Teaching with Technology

 

                     Teaching 4^th grade with Technology

 

• A few years ago as part of a teaching incentive program, we were challenged to add a new technology from a list of approved platforms into our classrooms during stations. I chose to use SeeSaw, and I have been using it ever since! It’s a fun and free website that teachers can create, share and assign engaging lessons on the student’s computers. One of my favorites that I use every year was created by another teacher. It’s a very simple poetry practice. There are several words in boxes that the students can drag and drop into place to create their own poem. I have edited my copy to change the theme from time to time. For example, the original template has fall leaves in the back ground and all of the words are related to fall. This year we are just starting poetry in February, so I have edited the assignment to be Valentines words, and also a second one to have words about spring.
• I love the versatility of this assignment. It allows the students to be as minimal or as extra creative as possible. They can add words if they need. I can assign them to make a certain type of poem, such as rhyming or free verse. I’ve seen them arrange the word boxes into shapes, like flowers and hearts. I typically give this assignment the title, “You’re a poet & you didn’t know it!”

• We operate daily with google slides and docs because we have found that for most classes, it is the best way to organize our lessons. For example, I have a set of daily slides that I update each week. I change the back grounds, add my Bitmoji (Which they always comment on) and often include short timers, videos and even music that I feel makes the presentation of my material easier to connect with and more interesting to the students. This year in particular, my students have learned so much about grammar by singing songs.
• My daily slides include the week’s agenda, our school’s announcements and pledges, as well as snips of the assignments we will be working on. This allows them to see the week as a whole- big picture, and as we check things off the list, it teaches them how to organize their time and reach their goals.
• With our new curriculum, Amplify, we have been fortunate enough to have teachers creating and sharing slides for the lessons using the digital components included, and spending some time copying or typing up the contents from the work books, finding short youtube videos, pictures etc. so we can have an exciting slide show to present material to the students instead of reading verbatim from a TE.
• Each week, I also make the students a choice board. This is an editable template I have used for years. I give them a paper copy to keep in their binder, as well as a digital copy in the google classroom. The choice board includes “Must Dos” which are each activity and assignment for the week so they can check it off, and decide how to prioritize, and use their time wisely. If they are to complete the assignments early, there are a list of “May dos” for them to work on afterwards. I try to balance the amount of work on the choice board between online platforms such as google classroom, seesaw, canva and paper assignments. I believe it is important for the students to not have an entire day on the computer. I have noticed a major decline in handwriting the last few years as well, so I try to have plenty of that kind of practice on paper with pencil. However, teaching at a title1 school, we also know that some of them still do not have internet and/ or access to the computer at home, and we need for them to become comfortable and knowledgeable with technology.

Reflection on this assignment: 

The Winn article helped me to reflect on if my use of technology in the classroom was truly enhancing my students learning or just an extra (fun) tool. While I initially thought using Seesaw was just an extra station during independent work time, Winn’s perspective reminded me that technology assignments should always be intentional and directly tied to learning goals. This supports the belief that student written poetry is not just a fun activity but a meaningful way to support oral language development, comprehension, and self-expression in my young learners.

·   Changes that I could make in the future: 

Scaffolding: Since some fourth graders, in the inclusion setting, are still developing their fine motor and computer navigation skills, I introduce technology in small steps, but I need to make sure I am always modeling, I could also allow this to be completed with partners, using peer helpers to edit and revise could be an extra step and even used as another grade. Something else I now want to add is having the students record themselves reading their poetry. If they do not want to read it, an alternative could be to add appropriate instrumental music or sounds behind the poem to help captivate the mood.

Parental Involvement: Since families have access to Seesaw, I could encourage parents to respond to their child’s poetry, making it a two-way communication tool that enhances learning beyond the classroom.

·     

This assignment would be considered modification on the SAMR model-using technology to respond to a topic or prompt, instead of taking a multiple choice quiz. I believe it could also be redefinition to some students who might actually have an internal transformation experience while writing poetry.

To make this assignment be on the enhance level, I could make it be augmentation, by requiring the poem to be written in a certain style, and about a topic in our current unit. For example, after learning about the American Revolution, I could allow the students to use their notebooks with the information they charted on the time line, and create a poem about one of the battels, or the entire movement.