Showing posts with label digital reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital reading. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Still Learning to Read: Setting Up the Digital Classroom Library


This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016.

School starts in a little over a week. My classroom set up is coming along (of course there is always something to do when it comes to setting up a room!)  This weekend, I worked on revising and updating the digital classroom library that will start our school year.  For kids to make intentional decisions, they must have choice.  I used to introduce a few sites for reading at a time and built over the first few months of school but last year I created a page on our Weebly with all of the sites kids could read. This year I revised it a bit by adding new sites and getting rid of those that were outdated or no longer active.

The Reading page of our Classroom Weebly is here.  I've found that Weebly is an easy website for young children to navigate because of the design and the visuals.  I am certain it will grow and change as the year goes on and I have no idea which of these sites kids will be most interested in this year (every class is different). But this is where we'll begin so kids know that digital reading is an option during Reading Workshop. They'll also have access to these sites at home by accessing our website. 


These are the sites that my 3rd graders can access from our website:

A few years ago, our class created a Symbaloo of Authors We Love.  We created this one day when we were playing with Symabaloo and it's become a great resource.  This Symbaloo links to many authors that kids love. It DEFINITELY needs updated and it seems like a good project for us once the year is started.  

Kidsreads is one of the best sites I know for kids to learn about books, authors, and series.  The website is packed with book reviews, announcements for new books and author interviews and it is perfect for middle grade readers.

Wonderopolis is a favorite source for shared reading and independent reading.  If you don't know this site, you should spend lots of time exploring!  There is a new wonder posted each day along with an article sharing the answer and more.   The site is searchable so kids can find past wonders that match their current interests. 

LivBits is a new addition to the Weebly this year.  Olivia has videos, Instagram post and more sharing her thinking about books, authors and reading. These are great videos by a reader close to my students' ages.  Love this site!

SI Kids, the Sports Illustrated site for kids has a variety of great reading material for kids.  The site is full of articles, videos, interviews and more and is easy for kids to navigate.

DOGONews is a kids's news sites. Articles are accessible to kids and most are about topics they are most interested in.  There site also includes book reviews "for kids, by kids".

Pebble Go is a membership site that is one of the best nonfiction sites I've seen for primary readers. There are several categories of nonfiction and kids learn to navigate for information in an authentic way.

Toon Book Reader shares early graphic novels with kids. We have many of the hard copies of the books in our classrooms.  Readers can choose to read on his/her own or to have the books read aloud. There are options to change the language from English to Spanish, French, Russian and Chinese also.

Friends with Fins is one of our favorite video sites for informational videos.   I know that learning from videos is important to digital reading so sites like this are critical for my students.  Watching videos to learn (as opposed to for entertainment) is new to many of them. The focus of this is on Ocean Conservation and the videos are the perfect length for middle grade readers.

I could spend all day on ZooBorns. The site focuses on baby animals in zoos around the world.  Each day there is an update about some baby animal somewhere in the world. So it is fun site to check in with on a daily basis. Or, readers can search by animal or zoo which adds to what is possible.  The photos on this site are fabulous!

Big Universe is another site that our school subscribes to for nonfiction reading. Students have an account and can read ebooks on a variety of topics.  They can log their reading, add books to their to-be-read shelf and more.

NewsELA is a site filled with news articles, text sets on current issues and more. There is so much to explore here! 

Animals for Smart People is another site of informational videos by author, Jess Keating.  These are a perfect length and the visuals she includes are supportive to understanding the topic.

Smithsonian TT Junior has daily news, photos audio and video. This has a good variety of interesting information for readers.

We discovered Emily Arrow last year and created a Padlet of her videos. This became one of our most popular sites as Emily Arrow is the best and the way she interprets books through song is fabulous!

I feel like this part of my "classroom library" set-up is as important as the bookshelves in my room. Knowing sites that are accessible to my middle grade readers and expanding what they "count" as reading is an important early-in-the-year message. I feel like we'll be off to a good start.

Are there any other sites you include in your digital classroom library?


(You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook starting September 1 by joining our group here.)
Our new edition of Still Learning to Read will be released on August 15 but you can preview the entire book online at Stenhouse!

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Digital Reading


Last week, Digital Reading: What's Essential in Grades 3-8 was published by NCTE.  This book is a book I co-authored with Bill Bass.  It has been a long process with a lot of great learning along the way. Our editor Cathy Fleischer really pushed us as learners and writers, so it was a great process. We were able to really dig in and think through our beliefs about reading and how it is changing in this digital age. It is fun to see the book finally be released into the world.   We have lots of voices from classroom teachers in the book--people we learn from and with every day. We listed the contributors in our NCTE blog post -great people to follow if you are thinking about digital reading!

It has been fun chatting with others about the topic since the book's release.  Earlier this month, NCTE asked us to host #nctechat around Reading in the Digital Age. It was a great chat. If you missed it, you can read the archives here.

The book is part of the PIP imprint and there is another book in this particular series that you'll want to check out. Troy Hicks and Kristen Turner just released Connected Reading:  Teaching Adolescent Readers in a Digital World. We had many thought-provoking chats during the writing of our books and we are excited that their book is out in the world now!  You can listen to Troy and Kristen talk about their new book on Education Talk Radio.  They have also created an amazing wiki that goes along with their book.

 Kristin Ziemke posted on the Nerdy Book Club blog about the topic. It was an amazing post and is in line with our thinking about reading in the digital age.

Digital Literacy is a topic we care deeply about and will continue to think about and learn about. 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Digital Reading Workshop

I created this list of questions a year or two ago as I thought about the idea that a digital reading or writing workshop was not about one unit of study or the idea of letting kids read ereaders. That as we figure out how the whole idea of reading has expanded, are we making rooms for all kinds of reading in our classrooms. I revisited this list last week as I am thinking about the ways in which my students use digital tools and the ways in which they are growing as readers and writers. Definitely questions I'll come back to that help me think about the messages I am giving students about what counts as reading these days. As always, I feel pretty good when I ask myself a few of these questions and with others, I have work to do.


What role do digital texts have in your reading workshop?
Read Aloud
Do I choose to read aloud only texts from traditional books or do I share digital texts, audio books, blog posts, etc. during read aloud?
Do we use web resources such as author websites and book trailers to help us dig deeper into the book we are reading?
Do I read aloud from websites and blogs?
Do I utilize keyword tags, comments, links, and search features while reading aloud?
 Independent Reading/Reading Conferences
Do we use online resources for book previewing and book selection?
Do I limit students' independent reading to traditional books or do they have a variety of options for their reading time?  Do I place equal value on reading on e-readers, reading websites, reading short pieces, etc. as I do on reading traditional books?
Do I help my students use online tools to support their lives as readers? Do I value annotation tools, bookmarking tools, RSS feeds, etc. as part of my readers lives? Do I model these tools in minilessons?
Do I introduce digital pieces and discuss digital reading when conferring with students?
Have I updated my reading interview to include questions about digital reading?
Do students have ways to add a social component to their lives as readers? Are they connected to others because of their reading?

Reading Minilessons
Do I use digital pieces, as well as traditional texts when teaching minilessons?
Do I rely completely on traditional text or do I use film clips, blog entries, podcasts, etc. when planning minilessons?
Do I share process in my minilessons? Do I tend to share process only as it relates to creating text-based pieces?
Do I teach minilessons that are universal, regardless of format of piece?
Do I share my own  process, consuming and composing in several types of media?
Do I use minilesson time to demonstrate tools tools that support deeper reading with a variety of texts?
Shared Reading
Have I reflected on the resources I rely on for Shared Reading?
Do I include web reading and viewing when thinking about Shared Reading experiences?
How can I include a variety of texts for students to process through together?
Content Reading
Have I found sources for content reading that go beyond textbooks and traditional text?
Do I rely on newspapers for talk around current events or do I tend to focus more on sites like DOGONews, Time for Kids,  and other sites that combine text and visual features?
How am I supporting the importance of visual information in the content areas?

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Wow. How did I not know about this?

It pays to read to the end of the Poetry Friday roundup.

The last link this week (at least as of this writing) is to PaperTigers Blog. Great review of a new-to-me book of poetry by Francisco X. Alarcón: Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems.

And then I am blown out of the water by a link to The International Children's Digital Library.

How did I not know about this site?

You can read books in Swahili there. Or in Farsi. Or Hindi. Or Spanish. Or Arabic. Oh, yeah, and in English, too.

Spread the news -- this is an AMAZING site!

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Blogs to Follow


It was a great first week of school and we are ready to start thinking about publishing online. This summer, I thought through the pieces I wanted for my 4th grade writers. I am laughing now because it seemed much more doable in July!  I know it is doable, I just need to take steps in the first six weeks of school and be thoughtful about how we get everything in place.

I want my students to be connected writers AND I also want them to be connected readers.  This week, we'll start doing some online reading. As a shared experience, I want to spend time with students reading blogs and understanding the whole genre of blogging.  I want them to see a variety of blogs, to see what is possible, to learn about commenting, etc.  So, I put out a request on Twitter, asking for classroom blogs that my class might follow. I got a great list from teachers everywhere. I also found some great blogs by kids and/or for kids that I'll add to the collection. I am trying to keep a list for now as I know we'll find some we revisit more often.  Many are just getting started as it is the beginning of the year. Others are older and haven't had new postings for a while. But all of the blogs on this list will help students begin to see the possibilities in blogging. This week will be about immersing ourselves in blogs and what they are about.   It will be about seeing the possibilities open up as we learn from and with people all over the world.

This is the list of blogs I have so far. Thanks to everyone for sharing their blogs with me on Twitter. If you have a classroom blog or student blog you'd like to add, just leave it in the comments. I had a great time pulling this list together--so much to learn from each blog that I visited!

THE SHINY RED APPLE (4th Grade) 

ANNA'S AMAZING LEARNERS (5 year olds in New Zealand)


ROOM 17 PINEHILL SCHOOL (New Zealand) 


LAURA'S LIFE (7th Grader, Indiana) 

GLOSONBLOG (Social Media, Blogging and Tech Tips from 14 yo in Malaysia)

HAGAN'S WORLD OF AWESOME  (6 year old in Iowa) 

MRS. DAUB'S DUDES AND DUDETTES(4th Grade Classroom Blog) 

THE HOWLIN' GOOD TIMES OF ROOM 226 (4th Grade Classroom Blog)

CRAYONS AND PENCILS (6th Graders) 


ABI'S BLOG (9 year old in Beijing) 

AMELIE'S ANIMAL BLOG (5 year old in Australia) 

AVA'S AWESOME BLOG (Australia)


CLASSROOM 2 KIDS (Grade 2, British Columbia, Canada) 

LEARNING HUB 3 @ STONEFIELDS SCHOOL (5-8 year olds in New Zealand)



THE SKINNY (5th Grade) 



20 SOMETHING KIDS AND 1 KOOKY TEACHER (5th Grade, Missouri)