Inquiry

How can I use e-learning tools to engage and accelerate reading and writing achievement with my students? 

Developing rich Language and vocab. 

I asked myself;

 How do I hook in the reluctant writers?

What would make students want to write at this level?

So it began with getting to know them;

What were their interests and passions?

What don't they like about writing?

It's funny because a pattern emerged, displaying clearly what I see as the remnants of the 'old school' mindset. Unfortunately placing emphasis on handwriting over content and ideas still lingers in the mindset of some students and whānau. This shift has begun to change over the years but this value from our old schooling system has been engrained deep and these things don't happen overnight. 

One way I have helped to overcome this is to come up with creative lessons that use technology to hook the reluctant writer in. 

I use The Literacy Shed often in lessons and use their videos to promote vocab where the students would then use iMovie and record their voice over the video to tell their story. I have found this is an effective way to get rich vocab and content from kids. It is interesting and takes away the barriers for a lot of kids that writing on paper presents. 

These students are year 4 (8 years old) 

Authentic Exit Pass

 These next clips were made year 3-4's that was done in my old class, previous to Te Kura. I just wanted to show how much you as a teacher can learn about what a student knows from using an app like Explain Everything and Brushes to app smash. It is great for students, but you as a teacher can also learn what that student has genuinely learned from whatever it is you have been teaching. 

For these guys, we did a unit called 'What makes things fly?' 

I used it as an 'Exit Pass' type activity. 

A great way to show genuinely what the kids learned and capture authentic personal voice. 

My instructions were to use the apps Brushes and EE to show what they learned about the forces of flight. They already knew how to app smash with these apps from previous skills we had done. I let them go for it and it was awesome to see how much of the unit was truly understood, the rich language they are using and what they came up with. It is pretty cool when you think they are only 7- 8 years old.