Monitoring student progress
Throughout my action research, I aimed to consistently and accurately measure and monitor my students' growth and ability in mathematics. I utilized three specific forms of data collection methods to measure my students’ growth throughout my Capstone study. These data points were student interest inventories, WIN time pretests, Common Summative Assessments, and an online tool used to measure student growth called Prodigy.
Data set one: Interest Inventories
At the beginning of my research I had students fill out this interest inventory. This piece of data let me know how the students felt about mathematics, and their WIN time. My school referred to WIN time as BOBCAT time, because that is our school mascot. I asked questions about how they liked to learn math, what their favorite part about BOBCAT time was, and what their least favorite part about Bobcat time was.
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My school has been using WIN time throughout the start of the year. WIN time was something we used as a school improvement plan, in regards to mathematics, because it was a school wide need.
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This data helped me to better understand my own students' feelings toward math, and activities that they enjoy doing, and don't like doing. That way I can make WIN time the most productive 30 minutes possible by providing engaging activities, and games to enhance student learning at the level they are on.
Data set two: WIN time (PRE) & Common assessments (POST)
During my study, students took 2 pretests, and 2 post tests. They covered 2 different standards, but all under the same overarching Geometry skill. The first standard that we focused on was (MA 6.3.3.a), Determine the area of quadrilaterals, including parallelograms, trapezoids, and triangles by composition and decompositions of polygons as well as applications of formulas. And the second standard was (MA 6.3.3.b), Determine the surface area of rectangular prisms and triangular prisms using nets. Since the post test is a common assessment written by the district, students are only allowed to take it one time, once we have felt they has mastered the standard. So I wrote a pretest that mimicked the same set of skills the students would need on the post assessment, and had them take that before instruction began. Since the pretest and post test were based on the same skills with different questions, my team had a good idea on how the students would do on the common assessment which helped tell us what type of instruction each student still needed in order to reach the level of mastery we were hoping for.
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Data set three: Prodigy
The last piece of data that I used is a web program called prodigy​. Prodigy is an instructional tool that my district pays for, so that all the kids can have extended practice both from home and at school. The teachers are allowed to create projects that are based on a state standard, standardized test, or on a skill for students to focus. I used prodigy as a a way to practice the skills that were more engaging for my students. Prodigy keeps track of all the student data, and what students answers are to the questions to analyze to. I used prodigy as a pre and post test data piece. Since the standards I focused on were so similar I joined the skills together and gave my students a 2 week period at the beginning of my study to answer all of the questions. During the last 2 weeks of my study, I assigned them the same skills to see if they improved over time.
