Assessing Technology-Based Resources for Differentiation

Description of Each Technology

Epic is a free reading website that teachers can sign up for that has hundreds of books for students of all levels. Some books are audiobooks, others are read-to-me, and some are meant for just free reading. 

iReady My Path is a platform that the curriculum uses that allows students to receive personalized lesson plans for the skills they are lacking. 

Kahoot is a website that allows teachers to create interactive quizzes for their students. Many teachers use it as comprehension checks and reviews as it is a fun way for students to practice work. 

Breakdown of Each Technology

Epic is incredibly easy to use. It is a free website for teachers to use. All you have to do is input your students names and give them the generated class code. The students will log in using the class code, find their name and get to reading in minutes! Teachers can assign books to the class for shared reading along with the quizzes that follow. The website also tracks what the students are reading and gives them awards for various different things. It shows the amount of books they have read along with how many hours and minutes they have read that day, week, and total.

iReady's My Path is only available for schools or districts that have bought the iReady Curriculum. However, those that have it have many resources within the website to help guide them. There are lessons to help fill the gaps in some students, there are lessons for enrichment already created for teacher to pull and use with their students. My Path is only used for math however, there is a reading curriculum from iReady. 

Kahoot can be used for any subject and has quizzes already made and available. There are some that you may have to pay for however you can always create an account and create the quiz for yourself and your class. There are also Kahoot created for fun. For example, there are some about kids movies that are Frozen, Encanto, Toy Story and so many more. These can be used for Fun-Friday or if there is an extra 20 minutes in the day for some reason. 

Differentiation of Each Technology

Epic has many book that are available in all levels of reading. If you use DRA scores, they have anywhere from A1 to 80+. You can use it for small groups that way all students have the same book. If a student has a hard time reading, there are options for read-to-me. As it reads to the student is bolds the word this way they can follow along as it is being read to them. There are audiobooks that that students love, comic books and videos to help supplement any learning that is being done. 

iReady's My Path is completely personalized to the student. By completing the diagnostic test at the beginning of the school year, personalized lessons are created at the students lowest scored area. If they scored at a first grade level in geometry and they are in third grade, then My Path would begin giving the student first grade geometry lessons that help teach and practice. As they learn, then they receive second grade geometry lessons, and hopefully move into the third grade geometry lessons eventually. 

Kahoot can be more challenging to use since it is interactive. It requires someone or the student to read the question, read the answer options and pick the correct one all in a certain amount of time. Depending on the type of question you can change the amount of time given to the students to answer. For example, for a math review students may have to work out the problems. You can give them anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 three minutes to answer. 

Instructional Strategies

With Epic the students have the freedom to pick from many different books available. In my class, I have a classroom library however sometimes the students do not find anything they are wanting to read. They can then go into Epic and look up "princess books" and Epic will bring up all books they have on princesses. It allows the students to read what they want and helps them form a love for books and reading. 

My Path supports the students differences because it is based on the different levels and knowledge that each student has. If one student is doing lessons on adding three digit numbers another student may be doing a lesson on multiplying a two-digit number by a one-digit number. The lessons are completely individualized and works at that students levels. This can help instruction because you can also assign comprehension checks. Maybe you're in the middle of a unit and want to see where students are you can assign the comprehension check through My Path and you can instantly see if the kids are getting the topic or not. 

Kahoot brings fun into the classroom. It is a friendly competition to see who can get the most questions right the quickest. You can play in single-player mode or team-mode. Kahoot keeps score and then at the ends it announces the top three students/groups in the class. 

• Select two of the technologies. Describe how each promotes learning and creates ownership of learning among the students

Promotes Learning and Ownership of Learning

Creating ownership of learning can be difficult to do with kids. Letting them see the growth that they have made is one way to do that. My Path allows you to show the kids all the lessons they have passed and how they have moved up. My Path also has other tests. There is the diagnostic test for beginning of year, one for middle of year, and an end of year. Showing the kids their growth with BOY, MOY, and EOY scores shows them that their hard work pays off. It can get them excited and proud of themselves or it can show them that they need to be doing more. Epic can help create ownership because they get excited for reading and want to read. Teachers can try and force students to read and like reading however that may never happen if the students do not enjoy the books they are reading. Epic can help students fall in love with reading and therefore helps them see the value and ownership of reading.