Reflection
Impact on Students
As a result of this action research, student learning increased. As already noted in the data analysis, the majority of students made growth when comparing the pre-test and post-test data from the unit test. Some students made significant growth which further demonstrated the need for targeted instruction in classrooms with such diverse ability levels. Analyzing multiple data points such as daily work pages, quick quizzes, and observations from mini-lessons to determine areas of focus for my instruction was critical to providing students with the targeted instruction that they needed.
In addition to the data collected from the quick quizzes and unit tests, responses from students that were interviewed suggest an improved mathematical skill set and increased confidence in their ability to solve problems pertaining to this unit of study and math in general. Furthermore, I observed increased engagement from students as a result of games utilized in this unit. More specifically, the Jeopardy game that I created based on the test was significantly more engaging than practicing problems on whiteboards. One student that was interviewed noted that he specifically enjoyed having a choice in what type of questions were asked and how hard the questions were. Therefore, this was a meaningful learning experience for this student in particular. Additionally, his response demonstrated the importance of students feeling that they have a choice in their learning. If all instructional decisions and choices are made for students, they will not be as motivated to take ownership of their learning. Increased engagement was also observed in my small group that received the extension based on MAP scores and what was being covered in class. Initially, these students expressed frustration in not knowing how to solve multi-step problems; however, one day when we ran out of time to solve the last problem on a work page in our small group a student asked: “Can we do the last one?”. This statement specifically stood out to me, because when students are challenged it can be frustrating, but if provided with support these challenges can become more engaging due to the fact that it is a skill they do not already know.
Impact on Current Teaching and Professional growth
Over the duration of this action research, I experienced professional growth as an educator in addition to the growth observed with my students. During weekly PLC, or Professional Learning Community, meetings with my grade level team, I shared weekly plans for math which included resources and games I would be implementing with my own students. Collaboration with other teachers and staff members outside of my grade level team was also beneficial to student learning in order to maximize the instructional time teachers spent with these students. By sharing my observations and concerns with other professionals and making note of their observations, I was able to modify my instruction to better meet the needs of my students, especially those who had more difficulty with this unit. If students already mastered specific concepts or skills, less time was spent on these skills in order to make more time for what was more difficult for students to understand or to extend content. Furthermore, the data I collected suggested that additional time with other teachers may not always be beneficial. It could be possible that some students required more individualized instruction rather than in groups of three to five in order to make progress. If some students in groups progress more quickly than others, it could be frustrating to those still building their skill set. As a result of my literature review, I learned more about effective math instruction such as the math workshop model, guided math, number talks, and progress monitoring and plan on utilizing and refining these skills in the future. Additionally, this action research has impacted my current teaching by using pre-tests more often to asses current student understanding, especially when it has been months after the most recent MAP data point. If students have already been exposed to and mastered content in their learning continuum, I may not need to spend as much time on these concepts as I had originally planned.
What was learned
As a result of this action research, I learned how useful student interviews can be. Although I was initially concerned about finding time to interview students, the data collected from students provided me with a clearer understanding of students learning styles as well as what misconceptions students may have when solving math problems. I plan on utilizing assessments in other subject areas in the future to gauge student interests and gain a more comprehensive overview of who they are as learners. In my literature review, one of the topics I researched was number talks. Throughout my research, I learned that providing students with visual representations of a few different talk moves was beneficial to guiding discussions and encouraging them to stay on topic. Although I had five of these talk moves on my bulletin board near the whole group meeting area in our classroom, in the future, I will have these available at my small group table in the instance that instruction is occurring there. Having these talk moves in more than one area of the classroom will likely promote more productive discussions between students.
In regard to my small group that focused on extended content, I ended up revising the pre-test. Initially, I read the story problems to this group of students and had them solve the problems on a blank sheet of paper; however, I quickly realized the importance of being able to circle key words and numbers in a multi-step problem and chose to provide a paper copy in order to gain a more accurate pre-test. Although this form of a pre-test may work for simpler addition and subtraction problems that we practice in first grade, I learned it became more of an assessment on listening rather than mathematical capabilities. As we began instruction on multi-step problems, I quickly discovered that my students in the group may be prepared for multi-step problems based on MAP data, but lacked a strong foundation in regard to addition and subtraction with regrouping. As a result of this observation, as well as multiple snow days impacting our schedule, we spent more time on this skill and did not have time to work on rounding as originally intended.
questions that Remain
To what effect did interruptions impact student achievement?
As already noted, throughout the course of this action research, multiple snow days occurred. In addition, there was one week in which I was absent for two days due to personal illness. We then had a snow day the following day. This contributed to three days that I was unable to instruct my students which led to a gap between the last lesson of our math unit and our review day. Due to a Valentine's Day party, we also did not have math the day before a short 5-day break to accommodate for parent-teacher conferences. This resulted in lessons being broken up at the start of the unit. Therefore, I wonder how the data might have been different had we not had as many interruptions as we did over the course of this study.
Could a math workshop model have contributed to higher student achievement than what was observed?
In my action plan, I noted that I met with one group each day on average. This was due to the fact that our curriculum focuses primarily on whole group instruction. However, some teachers use a math workshop model in which they do not teach as much whole group and focus primarily on instruction in differentiated small groups that rotate between different stations. Although I used both whole group and small group instruction, it could be possible that implementing curricular lessons in small groups would provide students with more individualized instruction and ultimately be more effective in increasing student achievement. With a larger class size, this would also make instruction more manageable as long as expectations for other stations are reinforced and students are independent in these stations.
How could the use of flexible groups have contributed to student achievement?
While analyzing a variety of sources and literature on the math workshop model and guided math, it was noted that some teachers utilize flexible groups in math. For example, if one concept was more difficult for a group of students to understand, these students would be pulled in order for the teacher to provide re-teaching on that concept. This group would then change depending on the needs of the students and whether or not they had mastered skills. In my action research, the groups of students I met with did not change for the most part. The only time that I changed groups was when I combined groups of similar levels to accommodate for snow days. Therefore, I wonder how the use of a quick re-teaching session during morning work or at the start of math stations may have impacted student achievement.
FUture Instruction and learning
One of the reasons I chose to focus on math as the subject for my action research was due to the fact that I provide math plans for my grade level team. Therefore, the data and research has provided me with many opportunities for growth when planning for this unit and future units to be taught. First and foremost, although it is nearly impossible to plan when snow days will occur during the winter months, in the future, I plan on allowing for more time to be spent on certain lessons or to review skills covered throughout the unit in the instance that there are as many snow days as we had this year. Being flexible is important, especially when there are so many interruptions over the course of one unit. In addition to interruptions impacting the implementation of the unit, number patterns were especially difficult for students and the work pages were very lengthy. When teaching this lesson in the future, I will not only split up the lesson between two days, but also not require students to complete all of the questions on both pages. Instead, I will only require students to complete some of the patterns and will provide guidelines as to how many they must choose from each section. This will be more likely to decrease the frustration observed and will also encourage student choice. If choice was especially meaningful for one of my students interviewed in this study, it is likely that it will be motivating for future students that I have in my classroom.
During the unit, I also observed and made note that my students performed well when addition and subtraction fluency practice were isolated. However, when they were mixed together, they had more difficulty, especially if they were to add on the top half and subtract on the bottom half. Some students would skip the directions or work ahead and continue adding for the remainder of the page. This observation, in addition to data from two of my students that had scores decrease, demonstrates a need to review the importance of taking time on work. This is a skill that would be beneficial for all subject areas, not just math. Lastly, although the majority of students made growth, some students did not make near as much growth as their peers in both the whole group and small group data sets. Furthermore, some scores were still fairly low on the post-tests. Therefore, the students who did not master specific skills continued to work on these skills with either myself or additional educators that provided instruction. Each year, I will have a new group of students with varying needs; however, it will be important to keep ongoing data on students in order to continue reinforcing skills that were not fully understood and to extend content if students have already mastered a skill set to be covered, especially when we move onto a new unit of instruction. This data would benefit the teacher they have the following year as they begin planning for math groups within their own classrooms.