Tell Me More: Additional Questions & New Ideas for Finalizing My I-Search

­­My I-Search journey continues, and what a journey it has already been! Over the past few weeks, I’ve been continuing to read articles that have provided me with insight into techniques for implementing technology in the classroom. Taking that a step further, I’ve been researching ways to implement technology into literacy and writing lessons, and have actively investigated how educators feel about the impacts that technology has on student writing abilities. As I continue to dig my way through the National Writing Project article, I’m finding myself more and more invested in this topic. With that being said, some of the most useful information came to me not from articles, but from first-hand experience of educators currently in the field.

 

I recently interviewed an advisor at The Met School about technology in the classroom, specifically in relation to the teaching of literacy and writing. Throughout the interview, the educator informed me of the many online resources that have been implemented in recent years. Lexia, Edmodo, Wattpad, and Newsela are just a few tools that are being utilized in today’s education system. At this point of my I-Search journey, I think that it would be beneficial to take some time to learn more about these individual tools. When first beginning my research, I had only thought to investigate the impact that social media and laptop/smartphones have on the teaching of literacy and writing. I was unaware that these online resources even existed, and hadn’t considered implementing anything like this in a classroom. Not only do these resources help students to engage in writing, but many of them also track student progress . . . ASSESSMENT, ASSESSMENT, ASSESSMENT!

Going forward, I will be taking some time to learn how these tools work, and will be asking other educators if they are utilizing the same or similar tools in their own classrooms. I have a feeling that this new idea will have a great impact on my I-Search experience, or at the very least will make for an invigorating sub-section in my final paper. While I have interviewed some educators in the field, I have not yet had the chance to interview any students. This week, I will be selecting students to take part in a survey that I have created to better understand their experience with technology and writing. I’m hoping that this addition to my research will help to gain an “honest” perspective of technology in the classroom, as educators may be a bit bias at times. (This is not to say that I do not believe the educators that have been interviewed, but simply that having the “two sides of the story” will help me to compare and better understand data.)

      While I do have a sustained interest in learning more about the aforementioned tools (Edmoto, Lexia, Newsela, etc.), I recognize that not all districts will have access to such resources due to lack of funding. I’ve learned of multiple ways to implement social media and technology into the classroom, and not all of these instances actually required technology to be present in the classroom (i.e. table-top twitter, instagram cards, etc.). One way that technology might be implemented to impact student writing is to create themed lessons based around social media. For example, having students create Facebook pages in their journals with written narratives for the “about me” section. I want to know what educators think. Are they “using technology” in this way? Do they even know that they can? I plan to ask extension questions in a brief survey. The questions might look a bit like:

- How can we use technology without having technology in the classroom?

(or)

- Is it possible for technology to impact writing without it actually being  

  accessible to our classrooms?

One final question that came up stemmed from reading Leah’s blog post about her observations. When one student was asked if her teacher allows her to use her tablet to do a lot of writing, the student stated, "Not really, some kids don't have an IPad so my English teacher says it's not fair.” This makes me wonder if it is really “fair” to prevent this student from an educational experience that involves additional technology, simply because other students don’t have access to that same technology. Would it be possible to include that students tablet as part of a differentiated approach to instruction? Moving forward, I would like to broaden this question a bit to find out if technology can be (or is already) implemented to differentiate writing instruction.

Had this been any other project for any other class, I would be very concerned that these new questions are arising so late in the process. However, I feel that the kind of thinking process that the I-Search requires can only be strengthened by these questions. I feel that my I-Search is really taking shape, and I’m starting to see why it all actually matters, as well as what it means for me as an educator.

Memo # 4: Interviews

“Operation Interviews” is underway! I haven’t yet met with the educators and students to discuss my topic, but the interviews are taking place this week. As mentioned in my previous blogpost, I will be interviewing my cooperating teacher and some of her students at Central Falls High School. Over the past week, I’ve developed a rapport with the students, and have decided which students I will be meeting with. These interviews will be held on Thursday. I am waiting to hear back from one other cooperating teacher, and plan to conduct an email interview within the next week. With that being said, I have expanded my interview search to include educators from my high school, The Met. I plan to interview two educators and their students this coming Friday. I am excited to add these educators to the list of interviewees because The Met is a charter school that doesn’t operate like most public schools. Learning how the art of writing is being taught and impacted as a result of technology in this alternative setting, will provide me with a well-rounded perspective to the topic. Adding to that well-rounded repitoire is the fact that all of the teachers that are being interviewed come from different school districts. Interviewing teachers from Central Falls, Coventry, and Providence will provide me with insight as to what is happening in classrooms around the state.

 

Although the interviews haven’t been conducted yet, I have observed two of the three educators that I will be interviewing, and I noticed a stark contrast between the two! While in Coventry, I learned that every student in the school has a laptop that was provided by the district. While some writing takes place in their notebooks, these laptops are key tools that are being implemented to help teach writing. During one of my observations, I learned of an innovative online tool called backchannel chat. The teacher sometimes conducted entire class discussions in this chatroom with her students, and I observed an increase in student participation during these lessons. With that being said, as I reviewed student (and teacher) responses in the forum, I noticed that punctuation and capitalization were often omitted from responses.  The teacher explained that this is a low-stakes activity, so she doesn’t require a formal writing style. This makes me wonder how this activity may be impacting student writing habits. As a result, are students omitting punctuation in their formal writing out of habit? I’ve decided to add this question to the list for further clarity, “What effects do you think technology has on low-stakes writing. How about high-stakes writing? Are you noticing a difference?” From what I’ve seen, activities like backchannel chat are great for getting every student involved, but at what cost?

            While I observed some digital writing in Coventry, the opposite could be said for the school in Central Falls. In fact, I haven’t observed much writing at all at this school. Most class sessions have consisted of group discussions, quizzes, or reading activities. This is not to say that writing does not occur in these classes, I just have not yet had an opportunity to observe a writing lesson from this teacher. I did observe a lesson in which groups of students were assigned to computers to locate information on the internet regarding a research topic. While some students did the research (because there are not enough computers for every student in this district), others copied that information into their notebooks. I’d be interested in reviewing their notes from that lesson with them to see how their notetaking skills may have been impacted by the use of digital information versus locating it in a book.

            Now that I’ve had the chance to observe multiple classrooms, I’m starting to see that digital writing (and the practice of writing in general) may be different from district to district. I’m interested in learning if funding has an impact on the success of teaching [digital] writing, and if so, what that impact is. After completing some observations in Central Falls last week, I’ve decided that while I should have a set list of interview questions that I will ask all teachers, I may want to create specific questions for individual educators as well. For example, when interviewing the educators at The Met, I will certainly want to cater some of the questions to the fact that it is an alternative charter school, and what that means for the teaching of [digital] writing to their student population. I’m excited to complete these interviews this week, as I feel that it will give me the first hand knowledge I need to move forward with this project! (Plus it’ll be nice to visit some of my high school teachers in the process!)