Student Success Through Choice & Tech Home Learn More Inspiration About the Author
|
|
The inspiration for my project came as a result of seeing a large portion of my English 9-10 students with failing grades.
For many, this was a result of low quiz and test scores, while for others, it stemmed from their lack of homework completion. In all cases, student motivation, drive, and interest played a major role. I wanted them to do better, so I began to look at what I could do better! Click here to see a voicethread presentation I created to describe this challenge. NOTE: You will need to click through the slides.
|
Research
Design Process
Support and Next Steps
|
demonstrating the public perception of the need to shift approaches in education. A plethora of sites, applications, and software programs have peppered the educational technology landscape in the past few years, enabling students to have more choice in what they learn, where they learn, how they learn, and how to demonstrate mastery of the learning in new ways. Educators and administrators around the country invest countless hours and excessive amounts of money each year searching for technology, building infrastructure, and implementing the latest effective strategies and techniques to help all students become successful, something they hope will carry over into the students’ adulthood. Try as they may to scaffold, frontload, and provide context for student learning, however, their efforts often do not reflect in the outcomes, be they informal daily assessments or high-stakes standardized test scores. Between 2011 and 2013, only 38% of American 12th graders achieved proficiency in reading, while even fewer, 27%, demonstrated proficiency in writing, according to the government site The Nation’s Report Card (2015). For students, with knowledge at their fingertips via the devices they carry, it is easier now than ever before to find the answers to the questions they are asked in school. Technology companies like Google have worked tirelessly to create tools catering to the field of education. In August of 2014, Google Classroom launched, allowing ease in collaboration among students and teachers, demonstrating the public perception of the need to shift approaches in education. A plethora of sites, applications, and software programs have peppered the educational technology landscape in the past few years, enabling students to have more choice in what they learn, where they learn, how they learn, and how to demonstrate mastery of the learning in new ways.
The need for this evolution in education came about, in part, as a result of feedback from industry professionals across the nation. Upon observing consistent patterns of ill-prepared university students and workers being churned out in the United States, in 2009 leaders among education, government, and the business world came together to begin changing policy around the kinds of skills students in America would need to master in order to successfully enter different realms of adult life, such as college and the workplace. Although educational standards have been in existence since the ‘90’s in America, the lack of unity and consistency in both content and determining student proficiency was evident once students moved on to establishments of higher learning and the job market, both on a national and international level.
Explained on the official National Governors Association site, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was established after discovering that American students were not skilled enough to obtain livable wage jobs; as a result, many higher paying jobs were left unfilled. In addition, analysis of test results showed that compared to other 15 year-old students in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries, American students came in 14th, 25th, and 17th in overall scores in reading, math, and science (Common Core State Standards 2012). Investigation into differing states’ standards revealed the seeming emphasis on content over skill, and from this, Common Core was born (Development Process, 2015). A major shift taking place with Common Core is the need for more depth of study into fewer concepts and thoughtful elaboration of evidence and support for claims, creating more rigorous tasks for students to complete. Literacy standards are now mandated to be covered by teachers across all subject matters, which means even greater demands being made on students, especially those who are already struggling to keep up.
With these new, higher demands being placed on students, it becomes necessary to hone in on their academic stamina and perseverance, and for some, these skills are noticeably lacking. Fostering motivation in students is critical if the U.S. education system is to ever overcome the problems with which it is plagued currently. Absenteeism rates among high schoolers are staggering. An ever-growing dropout rate, which EdSource’s Kathryn Baron (2013) points out in California alone was at 13.2% in 2011, and plummeting ranking among our international peers is causing a push to do things differently in education, domestically. This means taking a good look at the role students play in their own education. It is not enough for districts across the nation to employ highly qualified teachers; they must create ways to ensure that teachers and students work together toward learning goals and both groups continue to want to improve their own performances. It is a symbiotic relationship that needs to be examined on both ends.
In examining my own students' needs, many components needed to be considered before I could guide them to perform better. The SITE model asks educators to consider our students on the whole, determining how their sociocultural, informational, technical, and educational backgrounds impact their ability to perform. Above is a Bubbl.us diagram I made to represent the needs of my learners.
For my capstone project, I focused on students' educational subcontext, recognizing their need for more voice and choice in the kinds of assignments they complete and variety of ways in which they could demonstrate mastery of key concepts in English 9-10.
Explained on the official National Governors Association site, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was established after discovering that American students were not skilled enough to obtain livable wage jobs; as a result, many higher paying jobs were left unfilled. In addition, analysis of test results showed that compared to other 15 year-old students in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries, American students came in 14th, 25th, and 17th in overall scores in reading, math, and science (Common Core State Standards 2012). Investigation into differing states’ standards revealed the seeming emphasis on content over skill, and from this, Common Core was born (Development Process, 2015). A major shift taking place with Common Core is the need for more depth of study into fewer concepts and thoughtful elaboration of evidence and support for claims, creating more rigorous tasks for students to complete. Literacy standards are now mandated to be covered by teachers across all subject matters, which means even greater demands being made on students, especially those who are already struggling to keep up.
With these new, higher demands being placed on students, it becomes necessary to hone in on their academic stamina and perseverance, and for some, these skills are noticeably lacking. Fostering motivation in students is critical if the U.S. education system is to ever overcome the problems with which it is plagued currently. Absenteeism rates among high schoolers are staggering. An ever-growing dropout rate, which EdSource’s Kathryn Baron (2013) points out in California alone was at 13.2% in 2011, and plummeting ranking among our international peers is causing a push to do things differently in education, domestically. This means taking a good look at the role students play in their own education. It is not enough for districts across the nation to employ highly qualified teachers; they must create ways to ensure that teachers and students work together toward learning goals and both groups continue to want to improve their own performances. It is a symbiotic relationship that needs to be examined on both ends.
In examining my own students' needs, many components needed to be considered before I could guide them to perform better. The SITE model asks educators to consider our students on the whole, determining how their sociocultural, informational, technical, and educational backgrounds impact their ability to perform. Above is a Bubbl.us diagram I made to represent the needs of my learners.
For my capstone project, I focused on students' educational subcontext, recognizing their need for more voice and choice in the kinds of assignments they complete and variety of ways in which they could demonstrate mastery of key concepts in English 9-10.