SPAGHETTI BOOK CLUB

Sudha AwasthiITEC 7445Dr. GroveJuly 2014

Emerging Technology

WHAT IS SPAGHETTI BOOK CLUB?

Spaghetti Book Club is a unique, innovative, and engaging literacy program for kids, educators, and parents.

It integrates reading, writing, art, and technology by teaching students how to write and illustrate book reviews.

Children publish their thoughts and opinions online for a world-wide audience.

HOW DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT THE VISION FOR TECHNOLOGY USE IN

OUR SCHOOL? As a part of Dekalb county schools, ICS follows

county’s plan for technology use. Technology is one of the support systems that will foster a culture and learning environment in which teachers and students will be able to perform at high levels, as well as support new innovations.

ICS is an IB world school and it believes Technology plays a significant role in shaping the students as independent learners through inquiry based learning and by providing equitable technology access to instill 21 century skills.

HOW DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT ICS VISION AND CURRICULUM?

This technology facilitates and develops reading program at ICS. It motivates students to not only fulfill their love for reading but also encourages and enhances their skill of content reading.

Supports to build IB PYP attitudes like independence and confidence as students read and write book reviews; helps them to become future authors.

Also supports IB curriculum learner profiles - knowledgeable and communicators.

EVALUATION OF HOW WELL SPAGHETTI SUPPORTS ICS VISION FOR TECHNOLOGY

USE.

The vision of ICS is to use technology as a tool to increase student learning outcomes.

Spaghetti Book Club’s vision is to support and encourage kids’ love for reading by giving them an opportunity to connect, on a personal level, with books and with others around the world.

The online Spaghetti Book Club Literacy program provides opportunity for students to reflect, express, communicate, and collaborate.

OBJECTIVES

Encourage student participation and achievement, using technology as instructional strategy.

Reach Common Core ELA standards goal- read stories and literature, complex texts that provide facts and background knowledge in Science & Social Studies.

Increase student reading and writing skills in core content areas.

KEY BENEFITS

For Students Helps students develop sophisticated ways of

understanding, reflecting on and connecting to what they read.

Provides explicit publishing criteria- includes summaries, detailed opinions with supportive details, examples and recommendations.

Assists in meeting Common Core standards for (1)Reading- Key Ideas and Details (2) Writing- Text Types and Purpose

KEY BENEFITS (CONTD.) Supports 21st century skills

1) Communication and Collaboration- Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and non-verbal communication skills in variety of forms and contexts.

(2) ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) Literacy- Use technology as a tool research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information.

Provides teachers with meaningful way to integrate technology into their classrooms.

TARGET POPULATION

ICS is a Title I school and about half its students are immigrants /refugees. In addition to implementing state and IB standards, it also strives to bridge the gaps in content knowledge that arise from diverse nature of our student population.

Spaghetti Book Club is a program that supports students bridge the gap and helps students develop holistically.

EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE

Spaghetti Book Club is available at minimal subscription that classroom teacher can afford from her class budget. A large list of online book reviews are available in alphabetical order.

Since the program is web based, students need 22 laptops with wireless facility and teachers need a white board or laptop connected to a projector to display the information on a screen.

Internet access at home is an added advantage for students to work at home.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

The IT department at ICS… Provides excellent support with wireless

connection issues. Troubleshoots hardware and software issues

that arise from time to time. Assists with timely system upgrades.

Spaghetti Book Club… Answers any questions/concerns related to

the program through emails and phone calls.

LIMITATIONS

Students with no internet connection at home find it difficult to use this program.

This program can’t be used without wireless access and computer or laptops.

Limited written/keyboarding skills prevent students from completing their work on time.

COST OF THE TECHNOLOGY

The following is the tentative cost of technology.

"Basic" Membership (teachers scan the illustrations)- Up to 30 reviews: $125/class  - SPECIAL: $110 (group membership: $110/class SPECIAL:$100)- Up to 60 reviews: $150/class - SPECIAL: $135 (group membership: $135/class SPECIAL: $125)

"Basic Plus" Membership (Spaghetti scans the illustrations)- Up to 30 reviews: $170/class - SPECIAL: $160 (group membership: $160/class - SPECIAL:$150)- Up to 60 reviews: $210/class - SPECIAL: $200  (group membership: $200/class - SPECIAL:$190)

POTENTIAL FUNDING SOURCES

Grade Level Budget: Each grade level is allocated with certain amount every year to take care of purchases for student activities/engagement. Teachers spend this amount to buy this technology product.

Donorschoose: Teachers upload it as a project on

Donorschoose to get it funded. Several teachers have got their projects funded so far.

Donation: Request parents on Back to School Night and through ICS news letters, Facebook and Yahoogroups for potential donation.

HOW CAN TEACHERS USE THIS TECHNOLOGY?

Teachers divide their class time for every content area. They have specific Reading and Language Arts time that they use to encourage kids to read the books and write reviews on the same.

Teachers not only use this technology for just Reading and Language Arts, but also use this during Science, Social Studies, Language time when kids have the opportunity to read a variety of texts.

DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY PROMOTE SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS?

5th Grade- ELACC5W6- Use technology, including internet to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single setting.

4th Grade- ELACC4W6- Use technology, including internet to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single setting.

DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY PROMOTE SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS? (CONTD.)

3rd Grade- ELACC3W6- Use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

2nd Grade- ELACC2W6- With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with others.

Kindergarten and1st Grade- ELACC1W6- With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY PROMOTE SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS?

Teacher introduces students to Spaghetti website to show them book reviews written by kids to get an idea of writing a review.

Teacher assigns specific books for students to read individually. Students demonstrate their reading, writing, and keyboarding skills based on the standards for their grade level.

Students type in their reviews and teacher checks their work before uploading on to the website.

DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY PROMOTE SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS? (CONTD.)

This emerging technology encourages and promotes

state and IB standards for technology and curriculum.

authentic learning as students produce a review and publish for others to view.

writing process- students use their comprehending and writing skills to produce a meaningful product.

HOW COULD THIS TECHNOLOGY BE USED TO DIFFERENTIATE INSTRUCTION? Teachers may choose books based on

reading groups in the class and assign specific tasks for them to complete after reading.

Partner students with strong readers and encourage them to write reviews based on their level.

Allow students to choose books based on their readiness and reading level; write reviews accordingly.

HOW COULD THIS TECHNOLOGY PROMOTE COMMUNICATION/COLLABORATION?

The reviews published on the website are accessible to everyone as they can access it from anywhere. Family and friends all over the world can get an idea of what their kids are doing, how they are performing with respect to reading and comprehending.

To keep the channels of communication open, students and teachers can recommend a great book to anyone or provide feedback to students on their performance.

EVALUATION OF RESEARCH

The website was initially started by an individual who is an educator for seven years.

A large list of schools and organizations nationally and internationally that implement this program at their schools provides an idea of how successful this program is.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNINGThe website provides online training and support

for program members.

The website is self explanatory but will be introduced to staff and administration in one of the faculty meetings.

Teachers will be introduced to portal’s usefulness and how it supports in achieving student learning outcomes for reading and language.

Membership details are discussed in detail.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

If the program seems feasible and price seems reasonable, staff and administration would move further to implement this technology in each grade level. They initiate and sustain the technology in order to bring desired student learning outcomes.

Collaborate with teachers from language department and science lab to provide a list of books that they use for their lessons to include in reading list for students.

Teachers use their regular class time for students to read, type their reviews of the books, and publish the same online.

HOW DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY SERVES AS A CHANGED MODEL AT ICS?

This technology serves as a changed model for students to write their book reviews as opposed to traditional way of writing reviews using notebooks.

It motivates and encourages students to publish their work online which was never done before.

It promotes to build 21st century skills in students.

REFLECTIONS

While I was researching new technologies for me and my colleagues, I came across Spaghetti Book Club. Initially I thought it is a great resource for me to include in my class for Science content reading. Eventually I figured out that I should share it with other teachers as well as they do reading time with students every day.

Even though there are other websites that allow students to publish their work free of cost, I liked Spaghetti as it allows students to have their home pages that become their portfolios of their reflections and responses to literature.

REFLECTIONS (CONTD.)

I used several types of websites earlier only by looking at its usefulness to my class or activity. I never thought about any website or technology in various angles.

This assignment actually helped me go deeper into real research of the technology in different aspects. It not only encouraged me to broaden my view about research process about this technology but also motivate me to apply the same strategy when I try to choose some other technology in future.

WORK CITED

Dekalb County School District Technology Plan

http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/www/documents/management-information-systems/tech-plan.pdf

IB Learner Profile & Attitudeshttp://www.ibo.org/ibaem/associations/orientation/documents/PYPRichardHenry.pdf

Common Corehttp://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/

WORK CITED

21st century skillshttp://www.imls.gov/about/21st_century_skills_list.aspx

GAPSC: K-5https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/ELA-K-5.aspx

Schools and Groups of Spaghettihttp://www.spaghettibookclub.org/school-list.php

THE END.

Thank you for watching the presentation.