Abstract:
Forty-four fifth-grade students in two intact classes participated in this action
research study to examine student and teacher experiences with and without
technology provided with the new Harcourt Trophies Distant Voyages Reading
Series. The unit of study was reading comprehension skills such as identifying the
main idea, recognizing details in a story, drawing conclusions, and summarizing.
Measurement instruments included a pretest and posttest, surveys of student and
teacher perceptions, and a classroom observation tool. Findings suggest that there
were no differences in experiences between the two groups of students and
between the two teachers. The total population technology group had slightly
higher student achievement gains; among the at-risk students in the study, the
technology group also had higher overall gains than the traditional group. These
results will assist teachers and administrators with decisions about future use of
the technology accompanying the series.