Technology Learning Network

Kiwanis e-read-to-me project Assessment:
Assessment Target Group 1 - Grade 6 students:
The following is a section of a speech one of the students in my class wrote that reflects the general feeling of the students about the use of the Kiwanis e-read-to-me program this year.
I Pods in the Classroom by Vishal
Technology is having a huge impact on how we navigate the world. In the first month of school our teacher told us that we will be using I-pods in the class for Science, Socials, and Math stations and novel study.......We download the material off the class podcast and listen to it when we are doing the work. ..... The way it helped us was that we listened to the instructions while we were reading the material. That helped us to understand what we were supposed to be doing with the stations. It helped us with vocabulary because sometimes we didn't know the word and hearing it helped us to know what it meant, and it helped us with comprehension because sometimes we didn't know what something meant but when we listened to it on the I-pod it made sense. That way we didn't have to go to the help centre so much. .... I think I-pods in the classroom are the way of the future.
Assessment Target Group 2 - Kiwanis
The inclusion of the Kiwanis as readers has been slow to get off the ground. I've had to continue to do the majority of the readings while the Kiwanis group gets organized. A group of five readers was trained in November and a facilitator was chosen to be the liason between the teacher and the Kiwanis readers. Although they are enthusiastic, only 3 readings have been forwarded to me to date. Time will tell whether they can produce enough to warrant their inclusion in the read-to-me program.
Assessment Target Group 3 - Teacher
For the first year, the plan was to be the pilot teacher for the project. This took considerable time when planning lessons, mainly because of the accountability of having others reading them, as well as the need to produce original material so that copyright wasn't breached. Decisions as to reading speed, how much to include in a chunk, and how many directions to give on the recording took several trials until the students indicated that it was to their liking (consensus). Contrary to what I thought, the less capable students didn't like the slower reading speed while the more able students chose to have the MP4 format for novel study turned to a higher speed.

Summary
Once the issue of copyright on podcast is firmly established for our district, I can see that more teachers would be able to undertake a read-to-me program. There is no doubt that audio helps students process print. With teacher as reader, this program is useful both to struggling readers and E.S.L. students. The dependence on an outside body such as Kiwanis for the reading is the unknown. If they are willing to get behind this program and "drive it" then there is no limit to the influence that it will have on our struggling readers.