Artifact # 4
Developmental Study- a study of Kindergartners and First graders to see what their favorite TV show, movie, book, hobbies, and music are and how this fits into their developmental level.
Context
This study was conducted in February 2001
for my Media Literacy and Curriculum & Instruction class at Appalachian
State University. I interviewed First Graders at Mable Elementary while
the rest of my group surveyed Kindergarten and First graders at Bethel
and Beech Mt. Elementary Schools. After the survey was complete, we used
Netscape Composer to type up our findings into a web page.
Impact
This study serves as a resource tool. Teachers
con use it to see what 5-7 year olds today are watching, listening to,
reading, and doing for fun. There is also a link from our web page to a
previous study that describes children’s social, emotional, and intellectual
levels for this age group. This way the reader can see the connections
between what kids do in their free time and how it fits into their developmental
levels. This information will aid teachers in finding ways to make connections
with what the students are learning and what they do at home. It can help
students learn through fun and through the connections made.
Alignment
In order to find out about kids this age
level, I had to use many resources. I surveyed a full class of First graders
and then using a video camera I interviewed more in depth two students.
I also spoke to their teacher about the results and researched on the World
Wide Web how this fit into this age level. (Tech
competency 12.2) When making our web page, we wanted to give further
resources on the topics TV shows, movies, books, hobbies, and music. We
listed several websites for each topic that will directly link so that
the reader can get more information about what kids this age are watching,
listening to, reading, and doing in their free times. We also wanted our
web page to look colorful and interesting. We added pictures that we cut
and pasted from other web pages. So that we would be following copyright
laws we cited the web page that we took the pictures from directly under
the pictures. (Tech competency 14.3) To
insure the safety of my students and to make sure that I do not cause any
strife with parents, it will be a classroom policy to send home permission
slips for everything outside of the normal realm of the class. I demonstrated
my ability to do this by making sure that the students that I interviewed
on video had permission slips signed by their parents saying it was ok
to be video or audio taped. (Tech competency
14.1) This web page would be accessible to parents, teachers, and other
community members. They would be able to use it to improve students’ learning
at school, at home, and at other places in the community. By providing
these people with information that may help their children, I would be
fostering good relationships with those in my community. This would only
further help the students in my class. (INTASC
#10)