Rider 1

At the kindergarten level, with the academic standards that are put in place by the

state, it is important that the students foster their phonics skills. Encompassed in this area

are identifying upper- and lowercase letters and their sounds. If these skills are not solid

come first grade, the student will begin to fall behind their peers. With the help of our

reading interventionist, I was able to find an app on the iPad for my two students who are

struggling with their phonics skills.

Starfall is an iPad app that fosters student’s literacy skills, specifically in the area

of phonics. Through the use of games and books, students establish a relationship

between spoken and written words. For this reason, I thought that Starfall was an

appropriate app for my two students who are lacking in their phonics skills. I had a short

term and a long term goal for this activity. My short term goal was for my two students

to be able to successfully use the app independently. My long term goal was for my

students to increase their phonics skills, specifically in identifying letters and the sounds

they make. Before I started the activity, I hypothesized that it would not take long for my

students to learn how to use the app. This is because I have observed throughout this

year that it does not take long for students to learn how to play an age-appropriate iPad

app. With the use of Starfall, I hope to raise student achievement for my two students.

The two students that I chose to introduce to Starfall work very well in a small

group setting. During the lesson I was able to observe that I had their full attention the

entire time. By watching me maneuver around the app and by helping me click on

different icons, the students were engaged and able to retain how to use the app.
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I do, we do, you do. This is a strategy that was constantly reiterated throughout

my college classes whenever we discussed how to effectively teach young students. This

is the strategy that I used for this technology assignment. When I started the activity, I

made sure that we were in an environment where there would be minimal distractions.

To begin the lesson, I had the two students watch as I maneuvered around the app. After

they watched me for awhile, I then had them help me so we were doing it together. Once

I thought they had a good gauge on how to use the app, I gave them each their own iPad

to try it out independently. I do, we do, you do.

The pre assessment data that I collected from this assignment was the knowledge

that neither of my students have used this technology before. I have observed that they

can accurately use an iPad, but when I asked them prior to the teaching if they have every

used this app, they both replied, “No.” My post assessment was also based on my

observation which is evident in the video recording. At the end of the lesson I allowed

my two students to play the app on their own to see if they could successfully maneuver

it or not. Both students were able to successfully use the app. I have since then noticed

these two students playing the app in the classroom and they were able to retain all of the

information that I presented. These observations correlate with my hypothesis that it

does not take long for students to learn how to play an age appropriate iPad app.

Overall, I felt that I was successful in teaching the two students how to use the

app Starfall. Within ten minutes of showing them how to use this technology, they were

able to use it on an independent level. Since the day of the video recording, I have

witnessed the two students from the video using Starfall in the classroom which tells me

that they enjoyed it and remembered how to use it. It is hard for me to determine yet if
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this technology made a difference for these two students. Phonics skills do not just

develop overnight. They develop over time. Therefore I am unable to determine if I met

my long term goal. At the end of the year I will get a better gauge on if their phonics

skills grew from the time they were introduced to the app until the end of the year. On

the other hand, my short term goal for this activity was for the two students to be able to

use Starfall independently. With the help of modern technology, I believe I reached that

goal.