Laura Ingalls Wilder in 140 Characters or Less

The On the Banks of Plum Creek unit is coming to an end, which means its time for reflection. (Read more about this unit in the Literature of True Life post.) As I think back, I’ve realized that, during this unit, one of the most helpful resources was Twitter.

At first, I had reservations about using Twitter. (Would the hype overshadow the educational aspect? Would my students understand how to use this tool to express their understanding of what they read?) Each student chose a character and wrote a main idea Tweet for each chapter from their characters’ point of view. As the unit progressed, my fifth graders enjoyed posting and their Tweets were usually accurate, insightful, and even entertaining.

Some Tweet highlights:

At the beginning of the story, the family arrives at the dugout house after traveling in a covered wagon across the Midwest.

@Laura (the main character): Finally I got here. I’ve been waiting to get out of the wagon and walk for months!

@Jack (the family dog): I have been traveling for days. I am exhausted and I arrived at the dugout!

Later, Laura is exploring Plum Creek and runs into a badger.

@Laura: I was scared because I saw an old gray badger, but I never saw it again. Pa punished me and I was so bored.

@Pa: (the family patriarch): Laura went back to the lake and saw an animal and ran away. I punished her for one day.

In The Haystack, Laura and Mary repeatedly play in a haystack even after Pa tells them not to.

@Jack: I can’t believe Mary lied to Pa like that about playing in the haystack. Pa must be really mad. This is so out of character for Mary.

@Pa: I yelled at Laura and Mary for wrecking the haystack that I made.

In one chapter, Pa and Ma are coming back from town and their oxen run away with the wagon. Pa has to stop them from running into the creek.

@Jack: I was so scared, my master was in danger, I was glad he got ahold of Pete and Bright.

@Pa: I came back to the dugout and brought candy. I almost died in the creek because the cows did not stop.

After using Twitter for seven weeks, here’s what I noticed:

Tweeting definitely helped my students crystallize the main idea. They showed me each Tweet before they posted it and I could immediately tell if they understood the chapter or not. If they didn’t get the main idea right away, we revised the Tweet together.

Writing their Tweets was an opportunity to review sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation rules. Because they were only writing a few sentences, my students were able to really focus in on making that sentence as clear and complete as possible.

Twitter connected them to a larger Laura Ingalls Wilder community and fan base. My students connected with Little House fans @TrundlebedTales and @HalfPintIngalls, as well as resources @LIWMuseumWG (the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Minnesota) and @LHOTMuseum (the Little House on the Prairie Museum). This expanded their idea of how other readers engage with the Little House books and made them feel a part of something larger than the classroom, the ultimate goal of social media.

If you’re thinking about using Twitter, Once a Teacher… has a helpful blog post about getting started. 

Technology Review 2010

I firmly believe that, when used with intention and purpose, technology enhances learning for students, and understanding how to use and adapt to current and future technology is a quality that all students need. So, one of my professional goals for 2010 was to incorporate more technology into my classroom. This was no small feat, considering that I have no computer aside from my personal work-issued laptop, so my students (in groups of three to eight) have to share one computer with a lot of teacher oversight when they do use the computer, which isn't often.

Still, thanks to generous donations this year, my students were able to work with a variety of technology tools, here's the round-up:

eInstruction Clickers

In August, I received a generous donation of "clickers," an eInstruction CPS IR System. The "clickers," a student communication device, look a little like Wii controllers, with buttons that the students push to select answers on my computer screen. I was surprised at how quickly my students took to them and they've been a great addition. Some of my students favorite activities:

Clicker Sound Sorts: Students who are working on phonics match a letter with a picture. For the letter M, for example, their choices may be pictures of a moose, elephant, or fish. The kids love to click in, see their clicker's number turn dark blue, and encourage each other to get the "right answer". I've also used clickers to have students identify long and short vowel sounds in words (click A if you hear a short vowel, B if you hear a long vowel).

Reading Comprehension: I've used clickers to set up storybook reading comprehension quizzes for young students that include both text and images in responses to questions like "Where does the Grinch live?" (answer: a cave) and "What was the Lady Next Door doing to annoy Harry?" (answer: singing loudly). The addition of images along with written answer choices, allows all my students, regardless of reading ability to participate and be successful. In my literature group (fifth grade students) I create multiple choice reading comprehension quizzes based on the novel we're reading and the standards they're working on (identifying literary tools, for example). With my older students, creating reading comprehension quizzes specifically for their skill level has been very helpful and it's made me a better question and answer writer as I have to think about what I want my students to identify in each question and how I want them to think as they're answering it.

Math Review: Every week or so, I have my students in a fourth grade math group review use clickers to answer either math review questions or speed fact practice.

ePod Handheld Learning Device

There's a new start-up in Chicago that's focused on hand-held learning devices. ePod Club provides ePods (iPods configured with learning apps and eBooks). They provided one for my students and asked me to help try it out. Using the ePod apps, I've noticed a few things:

It's great for math fact practice: My fourth grade math students require a lot of extra subtraction, multiplication and division fact practice (as I'm sure many other fourth graders do as well). Our ePod came equipped with math fact practice games that focus on speed and accuracy and the kids love to play them. I've used the ePod as a learning tool for "down times" when students have to wait (for another student to finish a test, when something unexpected comes up), and as a part of our schedule. Thanks to the ePod, with my smaller groups, I've set up Math Center time that involves a rotating schedule of time on the ePod, time on a computer game, and time playing fact practice games. Throughout the past eight weeks especially, I've seen my students' multiplication and subtraction fact practice skills improve remarkably.

Also on the ePod, games for phonics and word review consistently engage my students who are working on phonics and basic reading skills. My younger students love the tactile nature of the ePod as they identify letters and read stories. It's a popular "center time" activity for them as well and they'll sit on the rug engrossed in a game or story for as long as I'll let them. One kindergarten student, who loves playing the letter games, has increased his knowledge of letter sounds from three to 13 in the time we've worked together.

Portable DVD Player


My classroom also received a donation funded through Donors Choose of a portable DVD player and phonics DVDs. We just received the DVD player and are still receiving all the DVDs so we haven't been able to make full use of it yet. However, I have used the player with DVDs of read-along stories with students who are working on reading comprehension. The students watch a DVD of a familiar story (Where the Wild Things Are, for example) and then complete comprehension questions about it.

In 2011, I'll be starting Technology Centers that will involve rotations between computer learning games and DVD phonics and sight word videos that reinforce the letter of the day or sight word of the day.

So far this year, one aspect of tech that's been driven home to me: it's all in the planning! Technology has the most impact on student engagement and learning when I plan it just as much as I plan a paper and pencil lesson. For me, this has included really understanding and getting to know the technology inside and out, and scripting it into lesson plans and routines so that students understand how and why we use the technology to reinforce old skills and learn new ones.

New Tech Tool: Wall Wisher

Via my Twitter account, I came upon a cool new (or new to me) web tool that I’d like to start using in my class. It’s called Wall Wisher and can be used as an online posting board. Good for teachers: there are settings that you can use to make sure that the wall doesn’t get overrun with spam (I set mine to only post things that I approved as the wall manager).

I’ve created my own Wall and posted a question (please visit and respond!) and thought of a few ways to use this tool in class:

Ø Post a discussion question for a book you’re reading and have students add their comments or thoughts at home or on the class computers as a Do Now or Center activity.

Ø Post a math problem and have students post different ways of solving it.

Ø Have students post math problems for other students to solve, see who can post the most difficult problem (the catch, you can’t post a problem unless you can solve it yourself).

Ø As you’re planning lessons, have students post what they want to study or what they’re struggling with (anonymously) so you can plan to focus on what the want to learn, or what they need to review.

Ø Post a topic and have students post links to web sites, videos, and other information they find about that topic, creating an online research wall.

Ø Post the nightly homework online and encourage students to post questions about homework or other class assignments that other students and you can answer, creating a place for them to go first, before either calling, getting frustrated, or quitting their at-home work.