Our teacher's wish was granted and were given the day off due to inclement weather. This was a great opportunity for the teachers to collaborate and dive deeper into their literature reviews. They took advantage of the extra time and explored many resources that supported their research topics and questions. However, this task came with its challenges. One things for sure nothing will get in the way of our enthusiastic teachers! They were all up for the challenge and very anxious to share their progress. I can't wait to hear all about the many scholarly articles and books they've found on their various topics. I'm sure they are feeling very accomplished and more confident about conducting their action research projects.
Pre-K Hallway- Ms. Kelly Bryant
So far, I have been able to research
information regarding my action research topic that will help meexplore a
variety of perspectives. At this point, I believe I have found most, if not
all, of the reliable literature that I need to review; however, it has begun to
make me rethink my research questions. I’m also starting to consider changing
the focus and methodology of my action research and research through the lens
of the teacher. My topic of interest, Conscious Discipline,
originally had me measuring it’s effects through student behavior alone, but
what I have discovered is that Conscious Discipline is
first a program for teacher behavior and students’ second. Therefore, I’m
thinking it may make sense to measure any personal changes and try to gather
information on whether or not my personal changes with using the program have
any effect on student behavior. This would not only change my data from mostly
qualitative to mostly quantitative, it would also shift focus away from the
student and onto the teacher. I can only hope that with further review and
analysis of my literature, I will be able to cement the design and methodology
of my action research plan.
1st Grade Hallway- Ms. Aprell Adams
As I began to dig deeper this week into
my research and find literature that will help me answer my research questions,
I came across many challenges. I was able to find literature on various topics
in regards to reading fluency and sight word recognition, but I’ve struggled to
find meaningful ways to make the information I’ve found connect to my overall
problem statement. My goal is to organize the information in a way that will
allow me to address the components that define reading fluency, problems
associated with reading fluency and the effects of teaching sight word
knowledge to struggling readers. As I continue to dissect my literature I will
look for information that will address these areas in order for me to clearly
conduct my action research. When I initially approached this assignment, I imagined
it being me searching for scholarly material to support my research topic and
finding information that would be relevant. Little did I know the thought
process that had to go behind sequencing your literature, so that it will flow
and allow the reader to clearly understand the major points I want to magnify
in my action research. Now, that I have done my research and have a clearer
understanding of my direction, I feel more confident approaching the next step
in my research. I can finally see the light!
3rd Grade Hallway- Ms. Stacey Seiler
As I talk to my colleagues about their
literature review for their action research, I can conclude that we all have a
similar feeling. It kind of feels like the day that I realized I would need
glasses for seeing long distance. I had trouble seeing far away, everything was
a little blurry, it was hard to find the perfect pair, then I felt a little
excited, but as soon as I wore them I had doubts that they were the right ones.
Finally the glasses felt natural, and I could see everything so much clearer!
I’m past the, “I think I picked the perfect pair phase” and so now I’m
trying to make all the literature flow naturally in a piece of writing.
I’ve chosen to organize my
literature review around the big concepts and structures that my action
research will require in the classroom. The major ideas are small group
instruction, work stations or centers, and cooperative learning. Even though my
project focuses on mathematics, the majority of my literature review comes from
literacy studies. This is interesting because the structure of my English
Language Arts block is what inspired my project. It makes me wonder why there
hasn’t been as much research done on this type of instruction mathematics. It
also makes me wonder if my search in the area of mathematics was not thorough
enough. Either way, I like that my project will potentially transfer ideas that
many of us associate with the English Language Arts classroom to the
mathematics classroom! To the rest of us teacher/researchers, It might be hard
to see right now, but our “glasses” will provide clarity soon enough!
4th Grade Hallway- Mrs. Jamie Lambrinos
This week I have been focusing my
action research on gathering relevant literature to support the research that I
wish to conduct. This part of the process has been challenging for me for
several reasons:
1. I have found that finding the go to “person” for my topic is a
challenge. I have discovered that AVID and TCI are the roots for
interactive notebooks in the content area of science; though the "go
to" person for mathematics has been left undetermined at this point for
me.
2. I have also found that finding 5 sources of literature can be
challenging because I want to avoid being redundant. There is research
out there to be read on my topic but they all seem to say that the use of
interactive notebooks has a positive effect on student achievement. By finding
this it caused me to open my literature a bit more to include and connect best
learning and teaching strategies, description of interactive notebooks, and the
importance of note taking to the use of interactive notebooks in mathematics.
3. Finally, I was challenged with the relevancy of my action research
this week. I searched for literature for my action research I found other
action research projects with topics very similar to my own. It made me
question, if I was able to find literature based on research conducted on my
question what is the relevancy of conducting my action research.
This past week has most certainly challenged me. From pushing through
this part I have learned from the challenges and learning from just doing….I
just certainly hope that I am learning the right things!
Till next week….
5th Grade Hallway- Mrs. Rebecca Young
This week in 5th grade I've been
reviewing the literature that will help guide the methodology I will design for
my action research project. I decided to organize what I was looking for
into three different areas of focus. Those areas include a historical
background of the National School Lunch Program as well as NSLP's
implementation in our school district, pros and cons of nutrition integration
in schools, as well as some of the organizations that are currently advocating
for the education of children on healthy eating habits. I quickly found
multiple studies complied by the United States Department of Agriculture on
integrating nutrition education in schools as well as the impact school meals
have on students' attention. After reading through several studies it
became clear to me that there are mixed results on the effects of nutrition
integration and students attitudes towards foods. However, what I became more
fixated on is the research and data lacking on the correlation of attention with
students that participate in NSLP vs. those that do not. Initially this
was disheartening to me. I felt like maybe my research question was a
poor choice. However, I quickly realized that this could be an exciting
opportunity to conduct research and get data in an area where both of these are
lacking. I am looking forward and am anxiously awaiting the design of my
methodology. I want to dive into, what feels like, new territories
related to school nutrition research.
No comments:
Post a Comment