Part D- Findings and Implications

My project, making video casts of students in my class to help with reading fluency, was- for the most part-implemented as I had planned.  I have recorded the students and kept up with that, but uploading them onto the computer became more of a hassle because of the technology at our school.  I am able to do this at home, but that is also the time when I need to get a lot of other grading done and do assignments for class.

Reading fluency has been an ongoing issue in my classroom for years and with this project there has proven to be some evidence of success.  I am proud to say that the number of words per minute increased in one of my students.   Expression and clarity improved for two other students.  When my students watched their first recorded reading, they were not aware of how they looked or sounded and continually said "I need to read with more expression," or "I can't really hear myself."  When I recorded them on another occasion, there was definitely a difference.  I would have liked for more of my students to have had success with this, but I think that will happen as I continue to make changes and improve my method of using the videos for reading fluency.

There are a few things I would do differently given what I have learned with this project.  First of all, I would definitely try to record my students in a quieter atmosphere.  I think this might be something that I could accomplish if I taught the students how to record each other, then they could go to the library to do this each week.  I would also approach this differently by introducing it earlier in the school year.  I started this project more than half way through and by this time my students are very set in how we do things.  To change things up often creates some commotion, but nothing too bad.  I am thinking that when I do this project again, I will have students write short reflections after watching their recordings.  This way it will be an even greater learning experience.

Something that other teachers should know is that recording students for the purpose of improving reading fluency is a great tool (and it is not such a secret either).  There are many pieces of research out there that show how this can improve reading fluency and it seems silly to ignore something that might actually help.  Even though it might take a little while to get used to- TRY IT!  It is fun for the students and you will be very happy with the results.  Find a recording tool that will work with your school's technology and go from there.

I will definitely do this same project again, but not without a couple of changes.  As I mentioned before, I would like to start right away in the school year.  I will make sure to incorporate a recording schedule into my weekly plans so that I can stick to a consistent schedule for getting this done. I would also like to have students keep a reflection log or some sort of journal (maybe even an audio cast).  That way they can reflect on their own journey through becoming a more fluent reader.  Along with that, I would like for parents to become more involved with this.  I was thinking that maybe I could have parent volunteers come in a upload the recordings or even do some of the recording.  I would also encourage parents to record their children at home and could designate a website for them to upload the recordings to.  These are just a few of the directions I'd like to go with this in the future.