#cyberPD Digital Reading Ch 6 and 7

It has been so enlightening to read the book Digital Reading: What Really Matters Grades 3-8 as part of the #cyberPD community. Reading a book on your own but then using digital tools to connect your thinking to a broader community really epitomizes what the book is suggesting for educators! The ideas shared in this community have really inspired me and showed me new tools that I plan to use next year. For example:

Reading Cathy Mere's post about having a hub for the important sites your class visits made me inspired to create a new class site through Weebly. I currently have a teacher page on my school's webpage but I would love to update to a Weebly with more possibilities! I need to do a better job of organizing all our online places and make it easy for parents to access all the tools we are offering.

Megan Skogstad's reflection on Chapters 6 and 7 introduced me to the digital newsletter site, Smore. This looks like an incredible way to keep parents and others in the loop! Megan also spoke about using Google Drive to organize student digital portfolios. I am so excited to set this up and try my own this year. 

Regarding Chapter 6, I like how Franki described including digital reading experiences as part of a beginning of the year inventory. Some other ideas on digital tools for assessment:

-Kidblog as a way to assess student writing over time. Students can be asked to blog about a book each month and that can become part of their writing about reading assessments.

-Biblionasium can be used to keep track of student reading. When students complete a book, they can add it to their shelf. They can also recommend books to friends and write book reviews.

-Google forms can be used and then put in the student's digital portfolio. 

Regarding Chapter 7 and parent communication, I am hoping to:
-create a new class site through Weebly.
-use Smore for weekly newsletters
-continue using our class Twitter account
-create digital portfolios to share with parents at conferences

I look forward to continuing to learn with this community! This was such a great learning experience for me.

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