Research to Practice Blog

The Process:

This past semester has been one of the most engaging and informing semester I have ever completed. Each week, I was constantly introduced to new ideas, concepts and strategies of things I can use in my own classroom. Truly, one of the most important things I was introduced to was the process of the research to practice project. The process of observing, questioning, researching, and reflection was something I never aware – even though I was constantly doing it.

During the school year, I am constantly in different field placements and in my free time, I volunteer with Kindergarten and a 1st grade classroom. Everyday, I am constantly observing the students I am working with and asking myself questions. These questions are not always a easy and straight answer. They are detailed and researched based. Often, these questions are similar to some such as, how can I help their language acquisition or how can I motive this child to read at home to enhance their early literacy skills.

Before learning about this process in class, I would wonder these questions in my head and not even realize what I was doing. I would take observations and ask questions, but then I would stop. It was not until I was introduced to this project that the light bulb in my head went off. An aha moment! I became aware that I was already half way there but I needed to follow through with my observations and questions by researching and reflection. By doing so, I would be able to help the students I was working with now and also, for my future students.

Along with this in mind, I felt extremely comfortable in the observations and questioning ares. In my first blog post, Math Vocabulary Acquisition, it is noticeable that I have taken many observations and been aware of what is going on in the classroom. My observations in this post are detailed and eventually lead to a reasonable and valuable question that I made from these specific observations. From this, I struggled with the researching and reflection because it was the most unfamiliar part of this process. By my last  blog post, Movement in the Classroom, it was obvious to see the growth in my researching and reflection. Instead of writing the data I collected and my reflection as more of a research paper, I was able to make it more story-like and personable.

As along with my growth from blog post one to four – I became more familiar with the technology behind a blog post. I was aware of what blog post were like, since I often read some, but I have never once tried to write one. Unfamiliar with how to use MU Blog, I struggled with the first blog post and it took me a while to get my blog post looking perfect. By the last one, and this project review, it has taken me no time. I’m thankful that I was able to experiment with making a blog post because in my future classroom, I would love to have a classroom blog.

The What If’s:

If I was given the chance to do this research project all over, I think I would take more time to research what is in a quality blog post. Instead of doing some research to see what is in a quality blog post and looking at examples, I jumped right in to making my own. It wasn’t until we looked at the blog post, Let’s Give Our Teaching Language a Makeover, that I finally realized what a good blog post looks like. I realized that a blog post is not about researching data and writing a research paper on it for the audience to read. A good blog post is about connecting to the audience and having a conversation with them without truly being present. It’s providing the audience with links and resources but most importantly, wanting them to learn more about the present topic.

The advice I would give to the next class would be to take this serious and really try to find good research. This project is not just busy work but it’s exactly what you’ll be doing as a future teacher. It’s almost like a free pass because it’s everything you’ll do as teacher but no pressure. Therefore, it’s okay to make mistakes, take risk and not be perfect! It’s also an amazing thing to keep as a personal resource. If you put in the work now, you’ll be thanking yourself down the road.

Lastly, what I’m taking away from this project is that it’s truly not over. That this process never really ends and that this is only the beginning. As I stated before, this is the exact process that good teachers use everyday – whether they know it or not. With myself, being lucky enough to take this course, I am aware of these steps now and will consciously think about my observations and questions. From that point, I can research methods and apply them to my classroom. Then I can reflect and either continue with that method or change it to something else.

It’s Quiz Time:

It’s time for a pop quiz! Oh no, I bet you didn’t think you would be taking a quiz. It’s easy, don’t worry! The instructions for now are to simply read the scenarios.

Scenario #1

It’s 9 am and all of your students have arrived. The day is just starting but all of your students, and you, are refreshed and prepared for a new day.  The day begins with students putting away their backpacks and coats and going to the morning work bin. Here, they grab their worksheet and walk to their desk to begin working. After a while, they turn in their work and then you call your students to the carpet for a read aloud. Students are expected to sit quietly and listen to the story. Once the read aloud is over, students return to their desk for a math lesson and then to work on a math worksheet. Students then practice their spelling words on another worksheet. After that, they may have recess, special or lunch. Then, the students arrive back to your classroom and return to their desk to continue onto another subject. It’s in the afternoon now and your students are tired, disengaged or bored. Sadly, you are probably bored too.

Scenario #2

It’s 9 am and all of your students have arrived. The day is just starting but all of your students, and you, are refreshed and prepared for a new day.  The day begins with students putting away their backpacks and coats. The students go to their desk and pick up their task cards for morning work. Around the room there are different stations set up. Students follow what their task cards instruct and move around the room to complete their morning work through their task cards. Once completed, you call your students to the carpet for an interactive read aloud. Students engaged in a reader’s theater where they are actively participating and acting out the story. The students then continue on to math where you instruct an engaging lesson and then allow students to play a math game where they practice what they have learned. After math, students participate in an around the world spelling game. At this point, students may have recess, special or lunch. After, the students arrive back in your classroom to actively move and participate in another lesson. It’s in the afternoon but your students are still energetic, engaged and having fun. You are too!

Now it’s time for the quiz, good luck!

Question: Which classroom would you rather teach in?

Here’s the Problem:

It may have been a trick question because there truly is no right answer but there is defiantly a better answer. As educators, one of our biggest hopes for our own classrooms is to have our students actively participate, be engaged and most importantly, have fun. It’s no surprised that when students are having fun, they learn best. The best way to allow our students to have fun but still learn is through movement.

If you look back at the scenarios, you can see this clearly. In scenario one, students were not moving. They were constantly sitting at their desk and completing worksheets. In scenario two, students were actively moving around the classroom as soon as they walked in. They were active and engaged in their own learning.

A huge problem in our classrooms today is the lack of movement. Students are expected to come to school where they should sit and listen properly. During observations, I have sadly seen many children disciplined or scolded at for not being able to stand or sit still. These frequent urges to move take place when children are expected to sit through an activity or lesson for longer then they are capable of. Often teachers and administration forget that they are still children. Children are active and full of energy. They need to be able to use that energy. Sadly, with the lack of movement students are often diagnosed with ADHD or behavior problems.

If teachers and administration can look at movement as a tool and how to use it to enhance students’ learning, our classrooms would be a better place.

Why and How Should We Use Movement?:

As we look at movement and it’s impact on learning, we must first look at the science behind it. The cerebellum is located in the back of the brain, just above the brainstem. Its important function is to regulate neural signals in other parts of the brain. Most is known about its regulatory actions on neurons that control movement and posture. In the article, Cerebellum: Movement Regulation and Cognitive Functions, by James Houk and Lee Miller, they discuss that recent brain imaging on human subjects has generated an impressive amount of data showing that the lateral cerebellum becomes active when a person participates in cognitive tasks or engages in the solution of difficult problems. With this, we see that the same part of the brain that is in control of movement also becomes active when working on cognitive task.

As an educator, understanding this is key to transforming learning in the classroom. Including movement with lessons and activities, increases a part in the brain for cognitive ability. Through studies like this, there has also been discoveries that movement and long-term memory are connected as well.

In 2011, a recent study was conducted with 11 classrooms in six schools in Kentucky. The classes were selected ranging from kindergarten through 5th grade. The program selected to implement the Take 10! model. Some of the activities the Take 10! model included were videos, physical activity stations, and jump rope activities, cardiovascular, strength and flexibility activities. Classroom teachers were trained how to effectively incorporate these type of activities into their classroom. Before this program was implemented into the classroom, the children took a cognitive assessment that was appropriate for grade levels in the area of mathematics. Each cognitive assessment was developed to directly align with Kentucky’s standards. Students performed this assessment in the form a unit test of which they were familiar with the format and expectations. Each item was considered fundamental to mathematical theory and mathematical power for all primary level students. The results showed a significant difference in the pre and post test scores for cognitive assessment (Adams-Blair & Gretchen, 2011).

So, How Will You Use Movement?

As we can see, movement does have a physical and cognitive impact on learning in our classrooms. There is no right way or wrong way to include movement but it’s the effort of trying that matters. Not only will you see an improvement in your student’s grades but also in their happiness and engagement.

So, how will you use movement in your classroom?

Citations:

Adams-Blair, H., & Oliver, G. (2011). Daily Classroom Movement: Physical Activity Integration into the Classroom. International Journal of Health, Wellness & Society, 1(3), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.18848/2156-8960/CGP/v01i03/41177

Group members:
Kim Campbell, Macey Wetzel, Lauren Walker & Taylor Stitz

Overview:

For our presentation, we chose to present constellations. The group that attended the science fair was two first grade classes at Eshleman Elementary. The lesson involved a tri-fold poster which had “Constellations” titled at the top of it. Underneath, there was a printed out definition and a global image of constellations all around the world. The sides were decorated with examples of common constellations, plus, it had images of culturally relevant constellations that can only be seen from certain parts of the world. Since there were four members in our group, we each took turns doing each part of the lesson. On the first part, Taylor explained what constellations were by using the definition and images as examples. On the second part, Kim discussed some common constellations, where they are found, what time of year they can be seen, and what shapes they resemble. Lauren discussed other constellations that were based on other parts of the world. She gave examples of several constellations and where you need to be located in the world in order to see them. Macey was in charge of the lesson that the children were to do, which was to create their own constellation. She explained that they could make their stars take any shape or form of their choosing and to name it. Overall, the presenters spoke for about five minutes, while the remaining five minutes was given to the kiddos to create their very own constellation.

How the Children Reacted:

I think that the reactions of the children towards our consetllation presentation were overall positive.  Most if not all of the students were completely engaged during the entirety of the activity. The students really enjoyed creating and naming their own constellation.  Our group loved seeing all of the creative constellations that each student came up with. The students also had fun pronouncing the names of several constellations because they were difficult to pronounce.  I think that the students learned a lot from the activity because it was hands-on and they could use their own ideas and unique interests to create something new and fun that they learned about in a short amount of time.  Our group loved how enthusiastic and energetic the students were as they walked up to our activity and how their interest did not fade throughout the ten minutes. We learned a lot about how to keep the attention of the children and how to keep the students engaged while maintaining their interest in the subject.  Overall, I think that we received both positive feedback and things that we could work on from the students that we can reflect on for next to make our activity even better.

How the Teaching Changed:

The constellations activity that we did for the young children was presented 6 times. After each time we adjusted the way that we presented the activity. We realized after the first couple of times that we presented we gave the information in a short amount of time and the students had more time to work on their hands on activity which was making their own constellations. The students ended up finishing their pictures pretty quickly and kept making more. Moving forward we decided to discuss more information about constellations with them so they wouldn’t have so much time to do their pictures. As we kept presenting we paid more attention to the children interests and made sure to give clearer and better instructions. Some of the students didn’t know what to draw for their constellations so we made sure to give some examples of what they could draw and made sure to emphasize the example that we did. The more times we did it, we became more comfortable with how to present the information and the activity to the students. The students by the end of it got a lot of information in a good amount of time and were able to do their activity with enough time to complete one more if they wanted to.

Next Time:

By presenting this activity and lesson for the first time, I think as a group we have a better idea of how we would present it next time. The information we presented to the students was valuable and exciting. Students are often very fascinated by everything in space such as the moon, stars, and planets. The information we shared with them was on their grade level and was information that they could understand and use in their own lives. For example, we talked about them being able to look up in the sky and search for these constellations when playing outside. Though we included an activity, which was making their own constellations, we also may have talked to them too much. Next time, we believe we could make it much more engaging and active. After reflecting and doing more research, we found that there is a flashlight that has attachments of different constellations for it. In the future, we could make a tent as a class and have everyone go under the tent. Then with the flashlight, we could shine the constellation to the top of the tent and talk about it. This way instead of just seeing the constellation on paper, the students could feel like they’re actually outside looking up at the sky and at the constellation. This way would also be exciting and engaging for the students – since it’s not everyday they get to make and use a tent at school. Also by making the tent, the students would be working on social skills and also concepts such as math.

Overview

As young children develop their speech and language, they learn skills that are important for the development of their literacy. This beginning stage is known as emergent literacy. It begins at birth and continues to grow through the preschool years. The importance of early literacy in a young child’s life is extremely important. This lays a foundation for a child and their future education. Research shows that children who are read to at a young age up to the preschool years, often have an increased vocabulary, curiosity, memory, listening skills and most importantly – love for books!

As educators, or anyone who works with children, we are aware of the importance of early literacy. What we often don’t think about is the knowledge parents have about literacy. Many parents do not understand the importance of literacy in a child’s life. With that, sadly many children are not read to or encouraged to look at books. Many families also do not have the money to supply books within their homes. With this, educators can help provide parents with the knowledge and resources by using home literacy bags.

Observations with Books and Children

Books and reading have always been a huge part of my life. My parents and grandparents always read to me as a little girl. Still to this day, I love to read and enjoy finding new books. During the school year, I don’t get to read for enjoyment as much as I’d like too. Since I have such a strong love for reading and understand it’s impact on children – I’m a huge advocate for getting children to read. I want all children to fall in love with books and have a desire to read. With this desire, I understand that it’s so important for young children to be reading at home.

During my volunteer and field placement observations, it’s generally pretty easy to see what children love books and which children don’t. Often during center time and reading activities, the children that love to read are constantly looking at their books, trying to read and grabbing new books when done. The children who don’t enjoy it as much goof around, talk to their friends, and most of the time – don’t even look at their books. These observations had me wondering. Do the children that show little interest in their books not read at home? Are they not interested in their books? Are their parents or caregivers able to read? Most importantly, do they have access to books at home?

All of these questions led me to wonder, how can I get children to read at home? How can I have parents support their children and help them? How can I increase parent’s knowledge on the important factors of early literacy?

Research Says….

With these questions came an awesome idea and possible solution….home-literacy bags. In the article, Increasing Parent Participation and Knowledge Using Home Literacy Bags, Marya Grande states that these bags seek to make learning at home enjoyable, reinforce skills taught by teachers in classrooms, alter the literacy experiences in the home, or involve parents as partners in the educational system (Asselin, 2001; Richgels & Wold, 1998). All of these things being as important and related to each other immensely.

In the article stated above, a study was done using two different literacy bags at a suburban elementary school in western New York. After preparing the materials and providing instruction on how to use and care for the literacy bags – the teachers utilized them. The data that was collected and analyzed was amazing.

Throughout the use of these literacy bags, the teachers used parent surveys to gather information. Results demonstrated that as a result of the bag’s materials and activities, parents had increased their knowledge in all the targeted areas. Through their participation with the home literacy bags, parents gained awareness of the types of questions to ask when a child is reading or listening to a book, how to help a child write a sentence, which books children should be able to read, how to practice spelling words, academic skills first graders should be working on, what types of educational games benefit children, and how to increase sight–word vocabulary (Grande, 2004).

Reflection

As a future educator, I’m constantly thinking about what I can do for my future students and their families to better their education. After discovering literacy-bags I feel more confident in my future student’s literacy skills. These literacy bags can have such an impact on my future students for many reasons. Through the research I discovered, I learned many things. First, the findings in the research reinforced the idea that home learning activities can be made fun for and by both parents and their children. Yet, it can still be beneficial. Second, these home literary bag are an effective tool to communicate grade-level expectations to parents and help expand their knowledge and understanding on the topic. Third, these bags can also make parents more aware of the types of literacy activities that can be carried out at home to increase their child’s skills.

Citations

Overview:

As an educator or any other profession that works with children – we understand the value and importance of vocabulary. Often in schools, vocabulary is used to encourage the development of children’s language and literacy skills. The value and importance of it in the early years sets a foundation for success in a child’s future education. Though often when we think of vocabulary, what subject do we think of? Most of the time, people first think about language arts and later, science and social studies. Very seldom do people ever think of the vocabulary used in math. The vocabulary used in math can be tricky for many young children in the primary grades – especially English Language Learners (ELL) and struggling readers. Throughout this blogpost, I take a look at the reason behind this dilemma and how teachers can design a strong vocabulary instruction for mathematics.

Why Even Worry About Vocabulary in Math?

The idea behind wanting to discover more about vocabulary in mathematics and how to design beneficial instruction came to me during my volunteer experience. Every week, I spend time in a first grade classroom where part of the morning I frequently help with morning work. Majority of the time, the morning work involves math. Students arrive in the classroom around 9 am and jump into a worksheet that often reviews lessons previously taught. As the teacher prepares for the morning, students work quietly by themselves. Once the teacher is prepared, they turn in their worksheets and meet on the carpet for a read aloud.

One morning, I noticed that a little girl was sitting at her desk while all her other peers moved to the carpet for read aloud. In my observation, I could clearly tell she was frustrated. As I approached, I noticed she had half of the page done but the other half was blank. While reviewing what she had done, I noticed that all of her answers were wrong. Also, I noticed that the morning work was dedicated to simple addition problems. Some examples being 8+3 or 5+4.

From simple observations, I could conclude that she needed help. As I sat down to help her, I first wanted to try and understand what she was thinking. When prompted, I asked her to explain what she did to get the answer. She wasn’t able to tell me. From that, I asked her another question about what the symbols meant. The symbols in the problem being the addition sign and equal sign. As I pointed to the addition sign (+), she was unable to tell me what it meant. When I pointed to the equal sign (=), she told me it meant subtraction. It was then that I began to understood how she attempted to solve these problems. Also, why she was getting them wrong. I asked her what the equal sign (=) meant and she told me it meant to subtract because of the lines. After reviewing her problems each of her answers were wrong because she wasn’t adding them, she was subtracting them. For example for 8+3, she wrote an answer of 5.

It was at this point in my observation and participation with the young student that I began thinking of the vocabulary in math. Simply, when asking the student what adding and subtracting mean,t she was truly unable to tell me. She didn’t understand the meaning behind the vocabulary terms. It wasn’t that she was unable to do the math but she was unable to understand exactly what these vocabulary words meant. I began to think about all of the other vocabulary used in math, especially when students become older and are expected to complete word problems. Many standardized and high stake test are often heavy in word problems, with more difficult vocabulary terms. If students are struggling readers and don’t understand the vocabulary behind these questions, they’re already set up to fail.

So, What’s the Research Say?

Behind the research of understanding how to support math vocabulary acquisition in the classroom, educators first need to think about standards-based lessons. All lessons prepared and created in classrooms today match certain state standards. It’s important to understand that in standards-based lessons, students must apply their prior knowledge to explore and understand new concepts. A standard-based approach to teaching and learning means an increased presence and use of language (Bay-Williams & Livers, 2009). Simply to say, language skills have become more significant in math today.

With this, it may seem tempting to remove all language as an accommodation but instead, educators need to provide various context or background knowledge to help students make sense of the mathematics content. Bay-Williams and Livers (2009) suggest that educators should review known vocabulary and preview new vocabulary for each lesson. Lessons should be opened in this manner and provide students with the verbal tools to participate effectively in the lesson. Though this is beneficial, it can take up almost half of the instructional time given. With that in mind, as a suggestion, I believe that teachers could send home the new vocabulary the day before in the form of a game. This would help students review at home before the lesson. Students could then come to school with a general idea of the new vocabulary and reviewing it as a class would not take much time. These new vocabulary terms should be student-friendly and the explanations should explain the meaning of the world in everyday language. It should also characterize the word and how it is typically used (Pierce & Fontaine 2009). Students also need to engage in activities that encourage deep processing of the word’s meaning rather than simple repetition of the definition. For example, students could use the vocabulary in other subjects. If students are working on fractions in math, they could revisit this topic and the vocabulary in social studies when working on maps. They could also revisit this topic in in science where the vocabulary could be discussed when looking at populations of species or fractions where of the regions where the species live.

Another consideration when supporting math vocabulary acquisition is to make it culturally relevant. As for any subject, it’s important to make what students are learning meaningful. Cultural relevance means that students can relate to the topic and become engaged in the problem because they understand its context and find it interesting. The idea of making mathematical problems culturally relevant allows for the context to be easily understood. Bay-Williams and Livers (2009) use an example of of exploring fractions in the context of farming with multinational students in an urban setting. Some students that have experiences in farming will understand the math question which will lead it to be culturally relevant. Other students may have no experience or interest in farming and will be completely unfamiliar with the context of the question. In this case, the context will not be serving its purpose of supporting student thinking about the mathematical ideas. Simply, if the context is not culturally relevant, then teachers should replace the content.

Bay-Williams and Livers (2009) provide other suggestions for reviewing and learning new math vocabulary. One idea is having a question of the day. As students enter the classroom in the morning, a question could be on the board in relation to a new vocabulary term that will be used later that day. For example, teachers could use a t-chart where students clip their name to the answer they think is best. The teacher could later explain the answer and review the new vocabulary term. Another way to introduce a new term early in the morning instead of as a question could be at a morning meeting. A fun game such as hangman could introduce the new term in a fun and engaging way.

My Reflection:

Before beginning to research math vocabulary acquisition, I was already aware of the importance it has in the classroom. From my observational experience, I saw first hand how tricky the context of math can truly be. As a person who also struggles in math, I understand the frustration many students from kindergarten up to high school and beyond feel. As a future educator, understanding ways I can help my future students understand the vocabulary in math is important to me. All the suggestions that were supported in research are easy and simple ways to best help students. Overall, after all of my research, I generally think the best suggest is making math culturally relevant to students. If students understand the context behind the question and all the ideas, they can truly just focus on what the question is asking them to do. After research, I also generated the idea of creating fun games to send home with students so they can preview new vocabulary terms before coming to school. Just this small idea can go a long way in already allowing students to have a general idea of what a new term means. With this in mind, I took the steps to find some resources that I, and future teachers, can use to support math vocabulary acquisition in the classroom.

Check Out These Additional Resources:

• A-Z Common Core Math Vocabulary
• PSSA Math Glossary
• Math Vocabulary Word Wall
• Math Vocabulary Games

Citations:

Bay-Williams, J. M., & Livers, S. (november 2009). Supporting Math     Vocabulary Acquisition. Teaching Children Mathematics,16(4), 238-245. Retrieved February 13, 2019.

Pierce, M. E., & Fontaine, L. M. (2009). Designing Vocabulary Instruction in Mathematics. Reading Teacher, 63(3), 239–243. https://doi.org/10.1598/RT.63.3.7