Literacy Smarts
by Jennifer Harper and Brenda Stein Dzaldov
Pembroke Publishers, 2011
ISBN 978-1-55138-267-8
$24.95, 128 pp, index
pembrokepublishers.com
Are you completely flummoxed by the idea of integrating technology and Web 2.0 skills in your classroom? Do you feel lost when trying to balance a full curriculum, new expectations, a class full of students, and new technology—all with limited tech support? Are you comfortable with technology but looking for new ideas and new ways to integrate it in your curriculum and classroom management routines?
If you said YES! to any of these questions, then Literacy Smarts is a resource for you. This book is packed full of easy explanations and ideas to make it simple for you to integrate Web 2.0 into your classroom. Topics covered include netiquette, digital cameras, web 2.0 tools, electronic portfolios, assessment, differentiated instruction, multiple intelligences, English language learners, individual education plans and special needs/gifted students and motivational strategies. There are ideas for making or using book blogs, websites, movies, online videos and Claymation projects. Each chapter is filled with information for the teacher including lesson plans and exemplars, and samples of real students’ work to help you better understand the ways of using computers, data projectors and interactive whiteboards. That being said, teachers don’t need an interactive whiteboard to make use of this resource. Wherever you are in the technology spectrum, this is a great resource for integrating technology into your planning, teaching and assessing. This title is also available from the publisher in a downloadable eBook format.
Review by Amanda Forbes.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Sept/Oct 2013 issue.
