Language Variation and Technology in my Classroom

Hello!

One of the coolest things about my classroom is that they are a technology classroom, so every student is assigned a MacBook (excuse my sigh of envy for a moment) and they do a lot of assignments on the computer as a result. It's a really great tool for them-- they use MyAccess to write up essays and evaluate them, based on a Rubric that they can access at any time. They also use a program called Achieve3000, which is a program designed to foster reading comprehension.
The students all have to do at least 1 Achieve3000 a day, whether it is during their Support class, Language Arts or Social Studies (which they all have with Ms. R). What is does is give them a story or an article or an essay based on their reading level (which Ms. R can change from her computer, so if a student is reading through the material really quickly and getting all of the answers right on the first try, she'll ususally bump them up to the next level so that they can challenge themselves. But if a student is struggling consistently, not answering questions accurately, she might lower their Achieve3000 level. Of course, she bases that on the student too. If she knows the student is being lazy and just guessing, then she doesn't). At the end of the article/story/essay, they have to answer questions and they can go back as many times as they want to try for the correct answer if they get it wrong. After the correct answer is selected,the program will explain why it was the correct answer. It's a great program because Ms. R can monitor their progress, combine it with her personal knowledge of the student as well as thier reading ability, then respond appropriately.
The students also do a lot of different projects on their computers. Romig recently had a movie festival where the students--at least in our class--partnered up into two's, picked an idea and made a movie about it. They loaded the video onto the computers and edited it. They also make KeyNotes regularly for presentations, go on google maps for geography, use the Promethean board for items generated in class- like lists, spelling review and/or examples. When the students have finished their in class assignments and hw, they're allowed to use the computers for math, language or typing games.
My class doesn't have any English Language Learners in it-- we have 3 students who were born in the US to parents who have immigrated here, so they're bilingual, but they speak fluent English and don't qualify for special accomodations on tests like the SBA's. Each of the bilingual students speak a different language, so English is always spoken in the classroom. As for language variation, here is of course some (especially between me and Ms. R and the rest of the class!) but there is really not a lot. Their dialect is very similar and their register is all the same.We have some kids who are from families who are better off who have a more advanced vocabulary which they use in their writing, but not so much verbally.

Posted in: , , , on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at at 11:51 AM 3 comments  

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Language Variation and Technology in my Classroom

Posted by Gena on Sunday, April 11, 2010
Labels: , , , / Comments: (3)
Hello!

One of the coolest things about my classroom is that they are a technology classroom, so every student is assigned a MacBook (excuse my sigh of envy for a moment) and they do a lot of assignments on the computer as a result. It's a really great tool for them-- they use MyAccess to write up essays and evaluate them, based on a Rubric that they can access at any time. They also use a program called Achieve3000, which is a program designed to foster reading comprehension.
The students all have to do at least 1 Achieve3000 a day, whether it is during their Support class, Language Arts or Social Studies (which they all have with Ms. R). What is does is give them a story or an article or an essay based on their reading level (which Ms. R can change from her computer, so if a student is reading through the material really quickly and getting all of the answers right on the first try, she'll ususally bump them up to the next level so that they can challenge themselves. But if a student is struggling consistently, not answering questions accurately, she might lower their Achieve3000 level. Of course, she bases that on the student too. If she knows the student is being lazy and just guessing, then she doesn't). At the end of the article/story/essay, they have to answer questions and they can go back as many times as they want to try for the correct answer if they get it wrong. After the correct answer is selected,the program will explain why it was the correct answer. It's a great program because Ms. R can monitor their progress, combine it with her personal knowledge of the student as well as thier reading ability, then respond appropriately.
The students also do a lot of different projects on their computers. Romig recently had a movie festival where the students--at least in our class--partnered up into two's, picked an idea and made a movie about it. They loaded the video onto the computers and edited it. They also make KeyNotes regularly for presentations, go on google maps for geography, use the Promethean board for items generated in class- like lists, spelling review and/or examples. When the students have finished their in class assignments and hw, they're allowed to use the computers for math, language or typing games.
My class doesn't have any English Language Learners in it-- we have 3 students who were born in the US to parents who have immigrated here, so they're bilingual, but they speak fluent English and don't qualify for special accomodations on tests like the SBA's. Each of the bilingual students speak a different language, so English is always spoken in the classroom. As for language variation, here is of course some (especially between me and Ms. R and the rest of the class!) but there is really not a lot. Their dialect is very similar and their register is all the same.We have some kids who are from families who are better off who have a more advanced vocabulary which they use in their writing, but not so much verbally.