January 19, 2007
Orange County CUE Conference 1/20/07
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Todays Students: Powered Up for Success
Global Communications
Early Literacy Telecommunication Exchange Pilot Project is the first integrated multimedia, multilingual web based system for young children. It is open and evolutionary; young children 4 and over discover and use the written language by creating stories and drawings and share them with other young children across the world;
This exciting global project involves classrooms in four countries; France, USA, Spain, Andorra with potential for many more.
Research over the past fifteen years working with children and computers has brought us new insights into how children learn to write and read in both their first and second language.
We have discovered strategies to help teachers make the maximum use of the new technologies and empower all the children in their classroom.
The collaboration now going on among early literacy classrooms worldwide has expanded our professional community and increased our level of literacy knowledge.
Key goals:
1. Early Literacy telecommunications will allow young children to discover and use the written language in its communication function from the start;
2. Prevent illiteracy and school failure;
3. Encourage the use of technology from the start for writing and reading;
4. Develop international understanding from a young age by introducing a foreign language and enabling cross- cultural exchanges,
5. Enhance interactive collaborative projects between classes located in different parts of the world,
6. Create an E-Learning community of children, their teachers as well as other faculty members and parents.
U.S. Progress
Computers are in the classroom.
However screens are often black, and unused or used as a reward or game only.
Language Processing happens when students think and write directly into the computer daily.
For more information on project, workshops or consulting or to find out about how your school or classroom can participate contact:
Dr. Jean Casey, U.S. coordinator
E-mail: jeancasey@aol.com
http://www.csulb.edu/~casey/
blog: www.casey.com/jean
Dr. Rachel Cohen, Director
96 Rue du Chateau
92100 Boulogne
France
E-mail: rachel.cohen@wanadoo.fr
Tel et Fax: 33/(0) 148 25 03 19
For more information: http://www.csulb.edu/~jmcasey
Success for your students
Creating the Early Literacy Classroom:
The computer when used as a writing tool offers success to all learners.
1) Exploration- Initially students explore the keyboard and type random letters. (this exploration is an essential learning stage.) As they type a key, they see it, hear it and are actively involved in the process of teaching the letters to themselves. (Alphabet recognition has been shown to be an indicator: http:// of reading success.)
2) Encoding, copying known words- Next the students type their name and words familiar to them like Mom...Dad...Ruff....etc.; they also look around their environment for print and type that print into the computer and hear it spoken and see its form and continually search for meaning and patterns in the letters and words they create on the screen.
3) Writing explosion-Finally students begin to put their own thought together with all these words and the explosion of literacy from one sentence on the screen to long stories occurs very rapidly. At this stage the learner needs to hear the teacher read many and varied examples of good literature.
Casey, Jean M. coming out in 2008: Technology in the Twenty-first Century Literacy Classroom: Meeting the
>> Needs of Powered up Students
Casey, Jean M. (2000) Creating the Early Literacy Classroom, Casey, Jean M. (2000) Early Literacy: The Empowerment of Technology, Rev. Edition (2000), Libraries Unlimited, Englewood, CO. to order books: e-mail jeancasey@aol.com or WWW.LU.COM
Casey’s Software Suggestions:
Your goal will be to empower your students through Language Processing, taking their own language experiences and writing them on the computer.
Recommended Software:
Kidworks Deluxe and BookBy You from Knowledge Adventure
http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/booksbyyou/
Write Outloud from Don Johnston Company
Also these web sites:
http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Curriculum/Reading/talkingWord.php#
http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/clicker/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/wiggleworks/classic/index.htm
http://www.waterford.org/index.jsp
http://www.seussville.com/games/storymaker/story_maker.html try this one out!
Or Google: Talking Word processors
Posted by jean at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
Powered up Students of Today
At a conference the key note speaker said he interviewed a boy who said he had to Power-down when he went to school.
The generation today starting at age 4 are learning through technology daily, what happens when they enter a school classroom designed for the industrial revolution with rows and fill-in worksheets? There is not a match between the world they live in and the school that is supposed to prepare them for it.
We as educators must make a difference, make your voice heard. Insist that our classrooms must have the technology available for each child to be empowered in their writing and reading.
Posted by jean at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)