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How I moved towards changing behaviors

For my research I wanted to explore if changing the implementation of a lesson to fit the model of 21st century inclusive design contributes to a measurable reduction in disruptive behaviors from early finishers.

Through my two rounds of action research I incorporated inclusive lessons where all students can be engaged at the same time while nurturing and enhancing their natural abilities. My hope was to not focus on changing the student by focus on changing he way I taught.

Round 1: I made daily observations during my 1st grade classroom's social science Space project based learning (PBL) unit in a 40 minute period using a tally mark system to track 5 common behaviors after high performing students completed an assignment over the course of two weeks. Over the following two weeks I then led the students away from our typical way of learning the content and showed them a 'Magical School Bus' video and told them we would be creating our very own classroom movie. The students worked in small collaborative groups and produced a contribution to the final product. One group researched photographs of planets to recreate on an animation tech tool. A second group recorded themselves reading a script using an iPad. A third group researched and documented interesting facts of various assigned planets using Chromebooks. A final group worked on labeling a poster presentation of the solar system. 

Round 2: I got another opportunity to collect new data the following school year with my 1st and 2nd grade combination class to see if I would get similar results. This time the PBL unit was focused on 'Our Community' and students were asked to collaborate on common goal to present to an audience about the importance of working together in the American Canyon community. Groups were formed to create various components of the American Canyon Community Garden such as a detailed map of the vegetables that grow in the plots, the painting of kindness rocks to add to it's rock garden, student recordings explaining their thoughts of the benefits of having the garden, and a thank you letter to the city for hosting our field trip. The same behaviors were recorded over the same period of time and below are the results of that study.
Please explore the featured links on this page:
Lessons for Digital Citizenship, inclusive PBL's (project based learning), Language Arts, and student work samples.
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How-To's including step-by-step for selecting collaborative groups and how 4th grade teachers taught their students about augmented reality through technology.
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References that give access to articles, technology support, book recommendations and popular social media educators.
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LESSONS
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HOW-TOs
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REFERENCES
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ASSESSMENT
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            Assessments to view such as rubrics, graphs and unit test samples.

The Standards

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Technology Standards:
Basic Operations
-Use desktops, icons, windows and menus to open applications and documents.
Communication and Collaboration
W6-Work collaboratively online with other students under teacher supervision.
W6, W10-Use a variety of age appropriate technologies(eg. drawing program, presentation software) to communicate and exchange ideas.
W6, W10, SL2, SL5-Create projects that use text and various form of graphics, audio and video(with proper citations) to communicate ideas.
W6, W10, SL1-Use district approved web 2.0 tools for communication and collaboration.

Common Core Standards:
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas(Grade 1)
RL7.-Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters setting or events. 
​Research to Build and Present Knowledge(Grade 2)
W7-Participate in shared research and writing projects to produce a report.
Comprehension and Collaboration
SL1-Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners with peers and adults in small and large groups.
b. build on others talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
c. ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
Presenting of Knowledge and Ideas
SL5-Add drawing or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Helpful Tools
VoiceThread allows students to record their voice ​over background screen of choice for explanation or demonstrations and presentations.

​VideoScribe gives the ability to doodle whiteboard illustrations to enhance learning and demonstrations including sound and motion.
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​Animoto uses photos to create video presentations that come to life that can include music and text.