Students and Technology in the Classroom

I love my blackberry(黑莓手机)—it’s my little connection to the larger world that can go anywhere with me. I also love my laptop computer, as it holds all of my writing and thoughts. Despite this love of technology, I know that there are times when I need to move away from these devices（设备）and truly communicate with others.

       On one occasion, I teach a course called History Matters for a group of higher education managers. My goals for the class include a full discussion of historical themes and ideas. Because I want students to thoroughly study the material and exchange their ideas with each other in the classroom, I have a rule —no laptops, IPads, phones, etc. When students were told my rule in advance of the class, some of them were not happy.

Most students think that my reasons for this rule include unpleasant experiences in the past with students misusing technology. There’s a bit of truth to that. Some students think that I am anti-technology. There’s no truth in that at all. I love technology and try to keep up with it so I can relate to my students.

The real reason why I ask students to leave technology at the door is that I think there are very few places in which we can have deep conversations and engage complex(复杂的) ideas. Interruptions by technology often break concentration(专心) and allow for too much dependence on outside information for ideas. I want students to dig deep within themselves for inspiration and ideas. I want them to push each other to think differently and make connections between the course material and the class discussion.

I’ve been teaching my history class in this way for many years and the evaluations reflect student satisfaction with the environment that I create. Students realize that with deep conversation and challenge, they learn at a level that helps them keep the course material beyond the classroom.

I’m not saying that I won’t ever change my mind about technology use in my history class, but until I hear a really good reason for the change, I’m sticking to my plan. A few hours of technology-free dialogue is just too sweet to give up.

56. The underlined word “engage ” in para.4 probably means _______.

  A.       change                  B. accept               C. explore              D. refuse

57. According to the author, the use of technology in the classroom may _______.

  A. encourage students to have deep conversations

  B. keep students from doing independent thinking

  C. help students to better understand difficult themes

  D. affect students’ concentration on the teacher's ideas

58. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the author _______.

  A. values technology-free dialogues in his class

  B. will give up teaching history

  C. will change his teaching plan soon

  D. is quite stubborn in teaching

Kindergartners will enter school at different levels of writing. ____66____ The basic expectation, however, is that your child should enter kindergarten writing his name, recognizing the letters in his name, understanding that letters make up words, and knowing that spoken words can become written words. Here is a breakdown (分析)of the steps that new writers go through, as they make their journey towards becoming fluent writers:

Draw a story. Children’s classics have one thing in common: pictures and illustrations(插图). ____67____ Pictures help children follow a storyline and improve their comprehension.

Dictation.  Dictation means that an adult writes down a child’s story exactly as the child tells it. ____68____ It is a fundamental building block for the young writers.

Random letters.  They may begin to experiment with what they know and may use random letters to “write”. It means that your child is beginning to make sense of the sound and symbol relationship. ____69______

Sight words. They are a group of commonly used words that are often difficult to decode(解码), or sound out. For that reason, they must be memorized. The kindergarten sight words on the list will most likely be: I, am, see, like, the.

Interactive writing.  The teacher leads a group of students as they write a story together. He will call on students to come up to the paper and write each letter as the class sounds out the word. Teachers also use this technique to teach early sight words.

  As a parent, you should be ready to help your kid. Encourage your kindergarten kid, as you did with all his other developmental milestones. Give your kid a boost by offering natural opportunities to write. And keep in mind what all of this hard work is leading to! ___70____ The initial foundation is crucial(至关重要的), so don’t rush through it.

A.      In other words, he’s beginning to know that letters form the sounds that make up word.

B.      And finally, try to keep your worry in check.

C.      Don’t be surprised if the kindergarteners don’t come!

D.     This depends on age, interests, and what kind of preschool experiences they had.

E.      This helps reinforce(巩固) the fact that spoken words are related to written words.

F.      Illustrations are front and center for early readers.

G.     Kindergarten reading and writing go hand in hand .

My new teacher is cool. Her name is Paula so we call her Miss Paula.

The first time we met her she said we are going to be good friends and that good friends are always nice to each other.

Miss Paula has been teaching us a lot of things. Some of us used to get in trouble for talking in the hallway. Miss Paula says she can’t change the rule that we can’t make noise in the hallway but we can still talk to each other. She is teaching us sign language. I already know how to say “hello” and “how are you” with my hands. Now we love it when we have to walk somewhere and we are always quiet except for a laugh or two.

Miss Paula likes everybody even Sam and nobody likes Sam. He never does what he’s told but now he is doing better. Miss Paula says every single one of us is perfect and beautiful just the way we are. I guess that includes Sam.

This week at school was really the best ever. I didn’t even get in trouble when I thought I would, because I spilled (洒) milk on my homework and had to hand it in when it was still wet. Miss Paula just smiled and asked, “What’s this?” So I told her what happened. Miss Paula put it near the window to make it dry. She said the sun had been waiting for such an important job as this and would be happy to help us.

Well, I have to go and get ready for bed now. I have school in the morning and I want to wake up early so I will have time to pick Miss Paula some flowers.

56. What do we know about Miss Paula?

  A. She changed the school rules.              B. She is very kind to her students.

  C. She is strict with the writer.                D. She uses sign language in class.

57. According to Paragraph4, Sam_______.

  A. dislikes his new teacher                         B. is often praised by Miss Paula

  C. has made some progress                          D. is one the the writer’s best friends

58. How did the writer probably feel when he handed in his homework?

  A. Worried.                               B. Bored.

  C. Excited.                                  D. Relaxed.

59. We can learn from the passage that the writer _______.

  A. is a bit afraid of her new teacher            B. always picked her teacher some flowers

  C.wrote this article in the morning                 D. loves and respects her new teacher

Dear Alice,

You really have two different questions here, so we’ll discuss them one at a time. Your problems at school may be a result of a number of things . You don’t say much about how these classmates get along with each other. It’s possible that all the students are feeling a little cautious(谨慎的) in the first term.

It’s also possible that the others are unkind. If this is so, you have to find out why you are the class “outsider”.

In your letter you say you often offer to help others with their work. Is it possible that your classmates don’t understand your offers? Could it seem that you were trying to “ buy” friends with these offers?

Is it possible that you took no notice of your classmates when you had your good friends near you ? They may have felt hurt at that time. It may take a time for them to believe in you if so. Try to ask one classmate directly what the problem is. If you hear a negative answer, at least you’ll know what to do.

                                               Yours truly,

                                                   Shelia

From the letter we know that Alice was very _______.

A. lucky     B. unkind    C. clever   D. unhappy

From the letter, we can conclude that ______.

   A. Alice wasn’t pleased with her teachers . 

   B. Alice’s parents made her study too hard. 

   C. Alice didn’t get along well with her classmates 

D. Alice didn’t want to go to school any more

Which of the following is NOT true according to the letter?

   A. Alice felt her classmates weren’t kind to her. 

 B. Alice was very warm-hearted to help her classmates

 C. Alice didn’t want to get along well with her classmates.

 D. Alice asked two questions in her letter