Cycle+3

=Classroom Research/Rationale: =

"Children learn different things when they act on their world compared to when they passively experience it." (Piaget, 1955).

Up until this point, the digital camera has been used in a variety of ways to promote literacy learning in the classroom. Much of the research I have done on this topic puts a strong emphasis on the importance of the students being the photographers and having the freedom to self-select the content that is going to be photographed.

With that in mind, I set out to see in Cycle-Three if **by having the students make decisions about what pictures to take, and if having them actually use the camera to take the pictures would increase literacy learning opportunities and make the activities more salient.**

Upon starting this action research project I fully agreed with what my researched literature says on the subject of students being the photographers, as can be inferred from my "positionality statement." However, what I came to discover through my prior experiments changed my personal viewpoint on this subject.

I entered Cycle-Three with great anticipation and the belief that in order to optimize the learning experiences with digital cameras and photos, the students need to be actively engaged in the picture taking process. Before I began the actions for this Cycle, I determined an introductory lesson was needed after taking into account my previous observations as stated above.

Prior to this cycle, all members of the class had several opportunities to take a picture of either another person or object in the school. However, the content of the students' pictures was selected by either myself or the classroom teacher.

Cylce-One and Two definitely helped scaffold the students in their understanding of how digital cameras could be used in the classroom to support literacy learning. Despite this positive progression in the first two Cycles, I felt that beginning the actions I had originally chosen for Cycle-Thee would be premature because the students did not yet have the opportunity to both simulatenously select the content and take the picture. For this reason I decided I an introductory action was necessary to help gather additional research.

**//__Pre-Action__//**

In her book __The Art of Teaching Reading__,, Lucy Calkins discusses the stages of a child's development as a writer. She points out that until the second or third grade a child's predominant means of self-expression is drawing. She adds, "Not only the act of drawing but also the picture itself can provide supportive framework for young writers... when children are just beginning to write, they often rely on their drawings rather than their writing to convey the meaning of the story." (Calkins, 2001).

The goal of this pre-action is to provide writers with the framework necessary to tell their story. Some additional guidance was needed for students to understand that everything in the frame of a photograph is important when telling the story of the picture. My first teaching idea to emphasize this lesson was to have students write a small moment using a picture as a writing prompt. However, this plan became problematic when it became clear that several students would need to bring a camera home in order to get the right picture for the assignment. I am embarrassed to admit this, but I did try letting a student take a camera home with them. Not only did it get returned with no photos being taken, but it took three letters to remind the family to return the camera as well.

It became quite obvious that I needed to devise a way for the students to bring their home-lives into school without taking cameras away from the supervised classroom environment. The following is the process I created by taking this necessity into account.

__**Process:**__

Each student was told to take a picture of their reading buddy. I then loaded their pictures into Photoshop and erased the background, leaving a blank page only containing the picture of the student against a white background. I then showed the class their augmented pictures and acted puzzled saying "[t]his doesn't tell me very much about each one of you know does it?" Using juxtaposition to emphasize my lesson of the importance of everything in the frame of a photo, I had the students look back at our Mentor text, __Christian the Lion__. Together we studied how all the objects in the book's pictures assisted us in better understanding the context of the story.

Afterwards, I put my own empty photograph on display and told the class that I wanted to turn it into a picture like we would find in a story. I explained, "To do that I need to add details." I shared the small moment that I wanted to write about walking my. I then pulled out a graphic organizer (in list form) and thought of five important things that needed to be in the "frame" of my picture. While I was working up front, I had the students turn and talk to their partners about what they thought I needed to add in order for my picture to tell the story of the small moment I had shared. This is the result of the activity...

__//**Teacher's Work Sample:**//__



The class then returned to their seats and were given their own graphic organizers to write a list of the things they thought should be inside the frame of their blank photos and illustrate them. Once they completed these first two steps, they were able to write their stories on the last paper provided.

To close the lesson I selected a few student samples to share. I pointed out that what was written on the list was in both the picture and the story. Below is a sample of one student's work...

**Pre-Action Reflection:**

This activity was an exciting way to stimulate language, creativity, imagination, and writing development. I am glad I took the time to do this before completely releasing the control of the camera from teacher to student for several reasons.

First, this activity helped students to understand how to select appropriate content for a picture. They were forced to acknowledge all the details in the picture because they drew the details in themselves. This reinforced the notion that all of what is included inside the "frame" is important when telling the story of a picture, not just the main subject. It again emphasized that the details in a picture help incoorperate them into stories.

Second, by letting the students draw in the details of their pictures, the digital camera as a tool for fostering literacy was no longer confined to the location of the camera, in this case the classroom, lifting the boundaries for students only being able to write about school-related events and giving way to limitless possibilities. It also provided me, as a teacher, with substantial and critical information about each student's unique personality and learning style. By truly observing the students' verbal insights on my own demonstration and the actions they undertook when working with their own photographs, I grasped the methods that "work for them." Using this new informatioin, I was then able to modify my teaching methods and the curriculum accordingly. This was particularly useful when re-deciding on the actions I would take for Cycle-Three.



= Action One: = **//Community Tour: Using the digital camera as a writing prompt for "Persuasive Letter Writing" unit of study.//**

Background Information and Research:
This action was chosen as an extension of Action Two in Cycle-Two. Cycle-Two allowed for the students to utilize digital photographs as writing prompts; however, students were not "in control of the camera." Students were told what content to look for and to have an adult take the picture when they found something on the "School Tour" that fit the pre-determined criteria.

The most significant change from Cycle-Two's "School Tour" to Cycle-Three's "Community Tour" was giving the students full control of both the camera and the content that was photographed. The umbrella of what could be photographed and how it could be used was also noticeably broader in Cycle-Three. This action was inquiry-based: the data collected in each lesson part would determine where the learning would proceed, creating a continuously evolving action.

The corresponding writing unit of study for both cycles was "Persuasive Letters." While the digital camera was used as a writing prompt for the students' first persuasive letter, many letters were written in between the actions in the two cycles that did not incorporate digital photography. Instead, students drew an illustration to correspond with what they wrote. This provided additional insight on the precise usefulness the digital photos served as writing prompts, as well as whether or not the photos promoted writing that was more detailed, longer and/or better constructed. (See "Findings" for results.)

The directions given by the teacher for writing a persuasive letter were to "think of a problem that you would like to see fixed." This cooresponded to the actions in both Cycle-Two, where students searched for a problem within the school, and Cycle-Three, finding a problem in the community.

Prior to the community tour, a Social Studies lesson was taught on "wants and needs" through the use of digital pictures. A kindergarten class that I previously taught had taken pictures of a variety of things in their community. Using these pictures, the current first grade students were divided up into their camera groups and presented with the kindergarteners' pictures. The directions given were to sort the pictures based on their content as either depicting a want or a need. One student in each camera group had the job of being the "recorder" and labeled the back of each photo with a Post-It note for either "W" for want or "N" for need according to their group's decision.

The class then regrouped on the rug. Originally I had planned for our interactive writing to be a "t-chart," one section being "wants" and the other "needs." I quickly realized after circulating the classroom and observing each group during "sorting time" that I had to change my original plan and make a Venn Diagram to include a "both" category. There were several pictures that students disagreed on. One example of this was a picture of a restaurant. Some students considered this a need because "you need food to live," while others viewed it as a want considering that "you don't need to go to a restaurant, because you can get food at the grocery store." Pictures that students disagreed on went into the center of our Venn Diagram as "both."

We closed the lesson after I provided the class with an explanation of what proceeding action we would be doing the following day. Below is the process we followed...

__**Process:**__

After the "Want and Needs" lesson, the students were told they would be going on a tour of the community. However, this time they would be taking their own pictures with the digital camera of the things they thought were either a want or need in the community. The class divided up into six groups, each group having their own camera to use with three or four students per camera.

Upon returning to the classroom, the students discussed the community tour in both small groups and together as a whole class. Some topics of conversation were the following: things missing in the community; things found in the community that could consider a want or need; and problems that you could be fixed.

As a whole, we made a list of things we could write letters about and thought of who would be the best to receive the letters. This chart was left hanging so that we could revisit it during our next lesson.

The next day, the students' photos from the community tour had been printed out and ready to use for their next assignment: each camera group was given their photosm and the class was asked to think back to the previous day's post-tour conversation and choose a photo that they would like to use as a writing prompt for their persuasive letter.

One thing I observed over the course of this writing unit is that the students were having a difficult time organizing their thoughts before writing their letters. This day's mini-lesson was intended to help with the thought-organizing process.

After everyone in the class decided on what picture they were going to use for their letter, we had a short mini-lesson on the rug. We took a silent vote, and decided that as a class we would use a picture of a car to represent a problem in the community. The rationale of the group that took the picture was that unless you have a car you can't get everywhere in the city. They felt this problem could be fixed by having a subway run through their community. My teaching point was that "[w]riters think of all the ways a picture can help write a better letter." The strategy I demonstrated was "One way of doing this is to think of what happened before or after the picture was taken."

To model this strategy I went back to the letter we wrote yesterday to Mayor Bloomberg. I started by picking up the picture and asking myself out loud: "I wonder what happened before this picture took place;" "hmmmm... maybe the driver went to buy the car and thought about how expensive it is;" "maybe he was thinking how expensive it is going to be to buy gas for the car." Next, I asked myself out loud: "I wonder what happened after the picture was taken;" "I think that the driver may have a hard time finding a place to park his car in the city;" "maybe he can't find a spot by where he is going so he has to walk really far and his feet start to hurt;" and "is there anything else I know about cars and the city? Well, I know that kids aren't even able to drive cars, so they won't help children get around the city easier anyways." I then used my thinking aloud to point out what I discovered: "Hey, I am noticing something about what happens when I think about what happened before and after the picture. The ideas I come up with can be used as the points in my letter. "Watch how I do that..."

I displayed the planning sheet for the persuasive letter unit and modeled how the ideas I thought of fit into the parts of the graphic organizer.



The next day we wrote a sample letter together through a shared writing experience. I modeled how to use the digital picture and the planning sheet as a guide during the letter writing process. Below is a sample of what the class wrote...

//April 7, 1010 Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

There is a problem that we need to fix. Kids that live on the upper east side by PS 158 can not get everywhere in the city. We are kids so we don't have cars. Cars are expensive and hard to park in the city. We do a lot of walking but that makes are feet hurt!

One way you could fix this problem would be to put a subway station in our community so we can get around. If you help us solve this problem we would be very happy!

Sincerely, 1-313 (PS 158)//

Students then returned to their seats with their picture and planning sheet to write their own letters. Below are two samples...

__**Reflection:**__

Doing this action allowed for there to be a close comparison of the content changes that occur when students independently use the digital camera to photograph self-selected content between a teacher selecting what is to be pictured. When I compared the pictures taken on the "school tour" vs. the "community tour," I found that in both cases the content was similar.

However there was a noticeable change when the pictures were printed out and the time came for the students to select the photo they would write about; there was a feeling of ownership that radiated the classroom. Students knew exactly "why" they chose their selected picture and had a better understanding of how the photograph could compliment their writing.

The downside was that every student did not have his or her own camera at all times. This meant that when one student was taking a picture and someone else needed the camera, there was a wait time to get it. This could have an affect on the content of the photographs or result in a moment being missed. However, I found the benefits of using the digital camera to far outweigh the negatives.

= Action Two: = //**Theme based book...**// //**Digital Photographs to Encourage Reading THROUGH Writing.**// media type="custom" key="5847315"

Background Information/Research:
Action-Two was preformed one-on-one with Ryan. (For background information on Ryan see **School and Classroom Context** or click HERE.) Through the coarse of working with Ryan regularly over the past two cycles I realized one of his strengths is his visual memory. Although his reading is below grade level he has an extensive sight word vocabulary.

Prior to this action, Ryan's class completed a Writing Workshop unit of study on "All About Books." Our one-on-one work for Action-Two served as an extension to this theme. Early childhood educators often use themes as a curriculum organizational tool. Thematic teaching is recognized as an appropriate brain-based teaching strategy. One of the founding beliefs in brain based teaching is that all knowledge is embedded in other knowledge allowing the brain to work best when it can connect one idea to another. (Robertson, 1998) Through the use of digital pictures I set out to help Ryan connect his knowledge of "All About Books," with a familiar topic, "his classroom," in order to promote reading through writing.

Byrnes and Wasik (2009) found that when students are producing the subject matter that they will talk about, they take ownership in the experience. By letting Ryan take his own pictures he decided what was important and constructed his own meaning from the experience.

__**Process:**__

Ryan was asked to think about things he knew "all about." Some ideas he came up with were his classroom, his pet Parana, and taking out the garbage. My first plan was to let him take the camera home and take pictures to support writing about his Parana since he was very excited when he talked about it. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that sending a camera home with a first grader is not the best idea. Not only did it come back with no pictures on it, but it took three letters to the parents reminding them to send it back. So... that idea was out!

We decided to write about Ryan's classroom because that was something that could be photographed in school. Ryan spent time during free choice snapping pictures of just about anything in the classroom he wanted. I told him before starting to take pictures of things that he would like to write about. That was the only direction given.

After Ryan was done taking all the pictures I printed them out for him to arrange in a logical order to write about. We did this together during one of our meetings. During the coarse of a week Ryan and I met together during independent writing time to create his book. Previously, Ryan had been given two pockets of sight words, words he knows, and words he needs to practice. He used these words to spell correctly when writing the text in his book. When we came to an unknown word, Ryan stretched it out on a separate piece of paper to the best of his ability and I added in the missing letters. He then copied the word into his book.

**Reflection:**

The first lesson I learned was not to send home the digital camera if I expect to ever see it again! Once we selected a topic that pictures could be taken of in school things went much better. Also, choosing a subject that we both knew about was helpful because it enabled me to provide additional scaffolding whenever necessary.

Research indicates that when students see familiar pictures next to symbols (or text) that they can read, they are motivated to decipher other symbols (or text.) (Good, 2009). I found Ryan was more motivated to read the book he wrote then others. New vocabulary was constructed as Ryan described his experiences. Additionally, Ryan was reinforcing sight words he knew as well as sight words he needed to practice each time he reread the book. The digital pictures gave him clues to what the text said as well serving as motivation to decode unknown words.

As we move forward, I will be observing Ryan's ability to transfer his knowledge of the words in the book he wrote to reading words in other books. I am confident that this activity will increase his ability to do so!

= Action Three: = //**Digital photographs to promote word-study comprehension.**// media type="custom" key="5847733"

Background Information/Research:
The small group I have been meeting with during the coarse of my research has been learning about vowel sounds. They have had several strategy lessons on this topic and have focused on this concept during word study through a variety of word and picture sorts. However, even with this extra reinforcement, I found that these students were not transferring their knowledge of vowel sounds when writing independently during Writers Workshop.

My goal for this action then became...//**how can digital pictures be used in word study to increase literacy learning?**//

__**Process:**__

The class was called over to the rug before word study one morning. I explained that a new activity would be available for the class to do and provided the following directions...

1. Take a camera and one of the vowel hunt papers. 2. Search the classroom for objects that you hear a particular vowel sound in. 3. Record your information, for example I hear the __e__ vowel sound in __pen.__ 4. On the back of your paper write the camera number you used. 5. The next day, pick up your printed picture and attach it to your paper.

All of the students had the opportunity to do this activity but I focused my attention on the small group that was struggling with this concept. I wanted to see if there understanding improved when digital pictures were incorporated into the lesson.

**Reflection:**

My findings were actually quite interesting. First, I would like to reflect on how eager the students were to try out this activity. Something I have noticed over the coarse of this action research project is that whenever the camera is involved, student excitement increases. Cameras and photographs are paramount motivational tools! One possible reason for this is because the digital camera is serving as a new tool for them to explore with. Most educators would not argue that students need to experience a lesson or an objective multiple times and in a variety of ways to internalize the information. From what I have observed, using the digital camera is a motivating way for students to interact with the subject over and over again producing unique and exciting ways that help to enhance and increase learning potential.

Going back to the Constructivist theory, children need to have hands on experiences during activities in order to effectively learn and construct meaning from the activity (Piaget, 1955). The digital camera affords the students exactly that... hands on opportunities! Students became active participants in the learning process rather then passive listeners by using the digital camera for this activity.

Another benefit I encountered through this action was that through the use of the camera the thinking and problem-solving process that students used became more transparent to myself, (the teacher.) The digital pictures provided documentation of the processes the student has engaged in to solve problems. Storing this information allows me to track students progress over time or look back to see what area needs extra reinforcement.

As always, when reflecting on a particular lesson, ways to improve the activity always seem to emerge. In this case, one change I would like to make for future lessons is to make the lesson less broad. Rather then allowing students to search for ANY vowel sound I would prefer to specify one or two vowel sounds for students to be "searching" for. Or... I would like to differentiate the activity so that what the student is searching for parallels what they have already learned in word study. In doing this I think I will decrease the number of incorrect responses. An example of how I would carry out the lesson in the future would be... rather then searching for any vowel sound, search for the a,e,and i short vowel sound. Again, I would differentiate what the students are searching for based on his or her individual needs.

= Cycle-Three Reflection: =

Cycle-Three provided students with opportunities to use the camera and take pictures of things that interested them rather than having the content selected by the teacher. I found that student motivation to learn the vocabulary and labels for the content in their pictures increased considerably. Students also learned important skills such as patience and taking turns during this cycle. Giving students the opportunity to take pictures provided insight into what they focus on and how they view the world.

Using the digital camera involved the students in the learning process. Instead of being passive listeners, they were active participants. By empowering students to find their own answers, they found the learning process to become much more engaging.

Allowing the students to be in control of the camera is something I would most definitely like to pursue further in the future. I came to find that it is plausible even for students as young as five or six to use a camera independently; however, it is important to gradually release control of the camera to the students and not expect them to know how to use a camera independently without considerable guidance prior.