Melanie Gray’s Blog

Since starting my master courses at Michigan State University I have had an interest in blogging, especially with incorporating blogging for my students.  So in the seven months of taking classes at MSU I have found a variety of sources and interesting reads.  So my first stop in researching was actually my own bookmarked files both in my browser and also in my del.ic.ious account.  In my browser I became reacquainted with http://www.classroomblogging.com/blogging-for-beginners.  This is a fabulous blog that not only gives great information for the beginning blogger it also talks about internet safety, tutorials, as well as fabulous ideas from other educators.  Another fabulous blogging source I found was Kim Cofino’s blog called Always Learning. In a blog post titled, “Blogging is Elementary” she shares her experiences and lesson plans in setting up student blogs at her school.  After exploring these two sites and getting excited about blogging I felt inspired to see what else was out there on blogs.  After a quick google search on “blogging in the elementary classroom” I found a whole slue of information on blogging.  There was a great slide share presentation called Weblogs: Blogging in the Elementary Classroom that gave some step by step instructions for setting up blogs in the classroom.  This presentation led me to Classroom Blogmeister, a blogging site designed specifically for the classroom use.

After exploring my options with google, I decided to try google scholar.  I found some great journal articles about blogging to enhance student writing.  “Blogging in Language Arts” by Beverly Crane discussed the benefits of using blogging as a component of your language arts.  Some of the benefits she listed were instant feedback in the form of comments and that blogs encouraged reading as well.

I felt like I needed more than just personal experience with classroom blogging.  If I was going to sell my administrator on the benefits of blogging, then I would need to find some research.  So I headed to the MSU library to see what I could find.  Using ProQuest I was able to find some more amazing resources.   One of the sources I found,  Wikis and Blogs: Your Keys to Student Collaboration & Engagement discussed the benefits of blogging.

Throughout time time I was researching I kept changing my search words.  I began with blogging in the elementary classroom and kept altering it little by little.  Some of the terms I used to search were:  weblogs, classroom, elementary classroom, blogging to enhance curriculum, blogging to enhance writing.  I was impressed to see what resources were available to me with just a few clicks of the keyboard!  One of the things I will definitely do next time when researching is to remember to tag the items I found in my delicious account.  Tagging them would make it much easier to find them again!

As elementary teachers we are pros at assessing and evaluating. We evaluate our students on a daily basis, we even evaluate new programs to use in our classroom, however, when it comes to research we tend to be novices. Sometimes we (myself included) shrug our shoulders and often don’t give it the amount of thought it deserves. Sometimes we rush into a new program without accurately evaluating it. In our field there is an abundance of research. Can we though believe all research is good just because it is printed? I know I tell my students that just believe it is on the internet doesn’t mean it is true.

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary evaluation has to meanings:
1 : to determine or fix the value of
2 : to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal and study

So how do we go about determining the significance or worth of educational research? Well we need to make sure we are evaluating it with a critical eye. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

1. What is the purpose of the study? Is it observable?
2. Are there other studies like this one? If this is the only one be wary – one study can’t solve everything.
3. Who published the study? Who funded the study? – This could be a possible area for conflict of interest.
4. Does the author write in a in a clear and concise way? Or does he/she use million dollar words to confuse you? If you have to look up every other word chances are the author is trying to impress you more with his wide vocabulary rather than with the quality of the research.
5. Check out their sources…are they valid? Are they quality sources?

The most important thing to do when evaluating educational research is to give it the time it deserves to evaluate. Find a cozy spot and grab your favorite beverage the next time you look at a educational research.

Resources:

Carpenter, Brian. The Good, The Bad, and the Unscientific: Evaluating Educational Research. 2006 by National Charter Schools Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.nationalcharterschools.org/uploads/pdf/resource_20060512080334_Evaluating%20Education%20Research.pdf

Evaluate. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved June 28, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evaluate

Research Questions:

Does blogging improve student attitude towards writing? Does blogging 2-3 times a week at school improve student achievement in writing?

Sample:

The sample for this study will be a classroom of 30 fifth grade students at Smith Elementary in the 2009-2010 school year. Students in this classroom include a non-writer, reluctant writers, struggling writers, as well as proficient writers. The diversity of this group make it a prime sample group.

Study Design:

This study will be looking solely at one group of students as they progress through the school year. This non-experimental-survey study will look at using blogging as a way of increasing student motivation and therefore increasing student achievement in writing.

Data Sources:

Evidence to support this study will be gathered using surveys, observation, formative/summative assessments.

Survey:
Students and parents will be surveyed at three different times during the school year (beginning, middle, and end) on their opinion of how they are as a writer. Student survey includes yes and no questions similar to:
• I like to write.
• I like to write at school.
• I like writing stories.
• I have trouble thinking about what to write.
• Writing is hard.
• I like writing on the computer.
• I like to write email or chat online.
• I like it when others read my writing.

Parent survey questions will happen on the same timetable. Parent survey will include yes and no questions similar to:
• My child likes to write.
• My child writes at home.
• Writing is hard for my child.
• My child shares his/her writing with me.
• My child is good with details.

The initial parent survey at the beginning of the year will also have some questions regarding how they were as writers in elementary school.
• I liked to write.
• I wrote at home.
• Writing was hard.
• I had trouble thinking about what to write.

These survey questions will allow me to track student views of themselves as a writer as well as how their parent perceives them. In an individual survey I feel students are more apt to give their personal opinion freely.

Observation:
During the course of this study I will also be observing the students using both formative and summative assessments as well. I will specifically be looking at the following items during my formative assessment.
• During writing workshop (blogging & pencil/paper) are students eager to write. Are they self-starters? Are they engaged in the process?
• How often students log into their blog.
• Number of thoughtful posts and comments per week.
• Amount of times students ask for more time to writing.

For my summative assessments I will be looking specifically at how their writing as improved by assessing their writing. Student writing will be assessed at least twice per marking period looking at the six traits of writing (ides, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice and conventions). Using a five-point rubric will be used to assess writing.

Procedure:

This study will take place over the course of the 2009-2010 school year.
Step 1: Prior to starting the survey parent approval must be gained for Internet usage and blogging. Blogging in the classroom is new concept at my school, so I will have an informational meeting/training for parents on how I plan to use blogging in my classroom. Students and Parents will complete initial writing survey during the first week of school.

Step 2: Begin writing workshop as usual for the first few weeks of the school year developing writing workshop procedures and routines.

Step 3: End of September -Introduce the class to blogging. Specific lessons on: Internet safety, blogging guidelines, how to blog, as well as how to leave thoughtful comments for peers, etc.

Step 4: Summative and formative observations begin as students write and/or blog during writing workshop during the month of October. The summative assessments will occur once a marking period students will have the option of posting to their blog or turning in a written copy. Formative assessments will happen daily as I observe student behaviors during writing workshop as well as from classroom discussion in regards to writing.

Step 5: At the end of the second marking period near the end of January students will complete second survey.

Step 6: May – Students and parents will complete final survey. Students will also be asked to write a reflection of how blogging changed their views on writing if at all.

Data Analysis:

At the completion of the school year data gathered will be organized. The formative assessments including the student and parent survey will be used to determine if there was in increase in student attitude toward writing. The parent and student survey will also be collated and compared to determine if the parent shares the same views as their child.
The summative assessments collected will be used to determine if there was an increase in student achievement. Using the rubric I will be able to chart improvement on each of the six traits of writing.

With an increase in student motivation and attitude toward writing the data should also show an increase in student achievement in writing. It is my hope that with this plan I will be able to seek funding to increase the number of computers in the classroom. An increased number of computers in the classroom would give students greater opportunity to access their blogs and continue to improve their writing skills.

For my masters class CEP 822 Approaches to Ed Research I am in the process of developing a research proposal based on the question above.  Please leave me a comment with your thoughts!

Introduction & Background:

The elementary school I currently teach at is the oldest and only elementary school in the city of Plymouth, Michigan.   Smith Elementary has approximately 510 students in grades kindergarten through 5th with 18 highly qualified talented classroom teachers.   Our school also has teachers specialized in the areas of art, music, gym, early intervention, media, speech pathology, and resource room.

While we are an old school we do have an updated media center.  Our school media center has approximately 30 Dell computers, a printer, and an Epson media projector attached to the teacher computer.  The computers have a variety of software installed on them including:  Miscorsoft Office (word, power point, excel), Kidspiration, Timeliner, and a variety of other kid friendly programs.  The teacher computer also has Vision installed on it, which allows teachers to not only demonstrate what students will be doing it also allows the teacher to monitor student computers from one location.

Each classroom at Smith Elementary has one dell hard drive with two monitors.  First grade through fifth grade classrooms also have an Epson media projector and access to a printer in their prospective hallways.

One hundred percent of my twenty-six fifth graders have computer and Internet access at home whenever they need it.  However, due to school scheduling my students are lucky to access the computer lab for a 45-minute period every other week.  Teachers are able to sign up for “extra” lab time, however it is done on a first come first serve basis.  Scheduling these times around the other 18 classrooms vying for lab time can be down right difficult to nearly impossible.

Even though I have two classroom computers I rarely use them for student projects.   Time is the biggest constraint for me not using the computers in my room.  It is very difficult to carve out the time I need students to work on technology-enhanced projects and still be able to give direct instruction in other subject areas.  Having access to more classroom computers rather than just two would greatly enhance the use of technology in my fifth grade classroom.  There is so much out there in the area of technology that I am unable to bring to my students (note taking, podcasting, voice threads, blogging, etc) due to the limiting factor of only having two computers in my classroom and limited access to the computer lab.

According to the article, “When each one has one: The influences on teaching strategies and student achievement of using laptops in the classroom,” students in grades five through seven who had 24 hour access to laptops greatly increased their writing achievement, computer literacy skills, and increased their interest in learning (Deborah L Lowther, 2003).  Students using laptops used them for word processing, research, note taking, as well as project bases assignments.

Computers in the classroom do not just increase student interest and involvement in projects they also can help them become teachers themselves.  Computers  in the classroom can also help students who have advanced computer skills develop advanced academic and social skills by sharing their knowledge with their peers and teachers (Brogan, 2000).

My desire is to find an education technology grant that will allow me to introduce more computers into my elementary classroom.  With the additional access to computers my students would be able to collaborate on project-based learning, digital story telling, create podcasts and blog on a consistent basis.  Adding these computers to my classroom would also increase student interest in learning through access to new technologies.

Sources:

Brogan, P. (2000, October). A parent’s perspective: educating the digital generation. Educational Leadership , 57-9.
Deborah L Lowther, S. M. (2003). When each one has one: The influene on teachign strategies and student achievement of using laptops in the classroom. Educational Technology, Reaseach adn Development , 51 (3), 23-44.