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 21st century skills. The
webinar provide me with additional ideas and tools to meet students’ needs in
order to ensure equity and educational opportunity.
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