“Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of Whiteboards”

Technology Reflection Assignment

“Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of Whiteboards”

Description/Experience

The technology demonstrated in our last seminar was the instructional use of whiteboards. Mr. Graham from Preston County was our presenter. Mr. Graham showed us several different ways to incorporate whiteboards in the classroom. One website that he showed us that teachers can incorporate in their classrooms was Starfall. Starfall is an interactive website that helps students learn to read with phonics. I thought that this website looked like an excellent source for an elementary school classroom.

Application

The lesson that I would apply in my classroom would be using one of Starfall’s activities where children work on their reading skills. I would use this activity in a kindergarten classroom. This activity would be appropriate for students who are 5 or 6. The activity could even be used for students in Pre K. The students will gain a stronger ability in reading. By hearing the words in the sentences they will be able to pronounce the words easier. At the end of this activity students will have a greater grasp on how to read. I would know that my students benefited from this activity based on improvement in their reading abilities. I would have students try to read a book with sentences similar to the activity on Starfall in order to see if the activity was effective.

To begin the lesson I would introduce my students to Starfall. This might take 3-4 minutes or so to give them a sufficient amount of basic information.

I would then have the students spend ten minutes working on various Starfall activities to help improve their reading abilities.

Once the students completed their assigned Starfall activities, I would have them work on a similar activity at their desk to see if the whiteboard activity helped expand their knowledge.

After all of the activities were completed, we would complete a review activity that included all of the topics they worked on while using Starfall.  

Reflection

I think that using the whiteboard would be very beneficial to my students while using Starfall. Because the whiteboard is interactive, students would be able to be more involved and hands on in their learning. I feel that using the whiteboard could greatly increase students’ understanding of basic reading skills because it would allow them to be hands-on and hear the words they were trying to read.

--Pedagogical-Content:

A strategy that I would use to help increase my students’ reading abilities would be group read alouds. I would use this strategy because it would give students the opportunity to read out loud and also listen to their peers read while following along in the book. This follows along with my Starfall activity because students would also hear the words being read out loud and give them the opportunity to work on the activity in front of the peers at the whiteboard. Students in kindergarten might have a wide variety of reading levels. Some students might be coming in to kindergarten with no prior reading skills, while other students might already know how to read. I would be concerned about the different levels that my students would be on. For example, I would want to make sure that a student at a very high level was not reading at a low level and a student at a low level was not reading at a level way above their ability. I would want to make reading a fun experience so that students would be motivated to continue learning how to read.

--Technological-Pedagogical:

The main instructional strategy that I would use by incorporating the whiteboards would be that students would be able to have hands-on learning experience while learning how to read. The whiteboard would support how I teach reading because it would allow my students to take more control of their learning by using the whiteboards own their own, through touching the words on the screen and listening to the words. In order to have a working classroom atmosphere, I would have to be sure that all of my students were on their best behavior when using the whiteboard. If my students were not on their best behavior, using the whiteboard could be detrimental because it could be used as more of a distraction to students, rather than a learning tool.

--Technological Pedagogical Content:

Using the whiteboard to enhance my reading lessons would be useful because it would allow my students to be active in the class and work on their reading skills. A whole group discussion would span from this activity because students could have their peers help them when needed. Using this technology would help my students increase their reading abilities, and give them opportunities to work with their peers. Without the usage of whiteboards students would not be able to be interactive when learning how to read. Using the whiteboard allows students to be hands-on because they can touch the whiteboard to hear the words. Students can use whiteboards to show digital stories that they have written (After they have grasped basic skills to read). Using the whiteboard would be an excellent source to introduce students to reading.