Book Critique
Danielle Kowalewicz
Book Brief
Using Technology to Improve Reading and Learning
"The aim of this book is to help teachers improve their students reading, writing, and communication skills, and particularly to help teachers become more confident in using technology to make the teaching of literacy more exciting, more engaging, and more effective" (pg. 9).
The Authors
The authors are Colin Harrison, Bernadette Dwyer and Jill Castek. The are all teachers who have had experience with using technology in their classrooms, and they came together to write this book to give other teachers tips and strategies on how to effectively incorporate technology into your classroom, based on their own personal experiences as teachers. This book is made by teachers for teachers, and it shows in every page that you read!
Common Core to the Fore!
One great key feature, for any teacher who is working with the Common Core Standards, is when the authors talk about incorporating technology into some aspect of your curriculum, they mention how it helps you meet certain Common Core Standards! This is a great tool for teachers who are worried about meeting standards, or teachers who don't see how technology could help them.
Voices from the Classroom
This is another great key feature in this book! Voices from the Classroom are little excerpts from students who have used the technology, strategies or techniques provided by the book. This is a wonderful feature because is gives you an insight into how your students might respond the the activities presented in the book!
Chapters 5 & 6
Two really wonderful chapters in this book are chapters 5 and 6, which talk about how to teach students how to research online efficiently and effectively, and how to be safe when searching online. I think these two chapters are crucial for any teacher who gives assignments that require students to research online. Many teachers worry about how to keep students safe online and these two chapters give great tips and strategies!
Appendix B
Another great feature of this book is the Appendix B. This appendix gives a list of useful URLs for all of the technology tools that were mentioned, and it is organized by chapter. It is a great tool for any teacher to have, to be able to look through and know that these specific tools are known to have great success in the classroom if incorporated correctly!
Sources
Picture 1: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61OIRHp77qL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Picture 2: http://colinharrison83.tumblr.com/