Action and Assessment Plan
Action Plan
The reader will note that there was an identified need for students in the Dual Language Immersion (Spanish) kindergarten class to develop language production. To address this need I will combine a mediated approach to mathematical instruction with Spanish Language development.
Intervention:
The first phase of my action research involves implementation of a noted program for mathematical thinking. Cognitively Guided Instruction is a philosophy that asks students to meditatively solve problems creatively. This means that questions must be worded in a way that allows them to model the actions in the problem. For example: Mary had 8 fish. She wants to buy 5 more fish. How many fish would Mary have? This allows for students to model the action if needed. They may use manipulatives, drawings, their fingers, ten frames, number lines, or any other material they wish to use and is available in the classroom. They may also apply the algorithm if they are at that developmental level, but must be able to explain it. The most important part of the process is the student’s explanation of his or her rationale to myself, or in some cases to the other students. A main component of this research will be having students explain their rationale out loud.
As it would be difficult to have individual conferences with each student every time that I give a CGI problem, I will, instead, give students problems to solve on a worksheet that they will turn in. Students will use the space provided to solve the problem using whatever strategy they prefer. Having to draw out or write out their thinking will give them practice in explaining their rationale, even if just to themselves. They will also be able to explain their thinking within class discussions so that they may practice rationalizing their work to other people in such a way that the others are able to understand the process. These opportunities will be provided on a daily basis.
Data Collection
The assessment data in this study will be triangulated to include the following:
1. Individual Conferences: The main assessment that will be used to collect data will be individual student conferences. As a part of these conferences students will be given a CGI math problem to solve. The student will explain their thinking through the process of solving the problem before the teacher has suggested any approach to how to solve the problem. This type of approach will allow for authentic speech production from the students, as they will not be able to parrot back what the teacher has already talked about. The student will also be asked to do as much of the explanation as they can in Spanish. What is being assessed is the number of words that students can logically produce in Spanish to explain their rationale for solving the problem.
2. Exit Slips: As the students solve CGI problems daily, two will be collected each week as a type of exit slip to monitor their progress and development of mathematical thinking. As part of their explanations they will be asked to write what they can about how they solved the problem. As this is a kindergarten class and students are not proficient in writing, answers such as “I drew” or “Yo dibuje” are acceptable writing samples. These will be an informal way to monitor their progress with the types of problems that the class is solving to determine what kinds of problems need to be assigned.
3. Informal Observations: As students will be working on CGI math problems on a daily basis, I will be observing their progress within classroom discussions and monitoring their daily work.
Timeline:
March 3-7:
- Needs assessment: To assess the needs of the students I will ask them to solve a kindergarten math problem. They will then have to explain their rationale to me in Spanish. I will count the number of Spanish words they are able to produce throughout their explanation.
April 28- May 16:
- Phase 1: How many words can students produce when explaining their rationale through the consistent use of and practice with CGI math problems?
- Example CGI problem: "Tu tienes 5 juguetes. Tyler te da 9 juguetes para tu cumpleaños. ¿Cuántos juguetes tienes en total?"
Due to this being a CGI problem there is no instruction provided to students about how to solve the problem, but they will have manipulatives to use and writing utensils and paper for drawing pictures.
- May 2: During Week 1, I will begin to ask students to explain their rationale when solving a CGI problem using as much Spanish as they can. This will be done in the context of a whole classroom discussion when working on a CGI math problem. I will model an explanation demonstrating my rationale for solving a math problem that the class completes as a whole. At the end of the first week I will hold the first round of individual conferences with students to give them the opportunity to explain their thinking.
- May 9: Throughout Week 2, I will have students keep practicing their explanations so that they get to be comfortable with both the process and the oral component. They do practice using some Spanish in the classroom but not in this context so it is important for them to feel comfortable when attempting to be creative with a language they do not have complete command over. They will continue to explain their rationale in the context of whole class discussions. At the end of the week, I will again conduct individual student conferences to assess how many Spanish words they are able to produce during their explanation of solving a CGI math problem.
- May 16: During Week 3, the final week of phase one, students will be asked to explain their rationale in whole class discussions on a daily basis. At the end of the week they will be individually assessed to document how many Spanish words they are able to produce when explaining their rationale in solving a CGI math problem.