The first observation I completed in Mrs. Smith’s room was early on a Monday morning. I observed during the reading block and was able to see students as they worked independently on iPads. I also observed a brainstorming activity the students completed to prepare for their PBL presentation. I found it important to pay attention to this part of the lesson because, although it was not directly related to iPads, it was part of the process of a bigger technology project. Two other teacher-led small groups were conducted during this time for a total of three rotations with transitions in between each group. There were two teachers in the room, the classroom teacher, Mrs. Smith, and the reading interventionist. Each teacher worked with all students during the small group instruction. The classroom teacher completed
instruction on sight words and read a book chorally with all three groups. In addition, with the last two groups, she completed a word web activity on famous places in West Virginia in preparation for the PBL activity they completed later in the day.
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Each student had a chance to work independently, the independent group, with an iPad on an app called Smarty Ants, an online reading program that differentiated learning and provided individual practice with reading skills. Mrs. Smith explained that it was a county required program used during reading instruction that allowed the teacher to work with small groups, while other students used iPads to work on reading skills based on their individual needs. Students completed an initial assessment, and the program adapted the instruction based on student performance. She had access to a teacher dashboard that provided reports on usage, current data, and information on each student’s progress in the program. Mrs. Smith expressed her appreciation for the reports because she was able to immediately see what the child did, knew they worked on something that would increase their reading skills, which let her focus on the small group instruction. This immediate feedback was beneficial for all of her students. She also said the students enjoyed the program, which helped to keep them on task, and caused fewer interruptions during reading groups.
When I walked in the room there were 16 students (eight boys and eight girls) on the rug in front of the SMART Board. Mrs. Smith told the students what they were expected to do at each station and who was in each group, then dismissed them from the carpet. It took
approximately two minutes for the students to get settled in their groups. The reading interventionist sat at the kidney-shaped table with five students, and the teacher sat in the rocking chair with five students on the rug in front of her. The remaining six students were the independent group.
The teacher first reviewed flashcards with sight word phrases, then had the students partner-read a decodable reader. The interventionist worked on words that had the “th” sound. Students read words with “th,” decided if the sounds were at the beginning, middle, or end of
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the word, then cut out the words and glued them under the correct category in a journal. I focused on the independent group that used iPads.
Before the students in the independent group came to the back area of the room, they went near the hallway door and got an iPad and headphones from the shelf. The headphones were in large baggies with their names on them. The iPads were in tubs next to the headphones. There was not a specific iPad assigned to each child. Later, in a discussion with Mrs. Smith, I found out that she did not have a specific iPad assigned to each student, but had enough for everyone in her class. Her class set consisted of two different types of iPads: iPad Minis and iPad Pros. The iPad Minis were older and some programs did not run on them. She felt it would be unfair to assign an iPad to each student because those that had the iPad Mini would not have the same access to all of the programs.
The students got the iPads and headphones and found spots around the room. Three students went to the sitting area in front of the windows and the other three found a spot on the back rug near the outside door. They moved around throughout the observation between the rug, sitting area, and the tables. Each student accessed Smarty Ants. They had to login, and a few of them looked to the front of the room where there was a large paper with the username and password. Two of the six students had difficulty logging in, which caused them to begin a few minutes after the other four students.
Throughout the time I observed, there was not a lot of interaction because it was independent work and the students had headphones on, so I took time to sit near each of the students and watched what they did on the program. One reflection I made in my notes was that each child was doing something different. A girl with short, curly brown hair played a race game with “dge” words. The program would say a word and show three different words, she
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tapped the correct word and the character jumped over a hurdle. A girl with blonde hair played a car racing game with words that had “y.” A boy with short brown hair cashed in tickets and bought things for his avatar. There was a girl with long brown hair that read a story out loud. This did not seem to distract the other students since they each had headphones. A boy with brown hair played a game that had him restructuring sentences with “dle” and “tle” words, putting the words in the correct order. The final student in this group, a boy with short, curly black hair, played a bike race game where he practiced recognizing syllables.
The interactions between the students in this group consisted of showing each other the rewards they earned, talking about the changes they made to their avatar, and showing their peers a trophy if they earned one. During this first rotation, the students did not walk up to the teacher or the reading interventionist to ask questions. This rotation lasted approximately 13 minutes. Mrs. Smith rang chimes and indicated it was time to switch groups. The group on the carpet moved to the independent group, the group with the reading interventionist came to Mrs. Smith, and the independent group put the iPads back in the tub, placed their headphones in the baggie with their name, and came to the reading interventionist. The total time for this transition was approximately two minutes.
During the second and third rotations, I noticed Mrs. Smith did the sight word phrase flashcards with the students, but then had a discussion about the West Virginia word web that was on the easel. The students generated a word web of popular locations in West Virginia. They used the words when they created a presentation in Pages for their West Virginia PBL. Later, I asked Mrs. Smith why she did not do this with the first group. She said the first group was the only group that completed this activity the previous day. It was important for her to finish the word web because the students were supposed to start work on the PBL later that day.
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The reading interventionist completed the same word journal activity with the other groups, but each group made different progress and she provided a different amount of support. The first group needed more examples from the teacher, and she had them do the first two words together, which caused them not to complete the lesson. She also told them not to use the glue until she checked their journal. The last two groups she provided fewer examples and each of those groups finished their journal entry.
The last two independent groups were similar to the first as far as the types of Smarty Ants activities they played. The skills were different for each student, with only a few of the same skills worked on during the rotation. In the second rotation, a brown-haired girl read a story titled Houndsley and Cantina. She read the story out loud, but once again, the other students in the room did not seem to be distracted by this. One boy worked on a story about families that had follow-up questions he answered. There was a girl with light brown hair that read the Houndsley and Cantina story, but she was further ahead than the first girl. She went to the program store and used her tickets to buy new clothes for her avatar. During this rotation, Mrs. Smith stopped her teaching to redirect two boys because they were not doing their work. After approximately 16 minutes, Mrs. Smith sounded the chimes and indicated it was time to change groups. This transition took approximately three minutes. Each group moved to the station they had not visited, while the previous and current independent groups returned or got their iPads and headphones.
While Mrs. Smith and the reading interventionist resumed their instruction, the independent group during this rotation was not as “on-task” as the other two groups. Three of the five students got right to work on Smarty Ants, but two of the students were distracted. One boy did not login to the reading program, but logged in to a program called Accelerated Reader
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(AR). This program featured quizzes on books students read to earn points. It also kept track of the amount of points earned. The school provided rewards for students when they reached their grade-level goal. Speaking with Mrs. Smith, I found out an AR party would be the following Wednesday, but many of her students had not reached their goal. There was a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes that tried to strike up a conversation with me. She asked me why I was there, how old I was, and whether or not I played Smarty Ants when I was a kid. I attempted to redirect her, but she followed me around the room. Mrs. Smith noticed her
following and told her to find a spot away from everyone. She sat at a student desk and tried to login. She was unsuccessful, and during the first five minutes of the rotation, she interrupted Mrs. Smith three times to ask for assistance. Once she finally got into the program, her attention was on the other students. She did very little work during the rotation. I overheard Mrs. Smith at the end of the group time tell her she would look at how much she finished today. She reminded her that when it was independent group time, she was supposed to stay in her own area away from others. She could move around the room, but had to be away from the other students.
The final rotation took approximately 18 minutes. The additional time on the last two groups was caused by the extra task of completing the word web. When Mrs. Smith sounded the chimes, the students immediately cleaned up their area by putting away the journals, scissors, glue, headphones, and iPads. This transition took approximately four minutes; then the students joined Mrs. Smith on the carpet and my observation ended.
Observation 2: Mrs. Smith
My next visit to Mrs. Smith’s room was on a Tuesday, later in the morning right before lunch. There were 16 students present during the observation, eight boys and eight girls; along with two adults, the classroom teacher and the reading interventionist. I observed another
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reading lesson that was in the small group format. Throughout the observation the students used the SMART Board, iPads, an app called Popplet (to be described later), and an online portfolio app called Seesaw. The students were split into small groups for three different stations, one independent group on the iPads worked on Smarty Ants, one station worked with the reading interventionist at the kidney-shaped table, and one station was on the carpet with Mrs. Smith where they researched different aspects of West Virginia and created a Popplet. My focus for this observation was on the group working with Mrs. Smith.
When I arrived, the class transitioned from independent work at their desks to whole group on the carpet. Mrs. Smith told the students that they had worked so hard they deserved a brain break. She displayed a GoNoodle video on the SMART Board. GoNoodle was a free online program that had purposeful movement activities, lasting only a few minutes. The videos gave the students a chance to release energy during transitions. The students followed along with planned movements to contemporary music. It was engaging and visually appealing. The program tracked the amount of movement students completed and gave the class points as a source of motivation. The total time for the brain break was approximately three minutes. Then, the students sat to receive the next set of directions.
Mrs. Smith explained the expectations for small reading groups: one group worked with the iPad completing Smarty Ants lessons independently, one group was with the reading
interventionist and worked on their West Virginia books, and one group worked with her on the carpet. She named the six students in the independent group, and they went directly to the bins that had iPads. Next, Mrs. Smith dismissed the four students for the reading interventionist group. The remaining six students stayed on the carpet. The students moved to their designated groups and began to work, which took approximately two minutes.
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Mrs. Smith explained the lesson would be to create a Popplet, which showed what they learned about West Virginia in their research. Popplet was an app that acted as a graphic organizer where students created a visual representation of a subject they learned about. It was similar to a word web and was created using photos, drawings, text, and/or video. The students created the web by adding what is called a popple (a box) and then connecting additional popples and organizing them in a way that visually represented how they were related. Mrs. Smith explained that once they finished their Popplet, they would upload it to Seesaw. Seesaw was an online portfolio and communication tool used to organize the students’ work. It was the way students kept a record of their learning and showed growth throughout the year. The Popplet they created during this observation was on famous places and representations of West Virginia.
Mrs. Smith gave directions about how to create a Popplet. This was the first time they used the app, so she did not hand out the iPads at the beginning. She went through the steps of how to create it and what they were expected to add. The only directions about what they had to add was the first popple, which was a picture of the West Virginia state seal. This would be the main popple that the students would use to make a connection to famous places in West
Virginia, well-known people, and the state symbols. When Mrs. Smith felt the students had a good grasp on the app, she handed out the iPads. The students got right to work and found the Popplet icon. Around the carpet area were resources for the students to find pictures: a map of West Virginia that showed the 55 counties and different objects that represented each,
magazines about West Virginia, and posters that displayed the state symbols. The students used the resources provided, taking pictures of different representations of West Virginia, and adding them into their presentations. For the most part, they needed very little direction during their
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work time. There was one girl who had a hard time adding photos to the popple. Mrs. Smith walked around to monitor the students, and stopped to help her. During this time she also
showed individual students how they could write on their Popplet. As the students finished, they uploaded their work to Seesaw, then checked with Mrs. Smith to make sure she received it.
This rotation lasted approximately 25 minutes and was the only one I observed for the day because the students cleaned up and got ready for lunch. After the students went to lunch, Mrs. Smith said she tried to see each group every day, or at least two groups each day, but this was the first time they used the Popplet app and so she needed extra time to explain how the app worked and to allow for the students to get familiar with it. She would see the other groups throughout the week. I asked her if she was concerned about the progress the independent group made for the day, she stated that she would look at the usage and progress reports available to her to see what those students accomplished. If there was a student that did not have any usage or had difficulty with the lessons, she would pull them aside and talk to them about why they had difficulty. She said this lets the student know that she monitored what they did when they were not with her. Since it was later in the year, the students recognized this. She usually did not have many that were not productive when they used Smarty Ants.
Observation 3: Mrs. Smith
My final observation of Mrs. Smith occurred on a Wednesday afternoon. All of the students were present, eight boys and eight girls. There were two teachers in the room, Mrs. Smith and a math interventionist. My time was spent watching a math lesson conducted in two groups. The technology used during this time was the iPad: the camera roll, Seesaw, and ST Math. ST Math was an online program similar to Smarty Ants in that students used it to work independently during small group rotation. The activities were set up as puzzles that gave
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students visual representations of math concepts with a character named JiJi. JiJi was a penguin