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Ways to Open Communication with your kids

Questions to open communication about 

Technology with your kids

One of the most challenging things as a parent can be getting our kids to open up and talk to us. Here’s a quick list of open- ended questions to help open those lines of communication: 

1.  Which app or game is your favorite? 

2.  When was the last time you updated your privacy or security features? Why don’t   

      we take a look together and make sure your device is updated securely? 

3.  What do you like most about (insert their favorite app/ social platform or game i.e. 

      Snapchat, Fortnite, Instagram, etc.)? 

4.  What are the problems that come up over an argument over text, DM or email?

5.  What do you think are the short and long term consequences of posting a certain 

      photo or video? (Can insert sexy photo, party video or photo, offensive language, 

      inappropriate language, etc.)

• Can lead into short term it could affect school, a sports team, friendships, etc.
• Can lead into long term could affect college application, employment, reputation, etc. 

6.   How would you react if you saw someone being bullied online? Have you ever 

      been targeted or bullied online? What would you do if you were ever targeted       

      online and felt bullied?  

7.   Have you ever come across racist, sexist, or hate-based content while online? How 

      did it make you feel? What did you do in that situation? 

8.   Has anyone ever posted a photo/ video of you without your permission? How did 

       it make you feel? 

9.   Have you ever posted a photo/ video of someone without their permission?

10. Have you ever come across something online that made you feel uncomfortable? 

       What did you do? 

*These are a baseline of questions for an older child (think middle school and older) but they can be adjusted based on developmental level and age of the child. For younger children you can use simplified language such as ‘have you seen someone being mean online’ or ‘did something you saw online confuse you’.

The larger point here is to talk about these topics, and to revisit and talk often. We want our kids to feel as comfortable talking about cyberbullying as they are telling you what they did during recess that day. Make these conversations consistent and normalized.  

It’s can also be helpful to talk during those routine moments like the ride to school, bedtime, cooking, throwing the ball around or over a meal. Kids can be intimidated by eye contact so sitting next to them can also be helpful. Paying attention to the small details, summarizing the story and asking prompting or clarifying questions can help keep the conversation moving and get the real story out. 

These conversations need to start happening the moment your child picks up a device. Starting at age 2 or 3 when they first start trying to pick up your phone or are beginning exploration within early learning apps are the beginning moments to start these conversations. Obviously the conversation will be be very different with a toddler versus a teen. 

Learn to Read Apps & Websites

Reading Intervention Highlight: Read Naturally Live

Do you have struggling readers in your class? Do you want to create an individualized, differentiated reading curriculum that addresses each student at their reading and comprehension level?

What is Read Live?

The strategy of Read Live is “structured intervention programs combine teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring — three strategies that research has shown are effective in improving students'  reading proficiency.” (Read Live) This program supports the National Reading Panel’s five essential components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension). 

How It Works

The basic principle behind Read Naturally is teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring.

Teacher Modeling

An aspect of Read live is that students reads along with the recording of a fluent reader. This helps model for students proper pronunciation, expression, and phrasing.

Repeated Reading

This strategy has been shown to improve fluency so in Read Live students re-read text until they reach a predetermined goal rate. This allows students gain confidence and ultimately master the story before moving on. 

Progress Monitoring

Students become engaged and active within the learning process through daily monitoring in the Read Live program. Students can see in graphs the increase in words correctly read through the process of practicing then re-reading. 

How much does it cost?

Read live cost $149 per student for a 12 month subscription. The cost go down per user the more seats purchased. For instance a 30 seat subscription goes down to $15.38 a student ($1999.00 total). With your 12 month subscription, you also have the following services:

Pros: 

• Lower implementation Costs: Read Live only requires a web browser with Adobe Flash support which means no hardware or software is required to set up, install, maintain or update. 
• Pricing: One price for access to all 13 Sequenced Series Levels and all 6 Phonics Series Levels. The price also decreases when purchasing more than 6 seats so it's an efficient use of funds for struggling readers. 
• Assessment tool included: For each seat purchased, 30 seats of Benchmark Assessor Live is included. This means that for the price of enrolling one student, you can screen an entire class of  30 students. 
• Teacher Management: It has a easy to use teacher management system that can adjust student reading levels, analyze and graph various components of reading, etc. to share with teachers, parents, and administrators. 

Cons: 

• Student's can become frustrated with re-reading text and some students will read faster just to reach their goals (which can influence fluency and expression). With teacher- supervision these can be avoided. 

In summary, for struggling reader Read Live is a helpful interactive program that an be adjusted specifically to the student. This program is also great to improve confidence in reading and comprehension, broadens vocabulary and monitors progress. This program gives insightful information on students to share with teachers, administrators, parents and the student on their reading, fluency and comprehension. It also offers tiered, individualized learning based on the students level.

If your interested Read Live offers a free 60 day trial:  http://www.readnaturally.com/products/readlivetrial.htm#trial

For a video tutorial on Read Live check out: http://www.readnaturally.com/howto/videos_readlive.htm.