Caroline Elbra-Ramsay

Caroline Elbra-Ramsay

Using twitter to develop student

teachers’ understanding of

children’s literature and the teaching of

reading.

Context

  • 3 year BA in Primary Education (with

QTS)• 153 students organised into 5 teaching

groups• Year long module “Children’s Learning in

English”

Children’s Reading

  2003 -The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found that, although the reading skills of 10-year-old pupils in England compared well with those of pupils in other countries, they read less frequently for pleasure and were less interested in reading than those elsewhere.

2003 - NFER reading survey (2003), conducted by Marian Sainsbury, concluded that children’s enjoyment of reading had declined significantly in recent years. (Ofsted 2005)

2006- PIRLS survey -English 9-10 year-olds were still well below the international -ranked 37th out of the 45 countries taking part. 15% of English pupils described as having an unfavourable attitude to reading which is 2x international average (Cremin, 2008)

2009- PISA survey - ‘In almost all countries, students who enjoy reading are significantly more likely to be good readers’ (OECD 2010 p.7)

Effective teaching and learning in language and literature depends upon strong subject knowledge, of both a range of

texts and of approaches to studying them.

Gamble, N. and Yates, S. (2008 p.1)

‘Any work with children and stories depends on a teacher’s knowledge of texts. This does not just mean knowing about the language, structures and narrative devices of stories; it means knowing who are the good writers most likely to stimulate your class. That, in turn, means reading a lot of stories for children.’

Medwell et al (2011 p. 139)

Project Aims

• To extend student teachers’ understanding of children's literature

• To use social media as an additional resource

• To develop a peer communication network

Social Media as a Teaching Tool

‘technologies have the potential to promote active engagement, encourage people to work in groups, provide opportunities for feedback from a wide audience, and connect people to others who are knowledgeable’ (Kelm 2011 p. 507)

Foroughi (2011) suggests specific benefits:• Learning-related benefits: facilitation of collaborative learning, development of independent learning skills, problem solving, team work, reflective learning, peer-to-peer support/feedback, • Social benefits for students: increased engagement in course material,development of a sense of community and of transferable skills that enhance student employability, increased sense of achievement, control, and ownership of their work.

Encourages greater learner autonomy and reduces the need for the teacher-dominated lecture environment (Kelm, 2011)

Social Media as a Teaching Tool

‘…studies suggest that learning with social media helps students develop metacognition, self-reflection, and communication abilities. …Similarly, Greenhow and Gleason (2012) advance the idea of “Twitteracy,” a functional ability to use Twitter as a place to ex -change ideas and fashion oneself as a professional within a larger community.’ (Hitchock and Battista 2013 p.35) ‘Some students are uncomfortable using social media and prefer to opt out of participating on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms for a variety of reasons, including privacy concerns, previous negative experiences with social media, or uncertainty about the effects’ (Hitchcock and Battista 2013 p.39)

Tools

10 days of twitter

#1QTSE14A

Tweetbeam

Interactive tag clouds

Tasks/ Activities

Tasks/ Activities

Tasks/ Activities

Tasks/ Activities

Tasks/ Activities

I have enjoyed the idea of experiencing English on a wider scale, seeing how other professionals are using twitter as a valuable resource. I have seen many good ideas through scrolling down my twitter feed, and have had people helping with my queries. The idea that you can contact authors at your fingertips is amazing, and I love this instant connectivity. Overall the idea of using twitter was inspired.

Easy to use and suitable for our age range. Appropriate as it acted as a suitable way for contacting one another about the lesson or queries about English projects. Also helped to make useful connections with other authors, book publishers and resource sights.

Because I don't have twitter on my phone therefore could not use it during class.

Because I found that if I had any questions it was a good way of contacting the whole group. Also, it was good to have all the twitter contacts about children's books there were plenty of contacts to ask.

I found using twitter really beneficial. As well as gaining other ideas from class members, I used the account to contact children's book stores to gain information and recommendations of books to use with my class. Using twitter also meant that I could contact other people on the course to ask questions about books, rather than contacting tutors straight away.

It has allowed me to get ideas from authors and book stores and has also been a place of which I can confidently ask questions and for clarification off people in my group. I also follow a lot of teaching tweeters and this has helped me to keep up to date with what is going on in the world of teaching.

I did not enjoy having to use a public site for work. I would have preferred to use something which enabled more privacy.

• Contacting specialists - really enjoyed making wider links/connections which may come in useful later in my career

• I enjoy using my professional account for asking authors and other people in the class

help. This means we are all connected and everyone is willing to help over the internet. I have used twitter to help with literacy lesson ideas and I use it to keep up to date with educational news. I also used twitter for ides with my story sack and this gained a large response even from people who did not attend this university.

• I found it great help getting in touch with specialist authors and book stores. I needed to find a pirate story book for my 3 week placement so I went onto Twitter and asked if anyone had any recommendations and had a reply from a book store which was really useful, it also saved me time.

• It was interesting to see peers ideas and be able to use some of these in teaching. It has been a good way to improve SE1 and further teaching practises to know which books have been recommended by people who we are similar with and those that have been suggested as not working well with the children.

• I've found that I have come across a lot more new texts for lower key stage 1 which I found useful

• I thought the task where we asked each other for specific books for reluctant readers was good. It provided lots of ideas to use.

• I liked to look through the information being posted in my own time but I didn't like to have to post things or comment on other people’s posts. I preferred to spend time looking through things by myself rather than being under pressure during the seminars.

Has your perception of twitter changed as part of this project? If so, how? •I enjoy the instant connectivity •Yes - it can have a more professional use rather than just a social one. •I barely ever used twitter before the module I just didn't find an interest but now I enjoy asking for help and keeping up to date with educational news. It just makes me feel more in touch with the outside world and with being at uni •It has changed, I didn't realise twitter could be used as a tool to support academic development. •I didn't think it would be useful but now I've used it independently outside the teaching sessions my perception of it has definitely changed. •Yes, I used to just think it was something that celebrities argued on now I feel it can be used very well educationally. •I have learnt that Twitter can be used in a professional way as well as socially. •I think it has because I see how it can be useful as a professional tool as well as for fun.

Key findings/ Considerations

• Enrichment not replacement• IT skills, resources• SEN e.g. dyslexic students, visually impaired• Privacy, e-safety• Enter a professional community and develop professional

identity• Resource rather than just communication.• Each other as a resource• Tutor time-availability/ communication – blurring of roles• Teaching time now a premium • Focus/purpose• Scaffolding • Social constructivist – the social in social media

References • Barnes, K. Marateo, R. C. & Ferris, S. P. (2007). Teaching and learning with the Net Generation Innovate:

Journal of Online Education. Vol. 3, No 4

• Cremin T., Mottram M., Bearne E., & GoodwinP. (2008) Exploring teachers' knowledge of children's literature, Cambridge Journal of Education, 38:4, 449-464

• Dunn, L. (2013) Teaching in higher education: can social media enhance the learning experience? In: 6th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference, 19th Apr 2013, Glasgow, UK.

• Foroughi, A. (2011). A Research Framework for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Implementation of Social Media in Higher Education. Online Journal of Workforce Education and Development, 5(1).

• Gamble N. and Yates S. (2008) Exploring Children's Literature, SAGE,

• Hitchcock, L., and Andrew Battista. "Social Media for Professional Practice: Integrating Twitter With Social Work Pedagogy." Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work 18 (2013).

• Kelm (2011) Social Media: it’s what students do , University of Texas at Austin Business Communication Quarterly, Volume 74, Number 4, December 2011 505-520

• OECD (2011), “Are students who enjoy reading better readers?”, in PISA 2009 at a Glance, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264095250-28-en

• Ofsted (2005) English 2000–05 :A review of inspection evidence Crown

• U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (2003) Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2003 U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences

• U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (2006) Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2006 U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences