Many of my students are English language learners and are more engaged when technology is joined with text, ideas, and creativity. They love to use slide shows to tell stories, and benefit from using technology. The issue is we need more technology, so that more students can be engaged, and share their digital stories more often. Creativity could be so much more heightened if we had additional tools, in order to regularly share their creativity with their families and friends through multimedia digital stories.
Our school is a Title One school, and my ESL students struggle to meet Common Core Standards due to having limited English skills.
My Project
The Chromebooks I have selected will provide additional opportunities for students to author creative multimedia stories through slideshows, which allows access to illustrations, text, and videos that they are able to select and include with their ideas across the curriculum (Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Science). The Common Core State Standards require much more details and explanation, and with mutlimedia (and the ability to access so much more in-depth (and appropriate) information from the world wide web, students will have more opprtunities to increase their knowledge and skills while meeting Common Core State Standards. While we have some computers, we do not have enough to involve more of the class in individual (or partner) study according to their language abilities.
Each year my students learn to create and deliver presentations of interest or informational presentations across the curriculum.
Students design, research, incorporate visuals, and type their ideas in order to communicate core ideas to an audience that is also interested to learn and give written feedback. Unfortunately, most of our school's chromebooks need to be shared due to limited resources and public funding for this technology.
With additional technology, more students will be able to record their ideas more immediately, and be able to more readily explore and run with their thoughts and ideas, research, create, and write, as well as present their slideshows more often. Google slides, as well as their docs, allows for things to be saved, and, if they have computers at home or through their shelter, worked on later as time permits. Thereby allowing their passion to be less inhibited due to not having the tools they need. Having additional Chromebooks will help our newcomers and ESL students to acquire and use the English language more rapidly and effectively.
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