Read and Write has come a long way over the past couple of years. This school year I have been thrilled with the dependability and ease of use. I have been modeling for students some of the great ways to use Read and Write, but even with regular prompting, I found few wanted to utilize this awesome app. This was a problem and it made me think about some of the reasons for student reluctance...
-perceived personal weakness if they used it?
-didn't want to bother?
-didn't think to use it?
I didn't really like any of these reasons, so I set out to show students the incredible advantages of using Read and Write. Since I teach 13/14 year old students, this came down to required assignment tasks. I see a huge benefit for students to use the highlighting feature when making notes.
The Assignment:
Students opened up a PDF file of their science chapter on material we were learning about (which they opened with Read and Write). They had to complete this assignment (still in the re-write phase!). Not only were students reading, but thoughtfully highlighting (thanks +Rich Maertens) and using the other Read and Write tools. I especially wanted them to see the benefit of annotating notes and collecting highlights. However, I would say that once students got going on this assignment, I realized I was far too ambitious. I need to go back and chunk this assignment further and re-organize the tasks so students can focus on one skill at a time. If you take a look at this assignment you'll see what I mean.
In future, I will incorporate a Read and Write skill into each assignment so it will naturally become part of the process and student learning.
Are you new to Read and Write? Or want more information?
Post your Read and Write success stories, ideas, etc. in the comments below!
Keep Learning,
Katrina
