For my first iPad lesson I used the app myON. MyON is an educational reading app and website that many schools purchase to help their students increase their reading abilities. In order to access the books through their app and/or website you need to have a username and password. Since you have to pay for a subscription it may not be feasible for you to use this program with your students if your school has not purchased the program. When you log onto myON for the first time it directs you to a interest survey, where students have to choose how they feel about various genres of books. The scale is represented with smiley faces. Once the students have completed the survey and saved the information they will have to take a reading quiz to assess their reading abilities. From their quiz results the program will select books that are at an appropriate instructional reading level for that child. Upon completion of the quiz the student will be free to begin reading. They can choose from various options such as recommended books, genres, and favorites. Students can also type in a book they want to read to see if it is in the system. When a student chooses a book they click read this book and when they click play the iPad or computer will read the book aloud to the student. As the book is read the sentence the automated voice is reading highlights orange and then each individual word turns black. This is a great feature that allows students to not only listen but follow along with the words. If the student doesn't want the book to read to them they can turn off that feature. The book does not automatically turn pages, it is up to the student to click on the next page. Another cool feature of myON is that is tracks the number of hours students spend reading.
The focus for my first lesson was questioning. RL.2.1 was the common core standard covered in this lesson which focuses on the student being able to ask and answer questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how in order to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. The essential question was: I can read a story and answer questions to show my understanding. Besides the iPad other materials included a pencil and comprehension question sheet. Five questions were on the comprehension sheet that helped engage the reader in developing a deeper understanding the of the text just read. The five questions were: Who are the characters?, What is the story mainly about?, Where does the story take place?, When does the story take place?, How did the story begin?
The lesson began by introducing the concept of asking questions as you read and I asked her why she thinks good readers ask questions. Next, I showed her the comprehension question sheet and we read through the questions and discusses them. We then went on myON and she was able to choose a book she wanted to read. She decided to choose a book that she has read before. The title of the book was, Sofia the First: The Amulet and the Anthem. When she opened the book up and downloaded it to the iPad we began reading. She chose the read aloud option so for each page the story read to her. The first time through the story we just listened and I didn't add in any teaching points or make comments about the story we were reading. After hearing the story once, we read through the comprehension question sheet again. This time I told her to pay special attention now as we listen to the story again and as we read I want her to pause the story when she finds an answer to one of the questions. We completed the comprehension sheet during the second reading and not all of the questions were answered in order. We worked on answering them as they appeared in the story.
Throughout the lesson I noticed that creating complete sentences was one of her weaknesses as well as spelling. She was able to articulate the answer but when it came time to write it down she often struggled. I would help her work through her thoughts in order to put down an answer that matched what she would say aloud. As we read through the story the second time working to fill out the question sheet she did a great job with finding the answers within the story and pausing the story when she came across new information to fill in. A teaching point focused on using the words from the question to help us create the beginning of our complete sentence as well as using the words provided to help us with the spelling. I made sure that if the word was in the book or in the question she spelled it correctly. We also worked on making sure we had capital letters in the correct places within our sentences and that we ended with the correct punctuation.
Overall I thought that this iPad lesson was very successful. She was able to listen to a story read aloud which is a great way for her to hear fluency and learn to recognize words within stories. She had a good understanding of the story because she was familiar with it already. We worked through the question sheet together, because she is still not as a level where she can independently complete it. I would recommend myON to anyone who is working with students. It is a great program that allows students of any reading ability to improve their skills. It is tailored to what students need and provides students with a variety of books to read on their own or hear read aloud. I will definitely continue using this app to work with my student as she works on developing her literacy skills.
[Image of book cover]. Retrieved January 30, 2017, from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.capstonedigital
[Image of myON logo]. Retrieved January 30, 2017, from
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.capstonedigital
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