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Saturday, July 23, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Technology Leadership
I found it interesting that a noted trait of a technology leader is being a risk taker. I definitely see myself as a risk taker professionally and personally. One example is setting up my classroom differently from the traditional classroom as a brand new teacher. At first others were curious, later I received some criticism and most recently I received praise. Although there are clearly negatives and positives in risking taking it is differently a worthy trait if you want to LIVE your life. I think people learn best from taking risks and when they aren't successful they gain the most experience and knowledge from their mistakes. This directly applies to technology and education. As technology leaders we need to be willing to take risks and possibly fail. Otherwise we will never be able to fully explore the endless possibilities within educational technology.
I already, in a sense, am an active technology leader. I am an active member of my school's technology committee. I often times take notes at meetings. I volunteer in tasks and contribute ideas on how we can support our staff. I am especially active when it comes to our workshops that we host. In the future, I would love to actually be the official leader or co-leader of our group. I think I do best when I can lead the way. I am proud of my technology committee, but would like to see the committee be more active in our goals and tasks. I am an action type leader, so I think leading a technology committee would suit me well.
Thinking even bigger, I would love to be involved with any type of technology committees within my company. I would also be open to a job opportunity within my company that allows me to provide support to teachers on how they can fully integrate technology, rather than add it on to lessons. I am unsure if such a position exists, but I feel my company (and any district) would benefit from a position such as this.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Wicked Problem Project: Creating Fluent Readers in the Classroom
Blog Part B: Application of TPACK
TP Knowledge: The aim of this wicked problem project is to increase fluent readers. This is clearly an ongoing problem in our schools and although there have been traditional approaches to support this problem; these solutions are clearly not as effective as they need to be. That is why it makes sense to adjust our pedagogy and attempt to incorporate technology to create more fluent readers. My three-step technology plan meets the needs of creating fluent readers. In step one the readers are able to hear audio books being read to them. Auditory reading is proven to be a key element in learning to read. But, without the aid of audio books, teachers can only offer class read alouds. These read alouds do not offer repeat readings on demand for individual students, but audio books do. An additional element that audio books offers, in relation to teaching reading, is that it takes away the stress and anxiety that struggling readers often experience. Audio books allow students to follow along with printed copies of books and feel more at ease. This allows them to develop a more authentic passion for reading and allows students to become engaged in stories and series books. Eventually, students are able to see that they can have success with reading and later down the road become more competent, independent readers.
Step two of the program offers comprehension checking through the technology tool Accelerated Reader. Testing our students' understanding of what they read is essential. This program offers quizzes on almost any children's book, so it therefore provides variety. Variety means differentiation. AR is designed so that students are reading the right books, and are moving up in their reading ability as time goes on. Standardized testing provides teachers with information on reading levels and students are able to look up books on ARbookfinder.com to find their appropriate level book. Teachers also have the option of leveling their library, which allows students to easily browse books at their level. Making sure our students are reading the correct level literature is key pedagogical practice, and these above mentioned technology methods directly meet this need.
Step three in the program allows for personal responses that promote comprehension building. Student blogging on comprehension blogs is how this step is met. It is important that we allow our students to speak to what they are reading, so that they can make authentic connections. Although this can be done with pencil and paper, the online blogging experience offers so much more. With online blogging students can organize their work overtime, it provides a progression of progress and most importantly it provides an easy source for discussion and feedback. So, essentially, blogging drastically improves this particular aspect of the pedagogical practice of promoting fluent readers in the classroom.
TC Knowledge: The technologies in my solution (Audio books, AR and blogging) make the content of learning to become a fluent reading much more intellectually accessible. Without these technologies reading instruction can easily be too uniform, in other words not differentiated. This program promotes having each student reading books at their exact level. Teachers are able to rent audio books of various levels, AR offers quizzes on a large range of reading levels and students are able to blog about the books that are “just right” for them. Audio books allow students to also read books slightly above their ability since they are reading along. This allows students to be exposed to more difficult literature and pushes their vocabulary and comprehension development even further. This benefit of audio books can even allow students to move up in their reading level. This system ensures not only that struggling students progress, but that all students progress in their reading abilities, including grade level and above grade level readers.
This program also encourages new representations of content by way of technology. Audio books offer an audio version of books, which is a new approach compared to independent silent reading. Audio books puts the words to life and offers a model of a fluent reader with good intonation and voice. AR offers online quizzes that provide instant feedback. The online quizzes allow the student to view one question at a time and allows the student to click on various answers before submitting their final answer. This is visually more clean than crossing out answers and erases mistakes. Viewing one question at time allows for self-pacing, and the clicking option allows for a kinesthetic approach. The instant feedback is a representational change for both the teacher and the student. Traditionally grading can block the teacher from immediate remediation. Students also take more ownership in their learning when they receive instant results. Student blogging also offers a representational change: Students are now able to keep an online journal of their responses and refer back to comments and feedback. Whereas traditional journaling limits the students to paper, which can be disorganized/easily lost. In traditional pencil and paper activities, students are also more likely to forget peer and teacher feedback because it is often represented verbally.
PC Knowledge: My pedagogical choices in this program correspond with producing fluent readers. In this program, students experience literacy in a variety of ways: Students experience literature in an auditory sense, they are able to complete interactive comprehension quizzes and also have the benefit of writing about their reading experiences by way of blogging. Students are set on their own self-guided tour, so to speak. They are reading books that interest them and that are at their level. They experience the success of comprehending the books and passing quizzes, with the assistance of audio books. Furthermore, students are able to express their excitement of success and comprehension by blogging.
When looking at the even bigger picture of this program it is evident that the additional pedagogical practices support literacy for readers of all ability. This program is implemented primarily in workshop form, where students are able to read in comfortable areas, or enjoy an audio book with a partner or even participate in small literature circles. Students self run this workshop: Student jobs allows for a student to monitor computers for quiz and blogging use. This model allows the teacher to attend to teaching rather than management. The teacher is able to focus on individual instruction in such an environment. This allows the teacher to administer one-on-one Dibels testing, attend to small literature groups and model repetitive reading practice on audio books. Students are experiencing the process of learning to become a fluent reader in a positive, differentiated manner. Students no longer have to struggle in their reading experiences; instead they are able to prosper in their literacy skills by implementation of such technology based programs.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Wicked Problem Project: Creating Fluent Readers in the Classroom
Blog Part A: Description of Need or Opportunity
Educational Need: The educational need in my wicked problem is to promote fluent literacy skills in the primary grade levels. Many students are below grade level expectations when it comes to reading fluency and comprehension. This puts them behind as they move on in their educations. Students that never fully develop their reading skills are more at risk to drop out of school. Struggling readers are best reached in the primary grades to prevent continual struggles throughout their education.
Technology Solution: I propose a three-step program to help increase literacy skills of struggling readers. The first technology tool to employ is audio books. Audio books are proven to increase both reading fluency and comprehension. Audio books allow students to replay specific passages multiple times, which eliminates the demand of a one on one instructor to practice fluency. But, audio books alone do not solve the wicked problem of struggling readers. To help create a purpose for reading and to test comprehension the full integration of the program Accelerated Reader(AR) is the next step in this proposal. This program offers online comprehension and vocabulary quizzes for students after completion of reading an audio book. Teachers need to include AR as a part of their daily routine, otherwise the students will not buy into the program and therefore it will not be as effective. The AR quizzes track student progress towards individual goals and also allows teachers to track students’ individual progress. The final technology step is to have students blog on comprehension prompts. This blogging will increase student motivation and will allow the student to make meaningful connections in order to promote real world learning. This is an alternative to paper and pencil responses, which aren’t as effective because they don’t allow easy student tracking of progress and instant peer feedback. All the above steps are reasonable approaches that are low to zero cost. Teachers are able to rent audio books for free from local libraries, many schools are enrolled in Accelerated Reader and student blogging is free.
Logistics of the Solution: This program will be used on a daily basis with quarterly tracking of progress. The program can be implemented as a workshop where pairs of students take turns using computers for audio books while other students read independently. Another computer will be used for AR quizzes and comprehension blogging. It will be used in 2nd-5th grade classrooms. Teachers will need to implement this plan throughout the entire year. This will allow students to meet quarterly AR goals, move up in reading levels due to audio book supprt, and track their personal growth of blogging responses. It will be the grade level teachers responsibility to enforce the program and promote it as a daily activity.
Resources:
The Importance of Reading Practice Implementation Plan: To implement this plan during this course I will create a best practices presentation outlining the steps to apply this plan in a classroom. This presentation will explain how to effectively set up each step and the benefit of each step in regards to promoting fluent readers. After this course is complete, I plan on sharing this presentation and hosting a “getting start” workshop session in order to help teachers set up the program in their classrooms.
Indicators of a Successful Project: To track student reading progress teachers will be able to look at three resources of data: The first is the accelerated reader quizzes results and individual student goal progress. The second source is tracking student reading progress on standardized MAP testing. The last is to analyze Dibels results (one on one reading assessments). All these resources will offer data to indicate if the program is increasing reading ability. An additional informal indicator of success is to track student progress on their comprehension blogs.
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