Every Teacher a Literacy Teacher with Technology Tools

Tina Webster has shared a great tech tools video! It describes 7 free online sites that support literacy instruction: Subtext, ActivelyLearn, EtherPad, HemingwayApp, StoryBird, GotBrainy, and Newsela. We have previously highlighted two of those sites on this blog. (I linked you to those again.) The blog and video provide more ideas and support for both students and teachers.

Click Here>>Please take some time to read and hear more about these resources.

#DLDay

Friday, March 13, 2015 is Digital Learning Day (search for #DLDay on Twitter to jump in ongoing conversation with educators about digital learning in their classrooms and schools). While we are all at different places on the digital continuum, please use this day for both you and your students to reflect and discuss the impact of technology on our educational lives. Digital Learning Day is about empowering students and teachers and increasing college and career readiness. It's certainly too be to confined to one day or one activity. Your #DLDay activity can take place next week or even next month!

Resources to explore from www.digitallearningday.org:

• Interactive Lesson Plans
• Online Resources
• Digital Tools

~Chandra

What Are You Reading?

Most of us understand how teacher modeling helps readers. A small step you can take in modeling how reading is a life-long process is by discussing books you have read for pleasure with your students. You will be surprised how casual book talk can influence what students are willing to pick up for independent reading.

The ladies in the curriculum and instruction PDC offices (Dr. Julie Pack, Dubraska Stines, Betsy Hammond, and Lori Eggleston) and I have started posting our current reads. If you would like a sign to post outside your classroom or office door, click here. Just click on "File" and "Make a Copy" to add it to add to your Google Drive; after that, you should be able to edit the document to customize to your liking. If you put it in a plastic sheet protector, you can write on top with a dry erase marker and reuse over and over.

Happy Reading!
~Chandra

ThinkCERCA

Last year I learned about and shared Newsela. It is AWESOME. If you have not heard about Newsela already, it is a website with current news articles that allows users to adjust Lexile levels. (Click here to read a past post on Newsela.) Now, I have discovered another source for informational texts...ThinkCERCA.

ThinkCERCA is an online, CCSS-aligned literacy program for students in grades 4-12 (with parent consent) with content and tools to help students read closely, think critically, and write sound arguments. It is free to join and access basic functions, but there are additional tools available through a paid subscription. CERCA (in the title) actually stands for Claim, Evidence, Reasoning, Counter-argument, and Audience. When students complete full lessons they are both reading and writing-- "Common Core style". There are some really cool features to explore:

• An audio feature reads each article aloud to students. 
• Teachers have the option to input constructed response questions.
• ThinkCERCA has an embedded dictionary within each article.

Take look through the website and see how you can use it to increase access for your students.

Explore ThinkCERCA from ThinkCERCA on Vimeo.

Barnes and Noble Fall Educator Reception

Take a look at an offer for educators from Barnes & Noble:

SMART Notebook Express

Here is a great resource, particularly useful to Asheboro High School teachers and students using Chromebooks!  Check it out...

Tina Webster, Instructional Technology Facilitator at the high school, shared with the SMART Notebook Express site with me last spring. This is a way for students to access Smart Notebook files on their Chromebooks. It basically allows all your interactive notebook files to be accessible to students, which most of us know is great for flipped learning or for students when they are absent. It is very responsive; even interactive games and activities still work...perfect for test review time.

Here is the link if you want to just copy and paste in the url: http://express.smarttech.com/# 

Here is a screenshot. It should look pretty familiar to you already:

~Chandra via Tina Webster

Publishing with Flipsnack

One part of the writing process that may get unintentionally overlooked is the publishing/sharing element. Holding writing celebrations is an excellent way to get students motivated and excited about writing.

Flipsnack is a digital tool that can take a PDF and turn it into an online digital flipbook...a perfect way to share student writing within and beyond the classroom walls! Documents can be downloaded, embedded, linked out, or shared. It is free and very simple to use. You don't even need to register to use the basic services. Please note that Jay Williams, NAMS Instructional Technology Facilitator, brought to my attention that the Terms of Service specify that users need to be at least 13 years old or have parental permission to use the service. Whether the PDF has images or is just text, Flipsnack will make the final copy look professional and thoughtful.

Here is a link to an Occasional Paper (OP), that I wrote and uploaded to Flipsnack this summer: http://www.flipsnack.com/965E578F8D6/op6-the-signs.html .

These make for really engaging informational texts like procedural manuals and brochures, which are authentic writing tasks in science, social studies, and technical subjects. Hopefully, once you look it over, you can think of many ways students can use it for your class.

~Chandra