The increase of student engagement in the classroom and improvement of student performance through meta-cognitive and graphic organizer tools presented in digital formats.
During the past years our school has worked in implementing the use of graphic organizer across all grade levels. For the most part the use of paper and pencil graphic organizers has proved to improve student performance and engagement. By looking at the data records I was able to determine a tendency that showed the strongest student performance improvement concentrated among those students that were already making considerable good grades, while student who were scoring lower in general were able to improve ever so slightly.
Based on individual student interviews I came across the idea that the graphic organizer in itself did provide a more organized way of thinking for all students, but its presentation in paper and pencil might be hindering student progress for those who struggle with transferring their thinking into paper form. With the acquisition of the Kidspiration Software I propose to use it to help those students express their thinking in an easy, digitally-assisted way.
As a main objective, it is expected that by allowing the students to use the Kidspiration Software to create and manipulate graphic organizers digitally, their thinking processes would work more fluently, avoiding losing time and effort in the actual creation of a handwritten form. By the end of the action research project we would be able to establish whether or not the use of technology to create and present information would increase meta-cognitive processes in students through the improvement of tests scores.
The significance of this research project would branch out in two different areas. Firstly, it is important to measure the impact on academic progress of individual students to better determine the future use of digital tools. This research might shine a light to whether students benefit from using organizers in a digital form and give educators a better way to help “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) by offering material in a format they are more familiar with and interested in. Secondly, the results of this particular research project might aid and support on the implementation of other technology hardware and software, allowing for a more appropriate instructional model for future generations. In the case that the research shows positive results, administrators might be more inclined to budget towards purchasing similar digital tools in other areas of instruction.
Dana (2009) states that: “meaningful administrator inquiry should not ‘depart from’ the daily work of administrators but become ‘a part of’ their daily practice”. This idea facilitates the selection of this research setting, target population and sample to even a practitioner that is not an administrator. Thus, I have selected as my target population the two bilingual classes that I teach. Both classes are entirely bilingual and struggling with organizational skills as well as language skills. A comparison of their paper-based and software-made work samples would present a good evidence of results.
The research setting is clearly defined as Third grade, LEP classrooms in a Title 1 school. The majority of the students come from a low-income household and receives free or reduced lunch. Even though I teach them only Math and Science, I will extend the context of this research to their Reading and Writing sections.
I will start by collecting data previous to the introduction of the Kidspiration software. Data would include videotaping students while they create their graphic organizers and by collecting paper-based samples. I will also use of Exit Slips and Student Interviews to obtain information on students’ reflections upon their own learning. After the introduction of the digital organizer creation software, I will collect comparative data, including videos of the students working on the computer and printouts of their work samples. Digital Exit Slips and Post-Interviews will also be conducted.
I will include pre and post Surveys with individual students to measure their comfort level with using both formats in creating their graphic organizers.
I have made other changes to my project to include a variety of data collection techniques in order to better evaluate the benefit of using the Kidspiration software versus working on paper-based assignments.
This multiple sources of documentation and information would allow me to analyze all aspects of my project, from the academic value and improvement to the acceptance and comfort students experience during the use and implementation of the software. Another important implementation and development that is needed for the project is the creation of a rubric to evaluate student progress and performance.
Parents, students, staff and other community members will be involved in the process either creating the opportunities for students to work with the software or analyzing the results. Teachers in the third grade level will collect data and later present it to a small committee of co-workers and parent representatives to allow for understanding, analysis and conclusion of the project.
This project is especially important for catering to the needs of students with special and exceptional needs and students with diverse backgrounds due to the fact that Kidspiration enables them to experience a multi-sensory practice. Students that are hearing-impaired would be able to work visually, while LEP students would be able to use the auditive feature to improve their language skills.
