I. Introduction
The following is the Final Evaluation of the project Integrating Technology into a Language Arts Program. This project consisted of eleven lesson plans with various types of technology integrated into them. Each plan was to be a daily lesson beginning with the first day of school, Lesson Plan #1. This Formative Evaluation is more than the acceptance or rejection of any particular lessons, but rather, it identifies areas in need of revision and has enabled qualitative changes to be made as needed. The expectations for technological change in the classroom and throughout the school for the coming year can be seen through the stated goals involving both technology and the instructional curriculum being used. The project's overall goal was to develop a Language Arts Program through which all available resources in the area of technology would be used to help enhance the program. The Language Arts Program, Houghton Mifflin, is being used. The development of the lessons in Unit 1 can be seen along with the technology that was integrated into them. The lessons enable the teachers to give students the most up to date level of instruction available. Added to this instructional unit as a new component were some of the standards and benchmarks that have been set by Springfield Public School District 186 for kindergarten. These standards and benchmarks are noted throughout the lesson plans. In the lesson plans, the reader will see abbreviations like this: (K.1.A.) this means that this is a kindergarten benchmark and it is Goal number 1, learning standard A.
II. Project Components
III. Summary of the Evaluation - Findings:
This evaluation process has increased my knowledge, motivation, and enthusiasm for teaching Language Arts. It has also helped me deal with some of the frustrations teachers have to deal with in the learning process itself. Technology has helped in making it easier for the me to pull the children that need work in certain areas and allow the rest of the class to work on other things. Those who already had skills mastered could also be pulled easily for enrichment activities.
This Formative Evaluation has lead to a better understanding of the effects of integrating technology into a Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum. In doing so it has improved the effectiveness of the technology used. Changes were able to be made as they were needed. In most attempts to integrate technology, flexibility was an important factor. Revisions were made almost daily because of unforeseen obstacles. As different forms of technology were integrated into the program, appropriate modifications had to be made for some lessons. Since the start of the project, and as I continued to enhance my Language Arts Curriculum with technology, my perceptions of technological change in the classroom/school are changing. I will keep in mind that the development of this program, as well as its evaluation, must be a continuous process.
IV. Conclusions and Recommendations:
The proposed activities in this Language Arts unit have advanced the knowledge and understanding of technology as well as the students' reading and readiness skills. Their computer skills and general knowledge have improved rapidly. There are 13 children who now know all of their letters and most of the letter sounds. There are 5 children who can recognize about half of the letters and 3 students that are still struggling. All of the students can identify the front cover of a book, the title page, and the back cover. All but 2 of the students can tell what the author and the illustrator of a book do, and many are writing on their own.
Once this first unit had ended, a Summative Evaluation started to fall into place. Plans to look at what had been done throughout the first unit and the changes and adjustments that were made helped to formulate some summinative thoughts and lead to continuous integration of technology in a variety of ways. This cycle of evaluating, planning, and trying new things out, have helped in making both more deliberate and slightly more formal changes in many areas of learning for both the students and the teachers. As I continue to use technology to enhance the Language Arts Curriculum, the development of the evaluation process will also continue.
Our District Tech person has directed 2 days of training for all of the teachers in our school. On the first day of training our class e-mail box was set up, she went through KidPix Extras, and then showed us how to use photographs from a disk and put them into text. The second day of training was geared to becoming familiar with and working with the Internet. The teachers seem very excited by the technology and through the e-mail activities that we will be doing and our school wide Internet project the students enthusiasm will continue to keep grow the use of technology does. Once the teachers have had more exposure to the Internet then we will start the "SOAR into Cyberspace" program.
V. Evaluator's Comments:
Integrating technology to help meet the educational needs of students, no matter what level they were at was the primary focus of this project. To accomplish this the teacher engaged in the use of technology. The effectiveness can be seen through the fulfilled goals and objectives and the guided participation that has taken place. More collaboration in the classrooms and more collaborative learning among students and teachers has been stimulated. The use of technology did developed and emerged as planned and definitely has enhanced the Language Arts Curriculum. The students ePortfolios show the steady progress they are making in the areas of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. As can be seen by the chart below, technology continues to be a guiding force in the instruction of Language Arts in my kindergarten classroom.
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Computer and printer in the classroom and a Computer Lab with |
In the room daily, Computer Lab - 3 times a week for 45 minutes and once a week for 60 minutes with 4th grade friends |
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QuickCam |
Pictures from the first week of school. |
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Digital Camera |
Pictures taken with Amy's Dad's camera. |
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Video Camera |
A video camera is used occasionally add the film will be used to make a class video at the end of the year. |
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L-TV hook up |
This hook up enables the whole class or a group of people to view what is on the computer screen. |
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Television |
The t.v. along with the L-TV hook up provides an easy way to do whole class instruction using the computer. |
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Tape recorder and head phones |
Listening Centers |
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Scanner |
Checklist, Charts and papers for the students' ePortfolios |
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Projects: |
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E-mail / Keypals |
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Internet Exploration |
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4th Grade friend project |
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Class Stories |
Friends / Rainbow Troll / Boo the Ghost / |
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SlideShows - Videos |
I Like... / Faces / |
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Class Easy Books |
Kindergarten 's Book of ABC / Clifford the Big Red Dog / How To Cook A Turkey / |
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Class Big Books |
ABC and US / Faces / I Like... / On Thursday When We Started School / Kindergarten 's Book of ABC |
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Free Time Activities |
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ePortfolio info., Conference Checklist, Self Portrait, Gold Medal Checklist |
These will be two of the first programs that the
students will be introduced to and they will be used
regularly throughout the year. Drawing, writing, and creating interactive
pictures. Book layout, including a cover and a title
page. Writing a story including and identifying the parts of
a book. This program will be used for free play at first and
letter exploration. It will help the students to become
familiar with letters and for those who know some words
(such as their name, mom, dad ect...) they can already begin
writing. Creative writing for both the individual student as
well as the whole class can be done with this
program. Signs, banners and cards are just a few of the things
that can be created using this. Creative writing for both the individual student as
well as the whole class can be done with this
program. This is an interactive reading journey that helps
teach basic reading skills through games. Letter, word, and sentence recognition Living
Books: Green Eggs and Ham and Dr. Seuss's
ABC The CD-ROMs read through these popular story using
animation on the computer. Letter, word, and sentence recognition Discis Books: The CD-ROMs include special theme stories Letter, word, and sentence recognition Accelerated Reading: Students that can read on their own we will begin the
Accelerated Reader Software (AR1). AR is an enrichment reading program in which the
students read books at their own level and then take test on
the computer to check for comprehension. These programs give the students the freedom and the
opportunity to explore technology. The students not only learn how to get into programs
and how to exit programs, but the also learn simple
commands.
VI. Concerns:
At the present time, the main concern I have is with the AUP that our district has in place. I don't think that it is as detailed as it should be. It doesn't seem to be a concern to anyone. No one has had to sign it let alone read it! I have put together a sample AUP for Ridgely School and would like to see something similar to this used as we continue to move forward in our use of technology.
