Reflective Researcher-Thinker - Unit 3

Action Research Data

            During this unit, I finished my vocabulary lessons that related to my action research project. The third grade students completed their final survey for the vocabulary strategies. The comments from the students included: “It was fun and good”, “It was fun and to write our vocabulary”, “It was fun”, and “It was fun to do this”.  I was able to collect the data for the third grade students relating to their vocabulary assessment scores in Open Court. To thank the students for participating, I gave each one a dictionary/thesaurus, a small notebook, pencils, and stickers.  The students really appreciated the gift bags and having the opportunity to participate. My hope is that they will use these tools to help them learn their vocabulary words in the future.

Synonym/Antonym for vocabulary word - Tyranny

            

         The fifth grade students finished their final lesson which was to use the Thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms which relate to their vocabulary words. The fifth graders were not as enthusiastic about this lesson as the others, and I am interested to see how they will rate this lesson. This past week, I collected the final data for the fifth grade students. I was also able to collect the final surveys with the exception of one student who was absent. This coming week, my goal is to collect the vocabulary assessment scores from the fifth grade teachers and the final survey.  Overall, I felt the project went very well and the students enjoyed the learning activities.  My goal is to compile all the data as soon as possible so I can begin to analyze the information. 

 

Looking at the Discovery Program

            My family had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. While we were there we made a visit to our daughter’s former school in Clinton, Maryland. The school is a private school that offers the Discovery program. I wanted to learn more about this program. I had several friends who had their children enrolled in this program. The discovery program is under the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) and provides students with educational therapy. The school has been using the NILD education therapy program since 1985. The program has four distinctives which include: a) Instruction is both explicit and intentional, b) Therapy employs inductive reasoning and Socratic questioning, c) Guided practice and systematic feedback, d) Self-regulation and transfer. The program focus on teaching students how to learn, not just what to learn. In order to participate in the program the students are assessed, a meeting is scheduled with the family, testing is set up for the student, and follow-up meeting is set up with the family with the test results.  My daughter did not participate in this program while she attended this school; however, she had several friends that did.  My daughter’s friend was in this program while attending this school. She struggled with academics and her grades for many years. Her mother kept her in the program to ensure that she would make passing grades to participate in sports. She is attending a university in Virginia and last semester she maintained a 4.0 GPA.  I feel that the lessons she learned throughout her primary and secondary education prepared her for college.

Lincoln Memorial - Washington, D.C.

Home Education

            The past few weeks have seen a reduction in assignments due to traveling and preparation of upcoming activities. The children will be participating in a Geography fair on February 25^th.  The countries selected related to the history lessons they have been studying this year. My daughter has been focusing on Ancient Egypt; therefore, she will be completing her project on Egypt.  Early in the school year, my son studied Viking history and chose Norway as his country for the fair. While the geography fair focuses on current information, I have asked both the children to include ancient civilization information to their projects. The past two weeks, they have researched basic information that relates to their country such as: location, president or leader, indigent animals, size, and currency. The research information was initially located and written on a data sheet once this sheet was completed they could begin typing the information to prepare it for their display board. They also had to develop a plan for how they were going to display their information.  This coming week, they will work on completing the display board, an ethnic food, and a costume.

            Also, this week the children completed three science experiments relating to gases, liquids, and solids.  I had them complete work sheets related to the experiments but realized after we cleaned up I did not take any pictures.  In reflection, I will make sure that I have a camera out to capture the experiment. I am also thinking about using the video camera so they can verbally share what they learned from the experiment. This coming week will also include a field trip to the Cortez Journal, the local newspaper.  I will want to provide my children with an opportunity to write and share about their experience and what they will learn.

Labor Omnia Vincit

            I also have Latin club next Friday.  My goal is to contact the parents several days in advance to ensure maximum participation. We will be covering 10 new Latin words and their derivatives. I am also going to cover the Roman poet, Virgil, who was the author of Aeneid. I feel that his saying “Labor omnia vincit” (work conquers all) relates to my life at this time. I have many assignments coming up along with my project and it is the work and effort that I apply that will ‘conquer’ this semester.   

Image from: www.zazzle.com

Reflective Researcher-Thinker - Unit 2

            I continued with my action research project throughout this unit. Each week separate lessons were prepared to ensure new strategies are introduced and the correct vocabulary words are used to ensure the students are primed for their Open Court unit. The third grade students completed weeks three and four for the action research project and the fifth grade students completed weeks two and three. During the third week, the third grade used drawings along with their vocabulary words. They all appeared to enjoy this activity. Once they completed their drawings they shared their favorite one with the rest of the students in the group and how the drawing related to the vocabulary word.  The fourth week’s strategy for the third grade students was the use of a Thesaurus and coming up with synonyms and antonyms for their vocabulary words. The color green was used for the synonyms to represent “go;” this is word can be used to replace the word. We used red for the antonyms to represent “stop;” this is the opposite.

            The third week with the fifth grade students included creating sentences to describe their vocabulary words.  All the students are willing to share and interact with one another.  The fourth week with the fifth grade students was using drawing to support their vocabulary words.  The students appeared to enjoy this activity and discussing their pictures and how they relate to their vocabulary words. In order to meet the need of tactile learners, I continue to bring in physical objects (when possible) so students can make connections, through the sense of touch. The participation and excitement from the students has been very enjoyable. The students get pleasure from the small group time, and according the RtI staff the continually ask when do they get to work with Mrs. Cochran.

            Through this time, I have been able to collect some test scores from a few teachers but need to collect the information from 6 different teachers. I have not been able to coordinate with all the teachers to find a good time to examine the test scores. My hope is to identify a good time which will be good for each teacher and can gather the scores. 

            I have been able to complete one teacher observation in vocabulary instruction. The other teacher that I was going to observed no longer wanted to participate in the research. The teacher, that I was able to observe, is a Reading Interventionist. The lesson was outstanding. My checklist had 21 areas identified and the teacher received “yes” on 18 of them.  After the lesson, she asked to see the checklist and we went over the three areas that had ‘no’. The teacher brainstormed ideas of how these could be added to her future lessons. It was so encouraging to see the enthusiasm for student learning. Areas that she accomplished that were not on my checklist were using more senses than just visual. She used facial expression, sounds, and hand motions.  Based on the senses representations she had, the students play charades. Then she had them play charades with words only.  This was very powerful and reminded me of an ESL sheltered instruction observation I made a few years back. 

            Other techniques that were used were mental pictures where students used imaginary cameras to take a picture of the word. Students were also encouraged to use finger writing to create a mental image of the word. At first, some of the students were not enthusiastic about being there, but a few minutes into the lesson they were actively engaged and all were participating with enthusiasm.  The observation is part of my action research project and I learned a lot from watching the lesson. I wish that I had more teachers willing to let me observe them and am a little disappointed that no teachers wanted to allow the observation. This reminded me about what we learned in teacher leadership. There was an example given last semester about filming one’s lessons for evaluation.  I feel, as a leader, one needs to encourage others in self improvement for student learning.  If teachers have opportunities to share their observations and how it helped them, it will help build enthusiasm for others in self-evaluation. 

            During this unit, I had a Latin Club monthly meeting. I did not have as good of a turn out as I have had the last three months.  Many of the students that normally participate were involved in a Science fair that evening; therefore, they were preparing for events of the fair.  This made me look at my next scheduled date in February which is the day before the geography fair. I might end up changing this date.  The two students who participated learned Latin words for numbers. They enjoyed coming up with numerous derivates based on these root words.

            In researching differentiation, I identified some great ideas. One idea I am planning to implement are think-tac-toe. This is where students are given opportunities to select activities that relate to spelling, reading, or vocabulary. Since I work with my son and daughter at home, I took the idea and plan on implementing them into their course work.  I also want to look at ways that I can help the RtI students with whom I work.

            On January 31, I participated in the Common Core Standards Webinar on equity and opportunity by Lisa Leith. The webinar covered serving the whole child which includes four areas: emotion, belief, motivation, and intellect or cognitive capacity. Ms. Leith covered high-risk profiled students and how poverty or chaos can impact the following: rationale and reasoning, cause and effect, choice and consequences, and order and structure.  Teachers can make a difference by showing empathy, respect, emotion, discipline, caring, and rational thought. Tools provided to help teachers included: student interest survey, hot verbs, the new Blooms taxonomy, and Wagner’s list of 21^st century skills. The webinar provide me with additional ideas and tools to meet students’ needs in order to ensure equity and educational opportunity.