Sharing the Cart

I've been talking with people in other districts with iPad carts about the best way to check out the iPads to classroom teachers.  Some teachers are thinking about checking them out when they can't get into the computer lab to use them for Internet research.  That is such a limited way of using a great resource.
One school district is checking out their carts on a monthly basis, having teachers fill out a one page proposal about how they'll use the iPads with their classes.  I'm hoping to check out our cart on a weekly basis offering support to help teachers explore apps they could use for projects.  There are so many free apps, but we also still have a bit of money to purchase some apps if needed.  One math teacher here checked out the cart, but before he did, he found about ten free math apps he wanted to use with his classes.  That worked really well, and the students were thrilled to use the iPads to work on math skills.  One caveat:  I tell all teachers to keep a list of which students are using which iPads so that we can identify the student if there's a problem.
I really think it's important to be able to offer professional development to staff if we want them to use the iPads as a productive tool with students, not just as a substitute for a laptop.  Last week I presented a one hour workshop for staff on iPad Tips and Tricks and got a really good response; they wanted more.  The great thing about the iPads are they are simple to use, but with some professional development, you can unlock more of their potential.

Batch Geo is a Blast!

Objective: 
Students will be able to share their personal experiences by answering questions.

It's been a while since I wrote because we had spring vacation, and the lessons I've been doing haven't been using the iPad, but I think they've been interesting so I thought I'd share.  I created a form in Google Docs for the students to access through their Google Apps accounts.  They filled in the form answering these questions:

1. What is your name (first name only)?

2. What city and country did your family come from?

3. Why did your family come to the U.S.?

4.  How did your family travel to the U.S.?

5.  How many years ago did your family come to the U.S.?

6.  If you moved to the U.S., how did you feel when you arrived here? 

As they filled out the form, I received the info on a Google spreadsheet.  I copied all the gathered data and pasted it into a page at http://batchgeo.com

It automatically creates a Google Map for you with push pins for each student's city and country.  I shared the map with the students projecting it with the LCD- they were so excited to see their own info on a Google map.  I shared with them how they could mouse over the push pin to see more info and even click on the little man on the left to access street view.  What was especially good about this was that it inspired the students to make sure they had the right info and edit it properly.  If they misspelled their city or country, they didn't appear on the map and they all wanted to appear on the map!  Here's a link to their first try before the edits:  http://batchgeo.com/map/b70fd5500571f1deb31715fe5f35db8d

The next class day they were still excited as they were asked to take their written responses to the above questions and put their answers in paragraph form. 

The following week I shared a document with students called "My Story Part 2".  They answered these questions:

1.  Was it easier for you or your parents to adjust to living in the U.S.? Why?
2.  What is different about living in the U.S.?
3.  What do you like about living in the U.S.?
4.  What festivals or special traditions does your community have?
5.  What are some popular foods in your community?
6.  What is a family tradition that you love?
7.  What languages are spoken in your home?

Since then the students have been working with Ms.Sigler, their ELL teacher, on developing their answers into full paragraphs with details and correct grammar and punctuation.  It has been challenging, but they're working hard and doing well.

We will be using their written work along with photos, audio, and maybe video to create their digital books in the coming weeks. I can't wait to see their finished product!

Do iPads + ELL Students = Reading Comprehension?

Last week I presented a session at the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) conference in Seattle.  The title of my session was the same as the title of this post.  I'm still not sure of the answer to the question I posed.  During formative assessments as this project proceeds, I do see quite a bit of growth for most of the students.  Recently we completed the summative assessment called the DRP (Degrees of Reading Power) which, according to the test maker, are "holistic measures of how well students understand the meaning of text. Test results are reported on the DRP Scale of Text Difficulty – the same scale that is used to measure the reading difficulty of printed material."  
The test results give us a score for each student which indicates an independent reading level and an instructional reading level.  Looking at the class's scores, 66% of the students made considerable progress on the DRP since they took it in the fall.  I think their growth has been even more exceptional since we gave the DRP in February instead of in May when the spring test really should be given.  But it is only one measure of student progress.  The students also took the new WELPA (Washington English Language Proficiency Assessment) a few weeks ago.  According to the state:
"It measures students’ growth in English language knowledge and skills. Results from this test determine which students are eligible to continue to receive ELD services."  We won't have the results from this test until May, so we shall see if any of the students were able to test out of English Language Development services.  I'm hopeful.

Editing Woes

The students came back to the library to work on editing their writing assignment that they had completed in their ELL classroom.  This time they recorded their own writing using the iTalk app.  Then they listened to the recording while editing their own work.  I told them how I usually will read aloud my own writing so that I can hear my errors.  They really worked hard on this and heard lots of errors that they had made; unfortunately they don't have enough writing skills yet to be able to know how to make the corrections properly.  They tried, but many of them did not know how to punctuate correctly to say exactly what they wanted to say.  I do think it was good that two girls came to me saying that their writing didn't make sense as they tried to record it.  They are becoming more thoughtful about their work.  There's lots more work for us to do.

Fantastic Flying Books app is Fantastic!

On Friday, my students had a chance to spend some time with the app of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  I had planned on having students read/listen/interact with the book for part of the period and then write about it, but they had such a great time with the app that we never got to the writing part.  Students were paired up with their headphone splitters, headphones, and iPads.  They spread out throughout the library absorbed in the book, and all I heard were their reactions to the app:  laughter, giggles, oohs and aahs, and comments like, "Look at his face!", "That's cool!", "Let's see that again."  

Thinking about how to write about the story

They loved playing the piano within the story

 

They had a great time creating words within the alphabet cereal and then taking photos of them.

 Afterwards all the students said they preferred the app to the movie. One student expressed the reason why so well; she said, "You felt like you were experiencing the story."  The interactive app draws the reader in rather that being a passive watcher of the film.
Students will continue with their ELL teacher on Monday to write about the app with this objective:
Students will be able to summarize a story by writing about it in complete thoughts and sentences.

Fantastic Flying Books

There's a wonderful animated movie and app called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  The movie is nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Animated Short and it's available for free download through iTunes.  The app costs $4.99 for the iPad, includes a link for the movie and is definitely worth it.
Last week I showed the movie to the ELL class and had them taking notes about the movie.  It is filled with music, but no dialogue, and I wanted them to be able to tell the story of the film.  I gave them a form to fill out listing the characters, the settings, the problem, and the resolution.  Afterwards they had to retell the film's story in their own words.  Many of them did a very good job, though only one of them was able to really retell the story in her own creative way.  She truly made it her own story.  I think one of the differences for this student is that she was well-educated in her home language in her home country.  Many of our students are refugees with limited or no schooling in their former refugee camps, or they cannot read or write in the language that is spoken in their own home.  It is much easier to acquire fluency in a new language if you are literate in your first language.
That said, I am looking forward to next time, when the students will have the chance to spend some time with the Fantastic Flying Books app.  It is an interactive book with narration that tells the charming story of Morris Lessmore who is displaced by a terrible windstorm.  It's a wonderfully charming story with very clever interactive features, including a bowl of alphabet cereal in which readers can make words.  Afterwards they can even take photos of their bowl of words and save them.
I'll keep you posted on how the students like the app.

Practice Makes Almost Perfect

Objective:  Students will increase reading fluency through using their voices to express feeling while reading.

We've been spending lots of time recording our reading aloud, listening, and critiquing.  The last two times students came to the library they read Reading Fluency Practices from their ELL textbooks.  These were readings they were familiar with already.  The first week two students shared iPads and used a form to critique their own reading and their partners' reading.  With some good feedback from their ELL teacher, Jennelle, I changed the written response form so that students would be required to use complete sentences when they critiqued their own reading aloud.  I also had students working alone with their own iPad.  This made a big difference in the quality of their reading and written work.  Since they're saving all their recordings in Dropbox, I can listen to them from home.  They each have their own folder in the same account, and we've been able to save many weeks of recordings and compare their reading fluency now with how they did in the beginning.  I'm really beginning to hear much improvement.  I was hoping the students would be taking their standardized reading test this week, but it's been moved to March, so I won't know till then if what we've been doing translates into better reading scores for the students. I certainly hope so.