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Student Participation 1
Student Participation:
Interns Implement Strategies to Increase Appropriate Student Participation
2009‐2010 Radio Park Elementary Interns Theresa Hladish Kayla Manahan Second Grade First Grade tmh5066@psu.edu krm5065@psu.edu
May 2, 2010
Student Participation 2
Table of Contents Background Information………………………………………………….…………………3 Description of Teaching Context……………………………………………………...3‐5 Ms. Manahan’s Class………………………………………………………………3‐4 Ms. Hladish’s Class…………………………………………………………………4‐5 Rationale ……………………………………………………………………………………….5‐6 Wonderings…………………….……………………………………………...………………....6 Main Wondering………………………….….………………………...……………...6 Sub Wondering…………………………………………………………………………6 Data Collection …………………………………………………………………………….7‐10 Preparing to Collect Data…………..…………………………………..............7‐8 Collecting Data …………………………………………………………………....8‐10 Process Reflection ………………………………………………………………….10 Analysis Process.…………….…………………………………………………………..10‐11 Explanation of Findings ……………………………………………………………...11‐17 Claim One …………………………………………………………………………11‐12 Claim Two ………………………………………………………………………...13‐14 Claim Three ………………………………………………………………………14‐17 Claim Four………………………………………………………………………..........17 Reflection and Implications for Future Practice …………………………...18‐19 Appendices.…………………………………………………………………………..…....20‐49 A (Sample Data Collection Sheet)……………………………………..…20‐21 B (Sample Weekly Behavior Worksheet)………………………………….22 C (Data Chart)……………………………………………………………………23‐27 D (Graphs)....……………………………………………………………………...28‐32 E (Inquiry Brief)………………………………………………………………...33‐40 F (Annotated Bibliography) ……………………………………………….41‐49
Student Participation 3
Background Information
As part of the Professional Development School, we have interned in first and
second grade classrooms at Radio Park Elementary during the 2009‐2010 school
year. Ms. Manahan interns in a first grade self‐contained classroom and Ms. Hladish
interns in a second grade self‐contained classroom.
Description of Teaching Context
Ms. Manahan’s Class:
My first grade classroom consists of twenty‐two children between the ages
six and seven. To be more specific, there are fourteen girls and nine boys, all of
which bring their own uniqueness to the classroom. Within this group of children
we have 21 children that are Caucasian and one girl that is African American. All of
my children speak English.
As for academics, the classroom is broken into five literacy groups that that
are used for language arts stations. After completing running records on these
children, they were placed in closely related reading level groups. Of these groups,
one consists of below level readers. This group contains two girls and three boys, all
of which receive extra reading support with our Response to Intervention program.
We also have a group of three girls and one boy achieving above the first grade level.
One of my first grade girls goes to Ms. Hladish’s second grade class for Language
Arts. There are three other reading groups that are reading at the appropriate level
for first graders at this time. For mathematics, we have four different groups. One
group of five children is achieving above grade level, two groups, each with six
Student Participation 4
children, are at the appropriate level and one group of four children is below grade
level. One boy in my class goes to second grade for math.
Behavior wise, the majority of my class is always willing to please. Four boys
and one girl in my class lack self‐control, which leads to inappropriate behaviors.
Three of these boys have been referred to an Instructional Support Team to take a
look at their behaviors and one is currently on a behavioral plan.
Finally, for the social relationships of my class, six children would be
considered leaders. Four of these are girls and two are boys. These six children can
always be counted on to make good choices as well. The remaining seventeen
children love to talk, but appropriately quiet down when it’s time to get their work
done.
Ms. Hladish’s Class:
My second grade classroom is very diverse. The class consists of nineteen
children, eight boys and eleven girls between the ages of seven and eight. There are
fourteen Caucasians (six boys and eight girls), four Asians (two boys and two girls),
and one African American girl in the class. Although the students in the class are
very diverse, the social relationships in the class are extremely strong. Most
students have a friend they are close to in the class and because of this, small cliques
are beginning to form. For the most part my students do get along and are able to
work together cooperatively. We also have a first grade student from Ms. Manahan’s
classroom who comes to our room for Language Arts every day.
In my class, we have one girl and one boy receiving learning support in
reading and writing, and two girls and two boys going to Response to Intervention
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(RTI) every day for reading. RTI incorporates intervention and assessment to increase
student achievement and to decrease behavior problems. This is accomplished within a
multi-level prevention system. We also have one girl who is an English Language
Learner. The rest of the students stay in our classroom for all language stations.
One girl is receiving learning support in mathematics and three girls and two
boys go to math enrichment once a week. The five students who go to math
enrichment, as well as the rest of the students, stay in my second grade classroom
for math every day. One boy in my class has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Because the student has difficulty learning in school, a team set goals for him to help
him succeed throughout the school year. In my second grade classroom, there are
two girls and two boys who stand out as leaders. One girl is definitely influenced by
other students in the class and the rest (seven girls and five boys) can make choices
on their own.
For both of our classrooms, our school day is made of many activities. Some of
which occur in a whole group setting and others that are more of a small group or
individual working session.
Rationale
We have noticed a similarity in Ms. Manahan’s first grade classroom and Ms.
Hladish’s second grade classroom with the way students participate. Many of our
students always remember to raise a quiet hand and wait patiently to be called on.
However, some students just blurt out the answer without raising their hand and
some even have their hand raised but still blurt out the answer. We have noticed
Student Participation 6
that this has become an issue and it prevents some students who wish to participate
and are waiting patiently to be called on to have that chance to actually participate.
Ms. Hladish has also noticed that during whole group read aloud stories, some
students in her class call out inappropriate responses that have nothing to do with
the question that was asked.
Through this inquiry, we hoped to look deeper into the calling out issue to
develop an understanding of what we can do to help eliminate it. We hoped that
clearly stating that we would be calling on someone with a quiet hand before asking
a question and using hand signals with the students would give the students a better
understanding of their expectation. This would therefore reduce the calling out in
our classrooms.
Wonderings
Main Wondering
How can a teacher increase appropriate student participation? Sub Wonderings
• Does it make a difference if a teacher states expectations before
asking every question?
• How can using hand signals or strategies with the students reduce the
number of students who call out answers?
• Does it make a difference if the intern or mentor is teaching?
• Will both first and second grade show the same progress?
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Data Collection
Before Preparing to Collect Data
When we began collecting data, we decided to sit back and observe our
classrooms for a few days and make a note of every time a child calls out. We felt it
would be valuable to our inquiry to make sure that calling out really was a problem
before continuing on with the process. After observing for these couple of days we
were assured, our mentors were assured, and our PDA was assured that calling out
truly was a problem in both of our classrooms.
Once we had collected enough evidence to say that calling out is a problem in
our classrooms, we collaborated to decide on a method for collecting data and
strategies that would be implemented in our classrooms. We created a recording
sheet with all of the student’s names, where we would place a symbol for
appropriate behaviors and another symbol for inappropriate behaviors during a
chosen lesson (Appendix A). While our mentors were teaching, we would record the
data and while we were teaching, our mentors or Professional Development Advisor
would record for us. We also agreed on our definitions of appropriate and
inappropriate behaviors, which would be placed at the bottom of every recording
sheet to be sure that we were being consistent throughout the process. We defined
appropriate behavior as a child raising their hand and waiting to be called on and
then responding with an on‐topic answer. Inappropriate behaviors were defined as
calling out an answer, impatiently raising a noisy hand, or responding with an off‐
topic answer.
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As we began collecting data, we also met to discuss possible interventions to
be used in our classrooms. We gathered interventions from experienced teachers,
fellow Professional Development School Interns, and educational research papers.
Strategies can be found on our recording sheets (Appendix A). Once we created our
list of strategies, we started the data collection process.
During Collecting Data
During the first and second week of our inquiry process, we collected data
during multiple subject areas and a variety of lessons. This allowed us to analyze
our data to narrow our focus on a specific time during the day. In Ms. Manahan’s
first grade classroom, she noticed calling out to be an issue during Calendar Math. In
Ms. Hladish’s second grade classroom, she found calling out to be most prominent
during read aloud stories. By narrowing our focus to one time of the day we were
able to make our data more meaningful.
Ms. Hladish also noticed that during read aloud stories, one student (Student
A) predominantly answered with inappropriate responses. This student’s
responses were almost always the majority of inappropriate responses on her Data
Collection Sheet (Appendix A) for both her and her mentor. Throughout the year,
Student A has had difficulty controlling calling out and sudden outbursts of talking
and silliness. Ms. Hladish knew this would skew her whole class findings so she
grouped data into: appropriate and inappropriate behaviors of the entire class and
appropriate and inappropriate behaviors of the entire class excluding all of Student
A’s responses. When referring to her analysis and findings, Ms. Hladish included
information from the whole class and the whole class excluding Student A.
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Ms. Manahan and Ms. Hladish started implementing strategies during the
third week of our inquiry. Each week we collected data on our recording sheets
about 2 to 3 times a week and on the recording sheet we stated whether we were
teaching or our mentor was teaching and what strategies were used. This allowed us
to not only look into our main wondering, but also our other wonderings that we
have with our students calling out. Although we chose different lessons to observe
and collect data for, both of our lessons lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.
In addition to having someone else record data for us, we also video taped a
few of our lessons and used StudioCode to code our lessons for our chosen
inappropriate and appropriate behaviors. StudioCode is a program that allows the
user to analyze video footage for recurring events. We used this program to analyze
our lessons for the number of times the students called out or had an inappropriate
or off‐topic comment. We had one code, the letter “A” for appropriate comments and
another code, the letter “I” for inappropriate comments. Using this program also
allowed us to look more deeply into the way we asked a question and the response
the students gave to the question.
Throughout the process, we met informally to discuss our findings and to
make any changes that we believed needed to be made. We would share our data
with each other and talk about the strategies that we were using with our students.
It was important for us to meet and discuss because we found that some of the
strategies could only be used during certain situations. For example, redirecting
strategies were important when a child called out or even raised a hand and had an
inappropriate comment, which got the entire class off task. Whereas, other
Student Participation 10
strategies were more useful for individual students who regularly called out and
were not practical for whole class disruptions. By meeting and discussing the
strategies and how we used them, we were able to collaborate and continue using
many different strategies throughout our inquiry.
After Reflecting on our Progress
Throughout our inquiry we found that taking a moment together to reflect on
our progress was extremely important. This took place during our informal weekly
meetings. In addition to reflecting together, we also reflected individually in our
weekly reflection journals. Our journals were a place for us to continue thinking
about our main wondering and sub wonderings, record our feelings about the
process, update our thinking and planning for the next week of the strategies to be
used, and also to provide our mentor and Professional Development Advisor with
any ways that they could be helpful during our inquiry work the next week.
After Analysis Process
To begin our analysis process, we each took all of our data sheets and
entered our data into a spreadsheet (Appendix C). We had the date, whether the
mentor or intern was teaching, appropriate comments, inappropriate comments,
and intervention used as our column headings. Using this information, we were able
to determine the percentage of appropriate comments within a lesson and the
number of inappropriate comments. We were also able to compare these
percentages with the lessons that we taught as interns and the lessons that our
mentors taught to determine if it made a difference as to who was teaching.
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While totaling the percentages of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors,
Ms. Manahan used data collected on the recording sheets from all of her students.
Ms. Hladish determined the percentage of appropriate and inappropriate comments
the same way. She also went back and determined the percentages of appropriate
and inappropriate behaviors of her entire class, excluding Student A’s responses to
see if the percentages drastically increased or decreased. At the conclusion of this
inquiry, we were able to make a claim about what classroom management strategies
were most successful in our classroom and we had evidence to support our
reasoning.
Explanation of Findings
Claim 1: We found that verbal reminders before asking a question did not improve
appropriate participation very much in Ms. Manahan’s first grade classroom, but they
did improve appropriate participation in Ms. Hladish’s second grade classroom.
Evidence:
Verbal reminders were one of the first intervention strategies that we
implemented into our classroom management style. When collecting our data, we
clearly indicated the strategy being used at the time, which allowed us to analyze
the strategies that we used to determine what worked and what did not work. Our
data analysis sheets can be found in Appendix C. In terms of verbal reminders, Ms.
Manahan’s classroom called out or had an inappropriate comment on 29.5% of the
questions asked on February 4, 2010 prior to implementing strategies. On February
17, 2010 after implementing the verbal strategy, “please raise a quiet hand,” the
Student Participation 12
inappropriate comments only dropped to 26.4% of the time, which did show some
decrease, but not as much as she had hoped.
On February 8th, which was prior to implementing strategies, Ms. Hladish’s
class called out or had an inappropriate comment on 50% of the questions asked.
Once the “please raise a quiet hand,” strategy was implemented, Ms. Hladish saw
that inappropriate comments did decrease, because on February 24th, her students
only called out or had an inappropriate answer to 23.1% (0% without student A’s
responses) of her questions asked. Over time there was a larger decrease in the
percentage of students who called out or gave an inappropriate answer because on
March 15, 2010, her students only responded inappropriately 17.7% (0% without
student A’s responses) of the time.
When looking back at notes made from each lesson, Ms. Hladish saw that
when the strategy, “please raise a quiet hand,” was first started she only said it
before a few of the questions that were asked. But over time, she used the strategy
for almost every question asked and the percentage of inappropriate behaviors
decreased from 23.1% to 17.7% (0% to 0% without student A’s responses). Ms.
Hladish found that when she gave students the expectation of how they should
respond (with a quiet hand), second graders were able to answer back how she
asked. She also saw that the percentages of inappropriate behaviors were low when
she “praised the good behavior of raising a quiet hand.” On March 4th when Ms.
Hladish said, “I like K’s quiet hand” and then called on K, 24% (13% without student
A’s responses) of responses were inappropriate which was a decrease from when
she first implemented the strategy.
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Claim 2: There was not a significant difference between when Ms. Manahan or her
mentor was teaching whole group calendar math instruction.
Evidence:
As indicated in Ms. Manahan’s analysis process, she wrote on recording
sheets who was doing the teaching. This helped to better understand her classroom
management styles and to see if this is something that she needed to continue
working on. However, she learned from her data results that it did not make much
of a difference if the intern or mentor was teaching.
To provide the students with consistency, Ms. Manahan and her mentor both
used the same strategies. When reviewing the data results, Ms. Manahan’s noticed
similarities in behavior when she was teaching and when her mentor was teaching.
For example, on March 22nd when her mentor was teaching, inappropriate
comments or calling out happened after 10.5% of the questions asked. While on
March 26th when Ms. Manahan was teaching inappropriate comments or calling out
happened after 9.1% of the time.
Ms. Hladish could not make this claim because she and her mentor did not
use the exact same strategies in every lesson. Ms. Hladish’s mentor has been
teaching for many years, and over those years, she has put strategies into practice
that work for her and for her group of students that year. Because Ms. Hladish saw
some of these strategies working for her mentor, she did use some of the same ones
when she taught (stop and wait, raise a quiet hand, thumbs up/down). However,
Ms. Hladish and her mentor did not always use the same strategies on every lesson.
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The subject of the lesson also varied because Ms. Hladish focused on read alouds
and the data from her mentor was from a variety of subjects. Lastly, the length of
Ms. Hladish’s and her mentor’s lessons varied. The lessons they taught ranged from
ten minutes to forty‐five minutes. Because this data wasn’t equivalent, Ms. Hladish
could not make this claim.
Claim 3: Frequently changing classroom management styles and implementing new
strategies with students keeps students interested and reduces the instances of
inappropriate responses and calling out answers.
Evidence:
Throughout this entire process we have been implementing new strategies
and introducing our students to them. Some of these strategies include those that
work for whole class situations and some are more directed towards individual
students. However, by continuing to make students aware of the importance of
remembering to raise a quiet hand to be called on and including students in
strategies to resolve the problem, the students are more likely to respond in a
positive way.
Ms. Manahan has noticed an improvement in her classroom with a few
individual students who struggled with calling out and she just makes them aware
every time they call out an answer by saying, “that was a call out, please show me
that you would like to answer the question.” Ms. Manahan has also noticed an
increase in appropriate participation with her students with the implementation of
hand signals to show the students how they should be responding the questions.
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During a calendar lesson on March 10th that Ms. Manahan taught, she realized
during her teaching that calling out was becoming a huge problem that day. In fact,
after coding the lesson using StudioCode, she found that the students called out
37.7% of the answers during that lesson (Appendix C). When Ms. Manahan noticed
this problem, she stopped teaching and asked the students what she could do to
help them remember to raise their hands when they should be raised and what else
could be done when it is okay to shout out an answer. This is when her students told
her to do exactly what she was hoping to implement next, the hand signals. Her
students decided that if the teachers raise their hand when they ask a question, the
students will remember to raise their hand to answer it. The students also decided
that if a teacher wants a response from the whole group, the teacher should open
her hands up to the students and everyone will answer the question. By allowing the
students to be involved in creating the strategy, the students were more engaged
and willing to follow it. Ms. Manahan’s data shows that inappropriate responses
actually decreased to as low as 3.8% of the time on March 24th.
Ms. Hladish has seen a huge increase of appropriate behavior in the way her
students participate in large group instruction. This increase also led to positive
changes during transitions, small group activities, and informal conversations with
the class. In January 2010, Ms. Hladish noticed her classroom management was
affecting her lessons. Because the strategies she was using were not working, she
was spending more time trying to wait for students to raise a quiet hand. In the first
few weeks of strategies, she would stop and wait until someone raised a quiet hand.
Because students were not responding to this, she decided to change her approach
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to classroom management. First she StudioCoded a lesson from February 12th to see
what the students were doing when she read a picture book to them. Then, in the
week of February 15th, she had a discussion with her students about their behavior
in the classroom and why it was sometimes inappropriate. Ms. Hladish came up
with a Weekly Behavior Worksheet where students could earn stars for working
cooperatively, working quietly, and being respectful (Appendix B). They did this in
language stations, math, the hallway, and read alouds. They would receive rewards
for appropriate behavior (playing a game instead of read aloud) or receive time off
of recess if they displayed inappropriate behaviors as a whole class or individually.
This strategy worked right away. On February 8, 2010 (the week before Ms. Hladish
implemented this strategy), students responded with an inappropriate comment
50% of the time (Appendix C). Two weeks after the strategy was implemented,
inappropriate responses decreased to 23.1% (0% without student A’s responses) on
February 24, 2010. More students responded appropriately with this strategy
because they could earn rewards for good behavior and they were responsible for
their own actions, so if they were responding appropriately, they wouldn’t lose
recess time.
Ms. Hladish then noticed that the students weren’t responding when she
tried a clapping sequence to stop inappropriate behaviors when students were off
task. The week of March 22nd, she proposed the “Class‐Yes” strategy to her class and
they were excited about trying it to decrease inappropriate behaviors. This strategy
is part of Whole Grain Teaching, where every time the teacher says, “Class,” they
have to respond with “Yes.” To make it more enjoyable, if Ms. Hladish said “Classity‐
Student Participation 17
Class‐Class,” her students would respond with “Yessity‐Yes‐Yes,” or “Yo‐Yo‐Class,”
“Yo‐Yo‐Yes.” Students really enjoyed the strategy because it was fun and they never
knew how Ms. Hladish would say “Class.” A couple of times before she was about to
use the strategy, a few of her students said, “Miss Hladish use Class‐Yes,” because
they knew students were using inappropriate responses and “Class‐Yes” was a way
to decrease them. This strategy has helped to decrease inappropriate responses.
Ms. Hladish first used the strategy on March 23rd and since then, the percentage of
inappropriate comments, after she asked a question, has been below 33.3% (below
22.3% without student A’s responses).
Claim 4: Appropriate student participation increased in both first and second grade
with the implementation of strategies.
Evidence:
In both Ms. Manahan’s and Ms. Hladish’s classrooms, there was an increase in
appropriate student participation from mid‐February to mid‐April, 2010. Ms.
Manahan learned that from the end of March to the beginning of April, the
percentage of inappropriate comments after she asked a question was as low as
3.8% on March 24th. Ms. Hladish saw that from the end of March to mid‐April, the
percentage of inappropriate comments after she asked a question has been below
33.3% (below 22.3% without student A’s responses).
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Reflections and Future Practices
Throughout this inquiry process, we have learned the importance of using
many different classroom strategies with our students. We also think it is valuable
to have a variety of strategies for different subjects and transitions, some that are
directed more towards individual students and strategies for whole class situations.
We notice that when students have stopped responding to a strategy, it is important
to try something new to assure that the students are always engaged to their full
potential. We have learned the importance of teaching the strategies to the students
and allowing them time to practice the strategy. This allows students to be held
accountable for their actions and helps them to understand why they are doing it.
We have learned that it is important to receive student input for the strategies,
which we both did during the process and plan to use in future practice.
As teachers, we feel that it would be more beneficial to start the process
much earlier in the year so that the students will have more time to show
improvement. This process could begin near the end of the first month of school
with the prior data collection starting then. After the prior data is collected to assure
that the inquiry is going to be useful, more time could be spent on strategies and
interventions with the students.
Teaching is all about collaboration and we have found that talking with our
fellow teachers has helped us to look deeper into the strategies that worked and the
ones that did not work. Collaboration is also important for collecting data because
unless you have access to a video camera and are willing to videotape yourself
multiple times a week, you will need someone to collect your data for you.
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By videotaping ourselves, we were able to revisit our lesson and reflect on
the lesson. This also allowed us to look at how the students responded to our
questions and how we can better set our students up for success in the future.
Technology is important in teaching because it allows a teacher to input data into a
program such as excel to analyze a large amount of data in a short period of time.
Overall, we have learned that strategies do work in the classroom but the
teacher needs to be patient because they might not get the results they are looking
for right away. Teachers also have to be willing and open to try new strategies and
suggestions from other educators because they just might find one that works for
them and their class.
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Appendix A- Data Collection Sheet
Figure 1: This is an example of Ms. Manahan’s data collection sheet, which was collected
on February 4, 2010.
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Figure 2: This is an example of Ms. Hladish’s data collection sheet, which was collected
on March 17, 2010.
Student Participation: Read Aloud – March 17, 2010
Name Time of Day
Participated Appropriately
Participated Inappropriately
student A 1:33‐1:48 | ||||| ||||| ||| student B 1:33‐1:48 student C 1:33‐1:48 student D 1:33‐1:48 student E 1:33‐1:48 ||| student F 1:33‐1:48 | student G 1:33‐1:48 ||| student H 1:33‐1:48 | student I 1:33‐1:48 || student J 1:33‐1:48 | student K 1:33‐1:48 student L 1:33‐1:48 | student M 1:33‐1:48 ||| student N 1:33‐1:48 student O 1:33‐1:48 | | student P 1:33‐1:48 student Q 1:33‐1:48 || student R 1:33‐1:48 || student S 1:33‐1:48
*Appropriate – raising their hand, being called on and responding with an appropriate answer *Inappropriate – calling out an answer, “ooooo I know it” when raising their hand, and responding with an off topic, silly, or inappropriate answer Questions asked: 2 before read aloud 3 during read aloud 3 after read aloud Cues: Raise a quiet hand and tell me … Behavior Worksheet
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Appendix B- Weekly Behavior Worksheet
Figure 1: This is the Weekly Behavior Worksheet Ms. Hladish used as an intervention.
Students could earn stars for working cooperatively, working quietly, and being
respectful. They did this in language stations, math, the hallway, and read alouds. This is
an example of Ms. Hladish’s Weekly Behavior Worksheet, which was collected during
the week of February 22, 2010.
Week of: February 22, 2010 Language Stations
M T W T F
Yellow - Dark Blue -
Red - Light Blue -
Green -
Math Stations Group 1 - - Group 2 - - Group 3 - - Group 4 - - - - -
Read Alouds Students earned
Game Day
5 minutes off recess (student A)
-
Hallway 5 minutes off recess
(whole class)
-
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Appendix C- Data Collection Chart
Figure 1: This is the chart that Ms. Manahan entered all of her data into. This helped to
formulate the percentages of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors in her classroom.
Date Intern/Mentor Appropriate Inappropriate
Percentage Appropriate
Percentage Inappropriate Intervention Subject
2/4 Intern 43 18 70.5% 29.5% 1 Calendar
2/5 Mentor 12 4 75.0% 25.0% 1 Math
2/8 Intern 22 10 68.8% 31.3% 1 Calendar
2/9 Mentor 21 7 75.0% 25.0% 1 Calendar
2/11 Mentor 16 3 84.2% 15.8% 1 Social Studies
2/15 Mentor 12 4 75.0% 25.0% 2 Calendar
2/17 Mentor 14 5 73.7% 26.3% 2 Calendar
2/22 Mentor 10 6 62.5% 37.5% 2 Calendar
2/23 Intern 12 6 66.7% 33.3% 2 Calendar
2/24 Intern 27 15 64.3% 35.7% 2 Calendar
3/3 Intern 24 5 82.8% 17.2% 2,3 Calendar
3/4 Intern 21 4 84.0% 16.0% 2,3 Calendar
3/10 Intern 23 4 85.2% 14.8% 2,3,4 Calendar
3/12 Intern 16 3 84.2% 15.8% 2,3,4 Calendar
3/18 Intern 21 1 95.5% 4.5% 2,3,4 Calendar
3/22 Mentor 25 1 96.2% 3.8% 2,3,4 Calendar
3/24 Mentor 22 2 91.7% 8.3% 2,3,4 Calendar
3/26 Intern 20 2 90.9% 9.1% 2,3,4 Calendar
3/29 Intern 23 2 92.0% 8.0% 2,3,4 Calendar
4/5 Mentor 25 1 96.2% 3.8% 2,3,4 Calendar
1- None
2- Quiet Hand 3- Individual Intervention
4- Hand Signals
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Figure 2: This is the chart that Ms. Hladish entered all of her data into from when she
taught. This helped to formulate the percentages of appropriate and inappropriate
behaviors for her whole class. Because she and her mentor did not use the exact same
strategies, there are separate charts for both her and her mentor. This is Ms. Hladish’s
chart.
Date Intern/Mentor Appropriate Inappropriate
Percentage Appropriate
Percentage Inappropriate Intervention Subject
2/4 Intern 14 5 73.7% 26.3% 1 Morning Meeting
2/4 Intern 6 2 75.0% 25.0% 1 Read Aloud
2/8 Intern 7 7 50.0% 50.0% 2 Morning Meeting
2/11 Intern 12 7 63.6% 36.8% 2,4 Morning Meeting
2/12 Intern 21 3 87.5% 12.5% 2 Read Aloud
2/16 Intern 19 9 67.9% 32.1% 2,4,6 Read Aloud
2/18 Intern 5 5 50.0% 50.0% 2,6 Morning Meeting
2/18 Intern 6 9 40.0% 60.0% 2,6,7 Read Aloud
2/24 Intern 10 3 77.0% 23.1% 3,6 Read Aloud
2/25 Intern 10 15 40.0% 60.0% 2,3,4,6,7 Read Aloud
3/1 Intern 6 6 50.0% 50.0% 3,4,6 Read Aloud
3/4 Intern 22 7 75.9% 24.0% 2,3,6 Read Aloud
3/15 Intern 10 2 83.3% 17.7% 3,6 Morning Meeting
3/17 Intern 19 16 54.3% 45.7% 3,6 Read Aloud
3/23 Intern 16 8 66.7% 33.3% 3,5 Read Aloud
4/5 Intern 29 14 67.4% 32.6% 3,5 Read Aloud
4/6 Intern 23 10 69.7% 30.3% 3,5 Social Studies
4/7 Intern 18 9 66.7% 33.3% 3,5 Read Aloud
1 - None 2 – Stop and Wait 3 – Raise a Quiet Hand 4 – Thumbs Up/Down
5 – Class Yes 6 – Weekly Behavior Worksheet 7 – Deduction of Recess Time
Student Participation 25
Figure 3: This is the chart that Ms. Hladish entered all of her data into from when her
mentor taught. This helped to formulate the percentages of appropriate and inappropriate
behaviors for her whole class. Because she and her mentor did not use the exact same
strategies, there are separate charts for both her and her mentor. This is Ms. Hladish’s
mentor’s chart.
Date Intern/Mentor Appropriate Inappropriate
Percentage Appropriate
Percentage Inappropriate Intervention Subject
2/3 Mentor 3 6 33.3% 66.7% 2 Morning Meeting
2/9 Mentor 13 10 56.5% 43.5% 2,3,4 Read Aloud
2/15 Mentor 38 14 73.1% 26.9% 2,3 Science
2/23 Mentor 35 26 57.4% 42.6% 2,3 Writing
2/24 Mentor 5 2 71.4% 28.6% 2,3 Read Aloud
2/25 Mentor 9 2 81.8% 18.2% 2 Morning Meeting
3/2 Mentor 20 8 71.4% 28.6% 2,3 Math
3/3 Mentor 12 6 66.7% 33.3% 2,3,4 Read Aloud
3/16 Mentor 3 5 37.5% 62.5% 2,3 Read Aloud
3/24 Mentor 11 7 61.6% 38.9% 2 Read Aloud
3/29 Mentor 23 11 67.6% 32.4% 2 Read Aloud
1 – None 2 – Stop and Wait 3- Raise a Quiet Hand 4 – Thumbs Up/Down
Student Participation 26
Figure 4: Because student A always made the majority of inappropriate behaviors before,
during, and after implementing strategies, Ms. Hladish determined the percentages of
appropriate and inappropriate behaviors of her class, excluding student A to see if the
percentages drastically increased or decreased. This is the chart that Ms. Hladish entered
all of her data into from when she taught (without student A’s responses). This helped
to formulate the percentages of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors for her class
(minus student A). Because she and her mentor did not use the exact same strategies,
there are separate charts for both her and her mentor. This is Ms. Hladish’s chart.
Date Intern/Mentor Appropriate Inappropriate
Percentage Appropriate
Percentage Inappropriate Intervention Subject
2/4 Intern 14 5 73.7% 26.3% 1 Morning Meeting
2/4 Intern 6 2 75.0% 25.0% 1 Read Aloud
2/8 Intern 7 7 50.0% 50.0% 2 Morning Meeting
2/11 Intern 12 4 75.0% 25.0% 2,4 Morning Meeting
2/12 Intern 21 3 87.5% 12.5% 2 Read Aloud
2/16 Intern 19 9 67.9% 32.1% 2,4,6 Read Aloud
2/18 Intern 5 2 71.0% 29.0% 2,6 Morning Meeting
2/18 Intern 6 2 75.0% 25.0% 2,6,7 Read Aloud
2/24 Intern 10 0 100.0% 0.00% 3,6 Read Aloud
2/25 Intern 10 6 62.5% 37.5% 2,3,4,6,7 Read Aloud
3/1 Intern 6 2 75.0% 25.0% 3,4,6 Read Aloud
3/4 Intern 20 3 87.0% 13.0% 2,3,6 Read Aloud
3/15 Intern 9 0 100.0% 0.00% 3,6 Morning Meeting
3/17 Intern 18 3 85.7% 14.3% 3,6 Read Aloud
3/23 Intern 14 4 77.7% 22.3% 3,5 Read Aloud
4/5 Intern 27 5 84.0% 16.0% 3,5 Read Aloud
4/6 Intern 22 4 84.6% 15.4% 3,5 Social Studies
4/7 Intern 17 3 85.0% 15.0% 3,5 Read Aloud
1 - None 2 – Stop and Wait 3 – Raise a Quiet Hand 4 – Thumbs Up/Down
5 – Class Yes 6 – Weekly Behavior Worksheet 7 – Deduction of Recess Time
Student Participation 27
Figure 5: Because student A always made the majority of inappropriate behaviors before,
during, and after implementing strategies, Ms. Hladish determined the percentages of
appropriate and inappropriate behaviors of her class, excluding student A to see if the
percentages drastically increased or decreased. This is the chart that Ms. Hladish entered
all of her data into from when her mentor taught (without student A’s responses). This
helped to formulate the percentages of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors for her
class (minus student A). Because she and her mentor did not use the exact same
strategies, there are separate charts for both her and her mentor. This is Ms. Hladish’s
mentor’s chart.
Date Intern/Mentor Appropriate Inappropriate
Percentage Appropriate
Percentage Inappropriate Intervention Subject
2/3 Mentor 3 1 75.0% 25.0% 2 Morning Meeting
2/9 Mentor 13 3 81.3% 18.7% 2,3,4 Read Aloud
2/15 Mentor 38 14 73.1% 26.9% 2,3 Science
2/23 Mentor 33 6 86.8% 13.2% 2,3 Writing
2/24 Mentor 5 2 71.4% 28.6% 2,3 Read Aloud
2/25 Mentor 9 2 81.8% 18.2% 2 Morning Meeting
3/2 Mentor 19 3 86.4% 13.6% 2,3 Math
3/3 Mentor 11 1 91.7% 8.30% 2,3,4 Read Aloud
3/16 Mentor 3 3 50.0% 50.0% 2,3 Read Aloud
3/24 Mentor 11 2 84.6% 15.4% 2 Read Aloud
3/29 Mentor 19 6 76.0% 24.0% 2 Read Aloud
1 – None 2 – Stop and Wait 3 – Raise a Quiet Hand 4 – Thumbs Up/Down
Student Participation 28
Appendix D- Graphs
Figure 1: This is a graph that shows the percentage of appropriate behaviors versus the
inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Manahan’s first grade classroom throughout a span of
three months.
Student Participation 29
Figure 2: This is a graph that shows the percentage of appropriate behaviors versus the
inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s whole second grade classroom throughout a
span of three months, when she taught.
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Figure 3: This is a graph that shows the percentage of appropriate behaviors versus the
inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s whole second grade classroom throughout a
span of three months, when her mentor taught.
Student Participation 31
Figure 4: This is a graph that shows the percentage of appropriate behaviors versus the
inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s second grade classroom (without students A’s
responses) throughout a span of three months, when she taught.
Student Participation 32
Figure 5: This is a graph that shows the percentage of appropriate behaviors
versus the inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s second grade classroom (without
student A’s responses) throughout a span of three months, when her mentor taught.
Student Participation 33
Appendix E- Inquiry Brief
Theresa Hladish & Kayla Manahan Inquiry Brief February 24, 2010
The State College Area School District is located in Centre County Pennsylvania
and is surrounded by the Penn State University community. Radio Park Elementary
serves children from kindergarten through fifth grade. As part of the Professional
Development School, we have interned in a first and second grade classroom at Radio
Park Elementary during the 2009-2010 school year. Kayla interns in a first grade self-
contained classroom and Theresa interns in a second grade self-contained classroom.
Ms. Manahan’s Class:
My first grade classroom consists of twenty-two children between the ages six
and seven. To be more specific, there are fourteen girls and nine boys, all of which bring
their own uniqueness to the classroom. Within this group of children we have 21 children
that are Caucasian and one girl that is African American. All of my children speak
English.
As for academics, the classroom is broken into five literacy groups that that are
used for language arts stations. After completing running records on these children, they
were placed in closely related reading level groups. Of these groups, one consists of
below level readers. This group contains two girls and three boys, all of which receive
extra reading support with our Response to Intervention program. We also have a group
of three girls and one boy achieving above the first grade level. One of my first grade
girls goes to Ms. Hladish’s second grade class for Language Arts. There are three other
reading groups that are reading at the appropriate level for first graders at this time. For
Student Participation 34
mathematics, we have four different groups. One group of five children is achieving
above grade level, two groups, each with six children, are at the appropriate level and one
group of four children is below grade level. One boy in my class goes to second grade for
math.
Behavior wise, the majority of my class is always willing to please. Four boys and
one girl in my class lack self-control, which leads to inappropriate behaviors. Three of
these boys have been referred to an Instructional Support Team to take a look at their
behaviors and one is currently on a behavioral plan.
Finally, for the social relationships of my class, six children would be considered
leaders. Four of these are girls and two are boys. These six children can always be
counted on to make good choices as well. The remaining seventeen children love to talk,
but appropriately quiet down when it’s time to get their work done.
Ms. Hladish’s Class:
My second grade classroom is very diverse. The class consists of nineteen
children, eight boys and eleven girls between the ages of seven and eight. There are
fourteen Caucasians (six boys and eight girls), four Asians (two boys and two girls), and
one African American girl in the class. Although the students in the class are very
diverse, the social relationships in the class are extremely strong. Most students have a
friend they are close to in the class and because of this, small cliques are beginning to
form. For the most part my students do get along and are able to work together
cooperatively. We also have a first grade student from Ms. Manahan’s classroom who
comes to our room for Language Arts every day.
Student Participation 35
In my class, we have one girl and one boy receiving learning support in reading
and writing, and two girls and two boys going to Response to Intervention (RTI) every
day for reading. RTI incorporates intervention and assessment to increase student
achievement and to decrease behavior problems. This is accomplished within a multi-
level prevention system. We also have one girl who is an English Language Learner. The
rest of the students stay in our classroom for all language stations.
One girl is receiving learning support in mathematics and three girls and two
boys go to math enrichment once a week. The five students who go to math enrichment,
as well as the rest of the students, stay in my second grade classroom for math every day.
One boy in my class has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Because the student has
difficulty learning in school, a team set goals for him to help him succeed throughout the
school year. In my second grade classroom, there are two girls and two boys who stand
out as leaders. One girl is definitely influenced by other students in the class and the rest
(seven girls and five boys) can make choices on their own.
For both of our classrooms, our school day is made of many activities. Some of
which occur in a whole group setting and others that are more of a small group or
individual working session.
Rationale:
We have noticed a similarity in Kayla’s first grade classroom and Theresa’s
second grade classroom with the way students participate. Many of our students always
remember to raise a quiet hand and wait patiently to be called on. However, some
students just blurt out the answer without raising their hand and some even have their
Student Participation 36
hand raised but still blurt out the answer. We have noticed that this has become an issue.
It prevents some students who wish to participate and are waiting patiently to be called
on to have that chance to actually participate. Theresa has also noticed that during whole
group read alouds, some students in her class call out inappropriate responses that have
nothing to do with the question that was asked.
Major Wondering:
What strategies can we implement to increase appropriate student participation in
large group instruction, while decreasing inappropriate participation?
Sub-Questions:
‐ How do the questions a teacher asks affect the way students
participate?
‐ Does it make a difference if a teacher states expectations before every
question?
‐ What are the variables that affect student participation? (time of day,
length of lesson, type of lesson, subject, mentor or intern teaching).
‐ Does it make a significant difference whether the intern or the mentor
is teaching?
Data Collection Ideas:
Before:
‐ Record students’ participation during whole group instruction during
different subjects and times of each day when both the mentor and the
intern are teaching.
Student Participation 37
‐ Videotape at least two lessons per classroom and organize appropriate
participation and inappropriate participation using Studiocode.
‐ Survey for students, asking them if they feel they raise their hand most
of the time, call out a lot, do both, or rarely participate.
During:
‐ Videotape at least two lessons per classroom and organize appropriate
participation and inappropriate participation using Studiocode,
compile findings and compare to the first videos.
‐ Monitor student participation using the same recording sheet, but
focusing on one specific subject time.
After:
‐ Compile findings from recording sheets and compare.
‐ Videotape one more lesson and organize appropriate participation and
inappropriate participation using Studiocode, compile findings and
compare to the rest of the videos.
‐ Survey for students, asking them if they feel they still raise their hand
most of the time, if they still call out a lot, if they do both, or if they
rarely participate.
Student Participation 38
Timeline:
February
Week 1, February 01-05:
-Begin “Before” data collection (observation checklist)
-Begin Inquiry Brief
-Continue working on Annotated Bibliography
-Brief/Annotated Bibliography Draft Due Feb. 10th
Week 2, February 08-12:
-Brief/Annotated Bibliography Due Feb. 10th
-Continue “Before” data collection (videotape lessons, recording sheet)
Week 3, February 15-19:
-Continue “Before” data collection (videotape lesson, recording sheet)
- Do student survey
Week 4, February 22-26:
- Begin “During” data collection focusing on one subject area (videotape lesson,
recording sheet)
March
Week 5, March 01-05:
-Continue “During” data collection focusing on one subject area (videotape
lesson, recording sheet)
Week 6, March 08-12: Spring Break
Week 7, March 15-March19:
- Finish “During” data collection focusing on one subject area
Student Participation 39
- Begin to compile results of recording sheets
- Complete “After” surveys
- Videotape one lesson and StudioCode
Week 8, March 22-26:
- Compare data from before, during, and after from videos and recording sheets
- Compare student surveys from before and after
- Begin to make claims based on evidence from data collection
- Begin rough draft of inquiry paper
April
Week 9, March 29-April 02:
- Compare data from before, during, and after from videos and recording sheets
- Compare student surveys from before and after
- Begin to make claims based on evidence from data collection
- Begin rough draft of inquiry paper
Week 10, April 05-09:
- Compare data from before, during, and after from videos and recording sheets
- Compare student surveys from before and after
- Begin to make claims based on evidence from data collection
- Begin rough draft of inquiry paper
Week 11, April 12-16:
- Revise inquiry draft
-Inquiry paper draft due April 16th
Week 12, April 19-23:
Student Participation 40
-Revise inquiry paper
- Work on presentation (Powerpoint?)
Week 13, April 26- 30:
-Revise/Finalize inquiry paper
- Work on presentation (Powerpoint?)
May
Week 14, May 03-07:
- Final Inquiry Paper due May 2nd
- Finalize presentation
May 8: Inquiry Conference
May 16: Final Inquiry Paper due to Webmaster
Student Participation 41
Appendix F- Annotated Bibliography
1. Bafile, C. (2003). Teaching students to “go fourth” peacefully. In Education World;
Professional Development Article. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from Education
World website: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev047.shtml
This article can be helpful for us when we are trying to find strategies to use to keep
students from calling out inappropriate responses to other students’ answers. By
implementing strategies and techniques to prevent this from happening, it could lead to
more students feeling comfortable to raise their hand and participate. This can also lead
to all students feeling safe and good when they raise their hand to participate, even if
their answer is not correct.
2. Biffle, C., Vanderfin, J., & Rekstad, C. (2009). Go power teaching: testimonials and
case studies. In go power teaching [principles, new and veteran instructors,
student teachers, sing the praises of a powerful new teaching system].
Retrieved February 2, 2010, from http://www.powerteachers.org/Freebies_files/ P
ower_Teaching_testimonials- 1.pdf
The Testimonials and Case Studies of Power Teaching are taken directly from teachers
and principles. Power Teaching is a current education movement where all teachers seem
to face the same difficulties: students’ lack of discipline, background knowledge, and
problems solving skills. Power Teaching helps to create fun classrooms, but in an orderly
way. We wanted to use some sort of Power Teaching strategies in our “during” phase of
inquiry to see if they really work because some teachers in State College are using them.
Student Participation 42
3. Biffle, C., Vanderfin, J., & Rekstad, C. (2010). Whole brain teaching [fast growing
education reform movement]. Retrieved February 1, 210, from
http://powerteachers.net/
Whole Brain Teaching classrooms are similar to classrooms that use Power Teaching.
There is always laughter, but it is task-focused. Teachers use games and humor to keep
students on track and help them practice basic skills and repeat core information. There
is discipline and organization in the room because students follow “fun” rules. This is
another site where we can get information about Whole Brain or Power Teaching. We
want to see if the strategies and activities in Whole Brain Teaching help our students to
participate appropriately throughout our inquiry.
4. Dawczak, L., Hawk, L., Kolenda, J., & Nye, J. (2000). Improving social skills
through the use of direct teaching and cooperative learning
(Dissertations/Theses No.040). Retrieved from
http://csaweb114v.csa.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/
This research project was made to improve the overall performance of students by
documenting their lack of social skills. The intervention was meant to help students
increase positive behavior, strengthen their confidence in social situations, and develop
behaviors that were physically and verbally age appropriate. We hope to use information
in this research project for our inquiry because one of the social skills in the study was
raising hands. We too want to implement strategies to help students remember to raise
their hands.
Student Participation 43
5. Denton, P., & Kriete, R. (2000). The first six weeks of school. Turner Falls:
Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc.
Although this book is typically for the first six weeks of school, we believe that it can be
helpful anytime during the year. This book is especially helpful for our inquiry because it
provides many strategies for attention getters, signals, and cues that we can implement
into our strategies for how to get students to participate appropriately.
6. Do they really need to raise their hands? Challenging a traditional social norm in a
second grade mathematics classroom. (2009, November). Teaching and
Teacher Education, 25(8), 106-107.
This is an article that has an emphasis on student participation in whole-group setting
without having to raise their hand. This is something good to look at when watching our
recorded lessons to see if the students would benefit from not having to raise their hands
in certain instances as opposed to always having to raise their hand to speak.
7. Dunne, D. W. (2000). How can teachers help shy students? In Education World;
Curriculum Article. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr267.shtml
This is an article about how to help shy children to participate more. This article is
important for our inquiry because we are looking at what students rarely raise their hands
to participate as part of our overall question. This article can help give us more of a
background as to why some children rarely participate and what we can do to help them.
Student Participation 44
8. How to keep kids engaged in class. (2010). Edutopia. Retrieved February 2, 2010,
from The George Lucas Educational Foundation website:
http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips
This website provides useful information for our inquiry project when we start implanting
strategies. This website has a list of tips to increase student participation and explains
each of them. This website encourages teachers to move around throughout the classroom
to keep students engaged. It also talks about how the students give a signal when they
have an answer such as a thumbs up, rather than them calling out the answer. These are
just a few of the strategies that this websites provides.
9. Increasing student participation. (2009). Washington University in St. Louis; The
Teaching Center. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from
http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/increasing-student-participation
Although this article is geared more towards increasing participation in college
classrooms, we feel that the strategies can be adjusted to suit a first and second grade
classroom. This article can be helpful when thinking about shaping the environment and
planning and we can adjust these suggestions to match the learning styles of our first and
second grade classrooms. For example, it talks about mixing the class structure up
because some students may feel more comfortable talking if everyone’s backs are to them
rather than if they were in a circle and everyone can see his or her face.
Student Participation 45
10. Lane, K. L., Barton-Arwood, S. M., Doukas, G. L., & Munton, S. M. (2005).
Designing, implementing, and evaluating social skills interventions for
elementary students: step-by-step procedures based on actual school-based
investigations. Preventing school failure, 49(2), 18-27. Retrieved from
http://ezaccess .libraries .psu .edu/login ?url=http://proquest .umi .com .
ezaccess.libraries .psu .edu/pqdweb ?did=821946471 &sid=1 &Fmt=4
&clientId=9874-&RQT=309 &VName=PQD
This article is useful to our inquiry process because it takes you step by step through the
process. The article first aids in the identify of students who need help with participation,
then it helps you to identify the issues and design the intervention, it then helps you to
organize the intervention, implement the intervention, and lastly monitor student
progress. This article will be helpful in seeing the process that they recommend and
seeing which parts of it would be useful for our specific classrooms.
11. Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2010). Principles of classroom management: a
professional decision-making model (sixth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Kevin
M. Davis. (Original work published 1996).
This book gives teachers a different view on classroom management. The book says that
children are better influenced when they are encouraged and receive logical
consequences. We both read this book and thought it would be useful for our inquiry to
develop strategies that will work in the classroom because they’ve been used and have
worked.
Student Participation 46
12. Mandel, S. M. (2009). The new teacher toolbox: proven tips and strategies for a
great first year (2nd ed.). Corwin.
This book is organized by grade level, which will be helpful when looking for strategies
specific to our grade levels. It will also be helpful because part of the book focuses on
encouraging student participation and critical thinking, which includes strategies that can
be helpful for our inquiry and for implementation in the classroom.
13. Manke, M. P. (1997). Classroom power relations: understanding student-teacher
interaction. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Parts of this book is useful for our inquiry because it talks about allowing students the
freedom to have some power over the classroom as well as the teacher holding the power.
This could be used as part of our strategies because we could look to see if giving the
students more power in leading the classroom would decrease inappropriate behavior or
not. This book provides descriptions on how to set up a classroom to start this.
14. Marzano, R. J. (2001). A handbook for classroom instruction that works.
Association for Supervision & Curriculum Deve.
This book contains instructional strategies that fit specific classroom needs. The book
guides you through each strategy and it shows how to reflect on your current beliefs and
practices and recommends how to use the strategy. Also, exercises help check your
understanding and rubrics help you to assess the effectiveness of the strategy with your
students. Because this book was presented to us in seminar, we thought we could use the
strategies for our inquiry to help our first and second graders remember to raise their
Student Participation 47
hands before being called on.
15. Marzano, R. J. (2004). Classroom instruction that works: research-based strategies
for increasing student achievement. Prentice Hall.
This brief book presents research on the best strategies for raising student achievement
through classroom instruction. There is a great deal of research evidence, statistical data,
and case studies. There are also nine categories of instructional strategies that maximize
student learning, along with the relevant information to understand and synthesize each.
This book will help us come up with strategies for our “during” part of our inquiry that
we can implement into our classroom to see if more students raise their hand as opposed
to calling out.
16. Marzano, R. J. (2009). Marzano research laboratory. Retrieved February 8, 2010,
from http://www.marzanoresearch.com/site/
This site consists of Dr. Marzano’s educational research, which is recognized around the
world for its depth, and which is accessible to teachers and principals to use for concrete
gains in student learning. The Marzano Research Laboratory constantly analyzes what
works in schools and classrooms and always presents research that reflects the current
knowledge base of best practice for enhancing student achievement. Dr. Marzano’s work
will be useful for our inquiry because of all of the strategies he uses. We can use his
strategies for our “during” phase of the inquiry.
17. Matsumura, L. C., Slater, S., & Crosson, A. (2008, March). Classroom climate,
Student Participation 48
rigorous instruction and curriculum, and students’ interactions in urban middle
schools. The elementary school journal, 108(4), 293. Retrieved from
http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/
This periodical will be good for our inquiry because it investigates the relationship
between detailed instructional practices and teachers’ efforts to create a respectful and
collaborative learning environment for students. The study also shows students’ positive
behavior toward one another and the rate and quality of students’ participation in
classroom discussions.
18. Teaching and learning center. (2010). University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
[Teaching tips: student participation/active learning ]. Retrieved January 28,
2010, from http://www.usp.edu/teaching/tips/spal.shtml
The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia provided teachers with tips for student
participation. Even though this is aimed at the college level, I think that many of these
tips could be used for our elementary aged students. We would like to see if we do truly
use the same strategies when students are in elementary school as opposed to college.
Some similar strategies include: telling students what kind of response you’re looking
for, wait before you call on anyone to give students time to think, and using an activity to
get students to feel more comfortable when speaking. Perhaps these tips for USP can
help our students respond more appropriately.
19. Thompson, A. (2010, January 6). Encouraging student participation in large
classes. Faculty Focus. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com
Student Participation 49
This article is about approaches that encourage students to participate in class. Students
also learn to develop their public-speaking skills and teachers learn techniques that help
them learn certain skills. We can use this in our inquiry for the activities Thompson
suggests. Maybe if we can improve students’ speaking skills and help them to be more
confident, they will want to answer more questions.
20. Wood, C. (1997) Yardsticks: Children in the classroom Ages 4-14 (2nd Ed.).
Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children
This book is helpful for our inquiry because it can help to explain why children
demonstrate different behaviors. This book has a section for each age level and talks
about the different characteristics of children at that age. This can be helpful for us in
determining why children often participate inappropriately or not at all and it can also
help us when we are implementing strategies to be sure to match them with the
characteristics of our age group of children.
Recommended