Katherine Hogan's Padlet by

Possible Action Research Q's

khogan13 — 2016-01-16 18:59:37 UTC

- What is more affective in regards to attention getters: verbal or non-verbal cues?

- How to create authentic writing experiences in Kindergarten

- Will brain breaks energize kids or help them to continue to focus?

- How to keep kids from calling out (during direct instruction) *****

- How to keep kindergarteners engaged in direct instruction longer

Stars - Dr. Sprague

debbiersprague — 2016-01-27 00:41:13 UTC

You have starred keeping children from calling out. Is this the topic you want to focus on? This deals with classroom management so you should do a search on that phrase for ideas.

Starred Idea

khogan13 — 2016-01-27 14:45:19 UTC

Dr. Sprague, this is a problem that my class does struggle with quite a bit. I know they're only 5 but it can become very frustrating and it's a problem that we seem to struggle with daily. I think it is one I would like to look at.

Problem Statement

khogan13 — 2016-01-27 17:26:05 UTC

During classroom instruction it is not uncommon
for children to call out answers or speak out of turn while the teacher is
talking. Even though this may not seem
like an ordeal to most it can be a distraction to other students and at times
throw the teacher off guard. It can also
get to a point where instruction takes longer to get through because of student
interruptions. It would be ideal if we
could minimize, or all together cut out, student interruptions during
instruction. This ideal situation would
result in shorter instruction time, fewer distractions, and students as well as
the teacher being able to stay focused.

Good Start - Dr. Sprague

debbiersprague — 2016-01-28 01:52:00 UTC

This is a good start for the problem statement. You need to add a suggestion as to what strategy you think might help prevent calling out. You might not know this yet, but it will need to be added once you have reached a decision.

Context

khogan13 — 2016-02-08 00:27:10 UTC

My internship classroom is a kindergarten class located in a title one school in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. In my classroom there are 9 girls and 13 boys.
One of the students is a child who is on the autism spectrum. Some of these students receive speech services and special education services. A few of the students are pulled out for one-on one whether it be with the special education teacher(s) or with the speech teacher throughout the week or day depending on the teacher and the child. Some of the students are not completely fluent in the English language but they are improving each day.
Within the school the demographics are as follows. There are 137 African American students. The caucasian population consists of 92 students. There are 224 Asian students, 288 Hispanic students, and 24 who fall under the "other" category. As a whole there are 402 boys in the school and 363 girls.
The advanced academics population is made up of 172 students. Two-hundred and ninety-five students receive english language services and 79 receive special education services.
My intervention plan for my action research is to implement the mystery student concept. The concept is that I choose a mystery student for however many lessons that I see fit and I keep an eye on that mystery student. That student will receive a reward if they follow instructions and behave. The idea is that this motivates the students to behave during instruction and stay focused.

Context - Dr. Sprague

debbiersprague — 2016-02-08 01:10:22 UTC

The context should be written in paragraph format, not in a list format. Also, you need to include a description of the classroom.

Context- Erin Stansel

estansel — 2016-02-09 01:43:24 UTC

Hey Katie! I see you're working on your context so I'll come back later! Quick tip for your first paragraph then I'll leave you alone! -- for kids who are identified as a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, should be described as such :)

Context - Lisa Yang

eyang5 — 2016-02-09 02:16:21 UTC

Hi Katie! I like this idea of having a Mystery Student. I just quickly read about it on a blog and it sounds like it can have a really positive effect on behavioral issues in the classroom. Is your class a responsive classroom--if so, you might need to think of a different way of rewarding them (https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/teaching-without-rewards/)?

I think it would be really neat to also incorporate opportunities for students to self-reflect on their behaviors throughout the day. You can do a quick "hand-to-heart" where the students put their hands/fist on their hearts and give you a thumbs up if they feel they are behaving well and doing what they're supposed to be doing or a thumbs to the side if they think they can make some better choices. The teacher I observed doing this always had the students facing her so that the students can give honest self-reflections without the fear of other students seeing. I think allowing the students to self-reflect before the grand reveal of the mystery student will allow those students who aren't behaving to self-check and realize they still have time to make better choices and turn things around for the better before the end of the day. This could prevent students from feeling like, "Oh, I'm having a bad day. It's going to keep being a bad day"). I'm envisioning where a student has a rocky start in the beginning of the day, self-reflects and self-checks, turns his/her behavior around and then you have a private one-on-one convo. with him/her, praising him/her for making better choices (to build that sense of autonomy ).

Context and Intervention - Dr. Sprague

debbiersprague — 2016-02-09 20:37:36 UTC

Your Context is clearer than your previous version, but it needs to be reorganized. The school information comes first than the classroom. You start with the macro and work toward the micro.

Regarding the mystery student. ALL students get a reward if the mystery student is doing well. This increases the chance of success and adds peer pressure to the equation. Since all share in the reward they put pressure on each other to be good.