Final Inquiry Paper - Penn State College of Education · Student Participation 3 Background Information As part of the Professional Development School, we have interned in first and

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 [email protected] [email protected]

May 2, 2010


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


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


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


(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


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?


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.


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.


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


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


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


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‐


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).


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.


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.


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.


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


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)

-


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


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.




2/4 Intern 14 5 73.7% 26.3% 1 Morning Meeting

2/4 Intern 6 2 75.0% 25.0% 1 Read Aloud


2/11 Intern 12 7 63.6% 36.8% 2,4 Morning Meeting


2/16 Intern 19 9 67.9% 32.1% 2,4,6 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







4/6 Intern 23 10 69.7% 30.3% 3,5 Social Studies


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


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


mentor’s chart.




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


3/2 Mentor 20 8 71.4% 28.6% 2,3 Math



3/24 Mentor 11 7 61.6% 38.9% 2 Read Aloud


1 – None 2 – Stop and Wait 3- Raise a Quiet Hand 4 – Thumbs Up/Down


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.













2/25 Intern 10 6 62.5% 37.5% 2,3,4,6,7 Read Aloud







4/6 Intern 22 4 84.6% 15.4% 3,5 Social Studies


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


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


mentor’s chart.






2/15 Mentor 38 14 73.1% 26.9% 2,3 Science

2/23 Mentor 33 6 86.8% 13.2% 2,3 Writing



3/2 Mentor 19 3 86.4% 13.6% 2,3 Math





1 – None 2 – Stop and Wait 3 – Raise a Quiet Hand 4 – Thumbs Up/Down


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.



inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s whole second grade classroom throughout a

span of three months, when she taught.



inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s whole second grade classroom throughout a

span of three months, when her mentor taught.



inappropriate behaviors in Ms. Hladish’s second grade classroom (without students A’s

responses) throughout a span of three months, when she taught.


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.


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


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.


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


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.


‐ 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.


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


-Brief/Annotated Bibliography Due Feb. 10th

-Continue “Before” data collection (videotape lessons, recording sheet)


-Continue “Before” data collection (videotape lesson, recording sheet)

- Do student survey


- 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


- 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:





Week 10, April 05-09:






- Revise inquiry draft

-Inquiry paper draft due April 16th



-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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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,


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


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.

Documents

Final Inquiry Paper - Penn State College of Education · Student Participation 3 Background Information As part of the Professional Development School, we have interned in first and