Istation—For Individualized Instruction

Istation, which offers individualized instruction for students Pre-K to 12, provides continuous progress monitoring for language arts and reading. All the books used in the program are original and lessons are fun and game-like. Once students are assessed to determine levels, they are given instruction in areas of need such as comprehension, phonics, and fluency. Istation can be integrated into any reading or language arts program and works well with all students, whether they are on grade level, behind in their skills, or need enrichment. The program includes Greek and Latin root words to better help students learn vocabulary and an abundance of cross-curricular elements.

You’ll want to take a look at the lessons that show students how to blend letters. In this section, there are excellent graphics depicting a student’s mouth and tongue forming blending sounds.  Istation, priced at approximately $55 a student and available for site licensing, has many other excellent components, all combined into an engaging format.

Stereotyping Our Students

He’s a professor in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, but he was a high school drop-out.  Todd Rose believes that his problem and the problem of many others in our schools, is that school wasn’t for him, and isn’t for them, a good fit. That’s why so many children who have special needs, are overly active, and/or are very bright and highly creative, have difficulty in traditional educational programs.  

Rose’s book “Square Peg: My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, & Out-of-the-Box Thinkers” tells us about his journey from being a misfit in the classroom to a college professor who is a leader in the field of educational neuroscience.  Technologies, which have the ability to individualize learning for students can save us from teaching to the average. Rose says that we are in a “self-imposed death spiral” brought on by the myth of the average.

Language Arts for Kindergarten

The K12 Kindergarten Language Arts program, which will be available soon from K12, Inc., features both textbook and online learning and could be used for enrichment and remediation as well as on-level learning. It is a very comprehensive program in which lessons can be customized to fit the varying needs of children. K12 Kindergarten Language Arts seems best used with home study or with small group learning, but could be adapted for classroom use. Children will appreciate the colorful and clever online graphics, the music and the games. All components of the program, except the handwriting section, make use of online activities that enhance textbook instruction. K12, Inc. is a company that caters to individualized and small group learning led by a learning coach, often a parent. Certified teachers help the learning coach with management of individual learning plans. If you are a school administrator and want to know how this program might impact your school, you’ll want to browse the K12 site for information about available courses and perhaps download the K12 Whitepaper.

Teacher’s Assistant; Student Tutor—Writing

English teachers know that it’s not easy to include writing in their courses especially considering the many other facets of language arts they need to cover. Writing takes time to teach, time for edits, and time for rewrites—plus evaluation. Although students need practice in writing skills, many don’t get the guidance they need to become better writers. Prentice-Hall offers an online Writing Coach (Grades 6-12), which has the ability to help students with writing and teachers with the grading of student writing. Through practice in writing, students learn such skills as varying sentence patterns and length and putting correct grammar to use. I had a good time trying out my writing in the program because it was fun for me to see what this digital coach thought of my work. Of course, Prentice-Hall Writing Coach can’t replace teachers, but it could be a big help to teachers and give a writing boost to students.

Digital Tools Support Writing

Julie D. Ramsay’s Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing? (Stenhouse Publishers) offers ideas for collaborating in class and online for Grades 3-8. It’s available as an ebook for $18 and paperback for $20 plus $5 shipping. The activities in the book, including publishing podcasts and writing digital stories, target getting students “fired up for writing” through the use of communication and digital tools. Ramsey suggests picking the tool or tools that work best for you and your students and then putting your students to work collaborating with others around the world and publishing their own work.  Why not check out an online preview of the book?