Students from Mineola Middle School in New York shared their experiences with LightSail at their district school board meeting on December 17th, 2015, and gave the adults a demonstration of how the digital reading platform works.
This 30 minute presentation, lead by a group of 5th grade students, their teacher, and the school’s principal, began with a brief overview of LightSail. From there, students walked board members through how the app works, from the initial LightSail Power Challenge and personalized libraries to the instant messaging features, activity feeds and dashboards that allow students and teachers to track progress.
“It amazes me how articulate the children are and how knowledgeable they are about what they are doing in school and their own learning,” Mineola school Superintendent Michael Nagler said. “It’s very impressive that they understand how they learn.”
Key points of interest include:
14:04 – Students demonstrate how to create thoughts within texts // Ms. Doherty explains how to use these annotations to practice skills and strategies
17:39 – Students explain portfolio page // Ms. Doherty explains teacher alerts and activity feed
18:56 – Students talk about how to read progress updates
22:05 – A student takes Superintendent Nagler through his reading list on LightSail
24:39 – A student describes LightSail reading experience and the benefits of digital over print
27:07 – An explanation of how LightSail tracks reading speed and behavior (“It knows when you skip pages…!”)
30:44 – A student shows Superintendent Nagler his badge library + talks through how he earned each one
34:09 – LightSail’s monitoring explained: how to know if students are really reading and understanding, and how tools that allow teachers to give immediate feedback incentivize students to do better
36:04 – Comments from the board members, including parents, about the benefits of technology in the classroom and the importance of a tool like LightSail at home for students and for parents
38:30 – Final comments from Superintendent Nagler: “The power of the tool is the power for the teacher in helping students know what they don’t know”
Posted on 2.Feb.16 in Partner Success
