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July 1, 2000
What Happens When First Graders Work with Reading Buddies in an Electronic Literacy Program?
By Lee F. White
RESEARCH RATIONALE
Professionals of early childhood development believe that curriculum and assessment should be planned based on the best knowledge of theory and research about how children develop and learn, with attention given to individual children's needs and interests in relation to program goals (Bredekamp and Rosegrant, 1995, p. 10). The purpose of the Fairfax County Public Schools Language Arts program is to develop students who perform to the best of their abilities as confident communicators-at ease with reading, writing, speaking, and listening. A first grade reading program consists of a balance of reading experiences, which include reading to children, reading with children, and reading by children (Fowler, 1995, p. II-11).
My teacher research project focused on the Fairfax County Public School System's Language Arts Program of Studies (POS), individual children's strengths and goals, and developmentally appropriate practice while balancing these with student interest. Our school, Deer Park Elementary School, is located in Centreville, Virginia, and is a model technology school. Because of the school's technological focus, my colleague, Mary Anne Stevener, and I investigated the influence of technology in our Language Arts program, in particular, the use of an electronic reading and writing program entitled WiggleWorks. We also monitored the effects and courses of action that are necessary to individually assess, instruct, and accommodate children at the varying developmental levels.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Reading is the creation and recreation of meaning; it takes place through the nonverbal as well as verbal modes of language, through listening, speaking, reading and writing, moving and watching, and shaping and viewing (Mooney, 1990, p.2). While taking a literacy class, I learned about an interactive multimedia literacy program entitled WiggleWorks. WiggleWorks, published by Scholastic, Inc., is an interactive electronic literacy program that emphasizes all four literacy strands: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. I ordered some literature on the program and was impressed by the information in the teacher's manual. Diane Snowball, one of the program's developers, explains the way the books included in the WiggleWorks program are developmentally leveled. She had considered a number of instructional reading aspects such as how much experience a child might bring to the book's content, the number of high frequency words, the complexity of the sentences, the tense in which the book was written, the degree of match between pictures and text, the presence of a repetitive pattern in the text, and how much the child could rely on that pattern to work out meaning (Scholastic, 1994, p. 5). Several stages of books are included in the WiggleWorks program, two of which we used: Stage B books and Benchmark Books.
Stage B books appear to be most appropriate for the first graders in my class. The books deal with fantastic happenings in a framework of familiar experiences and provide picture cues to help support the reader. The predictable text uses simple, varied sentence patterns, and dialogue is often included (Scholastic, 1994, p. 10). Three levels of books are within each stage. Children at any level can begin the program at any stage. Three benchmark books help teachers assess where to start each child.
Benchmark Books may be used for Running Records to help place the child in the appropriate stage. Because these books will be unfamiliar, the teacher introduces the children to the books before reading them. If the child can read "My Dog Got Away!" with at least 95 percent accuracy and can retell the story with understanding, he/she will be placed in Stage B. Benchmark Books may also be used to check a child's reading strategies with an unfamiliar book before progressing to the next stage of WiggleWorks.
THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES WITHIN THE WIGGLEWORKS LITERACY PROGRAM
Reading to Children
A typical classroom routine includes reading to students from a large variety of quality literature in many genre. By listening to stories and seeing others gain pleasure from reading, children develop a love of literature. Reading to children enhances their vocabulary development and familiarizes them with book language and story structure. It is particularly valuable for children who have had limited experiences with literature (Fowler, 1995, p. II-11).
The Read Aloud portion of WiggleWorks allows children to click the Read Aloud button to hear the book read to them. Music, sound effects, and illustrations help hold their interest in the text. Each word or line can be highlighted to help children with voice print match.
Reading with Children
Reading with children supports their reading development. It gives children an opportunity to enjoy reading books, poems, charts, and other reading material that they cannot read independently. Teachers reading with children encourage children to actively participate and allow them to take risks. As children become more familiar with stories through repeated reading, they choose to read those same stories independently. By reading with children, teachers stimulate a delight in reading. Children also learn to identify with characters, talk about the pictures, and predict what will happen in the story. They begin to join in, sing along, or chant story refrains. Reading with children gives them the opportunity to apply reading strategies to solve problems on unfamiliar texts in a safe, supportive environment (Fowler, 1995, p. II-11).
Guided Reading
According to Fountas and Pinnell (1996), guided reading leads to the independent reading that builds the process; it is the heart of the balanced literacy program. Guided reading provides:
- Children with the opportunity to develop as individual readers while participating in a socially supported activity.
- Teachers with the opportunity to observe individuals as they process new texts.
- Individual readers with the opportunity to develop reading strategies so that they can read increasingly difficult texts independently.
- Children with enjoyable, successful experiences in reading for meaning.
- The development of abilities needed for independent reading.
- Help to children learning how to introduce texts to themselves (Fountas and Pinnell, 1995, p. 1-2).
Guided reading lessons are planned to meet the specific needs of students. Books should be chosen carefully to support the purposes of the lesson. In the guided reading group, a book introduction is given to provide students with enough information about a text to do an independent first reading. Students should be given the opportunity to apply their reading strategies to solve problems on unfamiliar texts.
If students are predominantly demonstrating "novice literacy" behaviors and strategies they:
- Use pictures for clues to the meaning of the text
- Match voice to print with one-to-one correspondence
- Begin to attend to meaning, language structure, and phonics/visual (letter/sound) cues
- Begin to monitor their own reading
- Search for cues (sometimes without prompting)
- Begin to self correct
Teachers can provide a number of experiences and strategies to support novice readers:
- Read aloud from a variety of genre
- Read dictate stories
- Present shared reading lessons using big books, charts, morning message/news
- Provide time to reread familiar texts
- Plan time to use the Listening/Read Along Center
- Provide phonics instruction in the context of reading
- Innovate on patterned text
- Provide opportunities to choral read small books
- Provision the classroom library with books for independent reading
- Set up a home reading program
- Provide individual guided reading lessons
- Use assisted reading
- Allow students to make oral comparisons between stories heard
Use the cloze procedure with an overhead projector, big book, poem/chart, or a morning message to demonstrate the use of meaning, language structure, and phonics/visual cues to figure out unknown words (Fowler, 1995, p. IV-31).
Reading by Children
Children need time to read every day. Children may read independently, with a buddy, or with an adult. Reading by children includes rereading texts that children have been introduced to during guided or shared reading. This builds fluency and comprehension. Students also have the opportunity to select their own books to read.
The Read option in WiggleWorks is used when children are ready to read independently, but support is available to them. They can click on unfamiliar words to hear the narrator read them. My Words lets them choose words to build a personal word list. These may be words children want to add to a personal word bank to learn by sight. Children also have the opportunity to record themselves reading, which gives them a chance to listen to their own reading.
Writing by Children
Multimedia reading programs often give students tools for producing their own multimedia compositions. Supporting composition strengthens the reading-writing connection and fosters engagement, because children are almost certain to be deeply interested in their own creations (Meyer and Rose, 1998, p. 72).
The Write option provides a range of writing supports for children. They click the "Light Bulb" to get a sentence starter. They can access story words or words they have saved on their My Words list to include in their writing. Using the paint tool, children can create their own picture or use stamps to personalize their responses.
With My Book children can make innovations of text to create their own version of the book they have read. The "Text to Speech" function "reads" what they have written. They can then print their stories to take home.
Children can move letters around on the screen to form word families and spell words with the Magnet Board. Upper and lower case letters can be chosen.
WiggleWorks also provides alternative means for composing. Children can first record their text and then play it back as they write, using their spoken words as a guide. Students can listen to a teacher's recorded suggestion or story starter to help them get going. They can select words saved from reading in the My Words list and paste them into their composition. At any point, they can hear their text read in the computer's synthetic speech, and use this external collaboration to help them monitor and revise their work. New stories can be printed and shared or played back on screen. The high degree of interactivity, variable scaffolds, and multiple composition modes make WiggleWorks a rich environment for supporting student composition at many levels of ability (Meyer and Rose, 1998 , p. 72).
RESEARCH QUESTION
Stevener and I wanted to investigate the use of WiggleWorks with our students. We knew that it would be very difficult to track the interactions and progress of all our students as they engaged in the program activities, so we chose four students that appeared to be frustrated and experiencing difficulty in reading and writing. Although the students received daily one-to-one instruction in the classroom as well as home support, the students needed to be provided with additional opportunities to practice literacy behaviors, to move towards independence in their written work, and to feel successful. After monitoring their progress closely and upon consulting with our other first grade colleagues, we decided that the WiggleWorks Beginning Literacy System was an appropriate instructional tool that could be well utilized during our computer lab time.
Our goal was to help our students develop independent reading and writing strategies and behaviors. The four selected students were very comfortable using technology and interacting within the classroom and school environment. However, to give them some guidance in using the program, we selected four peer buddies from third and fourth grade. The peer buddies were chosen because of their need for reading and writing enrichment. The third and fourth grade buddies were expected to interact and help guide the first graders as they read and wrote. However, careful consideration was also given to choosing peers who would interact well with younger students and stay on task. All eight of the students chosen for this study demonstrated interest in the computer and easily adjusted to changes in routine and schedule. Therefore, we decided to investigate: What happens when first graders work with reading buddies in an electronic literacy program?
METHODOLOGY
Deer Park Elementary School is a model technology school with strong parent support. The school's community is predominantly middle class with a small multicultural population. My class consists of twenty students, eleven boys and nine girls. I have three English as a Second Language students. Two students have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and currently take medication; four students receive Speech and Language Services for articulation and expressive language delays. The school's screening committee is monitoring two students. In the beginning of the year, the reading and writing developmental levels in my class ranged from Developing Emergent to Developing according to the Fairfax County Public School's Literacy Scale.
Stevener's class consists of twenty-two students, twelve boys and ten girls. Four of Stevener's students are diagnosed with ADHD and currently take medication; one student receives Speech and Language Services for articulation and expressive language delays. Three students have qualified for Learning Disabled services and receive these services outside of the regular classroom each morning. In the beginning of the year the reading and writing developmental levels in Stevener's class ranged from Developing Emergent to Developing according to the Fairfax County Public School's Literacy Scale.
SUBJECTS
The four first graders selected for this research began the study working on the Novice level in reading and writing. Children reading at the Novice level are typically reading books that "contain repetitive words, phrases, and actions" (Beaver, 1997, p.12). They use mostly predictable language structures. The students were two males and two females who were not receiving any special services. After sharing goals and progress with their parents at Parent/Teacher conferences, it was decided that we would try to provide more support for these novice readers and writers. The support included taking home books on the students' instructional levels and having the students read the books at home and return them to school the following day. In addition, they were to be included in the WiggleWorks research study.
TIME FRAME
When engaging in the WiggleWorks activities, the two females were paired with fourth grade buddies, the two males were paired with third grade buddies. The children spent one forty-five minute block of time on the computer using WiggleWorks in the computer lab each week for 12 weeks.
MATERIALS/PROCEDURES
We designed lessons to go with each text that were structured to meet the needs of the learners. Each pair of children first listened to the story read to them by the computer. Then students were prompted to reread the story. Support was provided by clicking on a particular word and/or the entire sentence if the students did not know the words. When the students felt comfortable about their oral reading, they were able to record the story themselves using the recording device and listen to their reading. Students then were given a specific activity depending upon the book and the skill that needed to be addressed. This may have included adding words to My Words list, going to the Magnet Board and writing rhyming words, going to Write and using a story starter, or creating an innovation of text. Students could also color their own book and print out a copy to take home in their "Bag of Books."
DATA COLLECTION
During the course of the project, the students' writing progress was monitored using responses to writing prompts given each marking period, their daily journal writings, and student writing choices. In addition, we kept anecdotal records and "kidwatching" journals during Reading and Writing Workshop. Running Records were also taken on the first graders to monitor reading strategies and sources of information used while reading. Ten minute writing assessments were also done quarterly. Students were given ten minutes to write down all the words they knew. The teacher then collected the lists of words and called students individually to read their lists. The child received credit for each word read and spelled correctly. In addition, the technology teacher videotaped the computer lab sessions so that Stevener and I could view all the children and their interactions and compare the tapes with what we had noted in our observation logs. An attitude survey was developed to determine how the students felt about working with WiggleWorks. In our journals we noted what transferable literacy skills--to offline reading and writing--students were using with WiggleWorks.
DATA ANALYSIS/REFLECTIONS
When Stevener and I compared notes of guided reading instruction and our workshop times, we saw a number of patterns regarding first graders working with reading buddies in an electronic literacy program.
We were both working on similar prompts with our novice readers. All four of the students were consistently using one or two sources of information. We were using modeling, think-alouds, and focus lessons as instructional techniques. Prompts were given during guided reading that consisted of:
Check to see if what you read looks right and sounds right.
It could be _______, because _____ makes sense; but does it look like _____?
_____ makes sense, but what letters do you see there?
You said _____. Does that make sense?
During our computer lab times, we noticed three of the four students going back to reread during the record stage. The children responded with, "That didn't make sense, that doesn't look right." At these times students could be seen using their finger to go back and/or the mouse to reread a sentence or word. Interestingly enough, only the first grader stated the prompts. The buddies sometimes interjected with the beginning letter, but usually the first grader first noticed the errors and was attempting to self-correct.
Stevener and I looked carefully at our notes from the first four sessions. We noticed that the headphones interfered with the recording section and follow-up activities. Two pairs were able to manipulate the headphones when being read to and recording. The other two pairs rarely interacted because they could only hear the computer. We decided to have the pairs of children remove their headphones during sessions five through twelve. As a result, children appeared to be critically interacting with the software as they were thinking and using language skills. Prior to removing the headphones, two pairs appeared to be easily frustrated and disengaged. Pairs were unable to participate together because one was not able to verbalize what he/she was ready to do next.
We began placing first graders on the right side of the computer in order for them to have more control of the mouse. One pair, in particular, rarely shared the mouse, what with the fourth grader dominating its use. Once they had no control, buddies readily gave prompts such as: "Try that again."; "You read the first page, I will do the second."; "That didn't sound right, click the mouse to get the word."
During guided reading, Running Records are taken to guide instruction. When Stevener and I began WiggleWorks sessions the end of January, all four students were working at the Novice level in reading and writing. By April, three of the four students were working at the Apprentice level in reading and writing and were being introduced to the "Stage C" books for guided reading.
Stevener and I interviewed each pair, asking if they liked using WiggleWorks, what they liked doing best on WiggleWorks, and what they like doing least on WiggleWorks. All the first graders responded that they liked to record their reading and hear it played back. Two of the first graders did not like waiting for their items to print. One first grader thought the My Words list was hard to use because they forgot the words were in their word book in the classroom. The buddies liked recording the story, getting their own copy of the book, and using the Magnet Board.
Interestingly enough, first graders did not mention the writing activities that followed the reading. In watching video tapes and reading our logs, first graders appeared to be enthusiastic about the writing activities and using the stamps (templates for important characters or items). This was the time that we observed the most interactions between pairs. One wonders if the amount of support provided helped to make this a meaningful and relevant extension to the reading, therefore, allowing first graders to do it quickly with ease. Buddies modeled using My Words as needed and looking back to the text to find needed words. Buddies rarely asked first graders to "stretch" out their words, which is common practice in our classroom. With a prompt, first graders could easily access needed words and stay focused on their writing.
One piece that Stevener and I both felt was missing was the transfer of the use of words during WiggleWorks time. The Magnet Board was often used to practice writing rhyming words and word families, or doing word sorts. We rarely saw these words transfer back to our first graders' writing time in class. Perhaps, these words should have been written or glued into the first graders' word books. The four first graders left the computer lab with resources that they were unable or unwilling to use on their own during Writing Workshop time in our classrooms. Although there were six instances when we believe children transferred this knowledge back to their own writing, we were unable to figure out if WiggleWorks was the influence or something sparked this knowledge in class. With a prompt from myself and Stevener, students may have investigated and transferred these words back to their writing, but it was not done independently.
CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS
The literacy progress noted with our students cannot be directly attributed to the WiggleWorks program, but literacy development is a combination of many different factors (i.e., instruction in all academic areas as well as literacy development at home). The four first graders that participated in this study received guided reading instruction at least four times per week. In addition they were provided with a "Bag of Books" for rereading at home each evening. These four students also received extra support from the Instructional Assistant when she was available. However, we can say that WiggleWorks appears to have a positive effect on our students reading and writing progress as noted throughout our data.
During our workshop time in first grade, children have "choices" to make. Activities that are available are ones that children have previously learned to engage in independently. Learning centers and routines are easy to establish and manage once children understand the purpose of such arrangements. WiggleWorks works well as an established center in our classroom. Because of a limited number of computers in each classroom, WiggleWorks can only be used on one of the four computers available in each of our classrooms. However, depending upon the size of a guided reading group, children could easily be rotated through their computer time, and in addition, books and tapes could be available at the Read-along Center.
WiggleWorks began in our classrooms as another piece of software our children could use. It has now become an integrated, instructional tool to be used to support beginning readers. With this type of technology there are changes in both the teacher and student roles in our classrooms. Students using technologically assisted instruction are given more responsibility for their own learning. We as teachers can then observe more of the learning process in action and serve as a guide in that process. Using technology helps engage children in learning, offers additional instruction without additional teachers, and helps children work at their own pace. A skilled teacher can set different goals for each child. In a classroom with adequate computer resources, activities can be carried out successfully and could be customized to fit the needs of each student.
Email: Lee White
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