Thank you Mrs. Callies and Mrs. Jaffry for allowing your students to take the technology survey. When the results are compiled I will share them with you. It will be interesting to see how tech savy these students are.
The think sheets with a peer review attached were created for students to metacognitively examine their writing samples as well as those of their classmates. This will help them develop higher level analytical thinking. As these students continue to exercise their writing skills using the computer as a tool my hypothesis is that they will acquire more competent and complex skills quickly. It is my belief that we will witness an increase in motivation as students begin to freely express themselves.
Please share your thoughts about student accomplishments in the computer lab this week.
Hopefully, we can continue to work together to design learning experiences integrated with the technology available at Alton Middle School. If you have any specific areas of concern in Language Arts that might be more efficiently address using technology please let me know. There are many avenues for success in Language Arts in the computer lab. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas and techniques for integrating technology.
This week 6th grade students had the opportunity to write about a painting illustrated in their Language Arts book. They were encouraged to create a story bases on the painting giving details about the charaters, plot, and setting. It appeared to be a success!
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting our Language Arts class use the computer room to type their papers. One student said that this was like college where they have to type the papers all the time. What a self esteem builder.
ReplyDeleteThe students were able to stay on task to complete the paper. If they needed help spelling a word, they could use spell check and not take time out to get a dictionary and lose their train of thought.
They were able to proof read their paper by using our read write and gold program. The students were able to listen to the paper being read.
Mrs. O'Conner was kind to help print out a check list for my students to review if the format of thier paper was correct.
The sooner we allow the students to use technology for thier progress at school the better prepared they will be in the future.
Since this is a co-taught class with special needs students and regular students it was easier to make accomendations for the special needs students and they were able to keep up
It is wonderful to be part of a team that works diligently toward improving instruction for students. You made several interesting comments about students' reactions to using technology. You refer to it as a self esteem builder. It truly does build self esteem when students have tools at their fingertips to make what might otherwise be a very tedious task easier. The bonus tied to self esteem is self confidence. As students gain confidence and see their work as meaningful they will naturally be more engaged and motivated. I loved the fact that they referred to the experience as being like college and having to type all of the assignments. Isn't that exactly what we should be doing? We are helping them develop skills they will use the rest of their lives.
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