Final Project

KSK Collaboration

Koreen, Samantha, and Kristina

Statement of Project

• Does the use of the inductive method (strategy)

through webquests (technology) improve students’ reading comprehension?– The answer will be determined by observation

and collected data as 8th-10th grade students complete a webquest, read short stories on the Internet and inductively categorize aspects of a short story.

Rationale

• This project was chosen so that we could investigate the effects of the inductive model and webquests on student’s reading comprehension.

Inductive Method• The inductive method is a model of teaching where

students learn to classify information by categorizing. • Hilda Taba, defines the inductive method into three

inductive thinking skills. – The first inductive thinking skill consists of concept formation,

which is when students identify the relevant information, create logical categories based on similarities for the information, and then label these categories.

– The next inductive thinking skill is interpretation of data. Students reevaluate the information or data that they have categorized and begin to form opinions of how the different categories relate to one another. This stage is when students form generalities about the information.

– The final inductive thinking skill is application of principals. In this final stage, student use their formed generalities or proposed relationship about the information to predict outcomes or classify new information based on their specified criteria and determined relationships (Joyce, Weil & Calhoun, 2000, p. 131-133).

Webquest

• Is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet

• Bernie Dodge defines webquests into two categories: Short and Long Term. Most traditional webquests are short term projects.

Webquests• Webquests have six essential attributes:

– Introduction which sets the stage by asking the research question usually in some creative way.

– A task that is attainable,

– Information sources (resources) that can be anything from books and magazines to webpages,

– A process which is the method the students must go through to complete the project,

– Guidance to demonstrate how to organize the information acquired,

– A conclusion that brings the project to a close.

Action Research

Research Plan

• Students would be given a pretest to determine level of reading.

• Students would complete webquest.• Students would turn in work to be

evaluated.• Students would take the pretest again as a

post test evaluation tool• Students would take the online survey

Questions• How does a teacher improve students’ reading

comprehension?• Will webquests and the inductive method be

effective strategies for students to improve reading comprehension?

• Will the web quests be a good way to motivate students into reading short stories?

• Will technology be an effective tool for reading comprehension or will students limitations or lack of technical skills be a hindrance for their achievement?

• Will the webquest activity maintain students’ interest in the stories?

Webquest

Short Story Webquest

Please click above link

Student Sample of WorkShort Stories(are hyperlinked)

Main

Characters

Plot Setting Themes Conflicts

“The Gift of the Magi”

Della and Jim

Della wants to get Jim a Christmas present

In the past on Christmas Eve

Self sacrifice, and irony

Della must give up her hair for money

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

Ichabod Crane, Headless Horseman, Katrina Van Tassel, and Brom Van Brunt

Crane want to marry Katrina for her wealth and Brom wants to stop him.

Sleepy Hollow, in the past

Greed, Man vs. Man

Brom decides to get rid of I. Crane

“The Lottery”

Mr. Summers, Tessie Hutchinson, Bill Hutchinson

Townspeople gather to draw pieces of paper to see who is chosen to be stoned to death

Small town, unknown time

Rituals, Man vs. Man

Tessie fights against the lottery once she is chosen

Survey for Quantitative Data

KSK Collaboration Post Survey

Hyperlinked to survey

Literature Review

KSK Literature Review

Please click the above hyperlink to view the literature review

Web site information

KSK Collaboration at http://kskcollaboration.tripod.com

ReferencesBalajthy, E. (2000). Issues in technology: the effects of teacher purpose on achievement gains

[Electronic version]. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 16,289-294.

Braun, L. (2001). In virtual pursuit [Electronic version]. Library Journal, 126 (17), 32.

Dodge, B. (2003). Some thoughts about webquests. Retrieved April 22,2003 from San Diego State University, Education Web site: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_webquests.html

Graves, Michael. (1999). Fostering high level reading and learning in secondary students. Retrieved April 14, 2003 from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/grave1/mainoframe.html

Ikuenobe, P. (2001). Teaching and assessing critical thinking abilities as outcomes in an informal logic course [Electronic version]. Teaching in Higher Education, 6.1, 19-32.

Joyce, Weil & Calhoun. (2000). Models of Teaching (6th ed., pp.130-141). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

McNabb, M.L., Hassel, B. & Steiner, L. (2002). Literacy learning on the Net: An exploratory study. Retrieved April 14, 2003, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=mcnabb/index.html

Molnar, K., & Sharda, R. (1996). Using the Internet for knowledge acquisition in expert systems development: case study [Electronic version]. Journal of Information Technology, 11, 223-234.

Snow, C.E. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward research and development program in reading comprehension. (pp.11-28). Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

The End