Introduction
“Our other teachers don’t usually let us have a choice for our projects, so I was delighted when Miss Marina took the time out of her day to come do a project with us.” This statement made by one of my students not only captures a moment of bliss for myself as an educator but also continues to provoke my own personal philosophy as an educator as well. My omoi, or passion, in teaching comes from a desire to not only share my love and passion of education with my students but to also help them to find their own passions. Today, with such high-demands on education, many classrooms have removed passionate learning and thus, I believe have also detached student engagement. Therefore, my goal is this action research project is founded on increasing student engagement and creating opportunities to allow students to bring their passions and interests into the classroom through student choice.
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"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
-William Butler Yeats |
Research Context
This year, I have worked as Special Education Assistant at a charter school in the San Diego Unified School District. This charter school currently serves a population of 384 kindergarten through eighth grade students. The student ethnic population is predominantly Hispanic or Latino with 68 percent of the students attending are Hispanic and/or Latino, 13 percent African American, 12 percent Asian, 3 percent Caucasian, 3 percent Two or More Races, and 1 percent Filipino. This charter school inhabits a low-income population, with 100 percent of the school population being socioeconomically disadvantaged and 100 percent of the school receiving free lunch, which is an indicator of the socio-economic strata.
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As the Special Education Assistant I am “pushing in” grades
5th through 8th. The term “push in” in the educational setting means for the
special education teacher to provide instruction and support to students within
the general education classroom. As the year has progressed, I have pushed into
the 6th grade class more frequently; and as a result I have developed a strong
relationship with not only my special education students, but with the class as
a whole. This 6th grade class consists of 27 students, 15 girls and 12 boys.
Five of these students have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for mild
learning and/or behavioral disabilities. My class is a wonderful group of
individuals who are energetic, talkative, enthusiastic and have compassion for
one another, making their classroom their own. However, I could not help but
notice many of the students did not seem engaged in their learning and wondered why this was so.
Needs Assessment
For the initial needs assessment, I performed classroom observations. Within my in-class observations, I noticed that the students did not seem very engaged and were seen to engage in off-task behaviors throughout multiple times of the day. These behaviors included but were not limited to self-distractions such as playing with own articles of clothing, being distracted by peers, talking to neighbors or lip talking across the room, environmental distractions such as participating in other school work or fidgeting with items at their desks and the more common distractions such as asking to use the restroom and get a drink of water.
On one particular day, I gauged and took note on how many students participated in on and off task behaviors during their English Language Development (ELD) time. While the students were watching a CNN Student News video, which was about ten minutes long, I tallied how many students were on-task for the entirety of the video, while also noting student's off task behaviors. Although this sample of students on and off-task behaviors does not provide evidence for all the subjects throughout the day, it currently was the only time I could complete classroom observations. Out of the 27 students, only 11 appeared to be fully engaged in the task on hand. Although, most of the students did eventually complete the task on hand, I noticed various students would quickly write down their notes then begin to participate in off-task behaviors or vice versa, students would be off-task for most of the video and then quickly jot a few notes at the end of the video or look to a neighbor for help. Furthermore, I also began to recognize verbal signs of disinterest. Students would make statements and ask questions such as, "This is boring, why do we have to learn this?" and "Is it time for recess yet?"
As I noticed these signs of disengagement in the classroom, in attempt to gain a greater understanding, I then asked the students to complete a short survey that included three multiple choice questions and one open-ended question, all of which are sought to measure the interrelatedness of students' engagement. As I noted students' off task-behaviors, I sought to understand why these off-task behaviors might be so. Through the use of this short student survey, I was able to gain some sense of my students' perceptions and feelings towards school. The first two questions gauged students feelings towards school, the next question assessed students views on their assignments, while the last question was open-ended gauging interests in school. Through the use of this short student survey, I was able to gain some sense of my students' perceptions and feelings towards school itself. My student questionnaire consisted of the following questions:
On one particular day, I gauged and took note on how many students participated in on and off task behaviors during their English Language Development (ELD) time. While the students were watching a CNN Student News video, which was about ten minutes long, I tallied how many students were on-task for the entirety of the video, while also noting student's off task behaviors. Although this sample of students on and off-task behaviors does not provide evidence for all the subjects throughout the day, it currently was the only time I could complete classroom observations. Out of the 27 students, only 11 appeared to be fully engaged in the task on hand. Although, most of the students did eventually complete the task on hand, I noticed various students would quickly write down their notes then begin to participate in off-task behaviors or vice versa, students would be off-task for most of the video and then quickly jot a few notes at the end of the video or look to a neighbor for help. Furthermore, I also began to recognize verbal signs of disinterest. Students would make statements and ask questions such as, "This is boring, why do we have to learn this?" and "Is it time for recess yet?"
As I noticed these signs of disengagement in the classroom, in attempt to gain a greater understanding, I then asked the students to complete a short survey that included three multiple choice questions and one open-ended question, all of which are sought to measure the interrelatedness of students' engagement. As I noted students' off task-behaviors, I sought to understand why these off-task behaviors might be so. Through the use of this short student survey, I was able to gain some sense of my students' perceptions and feelings towards school. The first two questions gauged students feelings towards school, the next question assessed students views on their assignments, while the last question was open-ended gauging interests in school. Through the use of this short student survey, I was able to gain some sense of my students' perceptions and feelings towards school itself. My student questionnaire consisted of the following questions:
- How interesting are your assignments to you?
- How often do you enjoy being in school?
- How often do you dislike being in school?
- What do you like most about school? Why?
As you can see in Figure 2, I found that 18 out of the 27 students claimed to “sometimes” enjoy being in school while18 of the 27 students stated to "sometimes dislike being in school. 16 out of the 27 students also indicated their assignments were “fairly interesting.” Furthermore, through the open-ended question “What do you like most about school? Why?,” I determined that students interest all fell into four main categories of friends, rotations (which is a time of the week students get to participate in arts, physical education, and music), recess, and projects/reports. More than half of the students claimed to enjoy school because they got to "hang out and see their friends."
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Overall, from my needs assessment, it appears that my students are not actively engaged within the classroom and thus participate in numerous off-task behaviors throughout the school day. Also, it seems that more than half of my students enjoyed school for the social aspects as opposed to the academic aspects; however, they have more than enough potential to do so. Thus I have came up with the following research question that I would hope would deepen my understanding of their needs with the intention of helping them to enjoy their learning within the academic classroom.
Research Question
How can I support my students to become more engaged in academic learning in my classroom?