Professional Learning Goals

Our team accomplished the main learning goal we set out to achieve, which was to consolidate a collection of open-ended iPad apps that could help students enhance their oral communication skills and help to develop their critical-thinking skills. We determined that the iPad apps we chose were engaging and that these apps motivated our students to want to share their learning with their teachers and peers. As educators, we developed a better understanding of what constitutes effective oral communication and critical thinking in kindergarten, and saw the power of using iPads in a kindergarten classroom. We also became more familiar with the new Kindergarten Program, as we related our project to the program expectations.

Activities and Resources

Luckily, we did not have to purchase any new technology as we used classroom iPads provided by the WRDSB. Several of the iPad apps we explored were already on the WRDSB interface, and others we explored were free to download.

We benefitted from attending various workshops that enhanced our knowledge of using iPads in the classroom, including an ETFO Summer Academy workshop with Kristen and Eric Wideen, as well as the Early Literacy Alliance of Waterloo Region conference where we explored the research work of Monica McGlynn-Stewart on using iPads in the Early Years.

When researching ways we could measure our students’ oral communication skills, we examined several scales, such as the Kindergarten Oral Language Assessment Scale (Literacy Place for the Early Years – Kindergarten, Scholastic, 2011), the Overview of Oral Language Developmental Continuum (First Steps Oral Language Developmental Curriculum, 1994), and Critical- and Creative-Thinking Scale (Minds Wide Open). After exploring these options, we determined that we could build our own inventory based on the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum (2016).

We also referred to the text Innovate with iPads by Kristen Wideen and Karen Lirenman for creative ways to use the apps within our classrooms.

Unexpected Challenges

One of the main roadblocks in getting our project up and running was not having the technology available due to system updates being managed by our school board. Often, the iPads were unavailable or not functioning properly and teachers had to use their personal iPads to document student learning.

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

We found that the iPad apps we introduced were engaging and motivating for our students. For most of our students, we found that their communication and critical-thinking skills increased during the duration of our project. We know that the apps provided creative ways to show and develop their learning. However, upon reflection, we realized that our increased focus on direct instruction and supporting these students led to their successes as well.

We also found many other benefits to using these iPads in our classrooms, including: student self-documentation of their learning, capturing student voice, documentation of a process, sharing learning in a fun way, engaging reluctant speakers and writers, allowing for student choice, and trying something new!

Sharing

Throughout our project, we developed a blog to share our progress and our observations of student learning. Our blog was updated after each step in our project, and we shared our blog posts via Twitter, and through a school board online conference. We also shared student learning through Twitter so that families and colleagues could see the effects of the apps we chose to use in our project.

We held an in-service for our colleagues outlining our project, and shared the apps we used. Both classroom teachers and Designated Early Childhood Educators attended, and left with an understanding of how to use open-ended iPad apps to enhance student learning.

We attended and presented at the ETFO: Seeing, Engaging and Empowering the Learner conference, on April 1, 2017. Our presentation was two hours in length, and addressed and shared our learning with other kindergarten educators from across the province.

We presented at the Digital Learning Symposium, held by the WRDSB, on the use of iPad apps to document student learning.

Project Evaluation

At the beginning of our work, we created an assessment tool to evaluate our student’s oral language skills. After assessing our classes with this tool, we identified a small group of 16 students (five girls and 11 boys) that scored a level 1 or 2 in many areas on the inventory. The majority of the students we focused on were Year 2 students, in order to allow our Year 1 students more time to develop their skills. From there, we captured audio recordings of our student’s communication skills using the apps Draw and Tell and Explain Everything to provide a baseline that we could refer back to later.

As we progressed through our project, we constantly referred back to these baseline recordings in order to determine our student’s growth and next steps.

At the end of the project, we re-evaluated student work samples using our assessment tool. We found that most students showed significant growth and improvement in many of the identified skills. For those students who’s growth was not as significant, we realized as the year went on that there were other mitigating factors and learning issues that were roadblocks to their success.