As our project comes to a close, we would like to reflect on, and summarize, our results and findings. At the beginning of our project, we created an assessment tool to evaluate our student's oral language skills. We captured audio recordings of our student's communication skills using the apps Draw and Tell and Explain Everything, to provide a baseline that we could refer back to later. Other apps were introduced to further engage and motivate our students to share their learning, thus further enhancing and developing their communication and thinking skills.
As we progressed through our project, we constantly referred back to our baseline recordings, in order to determine our student's growth and next steps. At the end of the project, we re-evaluated student work samples using our initial assessment tool. We found that most students showed significant growth and improvement in many of the identified skills. Students who initially scored a level one or two, now scored a two or three on our assessment rubric. Our direct instruction enabled our students to effectively share their thinking in a clear, organized way. What's more, our students' engagement improved tremendously, and for most of our students, their confidence also increased. For those students who's growth was not as significant, we realized as the year went on that there were other mitigating factors and learning issues that were roadblocks to their success. For example, some of these students were English language learners, while others had speech/communication disorders. Some had other diagnoses, such as Autism, while still others may not have been developmentally "ready." As we continue on our learning journey, we cannot help but wonder:
For now, we would like to thank all of the people who supported us along our journey. To the Ontario Teacher's Federation for the opportunity to engage in this project. To our colleagues for encouraging us and being interested in our project. To ETFO and the WRDSB for giving us an opportunity to share our project with other colleagues. Finally, thank you to our students, for always being open and excited to learn. For a complete description of our project, please refer to the OTF website, under Teacher Learning Co-Op.
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We were able to share our learning with our families and other educators in a variety of ways. In addition to our blog, we shared student work samples on our Twitter accounts as well as with our colleagues on a WRDSB online Kindergarten conference. We held an in-service for our colleagues, outlining our project, and shared the apps we used. Both classroom teachers and DECEs attended, and left with an understanding of how to use open-ended iPad apps to enhance student learning.
We were also fortunate enough to attend and present at the ETFO: Seeing, Engaging and Empowering the Learner conference, on April 1, 2017. Our presentation was two hours in length, and addressed and shared our learning with other Kindergarten educators from across the province. We also presented at the Digital Learning Symposium, to system leaders and colleagues held by the WRDSB, on the use of iPad apps to document student learning. Links to our presentation slides can be found under the 'Resources' tab of this blog. Through our sharing, we also inquired about our colleagues use of iPads in their own classrooms. We found that although the majority of our colleagues from across the province have access to several iPads in their classrooms, many of them were not used on a regular basis, or were not accessible for students to use to document their own learning. We also found that most of our colleagues were using iPads for their own documentation by taking pictures or videos, but were not always using the iPads in ways where the students could interact and create content with them. We also learned how some of our colleagues assumed that if students were practicing content-based skills (i.e., letter tracing, math facts), they were engaging with technology in meaningful ways. We noted, that although these kinds of apps serve their purpose in certain settings, we found these open-ended apps allowed for so much more collaboration, consolidation, and development of critical and creative thought. Several of those who attended our presentations appreciated the introduction of these apps and the student work samples showing how they were used in a variety of ways in our classrooms. Upon reflection, we found that by pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones and presenting to our colleagues, we solidified our own knowledge of our topic. Particularly, while working with those at the ETFO Kindergarten conference as they practiced using these apps, we were able to problem-solve, trouble-shoot, and collaborate alongside our colleagues. We found these experiences validated our work, yet also provided us opportunities to discover new ideas and wonderings about our research. |
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We are a group of Kindergarten educators in Ontario, Canada. Archives
May 2017
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