Together with The New York Times Learning Network and a ninth grade teacher from High Technology High School in Lincroft, NJ, Vocabulary.com is planning a panel presentation for SXSWedu (March 2014) on "Text-Mining the News for Student Literacy."
We need your vote to let the conference organizers know you think it's a good idea to let us present! (You don't have to be going to the conference to voice your support.)
The proposed title of the panel discussion is "Text-Mining the News for Student Literacy." It will pose the question: What happens when students can choose for themselves what they want to read and how to learn from it?
Digital texts and adaptive technology can empower students to take charge of their own word learning. The panelists for this session each have deep experience with helping students navigate difficult nonfiction texts through tools and practices that emphasize choice and personal meaning-making. Vocabulary.com's adaptive gameplay helps students take charge of their own word learning, replacing the one-list-fits-all mentality of traditional vocabulary instruction. The New York Times Learning Network offers multiple ways for students to choose, play with, and write about the current events that interest them most. And in Jonathan Olsen's ninth-grade classroom, students read, research, and create in ways that go far beyond what happens in classrooms where the teacher alone sets the agenda. We will discuss how the power of choice makes the path to literacy more meaningful and effective.
Questions:
- How can students find their own paths to literacy by mining nonfiction texts for vocabulary that is meaningful to them?
- How can data-driven methods of text collection be integrated into online learning, to best take advantage of the world of words around us?
- How can adaptive technology provide differentiated vocabulary instruction, tailored to individual students' needs and learning styles?
Lexicographer Ben Zimmer of Vocabulary.com will serve as moderator.