Reflection of Implementation Plan

  I have completed my digital and multi-modal text plan that I shared in a November post. This post will be a reflection on this implementation in my 2nd grade classroom. I created my plan for a small group of four students that are identified as below-level readers. I have a link to a slide that reviews my student goals which of course are important and central to the whole plan, but I also had a goal for myself with this plan. I set out to integrate digital text into my classroom to support literacy learning with a small group of students. Overall my students and I learned a lot about animal habitats and some of their habits through reading of digital texts, and I learned an equal amount about supporting literacy learning while using digital and multi-modal text along with digital tools to help students create products to demonstrate their learning.

Student goals

 

Strengths and Weaknesses of the TPACK Format

Strengths

Weaknesses

goals, strategies, and assessments are chosen first appropriate places for technology support is considered next Evidence: By identifying the goals, strategies, and assessment before I decided where to add the use of technology, digital and multi-modal text was then a part of the unit and not the focus. I incorporated this plan around classroom routines and my Wonders curriculum tools. It supported student learning and is not the implementation of technology but rather use the affordance of technology to support student growth and build upon our traditional text and routines already in daily use in my classroom.

long-range plan self-expectations Evidence: When educators create a long-range plan it can be difficult to allow ourselves the grace to change it, but it’s important to remember that the instructional choices we make for students before, during, or after teaching are a tool that must be used. Our goal is to create opportunities for learning and growth to reach independent goals with our students. Therefore, I feel maybe writing a couple of lessons at a time may let our students be the directors of our teaching and not a written plan with several lessons that feel like an anchor to the unit. Due to the circumstance of the pandemic and my lack of knowledge about a digital story app being added to district devices created some necessary changes that I felt I needed to do to allow my students to successfully share their learning through the creation of their own product. Even though I planned ahead and thought I had downloaded an app to our classroom iPads I was unable to use it with my students and this led to my decision to use a Spark video which in the end still allowed my students to complete the project.

 

Students Examples

 

I have included my student work samples of both the stop and jot form the students used for note-taking and links to the final project. Their illustrations provide their knowledge about animal habitats while their writing provides knowledge learned about the animal’s habits and habitats. (Their are only three student projects due to the absence of my fourth student during this week.)

 

 Student 1                      Student 2                    Student 3

My Personal Learning While Supporting Digital & Multi-modal Literacies 

I grew tremendously throughout the implementation of my plan. I found that my students were highly engaged throughout the process. The digital tools that allowed for read-aloud, links to videos, and photographs were not only engaging but enhanced student learning. I worried that these may be distractions. Like any other lesson, there are things that will need to change to create the best outcome for my students. Previewing websites with the small group proved to be useful for later independent use of the same website. The students appreciated the read-aloud function of leveled text from Epic books. The text level was a bit higher than what I had used previously with this group, but I feel like since we previewed the story through the read-aloud it made reading the story easier for the students. The short YouTube video also provided much more detail to the student learning as it explored several animals and used a higher level of vocabulary that contributed to deeper learning. My next goal in supporting digital and multi-modal literacies in my classroom is to extend this opportunity to my lowest level readers and then to complete a guided personal digital inquiry. Next school year I would like to begin an overall implementation sooner so that we can complete an independent personal digital inquiry late in the school year.

 

What I Learned About Myself as a Teacher 

 

I learned that this is something I can do. Although, I have used technology to teach and in small portions, with my students, I had never really dived into completely supporting growth of literacy learning with new literacies. My technical skills are a work in progress and so the thought of that struggle while teaching in a classroom full of students was difficult for me. I’m not an expert, but my comfort level has grown and I know that continued growth will happen the more I experience and practice with my students. Like most things I have implemented in my classroom, this is done best in small pieces and does not have to happen all at once.

 

Suggestions for Implementation of Digital and Multi-modal Text

 

1. Find a format that fits best into your teaching style and classroom.

2. Plan ahead for every lesson. Know where and why you will use digital text.

3. Preview and practice using each digital resource so that you are familiar and confident with it.

4. Digital and multi-modal text should fit naturally into your classroom and what you are already doing with your students so that its purpose is obvious in supporting learning and achievement of goals.

5. Allow yourself plenty of time for long term implementation and grace to explore and make mistakes.