I am currently student teaching in a third grade classroom at a K-8 school in Southern California. The school highly values collaboration, project based learning, and technology in the classroom. My classroom consists of 24 students: 15 boys and 9 girls. In the class there are five English Language Learners. The students receive reading, writing, and mathematics instruction 5 days a week. Other subjects are taught on a less frequent basis. In this classroom, each student is provided with an iPad. Educational apps on the iPad are used during independent time to complete in class assignments and to add to their learning during teacher-led lessons.
The main area of need that emerged during the beginning of my student teaching was in writing. When I began in January, the students were working on a unit about fairy tales. The teacher was using Writer’s Workshop to support students in writing an adaptation of a popular fairy tale. My master teacher and I were both uncertain as to the best way to instruct or guide the students in this unit. I also noticed students having difficulty coming up with ideas, following a storyline, using details, and writing grammatically correct sentences. Because of this struggle, the attitude in the classroom about writing in general seemed slightly negative. The students seemed apprehensive about putting together their story and they frequently felt that they needed extra support from a teacher in terms of coming up with ideas and deciding what to write.
Through my personal observations, analysis of the completed student fairy tale writing, and discussion with master teacher, I decided that focusing on finding supports for students in terms of writing would be the most beneficial intervention in this classroom. Because most students felt that the person who would be best able to support them in their writing was their teacher, we wanted to switch that attitude to empower students to support themselves as well as to receive support from their peers. This independence is especially important as students leave third grade and enter fourth grade, as they cannot solely depend on their teacher to closely guide them through the writing process as they get older. Finding alternative strategies for the students to utilize throughout the writing process to help them in producing grade appropriate writing pieces is the ultimate goal.
With this in mind, my action research question was developed to be:
In what ways does peer conferencing affect student achievement in and attitudes towards writing?
My sub-questions include:
- How do structured worksheets affect the process?
- How does setting specific goals affect the process?
The main area of need that emerged during the beginning of my student teaching was in writing. When I began in January, the students were working on a unit about fairy tales. The teacher was using Writer’s Workshop to support students in writing an adaptation of a popular fairy tale. My master teacher and I were both uncertain as to the best way to instruct or guide the students in this unit. I also noticed students having difficulty coming up with ideas, following a storyline, using details, and writing grammatically correct sentences. Because of this struggle, the attitude in the classroom about writing in general seemed slightly negative. The students seemed apprehensive about putting together their story and they frequently felt that they needed extra support from a teacher in terms of coming up with ideas and deciding what to write.
Through my personal observations, analysis of the completed student fairy tale writing, and discussion with master teacher, I decided that focusing on finding supports for students in terms of writing would be the most beneficial intervention in this classroom. Because most students felt that the person who would be best able to support them in their writing was their teacher, we wanted to switch that attitude to empower students to support themselves as well as to receive support from their peers. This independence is especially important as students leave third grade and enter fourth grade, as they cannot solely depend on their teacher to closely guide them through the writing process as they get older. Finding alternative strategies for the students to utilize throughout the writing process to help them in producing grade appropriate writing pieces is the ultimate goal.
With this in mind, my action research question was developed to be:
In what ways does peer conferencing affect student achievement in and attitudes towards writing?
My sub-questions include:
- How do structured worksheets affect the process?
- How does setting specific goals affect the process?