Sherwood State School Ipad Program Prep/Year One

Sherwood State School iPad Program Prep/Year One

Rationale

Utilising iPad technology in the classroom is a powerful tool for implementing the schools’ priorities of both differentiation and intellectual rigour, particularly withlearning and comprehension. The interactivity the iPad provides can assist in learning and comprehension in literacy and make for a very engaging experience, especially for elementary school aged students.

Sherwood State School has purchased 40 iPads for use primarily in Prep and Year One classes. Initially, there will be five iPads provided to each class (four Prep and three Year One classes), with iPads also given to the teachers, for whole class instruction and general use. The iPads, and the MacBook computer to configure them, arrived at the school in week 5 of Term Three, and it is envisaged that the iPads be introduced during the last couple of weeks of the term to enable the teachers and students to become familiar with the devices. This is because the storage and syncing devices will not be available until early September (Week 9, Term Three), and the apps will take some time to be deployed to the devices.

Implementation Process

To assist the school to smoothly implement the iPads, the school will be providing support materials in the form of professional development sessions, tutorials and simple ‘How to…’ booklets. TheIn Their Hands: iPads for Learning Trial; 21 Steps to 1-to-1 Successprogram (Victoria Dept. of Education) outlines four phases for successful implementation of 1-to-1 devices:

1. Planning
2. Preparing
3. Implementing
4. Evaluating

1} This program outline,plus the research into suitable apps to be used by the students, forms the planning for this project.

2} Support materials will be provided to therelevant teachers, and it is recommended that these teachers partake in professional development provided on Monday afternoons, and possibly during student-free days. There are also a wealth of iPad tutorials and professional development available to teachers within Education Queensland, either via iConnect (links to be sent to participating teachers) or live (Mabel Park SS – Play, Wonder & Learn conference, etc.)

3} The school’s ICT technician and Digital Pedagogy Coach will be available to facilitate the smooth implementation and ongoing support for the iPads. This will include assisting teachers and listening to feedback to streamline the program so that it meets its objectives.

4} The iPad program should result in increased student engagement and will be assessed through a range of surveys (informal, SurveyMonkey, etc.) to ascertain this and other factors. A teacher survey where teachers will be asked whether specific groups of students have shown an increased level of engagement and achieved set learning goals in literacy will explore teachers’ views of how the iPads have enhanced their students’ learning and complemented their teaching. There will also be a short parent survey and possibly a student survey (Year One) to ascertain any concerns or issues that arise from the initial trial.

Objectives

Initially there will be a focus on Literacy, specifically reading and comprehension, primarily duringguided reading, literacy rotations and spelling lessons. Using the SAMR model of technology integration (as detailed in the diagram below), students will initially use the iPads as a direct substitute for tasks normally undertaken in the classroom. Over time it is hoped that the students will progress through the steps shown until they are enhancing their learning by using the iPads.

An example of this would be where students initially use an app to read an eBook (no noticeable change from reading the book in a traditional format) and later on retell the book using an app (such as Explain Everything or Book Creator) via creating an multimedia slideshow using audio, images, video, animation, etc.

The SAMR model of Technology Integration (Dr. Ruben Puentedura)

The SAMR model aims to enable teachersto design, develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences to lead to high levels ofachievement for students. Initially, during the Implementing phase, and then further through the trial, at the Evaluating phase, teachers will be surveyed to ascertain whether the iPads have allowed for the transformation of existing tasks, as detailed in the SAMR model.

Additionally, teachers will be able to develop their teaching practice to include the three different contexts as detailed in the TPACK diagram below. This entails combining their Content knowledge with their Pedagogical knowledge, and also adding their Technological knowledge as it develops via the iPad project and the utilisation of other ICTs.

(Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org)

Resources (apps)

A range of apps were investigated and evaluated to determine their teaching and learning potential, as well as their accessibility in a range of learning environments. The education apps were selected to get students connecting, communicating and creating; also many of the apps have multiple uses across a number of learning domains so can be utilised when teaching in other content areas.

The apps selected are contained in the table at the end of this document, and will be fine-tuned following further discussion with the teachers involved. The apps have been chosen based on one of the following;

• Content creation eg. great tool for play-building and narrative writing, constructing meaning from text, sequencing, retells, etc.
• Virtual learning with Apps eg. phonetic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, identifying cause and effect, identifying fact and opinion, identifying point of view and purpose, finding similarities/differences
• Reading eg. digital storybooks, e-books
• Whole of class eg. teacher demonstration of an App
• Personal study eg. comprehension skills practice, games, challenges, extension, reward time
• Communication, collaboration and presentation eg. retelling stories, smallgroup sessions like MenuBoard

Other resources required

• VGA cable (iPad – projector cable). One per teacher
• Belkin Rockstar (5 headphones – iPad). One per iPad
• Cases (with screen protectors)
• Stylus (one per class for reluctant writers)

It is envisaged that a kit will be made available for each teacher involved in the project containing all of the above resources, that will be a library resource for auditing and tracking purposes.

Prep/Year 1 Student iPad Apps (Term Four 2013)

Literacy Apps:

App / iTunes Link| /Purpose / Provider / Cost
School Writing /
Queensland font. Use in literacy rotations to teach and practice correct order and formation of numbers and letters. Customise content from shapes to numbers, letters and words. Supports differentiation for handwriting lessons. / demografix pty ltd / $5.49
Out and About /
Magic 100 sight word recognition. Motivate students to practice their sight word recognition on the iPads. / DET / Free
Half Tone /
Half Tone is a simple app combining photo, text and speech marks in a comic format.
Use for teaching character emotion (Yr 1 C2C English Unit 1), the language of questioning (Yr 1 C2C English Unit 5), direct speech (Yr 1 C2C English Unit 7) and the language of persuasion (Yr 1 C2C English Unit 8). / Juicy Bits / $0.99
Comic Book /
Have students create a comic to demonstrate understanding. Great for doing a retell of a book following Guided Reading. Also great for teaching questioning, direct speech, text and image choices. / 3DTOPO Inc. / $1.99
FastFinga /
Great app for students to take notes and complete writing. Particularly useful to encourage reluctant writers to write more. Stylus would be great to purchase with this app. / By Catalystwo Limited / $1.99
Puppet Pals HD Director’s Pass
(Director’s Pass is best to enable children to add backdrops and characters from books studied in C2C English lessons) /
Create animated movies. Choose characters and backdrops and add voices. Brilliant app for digitally mediated play and development of oral language in Prep. Great app for teaching questioning and interview genre (Year 1 C2C Unit 5) and persuasive language (Year 1 C2C Unit 8). / By Polished Play, LLC / $2.99
The Wonkey Donkey Lite /

Year 1 C2C English Unit 1. (Get lite version for free!) Increase student engagement of this text. Teach rhyme. / By Kiwa Media / Lite Version is Free
Popplet /
Brainstorming tool. Great for teaching main ideas and planning for writing. Also use in Science and History for brainstorming about a topic.
It’s best to pay and get full version of Popplet for this age group because you can save the work if the students need more time. / By Notion / $5.49
SonicPics /
Prep students can import a picture they have drawn or take a picture of a drawing or experience and annotate with voice over. Year 1 students can use this app to create multimodal presentations, for instance in C2C English Unit 7. / By Humble Daisy, Inc. / $2.99
MakeDice Lite /
Use in Year 1 English C2C Unit 5 for rolling question starter words. E.g. Roll When, where, why, who, how, what and write a question for the character in the book. / By hnm / Free
30 Hands /
Digital storytelling tool. / 30hands learning Inc. / Free
Doodle Buddy /
Students draw pictures to accompany text. Develop pre-literacy skills. / By Pinger, Inc. / Free
Explain Everything /
Particularly helpful for procedure genre. Year 1 English C2C Unit 7. / By MorrisCooke / $2.99

Numeracy Apps:

App / iTunes Link| / Provider / Cost
Mathletics /
For students to access their Mathletics account and use during Maths rotations. / By 3P Learning / Free
Math Bingo /
Practise recall of facts. All four operations. Easy, Medium and Hard levels for differentiation. Very engaging app. Students love the cute creatures that pop up on the Bingo board. / By ABCya.com / $0.99
Meteor Maths /
Practise speed of recall of number facts. Recognise different combinations for numbers. Various levels for differentiation. / By Mindshapes Limited / Free
(At the moment)
Teaching Graphs /
Consolidate interpretation of graphs in Maths rotations. Add value to Year 1 C2C Maths Unit 8. / By Aleesha Kondys / $2.99
Splash Math
First Grade /
Engaging programme for students to move through at their own pace. Sends report about student progress, strengths and areas to work on to teacher’s email. / By Studypad Inc / $5.49

General Apps:

App / iTunes Link| / Provider / Cost
Aurasma /
Aurasma is an augmented reality app. Use to record video instructions of task for students and leave at work station to guide students. / By Aurasma / Free
Corkulous Pro /
Mind mapping tool. / By Appigo / $5.49
Futaba Classroom Games /
Fun games for up to 4 players. Teacher input and ability to set activities at children’s level to differentiate. Great for word recognition, particularly of topic specific words for Science and Maths content. Also use to increase speed of recall of number facts in Maths rotations. / By INKids / $7.49
(50% discount when 20 are purchased with VPP)
iMovie /
For creation of multimodal presentations and movies to recount events like Sports Day, excursion to planetarium etc. / Apple / $5.49
GarageBand /
For students to create music for multimodal presentations. Helpful for Year 1 English C2C Unit 7. / Apple / $5.49
sling Note
(When Wi-Fi is installed) /
Great tool for research in the early years. Purchase when Wi-Fi established. Use for Guided Inquiry projects. / By Mobilebuster.com Pty Ltd / $2.99
Pic Stich /
Collage app to be used for Science. E.g. Take pictures of built, natural and environments at school and present in collage with labels. (Year 1 Science C2C Unit 3) / By Big Blue Clip, LLC / Free