Edu-tainment

Who says learning has to be dull?  In my time at Jenison, I had heard of Ron Harig but did not have the opportunity to see him in action.  The video below shows a video of him teaching and it's simply incredible.  I hope to implement some of his spirit in my classroom next year :)

New Blog!!!

This blog will continue to be updated periodically with research based strategies however, I'm excited to announce my new blog that focuses on all things reading :)

http://booksnooks.wordpress.com/

Working with Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities

I'm currently reading an article called "Prove Them Wrong: Be There for Secondary Students with an Emotional or Behavioral Disability".  I LOVE being a teacher and I LOVE working with all students... general education, special education, preschool, high school... I don't care I just love to teach.  This article talks about my favorite population of children though, those with emotional disabilities.

The article starts by discussing how much these children have gone through in their short lives.  The majority of these kids have been through quite a lot.  Many children have been abused, move constantly, or have had loved ones turn their back on them.  The most important thing in interacting with these students is to develop a strong relationship with them.  The more you know them, the easier it is to get them to follow directions,  motivate them, and make a difference.  It's important that educators constantly read the student's body language and respond appropriately.  They need to listen to what they are saying and what they are not saying.  Teachers really need to care and show that they care.

Secondly, it's important that teachers carry themselves with confidence around these students.  Time and time again I have seen educators frustrated when a student won't follow directions yet their body language is telling the student that they're scared of them and don't think they'll listen.  Be confident, build a relationship, and you can change their behavior!  Teachers really have no need to be scared, in most cases, when they hear they are getting a student with ED/BD.  Relationships and confidence is all you need for appropriate behavior management!

Developing a Classroom Management Plan Using a Tiered Approach

From the newest "Teaching Exceptional Children" comes an article by Kristin L. Sayeski and Monica R. Brown that may seem common sense, but provides a nice checklist for teachers in preparing a classroom that is well managed.

Tier 1: PREVENT, PREVENT, PREVENT
Preventing problem behavior is a lot easier than stopping it once it has occurred.  All teachers should 1) have high expectations, 2) plan stimulating instruction, 3) clearly communicate rules, procedures, and expectations, 4) establish routines and procedures, 5) support positive behaviors, and 6) use their time well.  In my mind, number 6 means pacing.  You need to keep an appropriate pace so that students do not have time to misbehave.

Tier 2: First-line Interventions
These include planned ignoring, signals such as turning off the lights, getting students engaged, individualized attention, instructional support, token economies, moving students to new seats, changing activities, etc.

Tier 3: Intensive Individualized Interventions
Conduct a FBA and determine the appropriate response. 

Technology for Teachers

UPDATED TECHNOLOGY LINKS FOR TEACHERS!

Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Dr. Alfred Tatum speak on engaging black males in the area of reading.  He is the author of many books including Reading for their Life, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males, among others.  Dr. Tatum is a professor at University of Chicago.  I think it's important to share what I learned for those who have not been able to hear him speak before.

• Students read the human text before they will read any other text.  Your body language, attitude toward teaching, and way you treat students is of vital importance.
• Reading and the life context of your students needs to be considered together.  The texts that are selected need to engage readers- you can't simply select books based on their reading level.
• To elaborate on the point above, the text worked on in class should make your students better readers and teach them something.  It's helpful to use nonfiction texts and/or fiction books that expand students' schemas.  Students should think differently after working on a text.
• When presenting text to students, Dr. Tatum always starts with introducing the title of the work, selecting an engaging sentence or paragraph to read aloud, and asking engaging questions that get students thinking on a deep level.
• After completing the above step, Dr. Tatum will introduce vocabulary, work on comprehension through reading the story, and finally extend the story to allow students to process the information at a higher level.
• Dr. Tatum believes in combining fiction and nonfiction texts within lessons.
• Your students should see you reading and writing.  If they are working, they need to see it is something that you value as well.
• Finally, YOU should be transformed by the text you put in front of students.  If the text does not make you think or change your schema, it should not be put in front of students.

Co-Teaching!!!

This year is a NEW year where I will embark on a CHALLENGE, a challenge to CO-TEACH 100% of the time! How will this impact student learning? How will I grow and develop as a teacher? How can I make this work really well?


Jane M. Sileo stressed how important it is for special education teachers to know the curriculum. When teachers know the curriculum, they can more confidently participate in lessons. They should have common plan time to plan lessons together and discuss how things are going.  It's important they constantly review how things are going and communicate.

Co-Teaching Methods
1. One Teach, One Observe—when one teacher is responsible for whole
group instruction while the other teacher observes the students and gathers
information on their academic, social, and behavioral skills. This co-teaching
structure allows co-teachers an opportunity to gather information about
their students, and each other as well.

2. Parallel Teaching—when the co-teachers place the students into two equal
groups and each teacher simultaneously teaches the same material to his or
her small group. The benefit of this co-teaching structure is that it allows
for increased teacher interaction and student participation as well as differentiation
of instruction.

3. Station Teaching—when the co-teachers arrange the students into two or
three equal groups, and the students rotate through each of the instructional
stations. In this structure, the stations should not build on one another, but
rather be nonsequential. The advantage of this co-teaching structure is that
it also allows for increased teacher and student interactions.

4. Alternative Teaching—when one teacher teaches the whole group and the
other teacher teaches a small group of students. The grouping for this structure
should change according to students’ needs. This co-teaching structure
allows either teacher the opportunity to teach (e.g., remediation, preteaching,
vocabulary development, and enrichment activities) for a short period
of time.

5. One Teach, One Assist—when one teacher instructs the whole group and
the other teacher assists individual students. The co-teaching structure
allows the drifting teacher the opportunity to provide brief periods of individualized
instruction to students who may be struggling with the academic
content.

6. Team Teaching—when both teachers deliver instruction simultaneously to
a large group of students. This structure affords the team teachers the
chance to interact with the students. It also provides them with an opportunity
to ask clarification questions of one another, thereby eliminating the
potential confusion in instruction.
(Taken from "Co-Teaching: Getting to Know your Partner" by Jane M. Sileo)

Additional Ways to Love Your Co-Teacher!!!

Teaching What Works Wiki!

Please join my wiki:
http://teaching-what-works.wikispaces.com/

CBM!!!

Here are some GREAT sites for CBM probes and information on progress monitoring :)


http://easycbm.com/teachers/auth/
Free probes in a variety of areas.


http://www.precisionteachingresource.net/
This site provides instruction, tools, and performance standards for improving academic and social behaviors using an instructional measurement practice called Precision Teaching.


http://www.studentprogress.org/
This site is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs. Provides information on monitoring progress.

http://www.progressmonitoring.net/
University of Minnesota sponsored website for the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/cbmwarehouse.php
Intervention Central's CBM section.


https://dibels.uoregon.edu/
DIBELS

http://www.edcheckup.com/
Edcheckup

http://www2.ctb.com/products_services/ypp/index.html
Yearly Progress Pro

http://www.aimsweb.com/
A commercial website for CBM. It is very similar to DIBELS, but includes more academic areas.

Horray for Technology!

Today from 12-3 we had a technology workshop. I attended a session on digital storytelling and learned a lot that I will put to use right away in the classroom!

Starting this week I will be using VoiceThread to monitor my students' reading fluency throughout the year!!! This way, parents can actually hear their child reading each week rather than just seeing the score. See the technology links for more information on VoiceThread.

Today I also learned about Animoto which I plan to use to create a video of each child throughout the year set to music. I thought this would be a great way to get an IEP off to a great, positive start!

Horray for technology :)

Online Resources for Educators

Let's get one thing straight- I LOVE the internet. I love being able to have any question I have answered, at any time, almost instantly. However, it is overwhelming for some people. There is so much information out there! I've sorted through some of it and made a list of all my favorite resources for teachers. Please let me know your favorites as I continue to learn more and add to this list.

Online Resources for Educators

Curriculum-Based Measurementhttp://www.aimsweb.com/
A commercial website for CBM. It is very similar to DIBELS, but includes more academic areas.

http://www.precisionteachingresource.net/
This site provides instruction, tools, and performance standards for improving academic and social behaviors using an instructional measurement practice called Precision Teaching.

http://www.studentprogress.org/
This site is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs. Provides information on monitoring progress.

http://www.progressmonitoring.net/
University of Minnesota sponsored website for the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring.

PBIS
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Teaching Strategies

Annenburg Media

Council for Exceptional Children

Doing What Works

Dr. Whitten
Website for Dr. Elizabeth Whitten- click on “Strategy Bibliography” for strategies

Florida Center for Reading Research

International Mind, Brain, Education Society

Intervention Central

The IRIS Center

LD Online

National Center on Response to Intervention

New Horizons
New Horizons research-based strategies along with a list of recommended reading
 
Reading Rockets
News and research based strategies regarding reading.
 
What Works Clearinghouse

Differentiation 

http://www.renzullilearning.com/

So many learning activities for increasing student engagement, using technology, and making sure instruction is universally designed for all learners.

National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials

Note-taking

Diigo.com
Highlight and put sticky notes on websites. Access your highlighting from any computer!

http://www.eleven21.com/notetaker/
Print off sheets to take notes on for class.

http://www.webspirationpro.com/user?destination=go%2F462925
Design graphic organizers online.


Assistive Tech

 http://tinyurl.com/

Makes a long website shorter.  It makes it much easier for students to type in.

Digital Storytelling
http://animoto.com/
Create a digital story set to music by uploading photos.

http://www.digitales.us/
Introduction and resources for digital storytelling.

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/storyboarding.html
Introduction and resources for storyboarding.

http://search.creativecommons.org
A way to copyright your photos and information that you put online.

http://teachmemoretech.wikispaces.com/Images+%26+Music+for+the+Classroom
Images and music for digital storytelling.

http://voicethread.com/#home
VoiceTread. Comment on documents, photos, etc. This is an alternative to class discussion. This is a great way to share student work and have parents, family members, teachers, etc. comment on the work.

http://www.xtranormal.com/
Turn text into movies.

http://www.glogster.com/
Create your own posters to tell a story. You can include embedded videos and several images. It looks really cool- like a collage.

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/
Students can add in their own subtitles to Indian dances and movie clips.

http://www.timetoast.com/
Create your own timeline online. 

http://prezi.com/
Create Power Point 2.0 essentially.

http://www.toondoo.com/
Cartoon Maker

Phonicshttp://www.fitbrains.com/play_game/super_word_scrapers?v=2.1
Build words as you build skyscrapers.

Hooda Word
Fun reading games!

Reading Fluency

Hooda Word

Fun reading games!

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
Children’s books to read online

http://www.storylineonline.net/index2.html
Books read aloud by famous actors. Subtitles are included if students want to follow along with the words.

http://librivox.org/
Listen to books online for free.

http://www.starfall.com/
Read easy reader books online. Allows readers to click on words they don’t know. There are also games.

http://ebooks.mlcnet.org/B5A65E3D-87A6-4085-B26F-D104244F5DC5/10/230/en/Default.htm
Free online audio books for individuals to check out through their public library account for two weeks. Great for students to have a hard copy of a book along with an audio copy to follow along with!

http://www.bookshare.org/
Online books for students with disabilities.

Reading Comprehension

Hooda Word

Fun reading games!

http://www.googlelittrips.org/
Using Google Earth, students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place... and so much more!

https://hosted30.renlearn.com/176197/
Accelerated Reader

http://tuneintoreading.elpcorp.com/windows_index.html
Tune In To Reading

Vocabulary

Hooda Word

Fun reading games!

http://www.verbalearn.com/
Makes MP3s of your vocabulary words.

http://www.visuwords.com/
This site is amazing!!! It’s a graphic dictionary. Type in a word and it links it to other words in a sort of web.

http://quizlet.com/
Make flashcards to help you study.

Typing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/
A fun game from the BBC to practice typing.

http://todaysmeet.com/
Chat room for kids.  Great for bell work.

Writing
Hooda Word
Fun reading games! http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?lang=uk
Add subtitles to a Bollywood video. Great for teaching "voice" in the 6 Traits.

http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
Create a story and make it look like a newspaper clipping!

http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx
Add words to a photograph that you find captivating.

http://www.favoritepoem.org/
Favorite Poem Project

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Create your own comic strip.

http://easybib.com/
Automatic citation maker.

http://www.buzzword.com/#o
Internet-based word processing. Documents are saved online in your account.

https://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp
Convert Word files to PDF via email.

501 Writing Prompts
Writing prompt book for teachers to pull from.

Kid Blog
Allows kids to have a blog!


Science

Hooda Sci

Fun science games!!!

Social Studieshttp://www.capzles.com/
Create virtual time capsule slideshows set to music.

http://animoto.com/
Slideshows set to music.


Mathematics

Hooda Math

Fun math games!!!

 http://www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/mathmovies/index.html
Find clips from movies dealing with math.

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/mathgames.htm
Great math games that actually are very fun!

http://www.kidsnumbers.com/
More math games

http://www.worksheetworks.com/
Great worksheets for homework.

http://www.math-drills.com/
Great worksheets for homework.

http://www.kidsnumbers.com/
Math games for students.


Survey Creatorhttp://www.surveymonkey.com/
Create your own survey and see the data on this free website.

http://www.zoomerang.com/
Create your own survey.

http://doodle.com/
AWESOME for scheduling SPED meetings :)







 
Photoshttp://www.photl.com/en/
Free high-quality photos online.

http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome
Design Scrapbooks and Edit Pictures Online


http://www.picaboo.com/
Design Scrapbooks and Edit Pictures Online


Gameshttp://www.fitbrains.com/
Fun games to flex your brain muscles.

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/mathgames.htm
Great math games that actually are very fun!

http://www.kidsknowit.com/
Lots of games and activities in a variety of stubjects.

http://www.funbrain.com/
Many activities for children to do on their own.

http://www.primarygames.com/
Games for students to play during free time.

http://www.studyisland.com/
Games the correspond to state standards.

Communication/Networking

http://twitter.com/
Let friends and family know what you are up to.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php
Stay in touch with friends and create events.

http://editurepd.com/

Facebook for teachers.

Technology Informationhttp://www.teachingmatters.org/index.asp
A website for using technology to improve teaching.

http://www.sc.edu/scatp/ATclassroom.htm
Assistive Technology Resources

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/
Technology Ideas for Teachers

http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl/fave/
Video Field Trips

http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0
Smart Board Lessons

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/
Promethean Board Lessons


Virtual Instruction

http://www.hippocampus.org/

Has instructional videos on a variety of topics for middle and high school students.

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Virtual college classes for free.

http://www.brainpop.com/
Brain Pop.  Short videos on a variety of topics. 

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
United Streaming.  Videos on many topics of various lengths.

Michigan Teachershttp://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-28753---,00.html
Curriculum and Standards

http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-28753_33232---,00.html
GLCE

Teachers Everywhere!

http://www.corestandards.org/

Common core standards.

http://login.clihome.com/

Curriculum Mapper.

Blogs for Educators

http://www.techsavvyed.net/
A blog on integrating technology in the classroom.

http://planetesme.blogspot.com/
A blog on only the best children's lit from the official expert in readiology!


Activities to Teach Kids About Disabilities (Middle School)
Inequity Quiz

Design a Cell Phone that is Universally Designed

Virtual Field Trip Back in Time to Look at Life Before Universal Design in Architecture

Learning about Difficulties with Auditory Directions

Step in the Shoes of Someone with Attention Difficulties

Autism Article with Audio Option

Article on Deaf Culture

Disability Social History Project

LD Article with Reading Support

Article About a Man Who Designs Unique Wheelchairs

Horse Leads the Blind Article

NPR Story Written a Read by a Student with Asperger's

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Interesting points from:

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
By Maryanne Wolf

We come into the world with the ability to change our brain and the way it works- we are "genetically poised for breakthroughs".

So much of who we are and what we think comes from what we read. "We are what we read."

Children with a large vocabulary will experience texts much differently than children who have not be exposed to as many words.

Children need instructional environments that support with paths that need to be dug out in the brain for reading to occur. School is like a construction zone.

There is a "reciprocal relationship between emotional development and reading."

Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of a child's success in learning to read.

George O. Cureton has his students act out the sounds in words. For example if you told 3 students that you wanted them to act out the word "hat". One student would say /h/ and bump into the next student who would say /a/. Then the last student would say /t/ and together they would all say "hat".

Visual reversals of letters are actually due to difficulty retrieving the correct verbal labels for the sounds. They know the letter sounds they just have difficulty naming them.

Joseph Torgesen and Richard Wagner from Florida State University found that explicit phonemic awareness programs are far more successful in dealing with reading disabilities than other programs.

Children with dyslexia often are slower at naming objects and letters.

Students with dyslexia learn to compensate and are often amazing at finding patterns. Many successful people with dyslexia are in careers where finding patterns are important such as in finance or radiology.

In most people the planum temporale is larger on the left hemisphere than on the right however, in people with dyslexia they are symmetrical. This is currently being researched further.

People with dyslexia may learn differently but the CAN and WILL learn to read. "It's our job, not theirs, to find out how best to teach them."

Educational research informed by neuroscience can help teachers identify what works best for a student.

Research Based Activities

Check out:

http://www.meadowscenter.org/vgc/

MAP- Reading Fluency

MAP is a fluency procedure designed by Raskinski and stands for:

1. MODEL fluent reading for our students.
2. ASSISTED READING- reading with a student at the same time
3. PRACTICE- repeated reading of the same piece over and over. This increases the fluency of that piece but also improves future reading.
   

These are all things Raskinski has found increase the fluency in children as measured by reading CBMs.

He also designed the Fluency Development Lesson that follows:

1. Provide students with a copy of a text that is around 200 words. Each student gets two copies and a copy is also displayed on a Smart Board.

2. The teacher reads this text 3 times.

3. The piece is then discussed.

4. The teacher then asks the students to read the piece with him/her 3 times.

5. Students will then pair up with a partner and will practice 3 times each.

6. Students then get a chance to read the piece aloud as a performance on a podcast to be emailed to their parents (not daily- at least not in my case).

7. A word wall is created with interesting or difficult words (Smartboard).

8 Students are sent home with a copy of the piece to read 3 times to their parents.

9. The next day the piece was re-read once more before another piece of writing was introduced.

10. The copy used at school is put into a binder and a reading slam will take place every Friday.

Crazy Professor Game

Last year I gave a presentation on Power Teaching at Western Michigan University to a group of administrators and intern coordinators. It was my first big presentation as I had never presented to 100 people before! Since my presentation, Power Teaching has been changed to Whole Brain Teaching. The name is different- idea is the same. Here is one of my favorite Whole Brain Teaching activities:

Crazy Professor Game

RTI Success

RTI Success

by Elizabeth Whitten, Ph.D., Dr. Kelli Esteves, Ed.D., and Alice Woodrow Ed.D.

Undercover Reading!

On March 9, 2009 Winchell Elementary's Reading Super Hero was kidnapped from his home by an evil reading villain! A police investigation revealed 3 possible suspects however, they needed the help of Winchell students to figure out which suspect committed the crime! For every 1,000 AR points students read, a clue would be released.

Was it Cartoona who watches cartoons 24/7 and skips everywhere she walks, Electroman who is obsessed with electronics, or Bibliax who steals books from students' backpacks so they can't read at home???!!!

After 1 month of diligent reading, Winchell students discover...

IT WAS CARTOONA!

On March 27, 2009 a Kalamazoo police officer arrived at Winchell Elementary School in Kalamazoo, Michigan to arrest Cartoona! Before the police officer got the chance to handcuff her, Cartoona apologized and cried that she just wanted to be a Winchell R.O.C.K.Star. It was at that moment that Winchell students taught Cartoona that all she had to do was read 20 minutes a day. She could even read cartoons or turned the closed captioning on while watching cartoons to increase her reading fluency. Cartoona was relieved and convinced the other reading villains to change their ways as well.

Bibliax decided to borrow books from the library rather than steal them. Electroman decided to use electronics to improve his reading by going to educational websites, listening to stories on his ipod, and making a podcast of him reading stories to children.

After each villain had decided the change their ways they rushed out the school gym to go help Cartoona free Super Rock. The crowd started cheering as Super Rock flew into the gym! Winchell students had done it- they had saved Super Rock!

The crowd started to dance with excitement and a party erupted in the gym.

Even though Super Rock is free we must never forget how Winchell students joined forces to read and defeat the evil reading villains! 20 minutes a day is the Winchell Way!!!

Photographs by Kathie Gibson

Supporting Healthy Self Esteem and Kindness In the Classroom

This book is a great way to start of a new school year and set the standard for respect and kindness in the classroom. This book tells students that everyone has a bucket and when it's full they are happy; when it's empty they feel sad and lonely. Giving compliments and being a good friend to people helps fill their bucket and makes them happy. Being a bucket dipper will not help fill your bucket but will just hurt other people and make them sad. This book would be a great way to introduce a compliment graffiti wall, compliment mail system, or positive praise notes.

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills
ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2009) — Children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers, according to a study published in the journal Psychology of Music.
According to authors Joseph M Piro and Camilo Ortiz from Long Island University, USA, data from this study will help to clarify the role of music study on cognition and shed light on the question of the potential of music to enhance school performance in language and literacy.
Studying children the two US elementary schools, one of which routinely trained children in music and one that did not, Piro and Ortiz aimed to investigate the hypothesis that children who have received keyboard instruction as part of a music curriculum increasing in difficulty over successive years would demonstrate significantly better performance on measures of vocabulary and verbal sequencing than students who did not receive keyboard instruction.
Several studies have reported positive associations between music education and increased abilities in non-musical (eg, linguistic, mathematical, and spatial) domains in children. The authors say there are similarities in the way that individuals interpret music and language and “because neural response to music is a widely distributed system within the brain…. it would not be unreasonable to expect that some processing networks for music and language behaviors, namely reading, located in both hemispheres of the brain would overlap.”
The aim of this study was to look at two specific reading subskills – vocabulary and verbal sequencing – which, according to the authors, are “are cornerstone components in the continuum of literacy development and a window into the subsequent successful acquisition of proficient reading and language skills such as decoding and reading comprehension.”
Using a quasi-experimental design, the investigators selected second-grade children from two school sites located in the same geographic vicinity and with similar demographic characteristics, to ensure the two groups of children were as similar as possible apart from their music experience.
Children in the intervention school (n=46) studied piano formally for a period of three consecutive years as part of a comprehensive instructional intervention program. Children attending the control school (n=57) received no formal musical training on any musical instrument and had never taken music lessons as part of their general school curriculum or in private study. Both schools followed comprehensive balanced literacy programmes that integrate skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening.
All participants were individually tested to assess their reading skills at the start and close of a standard 10-month school year using the Structure of Intellect (SOI) measure.
Results analysed at the end of the year showed that the music-learning group had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores than did the non-music-learning control group. This finding, conclude the authors, provides evidence to support the increasingly common practice of “educators incorporating a variety of approaches, including music, in their teaching practice in continuing efforts to improve reading achievement in children”.
However, further interpretation of the results revealed some complexity within the overall outcomes. An interesting observation was that when the study began, the music-learning group had already experienced two years of piano lessons yet their reading scores were nearly identical to the control group at the start of the experiment.
So, ask the authors, “If the children receiving piano instruction already had two years of music involvement, why did they not significantly outscore the musically naïve students on both measures at the outset?” Addressing previous findings showing that music instruction has been demonstrated to exert cortical changes in certain cognitive areas such as spatial-temporal performance fairly quickly, Piro and Ortiz propose three factors to explain the lack of evidence of early benefit for music in the present study.
First, children were tested for their baseline reading skills at the beginning of the school year, after an extended holiday period. Perhaps the absence of any music instruction during a lengthy summer recess may have reversed any earlier temporary cortical reorganization experienced by students in the music group, a finding reported in other related research. Another explanation could be that the duration of music study required to improve reading and associated skills is fairly long, so the initial two years were not sufficient.
A third explanation involves the specific developmental time period during which children were receiving the tuition. During the course of their third year of music lessons, the music-learning group was in second grade and approaching the age of seven. There is evidence that there are significant spurts of brain growth and gray matter distribution around this developmental period and, coupled with the increased complexity of the study matter in this year, brain changes that promote reading skills may have been more likely to accrue at this time than in the earlier two years.
“All of this adds a compelling layer of meaning to the experimental outcomes, perhaps signalling that decisions on ‘when’ to teach are at least as important as ‘what’ to teach when probing differential neural pathways and investigating their associative cognitive substrates,” note the authors.
“Study of how music may also assist cognitive development will help education practitioners go beyond the sometimes hazy and ill-defined ‘music makes you smarter’ claims and provide careful and credible instructional approaches that use the rich and complex conceptual structure of music and its transfer to other cognitive areas,” they conclude.

SAGE Publications/Psychology of Music (2009, March 16). Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/03/090316075843.htm

Can it be? Technology Used for Good?!

Many people bash television, video games, ipods, and computers for creating lazy children who spend less time reading and using their imagination. Is this true? It's my viewpoint that reading will look different in the future than it does right now. Rather than giving up, educators need to use their imagination and think outside the box so that we are creating different readers rather than non-readers.

Children and young adults today (myself included), are digital natives. This means we entered into a world full of computers, video games, and television. Technology was simply part of our lives. Many teachers however are digital immigrants- they grew up in a world without computers, video games, and television and they were slowly introduced throughout the digital immigrant's lifetime. What does this mean? For digital immigrants need to understand that children today are very different today and might even think differently (I'd like to see a study on this, because I think it might be true). We need to create learning opportunities using technology rather than insisting that children learn the same way children have in the United States for hundreds of years.

There are so many ideas on how to use technology to create different readers rather than non readers. Here are some ideas.

Ipod- audiobooks listened to while a student follows along with a print text can increase reading fluency. There are also so many educational podcasts, videos, and songs that can be added to them to increase phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary.

TV- turn on the closed captioning. Having the closed captioning on is research based to increase reading fluency.

Video Games- Video games finetune motor skills and there are many educational video games that can help students improve their reading or math skills.

Computer- I do not even know where to start. The computer/Internet has opened up the world for students. Please see Online Resources for Educators for some ideas. There is so much available though, this list could go on forever!

I hope you now see that we have to change the way we think about educating children and realize that they learn differently today. That does not mean they will be non-readers!