ISTE+Project+2011

This year at Martin Luther King Jr. Early College with the help of DOTS and special Apple training from the school district, we were able to utilize 64 I Pod touches in the ELL and ELA programs taught by Susanna Clark and Veronica Parks Ramos. We sent home permission slips that I have attached to insure that parents knew that students were responsible for the safety and maintenance of the Ipods that were checked out by the students. The I Pod touches were housed on a special Bretford cart that allowed them to syncronize with a macbook laptop that housed the applications we downloaded. Teachers had to plan accordingly and allow time to come to my lab and check out the I Pod touch carts before class began. Each student was assigned the same I Pod touch to insure that there was accountability for their use. Teachers have check out books that are kept on the carts to insure that they write down each day the touches are used and which students are responsible for them. Ms. Clark has downloaded several applications for the ELL students that include; grammar, vocabulary, phonics, alphabet practice, and flashcards for translation from Spanish to English. The students have enjoyed working with the I Pod touches thus far in the program, and we are proud to say that so far we have the same number of I Pod touches that we had at the beginning of the program due to teacher assistance and accountability. Here are some ways Ms. Clark has used the applications: "Mad Libs has been great for practicing parts of speech. We always review what a noun is, what a verb is, etc. before they an pick up the I Pod. Then I walk around and watch them, they often ask if a certain word is an adverb or an adjective, etc. Then they have to read their madlib to a partner out loud." "The YaRec app is great for the Beginners, I’ll have them make up conversations and they have to record themselves. OR they have to read a paragraph aloud, record themselves, then listen to themselves, then listen to the text- native English speaker reading it. And then go back and re-listen to themselves again to hear which words they need to improve their pronunciation on. " "Songs- they have to listen for rhyme, or put the lines in order, or listen for missing words. Also they may have to figure out the meanings of some vocabulary words. They can listen to the song over and over if they need to."

"Overall, the IPods have been a great motivator!!!!"