Task+4-+Analysis

Task 4: Analysis

 After the three teachers that I am working with implemented Microsoft Publisher into a writing lesson I was able to speak with them and find out how they felt about Publisher. My recommendations to them were focused on student motivation and participation so there was not really any data that was collected. However, the work that the students produced was used to determine the impact of the program on student learning. I was really looking to see how those students who are not really interested in writing or who struggle with writing did in producing a document in Microsoft Publisher.

Although I did not collect numerical data with my recommendations the three teachers that I worked with said they were able to see an impact on their students writing. Half way through this project I lost my job at Ballenger Creek so I was not able to see the teachers implement Microsoft Publisher in their writing lesson. However some of them shared their feelings and some of the things they discovered after using Publisher and looking at the quality of work that their students produced.

One of the fifth grade teachers said that she was really impressed with some of the work that her lower students produced. After talking with her we realized that some of her students may have been more motivated because they did not have to rewrite a rough draft and than a final copy. She had the students research an animal and they were each to write a one page “magazine article” about the animal that they would put together to make their own class magazine. She had the students write down factual information into an organizer and then write their rough draft. However for those students who were a little lower in writing she allowed them to type their rough draft after they found their facts. She was than able to capitalize on the chance to allow her students to edit their rough draft on the computer in order to produce their final copy. She expressed how she is very excited about the quality of work that her students produced when using Microsoft Publisher. This teacher sent me a copy of one of the articles that one of her students’ wrote about Spider Monkeys. (There is a copy of this article below).

Some of the comments that I received from the other two teachers included:

· Publisher was very motivating and made many of my students excited to work on their writing assignment- 4th grade teacher

· Publisher was easy for students to use and allowed them to be creative- 5th grade teacher

- This was coming from the teacher who during the initial survey told me she has not used Publisher in her class because she was scared

· Incorporating Microsoft Publisher into a writing assignment was a nice change from the normal writing process that we follow all the time. Many of my students were very happy with the documents they created.- 4th grade

I did not receive samples of the work from the other two teachers that I worked with. The sample that is below was emailed to me from a 5th grade teacher by one of her students. However, from the feedback that I received in just talking to the teachers I think that the implementation of Microsoft Publisher was very beneficial and that the teachers will continue to use it during various writing lessons.

This is a sample of a writing assignment that one 5th grade student created using Microsoft Publisher.