Phase Summary 

This phase provides an overview of the classroom to be observed, population, target group and reasoning behind these technologies and this target group, an explanation of how these technologies (blogging, Time For Kids and teacher-created presentation) increased the likelihood of improving sentence structure of fifth grade students over time.  Further, these technologies required the use of a classroom, work lab or home computer to participate in the activities. Various advanced prompts are included here to show that by the end of the semester the students will go from (Level 1: sentence development to Level 5:  essay writing).  


School and  Population Distribution 
 
The targets were fifth grade students from the ages of 9-10 with a teacher at an elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland (Montgomery County).  Silver Spring, Maryland has a population of 78,488. The median household income is $75,000.  Their are 40% white/non-Hispanic persons, 30.1 Black persons, 25.2 Hispanic persons, other races 13.6 persons.  The population is 28 students with the following ethnicities: 3 Caucasians, 12 African-American, 2 Asian and 12 Hispanic. Tutored students and classroom students were analyzed on a weekly basis (I am not currently an teacher) that have difficulty in writing. The students tutored are ages 8 through 13; third through eighth grades. Of these three students; two had difficulty in writing and they also hate to read. One of my students has a learning disability.    

Teaching/learning problem 

Teachers realize writing can be a struggle for students; those with and without a learning disability. Formulating an outline, thoughts to formulate writing/a story is easy to do mentally but difficult to communicate in writing for some students. The simulations, software, blogger and writing website allowed students to practice sentence-writing practice.   "The findings indicated that blended writing class had changed students' perception of writing lessons positively; therefore, this kind of class may help students develop a positive attitude towards writing by providing meaningful writing opportunities" (Bache, 2009).   

Rationale/target group 

Students that do not read consistenly are found to have difficulty in writing. So that remained the main motivation; 'students read something for 30 minutes every day of the week'.  Thus writing will come with greater ease as they consistently (at least twice a week) practice; those that do not like to read  usually do not write well; this inability to write also is found in those with learning disabilities. Motivating reading, helping the students to think of topics of interest may help; but articulating in writing can be a challenge for many. The targeted students are those inside and outside the classroom that are tutored.   "The teacher acts as a modeler of appropriate behaviors, provider of resources, and challenger of poor knowledge constructs through cognitively-challenging questions. Outside experts, peers and the learners themselves engage in assessment of the solution that is presented by each group, also acting to the challenge the value of the solution and its practical viability" (Warren, 2008).  

Technology-based solution 

My ideal plan used an interactive website found called "Time for Kids", blogger and an educator-created software that provided a wealth of sentence-writing practice for students.  They were shown how to structure sentence, use words accurately and punctuate appropriately.  Further, the students practiced writing using on-line written communication with each other. The students were assigned a sentence-writing project each week and they blogged in the classroom and at home twice a week as well.  Further, according to Bache and others, "there are other variables such as student, teacher, and evaluation procedure that effects the effectiveness of technology, and concludes that "technology when used properly, can have a positive effect on language learning" (2009).  

Relative advantage 

This generation is surely technologically savvy.  The ability to use the computer and the internet is simple for most students.  The "Time for Kids" website provided worksheets and writing assignments that allowed the children to think broad about various subjects.  Further, blogging provided the students with practice in writing, correcting and communicating their thoughts to and for each other. Often times, peers are the best teachers since they often know how to speak each other's language. Writing required correct instruction for vocabulary, sentence and structural manifestation; if students are shown how to write properly while journaling using technology will make this process simpler since we are educating students of Generation X.  "Although blogs are mostly used by individuals to post messages to a web page, they are also used in the language classroom, it is claimed that the use of ICT tools such as blogs can be very motivating to learners; in this application students publish their own writing and receive comments from outsiders, potentially leading to discussion and further use of the target language" (Bache, 2009).  All of the technologies used for this project are free and essentially only need a computer and the internet to access. These technologies (e.g., educator-created software, 'Time for Kids" website, blogging and video presentations allowed students with and without learning disabilities to understand and learn from these technologies. Even more, these technologies are free with an internet connection that are available in the classroom, computer lab and at home in some instances. At the end of the school year students learned the skills needed to develop well-structured sentences.  

References  

Bahce, A., Taslaci, N. (2009). Learners' Perception of Blended Writing Class: Blog     Blog and Face-to-                 face. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 10(4), 188-202.

Warren, S., Dondlinger, M, Barab, S. (2008). A MUVE Toward PBL Writing: Effects of a   Digital Learning               Environment Desiged To Improve Elementary Student Writing. Journal of Research on Technology  in           Education, 41(1), 113.