In my drive to La Porte, Indiana, for a writing retreat, I was prepared for the interstate tolls. Sitting on the seat next to me was a small pile of one-dollar and five-dollar bills. Once I was south of Wisconsin, I stopped at a booth, paid the fare, asked for a receipt, and continued making my way onward.
There are easier ways of doing this. A traveler can purchase an iPass, a small device for a car that the tolling system detects as you pass by and electronically deducts from an online account. Yet here I was, dishing out dollars and quarters by hand while making frequent stops on my journey southeast.
Improving literacy instruction with technology is often a challenge. Teachers and principals often cling to past practices even as they are aware of better ways of conducting their craft.
Some of this resistance is for good reason. For example, not every corner of the classroom deserves or would even benefit from a technological upgrade. Using funds to purchase high-interest texts that span levels, genres, and cultures for a classroom library may be a better investment. We are also wise in giving students time to read these books and share them with peers. If students have their face in front of a tablet or screen instead of their nose in a paperback, what opportunities might be lost? The physical book in the hands of students serves as a billboard. Classmates can see the cover and inquire more about the book during informal chats.
Yet there are areas where digital devices and applications are necessary for all students to achieve their potential as readers and writers. Even if it is difficult to change, the effort might be worth it.
As I rounded the west side of Chicago, the toll exits became larger as the number of lanes increased. Because I wasn’t over far enough on the right side, I had to pass under the electronic sensors without paying my dues. Once traffic cleared, I quickly wrote down the name of the toll station I had missed on the back of one of my receipts so I could pay it online once I got to the retreat.
In my experience as a staff developer and literacy leader, I have found that it is not a lack of knowledge that prevents educators from adopting better practices. Teachers are using smartphones and tablets all the time. It is the inability to identify the real needs of the students and curriculum, the absence of resources along with a clear course of action, and the lack of opportunity to try these practices out and share progress. Literacy leaders need to
- identify the real needs of students and the curriculum,
- provide resources and a clear course of action, and
- offer opportunities to try out these new tools and practices.
I can think of an example in a first-grade classroom from last year. One student did not write. She had great ideas in her head, but refused to put pencil to paper. Her classroom teacher and special education aide tried everything they could think of to accommodate her needs (this student had gotten a diagnosis of autism). However, it was hard to determine her reason for refusing to write: her disability, or just not wanting to write?
After they had shared the situation with the student’s special education teacher and me, we suggested allowing her to speak aloud her ideas and have them transcribed with the app Dragon Dictation on a classroom iPad. I sat down with them to download the free app, and then we tried out the tool together before employing it in the classroom.
The results were impressive: The student was able to produce a whole paragraph of writing with the help of this digital accommodation. Once this first grader was finished speaking aloud her thinking, the assistant emailed the text to herself, copied and pasted it into a document, and printed it out for her. When the little girl saw what she had written for the first time, a smile of pride spread across her face. Her work was promptly posted in the school hallway.
You might say, “That is not writing; she didn’t put it down on paper.” Fortunately, the teacher and the assistant in this classroom saw this modern, inclusive approach to writing as what this child needed to be successful.
After sorting through my myriad receipts and hastily written notes in my room at the retreat, I concluded that leveraging technology is in fact a much easier way to navigate the toll system. Why hadn’t I done that before I went there?
Adopting and integrating new ways to improve our craft as educators can be arduous. It takes time, patience, resources, and some ingenuity. As literacy leaders, our responsibilities include providing room to make some mistakes, appropriate resources, and guidance in applying the new practice. With these conditions in place, we can help every teacher incorporate more innovative strategies into instruction.
