KINDERGARTNERS MAKE TECHNOLOGY THEIR TOOL. (2007, December). Reading Today

This issue of reading day was very informative in the practical sense. The article presented a glimpse of what it looks like in a classroom that involves the use of technology in the aid of student literacy. The article shows kindergarten teacher Jo Ann Merrit's classroom. Merrit was the 2007 International Reading Association technology and literacy winner. In the classroom Merrit uses technology to help improve students as they begin to learn how to read and type, and to help boost parent involvment. The parents within the article felt that they were a "close-knit" bunch of parents, because they were always involved in their childs' progress. The parents several weeks in would recieve a note from their son or daughter saying "Hi Dad" or "I love you Mom" or other little means of interaction from school. As one parent came to say, "It really made my day at work, and gave me something to brag about!" The use of e-mail also was used for parent/teacher interaction. Merrit would send home information and materials online to help each child succeed in the classroom. Some of the other programs that were used were the
AR program, Reading A-Z, and the Reading Rabbit program. These programs provided students with reading levels that were scaffolded and differentiated to their exact reading and progress levels. This overall aided each student individually, and ended up being a great asset for the teachers and parents. Overall, I felt that this article was very informative and painted a great picture of integrating technology at the kindergarten level.

Barone, D., & Wright, T. (2008, December). Literacy Instruction With Digital and Media Technologies. Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-303.

In Barone's & Wright's article on introducing media technologies into the classroom they offer you a glimpse into a unique classroom motivated by computers. The classroom is constructed of fourth grade students in a low economic status area of Nevada. The article begins with the brief history of the integration of technology in educational systems specifically with laptops in the year 1990. This article shows a fourth grade classes entire day consumed with laptop construction. The teacher by the name of Kurt begins each day with students updating their academic laptop calendars through the online classroom website. The day begins with a simple fun word activity which involves an online thesaurus and a student generated sentence with a visual representation. The article then gives the reader a look at the rest of the school day. Kurt seamlessly weaves literature discussions through the use of a blogging site. He sets time schedules for partner activities with the use of aol instant messenger. In the afternoon Kurt uses the KidBiz application to differentiate learning. The students are constantly immersed throughout the school day with the use of their laptops, and it was quite amazing to believe how much a teachers' actual day can be planned through the use of a laptop and wireless internet capabilities. I applaud this article for its great detail, and groundbreaking work in full classroom integration.

Knezek, G., & Christensen, R. (2007, September). Effect of Technology-Based Programs on First- and Second-Grade Reading Achievement. Computers in the

The author's Knezek & Christensen (2007), gave the example of several Texas school districts use of professional development and technology to influence student performance. The study consisted of several randomly selected schools that fit the description of being in a rural environment, and having 45% or more free or reduced lunches. Their was at least one member of every school was presented with a 5 day hands-on workshop that consisted of electronically deemed literate teachers helping illiterate teachers learn technological processes. Some of the topics that were considered were: electronic portfolios, AR, and a set of Early Reading Center software. After the training was concluded those teachers were sent back to their school as the Early Reading liasons. The students were then tested with the Texas Informal Reading Inventory, and then the classes were then averaged by reading levels. The article then conducted a 6 month trial and concluded that all of the scores had risen. The article lacks to explain in detail more about the programs other then their names. The article also does not include any other helpful information aside from the fact that technology boosts achievement levels. I would hope in the future the authors would provide a more indepth review of teaching practices to better inform aspiring and veteran teaching professionals.

Larson, L. (2008, October). Electronic Reading Workshop: Beyond Books With New Literacies and Instructional Technologies. Journal of Adolescent & Adul

In today's schools students are using technology in their home lives more then ever before. The article listed above presented a new view of integrating literature into the curriculum. Larson presents the idea of Electronic Readers Workshop. This area has the same structure as a traditional readers workshop which entails literature selection, literature response journals, literature conversations, and project response options. Larson uses e-books, hypertexts, and other means of electronic print for the literature selection. Literature responses are then presented through blogging and online journals. The literature conversations are through variuous specific chatrooms, and projects are done through applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint, and other publishing databases. The ERW was then given to a group of preservice teachers. The students were then questioned after the initial run through of the program. The results were that e-books had a positive review, but were not as aesthetically pleasing. The journals were presented in Microsoft Word and the college professor would then respond back to the students after the first half of the book and then at the end through the comment feature. The students were then given an online discussion forumn that was threaded to show each members response. The students felt closer and more free to establish communication through this but did not enjoy that they could not see the emotion from each group member. For the projects section, the students provided podcasts for a radio clip from the book time period, provided a virtual tour through PowerPoint and even created a webquest. The students were very engaged throughout the process, and I feel that the overall design of the program was a great success.