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Showing posts from May, 2013

Close Read Complex Text, and Annotate with Diigo--Part 3

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Close reading is a strategy for reading complex text . In Part 1 , the focus is how to do a close reading. The focus in Part 2 is how to annotate with iPads. The focal points of this post are the teacher steps in close reading; how to create text dependent questions for informational text in 6th-12th grades; annotating in Diigo; and creating writing activities to go with close reading. Click here to download as PDF Below are the teacher's steps for creating a close reading lesson. However, the student steps are in the poster shown on the right: Teacher Step 1 : Choose the text Choose a short and difficult text to do a close reading on. It should be at the frustration reading level . Some examples to choose from for informational text are short speeches (or excerpts from a speech); research; paragraphs or chapters from biographies, memoirs, or historical accounts to name a few. Teacher Step 2: Planning Plan and do what you expect your students to do. Decide

Connecting 21st Century Learning, Technology, and Common Core Standards

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21st century learning and technology integration are part of the Common Core design. 21st century skills include: CC by 3.0 Tracy Watanabe c ommunication and c ollaboration c reative thinking and innovation c uration : research and informational fluency c ritical thinking, problem solving, and decision making digital c itizenship c omputing skills: using technology to learn, communicate, consume, c ontribute, design, and produce In the introduction of the Common Core , those skills are referenced, and specifically outlined as a key design consideration , and placed in a portrait of a student who is college and career ready. They are also interwoven in the anchor standards , which can be viewed by specific grade levels . Academic conversations Academic conversations are part of 21st century learning and the Common Core Standards. Constructivism in learning, building meaning based on prior understanding, occurs in academic conversations (speaking and listenin

Close Read Complex Text, and Annotate with iPads--Part 2

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In Close Read Complex Text, and Annotate with Tech--Part 1 , the focus was how to do a close reading . In Part 2, the focus is how to annotate with iPads , and insights gained from a lesson done with students in first through third grades. iPad apps for annotating Many apps can be used for annotating. I'm listing a few apps that can be used for close reading, and will go into detail on the one I've used the most with students. App Tutorial Links Learnability Cost PaperPort Notes PaperPort Notes Tutorial Tips listed below Easy Free Educreations Educreations Tutorial Tips listed below Easy Free Notability Notability YouTube Tutorial Medium $1.99 Skitch with Evernote Skitch for iPad tutorial by the Edublogger Medium Free Lessons learned through annotating in Educreations On the first day of close reading, it was easy to use Educreations to annotate. For each new page, we'd add a new page to the presentation. We took screen shots to keep a &q