A Superintendent’s Conference Day on ELA through Technology

I had the wonderful experience of being the keynoter on ELA and technology at an elementary school. I did a presentation on improving ELA skills through videoconferencing where we videoconferenced with two “sites” – one on listening to an “expert” read a science poem and answering questions and one peer to peer on Readers Theatre about Three Little Pigs with human tableaus to show comprehension.

Then I did an interactive presentation on Increasing ELA learning through Technology in which I went through Vocabulary, Basic/Literal Reading, and Inference Reading. Many teacher commented that they never thought of using technology to improve these specific ELA learning. Numerous of the activities were based on Robert Marzano’s work.

Then I did a mini-workshop on creating Big Books using PowerPoints.

I was very impressed with the faculty. They were attentive and participated. They seemed eager to learn new techniques. I was amazed when I told them how to search for PowerPoints on a topic (topic +.ppt or “term” +.ppt such as “Rhyming Words” +.ppt), most admitted that no one had ever shown them that technique. Several had taken full day district workshops on PowerPoint.

What do you do to make subject area technology use easier for teachers? How do you help your fellow teachers? Do you share your Sight Words PowerPoint? Do you work together to find great images for the PowerPoint that has few words? Or do you take over their keyboard and do it for them which disempowers them?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Similarities and Differences: Avoid Circle Venn Diagrams

When students are asked to compare and contrast, they open their mind to more firmly defining each topic. They come to understand what the topic is and is not in comparison or contrast with another topic. They engage in higher level thinking.

I watched students list the similarities and differences between two stories they had just read. By looking at their circles I could not see the corresponding differences. When there are two overlapping circles such as for butterfly/moth, students do not identify what is the topic of each difference. I would suggest that students do not use circle Venn diagrams.

I prefer that students use block Venn Diagrams in which differences are clearly contrasted. You can easily make this in Word or Inspiration.

You might even want add a final line on the chart that says “Conclusion or Interpretation.”

Do you have another form of a compare and contrast chart that clearly helps learners to develop in-depth learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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