Research+Plan

Question:

How will primary students' use of Pixie impact their pride in ownership and quality of work?

Information about Subjects:

Gender: 11 boys, 9 girls Academic Level: wide variety, but largest group is working at grade level in literacy and numeracy Age: 6 or 7 Other distinguishing Factors: one student in process of being I.E.P.'d; nine students struggle with written output; six students have difficulty focussing on the task at hand

Research Design:

Technology Choice: Pixie Rationale for Choice: Pixie is a new program on the image so we wanted to explore it; it is compatible with Frames, which we used for our lesson; we thought is was an appropriate choice for primary students

Qualitative Data: - assess the students' projects (ads and book covers) - compare each student's output from Pixie to output from 'pencil and paper' - make observations of students' attitudes/behaviours/engagement during the tasks - make observations of students' attitudes towards their final projects

Chronological Steps: with the teacher-librarian (after a unit on advertising) 1) To generate interest and enthusiasm, show students examples of teacher-created ads made using Pixie 2) Model use of Pixie to create a class ad 3) Let students explore Pixie to familiarize themselves with it

with the teacher-librarian following step 3: A) Students create a written plan for their ad B) Students uses these plans to create their ads on Pixie and then print out their final copies. C) Show students teacher-created book covers made using Pixie.

with their homeroom teacher (after a unit on story-writing) following step 3: i) Students create a rough copy of their book cover using 'pencil and paper'. ii) Students transfer these rough drafts to their final copies on Pixie and print them out to attach to their stories.

with both teachers after all other steps completed: Students share their ads and book covers in small groups, and discuss why they're proud of their work, what they liked about using Pixie, how it compared to 'pencil and paper'.