I have completed month 8 in my Masters program at FSO. This course was Filmmaking Principles and Education. I really enjoyed this course. This avatar of me was one of our projects this month. My students, as you know, have created avatars of themselves and composed a digital story, or it will become digital as soon as I can obtain the software to let them publish their work. We began Cycle 2 this past Monday. We did not accomplish very much this week because of the push for FCAT which is to begin next week. Then the pressure will be off my students and we can get to work on completing the project for my Action Research. My students are still very excited about the idea of publishing their very own story and seeing their avatar come to life. I am really enjoying this project as much as they are. I am also having mixed emotions about seeing it come to an end. It has been such a rewarding experience to develop something that will hopefully benefit my students for the rest of their lives.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Progression of Cycle 2
I have completed month 8 in my Masters program at FSO. This course was Filmmaking Principles and Education. I really enjoyed this course. This avatar of me was one of our projects this month. My students, as you know, have created avatars of themselves and composed a digital story, or it will become digital as soon as I can obtain the software to let them publish their work. We began Cycle 2 this past Monday. We did not accomplish very much this week because of the push for FCAT which is to begin next week. Then the pressure will be off my students and we can get to work on completing the project for my Action Research. My students are still very excited about the idea of publishing their very own story and seeing their avatar come to life. I am really enjoying this project as much as they are. I am also having mixed emotions about seeing it come to an end. It has been such a rewarding experience to develop something that will hopefully benefit my students for the rest of their lives.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Action Research Literature Review
Develop and Implement a Strategy to Assist Struggling Readers
to Comprehend the Main Idea in a Reading Selection
Literature Review by Patricia Marcino
Introduction
One of the problems facing struggling readers is that the students do not have the background knowledge that is required to have an understanding of many story plots. In essence, when students read stories about things in respect for which they lack knowledge, they will not be able to grasp the main idea, unless they have some background information on the main theme of the story. Although there are abundant resources available on the problems relating to struggling readers, there has not been enough past research conducted focusing on the reading ability of students of Title 1 schools and their grasp of the main idea. There are studies concentrating on the problems of students with disabilities and learning disabilities, and those specifically targeting low socioeconomic students and reading comprehension.
According to research utilizing a five-year study of the Florida Comprehension Assessment Test (FCAT) students in grades 3-5 typically score less on the Main Idea section of the test. The average attainment is 57% which is well below the acceptable passing percentage of 65% which when correlated to a grade, would be a “D.” Over the five-year period, third graders’ average attainment was 53%, fourth grade 56%, and fifth grade was 61%. In order to change this trend, students must be exposed to a strategy that will aid them in understanding the main idea.
Reading Ability of Students
Ming-Yueh & Kuey (2007), in their research on poor reading efficiency of English
Foreign Learners propose certain strategies that can be used in collaboration with posing the question, planning, taking action, observing and reflecting-as well as diagnostic testing. The authors’ opinion is that all these actions are relative in nature. This study poses a few similarities as well as some differences with the strategies proposed by the current research. It is possible to adopt a similar approach in respect to struggling readers, as being adopted in the case in the case of EFL students; where it is the case, both classes are struggling to become proficient in reading comprehension. The teaching methods need to be modified or differentiated, when the situation is that of a large class of varying proficiency levels. Data was collected through a number of instruments: pre- and post-assessments of reading comprehension strategies. The study with the EFL students was conducted with 46 students of varying degrees of reading comprehension.
Researchers of second/foreign language reading have long recognized the importance of reading strategies (Brantmeier, 2002); Carrell (1985, 1989); Slataci & Akyel (2002). They contend that strategy use is different in more or less proficient readers, who use the strategies in different ways. Although a vast number of the studies in reading strategy training have suggested a wide variety of reading strategies to be taught, few of them have been conducted with classes of large sizes and diverse abilities.
The strategy suggested by this study holds when some of the Title 1 students, are also EFL students. However, it is to be recognized that in either case, the struggling reader has low self-esteem due to not reading proficiently. The methods suggested by the cited study are similar to those proposed by the current study except that both differ in the core subject of research. In the cited study conducted by Ming-Yeuh & Kuey (2007), the 46 students were divided into groups of reading skill levels after reviewing the results of the pre-tests. While the students in Group A realized that the teacher repeated several strategies in class for some less skilled students, they did not de-value the repeated practice, instead found it helpful for purpose of review. The students in Group B, the less capable students apparently had a comparatively lower self-esteem and contributed their failure to their poor attitudes to learning.
According to Rothman (2003), the nature of the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and student achievement has been debated for decades. Rothman (2003) cites the works of Coleman (1966) and Jencks, et al. (1973) for many influential arguments in this connection pertaining to the context of United States of America. There are other studies conducted in the Australian setting, which focus on the influence of socioeconomic status on student achievement (Commission of Inquiry into Poverty, 1976; Karmel, 1973). Rothman (2003) argues that there are no clear evidences to prove the influence of SES on student achievement, as there are a number of theoretical frameworks developed to explain the relationship. The views of Rothman (2003) are more in alignment with the proposed theories of the current research, which postulates the low socioeconomic students are lacking in an academic home environment. Additionally, their neighborhood environment has a profound effect on these students’ academic achievements.
The research by Rothman (2003) covered the period from 1980 to 2003 to assess the influence of SES on student performance in Australia. Studies were conducted on the reading abilities of students by removing them from low socioeconomic influences and placing in middle to high middle class environments. Determination of the influence of SES on the academic development and achievement of the students shifted to a new economic environment was the central focus of the study. Lower test scores were recorded and reported for low socioeconomic class students than for middle and upper middle class students. The study also found that parental occupation and environment had a definite impact on students’ academic achievements.
Learning Processes of the Brain
Even though the dictionary definition of learning is quite simple in stating that learning is to gain knowledge, understanding, or skill by study by experience, the real complexity of the definition can be experienced when an attempt is made to measure learning. The phenomenon of learning has posed difficulties in comprehending the real measure even for neuroscientists, who have a better grasp on the subject. Jensen (2008) has elaborated on the topic of brain-based learning.
Although the students have the physical ability to learn, most of the external factors influence the adaptation of the student to the learning environment. Developing strategies to enable the students to cultivate good reading ability must take into account these external factors affecting the brain of the students. Jensen (2008) argues there are several factors that influence the learning capacity of the students and even the location of the student can affect his/her learning.
For the most part, scientists have been observing the outside behaviors guessing about what stimulus causes certain responses. Now, however, they are beginning to look inside the brain in order to determine what causes certain behaviors, and learning perception. By looking inside the brains with PET scans, scientists can actually see parts of the brain that display different colors with certain stimuli. The National Institutes of Health (1996) offers a free slide teaching packet for scientists entitled "The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology" which is actually a lesson plan on how to interpret PET scans.
Sousa (2001) states that it is important to observe what is happening outside the brain in order to know the internal reaction of the brain. Thus in a case where a student should be capable of discerning certain facts, it would be difficult to comprehend the thinking of the student until one understands the external factors affecting the student.
Viadero (1996) implies that feeling threatened will shut down the learning process and “hijack” the rest of the brain . She states that it is very important for learners to feel relaxed and safe in the learning environment. Learning cannot take place unless the learner feels safe. (Slywester 1996).
Teaching Reading
Burns, Roe & Smith (2001) state the product of the reading act is the communication of thoughts and emotions by the writer to the reader, resulting in the reader’s own understanding of ideas that the writer has put into print. Communication results from the reader’s construction of meaning through integrating his or her prior knowledge with the information presented in text.
Research on enriching background knowledge has demonstrated that activating such knowledge increases comprehension. Graves and his associates (1980,1983) developed previews for short stories that had as one component the building of prior knowledge important to understanding the selection. Data indicated that reading the previews before reading the stories increased the students’ learning from stories by a significant and impressive amount. Stevens (1982) increased learning from text compared with a control group for 10th grade students reading a history passage by teaching them relevant background information related to the topic to be learned, helped readers learn from text regardless of how that background information was presented or how specific or general it was. Alvarez (1990) used case-based instruction to develop students’ abilities to assemble and incorporate different knowledge sources in memory. He taught them how to employ thematic organizers and hierarchical concept mapping in their reading.
Text Organization and Its Relation to Reading Comprehension
Although there is a correlation of how text is presented and the way text is perceived, the motivation to learn based upon home environment is also pertinent to the ability of one to absorb material. Although well-organized text structure appears important to reading comprehension, it may not be sufficient to facilitate comprehension. Often “awareness” of text structure adds an important dimension (Graesser et al, 1991; Gurney et al, 1990; Weaver & Kintsch, 1991). Kinder and Bursuck (1999) report that many textbooks are so poorly written that they fail to use precise language or make clear the relations between concepts, ideas, and sentences.
Teaching students from low socioeconomic background with poorly written textbooks will only lead to the creation of more struggling readers. Richard Vacca, states, “Being a good reader is crucial to today’s adolescents, who will need to read and write more than adults have at any other time in human history” (page 51). One of the objectives of NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Act is to help those students, who are struggling readers. However, there are many avenues to be pursued in this direction. Nell K Duke is of the view that a picture is worth a thousand words when it comes to comprehension. Gardner (1999) states many people about 35% are visual learners.
Conclusion
Although there has not been specific research relating to reading comprehension and understanding main idea by Title 1 students, there has been research into the reading strategies needed to assist EFL learners, special education learners and children with other learning disabilities. Research tells us that struggling readers need specific strategies to assist them in understanding what they read. Research further proves a correlation between struggling readers’ lack of prior knowledge, environmental influences, IQ, brain development or lack thereof as well as lack of proper nutrition in utero and during the first five years of development.
References
Alvarez, M. (1990). Knowledge activation and schema construction. Paper presented at
the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association: Boston, MA
April 16-20, 1990.
Brantmeir, C. (2003). Does gender make a difference? Passage and comprehension in
second language readers. Reading in a Foreign Language. Vol 15, No.1, 2003.
Burns, P., Row, B., & Smith, S. (2002). Teaching reading in today’s elementary schools.
New York, NY: Houghton-Mifflin Company.
Carrell, P., (1983). Three components of background knowledge in reading
comprehension. Language Learning, 33, 2, 183-207.
Coleman, J., (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, DC:
Government Printing Office.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. New York, NY: Basic.
Grasser, A., Golding, J., & Long, D. (1991). Narrative representation and comprehension.
In R.Barr, M.L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of Reading
Research. Vol. 2, pp 171-204. White Plains, NY: Longman
Graves, M., & Cook, C. (1980). Effects of previewing difficult short stories for high
school students. Research on Reading in Secondary Schools, 6, 38-54.
Graves, M., et al. (1983). Effects of previewing difficult short stores on low ability
junior high school students’ comprehension recall and attitudes. Reading Research
Quarterly 18 (3) Spring 183, 262-76. EJ 279 344
Gurney, D., Gersten, R., Dimino, J., & Carnine, D. (1990). Story of grammar. Effective
literature instruction for high school students with disabilities. Journal of Learning
Disabilities. 23, 335-342, 348.
Jencks, C., Smith, M., Acland, H., Bane, M., Cohen, D., Gintis, H., Heyns, B., &
Michelson, S. (1972). Inequality: A reassessment of the effect of family and
schooling in America. New York: Basic.
Jenson, E. (2008). Brain-based learning: The new paradigm of teaching.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Karmel, P. (chair) (1985) Quality of education in Australia. Report of the Review
Committee. Canberra: AGPS.
Kinder, D., & Bursuck, W. (1991). The search for a unified social studies curriculum:
Does history repeat itself? Journal of Learning Disabilities. 24, 270-275.
Ming-Yueh, S., & Kuey, H. (2007). Collaborative action research for reading strategy
instructions. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language and Teaching. 4 (1), 108-121.
Centre for Language Studies: National University of Singapore.
National Institutes of Health. (2010). A lesson on PET scans developed for scientists
studying color indicators in the frontal lobe of language development. Retrieved
April 15, 2010 from: http://science.education.nih.gov.
Rothman, S. (2003). The changing influence of socioeconomic status on student
achievement: recent evidence from Australia: Australian Council for
Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia.
Salataci, R., & Akyel, A. (2002). Possible effects of strategy instruction on L1 and L2
reading. Reading in a Foreign Language. Vol 14, No. 1
Sousa, D. (2001). How the brain learns 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
Sylwester, R. (1996). Celebrating Neurons, ASCD. Retrieved February 29, 2010 from
http://members.aol.com/Rss51540/brain2.htm
Viadero, D. (1996). Brain trust. Education week. September 18, 1996.
Weaver, C., Kintsch, W. (1991). Expository text. In R. Barr, M.L. Kamil,
P. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 2,
pp171-204. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Action Research Blog Assignment-Month 8-FPE
My Action Research Project is based on helping struggling readers to understand Main Idea and to gain a better understanding of what they read. Essentially, comprehending and being able to respond with accuracy to questions concerning their reading selections. I have developed a strategy that I hope will be the answer or part of a solution to aid these students in becoming proficient readers. My strategy is for them to create avatars, write a story, and/or embed themselves or their character into their story. It is hoped that by "living" with the character from its inception, will give them a better understanding of plot, setting, character development and of course, the Main Idea of the story. Once they have perfected their understanding by participating in this project, the knowledge they have have procured will follow them for a lifetime of learning.
In this post, I will be specifically addressing four questions posed to us by our Action Research Mentors and Instructors.
The first question is to respond to what changed in your set up from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2.
I had to tweak Cycle 1 in order to complete it near my estimated completion date in order to stay on track. Ten of my students were lagging behind a bit in getting their final draft completed for the writing of their avatar story. I had allowed my students to first paint their avatars, then write their stories. Some of my students changed their minds two-three times and painted much too long. For those students, I placed their avatars in a cabinet and explained that they needed to complete their drafts of their stories and then I would let them finish their painting. Cycle 1 was delayed by about a week.
In regards to what is happening that I didn't expect is that I always hold my students to high expectations and I fully expected all of them to complete their assignments timely. I looped with my students from third grade to fourth this year and granted, those students that I looped with did complete their assignments on schedule. My new students did not respond as I had hoped they would. Additionally,I did not expect for our district to block many of the sites that I wanted to access for my students in the completion of their projects. Also, my start time for Cycle 2 is going to be delayed a couple of weeks. I had not anticipated a change in our curriculum assignments. We are no longer doing writing until FCAT has been completed, so that will delay my ten students completing their revisions of their final drafts.
The eleven students who are ready to proceed with formatting their stories on the computer can move forward with that part of the assignment. Theirs is merely computer time now which is allowed. My ten students cannot complete their revisions until after FCAT.
It is going to be a tight schedule, but I am hoping to complete Cycle 2 by April 4th. Originally, my plan was to complete Cycle 2 by March 19th.
I have had to totally revamp the tracking of my data. I had a tracking form on my Mac that I was entering data into on a regular basis. My charts depicting pass/fail ratios over a five-year period for FCAT scoring on Main Idea which has everything to do with my AR project. I had entered test data from 4 different screenings since the inception of my project. I have lost all of that data because of a malfunction in the MobileMe program software on my computer. I have lost over 75% of my total files.
Fortunately, I have hard copies of all my data. I will have to reconstruct the tracking form that I was using. I am in the process of doing that on my computer at school which I will save on a flash drive to transfer to my Mac once it is fixed.
I have also added a student input piece of data to my program. I am asking students questions throughout Cycle 1 and will in Cycle 2, about how they are thinking this project is helping them with their reading comprehension. I am hoping to include excerpts in my final project. I think it is important for them to know why they are participating in this project and what benefits they will derive from their participation. So far, the response has been terrific. The students are excited about participating and many are feeling confident that they will do well on the FCAT.
Last week, we had the writing portion of FCAT, Florida Writes. I am hoping the experience of writing their avatar story, editing, revising, etc. will have helped them to do well on that test.
Responding to our last question about how FPE has contributed to our Action Research: It is an amazing coincidence that this month's course, Film making, digital storytelling is exactly what I needed in order to refine my project. I had planned to assist my students in creating some type of animated story using web 2.0 tools. In December, our course involved using Flash and Dream weaver which also was inclusive of what I had planned. However, that plan was thwarted when our school district blocked the web sites that I wanted to access to create the digital stories.
Since we do not have Mac capabilities at school nor wireless, it was becoming more of a challenge as to how I was going to follow through on my promise to let the students make a CD of their story. Well, if it had not been for my Mac crashing, I would not have discovered Movie Maker which I have found out is allowed on our servers at school. So, some good is coming out of my Mac crashing. My instructor, Kathy Craven has been so gracious in allowing me to complete my work with Windows programs. I have learned so much from her this month. And, I have a program that my students will be able to complete their stories as I promised.
In my final project, I wanted to share one of their stories, because I know our project is limited in minutes, but I want to at least have an excerpt to show what they have learned, as well as my charts hopefully illustrating their successes with FCAT. That data will not be available until the last week of May, so it will be the last piece of data that I will format.
All of my courses at FSO have been wonderful, but these last three, DAE, MLT and FPE have been "exactly what the doctor ordered" for a successful project completion.
In this post, I will be specifically addressing four questions posed to us by our Action Research Mentors and Instructors.
The first question is to respond to what changed in your set up from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2.
I had to tweak Cycle 1 in order to complete it near my estimated completion date in order to stay on track. Ten of my students were lagging behind a bit in getting their final draft completed for the writing of their avatar story. I had allowed my students to first paint their avatars, then write their stories. Some of my students changed their minds two-three times and painted much too long. For those students, I placed their avatars in a cabinet and explained that they needed to complete their drafts of their stories and then I would let them finish their painting. Cycle 1 was delayed by about a week.
In regards to what is happening that I didn't expect is that I always hold my students to high expectations and I fully expected all of them to complete their assignments timely. I looped with my students from third grade to fourth this year and granted, those students that I looped with did complete their assignments on schedule. My new students did not respond as I had hoped they would. Additionally,I did not expect for our district to block many of the sites that I wanted to access for my students in the completion of their projects. Also, my start time for Cycle 2 is going to be delayed a couple of weeks. I had not anticipated a change in our curriculum assignments. We are no longer doing writing until FCAT has been completed, so that will delay my ten students completing their revisions of their final drafts.
The eleven students who are ready to proceed with formatting their stories on the computer can move forward with that part of the assignment. Theirs is merely computer time now which is allowed. My ten students cannot complete their revisions until after FCAT.
It is going to be a tight schedule, but I am hoping to complete Cycle 2 by April 4th. Originally, my plan was to complete Cycle 2 by March 19th.
I have had to totally revamp the tracking of my data. I had a tracking form on my Mac that I was entering data into on a regular basis. My charts depicting pass/fail ratios over a five-year period for FCAT scoring on Main Idea which has everything to do with my AR project. I had entered test data from 4 different screenings since the inception of my project. I have lost all of that data because of a malfunction in the MobileMe program software on my computer. I have lost over 75% of my total files.
Fortunately, I have hard copies of all my data. I will have to reconstruct the tracking form that I was using. I am in the process of doing that on my computer at school which I will save on a flash drive to transfer to my Mac once it is fixed.
I have also added a student input piece of data to my program. I am asking students questions throughout Cycle 1 and will in Cycle 2, about how they are thinking this project is helping them with their reading comprehension. I am hoping to include excerpts in my final project. I think it is important for them to know why they are participating in this project and what benefits they will derive from their participation. So far, the response has been terrific. The students are excited about participating and many are feeling confident that they will do well on the FCAT.
Last week, we had the writing portion of FCAT, Florida Writes. I am hoping the experience of writing their avatar story, editing, revising, etc. will have helped them to do well on that test.
Responding to our last question about how FPE has contributed to our Action Research: It is an amazing coincidence that this month's course, Film making, digital storytelling is exactly what I needed in order to refine my project. I had planned to assist my students in creating some type of animated story using web 2.0 tools. In December, our course involved using Flash and Dream weaver which also was inclusive of what I had planned. However, that plan was thwarted when our school district blocked the web sites that I wanted to access to create the digital stories.
Since we do not have Mac capabilities at school nor wireless, it was becoming more of a challenge as to how I was going to follow through on my promise to let the students make a CD of their story. Well, if it had not been for my Mac crashing, I would not have discovered Movie Maker which I have found out is allowed on our servers at school. So, some good is coming out of my Mac crashing. My instructor, Kathy Craven has been so gracious in allowing me to complete my work with Windows programs. I have learned so much from her this month. And, I have a program that my students will be able to complete their stories as I promised.
In my final project, I wanted to share one of their stories, because I know our project is limited in minutes, but I want to at least have an excerpt to show what they have learned, as well as my charts hopefully illustrating their successes with FCAT. That data will not be available until the last week of May, so it will be the last piece of data that I will format.
All of my courses at FSO have been wonderful, but these last three, DAE, MLT and FPE have been "exactly what the doctor ordered" for a successful project completion.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Cycle 2- Action Research Plan
Continuing my Plan of Action:
My goal is to discover why Title 1 students typically fail the Main Idea portion of the FCAT (Florida's Comprehension Assessment Test) and then to create a strategy for these students which will assist them in not only passing the FCAT, but to also help them to understand Main Idea.
The problem to be solved: ensure my students pass the Main Idea portion of the FCAT Reading Comprehension exam.
The strategy: I decided to use avatars and digital storytelling in order for my students to understand Main Idea. I thought if they could create a character themselves, write a story about the character, then perhpas they could better grasp what Main Idea is.
The solution: I hope is that by creating a character and following it through the story will give students a better understanding of not only Main Idea, but all aspects of story telling and reading comprehension. Time will tell. FCAT is in 3 weeks!
In Cycle 1, my students created avatars from wooden dolls which they painted in the form of the avatar of their choice. Some are animals, super heroes, flowers, a bee, a Mom, and Mother Nature. They are all quite interesting and imaginative.
The students then developed a story about their avatar. After the completion of the story, I designed a test specifically for each one's avatar. Of the eleven who are ready to publish, all eleven passed the test. The remaining ten students have now completed their final draft and are ready to resume painting of their avatars, and taking a test on their own story.
Given that FCAT is 3 weeks away, I have to delay the start of Cycle 2 for a couple of weeks. We just completed the writing portion of FCAT last week. My eleven students who are ready to publish, probably won't get to publish until FCAT has been completed. However, I am hoping the ten students who completed their final draft will be able to test on their own story before FCAT. I really need to have them accomplish this because their results will show whether or not the strategy is working as well as the results of the FCAT.
Cycle 2 consists of completing the avatars, completing the stories, taking and passing tests related to their stories, and publishing their stories and saving to a DVD to share with family.
My projected finish date was originally March 5, 2010 for all but the writing to a disk. I am still going to try for that date, but it is looking more like April 4th for total completion. Until FCAT has been completed, our school curriculum schedule has been modified and I am not certain that I will be able to incorporate what I need for the students to finish on time.
This month's FSO course is incorporating digital storytelling! How amazing and coincental is that? I will keep you posted.
My goal is to discover why Title 1 students typically fail the Main Idea portion of the FCAT (Florida's Comprehension Assessment Test) and then to create a strategy for these students which will assist them in not only passing the FCAT, but to also help them to understand Main Idea.
The problem to be solved: ensure my students pass the Main Idea portion of the FCAT Reading Comprehension exam.
The strategy: I decided to use avatars and digital storytelling in order for my students to understand Main Idea. I thought if they could create a character themselves, write a story about the character, then perhpas they could better grasp what Main Idea is.
The solution: I hope is that by creating a character and following it through the story will give students a better understanding of not only Main Idea, but all aspects of story telling and reading comprehension. Time will tell. FCAT is in 3 weeks!
In Cycle 1, my students created avatars from wooden dolls which they painted in the form of the avatar of their choice. Some are animals, super heroes, flowers, a bee, a Mom, and Mother Nature. They are all quite interesting and imaginative.
The students then developed a story about their avatar. After the completion of the story, I designed a test specifically for each one's avatar. Of the eleven who are ready to publish, all eleven passed the test. The remaining ten students have now completed their final draft and are ready to resume painting of their avatars, and taking a test on their own story.
Given that FCAT is 3 weeks away, I have to delay the start of Cycle 2 for a couple of weeks. We just completed the writing portion of FCAT last week. My eleven students who are ready to publish, probably won't get to publish until FCAT has been completed. However, I am hoping the ten students who completed their final draft will be able to test on their own story before FCAT. I really need to have them accomplish this because their results will show whether or not the strategy is working as well as the results of the FCAT.
Cycle 2 consists of completing the avatars, completing the stories, taking and passing tests related to their stories, and publishing their stories and saving to a DVD to share with family.
My projected finish date was originally March 5, 2010 for all but the writing to a disk. I am still going to try for that date, but it is looking more like April 4th for total completion. Until FCAT has been completed, our school curriculum schedule has been modified and I am not certain that I will be able to incorporate what I need for the students to finish on time.
This month's FSO course is incorporating digital storytelling! How amazing and coincental is that? I will keep you posted.
Completion of Cycle 1- Action Research Plan
After doing some tweaking to my plans, Cycle 1 is now complete. All students have completed their drafts for their digital story. Eleven have now edited, revised and are ready to publish. This was all completed February 5, 2010. My original plan had called for a completion date of January 29th, so we were not too far off schedule.
The problem I ran into, was that some of the students were more interested in painting their avatars than in writing their stories.
I put the avatars away and explained that they could resume painting once the fnal draft had been approved. This was the motivation needed for those 10 students to accomplish their tasks.
The problem I ran into, was that some of the students were more interested in painting their avatars than in writing their stories.
I put the avatars away and explained that they could resume painting once the fnal draft had been approved. This was the motivation needed for those 10 students to accomplish their tasks.
Portfolio 7- MTA- Musical Theory and Education Applications
I am using this Blog in lieu of my Action Research Blog site until issues with Mobile Me are corrected. I have lost all my data, so I will post here and transfer later.
In month seven, we studied music theory and how it relates to education. At first, I did not realize how deeply music can be embedded into the core curriculum. After I learned and experimented with music theory, I am changing my entire outlook and how to use music more in my lesson planning.
I wish I could share the movie my class and I made for my final project in MTA. I think the kids did an awesome job. The lesson plan was science, a study of the planets. I wrote the lrics and composed the music for a song about the planets which the kids rapped. We had a 5-day lesson plan to accompany the song. All students made 100 on their science test.
I was very pleased to say the least.
At first, the course was very challenging for me, but later, even though it was still a challenge, I totally enjoyed it.
In month seven, we studied music theory and how it relates to education. At first, I did not realize how deeply music can be embedded into the core curriculum. After I learned and experimented with music theory, I am changing my entire outlook and how to use music more in my lesson planning.
I wish I could share the movie my class and I made for my final project in MTA. I think the kids did an awesome job. The lesson plan was science, a study of the planets. I wrote the lrics and composed the music for a song about the planets which the kids rapped. We had a 5-day lesson plan to accompany the song. All students made 100 on their science test.
I was very pleased to say the least.
At first, the course was very challenging for me, but later, even though it was still a challenge, I totally enjoyed it.
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