Reading Response on iPads and MacBooks + Apple TV!!!

I love to use the iPads and MacBooks for any sort of reading response activity during my reading groups.  This week I had my kindergartners identifying the characters and setting during a read aloud on their iPads and my 1st graders identified the characters, setting, main idea and story events based on their guided reading story of the day on their MacBooks. 

My 1st graders actually completed the Keynote on their MacBooks.  They each opened up the Keynote file I created and stopped while they were reading their story of the day (we use My Sidewalks which is the intervention series with Pearson Reading Street) to put in names of characters and the setting.  After finishing the story, they typed the main idea and the story events.  The last step was to record their voices on Keynote describing the characters, setting, main idea and story events.  We have done a wide variety of story maps in my classroom and this was just one other way to get my little friends engaged and comprehending! They each took ownership of their final Keynotes and the great thing is that you can definitely have students do this in literacy centers (both on the iPad or MacBook) while you are busy meeting with a guided reading group!

Oh, and one last thing….my classroom is getting an Apple TV! The TV actually just got installed yesterday and we don’t actually have the Apple TV part of it yet, but I am super excited to begin using it in the next few weeks as another technology tool! Basically it’ll act as a screen for my iPad, so whatever I am doing on their with my students can be projected onto the TV (and of course many other things that I just haven’t figure out yet!). Most of the classrooms in my school have SmartBoards, but since I am a reading specialist who does small groups all the time, instead of spending more money on another SmartBoard, I am so lucky to have this option instead…more to come once I get going with it!