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ENLARGE
RIFLE, COLO. - Though it’s sometimes hard for those over 20 years of age to comprehend, today's elementary schoolers are digital natives - electronic toys for infants, digital cameras for pre-schoolers, iPods, MP3-capable cell phones, cable or satellite TV and Internet-capable video game consoles.
Sometimes it’s hard to reach students in a “traditional” lesson, so more teachers are adapting their teaching strategies to the digital world. Nowhere is that more apparent than Melanie Coffelt's Highland Elementary School kindergarten classroom.
Two years ago, Coffelt began a program that allowed kindergartners to check out electronic games that focused on letter sounds and language acquisition. For this school year, it’s iPods.
“The success of the electronic games was so great, I started brainstorming the next step,” said Coffelt.
With the help of the Rifle Middle School 6th grade gifted and talented students and a Garfield Re-2 School District mini-grant, Coffelt now has 10 iPods loaded with podcasts that utilize materials from the school’s reading program, Success For All. The podcasts help students with letter recognition and letter sounds and can be checked out by students and their parents.
One of the challenges Coffelt saw was a lack of consistency due to half-time kindergarten.
Holly Miller, former Rifle Middle School technology teacher and current building technology coordinator, found the answer. After returning from a technology training where a kindergarten teacher presented the use of technology in her classroom, Miller and Coffelt went to work.
“I thought, 'If I can send them home with at least the sound of the day, they would have captured a tiny bit of what they would have learned at school that day',” said Coffelt. “As I looked into the educational possibilities with the iPods, I discovered the children could create their own recordings, replay for fluency, practice with the safety and protection from others listening around them.”
Miller and the 6th grade gifted and talented students began creating podcasts for Coffelt's kindergartners.
Work began on the podcasts in August, with sixth graders receiving three hours of training about podcasts and how to make one using the program Garageband. The students gave up their lunch recess twice a week since the middle of October to work on the podcasts and they finished just before winter break.
Middle school students were in charge of the production and were able to put their problem solving skills to good use. They learned the process of podcasting, Garageband, how to create the podcasts, used video cameras and iMovie to create the visual part of the podcast and microphone headsets to record their voice.
Miller added the project has many benefits.
“This project not only challenged and engaged our gifted and talented students, it incorporates kids working with kids, and focuses on improving reading levels of kindergarten students,” she explained.
Coffelt's kindergartners have benefited from the middle school student's hard work. Parents attended an informational meeting where Coffelt introduced the iPods and the expectations surrounding them. The reaction and results have been outstanding.
As a test, Coffelt sent an iPod home with one of her students over Thanksgiving break, who knew three sounds confidently.
“After practicing only the alphabet chant for five days, he returned knowing 95 percent of letter sounds,” Coffelt stated.
Now, her students routinely check out the iPods and extend their learning during quiet time and at home.
“I hope to increase our student's fluency in reading, their excitement about learning something new and the confidence in using a technology of the future at five-years of age,” Coffelt said.
Sometimes it’s hard to reach students in a “traditional” lesson, so more teachers are adapting their teaching strategies to the digital world. Nowhere is that more apparent than Melanie Coffelt's Highland Elementary School kindergarten classroom.
Two years ago, Coffelt began a program that allowed kindergartners to check out electronic games that focused on letter sounds and language acquisition. For this school year, it’s iPods.
“The success of the electronic games was so great, I started brainstorming the next step,” said Coffelt.
With the help of the Rifle Middle School 6th grade gifted and talented students and a Garfield Re-2 School District mini-grant, Coffelt now has 10 iPods loaded with podcasts that utilize materials from the school’s reading program, Success For All. The podcasts help students with letter recognition and letter sounds and can be checked out by students and their parents.
One of the challenges Coffelt saw was a lack of consistency due to half-time kindergarten.
Holly Miller, former Rifle Middle School technology teacher and current building technology coordinator, found the answer. After returning from a technology training where a kindergarten teacher presented the use of technology in her classroom, Miller and Coffelt went to work.
“I thought, 'If I can send them home with at least the sound of the day, they would have captured a tiny bit of what they would have learned at school that day',” said Coffelt. “As I looked into the educational possibilities with the iPods, I discovered the children could create their own recordings, replay for fluency, practice with the safety and protection from others listening around them.”
Miller and the 6th grade gifted and talented students began creating podcasts for Coffelt's kindergartners.
Work began on the podcasts in August, with sixth graders receiving three hours of training about podcasts and how to make one using the program Garageband. The students gave up their lunch recess twice a week since the middle of October to work on the podcasts and they finished just before winter break.
Middle school students were in charge of the production and were able to put their problem solving skills to good use. They learned the process of podcasting, Garageband, how to create the podcasts, used video cameras and iMovie to create the visual part of the podcast and microphone headsets to record their voice.
Miller added the project has many benefits.
“This project not only challenged and engaged our gifted and talented students, it incorporates kids working with kids, and focuses on improving reading levels of kindergarten students,” she explained.
Coffelt's kindergartners have benefited from the middle school student's hard work. Parents attended an informational meeting where Coffelt introduced the iPods and the expectations surrounding them. The reaction and results have been outstanding.
As a test, Coffelt sent an iPod home with one of her students over Thanksgiving break, who knew three sounds confidently.
“After practicing only the alphabet chant for five days, he returned knowing 95 percent of letter sounds,” Coffelt stated.
Now, her students routinely check out the iPods and extend their learning during quiet time and at home.
“I hope to increase our student's fluency in reading, their excitement about learning something new and the confidence in using a technology of the future at five-years of age,” Coffelt said.
