Our amazing Haarlem (NL) Community of Practice group met for the first time on September 12, 2023. 10 Teachers from 4 schools attended.

An outline of the Adapptive-project was presented and the dynamic, co-creative character of Communities of Practice was explained. We shared positive and negative previous experiences with digital tools in the classroom, and we discussed the potential & challenges of digital apps for struggling readers. During the second half of the meeting we shared our needs, goals and expectations, had a great brainstorm on topics to be explored for the next COP. Among other things to be explored, a need for an exchange of instructional techniques and targets to support the phase from decoding towards fluent meaningful reading was expressed. This knowledge base was felt to be an important context for choosing and using digital tools. Two other topics named for the next meeting were an overview of existing apps for reading and updates on scientific insights on how to implement digital tools within traditional teaching. Additionally, we decided on using the app Karaton for struggling readers at the schools.

Highlight was a warm welcome from Dublin by Eamonn McCauley. Eamonn also shared some activities and ideas form the Irish COPs, which was great inspiration for our next meeting.

Future Plans

Adapptive team visits each school to help with starting up

Start using the app Karaton within schools

Topics for next meeting:

• instructional techniques and targets to support the phase from decoding towards fluent meaningful reading
• sharing experiences with Karaton
• overview apps for reading
• scientific insights on effectively using apps in the classroom