Teachable Moments is a glimpse into the CPS classroom experience. Each month, we collect snapshots from around the city that provide insight into the quality of curriculum and the talent of the teaching staff found in all our schools. CAMBRIDGE, MA [05/04/09] Hello Cambridge! As one can imagine, the role of technology in the classroom and the use of the school library are both rapidly evolving. These trends impact all aspects of student learning, including literacy, research, and study skills. In today’s Age of Information, our students need to understand how to research, organize, comprehend, and share information. With an abundant amount of information that rapidly changes, it is more important than ever that students possess the ability to critically evaluate and analyze information. This includes the effective use of digital technologies such as computers and networking tools while applying the ethical and legal issues associated with access and use of information. Students need to understand, examine and apply the fundamental meaning and messages of information presented through an array of media outlets and formats. Collaboration between the Library Media Department and the Education Technology department helps ensure that students develop these skills. One great example is with Design Teams. Five schools (Cambridgeport, Morse, Peabody, Tobin, Haggerty) incorporated research skills and addressed these topics in the 6 and 7th grade social studies curriculum for ancient civilizations and world religions. This collaboration also included work with CRLS teaching staff to identify research skills that will help prepare middle school students for 9th grade work. These skills include developing a topic, locating resources in print and on the web (including subscriptions to online encyclopedias and databases), selecting the most useful resources, compiling information, recording sources, organizing research to support a statement of purpose, sharing what students learned, reviewing progress and product. It is all part of our collective effort to help students learn what is commonly referred to as 21st Century skills, skills that will help every child succeed in whatever path they choose to follow.
Blogging at the Cambridgeport! Gina Roughton Students in Lindsay Barton’s first and second grade class have been noticing, photographing, writing, documenting…and blogging about the happenings in their classroom. From the unusual smelly onion plant to a favorite writing piece, the students are capturing moments in their daily school life that reveal learning. Lindsay’s work at Harvard’s Project Zero has impassioned her with the idea of “Making Learning Visible,” and after a discussion with Gina Roughton, Technology Integration Specialist, they collaboratively decided a blog would be a perfect fit. The class collectively maintains a blog through the website 21Classes, which also accommodates an individual blog for each student. Twice a week students are gathering content to post to their blogs with an emphasis on documenting learning through a photograph and words. Students first sift through collections of photos that they have taken in their classroom or on a field trip, and then write a caption or short story to accompany the photo. The goal for the postings is for students to document their learning or understanding, with a focus on best work that brings them a sense of pride. Phoebe, a first grader, chose to post a recent handwriting activity that exhibited some of her best effort. She writes, “The word that I wrote was the word water. I’m really proud of my work. It was one of my best handwriting`s. The word water has a w-a-t-e-r. Most letters in the word are made with lines.” While across the computer lab, Andre posts a picture of the class spider plant with this description, “the spider (plant) looks like a spider but it isn't it is just a plant. the long leaves make it look like a spider.”
In addition to individual postings, students are beginning to look at each other’s postings and comment. This feature of the blog gives the students an opportunity to write for an audience (their peers), as well as, the chance to critically look at each other’s work and provide specific feedback. Additionally, this collective exhibition of best work provides inspiration for other students, and will eventually serve as a window into learning for parents and families. Lindsay and Gina are both excited about the many possibilities for the blog, and the students are always asking—Are we blogging today?! Author Charles R. Smith Jr. visit to King Open highlights use of technology in the classroom Jennifer Mason, Librarian
Using Smith's book I Am America as a model, each class created a poem describing the diversity of their classroom and school. One group of 7th graders met to discuss Smith's new young adult novel, Chameleon. Another group of 7th and 8th graders looked carefully at Smith's poems and slide shows and took photos of each other play basketball for their own slideshow. These book groups met with Smith for an intimate luncheon on April 15. Students in all grades viewed Smith's web site, where they saw pictures of him, heard his recordings of spoken word poetry, and watched slide shows of his photography. Literacy specialist Jennifer Kelly guided students in 3rd-6th grade, creating poems based on Smith's and other poets' work. Many of these poems became part of an anthology that the school presented to Smith, and the anthology is on sale to families to raise funds for author visits. Students also volunteered for a "Welcoming Committee" and made posters, set up the gym, and greeted Smith on his arrival. During the week leading up to Smith's visit, students in grades 5 and 6 read his poems on the intercom after the Pledge of Allegiance. Students and staff so enjoyed starting the day with poetry that many students have been inspired to write their own poems and read them on the intercom. We hope to make this a King Open tradition!
Starting Early with Online Research at the Graham and Parks School Ann Niederkorn Students in three 1st/2nd grade classes at Graham and Parks School had the opportunity earlier this spring to explore the Kids Edition of the online database CultureGrams.
Students were studying geography and family history by learning about their families’ countries of origin, and used Culturegrams as a research tool. The database was introduced by library media specialist Ann Niederkorn during library class. Students made use of many of the database’s special text, graphic, and multimedia features to learn about their countries’ capitols, geography, social customs, and language. They were especially excited to view slideshows of photos and listen to the national anthem of each country. Many students were able to share this resource with their parents and to continue their research outside of school, making use of the home access provided by the Library Media Department and CPS. Teamwork works for Haggerty in helping students succeed!
The MCAS can be intimidating for even our strongest readers, but just imagine being handed a test booklet, knowing that simply reading the directions and contents will be an almost insurmountable task. This year at the Haggerty School, Learning Disabilities Specialist Gina Cobin and Technology Integration Specialist Kevin McGonegal teamed up to use technology to take one student's reading difficulties completely out of the mix. A few weeks prior to the ELA section of the MCAS, the LD Specialist called the MCAS service center to arrange for an electronic version of the test to be sent to the school. This request can be made only if a student has standard accommodation #18 (electronic text reader) or #18 with non-standard accommodation #28 (electronic text reader for ELA reading comprehension test) written into their IEP. After being coached on the use of Kurzweil, the LD specialist situated the student at a computer with headphones on the morning of the test. The student was able to easily navigate throughout the electronic text "booklet," and have it read aloud to her in a clear, humanlike, synthetic voice, while the software's patented "dual highlighting" feature added visual reinforcement. The student was able to hear sections of the test read as many times as needed, without the pressure of asking a human reader. The Kurzweil version of the MCAS allowed this one student to take the test independently at the same time as her peers, and in close proximity to them. For this struggling reader the MCAS "intimidation factor" was gone, and she was proud of her independent performance on the year's toughest test! Researching the Pros and Cons of Technology in Teenage Life at CRLS Holly Samuels
This is the question that all of our 9th grade College Prep English students wrestled with this past fall. In a collaborative curriculum designed and taught by the English and Library departments, students formed an initial opinion on the question and then read a series of 10 pre-selected articles about the subject from library periodical databases, took notes on those articles, and then wrote a paper supporting their position with evidence from the articles. For many students this was their first experience doing research to help them develop an informed opinion. Many students began on one side of the spectrum and ended up on the other after reading the articles, which showed a variety of viewpoints. Most found that their thesis was qualified, for example: “Communications technologies improve life for teens as long as they don’t spend too much time on them.” Students spent time reading and analyzing the articles, identify ‘hard’ evidence, and then classifying the evidence according to ‘pro’, ‘con, or ‘neutral’. They had to reference their evidence in the paper and prepare a Works Cited page. Many teachers report that their students were very proud of completing this challenging assignment and learned a lot of skills that will be useful to them in their high school and college experiences. The assignment will become an annual part of the curriculum.Audio Technology Helps Students Succeed at CRLS Alice Chen
The auditory approach helped this student recall the plots and the supporting details, and most important, enabled him to approach the MCAS tests prepared and with confidence. For the on-the-go generation, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic’s AudioAccess program is the perfect solution for teens as it combines a familiar product, an MP3 player, with access to a large recorded library collection of literature and textbooks. Students with special education plans can use these MP3 players at school, at home and on-the-go. Since September 2008, over thirty CRLS students have tried AudioAccess. Students are referred to this support service through their teachers. The requests are administered by the Pearl K. Wise Library. Thus far, nearly all the students find this format user-friendly and recommend it to others who might benefit from a technological boost. Introducing a brand new resource for Cambridge teachers: Tech Bytes Online!
Although we don't intend this to be a comprehensive index of every single curricular resource on the web, we do aim to separate the "wheat from the chaff," providing you with only the most interesting, innovative, and interactive web resources available. The site will soon expand to include video tutorials and "pictures of practice," showcasing how Cambridge teachers are using technology to foster 21st Century Skills in our young learners. The Educational Technology Department looks forward to continuing to develop this resource into something very useful to our teachers, and we hope that through this site we can ultimately help enhance the already great teaching and learning happening in the classrooms of Cambridge! 
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| The Cambridge Public Schools is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the provision of quality educational programs for all students. CPS does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age or sexual orientation. |
Author and illustrator Charles R. Smith, Jr. visited King Open School on Wednesday, April 15. He saw most of the students in grades K-8, giving three different and dynamic presentations. In preparation, librarian Jen Mason led the kindergarten-2nd graders in read-a-louds of Smith's books. 
With the writing portion of the MCAS looming, one student needed to review two novels quickly to refresh his memory and to outline his essays. At his teacher’s suggestion, he borrowed an MP3 player from the library and listened to both books. 