TPE C: Engaging and supporting students in learning

C. Engaging and Supporting Students in Learning
TPE 4: Making Content Accessible

• Addressing state-adopted academic content standards
• Prioritizing and sequencing content
• Selecting and using various instructional strategies, activities, and resources to facilitate student learning
  

TPE 5: Student Engagement

• Understanding of academic learning goals
• Ensuring active and equitable participation
• Monitoring student progress and extended student thinking

TPE 6: Developmentally Appropriate Teaching Practices (grades 4-8 and 9-12)

• Understanding important characteristics of the learners
• Designing instructional activities
• Providing developmentally appropriate educational experiences
  

TPE 7: Teaching English Learners

• Understanding and applying theories, principles, and instructional practices for English Language Development
• Understanding how to adapt instructional practices to provide access to the state adopted student content standards
• Drawing upon student backgrounds and language abilities to provide differentiated instruction.
  

How can technology help you engage all students and support them in learning? How can technology make content accessible to your students? How can you use technology in developmentally appropriate ways? Are there times when certain technologies would be developmentally inappropriate? How can technology help teach English learners?

Links:

• T.H.E. Journal focuses on web-based education. The Web's Impact on Student Learning sheds some light on the pros and cons of distance education
• TESOL (Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages) is a global educational association providing resources and training to educational professionals around the planet
• Beyond Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner's website provides insights into his theories on Multiple Intelligences, as well as information on his current work and the work he has inspired.
• Programs such as ReadNaturally incorporate low level/high interest content to teach reading fluency.
  

Reflection:

This TPE encompasses so much, I hardly know where to begin! Kids love to experiment with computers. Keeping them engaged while using technology is usually fairly straightforward. One of the big question marks, however, is the availability of technology for students. In speaking with classmates, I find that most individual classrooms are lucky if there are two computers for students to use. They are in computer lab for 45 minutes once a week. This grossly limits their ability to use technology, and their teacher's ability to implement technology into the classroom setting. This, coupled with the need for diligent monitoring while students use the computers, makes it difficult for many teachers to justify the use of computers as a learning tool.

There are certainly amazing software packages available today that allow students to utilize technology in a developmentally appropriate way. Indeed, programs such as ReadNaturally allow you to customize the student's experience based on their assessed fluency levels. This is an ideal use of developmentally appropriate technology. Equally inappropriate would be the use of a program such as Scholastic's Clifford's [The Big Red Dog] Reading software to teach upper elementary or high school English Language Learners.

English Language Learners might benefit from the use of technology in many ways. Use of translators, building background knowledge, listening to recordings of fluent readers reading aloud - all are examples of ways in which technology can enhance the services offered to ELL students.