Cheers,
Lesley
This past week I learned about a resource called Literably. This would be a great tool to use to assess a student's ability to read aloud. Below is a video that explains how it can be used: Now this website is very easy to use. All you have to do is set up your teacher account, add your students, set their reading level (this is a great way to use those MAP scores!), and then you can send your students to the Literably page and tell them to log in as a student. Then they use your username to enter (no password necessary!) and they find their name. I'm unsure if I will use this with all my students since the highest reading level is 1200 (8th grade), but I do think it would be a good tool to use for some students to hear themselves reading. Often times there are students who lack expression or struggle with pronunciation so this would be a great tool to help them (and you) find those trouble areas. If you're looking for another resources to boost literacy levels, Literably may be the one for you. Check it out and let me know what you think of it. If I end up using it, I'll let you know how it goes for me.
Cheers, Lesley
2 Comments
It's been a while, huh? But I did promise I would update you on the blog project... It's been quite the eye-opener! I knew blogging would be time-consuming, but it's a little more than I had anticipated! Part of the problem has been with the internet at school because many students want to do the blog posts at school; however, the internet will be down or their Weebly pages won't open properly because the internet is too slow (I haven't been able to use Weebly at school for about three weeks now!). These are things you just have to deal with, but I have a number of students who forget to do things after our class bell rings so they're behind. To help, I made a Google Document a la Khan Academy style that shows their progress. It's a chart with their names and the due dates of the blog posts and the boxes are either green to show that I have seen their post and it's good, yellow meaning that the post is late, or orange meaning that the post is missing. It's helped keep the students more accountable so that's been nice! No more post-it notes of their missing work!
Now as far as the actual content of the blog posts, it is lacking for some students. I gave them guiding questions, but I can tell some students aren't that inspired. And while I did reach out to former colleagues and to other schools in Mexico, I didn't get any takers who wanted to comment on their blogs and have a conversation about reading. Therefore, I think I need to do the following changes:
The blogging itself hasn't been as successful as I had thought, but there are some students who've really taken to it and have found their voice. The way they write has become clearer and more engaging, so that's been encouraging to see. Along with that, there are students who have created pages to share the music they like. They are now participating with a wider world and creating something to contribute to it as well. If nothing else, I know I have helped my students become digitally literate and given them another tool to use for the future. I know of a few students who have even used Weebly for class projects, so even if I feel like the project was a failure, I know it wasn't a complete failure. Everything hasn't gone exactly as I had imagined, but there has still been glimmers of greatness within this blogging experiment. Now I know a few ways to tweak it and we shall see if the project improves.... Cheers, Lesley |
About the AuthorLesley is an English teacher who is passionate about using connectivism in the classroom and preparing students and teachers for using the tools that are available to them on a regular basis. This blog will focus on iPad apps and Web 2.0 tools that can enhance and diversify learning. Leave a comment and let me know what you think or what you'd like to learn about! Archives
January 2016
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