My Topic:
What is the most effective way to use centers as a means to improve spelling proficiency with special education elementary age students?
Why I Chose This Topic:
I love literacy. Over the past five years or so, I have been building my understanding of reading and writing instruction. I feel I have greatly improved my ability to increase my students’ performance in reading and writing. The area that still needs improvement, both in my understanding and in my students’ performance, is spelling. I have done some research on my own and have found little information on how best to teach spelling. I use a mix of word study and high frequency words to build my students’ spelling capabilities. I know that centers can be a useful tool in learning other academic subjects, so I wanted to see how to best use them when learning how to spell.
I chose to compare students using one center against students using multiple centers because I know that students have different learning style preferences. I wondered how strongly those learning preferences affect our ability to learn and if students would perform better when they had choice and the centers are novel, or if they would build consistency and patterning using the same centers.
I currently teach students with special needs. While I believe all students need to know how to spell, and have seen that spelling is a difficult skill to master, this is incredibly true with students in special education. Since my students struggle so much with spelling, I want to find an effective way for them to learn so that they have one less battle to fight while in school. Most of my students are good writers, but their lack of spelling skills inhibits the readability of their writing. If I can find a way to help build their spelling skills, writing in all academic areas should improve and they should be able to communicate in written form much easier.
Writing My Proposal:
Writing my proposal helped me think through how I wanted to lay out my entire research project. While I knew what I wanted my topic to be, it took some time for me to decide how I was going to implement my project- how I was going to assess the use of centers. The most difficult part of the proposal was identifying what data collection and data analysis methods I would be using. I knew what I wanted to do, but I hadn’t thought about how it aligned with best research practices. Determining what methods I was using took some time and thought as I reviewed my different options. I also had to include additional data collection avenues, to ensure I could triangulate my data. While I had read about the importance of data triangulation, I hadn’t thought about how I would use it in relation to my project. Going through this process helped me clearly think through the different aspects of my project and ensure that I was heading in the same direction that I had initially planned.
Writing My Literature Review:
Out of all of the writing we have done so far, I enjoyed writing the literature review the most. I have always enjoyed research writing, and the literature review was no exception. This review, however, provided some challenges for me. When I began my initial search, I found numerous articles related to my topic. As I began to write my draft, though, I realized that most of my articles were not empirically based. Many of the articles I found were summaries of others’ research, not original research that had been conducted. I had a moment of panic. I had spent a lot of time researching, only to have to eliminate most of the articles I had found. I went back to researching, this time with a more critical eye. I was able to find some very informative studies that directly related to my topic and became the basis for much of my literature review. While the additional research was frustrating, it also helped me create a more informative literature review and read research more critically.
I found the actually writing of the literature review easy. I was able to organize the articles in a way that made sense to me, and found excerpts from the texts to support my thoughts. I had some difficulty, initially, becoming re-familiar with APA style, but quickly became reacquainted with the APA formatting website. I found it refreshing to find research that supported my topic but weren’t directly related to my research question. This shows me that there is a need to look at how using centers can affect student learning in spelling, and I hope my project will provide some useful insight into this area.
Peer Writing Feedback:
I found the peer writing feedback to be a mostly positive experience. It was helpful to get feedback from others, especially when I was given feedback on how to improve. I also found that while I was reviewing others’ pieces, I was thinking about my own writing piece and how I could change it. Reading others’ writing helped me identify areas where I could improve my own writing.
Some aspects of the process were frustrating- when the feedback I received was minimal or non-specific. I did not find this helpful or an equal use of time. I feel that I am a good writer, but I also know that I can improve; getting feedback that states I did a great job can’t help me improve. This process has made me think about the kind of feedback I provide to my students, and how I need to give them as much specific feedback as possible so that they can grow as writers; if this is the kind of feedback I want as a writer, then it is the kind of feedback I need to provide.
What is the most effective way to use centers as a means to improve spelling proficiency with special education elementary age students?
Why I Chose This Topic:
I love literacy. Over the past five years or so, I have been building my understanding of reading and writing instruction. I feel I have greatly improved my ability to increase my students’ performance in reading and writing. The area that still needs improvement, both in my understanding and in my students’ performance, is spelling. I have done some research on my own and have found little information on how best to teach spelling. I use a mix of word study and high frequency words to build my students’ spelling capabilities. I know that centers can be a useful tool in learning other academic subjects, so I wanted to see how to best use them when learning how to spell.
I chose to compare students using one center against students using multiple centers because I know that students have different learning style preferences. I wondered how strongly those learning preferences affect our ability to learn and if students would perform better when they had choice and the centers are novel, or if they would build consistency and patterning using the same centers.
I currently teach students with special needs. While I believe all students need to know how to spell, and have seen that spelling is a difficult skill to master, this is incredibly true with students in special education. Since my students struggle so much with spelling, I want to find an effective way for them to learn so that they have one less battle to fight while in school. Most of my students are good writers, but their lack of spelling skills inhibits the readability of their writing. If I can find a way to help build their spelling skills, writing in all academic areas should improve and they should be able to communicate in written form much easier.
Writing My Proposal:
Writing my proposal helped me think through how I wanted to lay out my entire research project. While I knew what I wanted my topic to be, it took some time for me to decide how I was going to implement my project- how I was going to assess the use of centers. The most difficult part of the proposal was identifying what data collection and data analysis methods I would be using. I knew what I wanted to do, but I hadn’t thought about how it aligned with best research practices. Determining what methods I was using took some time and thought as I reviewed my different options. I also had to include additional data collection avenues, to ensure I could triangulate my data. While I had read about the importance of data triangulation, I hadn’t thought about how I would use it in relation to my project. Going through this process helped me clearly think through the different aspects of my project and ensure that I was heading in the same direction that I had initially planned.
Writing My Literature Review:
Out of all of the writing we have done so far, I enjoyed writing the literature review the most. I have always enjoyed research writing, and the literature review was no exception. This review, however, provided some challenges for me. When I began my initial search, I found numerous articles related to my topic. As I began to write my draft, though, I realized that most of my articles were not empirically based. Many of the articles I found were summaries of others’ research, not original research that had been conducted. I had a moment of panic. I had spent a lot of time researching, only to have to eliminate most of the articles I had found. I went back to researching, this time with a more critical eye. I was able to find some very informative studies that directly related to my topic and became the basis for much of my literature review. While the additional research was frustrating, it also helped me create a more informative literature review and read research more critically.
I found the actually writing of the literature review easy. I was able to organize the articles in a way that made sense to me, and found excerpts from the texts to support my thoughts. I had some difficulty, initially, becoming re-familiar with APA style, but quickly became reacquainted with the APA formatting website. I found it refreshing to find research that supported my topic but weren’t directly related to my research question. This shows me that there is a need to look at how using centers can affect student learning in spelling, and I hope my project will provide some useful insight into this area.
Peer Writing Feedback:
I found the peer writing feedback to be a mostly positive experience. It was helpful to get feedback from others, especially when I was given feedback on how to improve. I also found that while I was reviewing others’ pieces, I was thinking about my own writing piece and how I could change it. Reading others’ writing helped me identify areas where I could improve my own writing.
Some aspects of the process were frustrating- when the feedback I received was minimal or non-specific. I did not find this helpful or an equal use of time. I feel that I am a good writer, but I also know that I can improve; getting feedback that states I did a great job can’t help me improve. This process has made me think about the kind of feedback I provide to my students, and how I need to give them as much specific feedback as possible so that they can grow as writers; if this is the kind of feedback I want as a writer, then it is the kind of feedback I need to provide.
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