Memo 5

I am a middle-class White woman who was born and raised in Rhode Island. As long as I’ve been alive, my parents have been considered middle class. They also have always owned two houses during my lifetime. Growing up, I never had to worry about a lack of shelter, food, clothes, or any other necessities. Therefore, my education was not disrupted. I did attend public school, but I always went to schools that performed well on standardized tests and received adequate funding. I’ve always viewed education as an important and necessary component in my life, which is one reason why I decided to major in the education field.

In regards to my ethnicity, my European descent consists of equal parts Italian, Irish, and English, which I recently discovered through a DNA test. Although my ancestors are from Europe, I am the third generation in my family to be an American citizen, so I know little about these cultures. I do realize that being White in America creates certain privileges, one being that I’ve never had to think much about my race or culture. Even though I am advantaged, I’ve tried to use my point of privilege to spread awareness to others of the disparities within our nation. I grew up with open-minded parents who taught me to advocate for the voiceless within our society. This has helped me develop a strong sense of empathy for others, which I also try to instill within my students. I try to do this in several ways, including journaling, shared writing, multi-cultural texts, lessons on privilege and institutional racism, and learning about authors from diverse backgrounds.

During my own experiences as a student, I found my true role model in high school. I had an inspiring English teacher for three consecutive years. I saw this woman as a mentor and someone that I strived to resemble in my own career. She is the main reason I majored in education, and I often still keep her in mind when I teach today. Due to my experiences within her class, I now often reflect on the important of voice and choice within the classroom. Additionally, I see the important of adding “real-world” relevancy to the lessons we do within the classroom.

 

As an educator, I want to help my students recognize their own capabilities. Until high school, I often felt that I was inadequate when it came to education. These feelings evolved from a combination of grades, peer bullying, and a lack of motivation.  I want to help students realize their own abilities and talents. Additionally, I want to help inform my students about life lessons. I want my students to become contributing members of society who realize the importance of kindness and helping others is more imperative than just becoming wealthy in life. This includes teaching students to think critically and to stand up for their own beliefs.

Regardless of a student’s current grades or situation, I strongly believe that all students want to learn. I think the key is to help students see the relevance in the work they are doing. I try to create this by finding ways for the students to relate to the work. For example, I will often write journal prompts based on a book we are reading but these prompts will ask students to respond personally and to use examples from their own lives. Also, I try to find ways to include articles or technology that relate to the material we are learning while relating to current world affairs. I’ve found that this relevancy is what engaged me in a class, which is why I see it as being a crucial element within my own classroom today.

 

Although I do have these philosophies that I abide by in my career, I do still have some uncertainties and questions within my profession. I have been teaching for three years now, but I still have not been able to get a grip on some questions that I have about education. For example, I wonder what else I should be doing to ensure that I am teaching students to think critically. Am I giving students the space and guidance to think critically or am I spoon feeding them what to think? How can I ensure that students are participating in inquiry?

 

Additionally, I sometimes question if I am reaching each student’s zone of proximal development. Is it possible to adequately challenge all students with the same assignment? I find that I often add modifications for students who might struggle with a text, but is this making it too easy or boring for other students within the room? I find it difficult and time consuming to differentiate instruction or assignments and I wonder if this is something I should be doing more of in my classroom.

Within my own uncertainties, I sometimes experience tensions within my own self-reflection. I’ve had students tell me that they aren’t reading and are only using reading supplements to help them pass my class. There seems to be an overall consensus among students that this is normal and acceptable behavior. I try to assign prompts of questions to accompany the reading and this just leads to more online “answer seeking” or plagiarism. With the growing technology, I find it more and more difficult to hold students responsible. What are other English teachers doing to curve this phenomenon? I’ve talked to recent graduates from local high schools who also admit that they never did the assigned readings and still passed the class. I fear that students are setting themselves up for failure and this is something I hope I can change.

 

            In addition, another area of tension involves the lack of participation I face in some of my classes. Students will sometimes be reluctant to share answers even when called upon. I would like to see more students engage in discussion without me pressuring them into answering. I believe that this is necessary to help students engage with the course and develop their speaking and language skills.

 

In closing, my graduate courses have helped me reflect on my own practice and question how I can improve my praxis. I do believe that teachers can always improve, regardless of their years of experience. This line of thinking has helped closely examine my own instruction and the students’ response. I’m confident my action research project can help me explore these areas of tension, which will make me a better teacher.

 

 

 

Questioning Your Research

Question: How can I help motivate students to participate during classroom discussions?

Imagine you have just spent half an hour explaining your research project to an older family member. What questions might she or he ask you about your project?

What about shy students, can you expect them to participate?

What if students are afraid to answer incorrectly in front of their peers?

Is there a way to create intrinsic motivation within your students?

How would you respond to these questions?

1. I have always been a shy student, but there have been certain classes where I felt comfortable participating. There were certain factors that affected my comfort level such as class size, student-teacher relationship, and community within the class. I’ve also been tempted to participate in class when I know that I will receive participation credit. I think there are ways to engage even the shyest of students.
2. We all make mistakes. I’d hope that I’m able to teach my students that it is ok to make a mistake, especially when it advances your learning.
3. I hope my research will help me understand how to help create intrinsic motivation. I’d like my students to see the importance of participating and stepping out of their comfort zone.

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Imagine explaining your project to a colleague who has a very different philosophy of teaching and learning (think of a real person you know). What questions might she or he ask you about your project?

Can’t you just increase participation by calling on students?

How would you respond?

I do call on students, but I’d like students to volunteer answers. I’ve always hoped students would be willing to participate on their own. This is what has prompted me to create this action research project.

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Imagine explaining your project to one of your students. What questions might she or he ask?

Why do we need to participate in class?

How would you respond?

Participating during discussions increases your learning and experience within the class. Speaking and language skills are important and classroom participation can help increase these skills. Inquiry and discourse can help prompt discovery. Additionally, I want students to be invested and engaged in the material.

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Imagine explaining your project to a school board member. What questions might she or he ask?

Can the computers distract students from participating or aid them?

How would you respond?

This is also something I want to look into. Are there ways to include technology within discussions or am I better off asking students to put their computers away?

Triangulation

This semester, we are reading Their Eyes Were Watching God in my sophomore English class. The students are assigned a journal entry to accompany the reading of each chapter in the book. This is formative assessment, and most students score full credit if they follow the directions. The average combined grade on chapter 1-10 journal homework in my class averaged to 92.5%. This data includes the grades of students who did not complete journal entries and therefore earned zero credit. In order to truly assess if students met the learning objectives for the unit I would include triangulation, meaning I could look at two more ways of assessing the students, such as a test on the book (summative assessment) and classroom based observations, such as participation.  

Memo # 4

How can I motivate students to participate during class discussions?

After keeping my teacher journal, I noticed that many of the areas of tension within my classroom resulted from class discussions. Specifically, I’ve struggled to keep the majority of the class engaged during these discussions. We will often discuss topics or events related to the novel we have been studying in class. I’ll often have three to five students consistently volunteering answers in my class of 22 students. I would like to see more students eager to speak up and voice their opinions in class.

Currently, I do try to encourage participation by reminding students that it is part of their quarter grade. This has worked for some students, but others still remain silent. I will sometimes call on a student who isn’t raising his / her hand but this sometimes results in the student declining to give an answer. This feels uncomfortable for me and the student.

Additionally, I worry that some students in the room are using their laptops for non-educational purposes while we discuss in class. The room set up does not allow me to view each student’s computer screen at any given time. Sometimes I try to monitor this by asking students to close their computers, but there is usually a written response on their screen that aids them during discussion. So I ponder, what can I do to truly engage the entire class during these conversations? 

 

How can I motivate students to read?

This question is something I’ve been struggling with since I started teaching and it continues to perplex me. How do I encourage my students to actually read the assigned novels instead of using Spark Notes? My students all have access to laptops which has made it incredibly easy for them to access chapter summaries. Many students will substitute the assigned reading for a chapter summary that is only a few paragraphs long. I know this because many students have admitted that they only used Spark Notes once we finish reading the book.

It is also obvious that students are supplementing the reading when I give reading quizzes that ask for specific details that are not available in chapter summaries. I worry that these specific questions are even too challenging for those who actually do the reading. I assign chapter questions or journal prompts to accompany the assigned reading homework, but it is still fairly easy for students to find these answers online. We do some reading in class, but most of it is assigned as homework. What can I do to ensure that students are putting time aside at home to read?

How can I increase community in the classroom?

I’m interested in exploring more ways to increase my students’ level of comfort in the classroom. I often try to incorporate strategies such as heterogeneous grouping, rotating assigned seats, group assignments, discussions, and shared writing to help promote community. I feel that incorporating more strategies can help improve the level of engagement in the classroom. It can also help students feel more comfortable sharing their writing and volunteering answers in class. I’m wondering, what other strategies I can implement to increase the level of community and solidarity within the classroom?

How can I successfully incorporate technology into lessons?

At Saint Raphael Academy, each student is issued an HP laptop. As teachers, we are encouraged to incorporate the laptops into lesson plans. I do use the laptops as a tool for writing and reading every day in the classroom. I usually send journal prompts, PDF readings, homework, and classwork assignments to students through the laptops.

I usually just use Microsoft Office and OneNote as a tool since we are a certified Microsoft school. I’d like to explore additionally websites and apps that I can use in my classroom. I’d want to monitor how the students respond to the technology and see which websites or apps increase engagement levels while still challenging students. I feel that there are many resources out there that I am unaware of. How can I find valuable resources and then how can I evaluate which sources align with the curriculum and increase student engagement in the classroom?

 

Memo #3

Teacher research can provide a solution to improve teaching and learning in any classroom. Teacher research involves reflection, “Closely akin to constructivism, reflexivity involves ‘a conscious use of reflection to examine one’s own personal biases, views, and motivations to develop self-awareness in interaction with others’” (Xerri, 2018, p.2). Teacher research usually is conducted once an educator recognizes a problem within the classroom. The educator can then write a research question to help guide his/ her study and to discover a solution to this problem.  As Xerri states in “Two Methodological Challenges for Teacher-researchers: Reflexivity and Trustworthiness,” “Teacher research is recognized as an important means of achieving professional development, and of improving learning and teaching. It is defined as research conducted by teachers in their own context with the aim of better understanding their practices” (Xerri, 2018, p.2). Although the goal is to better understand one’s practice, this cannot be achieved without the required skills needed to engage in teacher research. Educators should first understand the basic methodology and procedures regarding teacher research, and this can be obtained through educational literature, professional development, or colleague collaboration.

As teachers begin navigating their way through a research study, it is important that they read “theoretical and applied educational literature, including other teacher-research reports” (Baumann & Duffy, 2001, p. 3). It can be beneficial for teachers to work with a colleague. “Using primarily practical, efficient, qualitative methods recommended by other teacher researchers, with perhaps a quantitative tool added in, the researcher initiates a study” (Baumann & Duffy, 2001, p. 3).

Once educators have begun the research process, it is vital that they engage in authentic inquiry in order to avoid skewing the data results; “In the case of teachers doing research in their classrooms, authentic inquiry means that the positioning of the teacher as the researcher and their students as the participants does not privilege the teachers’ views, interests, and interpretations over their students’. The participants are not treated as “subjects” but as co-researchers, and multiple voices (polyphonia) and perspectives (polysemia) are included in the research and its interpretations” (Alexakos, 2015, p.5). The goal is to improve practice, but sometimes teachers find it challenging to position themselves in a way that enables this outcome, “The investigator may struggle to balance the dual role of teacher and researcher or feel uneasy with the innovations that are explored” (Baumann & Duffy, 2001, p. 3). Therefore, educators must become mindful of their role to ensure that both teachers and students are benefiting from the research.

 

Teacher research is a unique way for educators to examine their own practices without simply taking the advice of outside researchers, “At every point when interacting with students in a teaching experiment, the students’ and teacher’s actions are codependent” (Steffe & Thompson, 2000, p.35). This is beneficial for the research because it eliminates the separation between research and teaching.

Authentic teacher research can allow educators to examine the issues within one’s classroom and enable the teacher to best resolve these issues without damaging the climate of the classroom. “Teacher Research empowers teachers to make a positive difference in terms of classroom practice; it enables us to provide relevant information about teaching and learning in actual classrooms. Most importantly, by engaging in reflective practice, the Teacher Researcher improves the lives of students by always seeking to discover better, more effective ways of implementing teaching/learning” (MacLean and Mohr, 1999, p.1).

 

 

Dialectical Response to Barbara Bell Angus

 

 

‘Graph #	Excerpt	1-2 sentences how this statement might inform your own future research (with a total of 8 excerpts selected)
1	“… hope this article will provide encouragement to other first time action researchers as they wrestle with their initial projects.”	This was a relief because I have been struggling to compose a research questions and now I realize that action research is more about questioning the unexpected. I feel that this article has encouraged me to notice things that go “wrong” in the classroom and ask, why?
2	Powers (2000): “ ‘the richness in practitioner research evolves from the dissonance or discrepancy when what occurs is different than what was expected.’”	Even as a third year teacher I still face moments in my career where I feel unsure about what went wrong in a lesson. I will start spending more time recording these moments in my teacher’s journal since reflecting on these moments can improve my future practice.
3	“It is the development of my research question and the resolution of the frustration and cognitive dissonance that this process caused that I would like to describe.”
4	“In order to accomplish these goals, I realized that I would need to put a greater emphasis on discourse in the classroom.”	This made me think about my own potential research question since we often do have discussions in my classroom. I would also like to put emphasis on discourse since I find that conversations in large classes can get “messy.”
5	“My observations in the classroom were not detailed and accurate enough to provide me with sufficient data to pose a question at the appropriate level.”	This quote led me to reflect on my own teacher’s journal. I should try to closely observe my classroom now, as this will help me get in the habit of observing and collecting data once I start my research.
7	“To determine if the students were focused on the same learning objective as I was, I used our ‘stop action’ techniques whereby the students are stopped in their work and asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their interpretation of the task and their learning.”
12	“..they did not include the oral language skills on which I thought they were working when I stopped the action.”
15	“Again no one mentioned any of the conversation skills on which I had been focusing for the previous six weeks. Not only had they not made my goals their own, they had not even recognized my goals.”	I often try to communicate the lesson’s goals or objectives directly to the students. A better idea would be to plan engaging lessons and then ask students why the lesson is valuable.
16	“..Although I was frustrated at first, it was, as Cazden had predicted, the beginning of more interesting and productive work. So I abandoned the idea…”
17	“I involved the students in designing and evaluating their own assignment. Discourse was no longer the means; it was now the end. Now my question became more basic. If I involve my students in designing the task and evaluating themselves, can I get them to focus on their discourse and to improve it?”
19	“Why did the students in this situation, without any instruction, discern my goals? I think it was because they were also their goals.”
21	“In viewing the videotapes, I had the opportunity for closer analysis and it seemed to me, not only on that occasion but on others as well, that the students were responding to the social hierarchy, focusing on the status and power relationships established in the hall and on the street, rather than on the meaning of the discourse.”
22	“Again I was confronted with an outcome that I had not expected. On the one hand, I found the dissonance frustrating and confusing because I was attempting to create a neat package that I could write up, as my colleagues seemed to be doing, where they stated their question and then proceeded seemingly in a straight line to investigate it.”	Research and data collection is messy but I should not get upset if my research question doesn’t get answered right away. Instead, I should focus on my observations while I analyze the bigger implications of the data.
24	“…the discrepancy between what I expected and what occurred forced me to look more closely for answers. Therefore, I scrutinized the videotapes in more detail and discovered critical aspects of student interaction. I believe my observation concerning the influence and power of students' social relationships outside of class will fundamentally change my understanding of and approach to classroom interaction.”
26	“…But it was only through careful scrutiny of videotaped recordings and subsequent reflection that I was able to make these observations and, consequently, to change my approach to teaching my high needs students.”	I’m not sure that I will videotape my students, but this made me think about how closely I really need to observe me students to receive useful data.
27	“With respect to defining my research question, I have learned that my question must arise more closely from actual classroom incidents.”	I can’t start this project by Googling “good classroom action research topics.” Instead, I should notice when things aren’t going as planned in my lesson and try to create a research question that addresses this unexpected incident.

 

 

 

Memo #2

Saint Raphael Academy is a Diocesan college preparatory school which teaches its students the Christian values of service and faith. Saint Raphael Academy offers a collegiate-style campus which is located in the historic Quality Hill neighborhood of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The school is comprised of seven primary buildings that are within walking distance from one another.  The majority of the buildings feature copper colored bricks. The structures of the buildings are mostly original, while the inside of the buildings have been renovated. The main buildings that students hold the majority of classes in are East and West. These buildings are located four blocks from each other on Walcott Street. Colorful flowers, large trees, and small gardens are scattered around the building to give it a “welcoming” feel.

 

The inside of these buildings have been improved to include up-to-date technology and improved appearances. Each room in West offers Smart Boards and new desks, while the rooms in East offer spacious classrooms with projectors and an overall “clean” appearance. The walls feature fresh paints and large windows to offer natural lightning. Each classroom wall offers inspiration quotes related to learning, ambition, or Bible verses.

 

I teach on the first floor of the East building. Once inside, one will notice that the room is spacious. There are high ceilings and two large windows at the front of the room. There are 30 desks and each row features three desks pushed closely together which creates an open path in the center of the room.  This allows me to pace up and down the room between all the rows and it allows students to easily travel throughout the room. There is a colorful bookshelf at the back of the room with includes a variety of texts for independent reading. There is hanging décor, including multi-colored paper flowers that hang from the doorways. A rainbow “welcome” sign hangs from the whiteboard.

The room is decorated with colorful backdrops and posters that are all related to English and life-advice. There is a large blue poster that states, “Learn something new today” which hangs in the front of the room. The bright, vibrant colors throughout the room adds an energy to the room. The bulletin boards are plastered with student work. Hand-drawn footprints that feature life advice hang from the corners of the corkboard. Photos of former students are posted around the room.The teacher’s desk is located in the front of the room and there is a mounted projector which connects to the laptop on the desk. There is a Smartboard at the center of the room and a whiteboard on the right side of the room. The “Do Now” is posted on the whiteboard and the Smartboard is utilized during class activities. Overall, the room encourages learning and discovery. The spaciousness, natural lightening, and bright colors offer a positive energy. The air freshener helps the room smell like fresh lilac. The radiator provides enough heat in the winter to allow everyone to feel comfortable and ready to learn.

The environment of the school and the classroom helps motivate the students to learn at Saint Raphael Academy. The school currently consists of 470 students enrolled, with an average of 118 students per grade.I currently teach four sections of 10th grade and one section of 9th grade. For this research study, I will focus on one of my 10th grade classes that meets during F block. This class is at the “Advanced College Preparatory” level. The class consists of 22 students who are between the ages of 15 - 17. There are 12 females in this class and 10 males. The class is diverse and features students from Asian, African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian backgrounds. There are eight students who identify as Caucasian, six who identify as Black, six identify as Hispanic, and two who identify as Asian. The two students who identify as Asian are participants in the International Student Exchange Program. They come to SRA with a background in English and they stay on track to complete high school and college in America before returning to Asia. These two students are both from China. One has done well, well the other student struggles with English due to a limited background in the language.

There are no students in the class who receive special education services since SRA does not honor any learning accommodations. Additionally, I do not have any information regarding reading level scores since SRA does not administer testing. Out of the 22 students, 10 of the students have made honor roll this year. Additionally, only one student is in danger of failing for the year.

Compared to my other classes, this class is usually energetic and engaged throughout our time together. There are always students who are eager to share their work and to volunteer answers during discussion. The students are friendly with one another and many are good friends outside of school. Community has also been established by including many opportunities of shared writing, mixed grouping, rotating seats, open-ended discussions, class norms, and frequent “pair-share” discussions.

In this class, the majority of students are involved in an organization after school. Most of the students play sports or are in others clubs. Soccer is a popular topic in this class considering that nearly 50 percent of the class plays on a team. I often try to bring up soccer when relevant, such as learning new vocabulary skills. This class is unique to me because there are several “strong” personalities within the room. There are many students who are outgoing and enjoy voicing their opinions, so this can make it easy to have energy within the room. The negative that comes along with this dynamic is that I find myself trying to quiet the class down since so many students within the class prefer to contribute during discussions. When we work in groups during class, I often carefully select the groups. There are several students who will get distracted easily if they are allowed to work with their friends. I have applied this same logic when creating assigned seats. I have found that certain students cannot sit near their friends or else they will try to spend more time socializing then working. Overall, even with these small issues, this class often features a positive learning environment.

I look forward to conducting my research. However, as an educator, I realize that I have an obligation to protect my students. This includes protecting their identities during my research study. When I write about my students, I will use pseudonyms to avoid revealing a student’s real name. In preparation, I will take out my class roster and create a new name for each student. This will allow me to use the same assigned name each time I mention this student without revealing his / her identity. The pseudonyms will be random and they will not have any similarities to a student’s real name.

I have developed relationships with my students, which might make it difficult for me to be unbiased when I conduct my research study. However, I will do everything in my power to ensure I am fairly assessing each scenario For example, when I grade, I will try to avoid looking at the name of the student to ensure that I am not assessing the work based on what I know about the individual. Secondly, I will not lead or prompt a student into responding correctly during a discussion or assignment. I will try to treat students fairly, but equally when I am conducting the research.

I see many opportunities ahead during my role as an observer. A focused observation can help me monitor specific responses from students, such as engagement level, peer interactions, critical-thinking skills, etc. By focusing on these observations, my data can help me improve my teaching. The data can help influence my teaching to reach the needs of the students. As educators, it is difficult to focus on or analyze these everyday interactions since we have so many other responsibilities. This research opportunity is a great way for me to take the time to notice the small daily encounters which can lead me to great discoveries.