MRS+GASSON

 We've got an exciting year ahead with lots of IT learning opportunities to both challenge us and support our learning.

 **Teacher Inquiry**  At the start of this year, Mrs Hall and I identified a group of students in Room 5 who are achieving below average in the surface features area of writing. Of particular concern is applying their knowledge of spelling and punctuation to their writing.

 As a result of this and as a part of my professional development, I decided to investigate the impact, on student motivation, of completing proofreading tasks on laptops.

 **What is happening at present?**  Throughout Term One I have been teaching a punctuation/spelling skill as a whole class activity. This has included speech marks, pronouns, question marks, their/there and prepositions. The students have then completed a follow up task in their books.

 **What will I do?**  As well as continuing to teach spelling, punctuation, grammar and editing skills in the classroom, each Wednesday (1x per wk) students will proofread a short piece of writing using the computer.

 Each week, students will proofread a new piece of writing that contains 10 errors. As they identify an error, students write the correction in a different colour. At the end of the passage, or 10 mins, they write how many errors they have found.

 The passage of writing will be located on the school's intranet so students will be able to access it from any computer in the school.

 Here is an example passage.

 SAMPLE EDITING

**Read the following paragraph and correct any punctuation and spelling errors. Use red font to highlight the corrections you make eg. i said, No would be: I said, “ No ”. **  **There are 10 errors.**  **Save your work as your name, in the week 1 folder.**

my brother is so vain. Snow white’s grandmother has nothing on him. Every mirra mirror on the wall gets sam’s attention I wouldnt be surprised if 1 day, like the wicked stepmother’s, his bedroom mirror talks back to him like an old friend. Sam doesn’t have a lot of human friends. he’s to busy looking at himself.

<span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I found _ __errors__

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Timeline:** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> End of Term 1: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Identify sample group <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Photocopy of proofreading work from language book <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Proofreading sample (hand corrected) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Written passages saved onto intranet

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Term 2: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Week 1 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Teacher to introduce proofreading activities, where to find them and where/how to save them back onto the intranet. Model proofreading (with student's help) on the sample editing activity using the projector. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Student's complete editing activity week 1, in pairs.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Reflections: <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Using the projector to model the steps for logging onto the activities and working through an activity worked well with the students. I felt they were eager to follow the steps and participate in the proofreading because it was on the projector rather than a paper copy or OHT. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> I needed SMcM to set up my computer for me with the projector in her room. Some room for more practice there for me!

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Week 2-11 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Students complete proofreading tasks. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Teacher to record results of sample group.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Reflections: <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Week 1/2 - a little bit chaotic in terms of students getting onto computers. Ended up letting them complete the task in pairs so that the whole class could get through. Some problems with the intranet falling out part way through and students not being able to save (possibly too many on the intranet at a time?). I also had problems with the intranet when trying to get on to read them.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Week 3/4 - Given how long some students were taking and the fact that I wanted them to complete the tasks individually, I imposed a time limit of 10 minutes from when they opened the task. This had to be self monitored as some finished earlier and passed the computer on to the next person. Some students were very good at monitoring themselves and others not so much... I will give this a couple of weeks to see if they get better at it. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> When marking the tasks I found a few more things to consider:
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">not all were saved onto the intranet (despite the laptops being set up for this). So I set up Flynn as a 'go to' person if they needed help saving their work.
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Those students who were good at proofreading anyway, did a good job of finding and correcting all ten errors. Others either missed errors (mostly punctuation rather than spelling) or added in changes to make the error count up to ten. Possibly the fact that the text is not their own and therefore not authentic might be an issue....but how to get their own work onto the computer for them to proofread...? Something for me to ponder on.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Week 8 -As I only teach one day in Room 5, we are very limited to when we can complete the tasks ie no catch up day. We have also been carrying out a technology unit which has involved the students using the laptops to research, mind map, write up the different stages of their technological investigation. Due to the time limits around the technology task, I have prioritised the use of the computers for this use. Maybe catch up the proof reading tasks at the end of term?

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Week 9 - Idea: Look into their spelling results and add a spelling component to their computer activity (class? or home?, maybe www.spellingcity.com) If at home, students would need to record some reflections about how they find it. Still pondering how to get their work onto the computer.....will ask Nadine/Heath <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Decided to continue with whole class completing activity for this term in a 10 minute turn over.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> TABLE OF RESULTS FOR TERM 2

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> End of Term 2: I have decided to put the proofreading (on computers) on hold. Heath is looking into buying some itouchs which may improve the access component of my inquiry and make it easier for me as a facilitator to provide meaningful proofreading activities.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> In the meantime, I am going to introduce a new focus to my inquiry. Spelling is another (linked) area of concern for my sample group and with the introduction of National Standards for spelling ages, I am going to look into setting up an online spelling activity to be completed once a week in class (Wednesday) and be accessible at home. Two possibilities are www.spellingcity.com and ...

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Monitoring Progress and the impact, <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">on student motivation, of completing spelling tasks on laptops <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Collect initial data based on the essential lists (National Standards based). <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Keep data on students progress through weekly results based on essential lists (formative) and test at the end of Term 3 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Schonell Spelling Test end of Term 4.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Timeline -**

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Term 3** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Week 1** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Find out how students feel about themselves as spellers and what they already do to learn/recall spelling words. Do they think being able to practise their words online will positively effect their learning in this area? (easi speaks) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Collect spelling ages data based on the essential lists. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Look at appropriate lists for the students to learn. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Introduce online activites and show students how to access them at school and at home.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Spelling Levels (Essential Lists) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Week 9** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**This term the Essential Lists Spelling has been an independent activity for the students to complete at home. Students are supposed to have been retesting and moving levels over the term but this is not something I have monitored and as a result it hasn't happened. :(**

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Week 1:** As a whole class, we revisited our EL spelling results and the expectations for our ages/levels....We set a date Wednesday Week 4, T4) to retest and the class decided they wanted 15-30 minutes per lesson with me to learn their EL spelling words either on spelling city or another method of their choice.

In class time limited due to time with the laptops and student focus on animations rather than spelling. No other class time is available before the test date.
 * Week2:**

Week 4:

Week 9: RESULTS ANALYSIS

Only 2 students didn't move and each of those had less errors on the level than when tested in T3 18 students are now above the National Standards level for their year level. 2 are below the National Standards level for their year level. 5 students are working at the MS level appropriate for their year level.

In talking with the students they said: 11 chose to not use Spelling city at all (too easy) 10 used it sometimes 2 used it regularly

On a scale of 1-5 where 1 = not worthwhile and 5= very worthwhile, the student's ratings were: 1 2 3 4 5 3 students 6 students 3 students 2 students 3 students

The activities the students used the most/found the most helpful were: Testing Listen and spell Hang Mouse Sentences

The biggest complaint came from the top spellers who found it too easy.