Ok, so I used to pride myself by being on the bleeding edge as a language teacher. Helping my middle school students understand the possibilities of new tools, and sharing when they found uses I would never have thought of. It was exciting, it was sexy, it was cool.
Well I’m sure everyone and their mama has heard of http://starfall.com, but I want to share the power of this site anyway for phonics instruction.
I have 4 students who read at a pre-K level in 2nd grade. Only 6 of my students read a 2nd grade level in general. Despite the many discussions on the interwebz about developmental differences, or about literacy in general, the work we have in front of us with regards to catching students up is a little daunting (don’t worry, we said we have S.W.A.G. didn’t we?)
Our school goes an hour and a half longer than other public schools in the city, time we are paid to host “remediation” blocks for reading and mathematics.
I use this time for workstations, for which my students rotate through activities every 15 minutes.
This allows me to spend quality time in small groups with my students who struggle most with reading, give my students ample time to read books they choose to read, and to practice skills they struggle with.
I learned about starfall from our technology teacher 2 years ago, but since I taught Spanish, I didn’t really need it.
Now that I have such specific skills I need to introduce my students to, star fall is an excellent interactive site for phonics work. It allows students to practice blending sounds, to create words, to read interactive stories, and to play games that support phonics practice.
I can find the exact skill I want students to work on, then post on their edmodo page the skill each student needs to focus on for that period of time. It’s cool. It’s cool. It’s cool.
Of course, having laptops allows for this to be just one in an litany of resources I am able provide my students on a daily basis. This is all in addition to the things my students are able to create that serve to help them learn and to share their learning with the broader world.
I know I’m new to all this, but impression is still impression.
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