Teaching Literacy and Mathematics with Technology

Okay so I really loved all the literacy websites that I explored. They were all engaging, meaningful, and directly tied to core. I can't wait to use them in my class. One that I focused on in particular was the Word Blender from the Phonics section of Internet4Classrooms.

Content: Kindergarten, Standard 3, Objective 4: Orally segment words into word parts, specifically indicator b: segment words into onset and rime

Pedagogy: Phonological and phonemic awareness are critical to students future reading success. Part of phonics is the ability to break down words into their individual sounds (phonemes), into word families, into onsets and rimes, etc. If we want to successfully teach children how to read and write, they have to master phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics. If we are able to do this in meaningful and engaging ways, the children will naturally learn, see the relevance of it to their lives, and progress in the literacy development.

Technology: There is a great website called the word blender. On the left side are three onsets (in the one I used, the were sp-, t-, and ch-) and on the right side are three rimes (-in, -ill, and -eck). The word blender would ask you tell you a word (spill), and then ask you, "What does it start with?" This helps the student think about segmenting the word to determine its beginning sound. After clicking the sp-, the blender asked me what it ends with. Again, the child reflects on the rime and clicks on -ill. Then the blender very enthusiastically syas, "It's b-b-b-blending time!" It makes funny faces and noises and it blends the word and then shows you the complete word: SPILL. Then it moves onto the next word.


I think this website it great because not only is it fun and exciting, but it directly links back to the core content and the pedagogy goals. I also like how all the onsets can go with all the rimes so children will have an easier time grouping the words into word families, seeing rhyming words, seeing alliteration, etc.

Unfortunately, I was not so lucky with math. I honestly tried pulling up different virtual manipulatives from the three different websites for over an hour but my computer kept freezing over and over so I was unable to complete it. However, I would have chosen to focus on Kindergarten Standard 3, Objective 3: Collect and organize simple data. I would have used the bar chart from the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives to have the students graph their findings after conducting some sort of survey.

For example, the students could ask a question related to project work we are completing in class or anything else they are interested in. Say we ask people what kind of pets they own. The students can collect the answers of different people, count how many people own each kind of pet, and then use the bar chart to organize their data.

There is also a pie chart that we can use to organize the data. Unfortunately, I don't have screen shots for either of these because my computer kept freezing. I don't know what else to do to fix that little problem.

I think this would be a good activity because anything that naturally contects the content, pedagogy, and technology seems pretty effective to me. And there is that natural connection. Also, I think that project work and other surveys that the children are interested in draw students into the activity, keep them interested and engaged, and make the learning experience more meaningful. And I think they'd really enjoy seeing their results all graphed out for them...it makes it more tangible to them and it's knowledge that they can share with others.