Lee Araoz, the district coordinator of instructional
technology for the Lawrence Public Schools in New York, is passionate about
empowering learners via technological supports. He believes students’ ability
to effectively use technology as a means of “[creating] content” is key to
establishing the “foundation of digital literacy that is critical to college
and career readiness” (Araoz, 2018, p.41). For this reason, Araoz thoughtfully
integrated technological supports into the traditional, collaborative,
comprehension-building, routine of literature circles.
In addition to comprehension, literature circles are known
for promoting reading motivation by including numerous opportunities for
students to make decisions. Specifically, students choose their daily
responsibilities, or job assignments (e.g., vocabulary wizard, literary
luminary, connection maker, etc.), the pace at which they work through a novel,
and the unique aspects of the book they emphasize during group discussions.
Araoz’s technological modifications further facilitate students’ autonomy while
simultaneously promoting technological proficiencies.
Ways in which Araoz advocates educators enhance literature
circles include:
1.
Using
technology for book selection: Google Forms can be used to first survey
student interests. From this data, a list of appropriate titles can be compiled,
and students can indicate their preferences utilizing apps like Tricider ( https://www.tricider.com/).
2.
Creating
and submitting work electronically: Students can publish work stemming from
their literature circle job assignment with the app, Kidblog (https://kidblog.org/home/). Kidblog allows
kids to compose, upload, and share their work. Or, group members can use Google
Slides to generate a collaborative presentation; each group member can showcase
their work on a specific slide within the same presentation at the same time.
3.
Using
technology to facilitate multiple modes of representation: It has become
easier for students and teachers to access audio versions of text. For example,
many videos of teachers and celebrities reading well-known books aloud to
children are available on Youtube “read-aloud channels” (Araoz, 2018, p.41).
Additionally, teachers can record themselves or others reading selected books
and upload these to Google Classroom where they can then be made available to
students 24/7.
In sum, the above technology options can be easily embedded
into traditional literature circle activities as a means of better supporting
meaning-construction and reading motivation.
Araoz, L. (2018). Literature Circles 2.0: Technology-infused
book clubs in the digital age. Literacy Today, 35 (4), 40-41.
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