Introducing SAMR: Planning & Reflecting Classroom Technology Usage

As the 2017 school year comes to an end, its a time of reflection for classroom teachers. A mixture of projects, activities, and events from August to May come to mind. Hopefully for most teachers and students remembering an engaging activity that utilized technology in the classroom is part of that mixture.

During this reflection, what tool do teachers have to help them reflect upon this tech usage? The answer to that question: The SAMR Instructional Model. The SAMR Model points out the 4 categories of how technology can be utilized for students. The interesting aspect of this model, is that it differs from other educational criteria tools. The "high level" of SAMR, does not equate to a DOK level 4 or the highest level of Bloom's. Instead, the model brings an awareness that there are different levels of how technology can be used to support learning in the classroom.

The following presentation is a simple introduction to the SAMR Model that I was able to present to a group of educators. There is a task card activity included to practice identifying these levels. Feel free to share with your fellow educators.

Supporting ELL Students with EdTech

Over the last 13 years, I have spent my career in education in the Springdale School District in Springdale, AR. The 3rd and 4th grade classrooms I have taught were at about a 75% or higher ELL (or ESL) population. As I have seen the boom in EdTech over the recent years in our district, I have really paid attention to the technology tools that are available to help our ELL students succeed.

There are several tools out there to provide the scaffolding and support to these students, but I am just going to focus on a few of them for this post: Translation Tools, Auditory Tools, and Recording Tools. These tools are nothing new in the world of technology, but as more students are able to access technology in the classroom they should not be overlooked.

Translation Tools:

Google Translate
 used on iPhone

The translation tool I have seen the most success with is Google Translate. It works very well in multiple ways:

• Tablet/Phone App: The app allows you to point your camera at a sign and translate it to a different language. It also allows you to speak one language into the device and it will translate and speak out loud in another language.
• Google Search/Website: If you search google translate, a text box will appear at the top of your search results that allows for instant text translation. translate.google.com also does this function.
• Chrome Extension: The Google Translate Chrome extension allows you to change the language of any website you are looking at with a few simple clicks, never leaving the web site you are viewing. 

Auditory Tools: 

I am defining auditory tools as any type of tool that reads texts to students. Many of our ELL students comprehend speech at a much higher level than they are able to read (in English). The use of auditory tools will allow students to hear the content needed even if they are struggling to read the words on the screen. There are several text to speech apps out there, but the following have worked best for me:

• iPad/iPhone: I simply use Siri. This is activated through the accessibility menu within settings. Students can change voice accents and also speech rate.  
• Chrome: I prefer the extension SpeakIt! Voice accents and speech rate are also controllable. 

As mentioned, I realize that these may seem like fairly simple tools in today's high tech classrooms, but the importance of what these tools can bring to our ELLs should not be looked over.

Recording Tools:
Apps that record student voices, screens, and actions can make a great impact with our ELL students in two ways: comprehension/assessment and reflection/meta-cognition.

Comprehension/Assessment - Giving ELL students the option to record their voice to explain a concept and turn it in to their teacher is critical. Our ELL students comprehend information at high levels, many of them just have difficulty putting their learning and understanding into writing. Why not allow them to record their understanding verbally and send that to the teacher for a comprehension check/assessment? There is a relatively new website/app called Recap just for this purpose.



Reflection/Meta-cognition For decades, coaches have recorded players on the field and reviewed it with their players. Music directors have recorded performers and had them listen back for reflection. This can now be done with every single student in the classroom. Having students record their thoughts through screen-casting, audio notes, or video will allow them to reflect upon their learning and presentation skills. This is only effective if part of the assignment is that the student listen back to their recordings for that reflection piece. There are so many great tools out there, but a few to check out are:
Chrome Extentions: Screencastify and Snagit Chrome Extensions.
iPhone/iPad: Book Creator, Draw and Tell, Educreations, Explain Everything, Seesaw, Shadow Puppet, Tellagami, and simply just use the camera. (If you would like to learn more about some of these apps, then check out my post 5 iPad apps for Student Presentations and Meta-Cognition)

As with everything with EdTech, it is important to not get wrapped up in the "bells and whistles" of an app/site, but what it really offers your students. In the case of our ELLs, thinking of how these tools can support language development should be our number one goal.

Differentiate and Redefine Your Digital Reading Instruction with this Great Site!

The Smithsonian has incredible sites for kids K-12 and even a Spanish site as well. Teen Tribune for grades 9-12, Tween Tribune for grades 5 - 8, and TTJunior for grades K-4.

Differentiation 
What is great about these sites is that they are all connected, and carry basically the same non-fiction, current events content. They are adjusted to fit lexile levels. This is a great way to have differentiated reading groups read the same content, but at a level they can successfully read at. New articles are posted daily, but all articles are easily searchable by topic.

Teacher Accounts and Classrooms
The Smithsonian website allows you to set up a teacher account as well with multiple classrooms. Your students can read articles and make comments. Students can have conversations within your classroom on the site about these articles.

SAMR - Redefinition Possibilities
You can also have the options of making your classroom "Public." After you approve student comments, they are then sent out to other public tribune classes all over the globe. As their website explains, "When you go public, you allow your students to connect with other students around the world, while teachers remain in complete control." 

For those of you familiar with the SAMR model, this is a great way to constantly have students at the Redefinition level as they communicate with other students across the country about what they are reading.

With rich, trusted content, and many opportunities for differentiation and tech integration, the Smithsonian Tribune sites are among the best for non-fiction literacy.

iMovie Book Trailers

The iPad offers many creative avenues for students to present material to teachers, classmates, and the web. Apple's iMovie App (which is free for any iPad Air owners) is one of the best tools for students to utilize.

Inside of iMovie, there is a feature where students can create Trailers. Several teachers throughout the country love this feature for the purpose of student created Book Trailers. This is an excellent alternative to the old "book report." Students also have several different publishing options for sharing outside of the classroom.

The trailer feature is a great tool for teachers because it can be used teach students several literary elements:

Genre: The student begins the process by choosing a genre to describe their type of book. Now these may not be the exact same as the genre types that you teach in your classroom, but they are closely related and could be used to show genre comparisons.

Setting & Characters: In the layout sections of the Trailer project, students will have to identify the setting of the story as well as the characters. 

This is where students can have some creative freedom. They could simply add images that they find, or create and record scenes using their device.





Story Development/Plot: As they develop their book trailer, students will have to summarize the story development. Of course, you don't want them giving away too much of the story. As stated before though, this can become a much more creative project than the standard book report.

Benefits for ELL Students: Besides the creative avenues and literary components, iMovie Trailers can be a great scaffold for your English Language Learners. The Storyboard layout section gives the students great sentence frames to follow. These can be easily modified by the students by just changing a few words, or they can be completely re-written altogether.

There are multiple benefits to allowing students to use iMovie in the classroom, the best being the student engagement that it will create for both the presenter and the viewer.