COMPUTERS inthe CLASSROOM

iPods, iPads, and the SMARTBoard:Transforming literacy instructionand student learning

Paula Saine

As society continues to advance, the demandfor digital technologies in the classroomincreases (Saine ôc Kara-Soteriou, 2010),In order to accommodate this changingneed, iPods, iPads, and the SMART-

Board have made their way into some classrooms acrossthe globe. These tools are transforming literacy instruc-tion and the way students are learning. Teachers claimwhen students are engaged in digital literacy activities,the students see these tools as exciting and unique, butoften not as schoolwork. Teachers also claim studentsbecome more creative in their thinking. For example,Tricia, a language arts teacher, noticed the deep andcreative thinking of her students as they used the app,Toontastic, to created story elements for their animatedstories. On the other hand, researchers wonder why moreclassrooms over the last three decades havenit changedtheir curriculum and instruction to adopt the availabledigital technologies (Abadiano ôc Turner, 2007; HewôcBrush, 2007; Wepner et al,, 2007),

For some teachers, these tools have become anatural part of the daily classroom instruction. That'swhat I discovered when I interviewed four teachersfrom diverse classroom settings, one Nigerian class-room teacher and three American teachers [elementary,middle, and high school]. I asked them to tell me howthey made the most of digital technologies and how ithas transformed their teaching and student learning inliteracy. In this paper, I will share how these teachershave incorporated iPods, iPads, and the SMARTBoardinto their instructional activities.

Podcasting country projectsPagia George is a first grade teacher at the AmericanInternational School of Lagos in Nigeria, WestAfrica who incorporates iPods into her social studiesinstructional activities. The iPods nanos are inexpensive,compared to classroom laptop carts or computers onwheels [COW], and their portability and durabilityprovide students with learning tools that are equippedto perform a variety of tasks such as podcasting. Digitalrecording, in particular, is used to assist her students increating podcast of their country projects. In the nextsection, Pagia will describe how she integrated iPodsinto instruction.

Focus of the lesson• Deepening the knowledge of the culture of

others• Using Internet and reading informational text• Writing expository stories and acrostic poems• Researching country information

Technology used• iPod nanos• Podcasting

Description of the lessonThe first step was for each student to complete ahomework assignment requiring them to self-selectthree countries they were interested in learning about[keeping in mind they have heard of many countriesfrom their peers and their own travel experiences].

74 I Computers in the Classroom

When they returned to class the next day with thenames of countries in which they were interested, I listedall the countries on the board and placed the students'name next to those countries [I tried to give them theirfirst choice but each child researched a country fromtheir top three choices.]

I incorporated the Step up to Writing Program byMaureen Auman for guiding their writing. This pro-gram contains research-based, hands-on writing strate-gies and has helped my students write expository story.After students researched information on the Internetand in books, wrote, revised, and rehearsed their text,they presented them orally to the class.

During the second part of this project, studentsengaged in writing poetry and podcasting the acros-tic poem [see Image 1] they created using informationfrom their expository writing. After they wrote, re-vised, typed, and rehearsed their poem, they were readyto record them. Students used iPod nanos, a portabledigital recorder for producing podcast for our class web-site [teachers can also choose to use Audacity, a cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application(Audacity, 2010) that can be downloaded for free fromAudacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/].

The students included in their reports facts aboutflags, popular or common foods, type of government[democracy, monarchy], capitol city, the ruler of thecountry [president, prime minister, king, or queen], etc.The integration of iPods into my classroom enabled thestudents to share their experiences with a wider audiencebeyond our classroom walls.

Image 1Acrostic Country Poem

.-Capital is Ottawa

¡A-Athletic sports

i-Natural Recources

y-Awsome country

)-Delightful people

artists are very f

How technology enhanced students' learningin the classroomWith scaffolding, students were able to gather informa-tion from the Internet and informational texts regard-

ing their selected countries. Their expository writingincluded topic sentences, three details, and conclusion. Inoticed how eager and passionate they were about com-pleting the written part of the project to share them dig-itally with classmates, their parents, family, and friends.By having students podcast the poem they created was agood platform for fluency practice as well as enhancingwriting skills. They didn't mind rerecording their poemuntil it sounded "just right".

Overall, all students were able to retain facts abouttheir self-selected country over a longer period of timebecause they continued to revisit, talk about and listen tothe podcast they made. Usually students quickly forgetabout the content of previous projects once we move onto a different topic or content. But not this time!

Writing descriptionsBethany Glass, a first grade Spanish teacher at the Acad-emy of Multilingual Immersion Studies, has been teach-ing for five years. She offers her students an immersionand partial immersion curriculum aimed at fluency inSpanish. One of the many digital technologies she usesin her classroom is the PolyVision Board, an interactivewhiteboard that has been designed to positively increaselearning. This technology captures the attention of boththe English language learners [ELLs] and Second lan-guage learners [SLLs] as well as makes her teachingmore realistic. Bethany states that when teaching stu-dents a new language, it is important for them to be ableto use the language in socially appropriate ways. Thiscan be challenging when one is teaching Spanish to firstgraders. Next, Bethany tells how the use of the interac-tive PolyVision Board and Google Earth enhanced theirwriting lesson.

Focus of the lesson• Giving oral and written descriptions of scenes• Building vocabulary• Writing sentences

Technology used• PolyVision Board• Google Earth

Description of the lessonIn the real world, people do not walk around pointing tothings and saying what they are, so I wanted to take mystudents past saying "rain" and "cloud." In class, we prac-ticed describing things verbally. Then we went outside,made observations, and brainstormed more descrip-tive words. We also looked in books and described theweather in pictures. We spent time looking at repetitivewriting (which is what my students had been producing)compared to more fluent writing. Finally, we incorpo-rated technology using my interactive PolyVision Boardto travel the world on Google Earth and browsed pho-

The NERA Journal (2012), Volume Computers in the Classroom I 75

tos of important places. When we found one that caughtour eye, we spent some time looking at it silently.

My students used Spencer Kagan's Round Robinstructure to discuss the photo. In their teams of four,each student said something about the photo in Span-ish, their teammates cheered them on, and they kepttaking turns until I called time. Students then sat downand wrote. I did this as a weeklong lesson on writingdescriptions and took data at three points—Monday,Wednesday, and Friday. I took note of how my students'writing improved in this area.

How technology enhanced students' learningin the classroomThis was Mya's [pseudonym] pre-assessment. SinceI teach second language to very young children, theirgrammar is not always on target, but it is understandable.As you can see, before we began this unit, Mya was ableto write sentences [see Image 2] with "Yo" (I) and reliedheavily on "I see" (Yo vel- she meant veo). On her pre-assessment she wrote:

I see the bus. I see the rain. I am outside andit is raining. I see the trees.

Image 2Mya's Writing Sample

jfti v/ri -rf- in Wni

'M yilZZ"'" '̂̂ •' a

However, her formative assessment showed evidence ofher using a variety of descriptive words. Here is whatshe wrote:

I am outside. I see a big tree. It has green,brown, and yellow leaves.

I feel this lesson contributed to my students' learn-ing in many ways! First, using Google Earth and otherpictures online caught my students' interest. I have manyvisual learners and artistic children in my class, so any-thing bright and fiin to look at attracts their attention.Second, by explaining to my students that we use lan-guage to describe things every day, my students under-stood the real-world purpose of these writing lessons.Third, by showing them examples of good and "oh no!"writing, they were able to see, in very literal terms, howthey could improve their writing.

Not only did I see my students' writing improveover the course of the week (ELLs and SLLs alike!) Ialso heard big improvements in speaking from my SLLs.When we did our Round Robins, they no longer reliedon the same sentence structures at each turn. Theybecame excited when they noticed their own progressand that motivated them to keep talking!

Toontastic, BrainPOP and Strip Designer appTricia Smith teaches 4th, 5th, and 6th grade languagearts at Linden Elementary, an urban middle school. Herschool district takes pride in the fact that they have beennamed the District of Character in the state of Ohio fortwo years in a row. Therefore, Tricia uses iPads as a toolto enhance the study of character traits in her classroom.The iPad is a tablet device that has many educationalapplications in which some of them are free and canbe downloaded and installed from the Apps Store.However, those apps that aren't free can be purchasedat a price ranging from $0.99 and higher. In the sectionthat follows, you will hear the voice of Tricia as sheshares three sample lessons of how she uses apps on theiPad to enhance literacy instruction in her classes.

Lesson I: Toontastic (Digital Story Telling)Focus of lesson

• Story elements• Character traits• Mood• Theme

Technology used• iPad• Toontastic app [$1.99)]•

Description of lessonStudents worked in pairs to create a short story thatfocused on a character trait (i.e., honesty, respect, per-sonal responsibility, fairness, etc.) and story elementssuch as characters, setting, plot, problem, solution. Thenstudents used a graphic organizer to plan their story by

76 I Computers in the Classroom

creating a story arc in preparation to put it to animationand narration. A previous lesson focused on the Toon-tastic app and how to use it.

Next, students created their own scenes andcharacters or chose the ones that were already in theprogram. Finally, the students created one scene at a timeuntil they had entered each scene. Each scene reflecteda different mood and the background music enhancedthe mood depicted in the scene [Image 3]. One pair ofstudents wrote:

Image 3Story Animation

A princess loses a precious stone and is very upsetabout it. Another character, a pirate, finds the stoneand struggles with making the right decision onwhether or not they should keep it or try to findthe owner. After much debate, the second characterdecides to find the owner and give it back to her. Theprincess is so happy that she honors the pirate bygiving him something even more valuable. The storyends with a theme or lesson learned; if you are honestand respectfiil to other people's belongings, you mayget rewarded for your actions.

How technology enhanced students' learningin the classroomStudents used their creativity and imagination to createstories and put them to animation. This digital processhas helped the students become more creative in theirthinking. It has also helped students with sequencing ofstory events and identifying the key elements to a story.

Lesson II: BrainPOP, Nobel prize winners,and word processing/research skillsFocus of lesson

• Extension of learning• Research skills

• Word processing skills• Writing a report

Technology used' iPad, Safari• Pages (word-processing app)• BrainPOP app [free]

Description of lessonStudents began this project by watching the BrainPOPmovie titled "Nobel Prize" to gain knowledge of what itwas and how it was awarded. Then students researchedthree Nobel prize winners and filled out a graphicorganizer to organize their thoughts. It focused on who,what, when, where, why, and how the prize winnerbenefitted others today.

How technology enhanced students' learningin the classroomStudents' engagement in the BrainPOP movie extendedtheir learning and increased their curiosity about thetopic. After they gathered information using the graphicorganizers, they successfiilly created well-written para-graphs with topic sentences and supporting details thatwere of great quality.

Lesson III: Geometry scavenger huntand use of Strip Designer appFocus of lesson

• Geometry vocabulary• Making connections with the environment and

geometry vocabulary• Personification/voice

Technology used' iPad with camera• Strip Designer app [$2.99]

Description of lessonThis project was used as a culminating activity to ageometry unit. The students walked through the schoolbuilding and used the iPad to take pictures of examplesof geometry terms (i.e., types of angles, types of lines,planes, polygons, perpendicular, parallel, etc.). Thenthey published their pictures using the Strip Design app.Finally, they used the tools (call-outs, outhne markertools, text, color, etc.) in the app to create a speechbubble that told about their function and how they werenamed [see Image 4]. One speech bubble read, "I haveparallel lines and I'm a plane!" This was a very simplelesson that can be done across subjects with any contentarea vocabulary.

How technology enhanced students' learningin the classroomStudents were able to apply their knowledge of geome-

The NERA Journal (2012), Volume Computers in the Classroom I 77

Image 4Geometry Terms

Im a plan« and I havtparallel lines and I aliohavt rtetanqles or lomc

people ID« a (|uadrilateral

I have parallellines and I'm a

plane!

I IT parallel anX3 qvxijrilat«ral

try terms in a creative way by designing their own comicstrip using the Strip Designer. They were also engagedand enthusiastic about what they knew and shared itwith a professionally finished product.

Literary terminology and poetryJessica Wertz, a high school teacher who teaches in arural district at Carlisle High School, discusses how sheused SMARTBoard to enhance literacy instruction andaccess popular web resources that helped students builda better understanding of literary terms that relate topoetry. In the subsequent section, Jessica explains howthe SMARTBoard allows her to deliver dynamic andinnovative lessons with the simple touch of her finger.

Focus of the lesson• Understanding literary terms that relate to

poetry• Application of these terms to various poems

Technology used' SMARTBoard• Website Poetry 180

http://www.loc.gOv/poetry/l 80/

Description of the lessonI displayed a poem on the SMARTBoard. (The poems

were usually captured from the Poetry 180 website usingthe screen capture feature of the Notebook Software orwere typed into the Notebook Software if it was a poemfrom a non-electronic source.) To the right of the poemwere the literary terms we were studying (figurativelanguage, metaphor, simile, symbol, personification,imagery, allusion, stanza, speaker and tone). Each wordwas created as a moveable object that could be draggedaround the screen.

After we read the poem and discussed our inter-pretations of its meaning, I asked the class to look forexamples of the hterary terms in the poem (Image 5).For example, when a student thought they had foundan example of a metaphor, he/she read it aloud and thenthe class decided whether or not they agreed it was ametaphor. If they agreed, then I would drag and dropthe word "metaphor" next to the line. (A teacher couldhave the student come to the board and move the word,it is just more time consuming). For some literary terms,such as tone, there was not a specific place in the poemto drop the word. So, we discussed what we thought thetone of the poem was and then wrote that next to theword. Not every poem would have an example of everyliterary term. When selecting poems to use with theselessons, it was helpfiil to select poems that had at least 3different examples of figurative language.

We did this same lesson with multiple poems andI used a gradual release approach. With the first poem,I went down the list of terms in order and asked themto find specific examples, and as we were looking, Ireminded them of the definition. Then on another dayusing a different poem, I went down the list in order andasked them to find examples, but this time I asked themto give me the meanings as we were looking and I only

Image 5Literary Terminology & Poetry Lesson

78 I Computers in the Classroom

provided the definition if the whole class was stumped.We continued this on multiple days with a variety ofpoems until I could ask them to find an example of anyterm they saw and we only defined the words that werestill giving them trouble.

How technology enhanced students' learningin the classroomBy the end of the unit, students were able to easilyidentify various examples of the literary terms in poetry.These terms were a review of terms previously introducedin 8th grade. However, some class periods showed anaverage increase of 10% from pretest to posttest. It isimportant to note the their knowledge of the definitionswas tested during the pretest, but their knowledge of thedefinitions as well as their ability to identify the typeof figurative language of several examples were testedduring the posttest tested, so it was a more rigoroustest.

They were also required to write their own poems inwhich they included figurative language. Every studentsuccessfully included at least one example of figurativelanguage and many included multiple examples ofvarying types (i,e,, metaphor, simile and personification)in a single poem. This was an improvement comparedto previous years (when these lessons were not used) inwhich some students still struggled to write one exampleof figurative language.

ConclusionWhether teaching in an urban, rural, or internationalschool, teachers of literacy are integrating iPods, iPads,and the SMARTBoard in the classroom to make theirinstructional activities more appealing and exciting fortheir students.

As these tools continue to transform literacyinstruction, students internalize lifelong skills needed

for success in this global society. Despite the fact thatstudents are being equipped with some or all of thesechanging literacy tools, such use should be available toall students. Therefore, we must not ignore the digitaldivide. We must make it a priority to equip all schools,especially low socio-economic status (SES) schools withstudents' access and use, as well as, teacher trainingand support (Hohlfeld, Ritzhaupt, Barron, ôc Kemker,2008) for keeping up with these digital tools that aretransforming literacy instruction and student learning inthe classroom.

ReferencesAbadiano, H., ÔC Turner, J. (2007). New literacies, new

challenges. The New England Reading AssociationJournal43(1), 75-8,

Audacity, (2011, November). Retrieved from http://au-dacity,sourceforge,net/

Hew, K,, ÔC Brush, T, (2007). Integrating technologyinto K-12 teaching and learning: Current knowl-edge gaps and recommendations for fiiture re-search. Educational Technology Research and Devel-opment, 55(3), 223-52.

Hohlfeld, TN, , Ritzhaupt, A.D., Barron, S.E., Ôc Kem-ker, K, (2008), Examining the digital divide inK-12 public schools: Four-year trends for support-ing ICT literacy in Florida, Computers in Educa-tion, 51(4), 1648-1663,

Saine, P , ôc Kara-Soteriou, J, (2010). Using podcaststo enrich responses to global children's literature.New England Reading Association Journal, 46(1),100-108.

Wepner, S., Bowes, K., ôc Serotkin, R, (2007), Technol-ogy in teacher education: Creating a climate ofchange and collaboration. Action in Teacher Educa-tion, 29(1), il-93.

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