Do e-learning tools impact on student motivation and engagement within writing?
| The focus question Do e-learning tools impact on student motivation and engagement within writing? A large majority of students at St Andrews Middle School are writing well below the National Standard for Writing. Student achievement and engagement are low in many areas of the curriculum, especially writing. Over the next year we would like to look at the impact of e-learning tools on student motivation and engagement and see if these tools can increase motivation and engagement hence improving students writing levels. |
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| Participating Teachers Glen McKay, Candy Hart |
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STEP 1 – collect baseline data
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| STEP 2 Topic is currently the greatest motivating factor for students wanting to write. Some other motivators are: external rewards, getting good scores and students mood. A number have no response to what motivates them to want to write. ICT at this time, still does not impact on students motivation. Google Docs, Student Writing & FeedbackHow Does One Use ICT to Motivate Students? Find professional readings around topic and add to VLN. |
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| STEP 3 Our focus for Term 2 is Narrative writing. To increase motivation and engagement we will specifically plan to use several e-learning tools to deliver our programme. These tools are:
Both classes will also use IWB each lesson to model writing, provide shared learning experiences and how to use the different tools. Writing fun is an interactive website which can be used for modelling and showing exemplars of good writing. Students can easily see what is required for different genres and see many examples and planning templates. Google Docs will be used for drafting and collaboration with the teacher. Story Jumper and Bookr are both presentation tools where students can create online e-books using a variety of images that are either supplied or imported from flikr. You Tube is where students presented their final copies for others to see - creating that real life audience. Room 1 Notes Using Google Docs for drafting has allowed students to get feedback more readily. I trialed a colour coding system that had previously been used by another teacher, to show students where they had met the writing criteria or where they needed to rethink a part of their text. Students initially did not respond to this, so I also left specific notes for reflection Room 3 Notes Writingfun has been an excellent motivation and teaching tool. We created a class warm up based on one of the examples called a 6 sentence story. Just using that has motivated some students to write more in the 20 minute time frame then they normally would during an entire lesson. Students have been really engaged with story jumper. Several students who do not like writing and do not normally write much have not been off the computer. One boy has written 3 stories during his own time using story jumper and was the first finished in class. We had a few problems getting them into our e-portfolios but worked around that. Students have also used their cell phones to record their voice. Examples of student stories: Room 1 http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/?id=28720 http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/?id=28721 Room 3 http://youtu.be/AbnAfJ95bm8 http://youtu.be/faXaAKN4ThU http://youtu.be/tbAiPiSn4zE At the beginning of term three we carried out our survey again. The responses were relatively the same. The main area of motivation is still topic. ICT has become a motivating factor for approximately 10% more students then when we first surveyed them. The largest shift however was with kids intrinsic motivation. Students know they are not achieving where they should be and are now articulating this and want to make shifts in their learning. Student Achievement Data Room 1 - 56% of Y7 males are at or below 2P Room 1 - 50% of Y8 males are at or below 2A Room 1 - 57% of Y7 females are at or below 2P Room 1 - 75% of Y8 females are at or below 2A Room 3 - 100% of Y7 males are at or below 2P Room 3 - 71% of Y8 males are at or below 2A Room 3 - 17% of Y7 females are at or below 2P Room 3 - 50% of Y8 females are at or below 2A There may not be a large increase in the number of students moving above 2P or 2A however there has been a noticeable shift. Year 7’s in Room 1 have shifted at least 1 sub level and 50% of Year 8’s have shifted at least 1 sub level. In Room 3 70% of Year 7’s have shifted at least 1 sub level and 83% of Year 8’s have shifted at least 1 sub level. For term 3 we will be teaching instructional writing to start with. As a result of our data we will work with the students on coming up with motivational and relevant topics to motivate them to write. We will also include e-learning tools however feel topic is more relevant now. For instructional writing we will be using two units which we feel will provide motivation for the students. The first is a PE unit called ‘Let the Games Begin’ and the second is a technology unit called ‘Making fermented drinks’. These topics are purposeful and authentic. We will plan to use a variety of tools for drafting and publishing work. Room 1 will use PREZI to present their work and Room 3 will create their own websites using weebly. We will also incorporate the use of video and photos taken by the students and the teacher into their finished publications. At the conclusion of the units we will reassess where students are at with their writing. Examples of student websites: Room 1 Room 3 http://yogiandbooboosfizzyodrinks.weebly.com/ http://rockinggingerdrinks.weebly.com/ http://tatreats.weebly.com/ |
