WPP - FINAL PRESENTATION!

WPP Final Script

Slide two: In my classroom, I have had an independent reading time the last 25-30 minutes of each day. For this time, I expected my students would select a book on their own and would sit quietly and read. To my surprise,I found them choosing books that were not at their reading level and many students were being distracted from reading in one way or another. I finally came to the conclusion that this was not an effective use of time and needed to find a way for students to be engaged in reading.

Slide three: The solution I came up with was to introduce my students to Raz-kids. Raz-kids is a program created by the learninga-z brand. It is an online leveled reader program that focuses on individuals and their differentiated reading levels. I am able to put them at a level based on their reading test scores. So, my first problem of having too difficult or too easy of books is already addressed. Another great feature it the raz-rocket you see in the picture on the right. This is a motivation tool that gives points to students for books that they read, listen to, and pass the quiz on. At each reading level, their are multiple (about 10-15) books that all require the student to listen to, read, and then take a comprehension quiz on.  When students complete all of these requirements, they are able to move up to the next reading level, which is slightly more difficult. Students are able to purchase items to decorate their raz-rocket, which they are very excited to do.

Slide four: My students will replace independent reading time with time on raz-kids for 25-30 minutes each day. To have a successful project, I will observe student attitude towards reading, their level of motivation, and their overall reading levels. An article on Edutopia, The effects of Independent Reading Achievement describes the importance for students to spend time reading saying that students need practice reading to become better readers. My goal is to get students engagement time in reading to increase.

Slide five: Raz-kids differentiates instruction to meet the individual needs of each student. My goal is to get appropriate reading level books in the hands (or eyes) of my students. Using technology, I am able to do this through the Raz-kids program. Teaching strategies that are being used include listening, self-reading, guided comprehension quizzes, and motivation techniques with the raz-rocket.
Technology helps make the solution possible by providing a large number of books at each level accessible with the touch of a few buttons on the computer. There are 27 different reading levels all with 10-15 books each, plus poetry, song books, and nursery rhymes. That's a lot more books than I have on my bookshelf!
As Matthew Kohler has said, "At the heart of PCK is the manner in which subject matter is transformed for teaching. This occurs when the teacher interprets the subject matter, finding different ways to represent it and make it accessible to learners." My students are being exposed to reading in multiple ways through my class. Adding Raz-kids is adding an additional way in which students are exposed to books and reading.

Slide six: I was surprised at how fast my students picked up on the program, how kid friendly it is to use, and easy it is to manage or monitor as the teacher. A few bumps in the road were getting students logged in and running in a timely manner, having enough headphones to use, and getting microphones set up so students could record their readings for the teacher to listen to. I was very delighted to see students excited to read! They were even asking to do raz-kids at other parts of the day as well. We have actually been spending a few extra minutes - going into recess time - because the students are so engaged, it is hard to pull them away from reading!

Slide seven: My project was implemented as I had planned, although there were a few bumps in the road I mentioned above that still need to be smoothed out. Evidence of success includes my students excitement and engagement I have observed over the past few weeks. This tells me that we have succeeded in getting students appropriate levelled text and more engagement time in reading. If I were to discuss any lessons I learned, the only thing I would mention is to test the technology and ensures it works beforehand. For example, get microphones, headphones, and a way to get students logged in quickly set up before starting. I am going to continue this project through the end of the year or when I observe that the students are not engaged in reading. I am going to switch it up a little bit and not require the students to do raz-kids everyday. We will rotate independent reading and doing raz-kids so that kids have variety in their reading. This will hopefully keep excitement and engagement levels high. Moving forward, if I were to approach another project, the only thing I would do differently is trying to be prepared for bumps in the road and have a plan of what I can do when they do happen before they happen. If that is even a possible thing to do.

Slide eight: Overall, I recommend using Raz-kids to support reading in any elementary classroom. The program supports differentiation and fits well into a multi-age classroom with varied abilities. Not only are students needs being met, but the program offers a way for teacher to monitor the students progress while providing a motivation tool to keep students wanting to do more. In my experience as a teacher, whenever technology is used, students are more engaged. This is a great way to use technology in a way that both supports student learning and emphasizes literacy.


Please view the two videos below to view my presentation:

Professional Learning Plan

Wow! Another MAET course is complete as CEP 812 wraps up this week. Here is a reflection from this course, along with an animoto video representing a visual of the different resources I have explored in this course. (or CEP 811 and 812)

• What were some of the online resources that you found that were really helpful? If so what were they and how were they helpful?

         One of the most helpful resources that I found throughout the educational certification courses is twitter. I am amazed at the connection I am able to have with other educators. It amazes me how quickly educators are willing to connect with others and be there to offer advice, link to articles, give suggestions, etc. This is a tool that I am taking with me and will use daily to improve my own learning as well as my teaching.

• Did you find any other online communities that could provide resourceful information? If so what were they and how were they helpful?

         MACUL and Linked are other online community that is a great resource going forward. MACUL is helpful because it has an online discussion that is categorized. I am able to offer my own tips, but more importantly I am able to read technology tips from other educators to get ideas for my own classroom.

• What strategies were helpful for trying to learn a new technology?

         A few strategies that I found helpful when trying to learn new technologies was working in groups and given many options on which technologies fit our own needs. When exploring new technologies, we were given many different ways to learn and explore them which was important to me. 

• How does working with others (verses working alone) support you in your own learning?

         I had a great experience working in groups throughout this course. Working in group supported my own learning because we were able to take a huge project and break it down into chunks making it more manageable. When working alone, I tend to push the deadlines and wait until the last minute, but when working in groups, I tend to be a little more on top of the assignments because others are counting on me. 

• How will you use this experience to support your own lifelong learning of technology?

          This course has provided me with a lot of opportunity to continue lifelong learning. The certification courses in general have provided me with many resources to stay current on educational technology issues. A few of these include twitter, macul, linked, facebook, diigo, weebly, GOOGLE DOCS! and other apps, animation tools, and screencast tools. Throughout many of these tools, I will be able to stay in contact with other educators to see what is happening. I am also continuing my educational technology classes since being accepted into the MAET program this past summer. I have 6 additional classes to earn my Master's in Educational Technology. My original goal when beginning this program a few months ago was to become an educational technology leader within my school and to make my lessons more engaging using technology. I am making progress with both of these goals, but am excited to continue my learning because I think that as educators, we are never done learning ourselves. In the beginning of CEP 810, I created a personal learning network. In reflecting upon that network now, I am astonished at how much it has grown in only 5 short months. 

An animoto I created to act as a visual of tools and projects I have had the opportunity to learn more about throughout my experiences in the educational technology certificate program. 

Group Leadership Project

To view my group's project on how to use weebly visit our website: www.msuteachingweebly.weebly.com

1. What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial?  Why?

          My group decided to use weebly as a host site (since it was what we were teaching) and deliver our tutorials using jing. Each of the group members were given specific parts of weebly to instruct and we were all able to create our own jings and combine them on the webpage for multiple specific tutorials. We wanted to incorporate weebly into our final project since it was what we were teaching, but we also all wanted to create our own videos to present the information. Jing was a perfect fit for us to utilize our voice and capture our screen to demonstrate how to use the features 

1. What did you learn during the development process of the final product?

         During the development process of the final project, I learned that technology can be tricky sometimes. It took me multiple attempts to create my own jing, even with a script. Of course, my constant cough I have been battling didn't help with that. I also learned that it is not always easy to embed videos! I needed quite a big of assistance to get my jing video embedded with the correct sizes into my portion of the weebly site. Through a little support from my team, I was able to get it posted. I also learned that our group had met a few times in the beginning and created a great plan in which everyone was on the same page. 

1. What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

        If I had to develop a similar project again, there is not much I would do differently. We tried to incorporate multiple technologies into one and I think we have done that effectively. Our group communicated well with each other using a variety of technologies as well (email, google hangout, google docs, chat in google docs). I think one thing I would consider doing differently is finding a technology that is more difficult. We chose weebly which we all had some experience with. Although I think I was able to learn more about the tools and features in weebly, I think that there were probably better choices of projects out there that we could have explored.

Part D - Findings and Implications

• Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?

Yes, my project was implemented as planned. My students spent the last 25-30 minutes on Raz-kids instead of independent reading. Although we had a few hiccups, we are working through those to make sure the students are engaged in reading leveled texts for a substantial amount of time daily. The hiccups included having enough headphones that work, getting microphones so that students can record their reading, and finding a solution to loging in quicker. 

• Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice

The problem in my classroom is that students were not engaging in a correctly levelled text during independent reading time and students were also spending more time finding a book and a place to sit, that they were not engaging in reading for the 25-30 minutes of classtime that I was giving them. In my observations, students are excited to read in Raz-kids. I was able to input their level for books based on previous reading assessments done at the beginning of the year. I am better able to monitor what the students are reading or listening to through the teacher features in Raz-kids. So far, my students are spending a lot more time engaged in reading than before I began this project. Not only are they engaged, but I know that they are reading books that are appropriate for their reading level. The students are enthusiastic about reading - which is something I have not seen from this group before. They are even asking to do Raz-kids at other parts of the day on top of the time they are given. 

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?

When approaching another project of the type again, I would try to find a way to gage the success of my students better. It was such a short time frame that it would be difficult to measure based on their reading levels, but I could have possibly counted minutes of quality reading time prior to and after implementing the Raz-kids program. So, if I did a similar project, I hope that I would be able to have some concrete data from my project that would support what I did. (This would be good for grant purposes!)

• What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

The lessons I learned from this project is to think ahead of problems that may come up. For example, I did not think that headphones wouldn't work or that we would have difficulties getting logged into the program in the computer lab. I ended up having to manually help each student get logged in. I could have prevented many problems if I had thought about them before hand. 

• In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?

I will go through this process again. I managed to take an ineffective time in my classroom and make it a productive time using technology. I am sure that there are other parts of my day that could be addressed using technology to allow my students to be engaged in learning. The process of finding a problem, developing a solution, and assessing the solution to determine the effectiveness is a process that should be used all the time, especially in schools.My goal is to be an effective teacher and repeating this process will benefit my students. I am going to continue this project with my students using Raz-kids in place of independent reading, however I do think it is important that my students read regular books as well, so we will use a combination. I will hopefully find a happy medium so that my students have a good variety of reading daily.