VanishingPoint

http://allthingsliteracy.com 

Live Blogged: Please pardon the incomplete thoughts, omissions, and or errors.

Kelly Doubek  and Anna Beard

How to evaluate software or tools by breaking them down to along literacy goals.

Reading to learn: Reading and writing across content area

Project CRISS, PowerUP, etc

What are your District’s current reading Initiatives? How is technology supporting reading initiatives?

• Data Tools
• Online Assessments
• Student Practice and Skill Reinforcement
• Others

All tools must have a data component to be useful. 

Phonemic Awareness and Phonics (20in)- MUST HAVE MEASUREMENTS AND WHERE THE KIDS ARE GOING.

(Interesting note: data shows more than 20 minutes is not having and more of an impact on student achievement.

• If you are looking to have a tool to assess you need:
• Letter symbols and letter sounds?
• Is there a sound component?
• Is there a continuum of skill included?
• Is there a pre/post assessment included?
• Are student responses, time on task, etc. reported?

Free Tools - Kidspiration, PowerPoint, Kid Pics

Do teachers know how to take student data and then look at the assessment data and beable to find a site or lesson to support the kids?  Is your staff Development supporting this?

Fluency (has not been a focus in the past) (10-15min only)

Is is practicing rate or just accuracy… does it involve comprehension? Expression and phrasing? What software have a sound component?

PowerPoint - Can be used as a fluency tool.  You can record SOUND for fluency

Vocabulary

• Syllables, spelling patterns, high frequency words, word origin
• Is it building "Tier 2" (More descriptive) words? What are they measuring

Tablet PC’s

"Color Shock… using color to dissect the words.How are they using the technology at hand?

Comprehension

Is the text appropriate? If there a variety of genres? Is it measuring both literal & inferential comprehension? (Often there is LOW level comprehension questions…

Kelly will be doing an Administrator Academy on "Going beyond RTI" I will try to keep apprised of the session and get the dates and times in the future..

What tools are out there for free…

Anna Beard - Wireless Generation http://free-reading.net

Literacy is Priceless Blog

Free-Reading - Open Source early education will be K-3 by early summer Has a population of 273K users in 173 countries. Based on a mediawiki platform

Currently showing that teachers can upload lessons and place comments on the materials to build community.

Artists and musicians are now communicating with free-reading.net and providing art and music to align to literacy and vocabulary.

Check this out! It is a song by a group called Flocabulary on the free-reading site.  It is a vocabulary lesson rap about a Chipmonk.      

Related Posts