Every year I have a large group of students who are not reading at grade level. There is defiantly a huge jump in expectations from second grade to third grade, not only in reading but math as well. These students have been receiving 30-45 minutes of daily reading intervention and it doesn't seem to be bringing them up to grade level. What else can I do as their teacher to help these students reach their potential and make this year different than past years? I need to know what their current reading level is and what intervention programs have been used. I also need to get to know the child in order to figure out what their motivations to learn is. What is holding them back? I know that in order to become a stronger reader they must have time to read independently. They must build up self confidence in easier books before they can be challenged to read more difficult books. Have these students just not had enough time to read independently because they are always receiving help? Is it really that simple?
I have also struggled from year to year to get my students to retain the skills that they have learned and even mastered. How can the content that I am teaching transition to long term memory? I need to know what skills they have mastered so that later on during the year, I can retest that same skill to see if they still have mastery. I know that I need to build in real life scenarios where students are acting out a problem by using the skill that I had just taught. How do I find the time to teach the skill and then problem solve? Should they be taught separate or together? I know that how I have been teaching math is great for short term memory, but it doesn't seem to carry over to long term memory. Attaching music, hand gestures, and guided step by step directions are all great, but alone they are not working for the majority of my class.
I thought that this case study was going to be enlightening, but instead it just was a layout of background knowledge and results. This is exactly what we are already doing in education. I want to find something new that will change the way that I teach.
This case study caught my attention but I really didn’t think that it would help me with my driving question. Little did I know that this just might be one way to bring in technology into my classroom, increase motivation and help students who struggle with reading. Here is a quote from the case study that peaked my interest, “I think that blogging has helped me a lot in reading and I really enjoyed it.”
This case study was about an individual student who struggles with reading comprehension. I was able to relate a lot of the background information to one particular student in my class this year. It makes me think, can I do my case study on just one student? He is a typical student that I see from year to year that I would like to make a difference in his life. The knowledge that I can learn from just one student can really change the way that I teach my struggling readers in the future.
1. Measuring Assistive Technology Outcomes in Reading https://0-search.proquest.com.library.touro.edu/education/docview/228406506/193DF741ACFB4C82PQ/2?accountid=40250 In the article by Dave Edyburn it state that “... national educational goal that all children will be able to read by the end of grade 3.” It explores the idea that students who continue to struggle with reading need a different approach to learning. Assistive technology might just be the answer we need to support struggling readers. This article justifies the purpose of my driving question and supports that something else is needed so that all students can be successful.
2. A Comparison of Young Children's Technology-Enhanced and Traditional Responses to Texts: An Action Research Project https://0-search.proquest.com.library.touro.edu/education/docview/203890718/193DF741ACFB4C82PQ/13?accountid=40250 The article by Susan M. Tancock compares the results of technology assisted comprehension versus traditional pencil and paper. This project was done in 2004 and results show that students did not improve their comprehension due to use of technology, it actually distracted them and they did poorer than the control group. Technology has changed a lot over the past 13 years and I would like to see if the results are the same or if technology today can now play a more important role with struggling students. 3. Second-Grade Urban Learners: Preliminary Findings for a Computer-Assisted, Culturally Relevant, Repeated Reading Intervention. https://0-search.proquest.com.library.touro.edu/docview/1916950223/55315A630FC14478PQ/1?accountid=40250 Jessica Bennett talks about finding student road blocks in reading so that they can be successful. The results showed significant growth for those students that were in the treatment groups. The treatment groups were designed to be fun and engaging for those students who were coming before or after school for additional help in reading. They learned through games and fun word work. What I take away from this study is that if we identify where each student’s learning block is and support them in a fun way then success will be made.
4. Computer Assisted Instruction in Early Literacy for African American, Economically Disadvantaged Children https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15f798947aceaaff?projector=1
Shamir, Feehan, and Yoder (2017) found significant growth with kindergarten and first grade students who used computer adaptive software programs. The treatment group used an adaptive program called ERP, Waterford Early Reading Program. They had significant gains in their study compared to the control group, proving that adaptive programs such as ERP is an effective way to teach early literacy skills.
5. SUPPORTING STRIVING READERS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY-BASED INSTRUCTION http://0-web.a.ebscohost.com.library.touro.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=39&sid=8d5b6029-1ca0-4dd1-8cca-d70aea593d84%40sessionmgr4006
The Article by DeAnna M. Laverick (2014) is a research project that looks at technology based instruction. Students attended a 5 week reading camp where they used different technology tools to help further their literacy related learning needs. The results showed increased reading proficiency among striving readers.
Ihsan’s research project compared the results of reading comprehension when looking at digital story telling with animation, without animation and with print books. The results showed that students did significantly better with digital story telling with animation. These results show that digital story telling with animation is a great way to support struggling students with more complex text.
Research shows that students who struggle in 1st grade tend to struggle in 10th grade. These students have not built the reading foundation of phonemic awareness to carry them through higher education. Without these skills students skip over word that they can’t read and this interferes with their reading comprehension.
8. Wright, S., Fugett, A., & Caputa, F. (2013). Using E-readers and internet resources to support comprehension. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(1), 367-n/a. https://0-search.proquest.com.library.touro.edu/education/docview/1287029551/C448E3F78B4D4161PQ/4?accountid=40250 This study was inspired due to the amount of technology that we have in our lives. Students are now referred to as digital natives. Children are engaged when it comes to technology, so this study was done on 7 and 8 year old students. The results show that they accessed digital resources more when reading from a digital book than when reading from a print book. The reading comprehension test results did not show when an e-books to print books.
Data Tools
Students will read a grade level (3.3) paper copied book. First, they will take the Accelerated Reader test online where they have to read the comprehension questions. I will collect the pretest data and record it in a Google Spreadsheet. After the treatment, students will repeat the same process with a tumblebook. This time they will be asked to select the audio component so that the test questions will be read aloud. The post-test data will be added to the Google spreadsheet.
Students will also be given a self-assessment through Google forms about the technology they used to help with their reading comprehension.