“Where am I?
What am I doing here? How did I even get to this place?!”
That’s exactly
what I thought I’d be asking myself by the end of this I-Search journey, but I
must say, it’s been a rather smooth process. Beginning the I-Search, I was
filled with anxiety about which topic to choose, where to find information, and
how to navigate an innovative research project like the one I was about to
embark on. The first two weeks were a bit of a challenge, as I got stuck on a topic
that was too narrow. I originally wanted to investigate how technology impacts
language, but there were two major problems with that: 1. I couldn’t find much
research on the topic, and 2. The topic wasn’t exactly tied to the teaching of writing, or the practice of
writing in the classroom. Keeping an open mind helped me to find my way through
the I-Search process, as I began to broaden my topic ideas and flow along
wherever my research took me. This open mind brought me to where I am today. My
I-search went from inquiring about how technology impacts language, to ways we
can implement technology to teach writing.
So here I am,
six articles, three interviews, and multiple observations later, still trying
to find out what cool ways we can implement technology to teach writing. I’ve
learned so much through my research that I plan to apply to my future classroom,
but now I’m craving more ideas to add to my “teacher toolbox.” I’ve discovered
multiple online resources that are being used by educators to connect their
students to literacy assignments. Initially when I thought of implementing
technology into the classroom, I only thought of social media, Microsoft Word,
Excel, and other typical writing tools. I didn’t realize that there is a whole
market of literacy tools targeted to secondary educators and their students.
One resource in particular caught my attention, and that was Newsela. According
to their website, “Newsela is an innovative way to build
reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news.” This
online resource connects students to the world around them through the use of
articles. What’s great about this tool is that the articles can be tiered so
that an entire class can read the same material in different versions that correlate
to their reading level. The website uses Lexile scores to provide students with
readings that are appropriate for their reading level, and it can even track
reading and writing progress. Students not only read articles, but they can
annotate and even respond to guiding questions and other writing assignments
posted by their teachers. There is an entire world within this website, and I
strongly encourage educators reading this blog post to take a look at: https://newsela.com/about/.
Going beyond online resources like
Newsela, I’ve also learned that we don’t necessarily need to have access to
technology to actually implement technology into the writing classroom. This
AHA moment came to me while trying to figure out how to provide students at
lower income schools, like Central Falls High School, the same educational
opportunities as students in more affluent areas, like Coventry Middle School
(I’ve observed at both schools this semester). In one of the articles I read,
the author discussed how implementing Twitter into the curriculum could engage
students with writing and collaborative discussion. Things like live Twitter
conversations are great ways for students to quickly write down (or type) their
ideas about a specific topic. The author discussed this idea in relation to a
live conversation about civics, but I thought of it more in the sense of
brainstorming ideas about writing topics, and getting immediate feedback from
peers. I think this would be a great tool to utilize in the classroom, only one
problem: what about the school that doesn’t have access to this kind of
technology? It would require every
student to have access to a computer or smart phone. So I’ve found ways to
adapt this idea so that students are live tweeting, but doing so by writing on
poster paper rather than an actual internet post. Another idea is to have
students create their own Facebook profiles on a piece of blank computer paper.
They can get creative and tap into their interest of social media, but they can
also develop their narrative writing skills by writing their “about me” section
in a narrative format. There are numerous ways that educators can tap into
social media to teach writing without actually having direct access to social media within the classroom. 
So I’ve discovered hidden online tools,
and even learned of ways to incorporate technology without having access to technology.
However, one of the most important things that I’ve learned is that the
implementation of technology to teach writing, while effective for some, may be
ineffective for others. This was a tough concept for me to grasp at first,
because I am a strong believer (or was, before
this I-Search project) that technology can only
lead to student success. My first thought was that all students (especially at
the high school level) would benefit from utilizing a word processor to type
written assignments rather than write them by hand. I guess I thought this
would be the case because of my own personal experience with technology. I
dislike writing by hand, and I feel that I not only write faster by typing, but
that my ideas seem to be much clearer. I figured that since today’s adolescents
are so closely linked to technology through the use of social media, that they
would also be skilled at typing. Through an interview with a local high school
educator, I became informed that many of her students are not necessarily
technologically savvy. Like other aspects of education, some students are more
advanced than others, and in a way we must differentiate our use of technology
in the same way that we would differentiate things like readings. I was
surprised that some students at the high school level did not yet know how to
type because the world around us relies so heavily on technology to
communicate. I was faced with evidence of this fact when I witnessed several
students struggling to locate keys on the keyboard while typing an assignment
in the school’s library. Not only did this surprise me, but it also frustrated
me. The world that we live in is technologically advanced and requires
knowledge and skill with technology to be successful. Most things have gone
digital in the professional world, and many jobs require a minimum typing speed
as a job requirement. If this is the case, why are we not preparing all
students (not just those in high-income areas) to be successful in this way?
These are questions, and quite frankly an entirely new subject, that will have
to wait for now. I believe that I will one day investigate this further, so
that I can better serve my students, but for the sake of my I-Search I had to
cap it there.
Overall, I feel that this I-Search
journey has proven to be quite a surprising experience. Initially I was unsure
of what to expect, and didn’t actually think that I would become as enlightened
as I did. I can honestly say that not only have I become enlightened about a
topic I thought I already knew so
much about, I have truly been changed by it. What began as a simple topic of
interest, has now snowballed into something that I will probably pursue for the
next year and possibly beyond. Technology will always be a part of my writing classroom; there is no escaping it. I
now feel better equipped to truly serve my students by implementing technology
in a way that will be more accessible to them.
