1. The teacher created a PhotoStory presentation to read the picture book "Heckedy Peg" aloud to the class, zooming in on key illustrations, in order to meet a state standard about identifying information from pictures. 2. The teacher chose this book because the illustrations provide important context beyond the text in understanding the story. 3. During the reading, the teacher repeated some pages to draw students' attention to different parts of the illustrations and how they related to the text.

1. A Technology Enhanced Read-Aloud By Julie Crego Given in Mrs. McLean’s 2 nd grade class at Riverview Elementary

2. Objectives For my technology lesson, I thought it would be cool to do a PhotoStory as a substitute for a book read aloud. Because the book’s pictures would be broadcast right on the screen, it would be ideal for the Utah Core Curriculum Standard 7 Objective 3 Indicator c which states “Identify information from pictures.” Because all the students could see the pictures more clearly, they could all participate in discussing how the pictures of the book affect their comprehension of the text.

3. Book Choice I chose the book Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood because not only is this one of my favorite children’s picture story books, but I also feel that when the reader looks closely at the illustrations, they can really tell more about what is going on in the text, and understand the story much better.

4. Before Reading Before we viewed the PhotoStory that I had created, I asked the students about how they thought that pictures helped them to understand the books which they read. I asked them about the shared reading story we were reading as a class, and the books they were reading in their guided reading groups. Before I turned on the PhotoStory, I told the students to be paying particular attention to how the pictures helped the story—what were some things that they noticed in the pictures that weren’t said in the text?

5. During Reading I took photos of the actual pictures from the book, wrote the text over them, and recorded my voice reading the story. I made sure to have the PhotoStory zoom in on the pictures that I wanted the students to pay more attention to.

6. During Reading If the text was particularly long for a certain page, I would put the picture up twice, focusing on different parts of the picture. I think that repeating the picture from a different focal point helped them to see how pictures could help the text.

7. After Reading After the PhotoStory was done playing, I asked the students how the pictures had helped the text. The students were all very excited to participate, and although I was prepared to probe them towards the right answers if necessary, they did not need it! They understood easily that the pictures in Heckedy Peg are a big help in seeing how the characters are feeling.

8. Reflection I think this technology lesson went very smoothly, and that the students really enjoyed it. Using technology to show the book’s pictures from a larger view and from different focal points was much more effective than trying to show a regular sized book to twenty-five children and asking them how the pictures helped the text. Therefore, I think the technology suited the content perfectly. I think the only thing that I would have done differently is to extend this lesson either before or after the PhotoStory—doing a longer activity or having them write about what they noticed in the story or something like that might have helped their learning to be solidified. Other than that, I think using PhotoStory for a read-aloud was very effective, and it was something different and fun for the kids!

9. Principle #1: Student Use of Technology In this learning activity, I used the technology in more of a showing way, rather than letting the students be active learners with the technology. Therefore, the students were passive users of technology—their technology use was limited and they just watched it. In the future, I could abide by this principle by having the students make their own PhotoStory, and then showing them to the rest of the class. They would be more active learners that way.

10. Principle #2: Technology Use is Essential In this learning activity, I definitely think that the technology use was essential. In order to be able to evaluate the pictures from the book, students needed to be able to easily see the pictures. This would have been impossible had it not been for the projector I used, and the PhotoStory made it so that students could listen, see, and hear all at once, instead of just seeing the pictures and me taking forever to click through them as I read the story.

11. Principle #3: Focus on Learning Task I think that this use of technology helps students to somewhat focus on the learning task, but in some ways, it does not. I think that the students were more excited about the actual use of technology than just looking at the pictures to see how they helped the text. I think the technology helped them complete the task, but they were probably more focused on the technology than on the task of understanding how pictures aided the text.

12. Principle #4: Added Value Like stated previously, I definitely feel that technology added value to this lesson because the students were able to see the pictures clearly through the projector, as opposed to sitting on the carpet and straining to see the pictures. I think that the preparation to use the technology (preparing the PhotoStory) definitely was not easier than preparing for a read aloud, but the carrying out of the actual lesson was much easier with the technology than without. I think that each and every student got to look at the pictures from the same angle through this use of technology, which would not have been how it was if it was just a standard read aloud.