The students in Brenna Frost’s classroom recently changed up how they show what they know during reading time. That’s because 3rd-grade teacher, Brenna Frost has placed the graphic organizers from Wonders and any other work that she needs to monitor into a google slide presentation. The kids know it as their Digital Reading Notebook and they are quite proud of it.
On the day that I visited Mrs. Frost’s classroom, the learning goals were clearly stated for what the students “must do” and “may do” (see graphic) during their reading work time. It was interesting to see kids interact on their iPad with the “Visualize” graphic organizer that I have often seen completed only on paper. Brenna believes that the Digital Readers Notebook is helping to promote and practice metacognition for her kids while also helping them focus on the comprehension skill or strategy that they are working on as a class.

Brenna also has a creative way to manage the ever-growing, ever-changing notebook. Each week she works from her “master document” from which all of her students have view access rights. She can add, remove or modify graphic organizers and documents that she wants the students to access. Then she instructs the kids to move the new documents into their own Journal. Even though the third-graders are new to the technology, they seem to have the system down pat. As an added bonus, Brenna can easily check student work and progress at any time from her iPad or computer.

The work time is productive. engaging and fun. Students who want to gather and collaborate find a cozy spot in the room to work. Others work independently to check off the “must-do” tasks on their own.
At the end of the work time, most of the kids joined a book chat incorporating the week’s vocabulary words into their writing. They used a tool from the Wonders student portal called “Collaborative Conversations”. This additional activity will certainly need to be discussed on our blog in the near future!