Literacy+&+Technology

Digital Storytelling tools:

**[|Storybird] Collaborative storytelling web 2.0 tool**

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**[|Zooburst] Creating online pop-up books - would make for an engaging teacher created read aloud! **

[|Smilebox] - Bringing photos to life! From Collages to Slideshows & Greeting Cards to Scrapbooks, this tool would be a fun and creative way for students to share digital photos of themselves, their family, their friends and their school projects.

The following example could be used as an icebreaker activity. It includes parts of speech(nouns), list writing and multimedia.

As a teacher you can use this tool for free! Make sure to look for the teacher's toolbox link at the bottom of the home page - __in small font.__ The program needs to be downloaded first! media type="custom" key="9302568"

__** Voicethread **__ media type="custom" key="8974020" //**Comments will be moderated***//
 * To add your comments on this voicethread click on this link: ** //[|Be a part of this voicethread]//

__ **Wordle** __

Project based learning can be wonderful way to motivate and intrigue your students. Epals offers a variety of project ideas that would fit students from Kindergarten through to grade 12. Students become so excited to read and write when they have an authentic audience. Projects such as digital storytelling, kidblogging, e-mails and more are all available and make literacy come alive! //**Click on the image below to connect directly to the epals site.**// E languages is another online learning community in which you can either join or create projects to share with other classrooms around the world. //**Click on the image below to find out more**//!

The following websites are resources that will help you integrate technology with reading and writing:

[|Toon Book reader] Books available in English, French, Spanish, Russian & Chinese

Digital Storytelling

[|French teacher resources]

[|Interactive French literacy resources]

[|primary interactive literacy]

[|Interactive games to practise the French language]

[|Win Lose or Draw - develop vocabulary and questioning skills with this interactive Game]

[|Story writing with Timbertoes]

[|Spelling city]

(Digital magazines)[|Time for Kids] [|Owl for kids]

Student Resources like story maps, comic creators and acrostic poems available at [|Read Write Think]

[|Story Online]

[|Geo Greeting] Check out this cool site that allows you to create a greeting from the world! This would be a great way to start your school day:)


 * This link gives suggestions for integrating technology into book reports** [|Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports]

__** Some Software suggestions: **__

**Comic Life: I enjoy using it to create shared readings or to illustrate a particular form of writing.** **My students enjoy using** **it to publish their pieces of writing.**




 * Smart Ideas: excellent for making thought webs, practise word wall words, make connections between ideas, **
 * cause and effect diagrams, expand vocabulary, etc. **

As a class we used this software to record our group reading of poems, songs and raps. Parents loved hearing our very first "Pod cast" that we recorded using this software.
 * Audacity **: A voice recording software that is a wonderful tool to encourage students to improve reading fluency, accuracy and expression.

reading fluency and accuracy. For ex: "**La** //**Voki Vedette de la semaine"**// - //Voki reader of the week//. Students can record their oral reading using audacity or the microphone feature in Voki and then upload this audio file. The student voki of the week could be uploaded to a class wiki or blog. //*Please note that audio files can only be 60 seconds in length so it would only be a snippet of their reading practise.// media type="custom" key="8896346"
 * Voki ** - This web 2.0 tool could also be used to create a fun listening centre and then the students could also create their own avatar to practise

Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Kid Pix, Publisher, and Photoshop.
 * [|Ask a tech teacher] is a website that offers excellent suggestions for literacy lessons involving programs such as **

The following video is from a blog "Teaching Literacy in the Early years"

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 * As a way of integrating technology into your //Daily 5 literacy routine// encourage your **
 * students to **__expand their vocabulary__** by creating a digital dictionary.

This example was inspired by the website "[|Weboword"] where you can learn vocabulary in a visual way. Why not invite students to utilize different software such as Comic Life, Bitstrips, Pivot(This one can be downloaded at home), Kidpix, Paint, etc in order to create a visual dictionary. Student pages could be compiled in a folder on your class computer and used as a shared resource for expanding their word knowledge.

// *This example was created by combining stick figure animation(Pivot) and Comic Life. //