Reading
Hey there! Welcome back to my blog. This blog will be about the reading strand. What is reading? It is exactly what you are doing right now. Reading is an active process of forming connotation, and denotation meanings of words. While reading, an individual should recognize words that lead to their development of understanding the text. To be an effective reader, a student must “think clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and information encountered in texts to understand, analyze, and absorb them and to recognize their relevance in other contexts” (pg.10). I will be sharing and exploring three resources which will make my students more effective readers.
EPIC:
The first resource which I will be exploring is called EPIC. It is an online platform that allows students up to 12 years old to access over 35,000 books, learning videos, audiobooks, Spanish books, non-fiction, fiction, and quizzes. For $7.99/ month, it allows up to four readers to access the account. This tool is provided to elementary school teachers for free and is easily implemented in classrooms. This resource is great because it allows kids autonomy in choosing what they would like to read. Books are varying on the reading levels of the students. For schools without a great variety of books in their library, EPIC would work as a substitute or also be used as additional support. When assigning the class with the same book for an assignment or lesson, it would be easier for 20+ students to access the book through EPIC rather than buying physical copies. It is also easier for students to follow along when the teacher is reading to the class. For students who have more difficulty reading, they may utilize audiobooks.
Teaching Kid’s News:
The second resource I explored was Teaching Kids News (TKN). TKN is a trustworthy online platform that provides the latest news for kids in Grades 2-8. The site is divided into different subtopics: news, entertainment, science, arts, sports, politics and fake news resources. Kids are susceptible to believing in fake news and trust information without critically analyzing what is presented to them. TKN is a credible source which is written by professional volunteer journalists. The journalists use kid-friendly language, making it simpler for children to comprehend the article and identify important information. A valuable feature of this resource is that it educates kids on how to spot fake news. This resource incorporates the second overall expectation for reading “read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning” (pg. 11). This resource could be used to get students to ask critical questions about articles such as “does the journalist have a bias”, “how would the article differ if it was written by a different journalist?” “did I catch this news on a different platform, how do the two stories differ?”. We can encourage children to think critically not only about the story itself, but about how the story is presented in the curriculum connexions.
Classroom Book a Day
The last resource which I will be analyzing is Classroom Book a Day. The creator of this resource Jillian Heise shared her experiences of how she introduced a new daily routine in her classroom. She read one storybook to her classroom every day to increase her student's reading engagement. This is a great idea and definitely something I would implement in my classroom. Book a day in a classroom setting, provides an opportunity to introduce so many social justice issues that the children can get exposed to. It is a great way to introduce social justice issues and get them talking about topics like women's rights, racism, LGBTQ+, and the Indigenous community.
Thank you for READING my blog! I hope you enjoyed reading about my take on these resources. Please do share how you would implement them in your classes.
References:
EPIC! is the Leading Digital Library for Kids 12 and Under. EPIC. October 28,2019. https://www. getepic.com/
Getting Started with Classroombookaday. HeiseReads. October 28,2019. http://www.heisereads. com/2018/05/getting-started-with classroombookaday.html #.XbdjZZNKh-X
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8 Language. Toronto: Author
Sara Zimmerman. Pinterest. October 28, 2019. https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/151292868705222253/?lp=true
Sara Zimmerman. Pinterest. October 28, 2019. https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/151292868705222253/?lp=true
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