The way I will collect the data on whether students are successful using BYOD to increase literacy, communication and executive skills is to use a pre and post test. The test will measure four areas: reading (awareness of text), communication (writing), attitudes towards school (motivation) and executive skills.
The text will be at around a 1200 lexile level (MetaMetrics, 2015). The questions will be around structure (what’s the topic sentence? what is the supporting evidence?), meaning (What is the author’s purpose? What tells you this? What can you infer from the text about [x]? Does the author achieve his/her purpose?), and then a section on transfer where the students are asked to apply the information from the paragraph to another situation (NRC, 2000).
Students will also be asked questions about how to find out class-related information. Next, they will be asked some questions about previous experiences with classes where BYOD was employed. Lastly, they will be asked what they are hoping to learn from the class so the class can be tailored to individual learners’ needs and interests.
The students will be given this assessment on the first day of class and on the last day of class. Students will be offered participation points for both the pre and post text. They will be offered enough points to motivate them to complete the assessment, but not enough points to make them feel like they have to complete the task with any outside assistance.
Initially, students will be measured by their own growth and not compared to a control group, but, if the curriculum is generalized to other Humanities classes and other domains, there will need to be a control group for each class and each domain to which the curriculum is moved in order to make sure that the curriculum continues to be effective.