6th Grade Readingpen Case Study Observation

Date: Friday, May 6, 2005
Time: 9:30 to 10:10 a.m.

Teacher/Class: Lisa Boulanger, Grade 6
School: Mastricola Upper Elementary School, Merrimack, NH

Observer: Cynthia Dunlap

Class Activity Observed:

Lisa engaged the students in a vocabulary activity focused on synonyms using the Thesaurus function of the ReadingPens on the day of the observation. She borrowed additional ReadingPens from Adam’s classroom, so each of the 22 students had his/her own device. The handout distributed to the students was a commercially produced activity sheet from World Teacher Press, Word Study, Book 3. This is a classroom activity that Lisa has done in the past without the ReadingPens to assist the students. In the past, without the ReadingPens, students would have used the print dictionary as needed.

Lisa provided the initial instructions and the class practiced together as a group after which the students settled right down to work. First the students were asked to scan the key word and then activate the Thesaurus function on the ReadingPen. They selected what they thought to be the best synonym for the word. The synonyms selected became the word list for a “search-and-find puzzle” at the bottom of the page. If the student could not find the selected synonym in the puzzle, they needed to select a different synonym. The students moved quickly through the assigned activity and seemed to enjoy the challenge, as it was quick and easy to use the ReadingPen to identify and hunt down additional synonyms.

Students who completed the first page of the activity sheet were instructed to select any two words on the first page and create two “synonym ladders” of at least 5 words. Students had discussed the concept of “synonym ladders” the previous day in language arts, so this was a follow-up activity. They were encouraged to use the history feature to go back to words scanned during the activity on the first page.

Student Use:

For this activity, many of the students used the earbuds. Lisa mentioned that the kids like to use them. None of the students opted to use the trainer. Most all of the students were focused and worked very well independently with the ReadingPen. Most scanned the word they wanted accurately after the first or second time. The room was very quiet during this activity. One student told me that he has been getting his words on one scan now and another told me that she thought the activity was fun!

Students regularly use the ReadingPens during SSR (silent sustained reading).

Most of the students find that they prefer scanning from right to left. They say their accuracy level is better. The majority of these 6th grade students were not experiencing any problems with the size or location of the buttons or the size of the letters in the window of the ReadingPen.

One student used the ReadingPen to proofread an original essay he/she had written on the computer and printed.

One student, who appeared to have some fine motor challenges, was experiencing some problems scanning, primarily, it seems he was scanning too slowly. The scan speed was not checked at the time, but rather the student was encouraged to scan a bit quicker and did see positive results.

Teacher Management/Logistics:

So far, no caps, trainers, or earphones have been misplaced. To date none of the students have taken the ReadingPens home overnight. Lisa stores her ReadingPens in a white wicker basket.

The students know where the pens are kept and allowed to get one to use for an assignment at any time unless specifically told that the Readingpens will not be allowed for a certain activity.

Lisa asked the students to check to make sure that the numbers on the ReadingPen, the cap, and the case all matched before she had them collected.

Curriculum Integration:

Lisa explained that she has integrated the ReadingPens primarily into language arts (spelling, reading, vocabulary) and social studies. Students are allowed to use the ReadingPens at any time during SSR (silent sustained reading).

Lisa has incorporated the use of the ReadingPens into the following activities. She gives the students 5 challenge words weekly for which they need to determine the part of speech and write the definition. For social studies vocabulary, they have used the ReadingPens for both writing definitions and composing an original sentence. In spelling, she used an activity on syllables to introduce and practice this feature of the ReadingPen.

Teacher Observations/Comments:

There was limited time to speak with Lisa one-on-one to garner her observations/comments during this observation beyond those listed above regarding the ways in which she has integrated the devices into the curriculum.

Parent Comments:

Lisa has not received any feedback from parents to date regarding the use of the Readingpens by their child.

General Comments:

The next visit we will schedule the observation such that we may conduct a “mini focus group” with the students to obtain their input, thoughts, and suggestions. This would last for 20 to 25 minutes.

Lisa informed me that she had one defective pen and I replaced it with a working one when we returned later in the afternoon to observe Adam and Cindy. That makes a total of two defective pens out of the nearly 100 pens deployed in the New Hampshire pilot sites. Both pens experienced problems with some part or all of the screen display. Both defective units were given to John Richards to return to Wizcom on 5/6/05.