Action Research Comes to a Close

“Action research is used by teachers as a process to facilitate change in their work as a professional. Not only does action research foster opportunities for teachers to make important evidence-based changes in their practice, but it also serves as validation of practices that work.”

       I whole-heartedly believe in the basic thinking of action research.  It is my hope that I never become a “stale” teacher because when you stop changing and improving to meet the needs of your students you should no longer be in the classroom.  My biggest fear with finishing my master’s degree is the idea that I will not have a constant incoming flow of new knowledge at my fingertips.  That scares me because I want to continue to stay on top of things and how I can always change and improve to get better and be better for my students. 

       Action research is what good teachers have to continually do to get better.  If something is not working for your students, then you must seek out an alternative and try that out.  Monitoring how students are doing and what is and is not working for them is essential to help student continue to grow.  This is exactly what is asked that teachers do in the RTI process as well.  They are asked to try things and give them a fair try. If they don’t work, then they are asked to change it and try something new until they find something that does work.  Action research is essential and I will continue to change and find new things to do in the future to help all of my students succeed.

       However, I do feel like some of the aspects of action research are not essential.  I don’t always think that teacher have to talk about whether what they are doing is working or not.  Teachers who know their kids and know them well immediately know when things are working or not most of the time.  I could tell instantly in other “mini” action research projects that things were going to work or if they weren’t going to work.  I do believe in giving things a fair try too.  Also, the written aspect of action research in my case felt a little unimportant because I wanted to know what worked best for my kids. But, what works best for my kids, may not be what is best for other kids in other classrooms.  I hope that the one thing that will others may take away from my action research is that the process of change and action research is essential.  While change is not always comfortable, it is necessary for students to be successful.  Overall, I am in support of action research and am happy to have had the opportunity to participate and experience it.

Coming to the End of the Year!

Wow!  I know that I mentioned this in my last post, but oh my goodness the end of the school year is CRAZY!!!!  We are continuing learning between field trips, track meets, and other "stuff".  The Words Their Way process in continuing but any routine that we had in any way is completely gone (and not just for Words Their Way)! I think that the students are still enjoying the Words Their Way even though it has to feel as random to me as it does to them when I say "take out your words". 

I still think that the most powerful aspect to the Words Their Way program is how students start to recognize their patterns in other places.  Even though our schedule is basically non existent, they will come up to me and say "hey, look I found my word pattern in this book".  This is so powerful to me because before I never heard students talking about words in any way because they all had different words and the words were essentially random in pattern.

It's scary to think that my first year of teaching is almost over! But, I am so looking forward to the summer where I will be able to take some time to set up games to play with Words Their Way and other activities to help create this routine early.   While I feel like I am getting good data to compare to what we were doing before, I am excited to see what a whole year of the Words Their Way program can do to help students with their spelling and maybe other areas of literacy as well.

So, the spelling program has continued.  The students are still enjoying this format much better than they were previously.  I am seeing a fair amount of growth.  It has not been as scheduled and regular as I had originally hoped because of the craziness of spring.  However, we are still working to do the sorts daily and to continue gathering data. 
I was hoping to incorporate some of the games that are available to go with Words Their Way that I found in both the book and others that I have found online.  However, the time in the day to teach new games and play them is most often not there.  I am hopeful that should we get to continue to use this program in the future that I can create, teacher, and use these games earlier in the year.  As a first year teacher, I had heard about how crazy spring time in the schools is, but had never witnessed it.  Well, I am living it currently and it is more crazy that I had ever imagined.  Regardless, I am impressed with the students willingness to continue with this program.  We continue to do the sorts if different manners because they are quick to teach and complete.  I have also been very excited to see students bringing their books and other reading materials to me in order to show me words from their sort or with the same pattern in their sorts.