Technology in the Language Arts Curriculum (And Language Arts is part of every subject!) Jill Castek University of Connecticut Theresa Nierlich Antioch Unified School District

The Plan Introductions- 5 minutes Background- 5 minutes Theresa’s Talk- Concrete- 50 min. Jill’s Talk- What’s Possible- 50 min. Wrap it up- 10 min.

Why Technology? Engages students Provides background knowledge Can help create authentic tasks Prepares students for the reality of the work world (see Time magazine’s recent article on preparing students for the 21 st Century.)

What Kind of Technology? Basics: Computer with Office, Internet access, a printer, and a way to project for all students to see. Extras: Individual word processors, Inspiration, digital camera, scanner

Language Arts Philosophy Reading and writing are an essential part of every facet of the curriculum. Reading and writing cannot be limited to “Language Arts Time.” We need to explicitly teach students to use AND how to use comprehension and writing skills in all learning tasks.

So What Can it Look Like?: Ways to Engage Allow students the chance to type rough and/or final drafts and include clip art or other graphics Allows choice and critical thinking Thesaurus activity Vocabulary development Good for ELD

So What Can it Look Like?: Ways to Engage Create final products that are showy, interesting, and informative Allows choice, critical thinking, higher level thinking skills ReadWriteThink.org Go play!

So What Can it Look Like?: Ways to Engage PowerPoint Stories Allows choice, engaging, good for ELD, requires critical thinking skills Example Go play!

So What Can it Look Like?: Building Background Knowledge Vocabulary Power Points- teacher or student created- any subject Vocabulary Power Points- ESL connections- combine pictures or clips with words to build academic AND social vocabulary (BICs and CALPs) Go make one!

So What Can it Look Like?: Building Background Knowledge BrainPop or United Streaming movies to build background knowledge ESL connection Find a movie that ties into something you are going to teach soon.

So What Can it Look Like?: Authentic Tasks Authentic tasks improve engagement and motivation Authentic tasks make the learning more concrete Authentic task can address the real- world skills students will need in the future

So What Can it Look Like?: Authentic Tasks Explicitly teach web searching strategiesweb Explicitly teach similarities between text structures in books/magazine and structures on websiteswebsites