Project Based Inquiry
Using Voki's to Build Motivation
The first encounter of the PBI approach that I experienced within the New Literacies and Global Learning was part of the ECI 546 class - New Literacies and Media. In this approach, my partner and I attempted to incorporate an important objective in third grade, asking questions, with a technological tool that the students had never used before. We wanted to give students the motivation to ask "I Wonder" questions, make predictions, and make connections while students were reading. This is a concept that many third graders often struggle with and is a key component to understanding and comprehending text.
The process began by reading aloud Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and The Lorax. Every student seemed focused and engaged throughout the read-aloud of all three stories. After reading aloud all three books to the third grade students, I allowed the students to choose which book they wanted to proceed through the project with. This, in my opinion, made the students more motivated to complete the assignment. The Reading Motivation Theory confirms this by saying that when students have a choice in their reading, they are motivated to read, even if the text they are reading is difficult. Therefore, a third of our class decided to choose each one of the books.
Following the initial reading and choosing of their books, students used their Daily 5 journals to write about the book. I asked for them to include many things in this journal entry, such as their favorite part, an "I Wonder" question about their chosen book, a connection that they had to the book, and to make a prediction about what would happen next if the book were to continue. After writing in their journals, I had the students record their journal entries on the computer using a USB microphone. This built reading motivation because the students knew that other students were going to hear their journal responses.
Throughout the following three weeks, I took the the students to the computer lab and taught them about the Voki website. Students created their own avatars and practiced using this new technology. While they were making their avatars, I uploaded their voices and responses to each individual Voki. After completing the uploads, I housed the Voki's on my classroom website. The students were then asked to visit each Voki to see what other students had to say about the books and what questions they still had.
Finally, students were asked to make a comment using an online forum on the other students' Voki's. This allowed them to have the real world experience in providing feedback to other students. Overall, this PBI project motivated students to not only go back into their reading to develop questioning skills, comprehension skills, and prediction skills, but it also motivated them to do their best work possible because they knew that they were going to publish their voices to an online forum using a Web 2.0 tool.
The process began by reading aloud Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and The Lorax. Every student seemed focused and engaged throughout the read-aloud of all three stories. After reading aloud all three books to the third grade students, I allowed the students to choose which book they wanted to proceed through the project with. This, in my opinion, made the students more motivated to complete the assignment. The Reading Motivation Theory confirms this by saying that when students have a choice in their reading, they are motivated to read, even if the text they are reading is difficult. Therefore, a third of our class decided to choose each one of the books.
Following the initial reading and choosing of their books, students used their Daily 5 journals to write about the book. I asked for them to include many things in this journal entry, such as their favorite part, an "I Wonder" question about their chosen book, a connection that they had to the book, and to make a prediction about what would happen next if the book were to continue. After writing in their journals, I had the students record their journal entries on the computer using a USB microphone. This built reading motivation because the students knew that other students were going to hear their journal responses.
Throughout the following three weeks, I took the the students to the computer lab and taught them about the Voki website. Students created their own avatars and practiced using this new technology. While they were making their avatars, I uploaded their voices and responses to each individual Voki. After completing the uploads, I housed the Voki's on my classroom website. The students were then asked to visit each Voki to see what other students had to say about the books and what questions they still had.
Finally, students were asked to make a comment using an online forum on the other students' Voki's. This allowed them to have the real world experience in providing feedback to other students. Overall, this PBI project motivated students to not only go back into their reading to develop questioning skills, comprehension skills, and prediction skills, but it also motivated them to do their best work possible because they knew that they were going to publish their voices to an online forum using a Web 2.0 tool.