Changing Horses in Midstream

So, life is getting in the way of my research. We just recently moved to a new house and my focus has been on packing and unpacking. I am keeping it together at school and doing a good job with my students. In fact, I’ve even been able to dismiss some of my students from intervention. But…my research, my reflective journaling, is not really happening. It’s just too much to keep up with.

I’m supposed to being doing research, though, and I’ve been making myself feel guilty because I’m not keeping up. I need to not worry about it because I have to do what will work best for me. If keeping up my reflective journaling isn’t helping me be a better teacher, then I can’t beat myself up over it. What to do?….

Several months ago, I was given 5 Chromebooks for my classroom. I felt it was really important to use this technology with my students. I didn’t want the Chromebooks just sitting there, so I needed to figure out how. I knew I wanted to do something with Google docs and Read & Write for Google. So, I put it all together, threw in a group of second graders, with a generous dose of my reading intervention program, and came up with a great idea, and my new focus.

To incorporate the use of Chromebooks and the reading intervention program, I designed graphic organizers in Google docs to use with each book the students read. The graphic organizers include questions that use explicit and implicit information from the texts. There is also a writing prompt that incorporates the learning target for the text.

I share the document with the students and they make a copy. When we are done reading the text, we work together on the document. At first, I needed to be very explicit in what I wanted the students to do, working on all the questions as a group. Gradually, I have been able to pull back my support and the students are able to complete the document with more independence.

The kids are really stepping up to this task. They look forward to using the Chromebooks. I have noticed that their answers to the questions are getting better — more thoughtful, and more words — as they are do this more. They are also becoming “experts” at Read & Write for Google, which is improving their self-confidence. A great outcome!

I learned two things out of all of this. First, you don’t have to be married to your first research idea. Things can, and do, change. Go with it! Second, it’s always a win when students learn something new and make it their own. Seeing my students grow is the best result I could hope for!