Power UP With Instructional Technology For Intervention

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

2nd Graders are at a crossroads in their reading development. After learning how to read words, the next big hurdle is to understand what they read. That is after all the purpose of reading. Repeated reading of familiar text is an important way to building fluency and comprehension.

Our school serves a very diverse population representing a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures with enrollment near 600.

We have about 46% free or reduced lunch and 18% second language learners. Families are busy, time is scarce, and children need more opportunities to read and practice reading than they can get at school. Many children view reading as a strategic process: read words, finish the book. Building fluency through repeated readings and engaging the brain with the text by thinking is foreign to children who live in a "connected" world where facts and information are available without thinking. The availability of digital devices paired with busy families means that more and more children, regardless of socioeconomic factors, are coming to school lacking the development of a rich vocabulary. Deprived of these experiences they enter school already behind and continue to lack the support needed outside of school to reinforce and practice skills taught.

My Project

Research shows that time spent reading significantly impacts reading success. The iPods will be used 2 times daily. 1. Power Time is a special time each day when we target individual student needs whether that be to catch up or extend their learning with strategic intervention. Students will use the iPods to "Power UP their Power Time" by recording their fluency & playing back their recordings. Each device will be assigned to a group of students so they can track & monitor their progress as readers. There are several apps available to help us do this. 2. Guided Reading & Daily 5 is when students rotate through independent activities while the teacher works with reading groups. One activity is "Listening to Reading." As children improve their reading rate, expression, and pacing through their practice during Power Time, they can record books for their peers to listen to. Not only will this build their confidence and joy for reading, but increase their motivation to read even more.

This project will enable my students to play an active role in their learning.

They will self-monitor and adjust their reading rate, expression and pacing to improve their fluency and comprehension. It will empower my students to raise their own achievement in reading. Their learning will be so much more powerful because they did it themselves rather than me telling them what they need to do to be a better reader. It ensures a strong foundation in reading for a lifetime of learning.