Day #9

What a great morning!

I was prepared to introduce the 3 new students to the program today. All three boys are very excited to work with ipods and the Listening to Literacy Grow program.  We took some time to introduce ourselves by discussing what technology devises we have and use at home. It is amazing how many game systems and cell phones they have or are familiar with. It gives a lot of truth to how important it is to prepare these students for the 21st century and their future success using technology.

We reviewed the iPod Information Sheet  (see Documents for Use category on the blog to view) I created a couple of weeks ago for the students. While reviewing we did some hands on practice with the turn on and turn off steps. Having the time to practice this will help them to truly understand the mechanics of using an iPod. The most important is to put the iPod on hold so we can save the batteries in between our meeting times. The three boys did great!  The other key component is the families understanding that it is voluntary  to participate. I have sent a permission letter home that will need to be signed from the parents. I hope all 3 boys will return with it tomorrow to begin working with the program.

In our discussions today I am finding that the students are so eager to share and discuss I am having to monitor them taking turns more than anything. Perhaps it would be a good time to split all of the students more equally and therefor have a smaller amount of students in each of the 2 groups.  This will take place tomorrow and I will surely follow up with the outcome.

There have been great strides in the relations and opinions they are responding with in their discussions. One student began to talk about how her book related to a dream she had had before.  This was very in depth and took little time for her to decipher. Immediately the boys wanted to know what her dream was about and what part of the book it had to do with. This is proof that the cards can help to trigger some feelings and relations we make with text constantly. It amazing and very rewarding to help the students understand that we can relate our life, emotions and experiences to what we read and have the book be more meaningful and memorable.

I have done a lot of research on transactional theories in reading and education. That is where my Listening to Literacy Grow program really grew from.  I want to be able to share with students how special and unique they are as readers because of their transactions with the book. They think, act and feel different than their friends on most everything. That is what makes us who we are. This program is celebrating reading in a most special and memorable way!