Let Students Lead, iPads Follow

Chris Lehmann led a session on inquiry yesterday at ISTE, and it got me thinking about a phenomenon that has puzzled me when I work with kids on computers. Chris asked us think about a lesson we have taught that could be improved by being more student-centered. Immediately many lessons came to mind, particularly those that involved teaching students to use software, or to navigate through a sequence of web-based baffles, such as logging into a website. I always begin these lessons in a top-down mode, wanting to get through the instruction in the interest of time. The result is inevitable: the kids expect me to walk them through every minute step every time. They don't seem to transfer any of their previous experience, even asking permission to do the obvious, "Should I click here?" "Should I open this program?". Nothing brings a slew of sarcastic responses to mind than those moments. The only thing I allow myself to say is, "And what will happen if you don't click?"

These experiences make me wonder why these so-called "digital natives" are so inhibited about making decisions in my classes. Chris talked about the value reaped by the 11th and 12th grade teachers at Science Leadership Academy from the step by step scaffolding in guided inquiry that the 9th and 10th graders are thoroughly immersed in. Guided inquiry, or as the Responsive Classroom folks call it, guided discovery, is such an obvious way to redesign lessons, that it's almost embarrassing that I haven't done it myself. At Flint Hill School, Melissa Scott uses guided discovery to introduce new apps on the iPad. She shows them the app, and allows them time to try to learn everything they can about it. They have the rule that you can't ask the teacher a question about it until you have tried three different ways to solve it yourself, including getting advice from a peer. At the end of the time, students share what they learned. Inevitably, the teacher learns something she never knew as well!

Chris's warnings about engaging in inquiry-based learning also applies here. Time and content can both be an issue. In my short sessions with students, I will have to allow for more time before the lesson is introduced and less time on the task. On the other hand, if they become confident, and knowedgeable about how to figure out and solve problems on their computers, they will be more efficient and self-confident as they work. The culture of collaborating and sharing knowledge will be strengthened, which will also enhance the classroom experience. Overall, it seems like a win-win situation to me!

LetterSchool - iWrite Words

I think that one of the easiest places to start using iPads is during handwriting times.  You can hand a kid an iPad with a handwriting app and they can practice fairly independently.  It may not be the area that showcases any of the best reasons to use iPads (fostering creativity, allowing for problem solving, encouraging persistence) but it is an easy, safe place to start.  (perfect for tentative teachers who are not sure how they'll get iPads into their program or those who are new to this technology and need to wade in - not dive in)

Here's what we do:

We start with iWrite Words by gdiplus.  It is easy to use, has pleasing and simple graphics, and gives both the letter in stroke order, but also offers the option of spelling words.

We add on LetterSchool by Boreaal.  We love this app!  Just like iWrite Words, LetterSchool is easy to use and has really sharp graphics.  LetterSchool adds a little extra.  It offers three steps to learning each letter.  First, the student follows the starting point for each stroke.  Next, the student needs to drag their finger along the letter outline in stroke order.  Finally, the letter disappears and the student must write the letter unaided.

What we like:

*both apps are guided and self correcting - in other words, the app won't let the student write anywhere outside of the letter shape - you can't use the wrong stroke order or scribble

*neither app is over congratulatory and both have a nice little "payoff" after correctly writing a letter - a little interactive piece that doesn't drag on too long

*since we use Handwriting Without Tears, we like that iWrite Words is similar to that font and we love that LetterSchool lets us chose from HWT, D'nealian, and Zaner-Bloser fonts

*both apps allow for lower case, upper case, and numbers

What we'd like to change:

*I'd love to get a choice of fonts on iWrite Words

*I wish that there was an easy way (right on the home screen or on one of the corners of the app) to reset progress - this helps in a classroom setting where we often have students sharing iPads

*I wish that iWrite Words would add a phonics component - perhaps a word that features each letter and its sound

Why we really love these handwriting apps:

It's so difficult to find an app that can do something better than the teacher can.  These apps do just that.  I can't stand over 24 students and simultaneously know that they are using proper pencil grip and stroke order.  I only can know that about the 1 or 2 students that I can see at any given time.  If students are working on an app that won't let them practice their letters incorrectly - then I can be assured that good habits are being reinforced and not just for the one student that I happen to be watching.

StarWalk

We love to share stories in kindergarten!

We read stories, share picture books, and tell oral stories just about every day.  One topic that seems to frequently pop in our story repertoire is that of the constellations.  We particularly love to share the stories from Greek Mythology that describe the origins of different constellations and stars.

Just for fun, we added a little iPad research (that's right, it's science time) to these story times.  Usually, the stories require some thinking.  They follow a pattern or there might be a moral to be learned.  We often use the stories to get the kindergarteners predicting such things as what happens when characters start boasting (it never ends well)...Other stories illustrate that it is often preferable to use your thinking cap rather than your charms...

How do the iPads fit in?  StarWalk!

StarWalk

 Here's what we do in our class:

*Share stories both verbally and from picture books - (check out these books:  Dot to Dot in the Sky - Stories in the stars by Joan Marie Galat, Kingdom of the Sun by Jacqueline Mitton, The Planet Gods by Jacqueline Mitton, Zoo in the Sky by Jacqueline Mitton)

*Draw the stars on your white board and as you share the story connect the dots to outline the picture in the constellation.

*Ask the students to make predictions, to find similarities/connections between stories, to share why they think the story turned out as it did (this is the flexible thinking part)

*Hand a pair of students an iPad and let them explore the sky - it helps to write the names of some of the constellations that are not so speller-friendly (Cygnus? Cetus? Bootes?).

*Listen to the exclamations as they find the constellations and personally connect to the stories...

We love this app! (Check it out at night - point it at the sky and it will tell you what's up there!)

Montessori Crosswords

In our classrooms, the iPads at first made themselves most useful in our Language Arts programs. This is in large part due to the fact that there are so many apps for word building, phonics review, and letter sounds.

Montessori Crosswords has made it into our rotation this year as one of the more promising apps for word building and review.

This app gives a picture clue and speaks a word that the student must spell by dragging and dropping the letters into a traditional crossword layout.  Once a puzzle is successfully solved, the student gets to interact with bubbles, stars, spirals or some other feature.  One of the most wonderful things about this app is the depth of the settings feature.  This app allows for focusing on one sound - and those choices are fairly extensive including consonants, long vowels, short vowels, blends, word endings, etc.

We use this app as a regular reinforcement during our language arts times.  This week for example our students focused on the ow sound as in couch and cow.  After conversation and exploration about these sounds in small groups, the students used letter cubes to build words and then created sentences incorporating each type of word.  Once they finished with their sentences they worked on Crosswords on the iPads targeting those types of words.


Unfortunately, no apps are perfect.  With Crosswords the challenge is sometimes the audio.  For many of our children, the audio can be difficult to understand.  The "L" and the "N" sound too similar.  On the other hand, the voice will pronounce the blends as blends, so if you tap on an empty square to figure out which letter you need, she'll highlight both squares to show that it is a blend.  This is true in words such as black in which she blends the "ck" and in snail in which she blends "ai."  We often use this app with the sound off and have the kids say the word that they see in the picture clue out loud in order to figure it out. 

I do wish there was a puzzle choice that used the sight word list and that there were more words in all of the focus on one sound selections....

What I like:
* vowels are one color and consonants are another color
* can choose to work on cvc words or individual vowels or consonants or blends
* it's not too over-praising

What I'd like to change:
* the sounds of the voice in the app can be a little difficult to understand
* silent letter sounds throw off our beginning spellers (knife, knit, etc)
* it would be nice if there was a two word puzzle should build on a specific angle - ie. the double consonant or the short vowel

iPads in the Classroom: Are we getting results?

Yes, there are positive results with iPad programs.
Results of state testing in Maine and a survey of Independent schools indicate that students on all grade levels showed improvement in literacy areas including, making learning visible, writing compositions, digital storytelling, and, for kindergarten classes - handwriting and phonemic awareness.Improvement reported in math included: the concepts underlying basic operations, logical problem solving, patterns and puzzles, spatial reasoning, and making learning visible.
Is it just about iPads themselves?
Not all iPad programs are resulting in this level of success. Successful implementations share a similar genesis: thoughtful planning in which the question is constantly asked, "What can iPads contribute to the learning experience of students, what aspects of their experience might be enhanced or improved with iPads?" Last summer I was invited to speak to the public school teachers in Auburn, Maine to share our plans at Sidwell for our Kindergarten iPad implementation. I carefully crafted a presentation that focused on all the reasons our work was not focused on the iPads, but rather on curriculum, teacher collaboration, and connections to others who share our goals. To my surprise, I was speaking to the choir. The leadership in Maine had also envisioned a systemic approach, beginning with curriculum and desired outcomes. Thus a wonderful partnership began.
Successful programs use a systemic approach that includes engaging the teachers to evaluate and question each aspect of their curriculum and practice, with and without the technology. In this way the iPads not only contribute to the learning experience of children, but, perhaps more significantly, serve as a catalyst for collaborative reflection and planning among teachers.
Here are the elements that separate successful programs from the rest:
Let pedagogy lead, iPads follow.
Prepare for innovation with evaluation of current practices, imagine ways in which current practices could be strengthened or improved and how iPads could contribute to that improvement.Set up opportunities for teachers to engage students with iPads early in the planning process, then discuss experiences in the light of current best practices.Create a culture of thoughtful discussion, experimentation and evaluation among the teachers and team leaders with high expectations for participation and reflection.
Let the planning process serve as a catalyst for clarifying goals and objectives.
Let teachers work as a team to clarify curricular goals and objectives, and set up theories about what could be improved with an innovation such as iPads.Plan which aspects of curriculum could be strengthened through appropriate apps, alternative ways to experience and express learning. Establish an "app" review process that requires correlation to curricular goals and objectives.Establish frequent, regular sessions to share and reflect on experiences with the expectation that they will constantly assess their approach with an eye to continual revision. Create a culture of continuous evaluation - set up a framework for feedback and review with scheduled full program evaluations.
Create a culture of collaboration and growth among teachers and among students.Encourage feedback from students, allow students to try new ways to express learning. Encourage innovation among teachers and students by celebrating discoveries and reflecting on successes.Engage teachers in professional growth by asking them to reflect on their experiences publicly through PLNs, blogs, workshops, school visits.Constantly question the program, the process, the tools, with the goal of nimble response to change and the expectation of constant improvement.
For more information and links to the studies, visit my Workshops site.

Keeping Our Inborn Love of Learning Alive

A first grade student came up to me speaking pig Latin today and luckily she had a friend next to her serving as a translator. When I asked her how she learned to speak Pig Latin so fluently she explained that she practices at night when she is lying in bed. Her parents taught her the basics and now she is indeed, quite competent, rattling off paragraphs I can’t understand. The point is: she is creating her own challenge and pushing her own learning. Kids can and do, do this same type of thinking and learning in math exploring number and geometry concepts. Once a Kindergarten student explained to me with colored tiles how he could build squares starting with 1 tile, by adding consecutive odd numbers. (Three more tiles made a 2 by 2 square, 5 more tiles made a 3 by 3 square and so on).  

While we know children are born learners who are naturally curious and inquisitive, are we sure school perpetuates and fosters that learning, questioning, and curiosity?  I think we could all agree school fails many children and for that very reason, software developers and App creators have been scrambling to market new ways for children to learn and to be engaged.  The problem is some of these “new” approaches can actually squelch creative thinking and put kids in an even tighter box than traditional school.  They might engage children but what dendrite pathways are being reinforced and how many new connections are being made? Websites with math programs abound but most have advertisements relentlessly popping up as well as visually unaesthetic plastic graphics, noisy bells and annoying whistles, and/or cliché words of praise reinforced with prizes and rewards.  What messages are we reinforcing in the name of learning when we use these programs?  And so many times, aren’t we merely practicing skills in rather uninspired ways? The novelty of the iPad will surely run thin if we use it to simply do things we have always done. 

I guess it is clear that I have not been overly  impressed with the math Apps I’ve seen so far but that was until I  got hooked on Kickbox and Big Seed created by the Mind Research Institute. In fact, I think I had forgotten on some levels what it like to learn something completely new, which is a scary confession for a teacher to make.  I found myself totally absorbed by Big Seed and Kickbox because both offered me activities that made me think beyond the box! 

The Mind Research Institute has developed a visual approach to teaching math concepts through its software. The program is language-independent, which eliminates a huge barrier many children face in developing their math thinking. While it is a game, playing Big Seed immediately took me to the space in my mind where I know I do my creative, thinking work. Indeed, that is the space that seems to create time because I find myself totally engaged in the “work” or “play.”  How wonderful to just explore and discover and to figure out how something is working. Isn’t that the very definition of learning?  As I explored deeper into these Apps, I soon realized that I needed to plan many steps ahead. My working memory was working! It took me repeated tries to succeed with the tasks and yet I wanted to keep trying, I wanted to get it. I stayed up past my bedtime working on these tasks like the first grader had teaching herself Pig Latin. I had to persevere: something we all hope our children and students will do. 

I know there are more math Apps out there and more on the way that will develop children’s thinking by growing dendrites and nurturing their creativity. I am meanwhile completely taken with these two and thrilled that it will take me a while to work through all their levels!  Big Seed and Kickbox might look simple but they are thoroughly engaging and challenging.

How many ways can we tell a story?

In our class we have been working on finding different ways to tell a story. We began by reading some great stories about kids our age and having the students write a story with paper and pencil. The students reflected on their work. Does it have a beginning? Is there a middle? How does it end?

Our next stories were created solely with an art app. Most of the students used Draw Free.

The students narrated their stories to a partner. The students really enjoyed this project and created elaborately detailed tales to accompany their illustrations.

This story picture told the story of a boy who can walk under water!

Next, the students wrote with pencil and paper about one classroom job. Once they finished the paper and pencil version of their non-fiction "story," they went to Book Creator and created an iBook about the very same job. They were able to use the camera to take photos, an art app to draw illustrations, the keyboard option to type text, and the voice recorder to narrate these books.
This book was created to explain the Door Monitor job.

This week, we took story telling to the movies!
We talked about movies that are filmed and those that can be created by a series of photos. Using iStopMotion, we have made "A Day in the Life of KX."


To begin, I taped an iPad easel to a bookshelf and set it up. I showed the first student how to operate the app. I gave her some basic suggestions: tap the shutter button lightly, try not to move the iPad, check first to make sure it is lined up, etc. She took the first few frames and then taught the next student. We continued this throughout the day. Everyone had a turn to be the film director and everyone had a turn to be the cameraman.

Before we began, we shared what this story might look like on paper: We arrive at school. We have gathering. We have snack. We do Book Club. We go to lunch. etc. Not a very thrilling story. However, in this new format, the story provides details and information that the written story did not.




What I like about this app:
*kindergarteners can do it
*students get a chance to practice "teaching" something
*students get to experience different types of storytelling
*this is fun!