Technology

At the end of last term I bought an ipad2 with the specific intention of using it to help raise student achievement in literacy.   I now use my ipad to record instructional reading and replay this for the class teacher as a back up to my request for shifting reading levels.  Convincing teachers that children are ready and need to move through to another reading level is something I encounter often.  I also use it with the students in order for them to self evaluate reading strategies.  The students are able to make concrete connections between the learning intention and what they are doing. They are  able to identify reading strategies and articulate succinctly what they are doing; “I stopped and noticed it wasn’t right’ - “I fixed that word up and then I went back’, ‘I looked for parts of the word I knew and then I knew it’.  Clark (2003) talks about students being motivated to make improvements particularly if they like the feedback approach. ‘Self esteem increases as a result of child’s visible improvements. This is because they come to understand and even be in more control over ‘how to’ improve and attain the learning intention’ (pp75).