March 27, 2017
What's Up in the Tech World
Final week of March
It is hard to believe we have reached the final week of March. I will be at Upper Campus on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I will be at Lower Campus on Tuesday and Wednesday. I am going to try and focus on one topic each week rather than offering so many different topics. The first topic from the survey is Readworks Article a Day. Remember the surveys were anonymous so I don't know who asked the question. I will try and offer options for all grades.
For those who are not familiar with Readworks, you can find articles on many different topics. You can choose the articles based on grade level or lexile reading level. There are articles that would be appropriate for Social Studies, Science, or Literature. There are also articles in aspecial collections and skills and strategy sections. The standard articles (not the article a day) have vocabulary and questions that go with the reading.
Readworks Article A Day
The first step is to create a teacher account and set up a classroom.
Set up a Class
Set up your class by clicking on the create class button. You will see a popup asking you to choose the grade and name your class.
Invite Students
Our students have google accounts so the best way to invite students for grades above 3rd is to have them log in with their google credentials and then provide them the invite code for your class. Your other option is to enter the students yourself. For grades 3rd and under, you should probably enter them yourself.
Join Code
After you choose the method you wish to use to invite your students (I chose google login), you will be taken to the page to either enter your students or provide the join code. This page has your join code on it.
Next choose the Find Articles tab at the top of the page. In the menu on the left side of the page is a checkbox to narrow your options to the Article a Day posts. You can choose a grade or a lexile score to narrow the options further. Once you choose an article set, you can assign that set to the entire class or a particular group of students. (This is GREAT to differentiate based on lexile or grade).
Students log in to digital.readworks.org/student and will see the set of assigned articles.
How would I suggest you have students access the articles?
For middle or high school students, I would have them use their phones. If you have a class where someone doesn't have a phone, I would pair up the entire class and have one person log in. For lower campus, I would use this as a center.
IMPORTANT! Reflection on the article
To get the most from this exercise, you HAVE TO provide students an opportunity to reflect on what they have read. There are several options for ways to do this:
- Good old paper and pencil: Have students record 2-3 facts they learned from the article. Or have students write down 1-2 questions they may have.
- Use Google Docs to record the same information as above. You could possibly group students and have them collaborate and share their thoughts on the questions that the members of their groups have.
- There are a couple of great new options for video response. One of these is flipgrid. You could set up a grid for the day and have students record their facts and/or questions. I would NOT start with this. There are too many steps involving technology for the students to follow. Add this step in when students have become comfortable with the process of finding and reading the articles.
End of the week
Think about providing a time after the students have completed a set of articles to have a class discussion of what they have learned or questions they might have. Remember, reflection and time to discuss are essential to really getting the most from these activities.
Question?
Still have questions? Want a pair of helping hands for your first try? Not sure how to get your class set up?
Remember, I am here to help. Let me know if you still have questions or I confused you :)