Walk and Talk: Technology and Literacy Knowledge (in primary age classrooms)

My notes from a TCEA 2007 presentation by:

Candace Tickle, Waters Elementary, Lubbock, Texas (1st grade)
Karla Lewis, Honey Elementary, Lubbock, Texas (2nd grade)

We have taken our entire day at school, and shared piece by piece how we use technology throughout the day

Calendar and Morning Group
– Smartboard interactive calendar
– LCD PPT
– Kidspriation Activities
– Saxon Phonics Slideshow
— Picture and Letter Cards
— Sight Words
– Morning Message

To get a Smartboard in our district, teachers have to write a grant
– Candace has used it for about a year

First: Calendar activities
– initially Candace downloaded this from the Internet
– adapted it
– Today is, counting, weather, temperature (move the thermometer up and down)
– kids really like the money: we write the amount of money on a price tag, then kids move the money to the piggy bank to match the amound
– in her classroom, the students use popsicle sticks to make sure everyone gets a turn

Doing lunch count, days of school

Have made TV into a “net TV” and loops through morning instructions

Using technology for Saxon phonics
– adapting it to use technology instead of 4×6 cards
– making it more visual
– kids read along with the self-advancing PowerPoint
– Candace is watching students to see who is following along, who is signing

[SLIDE: VOWEL DIAGRAPH, WITH LONG E AND LOWERCASE A WITH A LINE THROUGH IT, AND A PICTURE OF A LEAF]

Saxon sight words
– kids finger spell words out
– students say the word as they see the word
– the timing is set so students have enough time to spell the words

Phonics and Spelling
– Smartboard Phonemic awareness

Using letter tiles on the smartboard
– students clone a letter, drag letters out of a bigger word (example: revolution) and form other words using those letters (example: on)

Another example: Spelling Scramble
– template activity included on the participant CD
– timed Powerpoint: kids are guessing as clues are shown for what the word is
– Karla did this for her kids because worksheets were not helping kids get this, in terms of visually seeing how words can be reordered (she doesn’t have a smartboard, so she is doing this with kids)

Also have included the “scrabble” font Candace downloaded from the Internet (download link, called “scramble” font)
– Candace put it into Word
– letter tiles have number
– these are printed and laminated, and made into a center activity
– students manipulate these tiles and spell their spelling words, then add up the numbers

On the CD there is a kidspiration file (about 30 or 40) already made activities
– All the pictures and text in kidspiration have audio versions
– lots of activities in the kidspiration library also

Reading
– Starfall: used in center with headphones, showed “LEARN TO READ” section has game
– Tumblebooks
– [REMINDS ME OF http://storylineonline.net – BUT I DON’T THINK STORYLINEONLINE INCLUDES VISUAL WORDS]
– Fluency Passages: Using the Passport / Voyager Program’s fluency book
— retyped it (use student teacher)
— then download and use free Microsoft Reader to build an eBook

[MY COMMENT: ON A MAC TEXT TO SPEECH IS BUILT RIGHT IN, YOU CAN CHOOSE THE APPLICATION MENU (LIKE SAFARI) AND CHOOSE SERVICES – SPEECH – START SPEAKING TEXT.]

Teachers only have “so much voice” and even when yours is going all the time,

Reader’s Theater from the Basal
– took a basal story and made a script
– added visuals and printed it out for students, with visuals to show narrator, different characters, etc

Use game “SMART Speller” with students at the end of the day
– has categories of words by grade level
– says the word, and kids use the smart board to write the letter, then click to have the program check
– is a download from edcompass
– Smartboard also has a free speller application

We have a rule that at the smartboard, one person can be holding the marker, one person can be up by the board
– other center activities

also smart number cruncher, set difficulty

Also use United Streaming
– use software Tech Knowledge: teachers about MS Office applications, Internet, etc.

www.aplusmath.com flashcards

www.superkids.com
– my kids love hidden word puzzles
– is an alternative to puzzlemaker

www.iknowthat.com
– is a free site, but you have to register
– if you subscribe, you don’t have the advertisements
– the science website is great for the planets

This year our student council sold enough cookie dough to buy a yearly subscription to United Streaming

Great online human body powerpoint with interactive elements (appropriate for younger students)

Virtual postcard where you pick a planet
– Candace collected parent emails, so the postcard their students created was sent to the parent directly
– for parents without email, Candace printed them and sent them home

KidPix is great to use for a Center

Colonies to Independence books, scanned it and converted it into a PowerPoint to make it into a Big Book

www.northpole.com – lots of games, write to Santa before Christmas

Were creating activities linked to the carver of Mount Rushmore: Gutzon Borglum

Dolch List PowerPoint (search on goolge – Example)

Margaret Wise Brown’s “The Important Book” activity
– students created Powerpoint on that model, like “The Important Things about 1st Grade”
– burn it to a CD and send it home with PowerPoint viewer
– setup so students can huyperling to a section
– took video of kids reading and embedded that in the PPT
– the class does a slide together
– then they kids do a slide on their own
– that pattern is repeated
– each unit has content that is included in the portfolio

Candace scanned in a lot of the student work
– did this mostly as a whole-class activity
– scanned work from the start of the year and then from the end of the year, to show progression
– burned a CD that every child got to take home, parents came and viewed this at school

Poetry portfolio

GT Enrichment
– Smart Notebook Gallery Retell
– Photostory: Little Red, 3 Little Pigs

Did some Claymation, picutres set to music using PhotoStory

Red Riding Hood activity
– in the smartboard, built the story from the gallery in the SmartBoard software
– retold the story
– can take these files off your smartboard, export as JPG images, then another person used PhotoStory to let a student read the story and record it
– look in English Language Arst / Storytelling / Fairytales in the smartboard gallery
– this was a center activity

The first time a hand goes up in front of the projector, you are off the smartboard and taking a timeout
– haven’t had any more trouble with off task behavior around the smartboard

Anything we got free off the Internet for the smartboard is included on the CD!

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