Description of Need or Opportunity –Part A
First grade is a year where reading success is essential. Much of the year is spent developing the reading strategies, practicing and modeling fluency, and assessing comprehension. I have found that students benefit from hearing fluent readers read to them. Through this project I would like to incorporate technology to increase reading fluency in first graders. Being a fluent reader is linked to comprehension and understanding. Fluency doesn’t ensure comprehension, but comprehension is difficult without fluency. If a reader is constantly stopping to decode and figure out unknown words, most likely meaning will be disrupted and the process of reading becomes long and laborious.
I would like to incorporate books on iPods to increase reading fluency. Currently, I have a listening center in my classroom that takes both tapes and CDs. Unfortunately, many of the books on tape are outdated, worn, or falling apart. The books on CDs are more current, but are not as functional for first grade use. Students often scratch the CDs or the story skips while playing. This creates for an unpleasant experience and doesn’t effectively model fluent reading. Additionally, I can only order books on tape or CD that are offered in book stores or scholastic. Many students have books that they are interested in reading, but the listening resources are not available on tape or CD. If I incorporate the use of iPods, I could download books that students were currently reading or interested in. I could also incorporate books that I already have available in my classroom. This would also broaden my “listening library” and be more user-friendly. The iPods would also deliver one on one modeling of fluent reading at any level.
Students would have an opportunity to use these resources during Reading Workshop. I envision students listening to one to two picture books a day using the iPod. Several students could listen to the same story and just pass the iPod when they finish. I would begin this process with students that are struggling with their own reading fluency, but if resources are available, I would like all students to have the opportunity.
During this course, I will use my personal iPod to download books to use in my classroom. I will allow several students to use this resource daily. If this seems to positively affect their reading fluency, I will write a grant when the course concludes to receive additional resources.
There are several websites available to download free books and search children’s books. Three of those websites are listed below.
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/genre/Children
http://www.playtime-books.com/
According the National Reading Panel (2000), fluency is the ability to read text with speed, accuracy and proper expression. Fluent readers:
· Recognize words automatically
· Read aloud effortlessly and with expression
· Do not have to concentrate on decoding
· Can focus on comprehension
According to Brenda-Jean Tyler from the Department of Special Education at The University of Texas at Austin, research suggests that “effective interventions for building fluency include an explicit model of fluent reading, multiple opportunities to repeatedly read familiar text independently and with corrective feedback, and established performance criteria for increasing text difficulty.” (J Learn Disabil September/October 2002 vol. 35 no. 5 386-406).
Below is a link that describes how students can play a larger role in assessing their own reading fluency with the use of new technologies. The focus is on the actual fluency assessment as opposed to building the fluency skills, but providing feedback would be beneficial for older students to improve.
http://doit.aurorak12.org/2010/02/07/reading-fluency-i-pod-touch/
Here are several links about teachers already using iPods in the classroom.
http://ipodclassroom.wikispaces.com/
http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/ipods-in-the-classroom
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites070.shtml
To determine if this project is successful, I will conduct a pre-assessment taking into account the students’ current reading rate, use of expression, and heeding punctuation using a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). After several weeks listening to books on the iPods, I will conduct the same assessment again to verify if changes are evident.
I love this idea and am hoping that next year I can get some funding for using Ipods as a listening center in my library. In addition to downloading books, have you thought about recording your own podcasts of stories you read with your students? You could even record it as you read to your students, to save time. What about having some of your more fluent readers record their favorite stories sometimes? Even parents and other volunteers could record books for you to increase your listening library, without adding to the cost or time for you.
ReplyDeleteBrittney,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great idea. I agree with you that listening centers using tapes and CD's are outdated. I can't even remember the last time that I used a cassette tape for my own personal use, yet we have a classroom full of casssette tapes for students to listen to. It doesn't make sense that what we are doing in our classrooms, doesn't match the reality of the world that we live in. I think the using iPods in the classroom will help connect students' learning to their lives outside of the classroom. I also think that using the iPods will help with student motivation. I can just imagine how eager students will be to get to use an iPod! Thanks for providing the links to the resources where you can download free books! I will be using that in the future. If you only have one iPod perhaps the students could listen to the books that you download by just using the computer and headphones. This might allow more students to have access to your new listening library.
I am very interested to see if your students' reading fluency is positively affected by incorporating iPods. Good luck!