I would like to present at one of the following locations
Gerogia Educational Technology in November
Florida Educational Technology in January 2011
Association for Educational Communications ad Technology October 2010
Notes:
Can reading strategies increase math scores?
Hello and welcome to my action research adventure. When given the task of developing a research topic, was not going to be easy for me because I had a long list of topics and ideas. There was no doubt it would have something to do with math.
In August of 2009 during our pre-planning the staff came together to plan for the school year. We begin our session by disaggregating data. I discovered that the students I was receiving from fourth grade scored at 39% in math and 57% in reading.
I knew I needed a plan. Therefore, as I begin to think I thought about the initiative adopted in our county four years ago, Balanced Literacy a research based program.
For the last 3 years, our reading scores have increased and math scores have decreased because of standards. This is where my topic was born. “Will Reading strategies increase math scores?
During my cycle 1, I monitored my students to find their areas of strength and weakness in math. I did daily multiplication drills and discovered that the students were using their fingers to count to complete the multiplication drills. To monitor and assess them I used My Skills Tutor a computer-based program. In October, I pulled my first report and discovered that my students continued to struggle with multiplication. It was at this point it cycle 1 when I encouraged my students to create multiplication raps, do computer drills and computer drill competition. I begin to see the confidence in my students build as they begin to learn their fact with out having to use their fingers to count.
In November, Benchmark1 was administered and the results showed numeration as their weakest area. Numeration had to do will multiplication and division. I decided to push my students a little harder I used the same strategies because the test showed some small gains but not much.
During cycle 2 of my research, Benchmark 2 was administered. The students showed gains in some areas and in some areas they dropped. After examining student’s data, I found several Georgia Performance standards that I needed to re-teach in math. This is when I really focused in and used more of the strategies used with balanced literacy.
I found in my Lit review that there are highly recommended literacy/reading strategies that can increase math scores as: using the K-W-L graphic organizer, read alouds followed by a hands on activity, each one teach one, writing to explain what was learned and identifying key terms.
I have found there is a repertoire of reading and literacy strategies that can support the teaching of math to elementary students. The research has been surprising and interesting on how I can use reading to increase my student’s math scores. This shows me that I need to use a variety of appropriate pedagogy to improve the student’s achievement in reading and math.
There are highly recommended literacy/reading strategies that can increase math scores as: using the K-W-L graphic organizer, K-W- C- graphic organizer, read alouds to reinforce specific math concepts and __________.
I have found that analyzing student data in reading and math is critical to increasing student’s math skills and math scores. Once I examined student’s data, I found out that there were several Georgia Performance Standards that I needed to re-teach in math.
Finally, I have noticed that students need authentic math activities that are practical to real life situations. When my students were engaged in meaningful math activities there confidence level and self- esteem increased, these notable differences in the student’s behavior carried over to their daily class work. Students had a different outlook on the completion of math assignments and an overall love for mathematics. To answer the above question, yes reading strategies can increase math scores providing teacher educators make a concerted commitment to reading and literacy, examine student data, align student data to instruction, and plan appropriate mathematical lessons for students.
