Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Wicked Problem Project Part D

Findings and Implications
Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?
A problem that I was trying to work around in implementation of the project is that my classes follow a nine to ten week "marking period" schedule.  I get all new students four times per year.  The implementation part of our projects hit at the end of a marking period and was followed by a week-long spring break.  Key parts of my wicked problem project on Systematic Vocabulary Instruction were implemented as planned with some modifications due to time constraints. Specifically, I was able to:

  • Identify 50 crucial academic vocabulary terms for my subject area and grade level.
  • Invite two four-person teams of 8th grade teachers to join me in implementing technology infused instructional processes for teaching vocabulary in their subject areas.  These teachers represent science, social studies, math, and language arts curricular areas. Even though I invited them to join me in this effort, one of the four-person teams said they did not have the time in their instructional schedules to implement this plan.  The other team said they would like to try it at the beginning of the next marking period.
  • Use video or computer images to introduce academic vocabulary terms to students.
  • Have students begin to create electronic academic vocabulary notebooks. They created slides that defined 10 of the 50 technology terms in their own words and added a graphic to represent the word.
  • Involve students in games to reinforce the meaning of the words.
One part of the Systematic Vocabulary Instruction project that I did not implement at all was to have students revisit the slides they made and "add knowledge of the term" in the form of synonyms, antonyms, or additional pictures.  Another part of the project that I spent very little time on was in having the students "revisit the terms and discuss them with each other."

Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.
I saw evidence of success in implementing my wicked problem project on Systematic Vocabulary Instruction when observing:

  • Students electronic academic vocabulary slides including definitions they created for the terms and pictures they found or created to illustrate them.
  • Students informal discussions with each other of the meanings of words and why they illustrated them the way they did.
  • Accurate responses in the vocabulary games.

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you've learned here?
If I were approaching another project of this type, now that I have this experience, I would try to narrow my projects' scope and focus more.  Marzano has written a whole book (and sections of several others) on how to effectively teach academic vocabulary. I could have started specifically with vocabulary games and built my whole project on that topic. Marzano's approach is a multi-step approach though, and that is why I tackled the problem the way I did.

What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
Lessons learned in my vocabulary project that others might benefit from knowing about are all about making assumptions! First of all, do not assume that just because our students utilize technology frequently and on a daily basis, that they know the "language" of technology. Secondly, do not assume that just because you know how to play a game, that your students will also know about it. I would not have a clue where to begin to play the video game "Halo." Likewise, my students had no idea where to begin in "Password."

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
Things I will change include:

  • Incorporating threaded discussion into the initial classroom discussion when introducing new vocabulary for students' electronic notebooks.
  • Setting aside time for students to revisit their notebook so they can collaborate with classmates and so they can also "add to" their slides.
Marzano's approach to teaching academic vocabulary is current Best Practice and I think my integration of technology into the approach improves student learning, so I am committed to making my wicked problem project part of my regular curriculum.  This is the essence of TPACK.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Dawn,

    Your project is great. The project tackles two important educational issues within your school. Your solution to the wicked problem should definitely help to increase scores on the county wide technology assessment and also help the Reading School Improvement Team achieve their goals. You have approached the problem with a variety of technology integrated teaching strategies. Do you think your data will show which technology integrated strategy had the greatest impact on learning? It could be incredibly useful to isolate what strategy had the greatest impact so you could focus on using that strategy in future lessons.

    I know of a great web resource that you may find useful for teaching vocabulary to your students. The site is called Vocabahead: http://www.vocabahead.com/Default.aspx. You could use the site to engage your students in the process of building vocabulary videos similar to the videos on the site. Groups of students could be assigned to create a vocabulary video project and then upload their work to the website to share with others. This type of student centered project based learning could have a great impact on achieving your project goals.

    I really like the idea of using threaded discussions to engage the learners. You may also want to consider Edmodo as a resource to host the threaded discussions that will take place in your classroom.

    Best,
    Kevin

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  2. Dawn, I really liked how you had images on your podcast of your students. I think that you should definitely include that as part of your final presentation. One thing that struck me is that I got hung up on wondering what the 2 technology words were that your students didn't know during discussion that made you have your first 'surprise moment', it was unclear to me, I am going to relisten to the podcast--maybe I missed it? Maybe it's not important to include that part, however I did keep wondering it.

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  3. Dawn,
    After listening to the podcast again, I discovered that you did mention the two vocabulary words, sorry. I think that it is good how you have mentioned Marzano and think that your project was well thought out and you did well on reflecting on changes that you plan on implementing. I hope that this feedback is helpful.

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