Final Project

Integrating Literacy and Technology into the Classroom Using IRA and ISTE Standards

Cynthia B. Whittemore

 

 

The IRA and NCTE established twelve standards in 1996 for educators to “encourage the development of curriculum and instruction that make productive use of the emerging literacy abilities that children bring to school”.  The standards are very broad offering educators the ability to be innovative and creative when developing lessons to meet the standards, which in turn meet the needs of the students as learners.  Although the standards are numbered, they are meant to be “interrelated and should be considered as a whole”.  They are as follows:

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.
10. Students whose first language is not English make use of their first language to develop competency in the English language arts and to develop understanding of content across the curriculum.
11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

The ISTE standards, on the other hand, were developed for educators to help prepare them to serve as technology facilitators and leaders on a school level, district level, or state level.  Educators meeting these standards are able to “teach technology applications and demonstrate effective use of technology to support student learning”.  Also, educators meeting these standards are able to help other “teachers apply technology to support student learning” as well.  They are as follows:

 

I later learned that ISTE standards were developed for students, teachers, and administrators, but my final project plan worked well to use the above standards, as I am showing how a teacher, using ISTE standards, can effectively incorporate technology strategies to meet IRA standards in a Language Arts curriculum.  The focus of this unit addresses adolescent literature, but can certainly be adapted to accommodate any grade level.  This unit is divided into several categories: Selecting Literature, Prereading Activities, Reading Activities, Post Reading Activities, and Assessment.  I have also included two more categories that suggest sites for teachers to visit to see how other teachers are integrating technology and literacy, as well as units I have created for my present Language Arts Curriculum that integrate technology and literacy.

 

I.               Selecting Literature

·      Myth and Legends: A major source of links to worldwide myths and legends: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze33gpz/myth.html IRA Standards 1,2

·      Bibliomania: reference materials and fiction, nonfiction, and poems: http://www.bibliomania.com/ IRA Standards 1,2

·      Electronic Text Center: Classic books for young adults http://etext.lib.virginia.edu IRA Standards 1,2

·      The Kids on the Web: Children’s books: A wide variety of children’s books by famous and unknown authors.  Many are award winning: http://www.zen.org/~brendan/kids-lit.html  IRA Standards 1,2

·      Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents: Over 3,000 Spanish Language books recommended because of high quality, presentation of material, and appeal to intended audiences: http://www.csusm.edu/csb/english/   IRA Standards 1,2,9,10

·      Booklist: Reviews of adult and children’s books: http://www.ala.org/booklist/index.html IRA Standards 1,2

·      Fairrosa Cyber Library: Reviews of YA books with articles written on adolescent and children’s literature: http://www.fairrosa.info IRA Standards 1,2

·      Software

1.     Start to Finish Books, Don Johnston, 4th grade+

High Interest (Classics and biographies, etc) materials to use with ESL students and students with special needs.  Materials include a CD, audiotapes, and print texts. http://www.donjohnston.com/catalog/stflitprifrm.htm  Integrated Learning System; IRA Standards 1, 2, 10

 

2.     Scholastic READ 180, Scholastic, 4th grade+

Comprehensive Reading Program that uses software, audiobooks, print books, CD-ROM videos to evoke background knowledge to assist comprehension. Tutorial software offering a metacognitive aspect; IRA Standard 3

 

II.             Prereading Activities

·      Create a Cyberhunt for the students so they can connect to the author and his/her writing style as well as get a preview of the novel.  The teacher should find 4-5 websites for the students to use to find answers to teacher generated questions.  Suggested websites to use:

-       Authors and Illustrators on the Web: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/authors.html

-       Yahoo Directory of Children’s Authors: http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Children_S/ IRA Standard 3

 

·      Students can research the setting of the book so that they will be able to     visualize where the literature selection takes place. Students should generate questions they think they need to know and would like to find out prior to researching the setting. Suggested sites to visit:

-       Encyclopedia on the Titanic: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/

-       Maps and Atlases: http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/eresources/refcenter/maps.htm IRA Standard 7

 

·      Find a school located in our country or throughout the world that might read the chosen literature selection at the same time.  Set up a communication plan so that students can begin discussing the novel with these other students through the prereading, reading, and postreading stages.            Suggested sites to use:

-       Buddy Project: participate in collaborative projects around the world: http://www.buddyproject.org/default.asp

-       The Global Schoolhouse: Free membership lets you learn about a large number of worldwide collaborative projects.  The “Professional Development” section tells how to make and find collaborative projects.  Some activities require paid membership: http://www.gsn.org/ IRA Standards 3,4,6,9,11

 

III.           Reading Activities

·      Vocabulary Activities: Teachers and students can make several types of puzzles and conduct word searches here using words from the novel:

-       Discovery School’s Puzzlemaker: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ IRA Standard 4

 

·      Writing Activities: After reading the novel halfway, students could write to predict the ending, based on events that have already occurred in the novel.  Students must go through the writing process to formulate a correct response.  Suggested sites to use:

-       Writing and Grammar Resources at Ms. Smith’s English Page: Created by an eighth grade teacher, this site offers students help with their writing: http://home.earthlink.net/~jesmith/Writ.Gram.Resources.html

-       Guide to Grammar and Writing: Provides guidelines on grammar and writing at the sentence, paragraph, and essay level: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ IRA Standard 5

 

·      Vocabulary Software:

-M-SS-NG L-NKS, Sunburst Technology, 3-8: This program contains passages from award winning novels but with words and letters missing (a type of cloze activity).  As students work, a picture is revealed. http://sunburst-store.com/cgi-bin/sunburst.storefront/4098493c03c64fe52717d00b89320681/Product/View/8963

-       Semiotic Instructional Game; IRA Standard 6

 

·      Writing Software:

-Writing for Readers (Odyssey of Discovery Series), Pierion Spring Software, 7 and up: Students use program to develop plot, setting, characters, and more. http://www.epinions.com/pr-Pierian_Spring_Software_Odyssey_of_Discovery_Writing_for_Readers-Full_Version_LA0014011_For_Mac  Integrated Learning System; IRA Standards 5,6

 

 

IV.           Post Reading Activities

·      Novels always have a protagonist or hero.  Students could create their own heroic character as they compile a list of characteristics of heroic people, create questions they could ask heroic people, and they try to answer those questions from online and print information they locate.  Instructions in using detailed images in writing are part of the project. Grades 6-8. http://www.iste.org IRA Standards 6,7

·      Students write a book review of novel to submit electronically:

-       Bookbrowse.com: http://www.bookbrowse.com

 

·      Write a poem about the novel for publication.

-       Midlink Magazine: Students can share their contributions all around the world: http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/index.html

-       Kidpub: Students can publish stories.  Children from around the world contribute: http://www.kidpub.org/kidpub/

-       Writes of Passage: An outlet for teenagers and their writings; cost for subscription: http://www.writes.org/index.htm

-       Kids’ Space: A place created to share writings with others throughout the world.  Although very childlike, this site can be used with writers up to age 16 and it’s free! http://www.kids-space.org/

-       IRA Standards 4, 9, 12

 

·      Using the setting, students can create a newspaper from that place, creating stories related to the novel.

-       Create Your Own Newspaper: create a FREE class newspaper: http://www.crayon.net  IRA Standards 5,6,8

 

·      Students write what lessons they learned from the novel as they write to their keypal and author of the book.

-       Refer to author sites and keypal sites in II. Prereading Activities. IRA Standards 4,9,12

 

V.             Assessment Suggestions

·      Assessment Software: http://examview.com/?adword=T

·      Knowledge Design Instructional Resources: This contains several tutorials to help you create tests and exercises: http://www.auburn.edu/~mitrege/knowledge/

·      Activities for ESL students: This site has more than a thousand exercises you can use as patterns to create several basic kinds of online quizzes.  These were created to help ESL students: http://a4esl.org/

 

VI.           Sites to Visit to see how other Teachers are Integrating Technology

·      Readwritethink: all lesson plans are correlated to the IRA standards: http://www.readwritethink.org

·      WWW4Teachers: http://www.4teachers.org/intech/index.shtml

·      Integrating Technology into the Classroom: www.wtvi.com/teks

·      Apple Learning Interchange: Lesson Plans grouped by elementary, middle, and high.  There is a section devoted to Language Arts: http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/teaching.html

·      A to Z Knowledge: http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/AZ.htm

 

VII.         Appendices: Units I have created this Year Involving Technology

·      Page 1: Letters from Santa: IRA Standards 4,5

·      Page 2: Cyberhunt Jerry Spinelli /Stargirl websites: IRA Standard 3

·      Page 3: Cyberhunt Jerry Spinelli/Stargirl questions

·      Page 4: Persuasive Writing Project: IRA Standards 4,5,7

·      Page 5: “State Your Interest” Integrating Geography and Language Arts: IRA Standards 4,5,7,8,11,12

·      Page 6: “State Your Interest” continued

 

 

Adams, Dennis M. & Angeles, Rebecca. (2003). Web Watch. Sites Linked to Standards  for the English Language Arts. Reading Online.

 

Colburn, Linda & Kinzer, Chuck. (2000, August). Web Watch: Resources for Intergrating Technology in the Classroom. Reading Online.

 

Johnson, D. (2001, September). Web Watch: Assessment Resources. Reading Online, 5(2).

 

Karchmer, R.A. (2002, May). Gaining a New, Wider Audience: Publishing Student Work on the Internet. Reading Online, 4(10).

 

Valmont, William J. Technology for Literacy Teaching and Learning. 2003. Houghton Mifflin Company.

To:  The First Grade Teachers

From: Cindy Whittemore, 7th Grade Language Arts

Topic: Letters from Santa

 

I am excited to be doing the “Letters from Santa” project with you all again!  This was a wonderful experience for the seventh grade students as they were writing to an audience younger than them and using language that was appropriate for the purpose!!  Also, they got the chance to use their keyboarding skills to produce a text in an entertaining way!  More importantly than implementing standards into this project though, it was just plain fun to do!!!!  I am hoping it will be as fun and meaningful for you and your students this year as well.

 

I have created some deadlines and ideas for you to think about and use, please feel free to implement more ideas!  I’d love to hear from you!

 

Schedule:

Week of December 1-4:  Have your students write their letters to Santa.  Also, please make a list of things about each student that “only Santa would know”.  You can be as creative as you want to be with this one!  We almost enjoyed reading the “secrets” more than the students’ letters!!!  Ya’ll did a great job with this!

 

December 5- Please send them through the courier to me, so I can receive them by Monday and begin the task of assigning my students to your students.

 

Week of December 15-19: “Santa’s elf” (me) will be delivering the letters to each classroom door!  I will arrive around 8:30 a.m, since I have planning during that time.  Please don’t forget to close your door before that time!  I don’t want the children to see me delivering them!  You all might have a special date that week that you want me to deliver.  Just let me know and I’ll be glad to accommodate!

 

Here are some thoughts I had about this…since my students only get to visualize this part of the project, I was trying to come up with some ways to help my students actually see what was going on!  Could ya’ll maybe think about getting a parent to come in and video each class during the time that you’re going to be reading the letters and letting us see the 5 videos?  That way, I could show each tape during my five instructional periods! (Also, I would get to see all of the children get their letters!!heehee!)  I would then send the tapes back to you to give back to the parents.  Could this be possible?  Let me know!  I would also like for ya’ll to take some pictures with the digital camera so we could print them to make a power point and/or hall display for January.  Label your disk with your name so I’ll know where the pictures were made.

I have some more ideas that I’m working on that will benefit your students on the delivery date!  Again, let me know your ideas too!

 

Thanks for wanting to help make this time for your first graders even more real and magical!!! 

 

 

Stargirl/Jerry Spinelli Websites

 

a)   www.carr.lib.md.us/authco/spinelli-j.htm

 

b)   www.edupaperback.org/authorbios/Spinelli_Jerry.html

 

c)    www.randomhouse.com/features/jerryspinelli

 

d)   www.readersread.com/cgi-bin/review.pl?reviewid=90207

 

Stargirl/Jerry Spinelli Pre-reading Activities

 

Using the websites, answer the following questions.

 

1)     Where did Jerry Spinelli get his education? (a)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

2)     Where does he get his ideas to write his books? (a)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

3)     What happened in his life to make him start thinking about becoming a writer? (b)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

4)     What does he enjoy writing about? (b)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

5)     What simile does Jerry Spinelli use when describing what Stargirl is about? ©

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

6)     Describe Stargirl from Jerry Spinelli’s point of view. ©

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

7)     What did Jerry Spinelli dream of becoming before the age of 16? ©

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8)     Who is Spinelli’s “Stargirl”? ©

______________________________________________________________________

 

9)     Who is the narrator of Stargirl? (d)

 

___________________________________________________________________

10)                   What is the “Hot Seat” in Stargirl? (d)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Was Arnold the BEST Choice for California?

Persuasive Writing

 

Students will combine writing and speaking skills with this next assignment.  Students will be writing a persuasive editorial making sure they use proper tone and intention with their word choice. 

·      All students will randomly select the side in which they will take on the issue.  

·      Students will then have the opportunity to research both, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis, on the Internet.  Students will use a T-chart as they list important concerns, facts, and information from each candidate’s website.  10 interesting points about each candidate must be found on the student’s T-chart.  This will help them as they create a clear, concise, and convincing voice to the listening/reading audience.

·      Students will also use time in the computer lab to search a political cartoon to support the voice they have selected to use in their persuasive editorial.  Students will print the chosen political cartoon as a visual to use later.

·      Students will learn the process of writing a persuasive editorial with the purpose being to convince the California voters, ages 18 and over, that they made a good choice or a bad choice when they voted to elect Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of their state.

·       Students will then apply the writing process.

·      Students will finally be ready to persuade their classmates why Arnold was the best choice or the worst choice for the Governor’s position by reading their editorial using their persuasive tone and intention to the class.  Students will also share their political cartoon with the class to support their argument.  Although the classmates can’t serve as a “voting voice”, they will still have an opportunity to let the speakers know if their voice was most persuasive in convincing them.  A tally will be provided for this process.

 

I hope all students have fun with the writing process, while also learning about current events and persuasive propaganda.

 

 

 

“State Your Interest”

Integrating Curriculum: Geography and Language Arts

 

Students will apply various Language Arts curriculum standards as they learn to advertise an assigned state from a particular region in the US. 

Approximate time for project: three weeks

 

Process:

Students will:

·       pair up for this project and will be assigned a state from a particular region.

·       use multiple sources to provide thorough research for assignment: one reference source, one non-fiction book, several periodicals, one interview, and also the internet will be used.

·       find a political cartoonist from assigned state; choose one cartoon to analyze; e-mail the cartoonist about his/her work with a proper deconstruction of the cartoon.

·       collect newspaper articles and/or magazine articles about assigned state. (3)

·       create a map to show how to get to the assigned state’s capital city from Dacusville Middle School.  Written directions must accompany map. (Address: 899 Thomas Mill Road Easley, SC 29640)

·       interview an adult who has traveled to or lived in the assigned state.

·       write to a tourism and travel place in a business letter format for information, visuals, etc.  Also, write a thank you note upon receiving information.

·       take notes from resources on particular subject matter that is to be included in product.

·       Keep up with a weekly log recording duties performed each day.  I must sign your weekly log daily to get credit!

·       create an accurately written bibliography showing all sources used in research.

 

Product:

·       Scrapbook:

1.     Cover Page and Title Page: must include graphics that reflect the state

2.     Table of Contents

3.     National Parks, Historical Sites, and Points of Interest: Research 3 places to visit.  Then choose one out of the three that you would most like to visit and why. (Essay format using 4 blocks model): your essay and pictures

4.     Map showing how to get to state’s capital city from Dacusville Middle School with written directions

5.     Interview: your documented answers, picture of interviewee (if available)

6.     Newspaper/Magazine articles (3)

7.     Travel and tourism communication: your letter and anything you may have received from the company,

8.     Political Cartoonist’s information: title, picture if available, political cartoon, e-mail, and response if you get one back.

9.     Bibliography

Partners will work together to create an effective and creative presentation convincing the audience to be interested in their state the most.

 

Evaluation:

·       A “travel ticket” will be issued to all classmates.  Each student will decide which state most interested him/her based on the presentations and their interests.

·       Self-evaluation of the project will be issued and completed.

 

 

 

 

I understand the above requirements and expectations stated above.  I know I must successfully work with my assigned partner(s) in order to achieve what is expected for this project.

 

Student Signature: _____________________________________

 

Date: ______________________________________________

 

 

I have read the above requirements and expectations stated above and know what is expected from my child with this project.  I understand that most of this will be done at school but will be willing to help my child in any way at home if necessary.

 

Parent Signature: _____________________________________

 

Date: ______________________________________________