My kindergarten students come into my
classroom with a short attention span. Part of our curriculum towards the
middle of the year requires us to have our students sit and write for 30-45
minutes on their own. Even with guidance, many children have a difficult time staying
engaged in their writing for this amount of time. Using Schlechty’s Design
Quality of “Novelty and Variety” I would like to find ways to increase my
students’ engagement in writing. I would like to incorporate technology aspects
into the “Novelty and Variety” to meet the technology standards.
References
Schlechty Center. (2009). Schlechty Center. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://www.schlechtycenter.org/tools/free
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Action Planning Template
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Goal: Increase student engagement through
the use of “Novelty and Variety” during writing time.
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Action Steps(s):
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Person(s) Responsible:
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Timeline: Start/End
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Needed Resources
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Evaluation
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Assess student engagement
during traditional writing time
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Katie Gould
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November 2013- January
2014
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Spreadsheet to track
student engagement
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Results from tracking
student engagement
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Research ways to add “Novelty
and Variety” to writing time
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Katie Gould
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November 2013-January
2014
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Internet resources,
books, conversations with others, other resources I find on the topic
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List of ways to
increase “Novelty and Variety” to writing time
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Implement new ways to
add “Novelty and Variety” to writing time
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Katie Gould
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January 2014-June 2014
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iPad, computers, and
other materials I find from my previous research
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Keep documentation of
the ways I try to add “Novelty and Variety”
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Assess student engagement
during writing time with “Novelty and Variety”
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Katie Gould
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January 2014-June 2014
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Spreadsheet to track
student engagement
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Results from tracking
student engagement
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Compare assessment of
student engagement from traditional writing time to “Novelty and Variety”
writing time
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Katie Gould
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June 2014-August 2014
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Spreadsheets with
student engagement information
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Draw conclusions from
comparing spreadsheets and post results of action research plan
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Share results with
others including site supervisor
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Katie Gould
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August 2014-September
2014
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Results of action
research plan and graphs or documents
to back up the results
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Final document or
product to share results
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Katie- looks so detailed! Awesome- one question: when you say assess engagement, how do you plan on doing this? I think that is great that you included a section for sharing your results as this is just as important as the implementation of the plan. Your plan is going to ROCK!!
ReplyDeleteI like your topic and timeline. You've given yourself more than enough time to do thorough research.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree your plan is good. A way to assess in engagement, you could have your antidotal notes or maybe make a way to test with two different classroom with those variables. I would like to read your paper. - M. Chaisson
ReplyDeleteI think that will be a good plan. You've spread it out enough and I don't think it will be too much. I think you might have to be more specific on how you're going to assess them, but maybe that comes a little later. I like that your plan is straightforward.
ReplyDeleteWow! You are so organized!
ReplyDeleteI agree on the assessment questioning. What do you have in mind on assessments? Will it be mainly documented on anecdotal records?
I look forward to seeing more!
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to track the results. I might keep a clipboard with each student's name and record the number of times I have to give them reminders to stay on task or do their work. I can then compare those numbers to the numbers when I add in a variety of activities to writing time. I also may take a student survey and ask about how they like the writing time. I wouldn't do that everyday, but maybe once a week or so and get the student opinions added into my results.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all the feedback! I really appreciate it!
That looks good to me.I haven't started mine yet so I will use yours as some guidance. It does look pretty easy to tackle now! Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteVery organized, detailed & easy to follow. Looks like you are definitely on the right track!
ReplyDeleteKatie, I like your idea. I have a question though? You might tackle it in your paper at some point. 45 minutes seems pretty long for kinder. Would this involve more than one writing activity or drawings? Are you going to use your reflective journal in this process? Will you be seeking out any other literature to explore how other schools/teachers have accomplished this. I think it is a great assignment and having 3rd graders that still have challenges with this will be interesting to note your success.
ReplyDeleteThis looks great! Very well thought out and planned. I like that your resources include collaboration and conversations with colleagues.
ReplyDeleteI teach 5th grade so I can only imagine what it must be like to keep kindergarten students on task. Could you possibly track "words written per session" as a way to assess engagement? Perhaps track the length of journal entries? You could justify engagement and its correlation to words written.
ReplyDeleteKatie this is very impressive. How / what procedures will you have to go through with your school / administration to have permission to assess new methodology on students? One of the possible action research topics I was investigating was discouraged by my site supervisor. Will you be providing the parents with disclosure? You may consider googling "informed consent" and read up on the particulars for minors. Good luck on your action research plan!
ReplyDeleteI also teach kindergarten with the goal of 30 minutes of writing daily. I wonder if you could start the implementation before January. Having only half of the year to implement a plan might not be long enough.
ReplyDeleteI commented on the discussion board, but also, I was wondering if you could subdivide the research into the different types of technology the students are using. Maybe some might work longer on a desktop, or a laptop, or an ipad? Just a thought....not that I want to add any work to your study! :)
ReplyDelete