Simple K12 Webinar Reflection

The webinar I attended entitled 15 Apps to Support Struggling Readers was both informative and inspiring.  As I prepare to teach this upcoming fall utilizing iPads in my classroom, I wanted to learn more about how to engage all of my learners but also how to help struggling readers with this new technology.  Jenna Linskens, a Senior Educational Consultant with the International Society for Technology in Education presented on this topic and shared apps to implement in our classrooms relating to the five pillars of reading instruction; phonemic awareness (PA), phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  Below is a summary of the apps and where they fit within the five pillars. 

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics:

1. Vocabulary Spelling City http://www.spellingcity.com/

2. Tell About This http://www.tellaboutapp.com/

3. Abitalk Word Families http://www.abitalk.com/webapps/wordfamily/  

Build Vocabulary Skills:

4. MindMup https://www.mindmup.com

-Allowing students to group their words together based on sound or meaning 

5. Educreations https://www.educreations.com/

-Put vocabulary words in and creates a picture

6. Write About This http://www.writeaboutapp.com/

-Students choose a picture, create a prompt, and record the story.

Build Fluency:

7. News-o-matic http://press4kids.com/

8. Padlet http://padlet.com/

-While reading a story, students respond to story by developing pictures and words to retell or

summarize

9. Chunky English - Grammar Patch http://www.shortsnaplearning.com/

Build Comprehension:

10. Professor Garfield - Fact or Opinion https://learninglab.org/life_skills/fact_or_opinion/

      Fat Cat Books http://www.professorgarfield.org/yourfuture/fat_cat_books/fat_cat_books.html

11. Evernote https://evernote.com/

12. KidBlog http://kidblog.org/home/

-Students think about what they’re reading and blog about it

Assess Student Learning:

13. Socrative http://www.socrative.com/

-Look at Space Race

14. Book Creator  http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/

-Free version you can create, but must delete the previous book or you can export the book, and it will always be in your iBooks

-Students can add what they learned from non-fiction books. 

15. Toontastic http://www.launchpadtoys.com/

-Student takes what they read and create a new ending

I enjoyed the webinar and took her suggestions but also thought of other ways I could use the apps to work at my grade level and with the curriculum I use in my district.  One of the apps she mentioned, News-O-Matic, sounds like something to integrate into a Project-Based Learning (PBL) problem.  I can work with my students to create newspaper articles depending on our problem.  It would be a goal for me to complete a PBL with my students at least once per semester. 

Another app she mentioned, Educreations, is one that I am relatively familiar with.  I never thought of using the app by having the students draw a picture of their vocabulary word but agree that this would be an effective way to use technology to promote vocabulary learning in the classroom. 

While I enjoyed this webinar, I did find it difficult to schedule a time that I would be available to attend.  Because it’s a webinar, there was less flexibility in my learning. I wasn’t able to stop or rewind if I missed something, however, I was provided the presenter’s notes after the webinar that was helpful.  Overall, I think participating in webinars is one more tool in my ongoing professional development and I would not hesitate to participate in another webinar in the future.

Reference

Linskens, J. (2015, July 16). 15 apps to support struggling readers [Webinar]. In Simple K12. Retrieved from http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/webinars/