Virtual Teaching, Virtual Research…but I Found More Resources!
No one could have seen this coming, but who said action research was predictable?
When I created my research question [What are the potential barriers for students with learning differences to access primary source documents in the history classroom?] and began perusing the existing research, I knew that technology would play a role in my research but I didn’t know it would become a central variable of study.
Due to the global pandemic, my school has taken the approach of virtual, synchronous classes. This new set-up allowed me to collect my data in two formats: half of my student checklists were collected during in-person classroom teaching and half during virtual teaching.
Being forced to teach remotely also forced me to reconsider some of my teaching methods. While I had been a proponent for primarily low tech solutions in the past, now that all instruction is online, I have warmed up to a few new tools. I began using Newsela for more of my readings and Pear Deck to facilitate student engagement with primary sources. While I haven’t used them yet, I see a lot of potential for Common Lit and Stanford History Education Group resources in the coming school year. Both feature primary source documents at targeted reading levels, but without the feature of adjusting reading levels in real time, like Newsela.
My initial research seemed to reveal a dearth of resources for reading leveled primary sources, and now that I have been forced online, I have discovered more than I expected. I’m glad to find these exist!
I’m now in the process of completing data collection and beginning my analysis. While I haven’t crunched the numbers yet, initial student feedback indicates that giving them the ability to change levels can allow for more autonomy and agency when working with primary sources.
More to come soon! Follow my journey here on Medium and follow me on Twitter and follow through #setlab #educationscientist and #changebydesign.
