Teaching English with iPads – Day 4
This is the 4th post in a series of posts pertaining to how I am teaching Summer School English using 1:1 iPads. See Day 1 to start from the beginning.
Today we didn’t use the iPads for anything that any other laptop or desktop computer couldn’t do. Just one of those days where the technology was based on websites, not on apps. Here is the outline:
Odd News – I enjoy showing students different ways to access news information via the web. I usually start this process by introducing some ‘odd news’ from that week that will interest the students and showcase ways to access information. Yahoo and Google both have an ‘Odd News’ section. It’s a fun way to start class and can lead to students having a valuable resource when finding current event information.
Grammar - We reviewed some comma splices and fused sentences (like we did on Day 3) due to the average scores that students received on their grammar assessment from the previous day. The nice thing about ChompChomp is that it has various types of exercises to ensure students get a rounded means of learning.
Vocab Refresher - Quizlet - As we continued to read Othello, I wanted to ensure that students were still comprehending the vocabulary to the best of their ability. We reviewed the vocab activity that was setup prior to starting Othello. A little review never hurts, right?
Read Othello A1S3 – we split into two groups and each group had a part for each student. The groups read the play out loud, within their own group. This worked well because it involved every student – there weren’t any that were able to zone out and not participate.
Othello Questions using Google Forms – I created a form using Google Docs (spreadsheet form). For each question I made a separate form item with the question and a paragraph response block, which allowed the students to have enough space to explain their answers. This worked great, all the responses were in a spreadsheet that I could print out or view and grade extremely easily.
Research using EBSCO and Internet Resources – We have been using the ESBCOhost app for iOS that allow the students to find some resources for their research paper using legitimate sources. It works great and allows students to save/bookmark sources that they find relevant. Perfect!
Silent Reading – A large group of students have traditional paper books for their silent reading time, but a few have informed me that they found free books they want to read on the iBooks store and asked if they could read those instead. Of course, I said. I was pumped that they looked into apps that we hadn’t even looked at and found interest in reading using the device. Success!
About the Author
Jeff Herb Jeff Herb is an Educator, Blogger, and Podcaster focusing on Instructional Technology and finding ways to innovate the classroom using technology. Follow Jeff on Twitter to keep up with the latest in Educational Technology.
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