Phase 1 Implementation
The focus for this first implementation revolved around the questions I had initially set for my action plan. How would my students’ sense of community, learning outcomes, engagement, and attitude toward learning a foreign language be affected if I allowed them to use technology to collaborate with each other for class assignments?
Collaborative Learning: Cooking Show
When I announced that I was going to give my students the opportunity to work in small groups and use technology for a project, they were eager to learn more about the details. In order to model for my students the type of project we would be doing, I turned to YouTube and played a few mini cooking shows with celebrity chefs like Rachael Ray and Emeril. When we finished watching the videos, I noticed that the energy in the room had risen substantially. Students immediately started pointing from across the room to claim their partners, and several students began announcing how excited they were to be able to create a cooking show. Once the initial wave of excitement had calmed down, I explained that one of the objectives of this project was to help them understand that while technology and social media are great for entertainment and staying connected with friends, technology and social media can also be used for collaborative learning purposes. I further explained that I wanted to give them an opportunity to not simply be consumers of online content, but creators of online content as well. I wanted to show them how to use technology and social media to collaborate and connect with each other in responsible, appropriate, and productive ways while putting into practice what we were learning in class. By doing so, my hope was that my students would be more deeply "engaged in the learning process", and that I would learn more about how allowing my students to use technology to work collaboratively would affect their levels of motivation as well as enable them to "learn faster" and "write more creatively" (Stepp-Greany, 2002).
Sharing and Community Building
I then pulled the cooking-show instructions up onto the Promethean Board along with the rubric, and I explained that the primary objective of the cooking-show project was for my students to demonstrate their ability to use the language from the unit in a real-life context. According to Stepp-Greany, by doing so, I was allowing my students to "build community" in terms of the way they would "connect through the learning process" (2002). Each group would need to either create or research a recipe, write out the step-by-step instructions, write a cooking-show script to demonstrate their ability to use the language from the unit in context, and finally create a presentation/video that showcased their ability to communicate in the context of their cooking show. I also explained that they would have the option of either doing a live performance in class or a video presentation that would be played for the class. According to Stepp-Greany, by doing so, I would be adding a layer of community to allow my students to "connect and share" what they had learned with their peers (2002). I also encouraged my students to bring samples of their dishes on presentation day so each student could experience each group's dish while watching each group's presentation. We would kick-off the project the very next day by organizing 10 groups per class (two to three students per group) and then heading over to the world-language computer lab.
Collaboration and Technology Days:
While my school is well equipped with technological appliances--Promethean Board, Docucam, and school-wide WiFi--we do not have the luxury of 1:1 devices. My plan was to allow my students to work on the department computers in the world language lab on our assigned day of the week (Wednesdays), and allow my students to use their smartphones during the last 20 minutes of class on Mondays and Fridays.
Student Engagement
During our first day in the lab, I was amazed at how engaged my students seemed to be as they hovered over their keyboards, searched the Internet for ideas, and skimmed through YouTube cooking shows and cooking tutorials. I also noticed that nearly all of my students were using Google Docs in their groups to brainstorm together and jot down ideas.
One student approached me and requested to work with a student from a different period, to which I replied, “absolutely!” I was deeply impressed by my students’ familiarity with and awareness of the unlimited nature of technology. I observed them as they easily navigated their way across the Internet and worked within their groups from different computers. This was in line with what I had learned from my initial needs assessment in terms of the tech-tools my students wanted to use towards collaborative learning, and this seemed to have a positive effect on their levels of engagement.
Collaborative- and Student-centered Learning
During each lab day, I noted that each group worked at a different pace. During a typical day, having so many groups working at such a varied pace might seem chaotic and challenging to manage; however, while in the computer lab, the progress of each group seemed to be completely unaffected by how quickly or slowly other groups around them were working. Allowing my students to work collaboratively seemed to enable them to be learners who were "taking charge of their own education" (Krueger, 2007).
I noted that students began splitting up the workload. While some team members researched recipes and worked on writing them in Spanish, others focused on taking notes from YouTube tutorials as they learned how to make the food and then write down the step-by-step instructions in Spanish. Each group seemed to pace itself at a rate that helped each team member remain focused and engaged.
Shifting my Role as the Teacher
One week after we had kicked off the project, my students were required to submit their rough drafts of all their work to me. Because I had access to my students’ recipes, step-by-step instructions, and cooking-show scripts on the Google Docs, I was able to leave commentary and feedback on the side of each script. However, on some evenings, even before the rough drafts were due, I would log in to the Google Docs to take note of the progress of each group. Each time I logged in, I found several groups working on their scripts, and I was able to provide feedback and commentary on the side as they typed. As I did so, my students began to ask questions, and I was able to provide guidance and feedback in real time. It was experiences like this one that made me feel that as I adopted a more student-centered and collaborative-learning approach, my role as the teacher was truly starting to shift from "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side" (Weinstein, 2007).
Collaborative Learning: Cooking Show
When I announced that I was going to give my students the opportunity to work in small groups and use technology for a project, they were eager to learn more about the details. In order to model for my students the type of project we would be doing, I turned to YouTube and played a few mini cooking shows with celebrity chefs like Rachael Ray and Emeril. When we finished watching the videos, I noticed that the energy in the room had risen substantially. Students immediately started pointing from across the room to claim their partners, and several students began announcing how excited they were to be able to create a cooking show. Once the initial wave of excitement had calmed down, I explained that one of the objectives of this project was to help them understand that while technology and social media are great for entertainment and staying connected with friends, technology and social media can also be used for collaborative learning purposes. I further explained that I wanted to give them an opportunity to not simply be consumers of online content, but creators of online content as well. I wanted to show them how to use technology and social media to collaborate and connect with each other in responsible, appropriate, and productive ways while putting into practice what we were learning in class. By doing so, my hope was that my students would be more deeply "engaged in the learning process", and that I would learn more about how allowing my students to use technology to work collaboratively would affect their levels of motivation as well as enable them to "learn faster" and "write more creatively" (Stepp-Greany, 2002).
Sharing and Community Building
I then pulled the cooking-show instructions up onto the Promethean Board along with the rubric, and I explained that the primary objective of the cooking-show project was for my students to demonstrate their ability to use the language from the unit in a real-life context. According to Stepp-Greany, by doing so, I was allowing my students to "build community" in terms of the way they would "connect through the learning process" (2002). Each group would need to either create or research a recipe, write out the step-by-step instructions, write a cooking-show script to demonstrate their ability to use the language from the unit in context, and finally create a presentation/video that showcased their ability to communicate in the context of their cooking show. I also explained that they would have the option of either doing a live performance in class or a video presentation that would be played for the class. According to Stepp-Greany, by doing so, I would be adding a layer of community to allow my students to "connect and share" what they had learned with their peers (2002). I also encouraged my students to bring samples of their dishes on presentation day so each student could experience each group's dish while watching each group's presentation. We would kick-off the project the very next day by organizing 10 groups per class (two to three students per group) and then heading over to the world-language computer lab.
Collaboration and Technology Days:
While my school is well equipped with technological appliances--Promethean Board, Docucam, and school-wide WiFi--we do not have the luxury of 1:1 devices. My plan was to allow my students to work on the department computers in the world language lab on our assigned day of the week (Wednesdays), and allow my students to use their smartphones during the last 20 minutes of class on Mondays and Fridays.
Student Engagement
During our first day in the lab, I was amazed at how engaged my students seemed to be as they hovered over their keyboards, searched the Internet for ideas, and skimmed through YouTube cooking shows and cooking tutorials. I also noticed that nearly all of my students were using Google Docs in their groups to brainstorm together and jot down ideas.
One student approached me and requested to work with a student from a different period, to which I replied, “absolutely!” I was deeply impressed by my students’ familiarity with and awareness of the unlimited nature of technology. I observed them as they easily navigated their way across the Internet and worked within their groups from different computers. This was in line with what I had learned from my initial needs assessment in terms of the tech-tools my students wanted to use towards collaborative learning, and this seemed to have a positive effect on their levels of engagement.
Collaborative- and Student-centered Learning
During each lab day, I noted that each group worked at a different pace. During a typical day, having so many groups working at such a varied pace might seem chaotic and challenging to manage; however, while in the computer lab, the progress of each group seemed to be completely unaffected by how quickly or slowly other groups around them were working. Allowing my students to work collaboratively seemed to enable them to be learners who were "taking charge of their own education" (Krueger, 2007).
I noted that students began splitting up the workload. While some team members researched recipes and worked on writing them in Spanish, others focused on taking notes from YouTube tutorials as they learned how to make the food and then write down the step-by-step instructions in Spanish. Each group seemed to pace itself at a rate that helped each team member remain focused and engaged.
Shifting my Role as the Teacher
One week after we had kicked off the project, my students were required to submit their rough drafts of all their work to me. Because I had access to my students’ recipes, step-by-step instructions, and cooking-show scripts on the Google Docs, I was able to leave commentary and feedback on the side of each script. However, on some evenings, even before the rough drafts were due, I would log in to the Google Docs to take note of the progress of each group. Each time I logged in, I found several groups working on their scripts, and I was able to provide feedback and commentary on the side as they typed. As I did so, my students began to ask questions, and I was able to provide guidance and feedback in real time. It was experiences like this one that made me feel that as I adopted a more student-centered and collaborative-learning approach, my role as the teacher was truly starting to shift from "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side" (Weinstein, 2007).
Student Motivation
As student-centered and collaborative-learning principles call for "encouraging student autonomy and choice to increase student motivation" (Dornyei, 1997), I wanted to allow my students to explore different ways to present their project. As my students progressed through the project, several groups started asking me for my technology tips on how to present their cooking shows. I decided to teach them how to create and use QR codes, and before I knew it, several groups from each class were asking me how to create QR codes. My students’ curiosity and drive to use more technology led me to creating a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and use QR codes. Before I knew it, nearly half the groups from each class had created a QR code and pasted them onto their cooking-show title pages. As per Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory, granting my students with a variety of choices to demonstrate their learning seemed to give my students a sense of "personal endorsement" (Dornyei, 1997). Here is a sample title page with a QR code on it:
Attitudes and Engagement
On our last day in the lab, students still maintained a high level of engagement as they made final revisions to their scripts, created their title pages, and talked about how they would proceed with filming their cooking shows; i.e., when to get together and where to film, whose camera they would use, and where they would purchase the food, etc. I observed other groups pull out their smartphones to start creating voice overs that they would later insert into their video presentations. By the evening before presentation day, students began tweeting out their videos to me as well as giving me “sneak previews” of the food they were making and planned on bringing in the next day to share. As I granted more autonomy and choice to my students, they began to "direct their own learning in a non-traditional, collaborative way", and this seemed to have a positive effect on their levels of engagement and on their attitudes towards the learning process (Dornyei, 1997).
As student-centered and collaborative-learning principles call for "encouraging student autonomy and choice to increase student motivation" (Dornyei, 1997), I wanted to allow my students to explore different ways to present their project. As my students progressed through the project, several groups started asking me for my technology tips on how to present their cooking shows. I decided to teach them how to create and use QR codes, and before I knew it, several groups from each class were asking me how to create QR codes. My students’ curiosity and drive to use more technology led me to creating a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and use QR codes. Before I knew it, nearly half the groups from each class had created a QR code and pasted them onto their cooking-show title pages. As per Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory, granting my students with a variety of choices to demonstrate their learning seemed to give my students a sense of "personal endorsement" (Dornyei, 1997). Here is a sample title page with a QR code on it:
Attitudes and Engagement
On our last day in the lab, students still maintained a high level of engagement as they made final revisions to their scripts, created their title pages, and talked about how they would proceed with filming their cooking shows; i.e., when to get together and where to film, whose camera they would use, and where they would purchase the food, etc. I observed other groups pull out their smartphones to start creating voice overs that they would later insert into their video presentations. By the evening before presentation day, students began tweeting out their videos to me as well as giving me “sneak previews” of the food they were making and planned on bringing in the next day to share. As I granted more autonomy and choice to my students, they began to "direct their own learning in a non-traditional, collaborative way", and this seemed to have a positive effect on their levels of engagement and on their attitudes towards the learning process (Dornyei, 1997).
Presentation Day
My students brought their energy and appetites on presentation day. As soon as the bell rang, my students were eager to jump up in front of the class, show their cooking show, and share their food with the classmates. One by one, each group took a turn to come up to the front of class and introduce their recipe and dish. After each brief introduction, each group member circulated the class and passed out their food samples to their classmates as their video played on the Promethean Board. For the groups that used QR codes, I displayed their title pages along with the QR codes under the Docucam, and I allowed the students to pull out their smartphones to scan the QR codes and watch the videos from their tables while they enjoyed the food samples. As I observed my students share and connect with each other, I hoped that this experience was helping them experience a positive change in attitude towards learning Spanish. After each group presentation, the class erupted in applause and eagerly awaited the next group to present. When the presentations were finished and the bell was about to ring, several groups requested to show their videos again, and several students came up to my desk and said, “Can we do more projects like this?" please?”
My students brought their energy and appetites on presentation day. As soon as the bell rang, my students were eager to jump up in front of the class, show their cooking show, and share their food with the classmates. One by one, each group took a turn to come up to the front of class and introduce their recipe and dish. After each brief introduction, each group member circulated the class and passed out their food samples to their classmates as their video played on the Promethean Board. For the groups that used QR codes, I displayed their title pages along with the QR codes under the Docucam, and I allowed the students to pull out their smartphones to scan the QR codes and watch the videos from their tables while they enjoyed the food samples. As I observed my students share and connect with each other, I hoped that this experience was helping them experience a positive change in attitude towards learning Spanish. After each group presentation, the class erupted in applause and eagerly awaited the next group to present. When the presentations were finished and the bell was about to ring, several groups requested to show their videos again, and several students came up to my desk and said, “Can we do more projects like this?" please?”