all organized around grade-level-appropriate themes adapted from the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students. The series includes the following five titles.
1. NOW Classrooms, Grades K–2: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
2. NOW Classrooms, Grades 3–5: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
3. NOW Classrooms, Grades 6–8: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
4. NOW Classrooms, Grades 9–12: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
5. NOW Classrooms, Leader’s Guide: Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
Instructional coaches might use all five books in the series for project ideas at all grade levels and for leadership strategies. We scaffolded the lessons across the series of books so they all flow together, and we organized all the grade-level books in this series in the same way to make it easy for all readers to see how the ideas link together. We believe this series will save you hours of preparation time.
Using This Book
The primary audience for this book is K–2 classroom teachers with access to technology tools, but instructional coaches and administrators can also use the book’s lessons to support the students and teachers they lead. Having access to digital devices in your classroom does not mean you need to have a 1:1 environment in which every student gets a device. We want students to collaborate, communicate, and share with each other, so many of this book’s lessons involve grouping students together around a single device. You can also adapt lessons to work in classrooms with limited technology access or those that still use the old computer lab model.
Each of the chapters includes multiple topical sections, each with three lesson levels—(1) novice, (2) operational, and (3) wow, spelling NOW. Once we arrived at the three levels, it felt almost like a Choose Your Own Adventure book instead of a step-by-step recipe book. Make your lesson selections based on what your students can already do. For example, in chapter 2 of this book, we cover Snapping and Sharing Pictures (page 37). Maybe your students already know how to snap a photo with their device (the novice-level lesson), so you might use the operational lesson, Sequencing Pictures. Students who master the operational lesson can then move on to the wow lesson, Demonstrating Learning Using Pictures, which applies skills in the novice and operational lessons to create new kinds of products.
Each lesson begins with a learning goal, phrased as an I can statement, written in student-friendly language. These statements help students understand the learning goal and make the learning experience purposeful. When students more clearly understand what they can do and where they are going, learning happens. This is important because it means that students are taking ownership of their learning. For example, if another teacher visits the classroom, students can articulate the I can statement to explain the lesson to the visitor. We then explain to you what students will learn from the lesson, the tools you can use to make it work, and we provide a stepped process you can follow to accomplish the learning goal. All lessons wrap up with two or more subject-area connections with ideas you can use to adapt the lesson to different content areas, like English language arts and mathematics. Along the way we provide teaching and tech tips in this book’s scholar’s margins to help provide useful insights. Finally, we added discussion questions at the end of each chapter so you can use this book with your team for professional development.
Chapter 1, “Learning Technology Operations and Concepts,” is unique to this book and helps you navigate the addition of digital devices and technology to your classroom. K–2 students are just starting out in technology and school, and you should teach them a few lessons before you dive deep into technology projects so that they understand the functionality of the technology they use. We call these technology fundamentals technology literacy. Additionally, we cover some essential classroom learning management system (LMS) basics to help students understand how to log in and upload content to personal and shared folders.
Chapter 2, “Embracing Creativity,” has students work with digital images, capture video, and record audio files as they collaborate on projects. You may or may not enjoy the selfie culture, but K–2 students love taking pictures of themselves, and of course, they love sharing. We embed these 21st century skills into the lessons in this chapter.
Chapter 3, “Communicating and Collaborating,” emphasizes communication and collaboration as critical skills for our students. Students will learn 21st century skills that include how to use video to flip learning, how to share appropriately on social media, and how to use live communication tools to connect to local and global audiences.
Chapter 4, “Conducting Research and Curating Information,” presents research and information fluency as critical skills for digital learners. Students will learn how to locate information online and check the information for accuracy. Even our youngest learners need these foundational skills.
Chapter 5, “Thinking Critically to Solve Problems,” focuses on critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making with regard to selecting and using digital tools. It includes developing students’ voice and choice in selecting digital tools to solve problems.
Chapter 6, “Being Responsible Digital Citizens,” covers digital citizenship. Teachers always try to protect students physically and emotionally; now this extends to helping students stay safe online. The lessons in this chapter focus on how teachers can help young students have success learning online and stay safe in a digital world. Students will understand why online safety is important and engage in age-appropriate lessons about online stranger danger, cyberbullying, protection of personal information, and intellectual property.
Chapter 7, “Expanding Technology and Coding Concepts,” helps you foster 21st century college and career readiness in your students by supporting your youngest learners as they begin understanding the computational thinking concepts that drive how the digital world functions. These lessons introduce students to the basics of computer coding and the language behind their favorite games.
In the appendix, we include an alphabetical list of technology terms and resources. This includes a comprehensive list of apps, websites, and technology tools referenced in this book along with a description of each resource.
Building Background: Know Before You Go
Readers should be aware of a few additional concepts regarding this content before they begin engaging with the lessons and chapters that follow. We want to briefly mention suggestions for the sequence in which readers use the lessons in the book, discuss the concept of learning management systems and common education suites like G Suite for Education that are a critical part of this book’s lessons, emphasize the importance of following policies regarding student privacy and Internet use, and discuss how assessment connects with this content.
Sequence of Use
Because every school in every district finds itself in a different place with technology integration, we start this practical book with suggestions for setting up for success. We know some
