Using Instant Messaging to Engage Children with Reading Comprehension

I recently had a great conversation with my teaching colleague Rick about the use of technology to engage children with reading comprehension. This post is about my lesson I taught today as a result of that brief yet productive talk.

Although we have been reasonably successful in addressing how we use our available technology to support the development of times table knowledge, reading comprehension has been much more elusive. This afternoon both Rick and I explored two different ideas we had, regarding the use of technology to engage and support the practice of comprehension skills. 

Rick was using the Flip Cameras in his lesson, he had about 3 available to him and was looking for the children to generate their own questions about a text. After talking with a partner and drafting the question on small whiteboards they recorded the question to camera. When there were a few Rick showed these to the class and worked on modelling the answers and then setting the children off to find the answers in pairs. By all accounts an engaging way to explore text.

Google chat feature in GPres

We have used the discuss tool in Google spreadsheets and presentation chat before to peer review presentations

I worked with a Google Presentation and wanted to engage the children with the text through the use of the instant messaging window that is available. All of my children love using MSN and Google Talk/Chat, it is the one application that they all use very regularly. For two years now both of my Year 5 classes who have been using Google Apps discovered Google Chat in GMail by themselves and have got busy using it.

So how was this all setup? There are some things that we have in place that have helped. Firstly the children are using Google Apps for Education and have a unique login. Secondly we are working in my classroom on laptops.

  1. I created a presentation, which is in effect our text, in my Google account.
  2. I shared the presentation with the class as VIEWERS. This is important as it will mean that the children will immediately see the file in presentation mode and not in editing mode. Loading time was slow today, although once all loaded we had no other problems.
  3. The instant messaging window will open when they click “View with others” (Bottom right hand corner) you will see their names appear in the “VIEWING NOW” box on your own presentation.
  4. We then did some shared reading of the text about Spies and Gadgets. I used the “CONTROL THE PRESENTATION” tool available to me as owner of the document. As I clicked and moved through the presentation everyone’s laptops updated. This was immediate in every case, not bad for sixteen wireless laptops and proved useful for whole class work.
  5. Once we had a good look through the text as a class, and some initial discussion, I then explained the question answer process. I would add a question in the IM window and they needed to navigate to the correct page and respond with their answer, also in the IM window.
  6. As I typed I muted the projector image so kids didn’t get a head start, that was helpful.
  7. The children answered in the IM window and I could see their name with the response showing ownership.

You may be thinking that some children may just look at other people’s answers. I talked to the class about this and encouraged them to engage with the text themselves, nevertheless seeing their peers answers proved a valuable function of this group IM session. Children were commenting on other answers and it caused some to question their own accuracy if they saw something different.

Of course there was the odd smiley! But that is what the children do when they IM, I was kind of entering their world. It is a delicate balance. I want to harness the engagement that IM brings and yet not make it too schooly so they switch off. I ensured that when they answered anything all of our usual literacy standards applied and the class responded well to that.

We worked on about 10 questions together and all of the children were totally engaged and motivated to find the answers and use the IM to form their response. They also maintained this engagement for considerably longer then when we work with paper and pencil.

As the answers rolled in I was able to immediately give feedback to different children, asking them to look again at what they had written. One particular question about the reasons why we use tables to present information caused the children to respond about the content and not the purpose. I discussed with the whole class what the correct answer might be, gave the children the start of the sentence in the chat window and asked them to answer again.

Beyond this one lesson I think that if the children were to use the Google Talk client then we could be looking at a variety of different texts and not just something created in Google Presentation. With the chat window open and a website or film playing it would allow us even more flexibility. In fact it could work with any other type of available application.

My target in the lesson was to engage the children with reading comprehension using technology we use in our classroom. I think we did that. It is taking what the children enjoy doing and harnessing that engagement, attempting to merge and utilise the skills they use outside of school to impact on their engagement with their learning. 

I Bought a Nit Comb

In last Sunday’s EdTechRoundup meeting I briefly invited my fellow educators to comment about whether I should move this blog to a self hosted one or to stick where I am. In this post I just want to articulate some of my thoughts about this issue for me and hopefully act as a place for further debate.

I have been using Edublogs since the Summer of 2006, when I first got going. There have been ups and down(time)s but overall I have been really happy with the simplicity of the service. Any minor issues I had were dealt with in the forums by James and his colleagues.

My blog, this space has been fantastic for me to explore ideas and to reflect on what is happening in my classroom. I see such a space as being part and parcel of what I do now. I am very, very grateful to those of you who read what I publish and leave comments – the conversation and connections here were the start of my own personal learning network or whatever term you prefer. But…

I was disappointed about how Edublogs introduced the adverts and how intrusive they are on the very words I wrote. In my opinion I also think that some of the blog and forum objections that were posted have been responded to in an aggressive manner. This made me question whether I should roll up my tent.

However Edublogs, a hosted service, has given me the opportunity to focus on writing about learning technology, the successes and failures and not to get caught up in the tinkering behind the scenes. I want that in the future. I don’t want to be lumbered with constant maintenance and endless WP/hosting issues. I just want to go to my blog and write. But then if I move that, I am told could be easily setup.

I also have the question about the momentum that has been built regarding this space. I don’t have thousands of subscribers but it seems lots of my posts have been linked to by a few people. I value all of those connections and realise that some of the material I have written has proven valuable – I don’t want to jeopardise that. But then it is only a little blog and people would find directions to my new home.

You may have noticed that I have paid for the ads to be removed. I needed to buy a nit comb and just get rid of them. I appreciate the service Edublogs provides and whilst I figure out what to do with this space I wanted it to be free from ads for me and for those who read it.

I am still undecided and would appreciate your thoughts.

I know this has been hotly debated and I am not looking for a repeat of the “Ads or Not” debate, just whether I should move or stay put?

Confident, Social, Inquisitive

A year ago when I was talking to my class about Twitter they all looked at me as if I was MAD! Last week I did much the same thing with a different bunch of 9 and 10 year olds and, things have changed – only about half of them looked at me as if I was totally BARMY!

So what has been the difference? What has changed so much in the last year to effect children in my class?

Simply put, I think there has been a huge increase in the number of times Twitter has been referred to in mainstream media. I have heard Radio 1 DJs discussing it and I even saw Chris Moyles’ Twitter account when he had 55 followers, later that day he had 55,000! Our local commercial radio here in Nottingham has also been on about it – on the same day I heard both the morning and drivetime show talking about Twitter.

Jump on the social media bandwagon

Photo credit to Matt Hamm

This is of course just part of the bigger picture for our kids but I think it makes a huge difference. My class are confident, social, inquisitive internet users who will happily explore new resources and sites. About 10 percent knew about Facebook and had been using Mum’s or bigger sister’s/brother’s account.

The “older sibling effect” is an interesting one. Although it may only effect a percentage of my class their awareness of these social networking sites has been raised by those in Year 7, 8 and 9 who are regular users. Combined with the fact that social media seems to be becoming less “fringe” makes our 9 year olds much more aware.

So is it up to us in primary education to teach and guide the children on how to use these appropriately? I think it is.

Not many of my class could actually explain what Twitter was, or indeed Facebook, which at best was “a place to look at pictures of your friends and class mates.” I don’t think my class is particularly different from those around the country, and so next year I can probably expect even more children knowing about these sites as I think even more mainstream space will be filled by them.

Unless the mainstream of primary education addresses this then children’s awareness and use of social media will always be (as it is now) 10, 20, 1000 steps ahead of the type of education they are entitled to. I am not talking about lessons on how to get the most from your Facebook account for 9 year olds, but time to raise their awareness. An opportunity for us to show positive examples, to build their knowledge and understanding and help them make better choices in the future.

Do you have a class of primary children? Do they know about Twitter, Facebook and social networking sites? How can our curriculum best adapt to these changing times? Can it?!

Flippin' Nora!

We have been using the Flip mino cameras in our school for just over a week. Yesterday I quickly gathered some ideas together about how teachers were using them. This is what I got back from our staff.

Nursery and Foundation
Used in the role play area in classroom and for speaking and listening activities
Useful for assessment and collecting evidence for Foundation Stage Profiling
Will be taken on trips to the farm and then review the footage to support with some writing back in the class.

Year 1
Recorded Victorian Day in school and used for recount writing.
Created a set of instructions for using the Flip cameras – instructional writing in literacy.
Staff / TAs have created talking stories.

Year 2
Filmed the children making salads (DT) which was linked to literacy and science – using the films to write instructions.
Used to film animals (pets) for use in describing animals in poetry.
Further filming of children in dance/drama lessons will support the animal poetry.

Year 3
Children filmed making 3D structures from Nets – watched back to support instruction writing.
Documented trip to Perlethorpe outdoor activity centre and Viking drama workshop in school.

Year 4
Used for drama roleplay and reviewing their performances.
Used as a recording method for a science experiment on the best insulating material – “How to keep snow cold” (!!!)

Year 5
Learning interviews during maths, by children and teacher/TA asking for children to explain their methods or strategies in their work.
To support DT instructions and sequencing of skills.
Documented trip to Perlethorpe outdoor activity centre, children given cameras to interview their peers during the day – footage used in Moviemaker back in school to make recount films of the day.
Recording and review of storytelling work in class – refining the process. Children record each other and then watch back, repeat and refine.

Year 6
Shape TV children interview each other in the role of a quadrilateral.
Filmed science experiements and the childrens predictions of the results.
Timed talks in literacy on a specific subject – practice interviewing each other.

And that is just 7 days.

Along with handing out the cameras in the last staff meeting I pointed them towards the growing Pocket Video Tips presentation that is currently up to 35 ideas. I hope you have found something there to make a start yourself, I know we have. 

One last idea I have had is to arrange a Film Festival type staff meeting, perhaps on a theme such as “Learning” (I know not particularly original!) – I will be inviting staff to choose one piece of footage to show the rest of the staff and to explain about their decision to share it. I might even get some red carpet and a tux. Beyond ideas for using video, it will just be a great way to share what is going on in different classrooms.