Katie Horne
Multimodal Learning for the 21st Century Adolescent
Chapters 2-3
The reading today introduced me to incorporate multimodal strategies for vocabulary development and reading comprehension. Overall there are a variety of websites teachers can use to support vocabulary development. As teachers though, we need to evaluate their authenticity and make sure they have a valid purpose for use in the classroom. Some of the websites include Freerice, VoyCabulary, Babel Fish, Wordle. Freerice would be a good website as a beginning of class or end of class activity. The teacher puts the website up and students chose the meaning of the word. For every right answer, 10 grains of rice is donated to the United Nations World Food Program. Babel Fish will translate a website or block of text. This is a great resource for ESL students. Students need to be engaged in vocabulary learning in many ways: explicit teaching, vocabulary learning strategies, and wide reading. As this book is about "multimodal", vocabulary learning is not one-dimensional.
As for reading comprehension, this chapter introduced two new strategies that I can take into my classroom next year: talking drawings and polar opposites. Talking drawings is kind of similar to a KWL. Instead, students create an image related to a topic and write down information they know. Then they complete research and then redo their drawing with the new information they learned. Unlike a KWL, students recreate their drawing, not just add to it. The other strategy is polar opposites. Teachers create a statement that can be found on a continum and students put an X near the end that is closer to their views. Once a text is read, students learn the information and are able to synthesize the information. Unlike with the vocabulary chapter, there was less of a focus on websites for teachers to use.
The strategies I used were highlighting main ideas and important concepts; rereading; skimming; and annotations. After our discussion, we came to some of the same conclusions as the day before. While many of these websites, especially for vocabulary, are attractive, we as teachers need to evaluate their authenticity and purpose. We struggled to understand the purpose behind Wordle. Babel Fish is a great resource for all students--especially ESL students and students who are learning a new language. VoyCabulary allows students to link to a dictionary online and learn new words. Another website I enjoy using is a visu-dictionary where the words are related visually. One of the main concepts this book really drives at is presenting information in multiple ways; however, sometimes we need to step back and not overload our students. Their lives these days are in technological overload and while presenting information and activities in a variety of modes is good, we need to remember not to overload them!
The talking drawing sounds like a good alternative for some students who find it difficult to write what they are thinking. I know some students love to draw and can be very expressive through drawing while other students would hate to draw. This would be a good place to give choices, because as you stated, it is very similar to the KWL chart.
ReplyDeleteIf your group finds an effective website for vocabulary, I would love to hear about it because like you, most of the sites out there are just for fluff and do not provide authentic experiences.
Great idea for using Freerice as a class. I struggle with the vocab programs on the computer because I don't have computers in my classroom. I did not think about using for a whole class activity.
ReplyDeleteI am teaching two ELL classes next year and plan to look at Babel Fish. Thanks for the websites!
I think I would like to try the talking drawing strategy as a another choice for my SLD students to plan their writing. I agree with not overloading students with information or just using technology that too fluffy just for the sake of incorporating technology.
ReplyDeleteI would have never thought about using a website to work with vocabulary like the ones you mentioned. As a social studies teacher, I was really intrigued about the website involving the United Nations Food Fund. Do most of the sites involve using one computer or does every kids need a computer? Thanks for sharing some of these websites.
ReplyDeleteI use a lot of vocabulary instruction in my reading class so it is great to get some new resources. I especially like the idea of Freerice as it helps students develop a global view. My reading kids read "Iqubal", which is about a boy in Pakistan who is sold as a child slave, and really liked it. They initially struggled with understanding poverty level in the book and I think this website might help them develop some empathy.
ReplyDeleteThe talking drawings are a MUCH better instructional tool than KWL. KWLs have been so overdone, and usually students never actually fill in the "learn" section.
ReplyDelete