iPads help charge reading instruction

East Haven (CT) reading specialist Gina Tomassi sits with second-grader Isaac Florentino for a quick reading evaluation, listening to him read a short story about a riverside village. She’s conducted these informal, frequent assessments countless times with other students in her career, having nailed down a stop-watch monitoring, hand-tapping, note-taking routine that certainly seems a challenge for the uncoordinated or inexperienced multitaskers. But on this recent morning at D.C. Moore Elementary School, it’s all done with the touch of an iPad. School officials see the gadgets as a possible answer to the district’s achievement gap, deciding at the end of last year to spend more than $120,000 on 220 iPads and software and equip every school with a set. The thinking behind the investment is that the technology will help teachers identify struggling readers faster, use time previously spent calculating and reviewing reading assessments to work with students or adjust lesson plans, and offer kids another learning tool to use in the classroom.