Action Research Update for EDLD 5326

In my action research on “How Technology Affects ELLs and Non-ELLS in Math”, students who were provided lessons using technology in the classroom, and then worked daily in the computer lab on assignments related to the subject. At first, I utilized the programs that we already had, and then I researched some addition free internet resources that contained games in the topics that we studied in math.  I created a class webpage and housed links to these programs so that the students could easily access them at school and at home.  As the year progressed more internet based learning games were added to the links. These students worked on word problems, reviewed vocabulary words daily through games and self-testing, and were able to do games that competed against each other to enhance their math skills. The students were also able to work on these programs at home.  About January, all the internet based learning programs were being utilized by the students.  Periodically through the year, last year, students were given benchmarks to see how they were progressing. During the summer, I pulled all the benchmarks to see how the students increased and compared the averages between the ELLs and the non-ELLs. The results of the program showed that ELLs improved more than the non-ELL students.  Factors that could have contributed to this outcome is:  the ELL students were more eager to learn based on culture, students learning was engaged because of having access to technology, students were able to compete against themselves or other students within the class continuously setting higher goals for themselves, or students were seeing problems more visually.  One thing that I thought was interesting; I had students that had learning issues on both the ELL and non-ELL side.  The students with the learning issues benefited