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What inspired this project?  

When I reflect on what my inspiration was to begin my project, I can say it was a multitude of things. First of all, I was inspired to achieve a dream similar to that of my parents that immigrated to this country from Greece. Their dream was to come to this country, work hard, and have a comfortable life for their family. I guess that was my first thought, that a master in education can help further my career for a more comfortable or affordable life. But then it grew to be something bigger. Having a master's degree is something that no-one in my family has ever even attempted. Being the first born in this country also posed a challenge that I was prepared to take. I saw myself in many of my students and nephews, and wanted to show this young generation, that anything is achievable when you persevere. 

I selected my initial driving question because I wanted to see if setting reading goals on a digital platform could help increase reading comprehension. The idea was that goal setting on a digital platform could possibly correlate with increasing comprehension in reading.  Therefore, creating reading goals on a digital platform could help increase the chances of students obtaining a higher reading comprehension. My findings proved that whether goals are set digitally or on paper, students still were able to increase there reading goal by monitoring as they continued to try to achieve their goal.

Then I adjusted my question to closely look at the impact of how reading through digital platforms can help support reading comprehension and fluency. Students are spending a lot more time reading online in various formats, how can we ensure that students are able to clarify, comprehend text, and understand what they are reading? In addition, my school just adopted a new reading program called Benchmarks, which is in the second year of adoption for the district. This new reading program has the digital platform components of texts, and I was able to use it in the class to support the needs of the students.
 
To find out more about my research results, select the research link.
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Action Research Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore how students can set their own learning goals in elementary school and increase their comprehension and achieve their goals. In this study, the focus is on the effects of goal-setting and tracking on reading comprehension when using 21st century skills and technology. This will be a mixed-method research study with both quantitative data (tests and student tracked data), and qualitative data (student reflections) in a quasi-experimental design. Two separate classes of the same reading level and similar student demographics will participate. One group was randomly selected to be the control group. They will participate in creating, tracking, and analyzing goals through the use of an online google classroom. Using the 21st century skills as a framework, students will use collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking.


Blog

If you want to learn more about my journey, thoughts, and inspiration, select the image to link to my blog.
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Research
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Design Process
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Support and Next Steps