Posts by Susan Davis
Personalized Learning
Let’s Read Together: 10+ DigiTools for Growing Readers
Until now, I’ve only had those students who can bring their own devices to school to test some of these tools for use in the classroom. Next year, I look forward to having everyone on the same digital page.
EdTech
Great Books Go Digital: In Search of Julius Caesar
At the risk of sound a bit like the parody of our parents who walked ten miles to school barefoot in the snow, I’d say things are a bit different now.
Personalized Learning
Blogging Basics: This Is How We Roll
I can think of no better way to teach writing skills in an authentic context. Blogging makes writing matter for today’s learners; and, besides, it’s fun.
Personalized Learning
Infographics as Assessments for Nonfiction Reading
This past weekend, my step-daughter Emily, who works in the field of non-profit fundraising, asked me out of the blue, "Do you you ever teach your students about infographics?" I beamed with pride as I showed off my students' hard work.
Personalized Learning
Overcoming the English Teacher Tech Blues
I have never minded the messiness of learning that sometimes comes with using technology. I have never believed in a right answer to interpreting a poem or a right way to write an essay, so I’ve never really been frightened by the vastness of interpretation that populates the Internet. Instead, I’m excited by the expanding universe of literature, reading, writing, and language.
Personalized Learning
Christmas Carol: Blended Learning Opportunities
This year, Susan Lucille Davis shook things up a bit and explored Dickens’s story by blending a number of venues, both online and face-to-face, that we use to learn today: performance, reading and discussion, interactive games, research, and experience.
Personalized Learning
Teaching Civilized Discourse: 4 Essential Lessons for Online Discussion
To teachers of writing, publication often means posting on a bulletin board something written in the student’s best handwriting. But let’s face it, publication nowadays means posting anything online for others to consume, and that includes emails, discussion boards, and status updates. More than ever, our sentences matter.
Personalized Learning
Writing with Images: A Primer
I want my students to think about how image works with text, how it adds to the design of the page, how it enhances what they wish to say, and how it provokes additional discussion. In the end, the powerful impact of a well-chosen image will elevate their writing; a poorly chosen image, at best, will distract from what is said.
Personalized Learning
Towards a New Definition of Teaching
Teaching in the “content” areas is not somehow exempt from the digital universe. Computer class is not the only place for learning and reinforcing skills related to Internet use, applications, or digital citizenship. Like reading and writing, technology skills are required for learning across the curriculum.
EdTech
In Search of Sticky Notes for Digital Readers
This sticking point remains: What do we do about the students who are eager to use their Kindles, Nooks, and iPads for their independent reading? What are they supposed to do with their pads of florescent Post-its, attach them to the screen?