My students need to have access to many 21st century tools to help support their learning and engage them in real-world connections in our ever changing global community.
My school is located in a small suburban community, and my fifth graders are diverse in their learning styles and needs--some carry a gifted label and others wear a special ed label. Our classroom community is made up of students belonging to traditional families, blended families, families where Grandma fulfills the role of Mom, and foster families. As diverse as their learning styles are, so is their socio-economic status--from kids who need a helping hand with lunch to kids who have access to whatever resources they wish for.
Although our classes are heterogeneously grouped, some sections include ‘gifted clusters,’ while other sections include students who are identified as needing special support, but all of my students need access to technology on a daily basis.
Working with my intervention specialist and my general education ELA teaching partner, we will incorporate a flexible model in which students will have opportunities to work with students of similar abilities and interests beyond their own classroom.
My Project
This upcoming school year, our district is consolidating, and our current building will be welcoming two additional grade levels! Because of these growing pains, my students will not have as much access to technology as they did this past year; I want to be proactive in acquiring digital tools for my students! The reading and writing workshop models allow our fifth graders opportunities to work at different paces and on varying assignments at the same time. Adding three Chromebooks to our classroom would allow for continuing and easy access to free books on Open eBooks, free informational texts on Wonderopolis, and articles and videos about current events, sports, and human-interest stories on Dogonews.
Chromebooks for my students would also allow them to access interactive lessons that I create in Google Classroom, a 21st model that eliminates the use of 'drill and skill' worksheets.
Readworks, StoryWorks and Commonlit provide access to limitless differentiated text sets. QuizzItLive, Kahoot, and Plickers are free online sites that provide engaging and exciting ways of practicing vocabulary. Ultimately, it’s not about teaching technology with the Chromebooks, it’s about using the technology to teach 21st century learners and meeting each learner at his or her level of need, whether for enrichment and challenge or intervention and remediation! We have access to so many free resources when we have access to the Internet via our Chromebooks.
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