iPad Apps for Middle School Literacy Project

I will be working with a school who is instituting a one-to-one iPad project with seventh graders in January.  I am considering recommending apps from the list below. I am asking what you think about the selection, as well as any additional apps you think are essential that are not on my list or ones on the list you would not recommend. 

Thanks. I am so much smarter with your help:)

Mary Ann


Art Making, Creating/Remixing and Photography
100Cameras (1.99)
Animation Creator (1.99)
Camera + (.99)
Comic Life (4.99)
Downcasts (Free)
Garage Band (4.99)
Hipstamatic (1.99)
iMovie (4.99)
iPhoto (4.99)
iStop Motion for iPad (9.99)
iTalk Premium (1.99)
Instagram (Free)
Learnist (Free)
Photo Collage Creator (Free)
SketchBook Pro (2.99)
Synchronous Camera (Free)
Videolicious (Free)

Audio /Video/Written Text for Consumption
Amazon Instant Video (Free)
iBooks (Free)
Kindle (Free)
Netflix (Free)
Pandora (Free)
Stitcher (Free)

Communication and Assisted Learning
Dragon Dictation (Free)
Speak it! Text to Speech (1.99)

Tap to Talk (Free)
Tiny Vox Pro (Free)

Content-Related Apps/Books/Literary Works
Alice in New York (3.99)
City Blossoms (1.99)
Constitution (Free)
Declaration of Independence (Free)
Free Books - 23, 469 Classics To Go (Free)
Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War (4.99)
Gettysburg (.99)
Google Earth (Free)
Greek Gods (Free)
Here On Earth (11.99)
History 3D - Civil War (1.99)
iPoe, Vol. 1 (3.99)
iPoe, Vol. 2 (3.99)
Literary Analysis Guide (3.99)
My Congress (Free)
Our Choice:  A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis (4.99)
Poetry Creator (Free)
Science 360 (Free)
Shakespeare in Bits: A Midsummer Night's Dream (14.99)
Shakespeare in Bits: Romeo and Juliet (14.99)
Star Walk (2.99)
The Elements: A Visual Exploration (13.99)
Word Mover (Free)
Writing Prompts (1.99)

News/Public Radio
Flipboard (Free)
NPR for iPad (Free)
This American Life (2.99)
This I Believe (.99) or This I Believe Podcast (Free)

Productivity
Doodlecast Pro (3.99)
Dropbox (Free)
Evernote (Free)
GoodReader (4.99)
Google (Free)
JotNot Scanner (.99)
Keynote (9.99)
MindNode (9.99)
Noteshelf (5.99)
Numbers (9.99)
Pages (9.99)
Paper by Fifty-Three (Free)
Pearltrees (Free)
Prezi Viewer (Free)
QR Reader (Free)
Show Me Interactive Whiteboard (Free)
Sticky Notes (Free)

Reference
Google Earth (Free)
iTunes U (Free)
WolframAlpha (3.99)

Social Media
Skype (Free)
Twitter (Free)

Intervening in Reading Difficulties with Adolescents

I am experimenting.

At a school site where I am consulting I have been hired to work with middle school students--the majority of whom are unable to access the necessary skills, strategies and dispositions to read with power.  These students have met with significant failure and many have experienced retention.  I spent  8 hours yesterday teaching one-to-one while their teacher observed. Between students we conferred as I made notes about each child. During this process, I began to use my iPad and not surprising, the results were significant.  Young teens with very faulty alphabetic knowledge began building item knowledge as they worked with a few apps. The students' intensity (no ADHD in sight as they focused keenly for 30 to 45 minutes) demonstrated a few things:

1. The students met with actual academic success (something in short supply given their school histories).
2. They built item knowledge necessary to read.
3. They revealed a brightness and capacity to learn that teachers often have not seen. Revealing students' intellectual promise is the most critical work we need to do.

I will be posting more as I learn.  The beginning impressions though are rather positive.

Curious if others have used the iPad as an intervening reading tool with severely behind middle school readers.  Would love to hear from you.

Thanks!!

Recommended Apps to Develop Children's Foundational Reading Skills

I used my iPad/iPhone the past five weeks teaching young children how to read. In this post, I highlight a few specific apps I used with children to help them acquire and/or strengthen foundational skills for reading. It is important to note that I did not need to do much (if any) direct instruction related to how to use these apps even though none of the children had ever seen an iPad before. 

Oral Language/Story Development

iTalk Recorder Premium: I used this app with children to record stories they spontaneously told in order to help them to develop their oral language. The finished products also served as an important informal assessment. Working alone and in self-formed groups, children told stories and then listened to their story. I also had students retell read aloud texts they had heard their teachers read using the text to help them retell the story. It was fascinating to hear what children had to say.  The audio file can be emailed.  ($1.99)


Doodlecast for Kids: Children used Doodlecast to tell stories or explain a process as they drew using the prompts at times. This app records the children's voices as they draw. The finished drawing and recording can be shared and/or published. Again I used this for oral language development and students drew and told stories with and without the prompts provided by Doodlecast. ($1.99)

Letter Formation, Letter and Sound

IntroToLetters: Children learn to trace (will not let the child trace the letter incorrectly), read, write and record letter sounds, names, and phonograms.  Nicely done. ($4.99)

AlphabetTracing: Children follow a train, worm, or truck in order to trace upper, lowercase letters and numbers.  A potential limitation with the app is that a child may trace the letter incorrectly. In some ways this may be important in that it allows approximation that can be corrected. What I noticed was that the children I worked with began to copy the train and form the letters correctly after they had an understanding of the app.  This is a good intro to letter formation.  There is also a picture provided for each symbol. (Free)

Sight Words

Sight Words:  The children loved using this Teacher Created Materials app. I have the full version (300 words) and it allowed me to select a range of words to fit each specific child.  Each word can be heard and is written by the child and then the child also records his/her voice reading the word.  After five words there is a review practice via a game (tic-tac-toe, concentration, hangman, sentence writing, etc.). I watched children acquire sight word knowledge and retain it and do so with joy.  ($9.99)



Interactive Books

Using some very easy interactive books (those children selected), students learned about one-to-one matching, return sweep, sight words, while adding schema.
Some favorite books included:

Boats  - Byron Barton ($1.99)
Planes - Byron Barton ($1.99)
It's Tyrannosaurus Rex - Smithsonian Institute ($2.99)
Three Little Pigs - Nosy Crow version ($5.99)
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed - Produced by Oceanhouse Media ($2.99)

Preventing Reading Difficulties through Interactive Apps and iPads

One of the challenges in conducting high intensity literacy groups where guided reading, guided phonics, and guided writing is conducted by a teacher with a small group of learners--is the quality of engagements that the other children are doing during these 20-minute lessons. Learning centers are only as viable as how well children are able to independently or buddy learn. With a handful of iPads loaded with specific apps, robust learning centers aimed at preventing reading difficulties can be realized in primary grades.  Here's a few examples.

1. Alphabetic Center/Phonics

The goal at this center is for children to acquire knowledge of letters, letter formation, and their representative sounds.  ABC Pocket Phonics allows children to practice segmenting phonemes and representing sounds with letters.

Word Wagon is my favorite.


 

Montessori Letter Sound HD
iWrite Words
 

ABC Pocket Phonics



2. Oral Language, Writing Development and Storytelling

At this center, children work by drawing on the iPad and explaining a process or information they have learned. Using the screen casting app, Doodlecast, the children talk and explain what they are doing/understanding.  The screen cast below was made at Dan Callahan's (@dancallahan) school in Massachusetts.  When I watched it the first time I thought about all the potential oral language development that occurred as children gathered their ideas, wrote their sentences, drew and read what they had written. In the video below, first grade children from Dan's school are explaining important parts of the flower. In many ways they are composing a beginning essay.





Toontastic is an app that supports the creation of animated cartoons.  Through play, children are able to draw and animate their stories and then share those stories.  The app comes with backgrounds and characters and children can also draw their own characters. I especially like the possibility of oral language development (especially when children are working in partnership with one another) as children create their story and how story structure can be learned through play. 



StoryRobe is a storytelling app that allows you to use images, film, and audio to tell a story. It is very simple to use. I like the idea of using StoryRobe as a way for students to more authentically retell stories or to illustrate processes.  Both can be done well. 

Voice Thread: The Voice Thread app allows students to import images, record their voice, and share and allows others to respond.

3. Sight Words
Sight Words 1 - 300: Kids Learn by Teacher Created Materials allows children to hear the words, practice writing the words, record the words with playback, and use the words in activities such as sentence building.  The games are designed to build automaticity (i.e., tic-tac-toe). The first twenty-five words (typical of kindergarten) is sold for free.



4. Fluency

Echo reading:  Having students listen to an interactive text on an iPad and 'echo' read each section of text (preferably what is on one page). This technique can help children to build fluency, accuracy, and expression.




Repeated reading (Samuels, 1979) of a prepared short text can help children to build fluency by matching their voice as they read and reread. Directing children to record their reading using the Voice Memos app or any other recording app you have also is beneficial and allows you an opportunity to hear how their reading changes.  I also like to record a reading of the text for students to hear who would benefit from matching their voice to a reader's with directions to lower the volume each time they reread so that by the fourth rereading they are only hearing their own voice.  Using seen text at the learning station can help to insure that the reader knows all of the words and isn't practicing errors.

4. Comprehension

ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard App
Using the ShowMe app, a teacher can prepare a how-to lesson or directions/prompts that students can view and interact with during a center time.  As students become familiar with the ShowMe app, students can use this app to make their own explanation video.  I made this ShowMe as an example of how I might prompt students to use the 3, 2, 1 strategy while reading informational text. It took me a minute to make.

A Few Essential iPhone Photography Apps

There are lots of apps that can be used to make images.  Here are a few I have been playing with lately.

Made with iPhone, processed with FX PhotoStudio app.

Made with TtV camera app, Argus02

Made with iPhone Camera, processed with Instagram app.

Made with Hipstamatic App.

Made with Hipstamatic App.

Made with Nikon D80, processed with Lo-Mob app.

Made with iPhone, processed with TtV app, Brownie01.

Made with TtV Camera app, Rolleiflex02

Made with iPhone Camera and processed with PictureShow app.

Made with iPhone Camera and processed with  Instagram app.

Made with TtV Camera App, Minolta Filter.

Made with Nikon D300  & processed with Instagram App

What Value is there in Using iPod Touches, iPod Nanos, FlipCameras, and iPads in School? Answering the Bureaucrat

14 months ago I left behind a professorship at a private college in NY and joined a public school PreK-12 system in NJ.  During this time period more than 700 Internet ready devices (iPod touches, laptops, netbooks, iPads) have been added to the high school, all of the district schools have been made wireless, and technology restrictions regarding what technology middle and high school students can bring to school and use (such as smartphones and other Internet ready devices) have been lifted.   These purchases, infrastructure changes, and policy revisions represent a commitment of public funds and public trust.  As such, the reasoning behind these acquisitions ought to be transparent.

I have found that it is not unusual then that I am asked by someone (such as auditors and state government types) to justify the purchases of iPods (Touch and Nano), flip cameras, and now iPads.  These are not mean spirited requests, but rather inquiries asking me to explain the purchases given the volume I have purchased and the funding sources I have used. I always dash off a response to satisfy the request as I am often in the middle of something that feels more pressing.  Tonight though, I have some time and thought a more thorough response might be in order, along with a request to those of you who read  this blog post to add your thoughts.

So how do we make use of iPod touches, iPod Nanos, iPads, e-readers (Kindle, Sony Reader) netbooks, laptops, flipcameras, IPEVO USB document cameras, as well as net-based services such as Web Design, software such as  Mathematica and Read-Write Gold, and many, many apps to name but a few?

We have dynamite administrators/supervisors, librarians/teachers, students, and computer techs/teachers who work collaboratively to try out hardware, apps, and software and then formally and informally teach one another.  Their work helps us to consider which apps we might want to ensure are on all devices (or most) and which ones will be reserved for more idiosyncratic uses. Some common uses of the iPod touch and iPad include serving as Internet ready devices that students use in the course of their learning. These on demand devices allow students to consume information and to use Web 2.0 apps and software to produce work.  They also allow for students to connect with others in the class and beyond the class through iChat, skype, twitter, ning, wiki, and email.

In weeks to come several teachers and supervisors will be guest bloggers and provide a more detail accounting as to the ways they engage learners and the technology they use to do so.   For now, I am going to simply list some of the ways these technologies are used to enhance, deepen, and complicate learning.

Students & Teachers use:

1. Internet ready devices to connect to others.
2. iPod touches and MacBooks to make podcasts.
3. iPod touches, iPads, Sony Readers, and Kindles to read/listen to text and use Read,Write & Gold to create readable texts to hear.
4. iPod touches in world language class to record dialogues in the target language and share the audio files with peers and their teacher who respond in the target language.
5. many, many different apps on the iPod touch and the iPad such as: DropBox, Evernote, Star Walk, Tweet Deck, iBooks, Kindle App, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Google (docs, gmail, calendar, blogger, etc.), Dragon Dictation, Dragon Search, Brushes, SoundHound, Pandora, Civilization Revolution, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Flipbook, Side by Side, The Elements A Visual Exploration, Free Books, You Tube, TED, Good Reader, Google Earth, History: Maps of the World.
6. netbooks, iPads, and laptops to blog.
7. laptops (and desktops) to edit film/images, produce weekly television broadcasts, make digital stories and Animoto films & post finished work on the Internet.
8. any handheld device to access podcasts in order to review and/or strengthen learning.
9. any handheld device to access how to videos and use jing to make videos.
10. laptops to access Mathematica.
11. any Internet ready device to access Web Assign and Moodle.
12. iMacs to make music.
13. MacBooks to run business simulations, make slideshows, iMovies, iBooks, run Final Cut Pro for film making.
14. iPod Nanos to film, listen to music.
15. Flip Cameras & digital cameras on field trips to record impressions, make walking poems, create art, record sights and sounds, record interviews.
16. netbooks & laptops to video conference.
17. Internet ready devices to watch film.
18. Internet ready devices to check email.
19. Internet ready devices to surf the web.
20. Internet ready devices to send and receive tweets.
21. iPods/iPads to record lectures.
22. MacBooks to create digital portfolios (upload to iTunes)