Educational Implications
My research was focused on building small-group community in my classroom and teaching students how to share and receive critical feedback for writing improvement. These are major takeaways:
A positive perception of a skill or task will have a positive impact on student engagement and learning
Sometimes it's not always about doing everything perfectly the first time. What I found was that as students began to see the value of working with each other, their ability to engage in the task improved. It was not an instantaneous thing. There were rarely profound "a-ha!" moments. The academic improvements were not what I would have hoped them to be. But that doesn't mean it wasn't valuable. Students, as they worked through these activities with me and with each other, subtly changed the way that they valued working with each other. While students didn't always get what they wanted from each other, they indicated through comments to me, on feedback forms, and in focus group interviews that they liked the group work and they liked when they could make an addition to their writing or did find that their partner had something to help them with. They often seemed surprised about this, and I was okay with that.
Students weren't necessarily working with their friends, either. In my research I found that building trusting working relationships can aid in educational growth (Farini, 2012). What is important, though, is that students themselves felt this was happening. They began to see the value in the task after being able to get to know the other members of their group, and as the protocols were repeated, they were more and more engaged in making it work for them.
Showing students why something they are asked to do is valuable, and allowing the time for them to understand why, is essential.
Students create more group cohesion when allowed to engage with each other on a personal level.
I feel that working from the Social Constructivist Theory and Social Learning Theory is essential for educators. Students must be able to feel that they are part of a classroom and that they are allowed to have a voice. I worked to provide space for students to engage with each other on a personal level, whether it be creating something together, talking about positive aspects of their lives, or simply sharing a little bit about themselves.
The research supports that students engage in academic tasks together when they feel group cohesion and develop similar goals together. That I was able to take the time to provide space for them to do this affected the way in which my students responded to me and to each other. I observed students being more positive about the process as a whole, and willing to have conversations with people that they never spoke to beforehand.
It might not work for every student, 100% of the time, of course. Personalities might clash, and communication might stagnate, but as a teacher, it is important to teach students how to work together and listen to each other actively.
Incorporating collaborative projects requires the teacher to explicitly teach what that looks like
In an educational era of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), I believe that the research I've done, and will continue to improve upon, is applicable as the way in which we facilitate our classrooms moves towards a more collaborative, communicative culture. Students will be expected to work in groups to complete tasks, fill roles, and provide feedback. Although writing might be done in isolation, teaching kids how to become more comfortable sharing their struggles and achievements with each other will go a long way towards success.
In line with Wigglesworth and Storch (2012), I observed and heard from students that they felt that they were better able to work on their own writing because they got to discuss and see examples from other people. It took repeated processes to make it work, but there were steady improvements in the way that students engaged with each other, gave feedback, and responded.
I think, though, that my students struggled because I did not explicitly teach what it looks like. As much as it is a process, teachers need to remember that skills must be taught, just like content/concepts must be taught.
A positive perception of a skill or task will have a positive impact on student engagement and learning
Sometimes it's not always about doing everything perfectly the first time. What I found was that as students began to see the value of working with each other, their ability to engage in the task improved. It was not an instantaneous thing. There were rarely profound "a-ha!" moments. The academic improvements were not what I would have hoped them to be. But that doesn't mean it wasn't valuable. Students, as they worked through these activities with me and with each other, subtly changed the way that they valued working with each other. While students didn't always get what they wanted from each other, they indicated through comments to me, on feedback forms, and in focus group interviews that they liked the group work and they liked when they could make an addition to their writing or did find that their partner had something to help them with. They often seemed surprised about this, and I was okay with that.
Students weren't necessarily working with their friends, either. In my research I found that building trusting working relationships can aid in educational growth (Farini, 2012). What is important, though, is that students themselves felt this was happening. They began to see the value in the task after being able to get to know the other members of their group, and as the protocols were repeated, they were more and more engaged in making it work for them.
Showing students why something they are asked to do is valuable, and allowing the time for them to understand why, is essential.
Students create more group cohesion when allowed to engage with each other on a personal level.
I feel that working from the Social Constructivist Theory and Social Learning Theory is essential for educators. Students must be able to feel that they are part of a classroom and that they are allowed to have a voice. I worked to provide space for students to engage with each other on a personal level, whether it be creating something together, talking about positive aspects of their lives, or simply sharing a little bit about themselves.
The research supports that students engage in academic tasks together when they feel group cohesion and develop similar goals together. That I was able to take the time to provide space for them to do this affected the way in which my students responded to me and to each other. I observed students being more positive about the process as a whole, and willing to have conversations with people that they never spoke to beforehand.
It might not work for every student, 100% of the time, of course. Personalities might clash, and communication might stagnate, but as a teacher, it is important to teach students how to work together and listen to each other actively.
Incorporating collaborative projects requires the teacher to explicitly teach what that looks like
In an educational era of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), I believe that the research I've done, and will continue to improve upon, is applicable as the way in which we facilitate our classrooms moves towards a more collaborative, communicative culture. Students will be expected to work in groups to complete tasks, fill roles, and provide feedback. Although writing might be done in isolation, teaching kids how to become more comfortable sharing their struggles and achievements with each other will go a long way towards success.
In line with Wigglesworth and Storch (2012), I observed and heard from students that they felt that they were better able to work on their own writing because they got to discuss and see examples from other people. It took repeated processes to make it work, but there were steady improvements in the way that students engaged with each other, gave feedback, and responded.
I think, though, that my students struggled because I did not explicitly teach what it looks like. As much as it is a process, teachers need to remember that skills must be taught, just like content/concepts must be taught.
Hurdles to Overcome
Planning Limitations/Time
I think the most significant hurdle that I faced was in developing an action research question and action plan within an already tightly constructed curriculum. At the school I conducted this research at, the 9th-grade English teachers work very closely together in developing and improving upon curriculum that they had developed together four years earlier. They (including myself, at the time) meet twice each week during a common prep period to discuss ongoing learning and upcoming tasks. Because the curriculum was developed prior to this year, though, it is scheduled to the day and has been continuously refined. I found myself pressured to do all of the exact daily activities on top of trying to discover things I wanted to or felt that I needed to explore more deeply. Finding the balance is something that I worked hard to do. I can't say I was always successful, but I know that I am more cognizant of how time affects the classroom because of this.
Student Devices and Accessibility
As a second caveat to the curriculum hurdle, the novel-writing unit itself had a lot of semi-open days in which students had the bulk of the period to focus solely on writing. I want to say that this meant that I had a lot of freedom to work with the students, but there were some technology hurdles that meant that this couldn't always work. Devices at this school are tied to the classroom, meaning that students could not take them home. For many, internet accessibility is difficult. Students participate in sports, help with family needs, do other homework; if they don't have access to internet at home, they have another hurdle to jump as well. This meant that were I to take away too much of that class time, I would be hindering many students' progress. While I can expect my students to come in at lunch or after school, or go to the library or a friend's house, or to use their smartphones, to complete assignments left unfinished in class sometimes, it is not okay for me to expect all students to complete major projects solely on a computer without adequate time to work on it in class where they have unimpeded access to devices. Much of the negative feedback I got from students as I asked them to work on things in groups and give peer feedback was that they wanted to focus on getting their own work done. They all felt like they had a lot of work to do (they did; it's the nature of NaNoWriMo), and didn't wanted to be distracted from completing it. Especially when it came to peer feedback, getting students to want to spend time with each other's writing was difficult. Their own work was what was going to be graded, and they were afraid of running out of class time to work on it.
Personal Bias
Working as closely as I did with these students, I sometimes found it was difficult to remain entirely objective. I must admit and recognize that I wanted to and did look for the best in my students and what they were gaining from each activity we did. Because my research focused a lot on facilitating student talk, I found it difficult to gather as much objective, empirical data as I would have hoped, but I also found that where I was able to get the empirical data, I was much more in tune with the ways in which what I was seeing compared to what students were experiencing. I found that I was much better able to adjust and move forward in looking at more than just my own observations and interactions. I think it will be a good challenge for me as I move forward to focus on analyzing objective data from my students, whether that means getting objective opinions, or looking for specific areas to work on with my students based on their writing. However, I now recognize an importance of identifying needs for my students and group them accordingly, or speak to them according to specific needs. I think I’ve struggled to focus my attention on those succinct details, but I am confident that I grew as a teacher in this area.
I think the most significant hurdle that I faced was in developing an action research question and action plan within an already tightly constructed curriculum. At the school I conducted this research at, the 9th-grade English teachers work very closely together in developing and improving upon curriculum that they had developed together four years earlier. They (including myself, at the time) meet twice each week during a common prep period to discuss ongoing learning and upcoming tasks. Because the curriculum was developed prior to this year, though, it is scheduled to the day and has been continuously refined. I found myself pressured to do all of the exact daily activities on top of trying to discover things I wanted to or felt that I needed to explore more deeply. Finding the balance is something that I worked hard to do. I can't say I was always successful, but I know that I am more cognizant of how time affects the classroom because of this.
Student Devices and Accessibility
As a second caveat to the curriculum hurdle, the novel-writing unit itself had a lot of semi-open days in which students had the bulk of the period to focus solely on writing. I want to say that this meant that I had a lot of freedom to work with the students, but there were some technology hurdles that meant that this couldn't always work. Devices at this school are tied to the classroom, meaning that students could not take them home. For many, internet accessibility is difficult. Students participate in sports, help with family needs, do other homework; if they don't have access to internet at home, they have another hurdle to jump as well. This meant that were I to take away too much of that class time, I would be hindering many students' progress. While I can expect my students to come in at lunch or after school, or go to the library or a friend's house, or to use their smartphones, to complete assignments left unfinished in class sometimes, it is not okay for me to expect all students to complete major projects solely on a computer without adequate time to work on it in class where they have unimpeded access to devices. Much of the negative feedback I got from students as I asked them to work on things in groups and give peer feedback was that they wanted to focus on getting their own work done. They all felt like they had a lot of work to do (they did; it's the nature of NaNoWriMo), and didn't wanted to be distracted from completing it. Especially when it came to peer feedback, getting students to want to spend time with each other's writing was difficult. Their own work was what was going to be graded, and they were afraid of running out of class time to work on it.
Personal Bias
Working as closely as I did with these students, I sometimes found it was difficult to remain entirely objective. I must admit and recognize that I wanted to and did look for the best in my students and what they were gaining from each activity we did. Because my research focused a lot on facilitating student talk, I found it difficult to gather as much objective, empirical data as I would have hoped, but I also found that where I was able to get the empirical data, I was much more in tune with the ways in which what I was seeing compared to what students were experiencing. I found that I was much better able to adjust and move forward in looking at more than just my own observations and interactions. I think it will be a good challenge for me as I move forward to focus on analyzing objective data from my students, whether that means getting objective opinions, or looking for specific areas to work on with my students based on their writing. However, I now recognize an importance of identifying needs for my students and group them accordingly, or speak to them according to specific needs. I think I’ve struggled to focus my attention on those succinct details, but I am confident that I grew as a teacher in this area.
Transformation and Take-Aways
As my first action research project comes to a close, I want to reflect on my growth and transformation as an educator. I have to admit that I had never particularly considered myself much of a "researcher" before this project. To me, that was for people that locked themselves in rooms all day everyday and didn't interact with the outside world because they had so much reading to do.
Let's just say research was never that appealing to me.
When first introduced to the idea of conducting action research, I had a bit of an awakening. After learning that my research would primarily occur in my classroom, I found this idea of conducting research that was applicable directly to my everyday activities to be incredibly empowering. I could accept that research had to include reading applicable literature-- I enjoy reading education-related texts anyway-- because I knew that I would be researching something that I would be able to directly apply to my own experience and learning.
I believe that there are two main lessons that I have taken from this experience and will truly apply in every aspect of my teaching moving forward.
First, I have always believed that an educator should always be striving to become better at the work she or he is doing, but what I learned in this research is that becoming "better" happens as much inside the classroom as it does outside of it. I don't think I really understood that "teacher" and "researcher" were so interconnected. Early on, I understood this process as researching literature about a topic that you were investigating, trying it out, and seeing what happens. The research and the action were separate. Research happened outside the room; applying it happened inside. It was in actually implementing my plan that I began to see that my research was as much a part of the school day as everything else. Everything I did, said, taught, thought, heard, saw.... it was all part of my research.
I think I'm still learning how to use the research that I gain directly from my students to inform my teaching. I am learning how to gather empirical data from students that will reveal to me, honestly, what I can do to be better. I have gotten better at it, and I don't think I would be where I'm at without this project, but I definitely think it is a work in progress. A professor of mine at one point shared that there is a difference between "reflection on action" and "reflection in action." Reflection on action is when you take the information you gather and reflect on it later. Reflection in action is the actual minute by minute adjustments you make as you are teaching students, much like recognizing quickly that an approach isn't working, and changing it immediately to suit the needs of the room. Working with multiple periods for the first time during the course of this project, I came to see myself getting better at reflecting from period to period to make adjustments, as well as from day to day. The "in action" piece is more of a struggle, but I am much more able to gather immediate information than I was at the beginning of this project. I think that developing such detailed plans according to a question helped me to become more aware of the smaller details that could give me possible avenues to creating next steps. I now see myself as a researcher, because in reality it is something that is happening at every moment in a classroom. It is a matter of being open to receiving the data and feedback, in order to look at possible solutions or next steps.
I think I have a long way to go before I am able to say that I can teach students to adequately share and receive critical feedback for writing improvement. My second phase, which focused on this aspect of revision, did not succeed as well as I would have hoped. While it worked fairly for some groups, I saw many struggles with this process, though they did improve over time. I would hope to make some adjustments and try this again, regularly, over a longer period of time (different writing assignments, maybe).
I think it's important to take into account, though, the fact that students might feel differently than me about a lesson or a choice that I made for us. I found that in the end, students' academic success was not greatly or dramatically improved because of their small group activities or because of the feedback protocol. What I did notice though, that it was their perceptions of working in small groups that shifted. It didn't shift dramatically, but I saw a tremendous increase in my students willingness and appreciation for working in groups. Many told me or indicated that they felt more comfortable and willing to read their work to their group after having taken the time to get to know some of their group members. They believe that it helped them, and this matters in a classroom. I think my action research has taught to me that what students feel or perceive can have a tremendous effect on the dynamics, culture, and success of a classroom.
In addition, it was through this process that I really began to see myself as a teacher not just of students, but of people. All of my students are people who have struggles and triumphs and frustrations and needs, and as much as I want them to succeed academically, I also want them to succeed in just being, which means that I must remember, when planning and when interacting, that I am in that room for the students not just their brains. This made me more cognizant of the ways in which I was building relationships with my students as much as I was trying to help my students build relationships with each other.
I think that this project truly made me slow down and evaluate every piece of a lesson, and every moment that was happening in the classroom. It is, as I said, empowering to be able to work towards something within my real-time experiences, but being able to balance all that is happening is not always easily achieved. Simply working towards that balance allowed me to truly focus on my students rather than my own insecurities. It has made me a more confident teacher. It has made my classroom a more welcoming and safe place. It has helped me on my path to becoming the kind of educator I want to be.
Let's just say research was never that appealing to me.
When first introduced to the idea of conducting action research, I had a bit of an awakening. After learning that my research would primarily occur in my classroom, I found this idea of conducting research that was applicable directly to my everyday activities to be incredibly empowering. I could accept that research had to include reading applicable literature-- I enjoy reading education-related texts anyway-- because I knew that I would be researching something that I would be able to directly apply to my own experience and learning.
I believe that there are two main lessons that I have taken from this experience and will truly apply in every aspect of my teaching moving forward.
First, I have always believed that an educator should always be striving to become better at the work she or he is doing, but what I learned in this research is that becoming "better" happens as much inside the classroom as it does outside of it. I don't think I really understood that "teacher" and "researcher" were so interconnected. Early on, I understood this process as researching literature about a topic that you were investigating, trying it out, and seeing what happens. The research and the action were separate. Research happened outside the room; applying it happened inside. It was in actually implementing my plan that I began to see that my research was as much a part of the school day as everything else. Everything I did, said, taught, thought, heard, saw.... it was all part of my research.
I think I'm still learning how to use the research that I gain directly from my students to inform my teaching. I am learning how to gather empirical data from students that will reveal to me, honestly, what I can do to be better. I have gotten better at it, and I don't think I would be where I'm at without this project, but I definitely think it is a work in progress. A professor of mine at one point shared that there is a difference between "reflection on action" and "reflection in action." Reflection on action is when you take the information you gather and reflect on it later. Reflection in action is the actual minute by minute adjustments you make as you are teaching students, much like recognizing quickly that an approach isn't working, and changing it immediately to suit the needs of the room. Working with multiple periods for the first time during the course of this project, I came to see myself getting better at reflecting from period to period to make adjustments, as well as from day to day. The "in action" piece is more of a struggle, but I am much more able to gather immediate information than I was at the beginning of this project. I think that developing such detailed plans according to a question helped me to become more aware of the smaller details that could give me possible avenues to creating next steps. I now see myself as a researcher, because in reality it is something that is happening at every moment in a classroom. It is a matter of being open to receiving the data and feedback, in order to look at possible solutions or next steps.
I think I have a long way to go before I am able to say that I can teach students to adequately share and receive critical feedback for writing improvement. My second phase, which focused on this aspect of revision, did not succeed as well as I would have hoped. While it worked fairly for some groups, I saw many struggles with this process, though they did improve over time. I would hope to make some adjustments and try this again, regularly, over a longer period of time (different writing assignments, maybe).
I think it's important to take into account, though, the fact that students might feel differently than me about a lesson or a choice that I made for us. I found that in the end, students' academic success was not greatly or dramatically improved because of their small group activities or because of the feedback protocol. What I did notice though, that it was their perceptions of working in small groups that shifted. It didn't shift dramatically, but I saw a tremendous increase in my students willingness and appreciation for working in groups. Many told me or indicated that they felt more comfortable and willing to read their work to their group after having taken the time to get to know some of their group members. They believe that it helped them, and this matters in a classroom. I think my action research has taught to me that what students feel or perceive can have a tremendous effect on the dynamics, culture, and success of a classroom.
In addition, it was through this process that I really began to see myself as a teacher not just of students, but of people. All of my students are people who have struggles and triumphs and frustrations and needs, and as much as I want them to succeed academically, I also want them to succeed in just being, which means that I must remember, when planning and when interacting, that I am in that room for the students not just their brains. This made me more cognizant of the ways in which I was building relationships with my students as much as I was trying to help my students build relationships with each other.
I think that this project truly made me slow down and evaluate every piece of a lesson, and every moment that was happening in the classroom. It is, as I said, empowering to be able to work towards something within my real-time experiences, but being able to balance all that is happening is not always easily achieved. Simply working towards that balance allowed me to truly focus on my students rather than my own insecurities. It has made me a more confident teacher. It has made my classroom a more welcoming and safe place. It has helped me on my path to becoming the kind of educator I want to be.