Dripread Book...

I chose to read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for my daily reading subscription.

Five Minute Emailed Book Reflection

I chose to have the book, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, emailed to me daily through dripread.com.  Currently, I’ve received and read 30 of 264 emails.  One thing I like about reading a book this way is that I don’t have to devote a long period of time to reading a book.  With the demands of taking care of a newborn, reading a book for pleasure is difficult to do.  I also like the ease of receiving the book through email.  I don’t even have to download the text, as it appears directly in the body of the email.  However, a drawback to this method of reading is that the plot can become somewhat choppy.  Also, it can be difficult to remember what I read the day before because I only read a small portion of the book.  Some days I re-read the previous day’s email or waited and combined several days’ reading into one session.  Also, because I’m only reading five minutes of text a day, it will take me months to finish one book.  Overall, I am enjoying the experience as something new I tried.  Whether or not I’ll read another book this way is still undecided.

Technology-Enhanced Literature Circles

I use Literature Circles in my 3rd grade classroom every year.  They are a great way to provide students with opportunities to discuss texts while cooperative learning skills.  In past years, I incorporated the technology aspect into my literature circles by allowing the students to use Glogster.  They each created a "glog" (poster) of a character in the book and described the character's traits.  Each student's glog was unique and personalized.  We then shared the glogs as a class.  They thoroughly enjoyed using this technology as part of their literature circle experience.  Unfortunately, Glogster now requires you to pay to have more than one user on an account, so I've been unable to use this website this year.


Another idea for a technology-enhanced literature circle that I could use with my students is to have the "Word Wizard" (Vocabulary Elaborator) create a word cloud (on wordle.net) to highlight some of the text's vocabulary.  At the same time, the group's "Discussion Director" (Discussion Coordinator) could use the computer to type up questions to discuss with his/her classmates.  The "Artful Artist" (Graphic Illustrator) could use the Paint program on the computer to illustrate a scene in the book, while the "Passage Picker" (Background Researcher) uses the internet to research information about the background of the story.


These are just some of the ways that I would incorporate a technology-enhanced literature circle into my classroom.

Jacksonville Public Library

For this assignment, I visited the Main Library and the Mandarin Library branches.  Both of these visits were informative and enlightening, as I learned a lot about what the Jacksonville Public Library has to offer.
The Special Needs Library at the Main branch has a variety of resources for individuals with disabilities.  They have assistive technology devices such as computers with ZoomText, a VideoEye machine, and a Sorenson Video Relay System (VRS).  Other resources offered by the Special Needs library are the Kurzweil 3000 text-to-speech software and a JAWS screen-reading tool.  The library also has an extensive collection of Talking Books available for use free of charge.

There were several individuals using the Special Needs Library's services when I visited.  One gentleman was using a computer with screen magnification software enabled.  Another person was utilizing the OpenBook scanning and reading software.

Other services offered by the Special Needs library are monthly Closed Captioning Movie Series for individuals with hearing impairments and a Described Movie Series for those with visual impairments.  The library also has a newsletter and a blog.

Talking Books

Talking Books Player

Sorenson VBS

ZoomText Computer

VideoEye System

Talking Book Cassette

I also visited my local library branch, the Mandarin Library on Kori Road.  This visit was in the evening, therefore there were many adults and children enjoying all the library has to offer.  This is an older library branch and therefore doesn't have all the "bells and whistles"that some of the other branches do.  However, updates have been made recently, such as the self-checkout machine.  This branch has two meeting rooms (one is actually a conference room).   

 

 

One of the services offered by this branch is an ESL Conversation Club that meets every Monday at 10:00am to practice conversational English skills.  The branch also hosts weekly storytime sessions for kids and families.  The library also hosts movie nights, guest reader visits, and various book clubs.  The meeting rooms are reserved for things such as tutoring, club meetings, as well as a voting precinct.  Tax assistance services and forms are also available at the branch.  An internet class for beginners is offered this month as well.  The Mandarin branch also has activities specific to teenage patrons, such as movie nights and an SAT Prep class.   

February's Schedule of Events and the Mandarin Branch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jacksonville Public Library's website is also a great resource.  It offers resources for readers of all ages, such as a newsletter, online bookstore, and access to ebooks available for download.

Low Tech Writing Kit

These items can assist students who have difficulty with writing.

Item #1: Erasers with grips. This item is useful because the grip can help students get a handle on the erasers for better functionality.  It was found at Staples for $2.99 (4-pack).

Item #2: Pencil grips. This item is commonly used in classrooms.  It is very helpful for students who have difficulty gripping pencils.  It also softens the area where the pencil is held, which helps those students who grip the pencil too tightly, creating calluses.  It was found at Staples for $2.49 (10-pack).

Item #3: Lettering guides. This kit includes stencils of various sizes in letters (upper- and lowercase) and numbers.  It can be useful for helping students work on writing letters and numbers properly. The fact that it's a stencil makes it so that the user stays inside the line.  An activity for this kit would be to write using the stencils for practice and then removing the stencils and writing without assistance.  This item was found at Staples for $4.99 (4-pack).