Publication Rough Draft
The topic of my post is improving reading by implementing blended learning models as station rotation. In my post, I will provide educators in elementary schools and higher levels with suggestions to implement blended learning models to help those students that are not on their grade levels. By writing this post, I hope educators will become inspired to incorporate these resources into their daily learning environment in order to enhance and engage students to reach their reading goals.
People learn how to develop their skills through a process, time and strategies, we are in the 21th century where everything is possible through technology, I strongly believe that we have in our hands the keys to help others to develop their abilities keeping the experiences that we have in order to design plans or strategies that can contribute to the learner to reach their goals. As a teacher, I am the support to build up a solid foundation in their academic growth to make connections to reach the next step in their learning journey.
The growth of technology in the field of education continues to impact the way students learn and acquire new tools for learning. The role of an educator is an important one,it requires us to carry many responsibilities on our shoulders.
Why is Blended Learning important in the learning process?
This Method of teaching benefits both students and teachers. Because all students live in a technology-driven world, blended learning can be helpful to every student. Mobile access means teachers can easily schedule assignments, score student submissions, and track student progress through an online teacher management hub, day or night. Blended learning helps teachers stay organized and connect in more meaningful ways with their students. Blended learning is also flexible: blended learning methods can be integrated into almost any classroom.
Station Rotation
According to Horn & Staker (2015, p.37), “the model that classroom teachers in particular gravitate toward first is the Rotation Model. This category includes any course or subject in which students rotate, either on a fixed schedule or at the teacher’s discretion among learning modalities, at least one of which is online learning”. It has been demonstrated that students often rotate among online learning, small group instruction, and pencil and paper assignments at their desks. An important factor in this model is that the students are working with resources provided by the school like online reading programs and at the same time it requires to be complemented with whole group discussion.
Motivation in the classroom is the key to success
When students fail to read proficiently during their journey in elementary schools or higher levels, they often face persistent struggles through the rest of their academic career (Macaruso et al., 2020). The idea of motivating and engaging students is one of the keys to reach the goals in the educational field. “When schools design the right blended model plan for students’ perspective, they feel that school aligns well with the things that matter to them, students show up to school motivated and eager to learn” (Horn & Staker, 2015, p. 137).
Implementing blended learning models helps students to reach their goals
I want to share a personal experience as a teacher in my classroom using the blended learning models. It is a wonderful resource to put in practice. A few months ago a student came to me during reading time and he asked me “Mr. Briceno I know I am not supposed to be reading and listening to the books in English in the chromebook (these are instructions from the bilingual coaches to the teachers in my school), but can I do it some time when I am reading ? ” It was 6 months ago, well, as a teacher I decided to do what was best to do for my students in this situation. I said-let’s make a goal for you and we will make a plan where you will be able to read in english, and at the beginning you will use the headphones to read and listen but you need to select English books in your current reading level and you have to pick the genre. The results a few weeks later was that my student moved from level D to level H. During this time I was working with him in small groups and using technology to implement blended learning. Constantly, I am implementing blended learning in my classroom which I have seen improvement in my students reading fluency and they enjoy it because they have a choice in their learning process using ownership.
The Connection to the Innovation Plan
There is a connection between this article and my innovation plan. First of all, I have been working with those students that are not at their grade level and blended learning has been a good resource because it lets students progress at their own pace. Also, one of the greatest benefits of blended learning is that as teachers we are able to work with students in small groups rather than with the whole class at the same time, but the truth is that teachers must use their small-group time very strategically in order to ensure it actually has a positive impact on their students.
How can this information help others?
At the beginning of this journey, I decided to work on my innovation plan as needed to help those students that are not at their grade levels. However, one of the questions that came immediately was, why some students are not reading fluency and are not at their grade level? In the past months I have been observing that most of the time or one of the causes is that children fall behind on reading levels because they haven't found books that they're interested in, and can become frustrated with the reading process. Also, I firmly believe in the idea of motivating and engaging students because it is one of the keys to reach the goals in the educational field. I have noticed that while students take a role in the learning process they find a purpose in their learning goals.
​
What digital resources will be included in your article?
I will include the following digital resources:
-
Smart boards
-
IPads
-
Chrome
Reading Platform:
-
Renaissance-MyOn
-
Nearpod
Describe your digital resources and/or technology
We will be including the following digital resources: smart boards, Ipads, Chromebooks, and we will use MyOn and Nearpod as reading platforms. The digital resources will be used in the small group with the students to implement the blended learning models. Also, the reading resources will help students to choose the books that they are interested in reading and at their level. By using these resources teachers can track their progress to determine where each student needs improvement to reach their goals.
Conclusion
Blended learning is growing as a pedagogical approach to instruction in elementary school. Research shows that students have made great progress in a blended learning program and subsequently demonstrated significant growth on a standardized reading test. Without doubt previous works have been showing all the benefits of blended learning for elementary school students. Blended learning is a very effective mode of teaching and learning. The key finding along with additional findings of other studies indicates the use of digital collaborative literacy within a blended learning environment has a direct impact on student motivation, engagement, and achievement.
Finally, In terms of educational benefits for students who may be behind grade level, a blended learning program can offer a seamless approach to differentiated instruction, identifying areas of skill deficiencies. Of course, the blended learning models as station rotation and individual rotation are models that are likely to be effective only if educators make every effort to ensure that students are given ample opportunities to use the digital component of the program as recommended.
Below you can see my e-portfolio as well as my colleagues' e-portfolios, where you can find more research and resources on the different things they're working on.
References
Edmentum. (2013, Mar 16). Disrupting Class - Part 4: Blended Learning [Video]
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TGmqeWprqM&t=3s
Horn, M. B., Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovationI to improve
schools. Jossey-Bass.
​
Macaruso, P., Wilkes, S, & Prescott, J. E. (2020). An investigation of blended learning to
support reading instruction in elementary schools.Educational Technology Research and Development. 68(6) 2839-2852.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-020-09785-2