Biographies
Nancy Howard is a grade 2/3 Teacher at Lansdowne Costain School in the Grand Erie District School Board. Heather Noddin is a grade 5/6 Teacher at Lansdowne Costain School.
This is our second Action Research Project together. Our first focus was writing in the content area of language and our interest this year was math journal writing.
Classroom Background
The Grade 2/3 class consisted of 24 students -- nine students were at the Grade 2 level and fifteen students were at the Grade 3 level. The majority of the Grade 2 students were working at a higher math level in contrast to the majority of the Grade 3 students working at a lower math level. Two of the students were on an informal IEP (Individual Education Plan), three students needed to be scribed for, and one student was from an ESL (English as a Second Language) background.
Working with us, we had one parent volunteer, one Co-op student and two student teachers.
The Grade 5/6 class consisted of 26 students -- 22 students at the Grade 5 level and four students at the Grade 6 level. Three students were formally identified in Math and Language and seven were on an informal IEP.
The dynamics of our school population is constantly changing. We have a high number of single parent, low income families and at the other extreme, we have some high income, two parent families.
What was our concern?
Our school EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) test scores have not been consistent in the math area. Our students seemed to have difficulty understanding and explaining their thinking. Written expression was often incomplete. After several years of testing it was becoming apparent that our scores were not improving significantly. When studying EQAO Student Questionnaire results, we noticed that many students indicated that they did not enjoy doing written math activities.
We needed to promote a more positive attitude toward math, in particular, written math responses. The students needed to develop a more positive self-image when attempting math activities and develop the skills needed to complete these tasks.
What was our question?
Originally our focus question was "How can we improve scores on EQAO testing?" As our process developed we modified our focus somewhat and our new Action Research Question became
Will working with journal writing independently and with Math Buddies improve problem solving and written math skills to promote better daily communication and EQAO scores?
Focus areas ...
Throughout the year, we were hoping to see an overall improvement in problem solving skills, divergent thinking skills, peer mentoring skills and improved writing skills.
What were our math improvement strategies?
Our classes were already paired off as reading buddies and we developed a new program called 'Math Buddies'. Students were allowed to choose a math buddy and we worked with these groups for three sessions before realizing some changes needed to be made. Some personalities didn't work well together and weaker students had a tendency to seek out other weaker students. We decided that task committed students needed to be paired with students that had more difficulty staying focused.
To promote interest and enjoyment we needed to teach journal writing skills using pictures, numbers and words. We needed interesting ideas that would be challenging enough for the Grade 5/6 class yet easy enough for the Grade 2/3 class.
We attended a number of math journaling workshops provided by our Board and attended the Ontario Educational Research Council Conference in Toronto in December, 2002.
We received a grant from our Superintendent, Greg Anderson, to purchase materials with Math Journal and Math Activity ideas. We received support from our Grand Erie Curriculum Consultants with journaling ideas and resources. Our principal, Ruth Mills, supported our program by purchasing math manipulatives. We attended BARN (Brant Action Research Network) meetings gaining support from our colleagues and critical friends. This helped us fine tune our buddy program and our research strategies.
We worked into our schedule some joint planning sessions to select activities in all five math strands. For example, we completed a 'shape collage' activity in Geometry; 'shopping for games' activity for Number Sense; 'tangrams' for Patterning; 'constructing a container for a jellybean measurement' activity and a 'graphing' activity for Data Management and Probability. These were just some of the math activities we worked on together to develop math interest and journal writing. We needed to locate proper resources for fifty students to be actively involved. We prepared a hand out for each session. Each hand out stated the procedure for the activity and expectations (questions to help promote thinking and journal writing). We created math word walls in our classrooms for each math strand and a Think Pad (vocabulary list for each specific activity) so that students could be independent writers. Each journal writing task included a self-evaluation questionnaire and a rubric.
Included in the process were parent letters explaining our action research project and our goals for the year. In May, we developed an Attitude Survey and distributed it to each student. We asked for their response to the Math Buddy program. Their responses included: enjoyment of program and activities, improvement in math and journal writing skills and their feelings on the overall success of the Math Buddy program. A permission form was sent home granting permission for the use of names, pictures and/or quotes from each student.
Throughout the year we logged our observations in personal journals to gain feedback on each session. We discussed concerns when planning for the next journal writing session.
