Everyone who teaches children to read faces the conundrum that although the act of reading is often a solitary mental activity, students learn to comprehend deeply when they engage in constructivist, social learning. In this session, I’ll share a wide range of tools, apps, and strategies I’ve used with my third graders to infuse our reading workshop with the power of social communication and to assess my students’ reading development.
From close eReading using Subtext to online book recommendations using Biblionasium, I’ll share actual examples of student work and videos of how we use these tools in my classroom. I’ll even share the anecdotal results of this May’s classroom experiment when we pack away all of the books and print materials in my classroom and try a solid month with only eReading and digital texts available to the students. Come listen in on the social reading buzz in my classroom!
