In my initial 3-day Unit Plan, I felt that I did a fairly good job of incorporating technology into the lesson. My school has been 1:1 with technology for the past four years, so we are quite familiar with how to use technology in the classroom on a daily basis. My mentor really liked how I incorporated technology and provided several options for differentiation. I already had students using Google Slides to collaborate on a shared activity about text features. Also on each of the days, students were practicing with SBAC vocabulary using Quizlet and Blooket.
On the others days, students are practicing SBAC-like questions using different texts. The first one is a literary text and the second one is an informational text. My mentor suggested I find text options that were more culturally diverse. I decided to use NewsELA to find an article for the assignment. I found several options that were both culturally-diverse and recent (relevant) that would interest the students.
I was a bit stumped with changing up the literary text. I almost went with a text that we'd read earlier in the year in class from our textbook. But then my mentor reminded me of a website we'd learned about in a professional development training. The resource was called CommonLit and it is a website that has both informational and literary texts that are listed by Lexile and grade level. I chose a story from the website called "Taco Head" by Viola Canales (Canales, 1956). This story was similar to one we'd read earlier in the year so I felt that they students would have the context to understand it. Although CommonLit does not offer leveled texts, the Lexile on this story is a mid-range of all the students in my class (Botula, 2020). I also found an Youtube link of an audio version that I will offer students who need to listen to the story (Clark, 2020). I then created questions for both texts.
My students are already familiar with using these technologies on a daily basis. Because of this, it is much easier to ensure that the technology will be accessed appropriately. That is why it is so important to incorporate regular technology use into daily instruction. The new resources I chose not only allow me to explore different technology, they also allow students to have more diverse text options and still practice the same skills. I look forward to having students try out these lessons in the near future.
References:
Botula, A. (April 2020). CommonLit Review. Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/commonlit.
Canales, V. (1956). Taco Head. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/taco-head.
Clark, L. (11 November 2020). Taco Head Read-Aloud [Video]. Accessed via Youtube on 4 April 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8FEMysdENA.
