Over the summer, teachers and school administrators were surprised to see the positive impact that access to iPads had on students at Title I schools.
The federal Title I program provides additional funding for schools with high percentages of students living in poverty.
Each summer, St. Vrain Valley School District holds a MyOn Summer Reading challenge for elementary schools.
MyOn is an online resource for students to access books to read, as well as audio books.
Most years Title I school schools promote the program and send books home with students.
When the district went to online-only schooling in March, iPads were distributed to students, who were advised to keep them over the summer.
With access to technology that is usually only gained at school, students took advantage and explored deeper than they could even during a normal school day.
“We have in the past, had summer school and at times our kids could participate when they were in the building, but our families don’t really have access to the technology that they need to be able to get on MyOn,” Indian Peaks Elementary School Principal Kathi Jo Walder said. “In past years we have always just had them read hard books at home but this summer we didn’t have any summer school and our families were able to have a device checked out by the district and because of that they read like crazy.”
Students at Indian Peaks Elementary have participated in the MyOn Summer Reading Challenge every year. According to Walder, the school makes a big deal out of the program with its students.
She said in previous years the school hosted summer school and that is where a majority of students participated in the challenge. This year, there was no summer school and students were left to read on their own.
Last year, Indian Peaks Elementary had 43% of its students participating and this summer that climbed to 69%. The number of minutes read increased from an average of 56 minutes per student to 95.57 minutes for a total of 32,206 minutes read by the school.
Indian Peaks second grade teacher Mendi Young said she was impressed with students’ enthusiasm for the program. She said her students asked her the results of the contest and she was excited to see their celebrations in her virtual classroom.
Young said she is impressed by the number of students who are mentioning books they read over the summer during class discussions.
“A lot of times our students don’t have the life experience that other students have, they just don’t have the life opportunities,” she said. “So the ability to access all of these books and even books that are too hard for them to read but MyOn reads it for them, so they access them based on interest, is really helping to broaden the life experience they come to class with.”
Indian Peaks ranked second in the district behind Hygiene Elementary, whose students read a collective 46,154 minutes (121.78 per student) and Rocky Mountain Elementary came in third with 28,358 minutes (72.9 per student).
Each school received a cash prize — $2,500 for first place, $1,200 for second and $1,000 for third. Walder said she doesn’t yet know what Indian Peaks will do with the prize moneyfunds yet but her leadership team will meet soon to decide how best to use it for students.
According to Kerri McDermid,SVVSD chief communications and global impact officer, this is the first time two Title I schools have ranked in the top three in the challenge.
It is too early in the school year to tell the difference the technology has made in students’ reading abilities, however, the eagerness of students to continue to learn on their own has excited the school district.
"This isn’t the first year that my students have known about the challenge. This is really the first year that I’ve had equal access and this is because of the nature of the poverty of our students. They haven’t really had access to the challenge before because in order to do the MyOn challenge, you have to have access to the internet and you have to have access to a device,” Young said.Another happy result of the summer-long access to technology Young discovered is the readiness of English language learners for the new school year. Students with another dominant language at home spend three months of the summer submerged in that language, she said.
“With access to this technology, especially MyOn because it reads the books to them, it puts English in their ears all summer long,” Young said.
With access to MyOn, students were able to listen to books in English as they followed along.
Young also said she has a student who had to travel to California for a family emergency. Situations like this are not rare in her classroom. Students may spend significant time with their loved ones who are farther away. Young said because the student has access to a school iPad, he is still able to participate in classes.
“All of a sudden our students get to take their learning with them,” she said.
At this time, the district has not made any definite plans to continue allowing students to keep iPads over the summer but educators such as Young and Walder are hopeful one develops.
“Our students have always been excited about learning. They’ve always been excited about reading. They just haven’t had the access other students have had. That’s the real difference,” Young said.
