Many teachers, reading specialists, librarians, and administrators are beginning to share descriptions of their uses of technology in promoting literacy growth in their classes and schools. The following are accounts of real-life anecdotes that show a wealth of creative uses of technology as an aid to improving literacy development. Some of these examples were created by award winners and other teachers who participated in the International Reading Association's Presidential Award for Reading and Technology. Sponsored by TLC School, a division of The Learning Company, this award honors K-12 educators for their outstanding, innovative contributions to using technology in reading education. Seven U.S. regional winners, a Canadian, and an international winner are named yearly, and a grand prize is awarded for the best entry across all IRA regions. The first International Reading Association Presidential Award for Reading and Technology was awarded by then IRA President Kathy Ransom at the Association's 44th annual convention in May 1999....

Students in grades 6-8 cast ballots in author award contests, visit reference sites to find answers to specific, difficult questions, and participate in synchronous events such as the space shuttle missions or the travels of famous voyagers. Vocational programs that provide information about a host of occupations appear in classrooms as do software programs that help prepare students for college (The Scholastic Assessment Test, for instance, using One-to-One With the SAT: Home Version). Themes become more impressive in their scope, and presentations turn into student portfolios. Students continue to work on projects such as those previously described, but as their literacy capabilities expand, students engage in more research and data analysis, interact more independently with students in other locations, and engage in various publishing ventures. They also interact more with students from other cultures and develop more sophisticated Web pages or school Web sites using Web-authoring tools. They study weather maps and specialty Web sites such as Encyclopedia Titanica, and visit The Internet Public Library or The New York Times. By the end of eighth grade, many students are poised to make even more progress in the use of technology to control their own learning at higher grade levels.

Technology like a pencil in the reading room

Patricia Williams teaches sixth grade at Utley Middle School in Rockwall, Texas. She stated, “Technology is like a pencil in the reading room: Students do not give a second thought as to how it works -- it just does.” For one unit, Williams discussed the history of storytelling and then told various stories to her class. Students searched for stories that had elements that would lend themselves to good storytelling and selected one of several versions of the Cinderella story (Rafe Martin's Rough-Face Girl, Penny Pollock's The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella, John Steptoe's Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and so on). Williams had her students make PowerPoint presentations about the stories to the class “that included plot, setting, characters, themes, problems, solutions, background information, country, and a comparison with the familiar version.” The presentations needed to include at least eight slides, including a graphic slide, a title slide, and an author slide. Sound and animation also were required.

Students also participated in a hi-tech interdisciplinary unit called “The Raising of the Titanic.” Using Encyclopedia Titanica on the Internet (see http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org, for this thorough site), students went on an online scavenger hunt with 10 questions about the Titanic. “Students had to read critically,” said Williams, “to find three of the nine famous people on board the Titanic.” They also had to find information such as Who was the only child in first or second class to die? and How many people could Life Boat Four hold and how many were actually on it? Some students wrote character sketches based on information found at the site. Some students played a character in a rendition of the raising of the Titanic that was videotaped for later analysis. For their final projects, some students created newscasts of the Titanic's sinking; others created PowerPoint presentations. Some students wrote reports or wrote and illustrated poems using a word-processing program. “In English class, students word processed a narrative from the point of view of a person on the Titanic. In science, students studied the ocean and its animals,” said Williams.

From the Internet, students found facts for biographical reports, read online poetry written by other students as well as famous poets, created animations to illustrate two poems, and located audio and video clips to insert into their electronic presentations. Students used brainstorming techniques and Inspiration software to make graphic representations of their thoughts. (See the accompanying textbox about this software.) They also learned about emoticons [such as this one :) depicting a smiling face] and how they are “shortcuts” used in e-mail. “The students have to think critically to shorten their ideas and make e-mail messages summaries instead of novels,” said Williams. She added, “The students have been given short quizzes via e-mail to access their knowledge of content as well as their ability to use e-mail.”

Inspiration software is a visual thinking and learning tool. Students can create outlines and semantic maps of stories or other things that lend themselves to logical organization. Concept mapping, diagramming, brainstorming, outlining, organizing, planning, and creating materials for the World Wide Web are possible uses for this program. At the Inspiration Web site there are sample lessons and a diagram created using the program. Also, below is an example of a semantic map created with Inspiration by fifth-grade students at Lawrence School in Tucson, Arizona, as part of a workshop conducted by Chris Johnson, of the University of Arizona, and their teacher, Mary Bouley.

Students in this technologically astute classroom created almost 400 projects, reports, and presentations. Technologies used included Office 97, Publisher, Inspiration, and Netscape Communicator. Signals were sent from a computer to a television monitor. A scanner, printer, speakers and a microphone, and a VCR and camcorder were used.

The Iditarod dog sled race, from Alaska to South Carolina

Debra Belue, the library/media specialist at O.P. Earle Elementary School in Landrum, South Carolina, describes a school project that enabled 520 kindergarten through sixth-grade students to participate in the Iditarod Race, a 1,049 mile dog sled race that is run from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. A local veterinarian who participated in the race encouraged Belue's school to sponsor one of the dogs on his team, so students raised US$1,000 in order to sponsor Buttons, one of the lead dogs. Student objectives of the project included those below:

• to read and listen to literature about the Iditarod;
• to create and publish flyers, signs, and labels advertising the class “shop” (a fund-raising activity);
• to use cameras, 35mm and digital, to record events and write articles for the school newspaper;
• to use maps to track progress during the race;
• to learn to use e-mail to read and send messages; and
• to research the Alaskan terrain and the history of the Iditarod and create presentations for the classes.

Students used Internet-capable computers, desktop publishing software such as The Print Shop Deluxe and Publisher, and presentation software such as PowerPoint.

Because the teachers knew little about the Iditarod, they found information, ordered books and materials, and collaborated with Buttons's owner. Soon, they were reading aloud books and other materials they had found, and the students became enthusiastic about the project. To raise money to sponsor Buttons in the March event, students created a classroom “shop” and sold items for Valentine's Day. They created bookmarks, chocolate roses, and tissue paper carnations that they sold before school and at a Parent Teacher Association meeting. Using technology, they designed signs, flyers, and labels for their shop as well.

Once the race started, the dog sledder's wife sent daily reports via e-mail from her hotel room to the school. She attached pictures to the e-mail, which the students used for various tracking activities, including figuring mileage covered and the team's placement on the trail. Some of the sixth graders created visual presentations that included the pictures and research findings about the Iditarod. Belue said, “Our students in the little town of Landrum had been on the trail.... They had become pros at using technology that the previous year we did not even own. What valuable lifelong skills our students have learned while on the Iditarod Trail!”

The eye of the storm

Jennifer Rosenboom teaches sixth grade at Carlos E. Haile Middle School in Bradenton, Florida. She and Leslie Leduc, the eighth-grade science teacher, involved nearly 300 sixth- and eighth-grade students in a six-week project to explore hurricanes during the September-October hurricane season that often affects Florida. Her learning objectives, among others, were as follows:

• to give students opportunities to work with partners and learn the responsible use of the Internet in the classroom;
• to model for students, demonstrating learning strategies and study skills;
• to explore the science of hurricanes;
• to encourage parental and community involvement;
• to introduce students to fictional, age-appropriate literature relating to the theme of hurricanes (Theodore Taylor's The Cay was used);
• to help students produce a hurricane awareness pamphlet; and
• to help students use technology.

Students created a book of weather Web sites and concept maps of key weather terms, and they conducted research about major U.S. storms. They downloaded photographs of a hurricane and labeled its parts. Students located and categorized information. They read fictional materials that related to a hurricane theme. “Students used hurricane tracking maps to track current hurricanes, formulate charts, compare and contrast active storms, and discover patterns,” said Rosenboom. In addition, Rosenboom said,

A variety of vocabulary strategies such as Vocabulary Webs and Concept Definition Maps were used to explore weather-related terms.... The presence of Hurricane Georges in our area and the accompanying evacuation, closing of our schools, buying frenzy of necessary supplies, and hurricane preparedness measures truly provided real-life application. We could not believe this actually happened in the middle of our unit!

Student projects were completed using HyperStudio, Netscape Communicator, Cable in the Classroom (videotaped educational cable programming), video documentaries, CD-ROMs, laserdiscs, cassette tapes, a digital camera, a word-processing program, iBooks (portable Internet-capable computers, made by Apple Computers), and laptop computers.

Technical reading and writing

John Van Rossum teaches eighth grade at Chilton Middle School in Chilton, Wisconsin. Technology is used in a variety of units throughout the school year. “In the Technical Communications unit,” said Van Rossum, “students analyze and create different types of technical communications that are commonly used in the workplace. Students analyze audience, purpose, style and design of business letters, memos, newsletters, reports, instruction manuals, and proposals.” TechWriter software, which provides students with real-life examples of technical writing to edit, gave students much practice in 10 grammar skills areas. While learning to create proposals and reports, students also learned how to make PowerPoint presentations. Students learned to present the main points and themes of their works in ways that would interest their audience. Students “learned to emphasize and stress what they felt were the important points of their reports and proposals by analyzing what the audience most needed to know,” Van Rossum said.

Students used the Internet to improve their reading and critical thinking skills in a Web page design unit. “Students studied various Web pages...and analyzed them for content, style, and design,” said Van Rossum. Students “determined the purpose of the Web page and how useful the page was to their needs.” Students eventually created their own Web pages, after deciding on appropriate content and evaluating other Web pages that they linked to from their own Web pages.

Students used the Wisconsin Career Information System to study career information such as salaries, educational background, and the number of jobs available in Wisconsin (http://www.cew.wisc.edu/wcis is the URL of this fee-based project). The Career Exploration unit's culminating project was the creation of HyperStudio presentations showcasing students' career choices and their educational and personal long- and short-term goals.

The genre of science fiction was studied as part of a Science Fiction/Future unit. Students watched science fiction movies, read stories and novels, and created a Utopian society. Students also created term papers on topics that had to include technology. “Students studied the past and present history of technology as well as the scientific principles needed for the advancement of the technology in the future,” said Van Rossum. Students also made predictions about the future of technology. Further information and examples of these projects can be seen on the Technical Reading and Writing Home Page at the school's Web site.

Jay Stailey's amazing Japanese adventure

Jay Stailey, principal of Zue S. Bales Intermediate School in Friendswood, Texas, traveled to Japan on a Fulbright grant. Before leaving he created a Web site, and, while on the trip, he updated the site every 3 days. He had these areas on the site:

1. A folktale or legend from Japan that changed every 3 days.
2. A poetry page that featured ancient and modern Japanese Tanka and Haiku poetry that changed every 3 days, also.
3. A travel update, sharing details of the journey and visits to cultural sites and schools.
4. Amazing observations and epiphanies about culture through exposure to another culture.
5. Links to Japanese culture on the Internet.

Stailey said, “They read of my adventures as well as the stories and poetry of the country in which I was traveling. It was through the wonders of modern technology that my students were able to travel with me, all the while learning about the Japanese culture through reading on the Web.” Stailey added, “They kept track of their principal who was traveling in a different day, in a world very different from Friendswood, Texas. A world that was suddenly much closer to home.” The site contains materials placed there during the principal's travels.

This activity exemplifies an exceptional use of technology that makes reading and learning about other people around the world very exciting and personal. Teachers traveling within their own states or countries could emulate this model and take their students along to places they might never learn about otherwise.

Middle school teachers are encouraging greater technology use to help students engage in inquiries that demand analysis of the abundant nonfiction materials that students are able to locate on the World Wide Web. The amount of technology-assisted projects and reports they create increases dramatically as students become more efficient in conducting Internet searches, collating information, and writing reports. Students also are becoming more comfortable and adept at using presentation products to share their research findings. Further, middle school students appear to be very interested in tracking and examining real-time events, and they are using increasingly sophisticated software programs to help them learn about careers and vocations. Technology-assisted projects that lead to greater literacy development in students are now helping middle school students prepare for high school and beyond.

If you enjoyed this excerpt, you might be interested in finding out more about Linking Literacy and Technology, by visiting the page that describes it at IRA's online bookstore. You might also be interested in these related postings at the Reading Online site:

• The Benefits and Challenges of a Student-Designed School Website, an article by Maya B. Eagleton
• From Printed Page to Multimedia: Evolution of a Second-Grade Class Newspaper, an article by David M. Lund and Deborah A. Sanderson
• Double, Double, Not Much Toil, Not Much Trouble: Shakespeare in the Middle School Classroom, an invited commentary by Claudia Anne Katz
• Project Descriptions, descriptions of projects and programs, many of them Internet based, that illustrate effective ways to integrate technology into the curriculum
• The Miss Rumphius Effect: Envisionments for Literacy and Learning That Transform the Internet, a column by Donald J. Leu, Jr., Rachel Karchmer, and Deborah Diadium Leu, reprinted from The Reading Teacher