Test Data

1. Analyze test data: At Lumberport Elementary School, I am placed in 4th and 5th grade math. For this reason, I was particularly interested in the Math scores on the WEST test. The following are the 2009-2010 testing results:



According to the table, the students at Lumberport Elementary are at a 48% proficiency level. While compared to other subjects this percentage seems high, there is still more than have of the school performing below mastery level. This is evidence of the continuing need for math intervention in the school.

2. While the specific learning need is not described, it is evident when reviewing the data that many students are in need of math skill improvement. Close to 35 % of the students are performing at or above mastery, but only 3% are at the distinguished level. This is lower than the state average of 5%. For this reason, we need to strive to raise these math skill levels.

3. Instructional Intervention-Technology Applet for math skill

4. Strategy: Simulations and Games
•Games are dynamic, intrinsically motivating, and involve high levels of involvement. They provide immediate feedback to participants, and mistakes do not result in actually losing assets (Hood, 1997).
•The effective use of games differs depending on the educational areas where the games are employed. The best results were found to be in the areas of mathematics, physics, and language arts (as opposed to social studies, biology and logic). The beneficial effects of gaming are most likely to be found when specific content is targeted and objectives precisely defined (Randel et al 1992).

•Games have been found to serve a range of functions in education including tutoring, exploring and practicing skills, and attitude change (Dempsey et al., 1994).

5. Question- "How can technology applets improve fluency in math skills?"

6. Assessments to use to gather data-google forms for students to record the scoring results of games

I will discuss these ideas this coming week with my host teacher and PDS principal.

Action Research Introduction

1. What is the title of the project?
"parents and web enhanced afterschool program"

2. What is the problem?
In this action research, the teacher wants to see the difference in mathematical achievement scores when fifth grade students and their parents interact in an after school web-enhanced tutorial program. Several fifth grade, low achieving math students only become engaged in learning mathematical skills and strategies while using computer based tutorial programs with limited adult guidance.

3. Describe the instructional intervention.
web-based practice to enhance important mathematical skills

4. What kind of strategy is the instructional intervention?
This type of instructional intervention would be considered a "homework and practice" strategy. The students are participating in a computer-based program in which they receive practice for math skills. Parents are encouraged to support the students' participation of this practice time at home.

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?
1-Mastery requires focused practice over days or weeks. After only four practice sessions students reach a halfway point to mastery. It takes more than 24 more practice sessions before students reach 80 percent mastery. And this practice must occur over a span of days or weeks, and cannot be rushed (Anderson, 1995; Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981).

2-Teachers in the United States tend to compress many skills into practice sessions and instructional units. Students learn more when allowed to practice fewer skills or concepts, but at a deeper level (Healy, 1990).

3-Appropriate parental involvement facilitates homework completion.


6. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work?
Data collection was based on the students’ scores achieved on their quarterly math grades.This was done by analyzing their Quarterly grade level math test, and their FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test) scores in mathematics. The Quarterly grade level math test is administered at the beginning of every nine weeks to give the district and the classroom teacher an indicator of students’ improvement in math skills and the use of math strategies. The FCAT is a test used to assess the achievement of the students within each school district and across the state of Florida. The web-based tutorial began for only a brief period before the FCAT, but it will be interested to note any increase in the math scores for the targeted students.

7. How was the data analyzed?
In the analysis of the data, the teacher examined how similar the web-based tutorials were to the exercises used in the classroom. The ease of use was also considered by the students as well as the parents. Parents sent information on how the students performed on their math home learning assignments. The teacher also took a survey of her students to determine that the students were very aware of their difficulties in mathematics and seemed receptive to the implementation to this instructional intervention.


8. What were the results?
Overall, there were improvement of each student’s math scores. Overall there was an average gain of about 9.2% for the students’ fourth grading period math scores.

Example of student work for webquest

Lesson Plan

Here is my Tech Step Lesson Plan.

rubric for webquest

Here is my summative assessment for my webquest.

Interest Inventory Results

I gave my whole class an interest inventory to avoid pointing out my struggling student. A link to the interest inventory given is in a previous posting, but the results were interesting.

My struggling student has two brothers, one older and one younger. She listed several friends under her "special friends" and mentioned liking playing outside and watching T.V. Her favorite hobbies were to "help neighbors". She had several favorites she listed including "meet molly" as her favorite book, "broken bridges" as her favorite movie, "miranda lambert" as her favorite singer, "drake and josh" as her favorite t.v. show, "pasta salad" as her favorite food, and "gun powder and lead" as her favorite song. She wishes she could have a big ballerina in her room and claims school would be better if it had a pool and a hot tub. If she had a million dollars, she would buy everything she could. The think I have done that she liked most was helping her in math. The thing I have done that she liked the least was talking a lot.

This information could be very helpful when planning instruction for this struggling student. While she doesn't struggle behaviorally, she does seem to struggle academically at times. Perhaps allowing her to use her interests in the classroom would help her be more engaged and understand the concepts taught more. I have a hard time seeing this being helpful in math class, which is the only setting I see these students in, but I can see how it would be very helpful in language arts. Also, knowing she doesn't like when I talk a lot could help me individualize instruction for her. I know that some talking is necessary, but for her I need to back off of discussion so much and let her work with manipulatives instead of sitting and listening so much.

Formative Assessment

This is the formative assessment I've added to my webquest. Click here to view the document.

Webquest info

While the power standard fits into the techstep I will be teaching, it does not fit into the webquest I intend to construct to accompany it. Therefore, I needed to pick a new CSO to help write my driving question. My new CSO is: SC.O.E.2.28-research alternative energy sources and evaluate the ecological, environmental and economic cost-benefit ratio.

My driving question is: Which type of energy source is best for both the environment and ourselves?

Here is an anchor video that I would use to launch this webquest:

Electricity from all kinds of Renewable Sources

More educational videos on Energy Sources at NeoK12.com  

To see my webquest in progress, click here

Power Standard

I am doing a 5th grade math Tech Step for my 3 day lesson in which students examine data in an excel worksheet about how much electricity a student uses. They will then create their own excel spreadsheet and identify ways in which to reduce the amount of electricity they are using.

The power standard that best fits my lesson is Power Standard 1 for Fifth Grade Mathematics: Students will organize data into tables, charts, and graphs and use this data to make predictions or to draw conclusions, and determine the best statistical measure of the data using mean, median, and mode.

Thinkfinity Project This website is not necessarily part of Thinkfinity, but is a partner of Thinkfinity that provides lessons through the Thinkfinity webpage. The activity tells about renewable and nonrenewable resources. This would make my Tech Step more authentic by tying it to real life and getting the students to realize how they can conserve energy in their own homes. Maybe after doing the tech step through the first time, we could go back and alter our data after we learn about types of resources and create a "goal" spreadsheet which displays how much energy the students would like to use to help cut down on costs.

Multiple Intelligences

My preferred learning style was:1-music, 2-intrapersonal, 3-kinesthetic.

After researching a bit, I discovered that when teaching to music intelligences, it does not simply mean to only have them sing a song (although that is a good strategy for many types of learners). Those who have a preferred musical intelligence are very good at rhymes, rhythm, beats, patterns, pitches, etc. Because of this, a teacher should try to keep the lessons tied around some of these strengths to ensure they are meeting the musical intelligence needs. One activity that might be used is reading poetry out loud to a partner or the class. Because poetry is full of rhythm and rhyming, it is a great activity to touch on these attributes. Also, examining music itself could help these types of students keep focus and engagement. In social studies lessons, the different cultural music could be examined and students could sing or listen to songs from different places or time periods. This also lends itself to math lessons tying into fractions. Also, students could create a "music autobiography" in which they create a song of clips from songs that tell about their life.

These are just some activities that could be useful when teaching to the music intelligence. The important thing to remember is that a teacher should try to reach as many multiple intelligences as possible in each lesson.

Struggling Student

My placement is a 5th grade math classroom. I've found that sometimes it is a lot harder to find struggling students in a math setting than say a reading setting. One particular student seemed to be having significant problems throughout the week. The class was working on turning fractions into decimals. Their assignment was to fill out a chart with the numerators 1-12 on the top row and the denominators 1-12 on the side. Basically, they would go through and find all the decimals from 1/1 to 12/12. The teacher almost always allows them to use a calculator and the calculators have a key that turns fractions into decimals. This should have been an easy assignment for all of the students in the room, and yet when I walked around to check on the progress, one specific girl had eraser marks all over her book and kept doing the same fraction over and over. When I asked how she was doing, she responded that she needed help. I had her show me how she was using the calculator and she was following the steps correctly. In this assignment students are supposed to be able to see the patterns in the decimals and finish the rows without using a calculator. For example, if the pattern was .333, .666, 1, 1.333, 1.666, 2, the student should realize that the rest of the row followed this pattern. This girl, however, could not see any of the patterns. She relied on her calculator for every single square on the chart. I do not think this is even an over dependency of the calculator, I just honestly think she couldn't see the pattern. This makes me wonder if she might have spatial problems and other difficulties seeing patterns in other subjects. She knew how to do the procedure, but couldn't register the patterns to make the work easier for herself. I did not see her ever complete the chart.

Explanation of Vokis

I wanted to be able to listen to my whole reflection. This required me making 4 different vokis to do so. They are in order from the bottom being the first to the top being the last.

My Placement Schedule

I will be attending my placement every Monday and Wednesday from 8-12.

Digital photo Story

Here is the digital photo story I created entitled "Where I'm from"

"Where I'm from" Poem

I am from the valley where creeks rise and fall, from Pepsi cola and iced tea on a hot summer's night.

I am from the grey house on the corner, with creaky steps and over a century old, filled with memories.

I am from the burning bush glowing in the midday sun, the daffodils that sprout in the springtime.

I am from game nights on the outside deck and loud,hearty laughs that fill those nights' air, from Lucille and MaryAnn and three generations of Williams.

I am from the house full of family on Christmas Eve and thankful for the quiet that comes the next morning.

From "I expect you to always do your best" and "I'll love you no matter what you choose to do".

I am from the white cross on the steeple down the street. Always searching, always seeking, always looking for life's truths.

I'm from Clarksburg, WV, from grilled hamburgers and pasta salad.

From double-trouble with my twin--my best friend, the sound of a guitar floating up the steps from my brother's room, and the love and loyalty of my dog who never leaves my side.

I am from the campfires at Seneca Rocks, fishing on the Mountain streams, and hunting in the fields at dusk.

I am from deep family ties and a love of the land that will hold me to this place,in body or mind, for all my life.

Student Interest Inventory

Here is an example of an elementary student interest survey. Click here to go directly to the survey.

Double-Entry journal for "As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth!"

1)"A fourth-grade teacher grinned up at me knowingly as she condemned a young mother: "I knew she was ignorant just as soon as she opened her mouth!"

This very first line instantly got a strong reaction out of me. How can a teacher be so condescending? I hope as a teacher I am never this judgemental about the parents of my students.

2)"In fact, all chlidren do not behave in ways tha tlet us know that they have learned and are learning about written language when they are very young. That is because not all children learn about written language to the same extent during their pre-formal instruction years"

This surprised me. I had the misconception that all young children pretend to read and write. I know I did as a child. I just assumed that this was the case for everyone. I need to keep my own experiences out of my views of how other children learn.

3)"Looking a the larger study first, I documented that, yes, overall there were relatively few instances of reading and writing in these homes; but there was a rang from almost no uses of print to print use that looked just like the middle-class homes described by others"

This is in reference to low-income families use of print affecting the literacy of the children in those homes. I am surprised that the same results show for no print use and moderate print use. I would think there would be a direct correspondence to the use of print and the amount of literacy. On a graph, I'd assume the slope of the literacy line would steadily increase with the amount of print use.

4)"They did not understand that print existed as a meaningful semiotic system; it did not "mean", did not function in their lives. And they lived full and interesing lives without it."

This was very interesting when I read it. We had a conversation about types of litereacy in Pedagogy of Literacy class last semester and discussed how we all possess different types of literacy. Reading and writing are vital to living in the professional world, but we should not neglect the literacy people do possess, even if they cannot read and write.

5)"The implications of this stance of cultural difference instead of deficit for educators is profound"

I have never heard anyone refer to this lack of literacy as a difference rather than a deficit. I can absolutely understand what this author is intending in this piece. Knowing the different experiences of our students help us to know why they have different literacy levels.

6)"If the child's family is poor, his parents undereducated, his dialect nonstandard, then we are much more likely to interpret experiential difference as a deficit in the child, in the parents, in the home, in the sociocultural community within which this child has grown up. And when we do this, we play God, conferring or denying educational opportunity to individual, socioculturally different, children. And we do not have the right to do this."

This one paragraph has the most impact of anything I've read so far in this piece. I am guilty of this type of preconception of students who live a life like this. I consider it a deficit and that I need to right the wrong. Blaming the parents often occurs in situations like this. Every child needs educated, and those who come from low socioeconomic homes should not suffer the condescending attitudes because their living situation is beyond their control.

7)"As if she had never appeared before them, the teachers and the principal continued to send written notes home, never call, and to complain officially that the parents never responded to messages; they passed Donny to second grade, dismissing her concerns about his failure to learn"

Wow. We hear this happening so often. Students slipping through the cracks and shoved on to the next grade so someone else can take care of them. You never hear of illiterate parents asking for their child to have the chance to be held back and surpass the difficulties they experienced themselves. I am disgusted with the administration and teachers of this case study. A lot of the failure of so many students can, in my opinion, be contributed to teachers and principals who neglect the students most in need.

8)"First, and most obvious, teachers and schools must accept, believe, and act upon the belief that children of poverty are learners, have been learning since birth, are ready to learn at any time, and will learn."

This sums up my philosophy of teaching. All children have this ability. It is how they need to be taught and the experiences they possess that make them unique. I think we would be shocked to know how often teachers do not follow this first suggestion made. I've seen it first hand with cooperating teachers.

Mountaineer

This reflection is in response to both the video watched in 3351 and the article entitled "Mountaineer Circles".

Self knowledge/valuing what we have:
1)To be successful, is it necessary for a person to rid themselves of WV traits?

The term "successful" is one that is subjective. Who determines what defines successful? Due to the overwhelming poverty level found in our state, our definition of successful looks quite different than that from say, New York. I think part of being successful is embracing who you are and where you come from. West Virginians should never rid themselves of their heritage and cultural traits in order to fit into an ideal mold for someone else. However, this is so often the case for many residents of this state. They feel the need to get out and shake off their traits of West Virginia for people to take them seriously. In my opinion this is unnecessary. For example, my boyfriend is now a graduated music education major who is a true West Virginian through and through. He speaks with a distinctive accent typical of this area. His professors at his college urged him to rid himself of this accent because it made him sound unprofessional. I do not feel as though this should have been said to him at all, especially from other WV residents. He speaks clearly and with correct grammar, but possesses an almost southern draw. Why should we, as West Virginians, deny our culture and change ourselves to fit what others deem professional? Embracing these traits and supporting the culture we live in is part of what makes us successful.

The power of nature:
2)What should be our attitude towards outsiders that misunderstand our way of life?

We are used to the power of our land here in West Virginia, but many people who don't live here don't understand it. To some nature is a dirty, scary place where bugs and animals reside. However nature, particularly West Virginian nature, is so much more. It is difficult to explain the "awe and wonder" feeling one can get from observing the power of WV's landscape, but if you've ever climbed to the top of Seneca Rocks and seen the view or stood at the lookout at New River Gorge, you know the feeling. I could be considered a West Virginian who is very close to nature. There is no place I'd rather be than on a stream in the mountains fishing for trout or in my tree stand waiting for the perfect buck to walk in my field. These activities might seem absurd, but they allow me time to enjoy the world around me and think. Often the attitude from outsiders matches our attitude towards them. Intolerance and misunderstanding are traits that can be found with both parties. It is important to break this trend and begin to encourage outsiders to experience the wonder of our land like we do. We should try to show what our life is like here as well as be tolerant to their way of life back home. Maybe showing the benefits of living in West Virginia might change the opinions of the outsiders who negatively view it.