It became a sort of formative assessment, where some partnerships moved independently and others needed recurring support and scaffolding. Students wrestled with questions like What does visualization really mean? and How can I communicate what “looking for chunks” to decode really is? Through the process I did not give students answers but guided them and pushed them to be clear and articulate. It validated the time and energy the class spent on the project. Having a supportive colleague who recognized the important work our students were doing allowed me to forge ahead.
Making the movie was our tool and motivation to communicate, and the goal was to share our learning and understanding of real reading.ĭuring one work session I said to the reading specialist, “This video is going to be a mess! It is taking too much time out of our reading instruction.” Her response was clear: The students were internalizing learning and doing meaningful work. They thought deeply about the way others communicate through video.Īfter they had some schema of the film they would create, we stepped away from technology. They noticed showing examples of reading strategies was more informative than singing a catchy song. These young learners identified that students who talked directly to the camera were easier to learn from than those who read from a script.
We evaluated these “texts” as an audience to see what worked and didn't work. I asked them: “What makes real reading?” To answer that question, we viewed videos of students demonstrating reading strategies. So my first graders and I embarked on a four-week journey into the unknown world of producing an iMovie together. I asked myself: How can technology enhance the learning of my students and the learning process? How can technology support learning through collaboration, communication, and creation of information? Recently, I turned technology inside out and started to see it as a vehicle to move the content or unit of study to a deeper level. Technology was an insertion to my lesson, not a means to deeper learning. I used the Smartboard to present lessons and show my students fun math games.
As an elementary teacher for 10 years, I dabbled in technology as a learning tool but always looked at it from the outside in.