Summary
What I have learned during my Action Research is that with any thing it takes time. At the beginning of the research, I could not decide what I wanted to do my research on. I had so much to choose from but had problems narrowing down the specifics.
Setting up a time line was very helpful for me because I was able to see what I had done and what I needed to do. I came across some obstacles during the first part of my project on trying to decide what I was going to use. Like any other school system, we had problems with the computers at school. The computers were not up and running at the beginning of the school year. I also, encountered problems with students returning the parent consent forms. I called parents and gave each child a small incentive who returned the consent form.
One of the things that really slowed my process in the beginning of the year was my student teacher. I did a beginning of the year test to check my student’s math levels. I also, reviewed the test profile from the 2008-2009 Criterion Competency Referenced Test. I was very disturbed to find that only 29% of the students passed mathematics. This was my revelation, which lead me in the direction of finding instructional strategies that would help with comprehension in math. I compared the reading scores to the math scores they were not so great, but was 25% more than the math scores. I knew I had my work cut out for me and I needed to get to work as soon as possible. In my cycle1, I discovered that more than 50% of my students were not fluent with multiplication when I used the Successmaker lab and orchard lab as measuring instruments. These are two computer programs that provide daily practice on the Georgia Performance Standards. I reviewed the weekly reports from each program hoping it would provide me with a picture of what my students needed remediation of and what I could do to reach the specific standards that were indicated from the data. As I began to review the reports and compile data, I noticed an inaccuracy for the time each student spent per session. Student’s assignments are set for two to 15 minutes session and the report was showing assignments being completed in 5-10 minutes. This led me to the conclusion that students were not reading when selecting answers. They were just pushing buttons to finish the assignments. I decided that this tool would not work unless I stayed in the lab and monitored the students. Cycle1 bought about many challenging surprises.
Students took the first mathematics benchmark test in November; it was then that I discovered my students were not fluent with multiplication facts. It appears that during the time my student teacher was facilitating some basic skills were overlooked. I encouraged students to create multiplication songs. They presented and performed them in class. We did multiplication drills on the computer and the students participated in classroom multiplication competitions. The basic flash cards were used by the teacher as one-on-one assessment. In my research, it suggested using constructed-response items to better prepare students for testing because constructed-response require a higher level of thinking than that of multiple-choice questions. Multiple-choice offer students the opportunity to select from a number of options. Having to making a decision on which item to select suggests to me that a lower of understanding is reacted upon, which leads me to believe we cannot be sure of a student’s level of understanding. So now the question is, how can we prepare students to improve their level of understanding for constructive response questions? My research has opened my eyes to the fact that students need to read and write more in order to increase their level of math comprehension.
In the beginning of my cycle2 I took a different direction. I had to really find some reading graphic organizers to help me teach math comprehension. I decided to use KWL Charts for each new skill taught. I noticed when using the KWL chart and teaching a skill in smaller segments the student’s work showed better results. One of the skills I tested using the KWL model was finding the circumference of a circle. I used one day to create the KWL chart and guided students in filling in what they know, what they want to know, and key vocabulary that went with the skill like formula, pi, what is circumference to diameter, the relationship of perimeter and circumference and what does circumference measure.
On the second day, I did a read aloud. After the read-aloud, I had students to make connections such as, text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-media. From this I was able to see how many students needed more instruction before getting into the lesson. The next day, I demonstrated to students how to measure using a string to check the relationship of circumference to the diameter. On day, four, I demonstrated to students how to use the formula pi and diameter to find the circumference of a circle. When questioning students as to what they learned, one of my students asked, “Does finding area mean to multiply?” After the students completed the lesson with a hands-on-activity they wrote in their math journals. The students were encouraged to write on the title, I Understand. I instructed the students to explain to me exactly what they learned using the vocabulary and terminology of the lesson.
I have learned that when beginning a literature review you should use your day to day findings and dig a little deeper because the problems that students are having in math and other subject areas did not just start. These problems have built up over a period of time. I have also found that it takes ample time to search for research when completing a literature review, and then there is time needed to analyze and process the information.
I have found that many educators are experiencing the same kinds of problems with their students. Educators are searching for effective instructional strategies to reach our students through the internet, resource books, and collaboration. Our students are important to us and we face the daily challenges to help them to become successful life long learners.
