Technology Tuesday Tried It: Reading A-Z

First up, my new Technology Tuesday Tried It revolves around my 1st grade guided reading groups.  Thankfully most of my guided reading groups are able to successfully read the intervention books that come with our Pearson Reading Series, My Sidewalks.  However, one of my groups just has a really difficult time with the stories of the week even with all the extra practice we do with the focus words, phonics skills, etc.  So, as a result, a few weeks ago I decided I needed to switch it up for these friends so that they had a chance to be successful too and not feel so frustrated (and me too!).  Since I knew these friends’ reading levels from our Fountas & Pinnell Assessment, I chose to use our Reading A-Z subscription to find books at their instructional levels. Let me tell you, it has made a world of a difference for these little friends! Not only have the stories been more interesting to them– I’ve been choosing mainly non-fiction text for them- but also they have felt so much more successful with these stories because they aren’t stopping to look at me for help with every other word.  (Thank goodness!) So although these little friends are definitely still below level, I’m loving these Reading A-Z stories because they have been helping my little friends build their skills as readers AND build their confidence- couldn’t ask for more! 

Since we have 1:1 macbooks and several iPads in our room, I haven’t needed to print and make those Reading A-Z books (which I don’t know if you struggle with this too, but making those books for me is a real challenge-ha!).  Instead I have been saving the books as PDFs and having my students read them on their computers or on the iPads (you can check out how I do this on the iPads here in this post). After saving them as PDFs, my little friends are each able to open the stories right on their MacBooks. Our classroom websites run through a system called eChalk which allows our students to log in and see any documents we have uploaded for our activities of the day.  The students can then open the docs right on their computer and even turn them back into us (if there is an assignment attached) on our websites- it’s very cool. 🙂

Monthly Mish Mash & TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale:

This little boy said his Mom is special because…”she is nice.  She is pretty.  She is funny.”

This little girl said her mom is special because…”she is nice and she helps me when I need help.”