One of my favorite tools for integrating technology and literacy is the website Read Write Think. This website allows classroom teachers to utilize pre-made lesson plans and online interactives to teach literacy using a variety of higher level skills including: collaboration, phonics, reading, writing, inquiry & research, digital literacy, and comprehension. The site offers lessons for students K-12 and correlate with standards set for by the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) and the IRA (International Reading Association). The lesson plans are high quality and offer the latest in research and best practices for students in online literacy activities and lessons.
I use Read Write Think on a regular basis in my classroom. One of my students favorite activities is the animal research interactive, where they research an animal, complete the interactive organizer, then complete an powerpoint presentation for the class. I also utilize the comic strip creator and have the students create their own comic strips using new vocabulary words that we are learning for the week. Another great interactive is the Friendly Letter Generator, in 3rd grade we teach letter writing skills, so this is a huge motivator for my students.
There are so many advantages to using Read Write Think, but I think the biggest is the interactive nature of the activities. Students are always eager and motivated to complete their activity and often I find them checking out all of the other activities and wanting to do more. I like how the activities increase in difficulty so that there is something to offer every student depending on their needs. The only drawback that I have found is that students cannot save their work. Sometimes, it is difficult for my 3rd graders to finish a project on here from start to end before the end of our time. So if you plan on using the site keep an open time frame so students do not have to start from scratch the next day!
I haven't explored ReadWriteThink before, and can see it's layout and activities are very appealing. Working in a remedial reading classroom, I plan to look at it more in depth to see if there are ways we might introduce some of the ideas. If you have any suggestions for lower level middle school readers, I would be grateful for your input. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI think that it would be a great resource for your readers. On the website you can search activities/interactives by grade level. Some of the interactives that might be of interest to them though would be the comic creator, flip a chip (affixes and root words), creating a cd/dvd cover, and the bio cubes. You should check it out, the best part about them is that they are pretty much self explanatory projects and require very little explanantion or prep time!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this resource! I've already started thinking about ways I can use this with my small groups in reading. The cube creator is really neat and I think the kids would enjoy creating biographies with it. I'm with Mrs. A, please share any suggestions you have for those lower readers (or any cool ways you use RWT with the rest of the class)!
ReplyDeleteGlad you found some possible uses for the site in your classes. I usually use the interactives as center activities while I meet with my small reading group. I choose the interactive based on the skills we are working on for that particular week. So if we are working on friendly letters in writing I assign them a prompt and have them use the friendly letter generator. There are so many possible activities that you can use them for, but I find that they work really well as center activities for my 3rd graders.
ReplyDelete