Research by:  Mrs. Jo Belyea-Doerrman, 4th Grade Teacher, Pine Crest Elementary School, Montgomery Public Schools, Maryland

Interview by:  Valerie C. Chernek

In 2007-08, I worked as a para-educator at Candlewood Elementary School, MD as part of my masters program. My primary responsibility was to work with ELL/ESOL students.

In my classes, learning appeared to be an endless battle between what my students were expected to gain by reading books and what they actually understood. My biggest challenge was that many ELL/ESOL students were able to read fluently (even out loud) but did not understand what they read. Why would students become laconic when asked to write?

I worked with teachers who said these students were lazy and did not pay attention. This puzzled me. Didn’t reading mean that if students could say the words, they could also understand what the words meant? Students could demonstrate oral comprehension, but when asked to write what they just articulated, they were unable to express themselves in writing.

For the next two years, I examined ways to improve the reading comprehension skills of my elementary ELL/ESOL students.  I’d like to share with you some of my research and observations.

Using Assistive Technology Literacy Tools

Prior to my research, I learned to use the SOLO Literacy Suite which includes four assistive technology tools: Read:Outloud, an accessible text reader with reading comprehension support; Co:Writer, a word prediction tool to help students write with correct spelling and grammar; Draft:Builder, a graphic organizer and Write:OutLoud, a talking word processor.

While learning to use these assistive technology tools, I worked with second and fourth graders in a general education setting who struggled in reading.  With these AT tools, students appeared to read with more comprehension and write with a larger command of vocabulary compared to initial assignments without the tools. I chose the assistive technologies for my digital fluency research to answer the following questions:

1. Would the use of the assistive technology (AT) in small groups improve the reading and writing skills of low to mid-level readers?

2. Could a text reader improve reading comprehension?

3. Could the use of AT tools improve students’ attitudes towards reading?

4. Could the use of word prediction (supportive writing tools) increase writing quantity and improve writing quality?

Research: Reading and Writing with e-Text

Working closely with third graders, Level 3 ESOL, students completed fifteen weeks of informational readings using e-text.  Since Read:Outloud can read text from the Internet, we used the Kids Lab website as part of our program.

When possible, I integrated science and social studies units. This was contingent on my ability to create e-text or find suitable content for students. Although there was a plethora of e-text available, much of the text I found was written for high-level readers, or did not have accompanying reading comprehension questions. Samway (2006) points out that learning to read and write is not a linear process, but developmental. Students may digress before making great progress in their writing.

For the ESOL writers in my research, translating thoughts into writing was overwhelming at first. Often, students’ writing suffers from phonetic or inventive spelling, lack of richness, limited detail, and incoherence. Our class talked about how good readers and writers engage in the thinking process as they read. I taught my students how to use reading strategies to control and self-regulate their learning. We discussed what good readers do and how they weave their personal experiences with what they read to actively construct meaning. We discussed rereading text as a strategy and to listen to books on tape while they read text from a book.  The audio (text-to-speech) with visuals helped my students read with comprehension. (Parlato, 2002; Skouge, 2007; Waxman, H.C & Tellez, K., 2002).

During my research, as students read more e-text, their comprehension skills improved. They produced higher quality work and showed increased motivation using the text reader.  Additionally, students’ written work became more verbose and fluent when using Co:Writer.

When students were given time to learn to use the software, their skills and attitudes improved. They were excited to learn and participate. It was clear that the students who were introduced to good reading comprehension strategies were trying to use the strategies as they read.

Student Results – Improved Literacy Skills & Self-Esteem

Three ESOL students quickly navigated through the SOLO literacy suite to write their papers. They took notes and organized their thoughts in Draft:Builder. During their lab time, they assisted other English speaking classmates. These students became the class experts using AT tools.  As they worked through the technology learning curve, they became more independent and needed little supervision. This technology know-how opened new learning opportunities for these students versus a conventional classroom environment.

Students became adept and focused on reading comprehension and writing and I saw improved self-esteem.

Additional Observations:

Student data gave me a sense of where my students were performing academically, but did not give me an idea of how they felt about reading and writing through the use of assistive technology tools.  I kept a journal of anecdotal entries of my students’ experiences. Here are a few entries:

Anecdotal record, 1/27/08

‘J’ was asked to write a brief constructive response (BCR) to the nonfiction text that he had just read in Read:OutLoud. Typically, he would have a teacher help him produce words on the page, but this time he used Co:Writer. I gave him instructions and walked away. When I returned, ‘J’ had already written an entire paragraph. When I asked about using this tool, he replied, “This is cool!” I had never seen this student produce so much text in five minutes in all the years I’d known him. I quickly shared his results with his classroom and reading teachers.

Anecdotal records, 1/29/08 – ‘P’ was born in Japan and had attended school since kindergarten. He was enrolled in the ESOL program at a Level 3. The language spoken at home was Japanese, and he traveled to Japan each summer. He often missed the first month of school. ‘P’ was in the below grade level reading group and in the above grade level math group. His teachers and parents felt that his academic performance directly correlated to his language acquisition. ‘P’ had the largest growth in his MAPR score from the fall to the winter using these assistive technology tools. He went from being at less than proficient to proficient. His score increased 23 points.

Anecdotal records, 2/5/08 – Students used headphones with the Read:OutLoud software. Three boys were exuberant. They said, “This is really fun!” “I like doing this.” “How come we only get to do this three days a week?”

‘C’ had been in school since kindergarten. His native language is Chinese. He has been a Level 3 ESOL student since 2nd grade. He was on-grade level in reading and math. He was shy and rarely participated in discussions. ‘C” often missed assignment deadlines. I was curious to see if the SOLO tools would help him gain confidence. Using these tools, ‘C’ started to participate in class discussions and was able to finish his assignments on time.

‘PT’ was born in Iran and began kindergarten in the U.S. He spoke no English. He traveled to Iran each summer. He was in the below grade level reading group and on grade level in math. He was a student in the Level 3 ESOL class. ‘PT’ mentioned that his friend ‘C’ was a good reader because of his reading class. His enthusiasm for using the software was evident when I asked him about how it helped him read and write. ‘PT’ showed significant growth in his RIT (Rausch Unit) score. He is now within the expected range for his age group and in the middle of the proficient performance level. His RIT score increased 16 points.

Anecdotal record, 3/4/08 – I had the group use the Marc Brown online text today. One student said, “Hey, I’ve read this article before.” ‘PT’ said, “Yeah, but this is more fun.” ‘C’ remembered the story too. They all began to talk about how much they liked doing this kind of assignment on the computer instead of reading the printed book. When I asked ‘PT’ why he didn’t mind reading the text again, he said, “I like when the computer (Read:OutLoud) reads it to me.”

Conclusion:

Over the fifteen weeks of my research, I concluded:

• If ELL/ESOL students can access assistive technology literacy tools and are allotted time to use them, they can improve their confidence and make reading and writing gains.

• Teachers who use assistive technologies will motivate students who are eager to demonstrate what they know.

• Students who are deemed lazy or not paying attention can be empowered by technology to improve their focus and may become less frustrated by their language barriers.

• Using these tools, students who could not write a single word wrote detailed paragraphs and students who did not want to read a book became engaged readers.

View Ms. Jo Belyea-Doerrman Doerrman’s complete research paper at http://www.jobdoer.net/doerrman/TAR.cfm