Recently, Wood Dale District #7 Instructional Coaches were requested by the 4th grade team to model teaching online reading strategies. In thinking ahead to the future with more technology integration into their teaching responsibilities and state assessments being online, the fourth grade team wanted to make sure they were preparing their students for 21st Century learning. Our Instructional Coaches team prepared a two day lesson where students of the whole 4th grade team reflected on similarities and differences between online and written text reading. The 4th grade students got to see responses of their classmates in real time through using Google docs. Some of the students’ responses included: Similarities between online and written text are that both help in gaining information, both use illustrations to communicate information, both have authors, both can be written in different languages. As for differences, students noted that within online text students can zoom in and out of words, can connect to other sites, can interact more with the text. However, students communicated some of the challenges with online resources included readability levels, authenticity of resources, and decision making process of veering off to another site. As a follow up lesson, the coaches modeled skimming and scanning as a reading strategy when using online resources. Students previewed an online resource that had information about types of rocks, a unit students were exploring. Based on their notes, students wrote a summary about rocks. Thanks to the fourth grade team for advocating for their students becoming 21st Century learners.
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AuthorWe are instructional coaches working in District 7, Wood Dale, Illinois. We work with teachers in grades PreK-8 to help teachers build their own capacity for curriculum development and instruction. Archives
March 2015
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