Assisted Reading with Starfall.com®

Assisted Reading with Starfall.com®

Author(s):

David Fromke

Grade Level:

Kindergarten

Timeframe:

All of the students will rotate through this activity as an option during their centers over the period of a week. A time allotment of 30min. will occur each morning. During that time, 2 groups of 4-5 students will rotate through the option.

Lesson Description or Explanation

Students will be given a 15 min. session where they can read along with the internet website/program Starfall. A teacher will assist them while they set up for the activity.

Indiana Curricular Standards

K.1.2 Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page. (Core Standard)
K.1.4 Recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words.(Core Standard)

ISTE Standards

6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems,and operations. Students:
a. understand and use technology systems.
b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
c. troubleshoot systems and applications.
d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.


Assessments

(Formative/Summative)

There is very little summative assessment at the kindergarten level (at least at the school I’m student teaching in). The students’ technology and reading skills will be formatively assessed by kidwatching taken by the teacher and/or IA (who is conveniently available in the morning). The teacher(s) will be responsible for taking notes for all 8-10 students during the 30 minute center. In addition an informal reading analysis will be given after the 2nd week of this center, using a [teacher] preselected and leveled text.


Prior Knowledge

Curricular Knowledge or Skills: All of the students have strong concepts of print (they are in their 12th week of school). Some are still working on letter recognition while others are already in higher leveled books. Recently, the students have gained access to the classroom leveled library where the teacher has assessed each student and directed her/him to an appropriate book. Prior to this, the students have had access to the classroom and school library of picture books and early reader text.

Technology Knowledge:

The class has recently been introduced to the computers in the classroom. Many of the students have access to computers at home, while some have never used one at all. Of the students that have computers at home, 5 of them are more than proficient enough to participate without help. These students will serve as experts for their classmates to refer to for help. The other portion of students who have prior experience with computers know basic operations and concepts. These operations include use of a mouse, location of popular operation keys on the keyboard, and show some knowledge of the general format of desktop navigation. The final portion of the class, who has had no prior introduction to computers, has been working on basic operations on the computer. Computers were introduced to the classroom 2 week ago and all of the students have had the opportunity to explore operations and navigation for a minimum of 30 minutes (some have logged as much as 1 hr. because of after school programs).


Technology

Internet Resources: www.starfall.com
Hardware: 5 desktop computers, 5 stereo headsets (optional), 5 mice
Software: any current web browser (ex. Microsoft Explorer, Firefox, Safari)


Procedure

Preface: The students are well-versed in centers and the rotation and expectations for how the allotted time should be spent. However, because they are 5 years old, the expectations and rules will be briefly reviewed between each rotation, every day. There are 23 students that will rotate between 5 centers. The students should get a chance to use the computer twice a week. The norms for the other centers are already learned, so leaving the students to work in their groups without the teacher is acceptable.

Each day 2 pictures of students will be attached with Velcro to the monitor of each of the computers. The students will be expected (and they will check without the teacher asking them to) to know whether they are using a computer for centers that day. They will also have to come to a decision about who will go first (good social interaction moment).

The first time the students are introduced to starfall.com will be modeled by the teacher. It will be important that the teacher repeats the instructions and expectations for what will go on in this center. The student will be allowed at the teacher’s discretion to navigate through the different book choices on the website. Some students will need full assistance during their first experience with this program (this is a good opportunity to make sure that the IA is there to help).

After the norms have been set and the directions seem to be clear the computer will already be opened to starfall.com, where they will be expected to engage in a book. For the duration of the student’s time on the computer they will be expected to read through books or engage in other activities on the website the entire time.

This lesson can last for as many weeks as the teacher wants it to. Starfall.com has many books for all different levels of reader – and it’s free.

Differentiated Instruction

ESL

There are no students in the classroom that are ESL/ELL. If I did have a student in the classroom that needed this type of support, it might look like this.

Starfall.com is set up so that it is friendly and accommodating for students who are ESL. Another support could be added by switching the language of the operating system (Microsoft Windows at our school) to Spanish or whichever language (if supported) the student needed.


Challenge/Extend

Starfall.com has many levels of difficulty in the choices of books that can be read along with. It also has many games and fun movies that offer a chance for students to challenge themselves. As far as challenging the students technologically, I would encourage them to do more of the set up process for starting the work in starfall.com. I would also, as I stated above, challenge them to act as a class expert and help others navigate the lesson.


Special Needs

One of the two IEP’s in our classroom would be affected by the content in this lesson. His autism, however, has not proven to challenge his interest or skills at the computer yet. Interestingly enough, the other student with an IEP is best friends with him and also happens to be our classrooms most knowledgeable computer user. Pairing the two of these students together could be one of many options we could implement.