EDLA615 Language Arts and Technology

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In today’s 21 st century gaming is a great instructional approach used to engage learners. Through gaming students acquire the many essential skills that will help them succeed in the future. Over the past few years technology has evolved greatly and is continuing to change and influence the world we live in. Our students must be taught to identify, question, locate, evaluate and synthesize information. Being literate is more than being able to read, write and communicate appropriately. Information and communication technologies are what enable our students to obtain these important skills. Gaming is one such new media that should be integrated into the teaching and learning. Using gaming in the classroom will not only motivate and provoke student’s interest but more importantly will train students to think deeply and more abstractly. Students will grow up as design thinkers; where they constantly analyze and think of solutions to problems. They will automatically take charge to...

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Phonics Lesson Plan Grade level: Kindergarten Lesson Title: ABC Mysteriez Common cores standards and learning outcomes: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D   Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.A Print many upper- and lowercase letters. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about  kindergarten topics and texts  with peers and adults in small and larger groups. Instructional activities (How does this game help develop language acquisition and development, both oral and written?) Watch the phonics zoo video - https://www.getepic.com/app/read/46018 . Have students sing along as your review all alphabets with their sound. Tell students that today they will be perfecting their alphabet knowledge. They will practice recognizing, naming and writing all upper and lowercase letters.     At the carpet area, quickly review all ABC’s wi...

Game: ABC Mysteriez Gaming Elements: Gaming is one of the new media that is used to enhance literacy in the classroom. ABC Mysteriez is an engaging literacy game in which students practice recognizing and naming all upper and lowercase letters . Students perfect foundational reading skills as they search for hidden alphabets. Text: In order to understand the rules and goal of this game, players must read the instructions and menu before beginning to play. Students can also customize their board by playing around with the various options - such as sound and music volume and design, before they begin to play. Visual-graphic elements: While playing ABC Mysteriez students explore numerous beautiful pictures and develop an eye for detail as they look for disguised characters. Students exercise their visual imagery techniques and spatial skills. Audio elements: Students can customize the sound and music volume of their game. Goal of the game: Find alphabets hidden among o...

Which ideas from the PPT reflect what the ELA teachers you interviewed are currently doing to integrate technology with their literacy instruction? The ELA teacher I interviewed provides her students with many opportunities to retrieve, process and exchange information. She uses various programs to engage her students in meaningful learning activities. Her students learn to read, write and communicate appropriately while also exchanging information using the internet. How can you help change their instructional practices to include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area curriculum? The teacher I interviewed does a great job teaching her students using various programs, however her students are not given the freedom to explore and research on their own. I would suggest that she guides her students in learning how to locate information using the internet and then evaluate the internet sources they used. She should also focus on more collabora...

In today’s 21 st century literacy instruction - referring to reading, writing and communication, has gotten a whole new meaning. The Internet and other forms of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are greatly impacting and changing the literacy curriculum.  There are innovative text formats, updated reader expectations and new web activities that significantly surpass the traditional literacy experiences.  It is therefore crucial for educators to develop a rich understanding of these changes. They must learn to integrate new technologies, in order to appropriately prepare students for their literacy future. Incorporating new literacies in the classroom requires work and preparation. It is prudent for educators to frequently attend professional development workshops to learn about new instructional strategies and resources that effectively use technology in the classroom. Simply using software programs will not cause greater learning achievements. Techno...

To learn how technology can be used to help young learners with literacy development I interviewed Mrs. G. Spiegel, a well-informed educator who teaches 6 and 7-year-old Chinese children how to read, write and speak in the English language. She works for VIPKid which is a company that provides English lessons to kids in China using an online classroom. I was amazed to learn how in today’s digital world there are so many technological tools available for classroom use. Mrs. Spiegel explained that each of her lesson includes a PowerPoint as a tool to help her students master the new concepts. The PowerPoint is used very much like a SMART board in the classroom. It includes interactive activities, visuals and prompts that help students comprehend the lesson. She made it clear that this in not what the students learn from. She is there to guide them, speaks with them and uses props such as puppets and magnets to motivate her students. The PowerPoint/SMART board is just an amazing too...