Gradually releasing students to independent practice with any new skill is an intricate process that involves modeling, providing support, sharing knowledge, soliciting questions, and adjusting pace. What if we could leverage iPad to help us provide some of these things for students?
A few months ago a kindergarten teacher came to me and told me her students were struggling with learning the path of movement for writing numbers 1-10. The teacher was feeling overwhelmed with the large amount of new skills she needed to teach and was concerned about the amount of time she was spending on this one skill. However, this was an assessed skill for the current learning quarter and she didn’t want to move on before her students were ready. She asked if I had any ideas for providing students with an interactive way to practice this skill, but to also free her up so she could work with small groups of students on other learning targets that were also a primary focus at the time.
This interactive workbook created in Pages includes a video demonstration for how to write each number narrated with a path of movement poem created by the teacher, an audio clip of steps required for writing each number, guided practice for writing the number along with space for independent practice.
We taught the students how to use the book in a quick five minute demonstration before providing time for them to practice independently. The teacher was able to meet with her small groups while students worked intently and enthusiastically. Additionally, a large majority of students mastered this skill within a week.
How are you using iPad in your classroom to scaffold learning for your students?
Feel free to download this book to use with your students or remix it to better meet your students needs.
September 01, 2022
Thank you so much for posting this, Lindsay! I know it can be a struggle to find ways for younger learners to work independently, especially when topics need to be scaffolded and instruction differentiated. The how-to videos included on each page are an amazing way to have students rewatch instruction as many times as they need.
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