Technology in the Classroom

     Technology has become integrated into almost everything we do as a society, such as how we communicate, search for information, do business transactions, and now, teach students. Because our society relies so heavily on technology, students who are growing up during this time are becoming more dependent on using technology on a regular basis. There are both pros and cons to using technology in the classroom, but overall I believe that having technology in the classroom not only helps students learn how to use technology that they may need to know how to use in the "real world," but it also keeps them engaged during class.
     Technology can be improve student learning by taking an average lesson and making it engaging for the students. Devices such as IPads, SMART Boards, computers, etc. keep students engaged by allowing them to combine school work with games and activities that can be accessed on such devices. For example, if a student is learning about the different functions of the human body, the IPad has different applications that let the students explore the different features using a virtual tour of the human body. Students are likely to be much more engaged with a virtual tour which they can explore independently, than if they were just reading the information they needed to learn out of a book.
      Although technology has many benefits to student learning, challenges arise when costs become a factor and when the teacher needs to make sure that students are using technology for educational purposes and not goofing around. I would say that costs are a huge factor when trying to incorporate technology into the classroom. Not all schools are able to afford giving IPads to students/classrooms, and setting up SMART boards in every classroom. Also, making sure that students are keeping on task may be a challenge too. A student may decide that they want to use the IPad, but instead of looking at the app that is related to the class topic, they may try to play games instead. It is important for teachers to make a set of rules with their students about what is expected out of them when using these devices and also making sure that all the applications on the device are educational.
     I think that technology can be important to student learning, but it shouldn't be incorporated into every aspect of teaching. It is important for teachers to show that technology doesn't need to be used to make a topic or activity fun. Students still need to learn how to do tasks without the use of technology, or they will end up being more reliant on technology than their own ability to figure something out.

Instructional Conversations: Dialogue about Rumors

     Last week I setup an instructional conversation with a few of my 2nd graders. Instructional conversations, unlike other discussions in class, are student led discussions that promote thinking and learning through talk. Before actually doing one in my class, I thought it would be the exact same as the small group discussions I have already done before, but I was a little off. By a little, I mean I had no idea how much I was controlling the discussions before and how little input and reflection I was giving my students to respond. I was amazed at how much my students were willing to talk about the book we used, which was "Mr. Peabody's Apples," by Madonna (yes, the singer).

Here is a link to the book if you are interested: http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Peabodys-Apples-Madonna/dp/0670058831/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398662689&sr=1-1&keywords=mr.+peabody%27s+apples

     The book is about a boy, Tommy, who spreads a rumor about his baseball couch, Mr. Peabody. One day he sees his coach take an apple from a store without paying for it, then he runs off to tell all is friends. Eventually, the entire town hears about what Tommy saw, but that's not the whole story. This is a great book to teach students the impact of a rumor and how it affects other people, so I thought it would be perfect for my classroom, especially after some incidents that have happened over the past few weeks.
     I wanted to make sure I had everything well planned before I gave the lesson, so I practiced many times, going through the lesson by myself and with my roommate. I tried to think of questions that were open-ended and furthered the discussion, so all of my talking points were "why" based questions. It allowed the students a chance to provide multiple answers for a single question rather than just having them respond to a right or wrong question. The three main questions I asked were: Why do you think Mr. Peabody asked Tommy to bring a pillow to the baseball field?, Why did Tommy tell everyone what he saw Mr. Peabody doing?, and Why is it important not to judge someone by what you see them doing?. 
     I was extremely surprised and proud of my students for doing the instructional conversation so well. I was nervous because when they have other classroom discussions there isn't much time spend on them talking to each other. They usually respond to a question provided by the teacher and then respond back to the teacher without really responding to their peers and building off each other's comments. They were able to connect the story to experiences they've had and also things they remember from other subjects, like Guidance.
   

Writing Fiction Stories: Beginning, Middle, and End

     The other day I was working with my 2nd graders on writing the beginning, middle, and end of a fiction story. Because I'm in a practicum class and haven't been with class long enough to know what exactly my students are knowledgeable of, I randomly chose a group of students to work with during this lesson. I was surprised by the creativity of their stories and how much they already knew about writing fiction stories!

     We had read the story, "The Three Little Pigs" by Bernadette Watts, the day before during whole group reading.

http://www.booktopia.com.au/three-little-pigs-hans-christian-andersen/prod9780735840584.html

My kids love to end the day with a story, so I figured a fairytale was a good way to start the discussion of fiction stories and what components each section of the book has. After the book was read we talked about the sequencing of events and what the problem/solution was in the story. The next day is when I started my lesson. 

     The first thing we discussed was what they already knew about writing fiction stories. One student raised her hand and said there was a beginning, middle, and end (perfect start to my lesson). I had my students elaborate about what those sections were made up of and we made a list:

Beginning: Main characters, setting, and problem introduced
Middle: Problem introduced (sometimes), what the characters do in the story
End: How the problem was solved, conclusion

     After our discussion, I decided to see if they could put their brains to work by getting their ideas onto paper. Their stories had to be fiction stories that had a problem and solution, at least one main character, and a setting. I also had students create a story organizer before writing the story, which helped them figure out who the characters would be, what setting they wanted, and what they wanted to include in their beginning, middle, and end. Two days later, my students handed in their work. The results were very telling about what they knew and what I needed to focus on for the next writing lesson.
     My students created a range of both realistic fiction and fantasy stories that were surprisingly creative. For example, I had a student write about a classmate losing a book then creating a lost and found for her school, and I had another student write about an elephant having his trunk stolen by a giant hawk, which it eventually ended up giving the trunk back. Also, it was clear that all my students knew how to write the beginning, middle, and end of a story and knew how to incorporate a problem and solution into their stories.
     My students had many strengths in their writing, but even with their strengths, one thing that I noticed in their writing was the amount of detail in a story. Most of the stories mentioned the main characters and sometimes the setting, but students didn't elaborate on what each character looked like or gave detail as to where the setting was taking place, which doesn't allow the reader to get the full effect of the story.
     My students need to work on detail, so I think my next step would be to teach lessons about the importance of detail. I would focus on adjectives first and how it's important to describe characters, settings, and events in the story so that the reader can attempt to imagine what the author is trying to show. Without descriptive language, stories aren't as interesting to readers. Some of the lessons I would plan would include showing examples from books and going over the types of words used to describe the story. Activities related to comparing differences between stories with detail and without would be interesting to use as well. But, details in a story don't just have to be describing words. Often times the author can add dialogue with emotion to add more effect. For now, I think sticking with adjectives would be the best next step.
     A common trend that I noticed in my students' work was their use of punctuation and phonics. Some students were using periods instead of commas or using capital letters even when the word wasn't at the beginning of the sentence or a proper noun. I could tell that they were using phonics because even though a word was spelled incorrectly, most of the time I was able to figure out what it was because they spelled it the way the word is pronounced. For example, a student wrote "thay" instead of "they," or some students left off the silent letter "e" in "little." First, let me explain that I didn't mark off for miscues like these. Because these are common miscues of 2nd graders and punctuation/spelling was not apart of my lesson, I don't see how I could possibly take off points for these miscues. I do think that punctuation and spelling are important, but not to the extent of creating meaningful pieces of work and that's what my lesson was covering. I think the best approach to these types of miscues are minilessons. Depending on the number of people making these types of miscues, minilessons could be given in whole group, small group, or individually. 
     Overall, I thought the lesson went well and I think I gained a lot of information about my students and their writing. It's interesting to see the various types of topics and writing conventions students come up with and use in their pieces. I liked the discussion at the beginning because students are able to brainstorm ideas, present them to their peers, which could in turn help generate more ideas from others. Also, I think small group worked well with this lesson because I was able to see where people were and where they wanted to go. I could give more attention to their work and give them feedback that would help improve their writing.