Dr. Casey's Reading Room

Dr. Casey you are so right! I definitely agree that you MUST hook children on books. It is absolutely CRITICAL that as a parent and or an educator you spark your child/student's interest. By captivating their interest you can convert them into readers! In EdEL 452 you taught us that we should begin every school year by administering interest inventories, and I could not agree with you more! Administering an interest inventory to my tutees guided me in the selection of the texts I wanted to share with them. Since all three of my tutees loved dog and cat books I went to the library and found both fiction and non-fiction books on dogs and cats. My tutees loved it!!

Hello Dr. Casey,
It seemed you had a very powerful workshop. I think PBS has done a wonderful job investing in the interest of young kids (I was one). I think your slide on collaboration between educators and the media was very important. The truth is our students are spending much of their time watching tv. Coincidentally, the library where I work has had a contact at the KCET studios. They have given us boxes and boxes of "PBS Families" magazines. Our students truly get excited to get a magazine with all the familiar characters. I believe that is the connection you speak about. I also volunteered 3 years at the KCET's Children's Day. It was great!

Two of your slides included samples from David's writing. I found that his writing was very phonetically aware. He was spelling as he hears. The next step for him was for a teacher to teach him the rules of the english language. The one rule that I did see him apply was the silent "e" rule.

Thanks for sharing your presentation.
-Jennifer Gomez

Dr. Casey,
I think the Writing to Read program is a wonderful way for kids to develop their writing and reading skills, and as indicated in the statistics, it's working. The case of the 5- year old who went from a "low group" status to author in one computer session was really interesting - I very much agree that learning this way builds confidence and is a great tool for learning to type words and then hearing them spoken back by the computer. These days, every child wants to be on the computer, it's a sign of the times, and learning computer skills is an important part of the learning process. That said, even the youngest of kids will feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in their abilities to work on the computer and be learning at the same time. I think the statement "WTR puts learners in control of their learning" says it all as far as the importance of this technique, and the music, graphics, and sound they receive while learning makes it that much more fun and enjoyable - lots of rich learning this way. The Calvin cartoon was perfect to make the point of "knowing your kids interests"... it really does make a difference if they can read about things that interest them.

My favorite "Important Fact" is that a child has an absorbent mind from birth to age seven. They have more potential to learn a second language, music, math, and computers. I like the idea that teachers are required to integrate computers into ongoing instruction and make technology a part of the learning process. I think this is so imperative because when I was in elementary school, we rarely used the computers and I don't believe that I got that full experience that students get today. Codey's Literary Success showed great improvement!

I thought the presentation was great. It is amazing to me that some kids could be labeled with such harsh terms. Then, to have those same kids produce such wonderful pieces of writing. I think that if technology was incorporated into more classrooms, then other kids would have the same opportunities that these kids had.

I liked the reference to the computer as a sophisticated pencil. I was shocked to find out how many hours of pre-literacy activities a typical kindergarten student receive compared to at risk students. The presentation was very well put together. I liked all of the great examples of student writing as well as the cartoons. This breaks up the information and makes it easier to process.

I really enjoyed this PowerPoint presentation. All of the information was brief and to the point making me want to write everything down so that I can file it and keep it as a reference. Some of the most interesting points I saw were that literacy begins at age three. I cannot even remember what I was doing at age three but am almost positive that I was related too much to literacy. I always knew that a child's mind is most absorbent when they are young but I did not know that it starts as early as birth and lasts until seven years of age. I never thought too much about why a child's writing is so deformed when they first learn to write. I found it very interesting that it is easier for children to type on a computer because writing with a pencil requires small muscle coordination. I actually thought it would be more difficult for a child to learn the keys on a keyboard. Another interesting statistic that I noticed is that "on target students typically start kindergarten with 3000 hours of pre-literacy activities in the home" while "at rish start with just 50-250 hours of the same activities." My favorite quote is, "Preschool is a gift for a lifetime."

It is quite amazing how powerful a computer can be. I am amazed at how impowering it is for young writers.

I found the power point fantastic and inspiring. It sounds like the Writing to Read project has been successful for many children and schools. One of my favorite quotes from the presentation was "The value of technology is knowing how to use it to learn."
Great insight!

I hope you all will become computer using educators empowering each of your students just like Codey!