Technology Grant / Literacy
iPads for Literacy Instruction in Grade 2
Young children live and participate in a world that is filled with a wide range of technologies. Development of technology moves at a rapid pace and now, more than ever, technology has become easier to use, more powerful, and available at lower costs. Technology is an "unremarkable feature" in children's lives (Parette, Quesenberry, and Blum, 2010.) It is the intent of the second grade team to procure iPads for students to enhance teaching of literacy skills.
Maple Avenue School is located in southern New Hampshire. The town has a population of approximately 2,700 people. It is a working-class town with limited employment opportunities. Most people commute to neighboring towns to work at the area hospital, one of two factories or small businesses. An old mill building was recently converted into low-income housing, which has brought an influx of families with young children, including school-aged children, to the community. Maple Avenue School has 397 students, 68% of whom participate in the free/reduced lunch program. The school population is predominantly white, with under five percent of the population comprised of African-American, Hispanic, and Asian children. Many students come from single-parent households and a few are residing with other family members (e.g., grandparents). Two families, with a total of seven children, live in a local homeless shelter.
Maple Avenue School failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards for two years in a row. The students are considered at-risk. Based on models identified in the current literature, the school plans to spend $10,000 to purchase iPads and applications (apps) for the second grade as a response to the achievement gap. Educators believe the technology will help identify struggling readers faster, use time previously spent calculating and reviewing reading assessments to work with students ("iPads help…, 2012). Because teachers will be able to conduct more assessments in less time, they will be better able to use assessment results to inform instruction. Implementation of iPad technology...
.." And is a concept which has as its basis that "at the beginning of learning, students needs a great deal of support" and over time the support is removed in a gradual manner as the student become prepared to be more independent. Modeling is the process of assisting the students in the construction of meaning and assisting them in learning the necessary strategies and skills in the learning process
The efforts of the federal government have been thoroughly and extensively backed up by fiscal funds given by the numerous states, districts, businesses, and parents (NCES, 2000). However, the overall literacy and literature education of students with the incorporation of technology has been primarily negative and this needs to change with time as the overall long-term impact of this negative pattern will be very damaging to the mindset of
G., using prior knowledge, self-monitoring for breaks in comprehension, and analyzing new vocabulary);growth in conceptual knowledge (e.g., reading tradebooks to supplement textbook information) (Alvermann, D, 2001). However a very important thing I should mention is the existence of big gaps in adolescent literacy achievement in high school, as I noted above, but, the gap was also defined as the disparity in White and Black students' achievement and in richer and poorer
How do you (or would you) integrate technology with literacy instruction? Share your best idea with your colleagues.I would used technology as a means to supplement traditional classroom instruction. Students often learn in different and varying ways. By utilizing multiple sources of instruction, students can have a differentiated and much more enriching learning experience.What other information or tools do you need to successfully integrate technology and literacy instruction? Ask your
Educator Patricia M. Cunningham says in "What Research Says about Teaching Phonics," for example, that children do profit from systematic phonics instruction. However, there is more than one effective way to teach phonics. Positive results are the result of a high level of interaction, classroom management, explicit skills teaching, curriculum integration and a great deal of enjoyable reading and writing practice. References Gambrell, L.B., Morrow, L.M., Pressley, M., & Guthrie, J.T.
As a result, the variables that can be extracted from this information, is that there needs to be a wide variety of solutions made available to educators. At the same time, there must be more support in helping them to reach out to these students. Once this occurs, it will provide the greatest amounts of learning comprehension. This helps to make the Action Research Project more effective by: understanding
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