ACTION PLAN
What I implemented in my classroom
WHAT
'What I Need' time otherwise known as WIN time. Where learning was specified based on what the student NEEDED to master a specified skill
WHY
To increase my students' math skills, based on the district's priority standards that were set in place
WHEN
WIN time was implemented Monday through Wednesdays, and Friday afternoons for 30 minutes. A link to the calendar that I followed, showing the skills we focused on, along with when we took our assessments is posted below.
HOW
Specific instructional strategies, ability grouping, technology (prodigy), practice games, gradual release, student choice, culturally responsive practices, collaboration
What I Implemented
I implemented WIN "What I Need" time in my classroom with my students. WIN time was based upon what students NEEDED to be successful. The district I worked in had a curriculum instructor who pinpointed standards and made a "priority standards" list stating what students absolutely needed to know before they moved on to the next grade. In my classroom, I wrote a pretest that was aligned with the same priority standard that the district had used for the post test. I had students take the pretest and grouped the students based on what their pretests showed. I grouped the students based on their ability per each standard. The entire grade level was put into three groups; one with me, one with the special education teacher, and the last group with the other grade level classroom teacher. I grouped students into high-achieving, middle-achieving, and low-achieving groups based on their ability. I had a group of 10 students who were on the middle/low end of achievement in regards to the two standards on which they tested.
Why I Implemented WIN Time
Since I observed that my students didn't feel confident during math, I decided to implement an Interest inventory to really understand their thoughts and feelings. I did this to understand my students as learners, and provide opportunities to learn, how they like to learn. According to my research, my students liked to learn best by using technology, having a lot of practice opportunities, and knowing multiple ways to solve a problem. According to my students' state test scores from the year before, I knew they needed some math intervention to be successful. I wanted my students to see their own growth from the pretest to the post test, to show students that they can learn in a variety of ways, and to increase their math skills across the board. By using their answers on this interest inventory, I was able to gear my instructional strategies to how my students enjoy learning. I researched strategies including formative and summative assessment, standards based teaching, response to intervention, ability grouping, and specific instruction,
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According to Douglass & Hortsman (2011) Response to Intervention (RtI) is a practice of performing academic and behavioral interventions specifically designed to provide assistance to under performing students. When teachers provide interventions to students, they are researched-based, and implemented frequently. By utilizing Response to Intervention, it allows me to Break skills down to see what skills students may have missed the mark on. Which then meant I am able to provide specific, research based instructional strategies to help them be successful. WIN time is a form of Response to Intervention.
Ability grouping is as simple as it sounds, grouping students in regards to their ability on specific subject areas. Ability grouping also aligns closely with differentiated instruction. “Little (2009) states that differentiated instruction is an approach to planning and teaching based on the premise that teachers must consider who they are teaching as well as what they are teaching."
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Standards based teaching pinpoints an end result students are required to learn. This teaching strategy helps the teacher to facilitate specific instruction in regards to the standard. Teachers can design effective assessments and specific instruction to meet the standards.
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Specific instruction requires looking at the standards, formative and summative assessments, interventions and devise a plan on how to meet all students' needs. Differentiated instruction and specific instruction go hand in hand. Specific instruction can also include the “how” of delivering the instruction to students. This approach includes the plan, the instruction, and the activity. According to Drickey (2006) there are advantages and disadvantages to using technology as an instructional tool. Some advantages are that technology can increase on task behavior, which can in turn increase achievement.
When I Implemented WIN Time
My study took place from 2:25-2:55 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. My action research took place from January 21, 2020 to March 10, 2020
How I Implemented WIN Time
When implementing WIN time in my classroom, I had to keep in mind the differences all my students have. Along with all different learning needs, they all come from a different backgrounds as well. I wanted to make sure I met all the diverse needs of my students, by grouping them based on ability, so that I could give them the proper learning tools to show growth. I also wanted to improve my students confidence in math, so when grouping them based on ability, they didn't feel discouraged that others are achieving at a faster rate than they did. Since I taught in a 6th grade classroom, there is a lot of thought put into their own confidence based upon their abilities in math. It is vital that I understood and represented all of my students cultures within my teaching. In doing so, it helps the confidence piece of their attitudes. I chose to represent other cultures in my classroom by showing a variety of videos on topics-with different cultures of people. Along with writing story problems that represented all sorts of backgrounds, and cultures.
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Since each of my students were from a different background, I chose to foster equity by making sure I gave each of my students instruction at their specific levels. Since I had the middle/low achieving group of students I provided extra materials for them to be successful, like manipulatives, a white board slate, and technology resources like Khan academy, which walks them through specifically how to solve problems and provided them with practice opportunities. I also decided to work more directly with the students on the low achieving end, to make sure they were getting specific, and direct instruction in order to be successful. Occasionally I had a paraprofessional work with a the students who were lower, and I would focus on the middle achieving students. I also chose to specifically group students in my classroom based on their ability to work together and focus. I did this because I wanted students to stay on task, and get the most out of this short 30 minute learning time. In which I also grouped students within my ability group, into ability groups. Where I would put the higher achieving student with a lower achieving student, so that the students could teach each other their own way of problem solving, while also improving their own skill set
Culturally Responsive Practices
Collaboration & Stakeholders
During my study, I collaborated with many stakeholders, both internally and externally. Internally I collaborated with my grade level team, the special education teacher, and the principal. Each Thursday, my grade level team, and the special education teacher would collaborate on the best ways to plan instruction so our students could be successful on each state standard, and common assessment that we were focused on at that time. We planned lessons together, and searched for activities and games to help our students master the standard. We discussed how the games, activities, and manipulatives would not only benefit our lower achieving students, but our high achieving students as well. My principal would check in every Thursday and ask how it was going, and if there was anything we needed help with, or to share a success story about how our WIN time was going. My principal would also ask how what we were doing in the classroom, and for my study, and how it aligned to our building's school improvement plan, which was focusing on math achievement as well.
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Externally, I collaborated with my professors at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and my CADRE Associate. My professors collaborated with me by giving me feedback on my pre-test that I constructed to fit a standard, along with giving me feedback on my action plan and literature review. Their guidance gave me enough information to implement this study within my classroom daily. My CADRE Associate and I met on a weekly basis and she helped me plan, create materials, worked with students, and offered me feedback on my teaching practices. Both my CADRE Associate and UNO professors offered me feedback, advice, and assistance while I implemented this study.
Khan Academy
Khan academy showed the students a short video on how to solve for a problem, in this case, matching a Net to a 3-D figure, then once they have watched the video, it gives students a set of practice problems. With drawing tools to help them solve​
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