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Editor’s Note: Although the SeeSaw app has been reviewed in The Missouri Reader before, it is a teacher favorite, so we decided to share this extended perspective on how it can be used.
In today’s tech-savvy world, it can seem hard to keep up at times with students’ abilities to incorporate technology into the classroom. As a literacy teaching assistant, I have seen a variety of reading instruction in classrooms throughout the school year. One technology integration into reading instruction that has really stood out to me across all the classrooms this year is the use of the app, SeeSaw, in reading instruction in grades K-5. SeeSaw is an app that allows students to digitally document what they are learning in school, and it can be shared and documented into a portfolio. It can be used on either a laptop or an iPad.
SeeSaw in reading can be effective for all grade levels. Here are some ways I have seen it incorporated into instruction. Even kindergarteners could showcase what they were learning.
After careful instruction, SeeSaw became one of the kindergarten stations during reading instruction in just the second week of school. I watched as their teacher carefully demonstrated and scaffolded them on their task to take pictures on the iPad
and write the first letter of the picture. They were encouraged to stretch out the rest of the word, but that would come with time. After this, students would voice-over the picture what they wrote, thus reading aloud. This would then develop throughout the year to more complex sentences showcasing their reading and writing connection. As we were introducing SeeSaw to students last year, third-grade buddies taught kindergarteners how to use SeeSaw appropriately. It became a learning experience for all students.
Another way to integrate SeeSaw can be for students to use the video recording feature to read their guided reading books or a book of their choice aloud to the camera. At a primary level, often students use SeeSaw in partner groups and throughout the intermediate grades, the use becomes
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SeeSaw Brings Reading to Life
Meg Brady
(extended review)