Students are Wild About Reading

Funded Oct 9, 2019

The technology helps my students learn and stay engaged with activities that are aligned to daily instructions which help them to retain and comprehend better a new concept. In general, students in middle school get bored with long lectures. Therefore, I keep my lectures to about 15 minutes and after that students will be assigned to differentiated instructions rotation groups, and one of these rotations is the use of the computer. Students who are assigned computer work will practice not only the reading skills but all four branches of English language (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and at this point the computer turns into a private tutor for each student. For example, after i-Ready Diagnostic test at the beginning of the school year, students will receive individual reading levels depend to their results. Students will be monitored throughout the school year with two more diagnostics tests and a few growth monitoring tests to follow their progress and the recommendations for further assistance which is now my involvement to further individualize the help to meet each student's need in my Teacher-Lead Instructions. In addition, my students use Inside books for their reading. These books consist of 8 units: two units for each grading period, and each unit consist of three selection test and a unit test. As you can see, computers are a part for students' present and future success.

Therefore, when I gave the students the brand-new computers to practice, I heard many wows in the classroom. I explained to them that the computers were donated for their use in the classroom. I work in a Title I school, and the majority of my students are on a free or reduced lunch. In other words, to use a brand-new computer was a very exciting event to many of these students.

In each class, there are students who have especially warmed to this new technology. Students get more motivated in working on new computers, more excited in practicing their independent skills. Students like the fact that these chrome notebooks turn on faster than the old computers. They like the incentives (games) that are embedded in i-ready whenever a student successfully completes an activity. New technology motivates students to become more creative, fluent, and independent readers.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Diab