February Reflecton

Chapter 5:

Due to the positive results (increased completion of assignments and increase in overall grades) I have acquired from my action research, I plan on implementing it in the future - definitely in my General course.  I have not been able to determine the effectiveness in my Intermediate course yet due to the semester beginning late in January, but from my first implementation in February, it seems to have a positive effect as well on the assignment completion rate. 

From my results, I have learned that students completed more assignments when they were in a structured setting as opposed to completing assignments independently.  Whether they utilized the time studying, reading, writing, or completing assignments, I believe they benefitted from having me and other students present for questions, concerns, clarification, prompting, or encouragement.

From my research, I have learned that, as a teacher, although it can be intimidating, it is acceptable to take risks and change the routine, class, or implementation of new activities or lessons.  It is okay if you learn that something does not work.  In most cases, these risks can be advantageous, and you can learn a lot about your students and yourself.  We expect our students to take risks, try new things, and work outside their comfort zones; we should learn to do the same! 

February Reflection:

I have learned that it is more difficult to incorporate time for my Intermediate students to complete assignments in class.  There are more questions, increased participation, and in-depth discussions with this group of students as opposed to my General course last semester.  However, with the time that I did set aside thus far for in-class assignment completion, the students did take advantage of this time.  Also, time is a factor because Tuesdays are reserved for our Writing Workshops led by Irv Boyd; however, these lessons are instrumental in improving the writing of my students.  

I discovered that the students welcomed some class time to complete assignments.  Also, I was not as concerned with what they were doing with their time.  With some of the questions I received, I was confident that they were being productive with this time.  I do not have as many non-compliant students in this course as I did with my General course first semester.  With my first implementation of this in-class time, I have seen an increase in completion rate in contrast to assignments where I did not allow class time for assignment completion.  For this particular assignment where class time was given to complete assignments, ten zeroes were entered into the grade book.  For a similar assignment where class time was not given, seventeen zeroes were entered into the gradebook.  

The challenge that I face, as I faced with my General course, is time.  However, the time crunch is different that it had been in Semester One.  As stated above, losing time to the Writing Workshop and to lively class discussions diminishes the time left for students to complete assignments in class.  

I will address this issue by determining which assignments warrant class time to be completed.  I would not be able to allot an entire class to complete lengthier assignments, but I can allow time for assignments that may be a little more difficult or can be done in steps, so the students can at least brainstorm, get some ideas on “paper,” or get themselves organized for longer time spans at later times.  Smaller quizzes will be able to be completed, or the downtime may be conducive for peer tutoring or peer editing.  Again, I will not be able to commit as much time as I did for the General course for the above reasons, but I can identify assignments for which class time would be more beneficial. 

January Reflection

Semester one was short lived during the month of January, so not as much data could be collected in my General English 2 class.  After returning from Winter Break, there was only one week of instruction before the students were given their finals.  During this week, some class time was allotted one day for the students to prepare for the CDTs (downloading program, resending usernames/passwords, unlocking CDTs, completing the assessment) which was their final exam for the course.  Many students took advantage of this time in an effort to get prepared for their final.  I learned that many students did take advantage of this time or at least expressed interest in completing this assessment due to the importance placed on it.    

As I was collecting data for this particular assignment, I discovered that, although over half of the students did complete the CDT for their final (20/34 = 59%; three excused – 23/34 = 68%), the importance placed on this assessment did not affect or increase the completion rate.  For the most part, the students who did not complete this assessment were students who were already failing and non-compliant.  I drew a comparison from this year’s General English 2 failure rate to last year’s course failure rate, and although the total number of students changed, the overall failure rate dropped 14%.  There may have been other factors in this decrease, but I believe that implementing my action research had a significant impact on this difference. 

The challenge I faced this month was the short amount of time I had to spend with the students upon return from Winter Break.  I presented a mini poetry/literary elements unit the last week before finals in an effort to prepare them for the CDTs and the Keystones for my 11^th graders.  It was difficult to find time to prepare the students for these assessments, while at the same time allowing class time for them to complete their final.  Also, time was a factor in researching the completion rate of other assignments before semester’s end.  Another challenge I faced was getting some of these students to realize the importance of completing their finals or at least putting forth an effort to do so.  My next challenge will be transitioning this action research project from my General course to my Intermediate course since General was only a semester one course.  I am unsure how the Intermediate students will respond to taking time out of class to work on in-class assignments; I do not want them to frown upon the “down time” reserved for lively discussions of class materials.  However, because there are also some Intermediate students who struggle/fail, I am hoping that allowing class time for some assignments will allow these students the means to pass the course.  It will be interesting to compare and contrast how these classes (General and Intermediate) respond to my inquiry research.  

Again, I will be sure to choose essential assignments so that class time that will not be lost to unnecessary assignments.  I would like to give my Intermediate students a chance to provide feedback on allowing class time to complete certain assignments.  After I determine the effect of this research on this particular class, I will adjust the amount of classes I allot for class time or just allow class time for lengthier, more complex assignments, so I will be available for student questions.

November/December Reflection

During the months of November and December, I learned that I needed to allow more class time to effectively observe if my action research plan was successful or not.  I decided to allow more time on two assignments that I wanted to grade in my General English 2 course.  One assignment was a unit test; the other assignment was a three-paragraph essay.  I did allow nearly an entire class period (little over an hour) to complete the Nonfiction Unit Test.  I allowed about a quarter of a class period (around 30 minutes) to work on the three-paragraph essay. 

During these two months, I discovered that the more class time I allowed on these two assignments, the more submissions I received from the students.  Although I did extend the due date of the Nonfiction Unit Test due to our calendar, I did obtain about 75% of the assignment.  Out of the 36 students in my General English 2 course, nine of the students did not complete it.  Two of those students were exempt from the assignment due to laptop issues, increasing the completion rate to 81%.  I had the same exact rate for the three-paragraph essay assignment. 

I also decided to compare and contrast the number of submissions for an assignment for which I did not allow class time to complete.  Seventy-four percent of the students completed this assignment.  Since it was an assignment given near the last part of the semester, I am hoping they completed it independently because they were in the habit of completing assignments and enjoyed reaping the benefits of their hard work. 

I also discovered that allowing class time to complete assignments has not affected my attendance.  I maintain the same number of students (compliant) whether I allow class time for assignments or not, ranging from 25-29 students.  I also discovered that I give most class time for assignments on a Wednesday.  I did allow class time on a Tuesday; however, I did not see much a difference in attendance on this particular day.  I will continue to track the number of submissions on different days of the week to observe if more students (compliant and non-compliant) attend on certain days than others and if this increases their assignment completion/submission.

Again, the challenge that I experienced during these months was time.  It is difficult to dedicate an entire or nearly an entire class period to assignment completion when other material needs to be covered.  In addition to class time, finding extra time during the months of November and December is extremely difficult due to the holidays and additional days off from school.  Another challenge is getting more students to attend class.  I thought that freeing up class time for assignments would bring more students to class.  However, I have the same students showing up on a consistent basis. 

A few ways I can address the time challenge is to determine what material is crucial to cover or what material can require less time to cover in order to provide more class time for assignment completion.  Also, it would be important to examine the assignments given to determine if all of them are necessary.  Both of these issues will free up time in the classroom for the completion of the assignments that are essential for the successful progression through the course.  A way I can address the attendance challenge is maybe by offering points for attending which might encourage the non-compliant students to attend, plus use their class time wisely when given for assignment completion.

October Reflection

During the month of October, I have learned/noticed that some of my students are beginning to lose focus; therefore, they are not attending class and completing assignments as they were in the beginning of the semester.  This has affected these students’ grades for which I am attempting to reach in order to get them back on track to pass the semester.  Unfortunately, if they are not attending class or submitting assignments, they are unable to take advantage of the time allowed in class to complete/begin assignments.  I have also learned that it is difficult to allow time for a lot of assignments while still allowing instructional time to cover particular material.  It is difficult to allow time to complete lengthier assessments, as I am aware that some of the students are not taking advantage of this time and using it wisely.  I do not want those students sitting there doing nothing with this valuable class time. 

The discoveries that I uncovered during the month of October is that I did not allow as much class time to complete assignments.  However, the unit in October was set up differently.  During the first month of school, we focused on fictional short stories for which a comprehension quiz was assigned after each story.  During October, we read and analyzed nonfiction for which we take one test at the end of the unit.  The midterm was situated in the middle of my unit, so I created a midterm using our nonfiction introductory material.  Unfortunately, I did not allow time for this in class due to the length of the midterm.  However, I did allow some class time for students to complete/begin nonfiction activities that accompanied this unit.  

Again, the challenges I faced this month was time.  I wanted to allow more in-class time for students to complete assignments; however, this became difficult with the material we were covering.  Also, along with the challenge of time, my unit was set up differently, but I did allow time to complete activities instead of quizzes since this unit concludes with a unit test.  I will allow the students’ class time to complete this Nonfiction Unit Test, so that I can continue to analyze if this time is beneficial to the students.

I believe I will address my time issue by reflecting on the amount of material I want to cover versus the amount of time I want to allow my students to complete in-class assignments.  I will also continue to plan the rest of the semester in order to gauge how much time I have left and what material I would like to cover with the semester remaining.  This will allow me to plan my class time accordingly so that my students will be able to take advantage of in-class time for assignments while still allowing enough instructional time to cover the most important aspects of the course.

September Reflection

During the month of September, I learned that so many other "wonderings" can stem from the initial "wondering!" My initial wondering is "Will having students in the General English 2 class complete assignments in class increase grades, participation, and attendance?"  It is amazing how you really start looking down different avenues as you research just one aspect of your class.  I also learned that you have to accommodate for various circumstances, such as absences, tardiness, early outs, access issues, and new enrollments.

So far, I have allowed my students to complete six quizzes in class.  The first one was only available in class.  I decided it would be beneficial to leave the others open until the original due dates of the following Sunday by midnight.  This helped a lot with the various circumstances mentioned above.  Even if students had completed these quizzes prior to class, it freed up time for them to complete other assignments.  Although I still enter zeroes into my gradebook, the number of zeroes entered have decreased for the quizzes that the students had time to complete in class.  There was one quiz in particular for which I allowed class time to complete that resulted in a few more zeroes that the others, but I am thinking it is because it was a difficult story or maybe I should have allotted more class time; I am hoping it is not that I am just losing some of my students at this point in time.  During these class times, it is nice to see the activity going on through the Blackboard gradebook.  Also, the students participation and attendance have been great! 

One of the challenges that I face is time.  It seems as though with the other lessons/activities/discussions/questions that I want to cover in class, I am cutting their in-class quiz time a little shorter than I want.  Also, I still have students who do not take advantage of this time.  To overcome these challenges, I still remind the students of their assignments every day in class, as well as send reminder emails every Friday about assignments that are due by midnight Sunday.

I believe to address the time issue stated above, I will use better time management so that I can allow more time for certain in-class assignments/quizzes.  I will have to determine which deserves more time/concentration/attention and achieve a good balance of each and plan accordingly.  :)