Let the Action Research Adventure Begin....

This week I began implementing my Action Research project.  I am excited and nervous about this endeavor.  The journey to this point began with looking at my school demographics, goals, and what I already wondered about.

My elementary school has approximately 370 students in Pre Kindergarten through fifth grade.  Our student population includes:  2.7% Asian, 5.7% Black, 16.3% Hispanic, 66.9% White, and 8.4% identified as two or more races.  Of these students, 13.6% are English Language Learners, 60.7% are economically disadvantaged and 18.2% receive special education (Jefferson Elementary School, 2013).

The school report card for 2012 - 2013 shows we are "exceeding expectations".  My school has been recognized as a school who is "Beating the Odds" in the state of Wisconsin.  Our building mission is student achievement is our priority.

Our building goals include third to fifth grade students will close the achievement gap as measured by exceeding the state score on the Fall 2013 WKCE in reading and math.  All grade levels will have a mean RIT and a mean RIT growth above the 50th percentile as measured by the Spring 2014 MAP test in reading and math.  Eighty-five percent of all students will be proficient or advanced as measured by grade level or district common assessments (Jefferson Elementary School, 2013).

While decreasing the achievement gap is important, our focus for RtI (Response to Intervention) has been directly related to those who need Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions for scoring basic or minimal.  While this focus is happening, I do not always think our students who are talented and gifted are receiving the interventions they need.  It was because of this that I began to focus my wondering on how educational technology could benefit these students.  I wondered how the use of educational technology and personalized learning would help to increase the motivation, engagement, and writing quality of gifted students.  Within my school, we have the resources to access educational technology but it is not embedded into the everyday classroom.  These students do not have time to do exploration of topics relevant to them that could help them make achievement gains in the area of research, creativity, collaboration, and writing. 

Another reason I chose this wondering was after working with a group of students on a research project.  Although the students were somewhat able to choose their animal for the ecology project, they were very limited on any other choices that they could make.  I noticed the students lacking interest and projects that lacked any kind of creativity.  There were also many students who wanted to work on the same animal but were not allowed too, taking away any possibility of collaboration.  They were to sit at their computer and research, with no skills taught, and put certain information into certain places in the same type of Prezi as everyone else.  This is what began me wondering about what it would be like if we offered more of a personalized learning model, as well as opening the doors of creativity and collaboration.

I have had the opportunity to see a few presentations after this project on personalized learning.  The model shared in these presentations helped me to see how it could benefit our kids in the areas of engagement, creativity, and collaboration.  My wonderings continued to grow and this opportunity will give me the chance to see the results of this type of learning model.

I also wanted to narrow my focus for my first action research project.  I chose to focus just on second grade.  Within our district, we have two schools that house challenge classes grades third through five.  It is at the end of the second grade year that students are tested and the top scoring students are offered a place in the program.  It is therefore that I chose second grade students.

I came up with my initial wondering of how can the use of educational technologies and personalized learning increase the motivation, engagement, and writing quality of gifted second grade students. I came to this wondering after working with a small group of students on an independent research project.  This was a basic form of personalized learning for some of our top second graders.  The students were very interested in the use of educational technology to research a topic that wanted to know more about and use of their creativity to share what they learned.

Our students today use “technology as an integral part of life, both in work and play, and therefore do not view technology use as an opportunity, but, rather, as a fundamental tool for normal day-to-day functioning” (Housand & Housand, 2012, p. 706).  Keeping this in mind, I realized that my focus should not just be about motivation and engagement, but should also include collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking, as these are also tools students will need when leaving school and entering the workforce.  I also chose to not include the focus of personalized learning but have that just be a part of some of the lessons I plan.

After thinking on all of this, I knew I needed to revise my wondering.  I want to know how can the use of educational technology can build a second grade gifted and talented students’ creativity and collaboration skills when combined with personalized learning.  I want the students to be able to show achievement in these areas through the use of a variety of educational technology available.

Since my role in the elementary school is that of an Innovative Learning Specialist, I am already well versed in the different educational technologies available and their uses with students.  After completion of this study, I hope to use my research finding to show others the effectiveness of using educational technology with gifted and talented students as a way of creating meaningful learning opportunities and interventions.  I also hope to show the importance of the 4C’s (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking) in their instruction as a means of promoting student achievement, engagement, and motivation.

References:

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator's guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.  

Housand, B. C., & Housand, A. M. (2012). The role of technology in gifted students' motivation. Psychology in the Schools, 49(7), 706-715.

Jefferson Elementary School. (August 28, 2013). GreatSchools. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.greatschools.org/wisconsin/janesville/691-Jefferson-Elementary-School/

Jefferson Elementary School. (August 2013). School Improvement Plan - Reading. Text file. Retrieved March23, 2014 from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-ZibPBuHEhKOEpUSGEyd2swdHc/edit?usp=sharing