Literacy for older students and technology

        In our class the other night we discussed the fight for using technology in schools to help our students develop 21st century skills and literacy. I know my school has good intentions on doing this. It is why we got the 1:1 grant, but we also lost it. Part of it was due to people in charge not reading the fine print, but I think a lot of it had to do with teachers not using them. I was using them, but now I realize I could have used them more effectively. I have been patiently waiting for us to get our carts of laptops since school started. I hope that I can implement the strategies I have learned and see positive results. So far I have taken my students to the library to do computer work, but our library computers are so slow and it frustrates the students and me. However, it looks like the laptops are in sight. One of the other teachers in my department and myself are going to set up the laptops (even though it’s the job of the IT and admin) because we are tired of waiting. I am getting excited to finally start trying out some of the tools I have learned about.

           I do have some concerns though when it comes to the reading levels of my students. I have some students who are very poor readers. When I have done some small projects in the library, they tend to just copy and paste stuff from a website and not really understand the information they are reporting. I wonder, how can I get the students to work at a higher level of thinking when they can’t read and just do not know basic facts of the world. An example of this is some students do not know the sun is the center of the solar system, or that the moon has gravity. They don’t know words like origin, repel, equilibrium, resistance, atoms, function. These are just a few off the top of my head. But besides atoms, these are not science vocabulary words. I know my students are smart, but they have been left behind or their culture does not emphasize the importance of education. For our freshmen, we basically teach 7/8th grade science just to catch them up. Our sophomores take biology and it is very basic. I would like to have my students designing their own labs based on their own questions, but many just do not know what to ask.

           I have been trying to research how to use technology to improve their literacy skills and science reading comprehension. It seems difficult to find information on this because it is still an emerging field. There is a lot of focus for the elementary levels, but not high school. The magic answer I keep hearing is give them something that is engaging and they will want to read and comprehend what they are reading. Okay so I have tried to do that, and for me it is out of my comfort zone teaching them reading because I am not trained in that. But I feel it is important so I am trying. I gave them a reading about a newly discovered planet believed to be made of diamond. I found it through my Personal Learning Network (PLN) I have developed. I tried to get my students to practice figuring out words with context clues. They thought the idea of the diamond planet was cool and had many questions about it. I had them read the article, I picked out words they probably didn’t know for the context words and had them write a 3 sentence summary of the reading. I got all sorts of answers for the summary. One said (well 2, they copied off each other) it was about a snake. Some said it was about a star. Even though we discussed it and I showed a news video clip about it. Some still could not tell me what the article was about. Now I know it’s still early in the year and so I hope this process improves. But if I want them to develop projects that involve them creating and connecting ideas, I worry they will get frustrated and lose motivation for it because they cannot understand text.

            So what do you do when you are supposed to teach high school science to kids who read at a 3rd-5th grade reading level and do not know “stuff” about the world? No one has an answer for us at the school. Of course this issue is not just at my school, literacy for older students is a problem in many schools and an interesting observation has been made that students are reading well in early grades, there is evidence of this in our district, but performance starts to drop off in higher grades (Conn, 2006). It is also more of a problem with students who grow up in poverty (2006), which also fits the profile of my students.

           There are frameworks for developing literacy. In a recent article by Sanden and Darragh (2011), Wiki’s can help students improve their literacy by giving them a chance to be heard and see what other students are saying about topics of interest. They also can use a mix of types of communications that are not limited to text including pictures and video. With teacher’s guidance, wikis can “enrich students’ options of literacy consumption and production” (2011). I want to use wiki’s, but I am still trying to figure out the best methods. I have found that Google docs is useful since students can work on the powerpoint at the same time. I have had my students do collaborative powerpoints. They were not too bad, spelling was a major issue and citing sources was another, but I am trying to do just one thing at a time with them. Did they understand the concepts I wanted them to learn? Well they have a quiz today on this; we’ll see how they do.

             Being a science minded person, I like to see the numbers. In a recent New York Times article, the stagnant test scores of schools who have integrated technology was the main focus. Even though schools have spent millions of dollars on getting laptops and technology upgrades in schools, test scores have not gone up. The evidence is not there (Ritchel, M., 2011). I suppose for myself and the effectiveness of these strategies will have to come from my experiences with my students. I will have to keep track of their abilities and challenge them to keep up with reading. In combination with our literacy classes for our freshmen, I hope to see improvement in science literacy.

            If I can find something that works and have the numbers to prove it, then I hope others will start to try out these new ideas in their classroom. I think part of the fight to use technology is to show that it really does work for student learning. We have to stay focused on the skills the students need for the future. Not just digital literacy, but literacy in general. Being able to read is so important and we have to get students to see that. I have had students tell me that they don’t think reading is important (they ended up failing all their classes). Technology can be used to engage learners, but we need to figure out what practices really do help students with low reading levels, especially with older students. I hope to see numbers in the near future that reflect this, but for now I will focus on my own students.

          There are so many ways to describe the needs of education, but what should be the main focus? The video below describes the essentials for 21st century skills…and literacy is one of them. In order to be successful in life, you have to be able to read. I can throw google in their faces and send them off to “internet-land” and do powerpoints and wikis and blogs, but if they can’t understand the text they read, then what? I am going to be finding out soon.

21st Century Skills: How do we get there?

Conn, Cynthia.(2007, February). Jim Cummins, Kristin Brown, and Dennis Sayers, Literacy, technology, and diversity: teaching success in changing times. Educational Technology Research & Development, Vol. 55 Issue 1, p79-82



Ritchell, M. (2011, September 3). In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1



Sanden, S., & Darragh, J. (2011). Wiki use in the 21st-century literacy classroom: A framework for evaluation. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education,11 (1). Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/vol11/iss1/languagearts/article1.cfm

The struggle with the old and the new

I have always felt tech savvy, many of my colleagues or friends and family come to me for tech help. I used technology in the classroom: powerpoint notes, some youtube videos, online webquests where my students would find the answers to questions, and occasionally a game or simulation that related to the topic. I was using technology the right way right? Well I don’t think I can say that anymore. I think about how I have used technology in the classroom and realize that it has been a weak defense saying that the kids are learning more or better because there is a computer in front of them. I remember a few times last year observing my students working and I realized that they are just using the computer as a textbook at times. I gave some questions, links to the articles that had the answers, and they would read it and fill out a worksheet. I realize that is not the way to do it anymore.

Learning about how to use technology to get the kids to problem solve and communicate with the world is more important than teaching them how to memorize a bunch of facts. The assessments we give the students in our school is based on them getting good grades, not really learning the skills they need. It’s like there are loops around saying we are covering those skills, when I truly believe we are not, including myself. Our school made the front page of a big newspaper comparing our senior’s GPA with their freshmen year college GPA. The gap between the 2 was the largest in the state for students going to Illinois schools. Part of me was frustrated to see this as headline news (Round Lake already gets a bad rep), but another part of me wasn’t surprised. I know our students come into our school not having good reading and math skills, but I feel like we use that excuse too much to justify how our students turn out in the end. Maybe I’m idealistic, but I hope that I can use technology and motivate my students to become their own learners.

My problem right now is that our school was not organized in issuing the laptops to the teachers so that we have carts of laptops to share. I wanted to jump right into getting my students using Web 2.0 tools (and soon enough Web 3.0). But now I wait. I try to bring in interesting articles for them to read, even if it’s above their level, I am trying to push them. But it would be so much better if they could pick an article that is related to the topic that interests them by exploring articles and them having them react to them. While I wait I try to find interesting things they could do, but I don’t have computers everyday and our library computers can be unreliable.

While I know that once I get these computers into my hands I will be off to the races experimenting with these tools and learning what works for my kids and what doesn’t, some of the other teachers I work with don’t care for them or they will use them like I was using them last year. I understand it can be overwhelming to use these tools when you are not comfortable with them, but I’m the kind of person that says you got to try before judging something.

We are starting a writing initiative at my school where every subject has to incorporate writing into the classroom in the same format. I am fine with this, I figure my kids can write on a blog or discussion forum in this format about whatever the related topic is that day. Or perhaps they can use google docs and type a paragraph there. We were discussing the writing initiative in general and one of the teachers talked about trying to read their handwriting and I mentioned having them type in the formats I just listed, and they kind of laughed me off. I just could not believe the resistance to wanting to try something new that the kids may like. “No they have to write notes out in their notebook and do worksheets!” Sure there are some great worksheets out there, but there are other cool resources as well.

I understand change is hard, but unless we want to be on the front page news again for how our students are not prepared for college, we have to make some changes. I am feeling this frustration with the old ways of teaching and the new ways of learning. I feel like the masters class I am taking has changed my teaching life. I am seeing the students differently. I can tell that doing a worksheet is boring or going over lecture notes is hard for them to sit through (even with cool videos and my corny jokes lol). These kids need to create and learn how to find and understand information. I had them  look up some information and challenged them to improve the next time. But I keep waiting on when the “next time” is because we still do not have our laptops available. Until that point, I will keep figuring out what tools to use with my kids and exploring how I can incorporate those with my lessons in the future. I know I am not going to be perfect, but I will learn from mistakes I make, a point I am trying to get my kids to accept for themselves. I am glad that I decided to focus on technology in my masters degree, otherwise my kids may never know how to research and communicate through the world. Even if some of my colleagues aren’t necessarily on board, I hope that MY students will be prepared for college and will be successful because they learned how to create and research  valid information. 

(Now I do work with a few others that want to do more stuff like I do, I don’t want it to seem like I am bashing everyone I work with lol)

I hope my next post is an update on how the computer use is going in my classes, I hope we have the laptops by the time it is due! :-)

The Wiki Experience

          I have heard of wiki’s for a long time but never really had to be part of making one. Instead of having to research all of the components of Instructional Design, it was nice to have the work broken up amongst everyone and then read about their topics when they are finished. Focusing on just one piece also helps you learn more about the topic you chose. Collaborating on the group pages also is a great way to get more information on a topic since there are different perspectives and ideas coming together.

          Writing together can be a great way of really analyzing the work you are doing. When someone contributes something, you are forced to read it and think about what else you can add and how you can expand on an idea. Being able to add media like images and videos to the information is also a great way to reinforce the ideas that are being discussed. It’s easy and convenient to do as well, people can contribute when it is convenient for them. You can comment or discuss pages while working on the project and again it doesn’t have to be when everyone else is online, they can check it at their convenience.

             The trouble with doing collaborative work like this on the group pages is running into redundancy. If you did not contribute early to a page, then it would seem like there isn’t anything left to contribute and people repeat the information, but maybe just in a different way. As I said earlier it forces you to think about expanding an idea. With one of the pages (I think Kirkpatrick one), I tried to find more information but could find anything new that wasn’t already discussed. I did find a picture to represent the ideas, but that was it. When collaborating with people who have various schedules and different priorities, it is important to try to contribute early, otherwise it may seem like you do not know what else to contribute. It would have been better if we could have discussed who would do what. Like person A defines the concepts, person B does the strengths, C the weaknesses, D finds media, etc. I think in a face to face situation this would be easier, but with everyone doing this online and at different times, the organization of the work was scattered.

           I almost used this in my class but I wasn’t comfortable with it yet to do it, but now I think I am ready (my next post will be a reflection on this process with my students). Once we get our sets of laptops, I plan on doing it because right now our library computers aren’t the greatest. For biology, I thought about having students work together to create pages about the different relationships we see in ecosystems. Each group would get a different type of relationship and have to describe the relationship and find examples of this occurring. My students are still developing their technology skills so I would have to teach them how to put pictures and videos on the pages. For physical science, our next unit is electricity and I thought about having them research the different ways we generate electricity and report on it. I think this would be a great tool to use in the classroom to get the kids working together to research and find information and make something together. I also like the fact that you can see who contributed. This will make grading it easier and fair since you can see how much work each student did. Sometimes with group work, 1 or 2 students do all the work and won’t say anything about it. I can monitor their contributions.

               I think there are many benefits to using wiki’s for collaborative work. Once people get used to the idea and the process, then it is an easy way to share information and put ideas together. There are many different types of wiki pages creators out there. Wikispaces is okay, I tried to create my own for my biology class, but I wanted to do more with the layout. Here’s a good source for finding a wiki site that suits your needs- Wiki Matrix.