Participants
For my action research, I will use one first grade classroom - to include the teacher and all students in the class. This class consists of 10 boys and 12 girls. There are four ESL students, one student with a speech disability, and one student that spends 30 minutes to an hour in the SPeD classroom during each instructional block. The teacher has over ten years of experience in the classroom.
Data Collection Strategies
- Surveys could be given to students to get a better idea of their interests and capabilities. The surveys could also include questions about what the students would like to see more of in the classroom. This type of information would give teachers a better understanding of what they could include in their lesson to ensure that their students will be engaged in the lesson.
- Interviews would probably be more appropriate for teachers because elementary students may not have the vocabulary necessary to express how they really feel. Interviews with teachers could focus on their experiences with disengagement and what they did or plan to do to fix their disengagement problem.
- Focus groups that include teachers and focus groups that include students could also be helpful in the research process. Having the opinions of different teachers and students shared within the group could bring about a deeper discussion about the causes and interventions of disengagement.
Each of these strategies could be given before, during, and after possible interventions take place to collect data about the opinions and feelings of various teachers and students. Having a better idea of the different views of all the participants would help to gain a better understanding of what interventions are most successful.
Most Promising Intervention
The most promising way to ensure that all students are engaged in the lesson is to provide motivation and opportunities for students to be involved in the lesson through active participation. There is no ONE strategy that can be used to achieve this. It must be accomplished by using a combination of strategies that would vary depending on the types of students in the class. However, if I were to choose just one strategy to be the most promising for motivation and active participation, it would be to place the students in Cooperative Learning groups.
H/SV: What happens when I provide students with the opportunity to take control of their learning by putting them into Cooperative Learning groups?
Motivation begins with the classroom environment. Students need to feel comfortable and accepted in the classroom. It also helps to provide positive energy in the classroom setting. Teachers must model that comfortableness and positiveness so that students will gain a better understanding of how to behave. By placing them in groups of four or five and allowing them to work together to solve problems, it gives the students more responsibility over their own learning and may provide a more comfortable environment for them because they are learning from their peers instead of from their teacher.
Within the lessons, teachers should include activities and games that would get the students interested in the lesson. One way to get them interested in activities and games is to include some kind of connection to the students. Including questions that would get them to think critically and providing opportunity to have open discussion may also help to catch the students' interests because it gives others an opportunity to express their interests. Children are more interested in things if they believe that it is directly related to their lives. When students work with their Cooperative Learning groups, they are all given the opportunity to be engaged in the lesson. The students help to ensure that each member of their group is participating in the discussion of the assignment.
Also, as an educator, it is important to provide effective feedback. Keep your students updated on their progress: what they did well and ways that they could improve.
These Cooperative Learning groups must also be carefully thought out which makes it important to get to know each of your students. All students have different wants, needs, and desires. Teachers need to recognize the level of diversity within the classroom. The more you know about your students, the more effective your groups could be. Each group should include different genders, different ethnicities, different level of thinkers, and different types of learners. Providing variety within the groups gives each child the chance to shine in their strengths and to gain assistance from their peers in their weaknesses.
H/SV: What happens when I provide students with the opportunity to take control of their learning by putting them into Cooperative Learning groups?
Motivation begins with the classroom environment. Students need to feel comfortable and accepted in the classroom. It also helps to provide positive energy in the classroom setting. Teachers must model that comfortableness and positiveness so that students will gain a better understanding of how to behave. By placing them in groups of four or five and allowing them to work together to solve problems, it gives the students more responsibility over their own learning and may provide a more comfortable environment for them because they are learning from their peers instead of from their teacher.
Within the lessons, teachers should include activities and games that would get the students interested in the lesson. One way to get them interested in activities and games is to include some kind of connection to the students. Including questions that would get them to think critically and providing opportunity to have open discussion may also help to catch the students' interests because it gives others an opportunity to express their interests. Children are more interested in things if they believe that it is directly related to their lives. When students work with their Cooperative Learning groups, they are all given the opportunity to be engaged in the lesson. The students help to ensure that each member of their group is participating in the discussion of the assignment.
Also, as an educator, it is important to provide effective feedback. Keep your students updated on their progress: what they did well and ways that they could improve.
These Cooperative Learning groups must also be carefully thought out which makes it important to get to know each of your students. All students have different wants, needs, and desires. Teachers need to recognize the level of diversity within the classroom. The more you know about your students, the more effective your groups could be. Each group should include different genders, different ethnicities, different level of thinkers, and different types of learners. Providing variety within the groups gives each child the chance to shine in their strengths and to gain assistance from their peers in their weaknesses.