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. 

Mobile Learning Lab

The mobile learning lab had a lot of tools that didn't quite fit into my classroom. I have 3rd and 4th grade students in a small charter school, and as far as I am aware, none of my students have cell phones. We do have a few IPAD's in our school and my students use frequently, so I decided to focus this lab on IPAD's in my classroom. In the past, I have always used the apps that were already on the IPAD's. However, thanks to this website, https://teacher.ocps.net/groups/ipodsintheclassroom/, I found many IPAD's that fit my curriculum than the apps we already had loaded.

An example of an app I have downloaded to fit my curriculum, GeoMasters USA, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geomaster-us-states/id335552646?mt=8#, fits my curriculum very well and will be used regularly in my classroom!

I was interested to hear that there are cell phone companies that donate old cell phones to schools. I was not able to look into this yet, but I think this would be a good solution to having a younger class who doesn't have personal cell phones yet.

I also joined a classroom2.0 network and specifically the mobile phones in education group. I didn't know this group existed until today, amand rather excited to see what all this site has to offer.

"Michigan"

WPP PART C - Implementation

Link to Podcast discussing the implementation of Raz-kids in my classroom: http://msu.edu/~teusche2/Razkids.mp3

PART B - Storyboard and Script

Here is a link to my group's storyboard and script for teaching weebly: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i9duidxvguoj8o3/storyboard.doc

My part of the final project is doing the slides on page 5 of the document. It includes teaching the design, editors, and social media buttons. I also have been setting up the website preparing for to put our jings on it. I created a google form to act as feedback regarding our website.

Each member of the group is using jing to teach their part of weebly. We met as a group to discuss who was doing what part, then we met as a group again to review out storyboards and scripts. You can view our ongoing brainstorming document that shows who is doing what at the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16bYIg1W8nlp3uGfBTL6Xkt56Fk-CVfdmpDWJQ7grqAc/edit

Here is part of that document that says who will be teaching what parts of weebly:
1. Karla:adding blog and new pages
2. Trista: Set up Weebly site for group use, design, editors, social media links
3. Jennifer: Basic inserting text, pictures, embedding custom HTML (wordles, glogster)
4. Johanna: Multimedia feature
5. Xiaochen:content and how to publish it and settings, how to register

Going forward, each group member has their storyboard complete for their portions. We will use jing to upload short videos to teach weebly on our weebly site. We will all take part in altering the website as needed and uploading our own videos. If anybody runs into any problems, we will contact each other to find a solution.

I am looking forward to seeing our final weebly site! Our group has worked very hard and good together, so I have high expectations for our final project.

PART B - Application of TPACK

What is the TP knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

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. The teaching strategies I have chosen is that students listen to books, practice reading them, take comprehension quizzes, and record their own voice while reading. Raz-kids supports all of these, while motivate the students to continue on by offering raz rockets points for the students to purchase items in the store for their own rockets.

What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.)

Raz-kids makes the content of my problem more accessible by providing a “one shop stop” to meet all of the teaching strategies I mentioned above. The problems we had in the classroom ranged from not having books at the needed reading levels, students not knowing which books were appropriate for them, the temptation to talk to their friends, and simply were not motivated to read. Once enrolled in Raz-kids, the students are placed at a reading level by the teacher and offered many books at that reading level that need to be listened to, read silently, read aloud, and quizzed on  before they can move onto the next reading level. Students are encouraged through the raz-rocket to get as much done as possible. My goal is that students read to become better readers, as research as proven that the best way to become better readers is to practice. Raz-kids offers a great technological alternative to silent reading time.

 

What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?)

Matthew Koehler wrote, “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.” Which is found on the www.tpck.org website.

In this case, reading is the subject matter. I’ve already discussed that to become better at something, it takes practice. Adding in this information, practicing reading in different ways and making it accessible to learners should make them better readers. My students have had books in the classroom, we visit the library regularly, I read aloud to them; in other words they have experience with physical books in multiple ways. I am adding a new way for reading to be represented to them and making it accessible through technology in a program called Raz-kids which is a product of learning A-Z of Cambium Learning (http://www.learninga-z.com/).  Students will have plenty of opportunity through Raz-kids to read a large number of books that are appropriate to their reading level and are designed to increase their reading ability, and using a positive motivation technique (raz-rocket) perfect for the elementary age group.

I look forward to the impact Raz-kids will have in my classroom. Stay tuned for details!

PART A - Description of need or opportunity

Well, in education changes happen regularly depending on the needs of the students. In my case, the need I discussed originally for PART A of my Wicked Problem Project has been addressed by the school. Good thing, but I need to regroup and start over with a new wicked problem.

So, here it is!

The educational need in my classroom is a way to monitor student progress in reading, access to the correct level reading texts, and a way for students to record their own reading with as little transition as possible. I give my students 30 minutes of independent reading time. I have noticed in this time that students have difficulty picking out books, rarely finish a complete book, grab books that are too difficult for themselves, spend too much time finding a book, and of course the temptation to sit next to or talk to their buddies is always there. This has become an unproductive chunk of time that has strayed away from my original intent. My goal is to find a technological program that allows me to monitor students progress, choose a reading level for them to start at based of the DRA or NWEA scores, and also allows an opportunity for them to record their reading for my running record review.

I plan to address this issue with technology by enrolling my students in a program called raz-kids. (www.raz-kids.com) Students will be given their own individual login which is already set up at their designated reading level. Students will be given a tutorial of how to use raz-kids and the expectations for this program. We will be replacing out 30 minutes daily of independent reading time with 30 minutes of Raz-kids time in either the computer lab or on the netbook computers in the classroom. I will be able to track the students progress, see anytime they do something (listen, read, or record a story), view their quiz scores, complete a running record on their recordings, view minutes logged on, and I can always manually move them up or down on the reading levels based on observations or other assessments I make. Otherwise, the students will move up to the next reading level when they have completed all of the parts of the reading level they begin on.

The cost for the program is $90 for a one year subscription. I receive a $100 allowance each semester from our parent organization that I am using to fund this program. My hopes are that it successfully engages the students for a chunk of time daily and that the students reading levels will increase at a steady rate.

The scope of the project: Students will use Raz-kids daily from 2:35-3:00, replacing the independent reading time. The students will be either in the computer lab or using netbook computers in the classroom. There is an app available, which means the programs can be downloaded onto the schools iPad's as well.

Research indicates that students need practice reading in order to become better readers. My goal is that students will spend more time engaged in reading using Raz-kids as opposed to their countless minutes selected a book to read, changing books, finding a spot to sit, etc. http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/in_read1.html

Indicators of a successful project:
My observable data will be a short term indicator of success. Are the students more engaged with the Raz-kids reading then they were independent reading?

A longer term indicator of success is the student's actual reading scores. Students are tested on the reading levels using the DRA at the beginning and end of the year. Students are also tested using the NWEA test at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Are the students showing an upward trend in the reading levels?

Another indicator is my own observation of students individually. Listening to them read and listening to their recorded books. I will make observations of whether this program is benefitting them or not.

Wish me luck as I begin this new technological project of meeting the diverse reading needs of my students using Raz-kids.