As I look at what I am reading and want to read this summer, it’s kind of all over the place. I’ll be reading about Vermont education, racial justice, and some fiction in the fantasy genre. Continue reading “Good Stories and Hard Truths: Summer Reading”
Top Ten Summer Reading Recommendations
Summer in Vermont brings on a different set of activities, a different pace of life, and an opportunity for renewal – at least for me. Last week I had a chance to connect with nature in a way I hadn’t in a long time. I finally got out on my mountain bike and did some exploring and tried to remember all the great reading recommendation from the past year. There were too many to remember, much less to read in one summer. Next time I’ll write them down! Summer also offers up the opportunity to have a little more choice in what I read. That night I did some searching and finalist my summer reading list. My goal is 10 books by the end of August. So here goes… Continue reading “Top Ten Summer Reading Recommendations”
Pushing my thinking with summer reading
With July comes the “Dog Days” of summer – named due to their association with Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius is the (second) brightest star in the sky, and Voyager 2 will get within 5 light years of it as long as nothing bad happens for the next 296,000 years. Anyway, centuries ago, Sirius would rise with the sun during July and August, thus associating these hot days with canines. Fun facts to share!
That’s about all the science in this post…
Continue reading “Pushing my thinking with summer reading”
Using edmodo as an LMS for reading
Students provide evidence of increased engagement with social reading platform
(Editor’s Note: we asked 5th grade educator Hannah Lindsey to share her experience using the LMS edmodo for a literacy block with students on netbooks. Her blog post is excerpted from a longer reflection prepared for the 2014 AMLE annual conference.)
Does the use of a learning management system impact student engagement and learning outcomes?
Was there a change in learning outcomes and products? Was there a change in student engagement and interest in material, discussions, and each other?
Let’s take a look.
Differentiated social reading with Subtext
Make the most of Subtext’s capacity for differentiated reading
A-reading we will go, A-reading we will go, hey ho the dairy-o, a reading we will go!
Ahem.
We’re going to take a look at the free iOS app Subtext, which provides a host of tools that let you empower readers in your classroom while providing them with maximal scaffolding for success. Subtext was really designed to differentiate the process of close reading, letting readers respond to stories with comments and even photos uploaded from their Camera Roll.
Two other huge benefits of the Subtext app are that you, as the educator can set up virtual reading groups within your classroom and you can also pull webpages and pdfs into Subtext, to capture the types of digital texts that a lot of 21st century learners like to read. Let’s go through how to get set up with Subtext.
Continue reading “Differentiated social reading with Subtext”