Sara Robledo Lucas

ULRN 4100

November 7, 2018

Journal Article Review: Using Nearpod in elementary guided reading groups

The article Using Nearpod in elementary guided reading groups is written by Stacy De La

Cruz, from Kennesaw State University. The main technology described in the classroom is about

using the application Nearpod. Nearpod is described in the article as ‘PowerPoint on steroids’

(De La Cruz, Emerson, 2013) in which teachers and students log into the application with a code

and the students are able to follow along with the teachers presentation. The application also

allows teachers to ask questions, do survey, or give quizzes. The students and teacher are then

able to monitor their results in real time. The purpose of the research was to study if the

application can be an effective teaching material in guided readings, especially in helping

English Language Learners.

The research involved the teacher providing a lesson with the application to students in

the lowest reading group and highest reading group. The objective of her lesson was to see if the

students were able to understand the new vocabulary introduced about the colonial period. The

teacher would then interview the students after the lesson to ask them about using the application

Nearpod and would analyze the results of the quiz given with Nearpod. From the interview and

from the data gathered through the quiz the teacher felt confident that the students were able to

understand the lesson because the application made it easier for all students to participate. The

pictures that she was able to introduce within the PowerPoint presentation also helped her

students understand the new vocabulary. The interactive use of the application also engaged the

students, they were asked to draw the meaning of a word within the application and the teacher
then shared those pictures with the group. In the interview the children said that they really

enjoyed the lesson because it fun and competitive.

I choose the article on Nearpod because the application is in the schools iPad’s, but I did

not know what it was or how to use it. After reading about it online it seemed like a great

resource to have in the classroom and I wanted to know how other teachers have used the

program and how it has worked for them in the classroom. I agree with the findings in the

research because when we introduced iPad’s in the classroom the students were very excited and

wanted to play with them immediately. The research provided some examples of the enthusiasm

the students showed towards using the iPads during a lesson, but it was only a small amount of

students who participated in the research. I would have liked to see a control group that was not

using the Nearpod to see if the application made a difference in their learning. I think this

research is important because schools need more technology in the classroom because it engages

more students, it is a useful skillset for students to learn how to navigate with technology, and

technology can ease the workload of teachers. The research supports this idea because the

teacher mentioned that she liked the ease of making a quiz within in the application and not

having to grade the papers later on. Nearpod was able to capture children’s attention which can

be really difficult especially if English is not the students primary language. Nearpod seems to

get rid of the language barrier because students are able to draw to express themselves and see

pictures to understand the new vocabulary.