Mrs. Perkins Supports Literacy with Virtual Reality

Mrs. Perkins Supports Literacy with Virtual Reality

I was pumped when Mrs. Perkins, an 8th Grade English Language Arts teacher at New Century Middle School, reached out to me about the possibility of using Virtual Reality headsets in her classroom.  With the popularity of VR headsets on the rise in the past 3 years, finding ways to effectively incorporate them into classroom instruction is something new to me so I was going to need some help.  Mrs. Perkins and I sat down during her planning period and figured out how we could use VR headsets to support a book study her class is doing.  The book "Inside Out & Back Again" is an award winning book about a ten year old girl's refugee experience during the Vietnam War era and how her family was forced to flee as Saigon fell.  

Mrs. Perkins had the idea of wanting students to view different settings and places mentioned throughout the book, as well as places that would provide relevance for students.  Mrs. Perkins and I decided on six different places for students to visit.  

1. A farm in Vietnam
2. Museum of Ho Chi Minh Trail
3. Ho Chi Minh at night
4. Galang Refugee Camp in Indonesia
5. War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh
6. Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC

Using the Google Street View application, students were able navigate places thousands of miles away.  The instant relevance could be seen when all of the students were talking about different places that were represented in the book.  Students could be heard around the room saying things like,  "Now I see what Ha (main character in the book) was talking about." 

The best part about the lesson was what Mrs. Perkins had the students do afterwards.  Mrs. Perkins had students write a short reflection about how the things they saw today in the VR headsets related to their book study they had been doing.  

Books have the unique ability to allow you travel the world.  The technology available today lets students compare their mental images with actual images submitted by people from all over the world.  

You can follow Mrs. Perkins on Twitter to see all of the other cool things she is doing in her classroom.