May 2007 — Features
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Reading First :: Reading First...Technology Second?
A national study compared students' Lexile gains before and after using Kid- Biz. It concluded that the program has "a significant effect on students' nonfiction reading performance." The study also found that the more often students used the program, the better they did.
Another digital tool that individualizes reading instruction is Evan-Moor's TeacherFileBox.com, an online collection of more than 32,000 activities for K-6 in all major subject areas such as literature, science, social studies, and in thinking and writing skills.
With TeacherFileBox, users can search by curriculum area, grade level, skill, theme, holiday, or keyword. They can download one activity or an entire yearlong course. And as long as an internet connection is available, students and teachers can access the activities any time of the day or night, throughout the year.
Julie Hillman uses TeacherFileBox in the homeschooling of her son, Johnny, who's in the first grade but reads at a third-grade level. Hillman especially likes the ability to preview every page of an activity before printing it. "It's a really nice resource," she says. "You don't want to spend $20 or $30 on a book when you want to use only part of it." These days her son is immersed in its astronomy and National Geographic specials. "He's having a blast," she says.
Qualitative Benefits
With all that technology has to offer Reading First, districts that don't incorporate it into their literacy programs are losing out and depriving their students of a significant learning implement. Witness the remarkable rise in reading proficiency at Brewster Elementary documented earlier. But the positive outcomes go beyond those that are quantifiable.
"The things that aren't measurable," says Brewster Principal Driessen, "at least on paper, are the relationships that are built between kids and the mentors. In the spring, when it's all over, we get tears."
Sometimes they gets smiles as well. When shy fourth-grader Sonia, who is mentored for half an hour a day, Monday through Thursday, is asked how it feels to improve in reading skills, she replies with a confident, face-busting grin: "It feels really good."
links
:: web extra ::For more information on this topic, visit T.H.E. Journal and search by the keyword reading.
Neal Starkman is a freelance writer based in Seattle.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
