Shared Reading

Once we found that our students were able to use the website independently we wanted to take the website to the next level. We thought about how we could combine the website and other interactive tools such as Nearpod to tell us more about how our students were learning. We decided we wanted to create activities that could better support our students learning at school and at home.

One of the goals of 311 is to increase comprehension of text. As a teacher, I wanted to see how I could better assess comprehension of a text during shared reading lessons. This got me thinking... How could I incorporate shared reading with a new interactive technology tool? Enter Nearpod!

Before creating the Nearpod, I picked a text with rich comprehension that I knew would intrigue my students. From there, I composed comprehension questions. These questions got me thinking about how I could get my students not only to answer questions by multiple choice and a written response, but by also checking for comprehension using other tools Nearpod has to offer. After exploring the Nearpod app, and creating an activity for my students, it was time to pilot Nearpod in my classroom. I had all the students engage in a shared reading text prior (read the text 3 times before Nearpod lesson) to answer the questions I created. I introduced Nearpod and had my students engage in a student paced activity. I was able to discuss the features of Nearpod to my class, but was also surprised at how well they already knew how to use this tool. After, the lesson I was able to look at my data that Nearpod generates. After analyzing the Nearpod results, I realized that some of my students understood the text well and needed to be challenged further. There was also a cohort of students that needed more work to reach the baseline level of comprehension. This had me thinking, how could I differentiate Nearpod for all my learners?

This took me into the next part of my project. I decided that I would make Nearpod a part of our reading time routine. I created one Nearpod with comprehension questions I would normally ask/plan during a shared reading lesson. The students engaged in a shared reading text with me three times. Next, I set them up in NearPod centers. This time they went through Nearpod themselves, answering questions independently. After all the students got a turn with Nearpod, I analyzed my data. From there, I created two new Nearpod activities. One that was targeting students with new and more challenging comprehension questions, and another that was giving more support to students struggling with the comprehension of the text. From these results, I was able to pull a small group of students and work on the shared reading passage they struggled with. After this was finished, the students were able to redo the first Nearpod activity to measure progress.

For the upcoming year, my goal is to make Nearpod Shared Reading a weekly activity. When students are working on Lexia, another group can be working on Nearpod to help support their comprehension of shared reading texts we do in the classroom.