A variety of technological resources are available to support children who face challenges in acquiring early reading and writing skills. Below are some notable options:
- Reading Applications
Epic!: This application offers access to a vast collection of high-quality children’s literature, encompassing picture books, chapter books, and audiobooks. It also features reading quizzes and tailored recommendations.
Starfall: Starfall employs games and interactive activities to facilitate reading and writing skills in children. It emphasizes phonics and provides resources for educators and parents.
Reading Eggs: This application utilizes games and activities to instruct children aged 2-13 in reading. It covers lessons on phonics, sight words, and reading comprehension. - Writing Applications
ABCmouse: This all-encompassing early learning application addresses various subjects, including reading and writing. It engages children through games, songs, and interactive activities.
Handwriting Without Tears: This application adopts a multisensory approach to handwriting instruction. It includes digital representations of letter and number formations, aiding children in enhancing their handwriting abilities.
WriteReader: This application enables children to compose their own books. They can write text, incorporate images, and record their voices, thereby fostering improvements in both writing and reading skills. - Assistive Technology Resources
Text-to-Speech Software: This software vocalizes written text, assisting struggling readers in comprehending the material. Notable examples include NaturalReader and Read&Write.
Speech-to-Text Software: This software transforms spoken language into written text, benefiting children who encounter difficulties in writing. Examples include Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Google’s Voice Typing tool. - Retelling with Coding Robots
After exploring a fictional story, my second graders created a five-finger retell to capture the key elements of the text. They filled out a planning sheet that detailed the beginning (including characters and setting), rising action, climax, resolution, and theme. Each student recorded their retell, segment by segment, as individual audio clips.
Next, they utilized Dot and Dash robots, which my colleagues and I acquired through a grant for technology integration from our district, to program their robots to navigate a story plotline and play their audio recordings at specific points. When students encountered events that were out of sequence or misplaced on the story map, they had to debug their code. Once they completed the coding and debugging process, the robot was able to independently present the entire retell of the story.
While the fundamental goals of the lesson remained unchanged, the level of engagement and effectiveness of the teaching significantly increased. The students grasped the importance of structuring their retell in order and reinforced their understanding of a story plot map through a visual representation of their robot following the designated path. This activity transformed retelling into an exciting challenge, allowing students to enhance their reading skills while visualizing the plot of fictional stories.
- Utilizing ChatterPix for Character Inferencing
During our reading sessions, my strategy group focused on character inferencing and backing up ideas with evidence. I observed that while students enjoyed the novel, they lacked motivation to engage in deeper analysis of the text. To encourage more profound thinking, I introduced ChatterPix for students to showcase their insights on character inferencing. Each student illustrated their chosen character, highlighting external traits to depict their appearance. They then utilized ChatterPix to incorporate speech bubbles and voice recordings, sharing their inferences about the internal characteristics of their characters.
This initiative encouraged students to pause, jot down their thoughts, and reflect on their reading, leading to meaningful inferences about their characters. It provided a clear distinction between external and internal traits. The students particularly enjoyed using amusing character voices while presenting their textual evidence. This project fostered engaging discussions within our reading group and enhanced their understanding of the importance of inferencing in character analysis.
- Summarizing Nonfiction Texts with PuppetPals
While teaching students how to write summaries, I noticed they struggled to identify which key details were essential and which could be omitted. After crafting several summaries of nonfiction texts, they grasped the structure better but soon became disengaged due to the repetitive nature of the task. To revitalize their interest, I incorporated project-based learning to make summary writing more dynamic.
While studying a biography of a notable American figure, students gathered essential information to incorporate into their written summaries. To showcase their summaries, they utilized the Puppet Pals app to create representations of their chosen figures and recorded themselves narrating the information from a first-person perspective. The app imposed a time limit on the duration of the “puppet show,” compelling students to critically evaluate which elements were most important to include in their summaries. Working in pairs, the students collaborated to synthesize the information and deliberate on the significance of each detail for their projects.
This approach not only heightened their motivation for gathering and summarizing information but also enabled them to genuinely grasp key details and understand the purpose of summarizing to convey important information to others. An additional advantage of this project was that it facilitated learning about a diverse range of famous Americans in a brief period through a jigsaw strategy. After completing their puppet shows, we organized a gallery walk where students viewed each other’s presentations, gaining insights into other notable Americans they had not yet explored.
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