Observing ourselves with technology

I gave my students the opportunity to observe their own behavior this past week. We have been working on sight words quite a bit lately. Now that texts are getting a bit harder with less cvc words and more words that can't be sounded out, sight words need to be automatic when reading. I found a great way for kids to practice sight words at Teacher Tipster. (By the way, all of his ideas are great and I have used quite a few including Sight Word Jenga and Silly-brations, plus he is so fun! :D )

One Breath Boxes is my latest find. Check out the links below for more info.

One Breath Boxes printable from Teacher Tipster

One Breath Box video by Teacher Tipster

I gave students the chance to practice with partners or in small groups. We practiced first together how to take turns. One person reads first and the other checks the words. If the person gets a word wrong, the checker has to stop them and tell them they missed a word. I made sure to emphasize that we all want to get all the words right, but if we miss one we want to know so we can fix it for next time. I then went around the room to record students practicing with each other. We then got back together as a group and watched/listened to ourselves. They had to follow along with the video/audio recordings to check if they were right. I had one student who kept saying 'came' instead of 'can.' When a friend or myself would stop to correct, he insisted that he did in fact say 'can.' Of course, we said "No, you said 'came.'" This goes back and forth for a while, until we pull out the video of him saying the words. Now the student can hear and see himself say the wrong word. "Oh! I guess I did say that!" That's what I love about using technology as a learning tool - it forces students to look at themselves. When we have knowledge of ourselves in the present, we can make a better attempt at improving for the future.

Breath Box #1 by First Grade