I remember in School continually reading various articles and books yet I can honestly say I only remember 2 books, if I retained anything I can’t fully say, but I most likely did? Returning to collage 30 years later, I noticed changes to how literature is both written and how it is presented within the classroom. Having my own learning disabilities, I am continually upset, disgusted and bored with many of my reading assignments. Meaning I’m not getting as much data from the article as intended. Formats that talk you thru historical accounts rather than addressing the point, to me just made the reading longer and I started questioning what the article was about. I preferred direct instruction, not pages upon pages of accounts of a teacher did and whether her students reacted positively or not to her lesson strategy. 4+ hours of reading whereas a single page would have said the same thing in a more positive light.  Since classes now use what is called an  “inverted” or “flipped classroom” approach to learning whereas students read and the class is more of a refresher to help you understand what you read, rather than teaching the subject. This made thing harder on me, I now had to write out questions, wait for class just to comprehend what the reading addressed. In some classes we never discussed the reading, but talked about other strategies or similar subjects. It came to the point, that the readings were not worth the time or effort, I had more important work to do.
This I feel makes it much harder on struggling students bombarded with comprehending what they read, how they read, and interpreting what they read from the article.  Teachers’ expect high expectations from students because few students want to speak up fearing that they will look dumb to their peers. Resulting in a continual battle of what one learns and what the teacher expects you to have learned from the lesson. Resulting in giving students a cheat sheet in which they still fail.
Throughout my literature classes, they have addressed that certain readings students relate better to, and to allow students their choice of reading. Yet in classes other than literature, this can be nearly impossible, such as my middle school science class, were as we were beginning chemistry reactions. So, the overall question was, if we see what students prefer to read, can they gather as much information from their lesson, if it was presented within their preferred format compared to the typical formats being used in their textbooks and software programs?
 

Assessing results:

To assess  the students comprehension of science I introduced various literature formats which covered the same subject the students were studding. I first create a survey for students to fill out. This gave me some incite to their previous understanding of the course assignments using the Amplify format of their readings which was their standard class format. This allowed me to set a base of their understanding of the subject and provided a view using other formats(did they learn more or get a better understanding of the subject). This also told me which format students prefer using, how much they believed they learned using the various formats,  likes and dislikes using the various formats as well as direct me to other possible formats that they feel may be of benefit. I also verified their performance in class as to whether the additional literature formats actually helped or hinder these student comprehension the subject, improving their grades. Their was unfortunately be some bias to this study of learning because students had been continuing to use the Amplify program for their daily education. Using the additional formats I expected to see improvement in their comprehension and understanding of the subject, and using the survey questions I felt would reduce some of this bias because students will be identifying what format they felt they had gathered more knowledge from and  their improvements in the subject would verify their claim.

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Readings used:

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I could not avoid using the required school curriculum because it was purchased by the district and since I was just a guest withing the classroom, I certainly could not disrupt the teachings being conducted. Amplify is a curriculum and assessment program that Incorporates a computer based educational system which included the student's textbook, study guides, class lessons and testing. It provide adequate interactive simulations, videos and instructions for the subjects being taught. Amplify Curriculum was built on the foundation of Wireless Generation, the educational company News Corp bought in 2010, and launched the program in July 2012. The students accessed the program thru their individual computers and from projections of the videos on the class Prometheus screen. Their is a hard copy text book available, but of course this limits students to such activities such as the simulations and videos which are required for the worksheets. Their are other companies and software curriculum on the market, and I am not promoting or criticizing Amplify, just addressing that this was what I had to use for my base study.

 

Many students prefer reading comic for literature. Books such as "Dogman by Dav Pilkey, and _________. Because of this I purchased a copy of "The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry by Larry Gonick  and Craig Criddle 2005" only to later find a free PDF version online which made it easier to distribute to the selected students and having a hard copy for any student that may not have a computer available at home to participate.  This was in a scene a lengthy book book of 250 pages and I would have preferred something MUCH shorter that focused directly to the reading and assignment for that week, But it was all I could find dealing with the lesson, and being in a comic book format it was easy reading.

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