Article Review

A. Citation of the Article:

a. Title: Engineering a Poem: An Action Research Study
b. Journal: Journal of Technology Education, Vol. 18 No. 1, Fall 2006 (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v18n1/koch.html)
c. Author:
Janice Koch (Janice.Koch@hofstra.edu) is Professor of Science Education and Director of the IDEAS Institute of the School of Education and Allied Human Services, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
Brooke Feingold was a graduate student in education at Hofstra University when this was written and is now a public school educator.

B. Summary of the Article:

The Aims of the Research
This study explores the use of design technology to teach a unit on poetry in a fifth grade class. The main goals of the poetry unit were to develop students’ abilities to use their own creative voices to express themselves and to write descriptive poetry that creates detailed images for the reader. To reinforce the latter concept, the teacher used a design challenge that asked these fifth grade students to make a three dimensional representation of the imagery created by another student’s poetry. The students’ experiences of being immersed in design and construction revealed engagement and attention to detail. Their abilities to meet the design specifications and constraints of this challenge were observed and researched by the classroom teacher. The students’ understanding of imagery, appreciation of poetry, and their ability to write poetry improved as the unit progressed. Design technology became a vehicle for creative expression that is not usually associated with the teaching and learning of poetry.



The Methodology

Techniques for the assessment of student learning are an integral part of classroom research. The researcher had the opportunity to observe student interactions and experiences through an unbiased lens as a result of being a visiting teacher to the class. The following methods for data collection included:
1. Analyzing the responses to pre- and post unit assessment instruments;
2. Maintaining a teaching journal.
3. Using frequent minute papers, in which students were asked a question about the unit and given a minute to respond in writing.
4. Analysis of student understanding of poetry.
5. Analysis of student design portfolios and products
6. Student self and peer evaluations

Students were provided with a series of poetry assignments. Each assignment was an opportunity for the students to apply what they knew regarding a different type of poem. In order to improve their ability to use imagery in these poems, the students were required to represent their poetic imagery in graphical forms developed through an iterative, engineering design process.

The Subjects/Sample
This unit was implemented in a fifth grade class. The middle school in which the unit was implemented is situated in an affluent suburb of a major northeastern city in the United States, where parent involvement and expectations run high. In the 2002-2003 school years, there were 4874 students enrolled in the school district, with 92.6% of the student population from a white background. The district had only 10 black (not Hispanic) students, 70 Hispanic students, and 5.8% of the students were of Asian, American Indian, Alaskan, or Pacific Islander descent, reflecting a lack of diversity when compared to other districts in the state (NYSED, 2003a ). In this particular school, only 5.2% of the students were of Asian, American Indian, Alaskan or Pacific Islander descent, 0.8% were Hispanic, and 0% were Black (not Hispanic).





Findings of the Research

The scores on the post assessment instrument improved greatly compared to the pre-assessment (n = 22). The average score on the pre-assessment instrument was 71.9%, and the mode was 80. On the post assessment instrument, the average was 91.7% and the mode was 100, revealing that many students had perfect scores on the final assessment of the poetry. This represents a significant increase in student understanding of poetry.

The second findings based on the teacher’s teaching journal identified three emergent themes. First, the students became more comfortable with sharing their poems orally and participating in class discussion about them. Secondly, the poetry unit gained life and excitement as the design project was introduced. Finally, the students gained expertise in manipulating the materials they needed to make the model from their drawings in their design portfolios.

At the end of various class sessions the teacher would have the students respond to prompts about their class work anonymously. These “minute papers” were a quick and informal way for the students to provide insight into what they were thinking, feeling, and learning about poetry without the pressure of censure. The final minute paper given on the last day of the unit asked the students, “How did the construction of your design project enhance your learning of poetry?” Twenty four students responded. Seventy-one percent indicated that it did improve their understanding of poetry. Their explanations varied. One student wrote, “It did because you not only get to picture your image you get to see the image and look at the details.” An insightful response was, “It enhanced my learning of poetry because now I know that poetry doesn’t have to just be in poem form, it can be in project form.”

Most students put a lot of effort into their work, which was revealed in the peer evaluations that indicated how accurately the finished projects depicted the images represented in the poem. Student peer evaluations also pointed out those projects that did not accurately reflect the designer’s effort or accuracy of poetic interpretation. For example, one student had written a poem about the beach, and her peer had decided to build a sand castle, which is one of the images in the poem.





Reaction
Judging from the title, at first glance it seems that this research does not have to do with the use of computer assist language learning. Most of the research methodology used in this research was conducted manually with the implementation of engineering elements, more into building things virtually. But what triggers me to review this research is on how the research gives a revolutionary impact into our learning and teaching approach. The research gives us an idea on how the technology can be manipulated to make learning and teaching less stressful and creatively been conducted compare to our traditional approach, text-book based. The most interesting ideas that deprive from this research is on how we combine the engineering approach of building a three dimensional form of poem with the use of computer in the classroom. There are many advantages if we manage to integrate the use of computer into this new methodology. It can save us in term of budget been used, time consuming and more open space for students to show their creativity. The research is like posting a challenge for all teachers to create an application or software whereby they can integrate the engineering poem approach into computer assisted language learning.
The research is well conducted in term of its validity and reliability. The first point that makes this research can be heavily depend is based on its varied way of gathering information. There are 6 methods been used by the authors which each approach are inter-related to each other. This makes the result from each approach can support to each either to strengthen more on the findings statement or to make comparison. I also admire the authenticity on how the research been conducted. The researcher acted as a visitor teacher to the subject or sample. The sample does not in any kind been inform that an experiment been conducted as all the results were based of the students actual performance. It helps to reduce on the outside factors such as the student’s mentality preparation to take the experiment which can avoid invalid results.
It is always a surprise on how technology can enhance our teaching methodology. A nations status in the eyes of the world can be define by many things. One of the core elements in labeling a develop country is based on the technology they are acquiring. That is why our Malaysian Education Department tries to integrate the use of technology in the profession of teaching to the maximum. the implications of integrating engineering elements in our teaching methodology is something that we as a teacher must valued and harvest as to full fill our nation vision, to become a fully develop nations in technology. Based on the findings on the research, students enjoy the lesson on making a three dimensional poem meaning. This gives us in Malaysian context a new prospective and view on how we can make our lesson more interesting and thus in the same time motivate students to learn more. It is also a good platform for students to use the creativity to the maximum as with the computer assisted learning, it has no boundaries for the students to explore their ideas. Who knows that maybe through this little implication of teaching and learning approach, we may someday once again hold the title a country who owns the tallest buildings in the world like what we achieve with the PETRONAS Twin Tower.