Click on the following link to get access to my research paper.
One of the biggest question that I have after working on my digital presentation and STILL working on research paper has been the observation of ELL’s still not making the same gains as the rest of the class even after receiving the treatment throughout the study. Yes, there was some gain which is great but I am still passionate about reducing the gap among these two group of students. I think that’s what I will be exploring throughout the rest of the program. This is something that I am very passionate about since I was once labeled as an ELL when I started kindergarten and 1st grade. I know the struggles they go through and it is my mission and responsibility to be there for these students and hopefully be able to prepare them for their futures.
So far, one of the first things that I have learned about my research is that students can collaborate with each other to finish a project using tech tools. Especially if they get to work with people that they choose to work with. I did notice that from the two groups, control group and the treatment group, the results might be about the same. I mean that I haven’t ran the numbers in the tests we’re supposed to report into our paper, but from the data I have collected from the pre and post-tests it seems like the treatment doesn’t do too much a difference. How much did the treatment answer my question? Well, that is yet to be determined, hopefully in a week or two.
I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted to do in my action research. One thing I wanted to try was to see if I had students blog amongst each other, if that would enhance critical thinking skills and literacy skills among my ELL’s. If I would to extend this project I would consider doing just that next time. The results that I have collected indicate that I should provide students with further resources that they can access outside of class. I am not talking about homework but possibly a flipped teaching structure. That way students can focus on the project and any tasks in class while they have the opportunity to ask questions and practice the 4 C’s in the classroom. I have chosen to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. My research questions looks into how there is any academic achievement or progress through ELLs with technological activities. Some of the Qualitative data that I will be collecting is the knowledge or use that my ELL’s and the rest of the students have been exposed to and if collaborating with each other has helped them have a better understanding of the math content. I have given my student a “pre self-assessment” on technology and towards the end I will give them the post self-assessment on how they used tech in the classroom. A sub question of mine is to see if the 4 C’s are present while students work in the classroom. Therefore I plan to use some of the data tool collections from Falk. I also hope that the short answer questions in the surveys helps me answer my DQ with how students answer the questions on how they felt working with a partner using tech and if they felt it was beneficial.
The type of quantitative data I will be collecting is a pre-test and post test that students will be taking in the classroom. For the pre test students were briefly exposed to the content on the test and I hope to see an increase on test scores after grading and collecting data from the post test scores. I not sure how I can tie this in even if I can but students will be grading themselves on collaboration on how their experience went with their partners throughout the project they worked on together. I briefly glanced at the websites that were provided in the ICARE document this week on how to analyze the data we have collected and it seems pretty easy to use, just substitute your values into the tables, equations, formulas and the website does the work for you. I think I need help on what tests to use so I can make sure I am using the right ones. Really the only reason I chose these methods is because they make sense to me to use them based on the activities my students are doing and the research question that I am working on. It makes me feel comfortable. How it’s going to play out, I am not sure and that’s what makes me nervous about this action research study. But I am sticking to this and hoping I receive enough data that I can be able to share with you all what my findings were and able to answer my research question. And of course that it all makes sense! Lol! I thought it would be easier to share the google doc that has the outline of what I plan to do in my classroom during my action research study. This document has live links to the activities my students will be doing in my classroom along with any data collection tools and grading rubrics that go along with those activities. Please be advised that this document may change at any moment. Also, any comments, questions, concerns, feedback is welcome via the document or my email: [email protected]
Outline of Research Study My Driving Question: How does digital collaboration affect mathematics achievement and engagement among English Language Learners?
I plan to leverage various tech tools to implement my action research study like Remind 101, desmos, google docs and Khan Academy. My plan is to keep the use of these tech tools as organized as possible and let students know when it’s an appropriate time to use each one. My goal to keeping the tools organized is to support my ELLs. They are my main focus and do not want them to be lost in the study. Students are still allowed and free to use them how they wish too. I am choosing these tool because I have used them before in my classroom. I have noticed that ELL's appreciate routine in my classroom. That's why I have chosen these tools as the have used them in my class and I have encouraged them to explore these tools outside of the classroom, but to my understanding they have not used these to their advantages. There has been minimal use of these tools and never has any of these tools been used together. This will be the time where students will be able to fuse these tools together while working on certain tasks. These tools are great because it allows students to put their mathematical thinking and imagination on these tools. I hope that this will enhance and support their mathematical achievement and skills. The data that I will be looking as they use these tech tools is the support in the 4 C’s. I hope to observe creativity in the freedom that I will be giving them using a program like desmos. Since students will be collaborating with partners, their group members and the rest of their classmates, this will provide data on the “engagement” aspect of my driving question. The post-test will provide me data with the “achievement” feature of my driving question. The project that I plan to do during the research study is going to allow students to display the 4 C’s. Possibly some of the 4 C’s will be showcased more than others but I hope that I can measure these throughout the study. If I can measure them that means that they have practiced the 4 C’s. Click on the following link for my research paper: Research Paper
It’s difficult to figure out who are the seminal people in digitally collaborative learning amongst ELL’s because this research is a fairly new topic. I have actually come across various articles on research that has been done across Europe and Asia. Even though here in the United States there is a large population of ELL’s, the English language is such an important language that other countries consider students whore learning the English language as ELL’s and try to apply different strategies sin the classroom to help these student’s English skills. One of the authors of the 3 research articles that I have collected is Deborah L. Lowther, an educator at the University of Memphis. She is known for her extensive work and research in 21st century skills and on how to instill them in the classrooms. She has worked in numerous journals and articles about this topic. One of her highest honors was receiving the Outstanding Research Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2008. This is an idea that is shared among the researchers that I have read about. The 4 C’s was another shared topic among the articles that I have read. One of my articles focused on how students perceived their experience in the classroom going through mobile learning activities and considering the 4 C’s.
The educational context of my driving question could be international, national, state, district, or school based off what I have read so far and from descriptions of articles I have skimmed through. Just a bit overwhelming. Lol! I have changed my driving question many times that I have had to look for different articles on multiple occasions and keeping articles that I have found in the “just in case” pile. My driving question at the moment is: How can collaborative activities in the classroom help, support and strengthen mathematical knowledge for English Language Learners while incorporating technology? I have been able to come across case studies in different states in the United States that have done research around ELLs on incorporating technology. There’s even case studies from Australia and Thailand that are interesting to me as well. A big part of the focus in these two countries were the peer-to-peer interaction among their students in a math class while their goal was to increase high order thinking and make it a tendency. Therefore, I think that my driving question also has two parts to it because I can study the technological and the hands on group work aspect of collaboration. Hence, some of the educational context behind my DQ would be how students will be able to comprehend key math vocabulary through collaborative activities. Not sure what those will be at the moment but I think that’s what we are trying to reflect on at the moment. But I hope that my students will be learn to be independent in terms of understanding how to find information via their notes, the internet (phone, tablet, computer), peers, teachers, etc. At the national level I will look into what other states are doing in terms of supporting not just ELL students but ALL students in achieving their academic goals. I was able to come across an article on how teachers in Massachusetts’s support its ELL’s in the classroom. At the local level, NVUSD is supposed to be a 1-1 ratio of devices and students but in reality that is not the case. So my study is how to support students who don’t have access to a device or Wi-Fi at home.
As of right now, my driving question is for sure going to revolve around my English Language Learners. I have a large portion of re-designated English Language Learners and a smaller portion of students who are ELLs which are brand new to this country. Have none to little understanding of the English language in speaking, writing or reading. I will be honest with you. Going in to teaching, knowing that I am fluent in the Spanish language I thought that I would be able to support these students to a point where they wouldn’t struggle in my class. But that is not the case where I have a classroom of 36 students and nine students who are fairly new to our country and are going through a big change in their lives. I have realized that there is more to just talking to these students in Spanish after I have lectured the class in English. Therefore, they are my focus throughout this program. Because if my instructional strategies and teaching practice helps them I truly believe that it can benefit my entire group of students.
The first impression I got from the IRB form was that most of what we talk in our class, the research, and our blogs are some of the things that I will have to include in this form. Part of the form talks about “describe” this or that. Therefore, in order to address my driving question appropriately I need to make sure that I am applying the proper research which will benefit me at the end, in other words, getting the best understanding of my driving question. Some of my “need to knows” might be more important than others or they might be equally important. As of right now I am not completely sure. But I think that some of the things that I have on my Mind Map are just pieces of a big puzzle that I am trying to put together. Some ways that I can measure my “need to knows” is through my research that I will do in the classroom which can be through instructional strategies that I implement or observe how students are working in groups through a structured activity. |
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