REFERENCE: Zorfass, J. (1994). Supporting students with learning disabilities: Integrating technology into an I-Search Unit. Technology and Disability, 3 (2), 129-136. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher. ©1994 Butterworth-Heinemann.
Keywords: Middle school; learning disabilities; technology integration; curriculum
The I-Search Unit
Integrating Technology into the I-Search Unit
Case Study
Teachers: The Key to Successfully Integrating Technology in to the We-Search Unit
References
The goal of this article is to show how technology can be integrated into an I-Search Unit to support students with learning disabilities in mainstream, middle school classes. The article has three major sections. The first section provides an overview of an I-Search Unit; an inquiry-based interdisciplinary curriculum unit that has four phases. In Phase I, students become immersed in the unit's theme (such as ecology or justice) that is socially relevant and personally motivating to early adolescents. In this phase, they engage in varied activities to elicit prior knowledge and to build background knowledge. Students pose personally meaningful I-Search questions to investigate by the end of the phase. In Phase II, students develop a search plan that details how they will gather information by reading books, magazines, newspapers, reference materials; watching videos, filmstrips; interviewing people or conducting surveys; or carrying out experiments, doing simulations, or going on field trips. In Phase III, they gather and integrate information. Phase IV involves writing an I-Search Report that has the following sections: My Search Question, My Search Process, What I Learned, What This Means to Me, and References.
The second section will show how a rich variety of technology applications can be integrated into an I-Search Unit to help students with disabilities to:
One technology application, the Search Organizer, is currently under development at Education Development Center, Inc.(EDC). Running on the Macintosh PowerBook, the goal of this software is to provide scaffolding to students through the four phases of the I-Search Unit.
The third section will present case materials illustrating how students with disabilities actually used technology to successfully participate in an I-Search Unit being implemented across regular education classes. The illustrative examples are drawn from middle schools around the country who are working with the Education Development Center as part of research and training projects.
Acknowledgment: Many thanks to Midian Kurland of EDC. He is the designer of Search Organizer, a key member of the research team, and a contributor to this article.
This article was prepared with the support of U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs; grant number H180E20011. The contents of this article do not necessarily reflect the policy of the Department of Education and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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An I-Search Unit is a curriculum unit carried out by a team of teachers in middle
schools. The teachers, usually representing content areas such as, language arts, social
studies, mathematics and science, For man interdisciplinary team. The goal of this type of
interdisciplinary curriculum unit is to promote inquiry-based teaching and learning.
Teachers help the students learn how to become inquirers, researchers, or explorers of
information (Macrorie, 1988).
Lasting approximately eight weeks, an I-Search Unit has four phases of instruction (as
shown in Figure 1).
Figure 1. Four phases of instruction
(Source: Macrorie (1988). The I-Search Paper, rev. ed.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers)
{click on image to view larger}
In Phase I, teachers immerse students in the unit's theme (i.e., a socially relevant
theme such as Water Ecology that naturally links science, social studies, language arts,
and mathematics). Students engage in a variety of authentic activities, not only to
discover what they already know about this theme, but also to build background knowledge.
These activities model for students a variety of ways to gather information. By the end of
Phase I, each student poses an I-Search question to guide his or her personally motivated
inquiry. In Phase II, students develop a search plan that identifies how they will gather
information by reading books, magazines, newspapers, reference materials; watching videos,
filmstrips; interviewing people or conducting studies; or carrying out experiments, doing
simulations, or going on field trips. In Phase III, students gather and integrate
information by following their search plans. In Phase IV, students draft, revise, edit,
and publish an I-Search Report which includes the following sections: My Search Questions,
My Search Process, What I Learned, What This Means To Me, and References.
An I-Search Unit is a regular education curriculum that can successfully include students
with learning disabilities. Building upon research findings about promoting effective
teaching and learning for students with learning disabilities in middle schools, the
I-Search Unit embodies the following principles:
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There are four effective ways in which technology applications can enrich and enhance
an I-Search Unit to support students with learning disabilities. First, technology
applications can provide access to information that goes beyond reading, often a source of
difficulty for students with disabilities. Applications such as videos, simulations,
databases, CD-ROM encyclopedias, and laser discs, provide students with information
through both visual and auditory channels. This is particularly helpful during Phase I
when students become immersed in the unit, and during Phase III when they are gathering
information. A second supportive way is that technology provides tools to help analyze,
organize and manipulate the information being assembled. For example, databases,
spreadsheets, and graphing programs all serve these functions. The third way is to help
students convey to others what they are learning, not only via text, but also through
graphics, video and sound, integrated within multimedia compositions.
The fourth way is particularly relevant for students with learning disabilities.
Technology can provide scaffolding for the search process. The EDC is currently developing
a software program, the Search Organizer, that guides students through each of the four
phases described above. The Search Organizer is used on the Macintosh PowerBook, a laptop
computer that can easily be transported from classroom to classroom. This mobility is an
important feature for participation in interdisciplinary instruction across content area
classrooms in middle schools.
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The purpose of the case study is to show how technology can be integrated into a
We-Search Unit to support students with learning disabilities. A We-Search Unit, a
variation of the I-Search, is so named because it emphasizes cooperative learning. The
case below illustrates how cooperative groups of students, including students with
learning disabilities, can use PowerBooks that run the Search Organizer software. Students
also use other technology applications and media.
Examples used in this composite case are drawn from two middle schools. One is located in
Indianapolis and the other in suburban Boston. Both schools are participating in a
three-year federally funded project. The goal of the project is to study the impact of the
We-Search process, supported by the Search Organizer and other software applications, on
students with mild disabilities who are in the mainstream. Both schools have access to the
same videos, interactive videos (e.g., The Great Ocean Rescue [Tom Snyder Productions])
and simulations (e.g., Decisions, Decisions: The Environment [Tom Snyder Productions,
1991]). The Boston school has access to the PowerBooks with the Search Organizer and
ClarisWorks (Claris Corp., 1991). ClarisWorks integrates word processing, data base,
spreadsheet, and graphics programs.
The purpose of the case is to provide an illustration of what is possible, using a
combination of real and hypothetical events from the two schools. The case is organized
into four parts that parallel the four phases of the We-Search Unit.
Clutching test tubes filled with water from a nearby river, the seventh-grade team of
over 100 students and their teachers hiked back to school. To launch their We-Search Unit
on water ecology, they had collected water samples to test for pollution. Working in
cooperative groups back at school, students created a spreadsheet. They then used the
spreadsheet data to develop graphical displays of their data. Examination of the graphs
revealed, to the student's surprise, that the water was not polluted.
Over the next two weeks, students continued to explore the unit's theme through a set of
related activities. Not only were activities well coordinated across subject areas, they
were carefully designed to make sure students with learning disabilities would fully
participate. For example:
Students worked in cooperative groups of three to five students, carefully arranged by teachers to account for diversity in gender, academic ability, and other factors. Each cooperative team of three to five students had a PowerBook. In order to move the PowerBooks from classroom to classroom, they were placed on a cart. Atop the cart was a printer and stationary computer (see Figure 2). One advantage of the cart was that as the PowerBooks fit into their "parking places" they could be recharged.
Figure 2. Printer cart and PowerBooks setup.
{click on image to view larger}
Throughout Phase I, students used the Search Organizer in each class to record their emerging thinking about what they were learning and what interested them. This kind of processing was particularly important for Aaron, a student with learning disabilities who needed both a strategy and tool to capture his interests and organize his thoughts. One screen helped students to pose their questions and explain why it interested them and how it related to the overarching concepts (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Students select and justify their search questions.
{click on image to view larger}
Students regularly printed out their work, filing these printouts in the group's
three-ring binder notebook, used as a portfolio. During the teachers' team meetings,
teachers would collaboratively review the portfolios to determine if intervention was
needed, and how individual strategies for students would further support students with
learning disabilities.
The goal of Phase II, lasting only three days, was for students to develop a search
plan. The language arts teacher took each of her classes to the media center. Here they
perused materials/resources on water ecology including books, magazines, newspapers, and
videos.
These resources and materials corresponded to a list of available materials and resources
contained in the Search Organizer (see Figure 4). Students could mark off the materials
and resources to plan their search in the Search Organizer. For each resource listed,
there was additional relevant information, such as where it could be found and its
citation. When students asked for a printout, each student's initials appeared in a column
to be checked off.
Figure 4: Search Organizer provides a list of available materials and resources.
{click on image to view larger}
In Phase III--Gathering and Integrating Information--students carried out their search
plans over a two-week period. On a rotating schedule, teachers took students to the media
center. Here they used books, videos, simulations, and CD-ROM Encyclopedias. Outside of
the media center, and beyond the walls of the classroom, they also conducted surveys, went
on field trips, and interviewed experts in the field.
Working individually, in pairs, or in cooperative groups, students again used the Search
Organizer to record and integrate information. This phase is designed to help students
process information. On one screen they can record interesting information, indicate where
they found it and who in the group made the contribution(see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Students are helped in processing their information.
{click on image to view larger}
In Phase IV, students produced We-Search Reports with the help of the Search Organizer
which provides students with an outline for the report (see Figure 6). As the student
advanced to this step, they found that the outline already had considerable information
filled in. Prior work was pulled from different sectors into the report outline as it was
created. Students with disabilities, often overwhelmed with the task of organizing
information into a report can begin the report writing phase with a first draft available
to them. This first draft can be downloaded into ClarisWorks for further drafting,
revising, and editing. In addition, students can supplement the text by using graphics and
graphs from ClarisWorks.
Figure 6: Search Organizer provides students with an outline for reports.
The unit's culminating event was a Parents/Friends Night. Students displayed their
reports; publications complete with covers, title pages, table of contents, and
references. In addition, some students wrote, directed, and starred in skits which were
videotaped and played on a VCR that evening.
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In the case above, teachers ensured that students with disabilities succeeded in carrying out their searches along with their nondisabled peers. They did this by:
Research on the effective use of technology consistently points to the key role of the
teacher (Zorfass, 1992, Sheingold and Hadley, 1990). Teachers must be actively involved as
part of the technology-student-teacher partnership. To foster the active involvement of
teachers, the EDC has developed a systemic approach called MAKE IT HAPPEN! This approach
guides teachers to design, implement, and evaluate an I-Search Unit that integrates
technology. Schools around the country are finding that this approach can support students
with disabilities in regular education classes. As one eighth-grade New Hampshire student
with disabilities said at the end of her I-Search Unit: "On behalf of the class, I
want to thank the teachers. This was the best part of the year."
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Decisions, Decisions: The Environment [computer program]. Cambridge, MA: Tom
Snyder Productions.
Macrorie, K. (Ed.) (1988). The I-Search Paper, rev. ed. Portsmouth, NH:
Boynton/Cook Publishers.
Sheingold, K., and Hadley, M. (1990). Accomplished teachers: Integrating computers into
classroom practice. New York: Center for Children and Technology; Bank Street College.
Zorfass, J. (1992). Promoting successful technology integration through active teaching
practices. Teaching and Learning: Journal of Natural Inquiry, 6 (3), 46-63.
Dr. Judith Zorfass, associate center director at Education Development Center, Inc.,
directs research, training, product development, and dissemination projects focusing on
special education and technology. She is currently co-principal investigator of the
National Center to Improve Practice, which focuses on improving the use of technology,
media, and materials with students with disabilities. She frequently presents at national
conferences and is the author of many chapters and articles.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Judith Zorfass, EDC, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA (800) 225-4276.
Web: http://www.edc.org/FSC/MIH
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This material was developed by the National Center to Improve Practice (NCIP), located at Education Development Center, Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts. NCIP was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs from October 1, 1992 - September 30, 1998, Grant #H180N20013. Permission is granted to copy and disseminate this information. If you do so, please cite NCIP. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by NCIP, EDC, or the U.S. Government. This site was last updated in September 1998. |