Post #3

I liked the text-reading software mentioned in thee second field trip of the chapter. I would try to incorporate that into a lesson plan for a sixth grade language arts class. I know, as a student, sometimes even I find reading monotonous--as shocking as that is for a student studying to be a English teacher to admit! I would find a program that reads the text to me to be helpful and as the text stated it leaves students to perform higher on Bloom's taxonomy because the computer is dealing with the lower level functions. I would use the text-reader technology to scan in a short story that had something to do with what we had been going over. If we were working on a theme it would tie in that way, or if we had been focusing on literary devices, the text would tie in some of what we had gone over. By using this technology in the classroom it would free up students to pick up on what I was hoping they would learn. If they were usually bogged down in the reading, they'd be (hopefully) take notice of the symbolism or theme of the piece rather than being worried with the mere words on the page.

Concerns I have about supervising a technology based class room in the sixth grade are that not everyone comes from a well educated classroom. I fear the use of computers would impede learning rather than enhance it because perhaps not everyone has received an education in using a computer. I think more of class time might be spent in my assisting students with the use of the computer rather than facilitating higher learning. Also, I'd have concerns at keeping my students off of MySpace or Facebook and other inappropriate websites. Being only one person overseeing the classroom, if I were assisting a student who is less familiar with the use of a computer, I might not be able to make sure the remainder of the class are staying off of these sites. Eleven and twelve year olds could get themselves into some trouble by wandering onto websites or viewing content they know is inappropriate for the classroom. Yet, they might do it given the opportunity to look cool in front of their friends.

In perusing the Internet I came across http://www.abcteach.com. This website seemed to be useful because (with membership) I would be able to create my own worksheets. It would generate handouts such as crosswords, word searches, circle & spells, unscrambling, and more English related subjects. I thought this was cool because I've had to generate a word search before without a template and it was not as easy I initially believed. Also, the generators they offered were new and insightful. I had never considered circle and spells before (which are the same word spelled correctly once and incorrectly three other times and students must circle the version of the word which is correctly spelled.) I think access to these generators would help me save time and have a wide range of different activities ready to go. I've had teachers before who used worksheets for extra credit. It was a easy way to fill the remainder of time if the planned lesson finished early that kept the students engaged and continuing to apply what it was they had just learned. Also, it doubled as keeping students from pestering the teacher about extra credit points if they had fallen behind.