Launch 2012-2013: Second Grade Nooks

Objective: To encourage reluctant readers to read during 15-minute “SSR” time each day after lunch.

Set up: 

1) I allocated a desk drawer for Nooks to be kept.
2) I gave instructions as to how Nooks should be handled.
3) I explained Nook basics:
Turning the Nook on/off
How to navigate to the classroom library
Explained that Nooks are to be used for reading books only
(no on-line games or web browsing)

Weeks 1-4: Teacher selected individuals to use Nooks during SSR
Observations:
Constant questions:
Colin: “When will I get a turn?”
Pablo: “So-and-so has had it for three days in a row!”
Teddy: “Can I have it after so-and-so?

Weeks 5-9: Teacher posted a sign-up sheet for Nook use
Frequent comments/questions:

Alex: “Fotis signed up twice in one week!”
Fotis: “That’s because I traded with Sam and Sam forgot to erase my name!”
Alisa: “Ms. Peterson, I notice that Sam signed up three times this week.”
Sam: “That’s because we didn’t have SSR on two of those days, so I had to sign up a third time!”

                                     

Recommendation: For my classroom, the experiment would have been more successful if I had ordered four Nooks instead of two. With four Nooks, I could have assigned Nook useage on a weekly basis by table group. I would order short selections or maybe even just magazines (Time for Kids, National Geographic for Kids, Sports Illustrated for Kids, etc.) to ensure that on one was in the middle of a chapter at the end of the week.

Advantages to this format are:

• Everyone would have an opportunity to use the Nooks.
• Students would be exposed to a different media type (magazines).
• Less time settling disputes over scheduling of the Nooks!

eReaders in Education

Reader

Once you’ve negotiated the Gordian knots of getting accounts through the school, iPad, Nook and Kindle perform exactly what their advertising promises, so...

eReader

Which is my favorite? iPad; no contest. I can build and organize an extensive library (much of which is free), bookmark several books at several points, enlarge print (or change style of font), even have the ‘read aloud’ function on (though with fiction this is more annoying than I can stand). In short, I’m carting around a virtual wheel-barrow full of books that doesn’t spill or get out of order.

Danger danger: This is soooo addictive.

The Big Picture: Illustrations are happening. The Earnest Shepherd ones for Pooh, for instance, have colors very close to the original. I expect more and more picture books by the day.

Dictionaries, highlighting and note taking functions make this seem like a great teaching tool.

Oh, and email and all my favorite sites are right there too, including Netflix and any games I might want plus the iPad functions as an iPod and can be my photo album etc.

Nook and Kindle do the electronic reader thing adequately. All 3 make great one on one learning tools. Ask me for my list.

Problems: Kindle has hampered itself in that it cannot accept materials from anywhere but Amazon. Nook likes Barnes & Noble. The advantage: no distractions like sample games or surfing.

Conclusion: It’s a rapidly evolving technology… so new models arrive in the Spring.

Next moves: Using these with students, and researching group rates.

Recommendation: School could make setting up an account simpler.

-Heather Lee
Lower School Librarian