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Technology & Literacy:
Supporting the Diverse Needs of Students
at the Secondary Level, Grades 7-12
Presented by Julie Coiro
Literacy Initiative Professional Development Series at SERC
January 14, 2003
Enhancing Traditional Comprehension Activities with Technology
- Two-level concept maps
- Electronic Anticipation Guides
- Outlining and Prewriting
- Cloze Activities Software with Text-to-Speech Support
ACTIVITY 1: Two-Level Concept Maps
For this activity, select either the Presidential Election Thematic Unit Vocabulary or the Plains Indians Textbook Vocabulary and use Inspiration to create a two level concept map. Work with your partners to develop a map that reflects your team's collaborative understanding of these concepts.
Inspiration Software as a
Strategic Literacy Tool
We'll be completing the Vocabulary Concept Web during our sesssion together. Below, you'll find an example of a Vocabulary Concept Web activity as well as other applications for using Inspiration's outlining and graphics tools to support reading and writing development.
You may also be interested in an Inspiration Basics Tutorial or Inspiration's website that provides several examples of what can be created with the software as well as a link to download a free 30-day trial.
Mapping Out Thematic Units with Inspiration
Presidential Election: Activity 1
This vocabulary activity should be completed prior to students reading the chapter to find out how much they know about the important concepts that will be introduced in this chapter. The purpose at this point is to generate active student discussion with the terms they will encounter and to work collaboratively to sort and link the terms in some way. It is OK if the resulting "web" is not completely accurate, AS LONG AS students then return to the same web after reading to reconstruct their idea web to more accurately reflect the way the terms are used in the textbook chapter. This type of activity works best when students complete it with at least one partner; the more people in a group, however, the more difficult this task becomes (as all students are expected to come to a consensus before creating their ultimate idea web). If students are not familiar with a term, they are asked to make an educated guess what other terms it may be related to. Again, after reading, they can go back and "fix" their web. Plains Indians (textbook chapter)
Responding to Content Area Texts with Inspiration
Plains Indians: Textboook Activity 1
For other examples, see Making Connections conference grid.
ACTIVITY 2: Exploring Anticipation Guides
How does this traditional reading tool help develop strong readers?
An anticipation guide is a series of statements, usually between five and ten, to which students must respond individually before reading a certain text. The statements are designed in such a way as to activate thought about particular events, ideas, plots or issues that will be introduced in the text about to be read. Having students engage in these thoughts before reading prepares them to read as more active participants. They get a sense of the major ideas they will encounter in the text, and they have an opportunity to reflect and respond to these ideas individually before being influenced by the group. (Read more at Julie's Suite101 article.)
For this activity, you'll complete the following tasks:
- Independently complete the Anticipation Guide for the online article from Scholastic about Child Labor. Then choose one question and take a few minutes in your small group to share each person's response and supporting statement to that question.
- Notice that you could also have students interacting with important vocabulary terms within an Inspiration word sort activity.
- Explore two types of interactive electronic anticipation guides to...
Another traditional example of an anticipation guide can be found to accompany the tradebook Baseball Saved Us. Explore additional anticipation guide resources at KidReach Online Reading Center.
- easily access related resources that may enrich background knowledge
- concretely see the connections between text, self, and world issues
ACTIVITY 3: Outlining and Prewriting with Insipiration
For this activity, you'll complete the following tasks:
- Open the outline template file and work with your small group to locate the main ideas that correspond with your assigned chapter heading. Then drag each main idea beneath it's correct chapter heading.
- Try adding text to the outline to use your outline as a pre-writing template that you can eventually import into Microsoft Word.
Plains Indians: Textbook Activity 2
This outline of important details was constructed as a template in Inspiration by a teacher after reading a textbook chapter. Students are asked to rearrange the details listed below the main heading ideas based on information they read in the chapter. They can complete this as they read the chapter with a partner, or they can complete it after they read the chapter (with a partner or independently). After the details have been sorted, a class discussion will be held to see if everyone is in agreement about how the chapter is organized. Student can then use the Inspiration's outline tools to expand on the details, rewording phrases into complete sentences and/or restructuring the main idea and details into summary paragraphs. Students can also print out the final outline and use it as they study for a test.
Missing Links (from Sunburst Productions)
- With this software, students can practice cloze activities within leveled fiction and non-fiction passages. You can import text from any source to use in these activities or you can create your own texts for students. The program keeps score, provides reinforcement and can be formatted to best meet the needs of students with diverse reading abilities in your classroom.
- If reading electronic text is a problem for students, try using supports available with TextAloud MP3, available free for 30 days or purchase a license for under $30!
