ReadWorks

ReadWorks has come a long way in a few years.  This year, with my new position in middle school, and with the focus being on increasing student vocabulary acquisition, I decided to take another look at what they had to offer.  I am so impressed with the streamlined approach to selecting articles, assigning them, and reviewing the data.

Above you will see a picture from my teacher dashboard.  I assigned the article, A Drop's Journey.  I can easily see the Lexile number, genre, and how many students have submitted the assignment.  I can also see that I have allowed this article to be read aloud to the students.  I can also quickly click on "Class Results" and view the data from my class.

Did I mention that this resource is entirely FREE?????  Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Chatterpix Kids

Bring book characters to life with Chatterpix!  With this kid-friendly app, students can take a picture of the character from their book or the person/animal of interest from their reading passage and make them "talk" about the information learned from the reading immersion.  Don't have a picture?  No problem!  Have your students expand their creativity by designing one before they take the picture. 

Check out this example

Scholastic Magazine Grade 4 (February 5, 2018)

Golden Goals!

Julia Marino-Snowboarding

Freckle

Taken from the Freckle.com

Looking for a FREE tool to use with your students that will meet them where they are at in all four core areas?  I was on the same hunt, and fell in love with Freckle (formerly known as Frontrow).  Freckle gives a placement test and adapts practice to help students grow from where they are.  Giving students their user name and password is so easy because you can download adorable login cards that can be taped inside their binder or agenda.  I absolutely LOVE that there are science and social studies units that can be assigned with differentiated reading passages.  Want to learn more?  Click the Pig at the top to be directed to the website.

Post-It Speech and Thought Bubbles

Sometimes when we are reading a book in class with great illustrations, I'll put a post-it with a speech or thought bubble in the book so that the students can infer what the character is thinking or saying.  I made some templates...feel free to use them :)

Speech Bubble https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SsbSy9Hn82cmI4ZW1pYlBxSFU/view?usp=sharing

Thought Bubble  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SsbSy9Hn82LTJFRkR3czFRSGM/view?usp=sharing

Analogies

Research supports the importance of being able to make comparisons with sound reasoning.  An article on Teachervision articulates this point. Listed below are three free apps for learners to begin practicing with analogies.

The user of this app will begin to build their understanding of relationships between concepts (words, shapes, etc.) 64 total analogies are included with this free app.

A 2nd version of the above mentioned app.

This version of the analogy app focuses on word analogies.

Book Wizard by Scholastic

Scholastic has a website/app called Book Wizard.  This website/app is very helpful for the teacher looking for those "just right" books.  Books can be found by using reading levels as well as by searching for titles.  Once found, most books provide the genre, interest level, reading level, and some even include free teaching resources!  The app includes a scanner, which helps the teacher to quickly identify the above mentioned categories.  

Some minimal cons include that not all books are listed, not all categories have information provided (ex. some might not include the genre), and not all have free resources.  However, as far as FREE resources goes, this app/website is definitely worth checking out!

Goodreads

This year I made the switch from teaching math and science to teaching reading and social studies. Now don't get me wrong, every teacher is a reading teacher, but this change has led to my temporary hiatus from blogging about technology.  This is largely due to the fact that I believe that a teacher needs to know their content and be comfortable with it before they begin to enhance it with a lot of new technology.  Throughout the year I continued to use the technology/programs/apps that I was already familiar with, but I did take a break from searching out anything new/cutting-edge.  

Now that we are approaching the end of the year and I start thinking about next year, I have once again begun to search out tools that will make my classroom more effective (and some tools that I think are just awesome for myself).

The website Goodreads is one of my new favorites (and yes, there is an app for that).  This website is almost as addicting as Pinterest.  Once you set up a free account you are able to rate books that you have read.  As you rate your previously read books, the system makes recommendations to you for future reading.  One of my favorite parts of the app is the scanner.  I was recently in the store and saw several books that I would like to read, but since I currently have a stack on my nightstand I did not purchase them.  Instead, I scanned the barcode with my app and added them to my "want to read" virtual shelf.  As you investigate different books that may interest you, ratings and book reviews from other members of the goodreads community can be viewed.  You can also follow your "friends" and see what they are reading/have read.

So how does this apply to my classroom?  This app is nicely correlated to genres, and therefore I can search through children's literature, fiction, historical fiction, etc. and based upon what my class has enjoyed reading I can find suggestions for future reading.   Older students may enjoy having their own log-in and access to the app.  I would probably suggest not using it with younger students as inappropriate books may be located while conducting a search.  

Give it a try!  It's free and I really think you will enjoy it:)