ESC Region 16
June 6, 7, or 8, 2005
Amarillo, Texas
learninginhand.com/notes

Workshop Description: There are so many great activities for third through fifth graders that help reading comprehension and use Palm Powered handheld computers. Tony demonstrates multiple engaging activities for before, during, and after reading. From building vocabulary and background knowledge to personal connections, visualization, and concept mapping, your students will see there's more to reading than just decoding words! Tony also shares resources to help you extend the use of your handhelds beyond the end the PAALM grant.

Photo Essay

Taylor's Day
Click for the entire text of the essay. There are hyperlinks to each application used.
learninginhand.com/articles/photoessay.html

Before Reading

Defining Words
Look up words quickly with the free Noah Lite dictionary. Start by entering a word and Noah Lite jumps to that part of the alphabet. Be aware that this dictionary contains some words we would not want coming out of our students' mouths.
www.arslexis.com/download.html

Jigsawing
A great way for students to learn vocabulary is to cooperate and communicate. Each students belongs to a home group and a number group. All like numbers meet and define words they are assigned. They put their assigned words and definitions into a new category in Contacts. The word is placed in the Last Name field and the definition is placed in the Custom 1 field. When students return to their home groups, it's their job to teach the words they defined to each other. They also beam the definitions to each other so everyone has all vocabulary words in the Contacts category.

Quizzing
Quizzler is a free application where teachers can make a vocabulary or background knowledge quiz and beam it to each student's handheld. Students can practice taking the quiz until they get 100%.
Download Quizzler: www.pocketmobility.com/quizzler/quizzler.html
Download Quizzes: www.pocketmobility.com/quizzler/premium.html
Download Quiz-Making Instructions: learninginhand.com/articles/MakeQuizzlers.pdf

Word Sorting
Get students to think about the relationships, similarities, and differences among their vocabulary words. In Inspiration, enter each vocabulary word into its own shape. Pile all of the shapes on top of each other. Beam this document to each student. Instruct students to drag the shapes around to sort the words into two categories. Then ask them to sort them into three, four, and five categories. Allow students to discuss with each other why they sorted the words they way they did.
Inspiration for Palm OS: www.inspiration.com/productinfo/inspirationpalmos

Developing Background Knowledge
Find great web pages and sites for students read on their handhelds. A good place to start searching is FactMonster.com and Yahooligans.com.

You then may choose to use either of the free applications FlingIt or Plucker. You will need to install the software on your Mac or Windows computer first. Both of these programs have documentation you can read to help you install and use the software.

FlingIt is made specially for education. An icon appears in your web browser that allows you to send the currently open page to your handheld through a USB cord. You don't actually perform a HotSync operation. Connect your handheld and desktop and then launch FlingIt and tap the Download Site button. Once the page is loaded on your handheld, it can be beamed and read to other handhelds using FlingIt.
www. goknow.com/Products/FlingIt

Plucker has more options and is more complicated than FlingIt. Once you find a page you would like to transfer to your handheld, copy the web address. Open the Plucker application on your desktop computer. Click the button to add a new "channel." Paste the address and complete the information, including the link depth. If you want just the page you are viewing to be sent to your handheld, you need to specify a link dept of one. Click the Update Channel button to have Plucker prepare the page. After the next time you synchronize your handheld, the new web page or site will be available for viewing and beaming on your handheld using the Palm Plucker application.
www.plkr.org/dl

Doing Digital Worksheets
Students don't always need to start their word processing documents from scratch. Just as you might have students complete a paper worksheet, beam them a digital worksheet. Using Memos or Word To Go, have students answer questions that you have typed and beamed to them. These questions should get them ready to read the text. Student can share their answers with the teacher or fellow students by beaming!

During Reading

Journaling
Students use a word processor like Memos or Word To Go. They create a new category for the text they are reading and keep daily journal entries in that category. Create clear expectations for journal entries. You could write your own eBook or word processing document and beam it to students for reference. Some effective journaling strategies are making connections, forming predictions, questioning, picturing, defining vocabulary, and summarizing. Instead of having students print or beam their journals for you, consider having students synchronize their handhelds. Then read them using Palm Desktop. This way you can type your comments. When students synchronize again, your comments will appear in their journals. Tip: Type your teacher comments in all capital letters or in bold so students can find them easily.

Determining Importance
Shifting through information in text can be difficult and sometimes overwhelming for students. To fully comprehend and to write about what they have read, students need help reading to extract important information and essential ideas from the text. Using Tasks, students create a category for the text they are reading. After reading each paragraph, students input information they have learned. Each piece of information is a new "task." After completely reading the text (or a section of the text), it's time for students to prioritize what they have read by assigning each item in the category a number. Assign 1s to information that is most essential. Assign 5s to information that is least essential. And, of course, items can fall in between with numbers 2, 3, and 4. This is a good activity to do in partners or small groups, as the conversation about importance will aid in student thinking and comprehension. This activity is most appropriate for informational text.

Looking Out for Words
As students read, they should be aware of the words an author chooses. This can give students a purpose for reading and assist them with their own writing. Using Silly Sentences, students input nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases from the text (or relating to the text). When the "Make Sentence" button is tapped, the words are mixed together into crazy sentences. Be sure to use the help menus for information about the parts of speech and which forms of nouns and verbs work best. Tip: Don't let students tap the "Make Sentence" button until there are at least one entry in each category, otherwise the handheld will crash.
www.freewarepalm.com/educational/sillysentences.shtml

Animating the Text
Using Sketchy, students can easily create moving cartoons that can retell a part of a story. Building an animation while reading the story can help students remember what they have read.
Some Sketchy examples:learninginhand.com/articles/sketchy.html
More Sketchy examples: goknow.com/sketchycontest
Download Sketchy and User Guide: goknow.com/Products/Sketchy

After Reading

Reflecting & Brainstorming
Students reflect upon characters and information from the text by playing a game called "Cross-Talk" with a partner. The game uses Beamer, a free application that allows students to beam words back and forth. To help extent their thinking about the story, they start the game with Player 1 inputting a word to describe the main character and tapping the Beam button. Then Player 2 inputs another word to describe the character under Player 1's word and beams the document back to Player 1. Play continues back and forth until one player cannot think of another word to write, repeats a word that has already been used, or uses an incorrect word. "Cross-Talk" can be played with a variety of topics from the teacher, including describing the setting, naming animals in the text, or listing emotions that characters had. There are many possibilities for this fun activity!
www.freewarepalm.com/communication/beamer.shtml

Concept Mapping
Inspiration has many built-in templates for students to complete. Some of them are Cause and Effect, Pro and Con, Classification, and Problem Solving. Access these templates through File > Open and tapping the Templates tab.
www.inspiration.com/productinfo/inspirationpalmos

Quizzing
After reading, students can take a quiz over the text (written by the teacher). Even better, after reading, create a quiz as a class, with students contributing correct and incorrect answers. The process of actually creating the quiz is a great way to think about the text that was read!
Download Quizzler: www.pocketmobility.com/quizzler/quizzler.html
Download Quiz-Making Instructions: learninginhand.com/articles/MakeQuizzlers.pdf

Making the Text Crazy
Use the application Gone Mad! to have students take a paragraph from the text and replace keywords with a description of the kind of word in brackets. These story templates can be beamed to others to complete and enjoy.
Download Gone Mad!: www.schau.com/s/gonemad
Help, tips, ideas, and templates for Gone Mad!: learninginhand.com/GoneMad

Grab Bag

BooksLog
Students record information about books they have read.
www.palmgear.com

CFB Timer
A simple free timer for Palm handhelds.
cfbsoftware.com/palm

Dictate
Easily create, give, and grade dictation.
www.schau.com/s/dictate

HanDBase
Create your own database for tracking student information.
www.ddhsoftware.com/handbase.html
Download free databases: www.ddhsoftware.com/gallery.html

MatchWho
Select facial features and hair to create a person.
www.freewarepalm.com/graphics/matchwho.shtml

Name Picker
Randomly pick students in your class.
www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/namepicker.shtml

Prize Wheel
Pick numbers randomly with this spinning "wheel."
www.freewarepalm.com/games/prizewheel.shtml

PTally
Replacement for multiple mechanical counters.
www.freewarepalm.com/misc/ptally.shtml

SpellIT
Enter weekly spelling lists and practice spelling the words.
www.freewarepalm.com/educational/spellitbystephen.shtml

What-If Builder
Enables teacher and students to create stories with choices for the reader to make.
www.kidsolve.com/products/palm/wib

Handheld Computing Resources

Tony's Website
learninginhand.com

Handhelds for Teachers & Administrators
by Janet Caughlin and Tony Vincent
www.tomsnyder.com/Products/product.asp?SKU=JANHAN

Teaching Now! "Handhelds in Omaha" Video
teachingnow.org/watchTV.php?id=32

Tony's Email
learninginhand@mac.com