Action Research Proposal Summary 2

1. What is the problem? Kindergarten students have trouble recognizing rhyme and word families in text.

2. What is the rational for the project? It is easier for students to read using recognition of word families and rhyming words than using phonics.

3. What strategy will be used to address the problem? A variety of rhyming games will be introduced to the class that will require students to use basic elements of phonetic analysis.

4. What is the question? How can I use a variety of rhyming games to help my students recognize rhyme and word families in text?

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work? "Research shows that implementing a range of rhyming games can help students improve their recognition of rhyme and word families (Allen 1988).” “Reinforcement of patterns of rhyme through rhyming games helps students build on the concept of rhyme and word families  (Bradley & Bryant 1983).”

6. How will data be collected? Assessment of Decoding prior to and following implementation, teaching journal monitoring individual student progress, student performance checklist during games

 Reference:

NA. (ND). Rhyme, word family recognition, and reading in kindergarten. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6DFAmexYq7vZmUyM2MwMjEtZjlkMS00MDc1LTkzMTQtOGI1OWRjNzRhMjFh/edit

Action Research Summary

1. What is the title of the project? TNLI: Action Research: Curriculum Implementation: Research Question/Definition of Problem

2. What is the Question? What happens to third graders' writing when they participate in a reading and letter writing program?

4. What strategy is being used to address? The nonlinguistic strategy is being addressed.

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work? Once the letter writing took place, fewer errors started occurring.

6. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work? The students participated in a pen pal letter writing project. The teacher collected the student’s letters, before sending them out, and analyzed how the writing had changed since the start of the process.

7. How was the data analyzed? During the assessment process, the teacher recognized several trends that were occurring amongst students. She also analyzed things through book discussions, paying close attention to how the students created their own dialogue.

8. What were the results? That all randomly selected students demonstrated growth in the letter writing process. Their occurrence of errors decreased and their level of writing increased. However, the majority of them continued to struggle with vocabulary and mechanics

9. How do the results inform teacher practice? The results show that the effort put forth in this study was truly worth it. Successful results occurred when the students made fewer errors on their letters. This study can guide a teacher in a reading and writing curriculum to focus on letter writing, or something interesting to the students, that will excite them and make the class more eager to learn.

Double Entry Journal #11

What is formative assessment?

Formative assessment is an assessment for learning, not of learning. This type of assessment allows students to get feedback in order to better construct their work. Formative assessment should focus more on the task instead of the learner.

What is the CENTRAL purpose of formative assessment?

The central purpose of formative assessment is student learning.

Connect a best practice in formative assessment to one research-based strategy.

Providing feedback is a research-based strategy that is strongly connected to best practices in formative assessment. This strategy initiates timely and positive feedback, which is key in high quality formative assessment.

Give an example of how a specific assessment can be used formatively and summatively.

A rubric can be used formatively because it lists criteria that will assist students in working towards what is expected of them. The rubric can be used summatively to provide the student with a grade.

Give an example from your field placement related to formative assessment and timing.

In my clinical placement, my students have been practicing for the writing assessment. They have been writing stories using a block paragraph method. This is where a paper is folded into four sections, and then each paragraph goes on one section. This allows the students to process each paragraph in a more structured way. Once the students construct their story, the teacher discusses it one-on-one with each student. She gives the learner advice on how to better the story and compliments on the strong points. This provides a type of formative assessment with immediate feedback for the students.

What are some strategies to help formative assessment be more effective when providing students with feedback?

Student feedback needs to be timely. The feedback should be given as soon as possible, so that the task is still fresh on the student’s mind. Feedback should also be specific. Never just tell a student that he or she did well. Specifically state what they did well. Feedback should also be task-focused, not learner-focused.

Name two advantages to high quality formative assessment.

High quality formative assessment helps to identify students who are struggling with particular tasks. This will help teachers to change up instruction to better reach student needs. High quality formative assessment also provides students with more confidence and control. Providing students with positive feedback allows them to feel better about their work, and allowing them to correct it to better reach a goal makes them feel more in control of their own work.

What are some challenges to implementing high quality formative assessment?

One challenge to high quality formative assessment includes linking assessment to instruction so that both the teacher and the student benefit. Another challenge is in developing a support system for high quality formative assessment. If parents in the community do not understand the purpose behind formative assessment, they could view it as a lazy and unhelpful process. The community needs to be introduced to this strategy so that the teacher has a support group.

Resources:

NA. (2005). Focus on effectiveness. Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/

NCTE. (2010). Fostering high-quality. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CC/0201-sep2010/CC0201PolicyBrief.pdf

Webquest Design

The overall appearance of our webquest is okay, but we plan on changing it anyway. In the process of the task, the jobs are listed. The jobs seem very vague including: to work with the computer, to write findings, or to keep the group on task. Renita and I will adjust this by having specific roles and jobs for each student. The jobs will more than likely stay the same, but the roles may consist of things such as: one person finding various types of pollution, one person searching for the dangers of pollution, and one person searching for ways to prevent pollution. We feel that this will make the project flow better. The template webquest is geared towards second grade, but we are going to change it to third grade. The CSO we will be basing our webquest around is:

SC.O.3.3.8 Recognize that a solution to one scientific problem often creates new problems (e.g., recycling, pollution, conservation, or waste disposal).  

Double Entry Journal #9

“School, they say, should be a place for learning. There’s plenty of time for play at home.”

I chose this quote because I strongly disagree with the concept. From reading the article I know that most individuals do disagree with this statement, but I find it hard to believe that even one person believes this. School was not just developed simply for learning. Beyond education, school also develops social skills, friendships, and character. If we were to sit our students down every day for a whole year and lecture to them, we would see a very low success rate. Young children need to play. By playing they learn new experiences that can’t be explained by a simple lecture.

“Young children work hard at play.”

This quote, along with the paragraph following it, is a very powerful quote. When we think of the word “play” we often think of it as a time when children are having fun, taking a break from learning, and mingling with their peers. In many ways, we diminish the true meaning of the word “play.” It takes effort for a child to play. Children have to establish some type of real-life concept and use the information they know to continue “playing.” Students mingle with their peers and use new language and discuss new concepts during play time. A lot of times, adults fail to see how important play time is. We teach our students from the start that one day they will go out in the world and have to survive on their own. If we let these children play, they are already doing this. They are going out, without being closely watched by a teacher, and using information they know to play various games and roles. Why would we want to take away something that children put such an effort into?

“How can we expect our children to thrive in the imagination economy of the future if we deny them opportunities for play and creativity in kindergarten?”

This quote goes along with what was stated above. I strongly agree with what is being said. As an adult, I have learned that it is very difficult for adults to learn new concepts compared to how simple it is for a young child. As the old saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” At a young age children are brave and very imaginative. If we pull our students away from imagination, how will they ever grasp this concept as an adult?

Resources:

Martina, E. (NA). The importance of play . Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIayLh2P5C0

Miller, E., & Almon, J. (NA). Crisis in the kindergarten why children need to play in school . Retrieved from http://earlychildhoodcolorado.org/inc/uploads/Crisis_in_Kindergarten.pdf

Double Entry Journal #8

What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?

Challenges occur when teachers do not fully understand inquiry approaches to learning. At first glance, some teachers may view inquiry approaches as “unstructured,” and will fail to do many things to make this approach a success. Teachers may also struggle to implement discipline-appropriate strategies when working with inquiry approaches to learning. 

Make connections between project-based learning and three research based strategies (Choose strategies you have not already been assigned to read about). Give a brief explanation of the connections.

Cooperative Grouping-In a project-based learning setting it is very common to see a classroom working in cooperative groups. Effective cooperative learning occurs when students work together to accomplish shared goals and when positive structures are in place to support that process (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). This strategy would be a good way to implement PBL in the classroom.

Providing Feedback-In my opinion, this is one of the most important research-based strategies. During PBL the teacher must provide positive feedback to each of her students in order to motivate them further. Feedback has been shown to be one of the most significant activities a teacher can engage in to improve student achievement (Hattie, 1992). While doing my PBL I will definitely provide as much positive feedback as possible to my students.

Simulations and Games-This is one strategy that I believe could make PBL very successful. Simulations enhance this potential by making modeling dynamic. Games and modeling activities can elicit curiosity, create a demand for knowledge, and enable students to discover knowledge through exploration (Edelson, 1998). Simulations allow students to actually be involved with the situation at hand. Games teach many strategies, such as conflict resolution. This could be a very effective PBL strategy, but must be introduced in the proper way. It is easy for a classroom to get “out of hand” during a simulation or game, so it is important to have discipline points introduced at the beginning of the lesson.

References:

Baron, , B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (1991). Teaching for meaningful learners. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

NA. (2005). Focus on effectiveness. Retrieved from http://www.netc.org/focus/

Focused Observation of Struggling student

During my focused observation I chose to observe a young boy who has an IEP. I am not positive as to what is on his IEP, but after my observation I believe he may have ADD. This third grader is mainstreamed with the regular class most of the day. He goes to the Special Needs teacher for about 45 minutes at the most daily. During my observation, I noticed many interesting things. The child does not have severe trouble in the classroom. If the teacher or I remind the boy to keep working he does well. If we forget to after about 15 minutes, he falls off track. I observed him during a reading lesson, where the teacher was reading to the class in front of the room and asking questions. While the teacher was reading, the boy had his book placed on his lap and flipped through the pages often. The child never looked at the teacher and seemed very “tuned out” the whole time. During the class discussion, the young boy always looked down. Very rarely did I see his head rise. He never attempted to answer a question, and I’m not positive he even paid attention to the questions that were asked. After the lesson, the teacher passed out a reading worksheet while stating the directions. After the worksheet was passed out, the child walked up to the teacher and asked her to repeat the directions.

The observation somewhat intrigued me. I knew this young boy was struggling, but when I was solely focused on him, I saw many new things. The student’s behavior always connects with what is going on in the classroom. During quiet times, such as reading, he is unfocused. When things become louder or more "hands on," he is interested. For example, at one point during my observation, the teacher asked a question and many students had an opinion. The noise level went up a lot, and this quickly caught the young boy’s attention. He sits in the front row therefore the teacher can often use proximity to grab his attention. I often work one on one with the young child. He is very smart and receives good grades. The child just needs a reminder every few minutes to stay on track. I definitely learned a lot from this observation, and I feel that I can now better assist this young boy.