Photo adapted from Flickr by Katiebate licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.
Is integrating technology into your curriculum on your to-do list?
This item should be on the top of the list. Technology provides educators with the tools to educate their English Language Learners and mainstream students at the same time. Often, time constraints prevent teachers from integrating technology effectively into the classroom. However, investing the time and energy will make you a better educator and help you meet the learning needs of all your students. Simply, technology is an effective way to differentiate instruction and reach many learners at the same time.
Successful technology integration offers students choices! Read this post for a list of Larry Ferlazzo’s sources for using technologies for English Language Learners. You don’t have to be an expert on the technology. Often, I provide my students with a choice of technologies and allow them to show me how to use the technology!
The key is to integrate technology effectively into the classroom by ensuring the technology supports learning objectives. One way to do this is by using an instructional model when planning your lessons.
Follow these steps:
- Choose a lesson plan you want to add a technology component to
- Choose which technologies would best support the learning objectives
- Choose an instructional model
- Download a template of the instructional model
- Copy and paste information you already have into the template
- Add information you don’t have to the template
- Develop a rubric to grade the lesson
Or you can choose to try one of the many lesson plans some teachers have already developed and adapt these lessons to your curriculum. In my example unit, I use the NTeQ model to help high school students explore the Olympics. This unit includes modifications for beginner English Language Learners.
Your boot camp challenge for this week:
Spice up one project with a technology presentation. Try designing a class wikipage with the material. If computer access is not available, then try having students work in small groups to create videos using a digital camera. Use a rubric to grade the presentation.
