Reading on an iPod, love it and hate it.

So this week my period 6 students read A Christmas Carol using the iPods with a program called iFlowReader. The kids took to it right away, took us less than 5 minutes to get set up with our readers. It is really cool that the program remembers where they left off from the previous read. The kids could change the background and the font to make it easier for them to read. What was interesting this week is to watch them be so engaged. We have had many visitors come to class and my kids don't really notice them come and go because they are busy reading. What I find a challenge at this point is to figure out the pacing. We have a lot to read in a short amount of time and the students are spending entire periods engrossed in the text. Nothing wrong with that, but it is difficult to access what we need to do as a support them when all they do is silent read and generate a few notes. So this weekend I have sent home copies of two chapters so we can respond in class as well as in notes or on Edmodo.

I think the greatest change for me over these past few weeks is how I address my planning. How can I use technology to enhance not supplant good instruction.