TEMPORARY ACTION RESEARCH BLOG

ATTENTION: I tried to reactivate my mobile me account, then I couldn't find my old blog accounts for previous months....So, I just decided to post here for right now my action research project until we get this sorted out.
BRIEF OVERVIEW:
For my project, I am having the students create digital stories on each letter in the alphabet. They have to go find an item that starts with the letter name, take a picture of it, then create a sentence: This is the letter _ _ says _ like _____ . Then I would record their voices and play the digital story in the classroom. I will also sometimes have them draw pictures of the letter names and sounds.

1. Describe in detail the measurement tools you used for Cycle 1 such as quantitative, qualitative or a mixed approach.

In Cycle 1 I measured the knowledge of how much students knew the alphabet letters and sounds before doing the digital stories. So, I used a qualitative approach just focusing on the children knowing the alphabet. Then the end of the cycle I measured the growth of their knowledge of these letters. I was hoping that doing digital stories using the alphabet sounds would be beneficial.
The results in cycle 1 were students made improvements on knowing their letter names and sounds. The tricky part was that I didn't know if it was through digital stories, or through other teachers teaching them their daily lessons. So, to modify this, I will test the kids on a couple letters I will do the digital stories on. Right after we do the digital stories and show it in the classroom I will retest the students who didn't know the letters and find out if they now have mastered the letter name and sound.
I had a set back in my research as my computer was stolen and I didn't have a backup file on all of my video taping I had done as well as all of the research articles I had read about digital storytelling. So, this month I have gone back and found more research about the topic and began rewriting my literary review. (LESSON TO BE LEARNED: always backup work on mobile me account or on some other kind of account so you never loose information!!)
I haven't started my cycle 2 digital stories yet. I am collecting the data right now for my classroom. It will be different this year as this class is my own. Last cycle, I went into the classroom and pulled out children in small groups to do the digital stories. I will have to now figure out

2. Describe, synthesize, and compare the data found for Cycle 1 and Cycle 2. If Cycle 2 is not complete, please talk about what your predictions will be!

I think I will be able to distinct better with my modifications testing right before cycle 2 on the specific letter names and sounds then testing right after we do the digital stories. This would allow me to know if the digital storytelling really did help the students master the concepts.
My biggest challenge in Cycle 2 is to be able to do this project with me being the only teacher. I think I will do this during center time and get a parent volunteer to take some of the kids in small groups to record their voices.

3. What were the learner response comparisons and the researcher reflections about the cycles?

Well, maybe I am doing this Action Research Project wrong. My researcher reflections are just on the articles that promote digital storytelling and tell the benefits of using digital storytelling in the classroom.
My learner response from my students is that they are having fun and they did make progress in mastering the alphabet names and sounds.