr. Shelley Martin-Young is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include hidden history, place-based education, children’s literature,and technology. She can be reached at dawn.martin-young@okstate.edu