1 / 55

Action Research Presentation Prepared by Alexandra Sloane

The Impact of Cooperative Grouping Exercises on Content Writing of 7 th Grade Life Science Students. Action Research Presentation Prepared by Alexandra Sloane. Elkridge Landing Middle School School Description. School Elkridge Landing Middle School 662 student capacity Community Context

luce
Télécharger la présentation

Action Research Presentation Prepared by Alexandra Sloane

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. The Impact of Cooperative Grouping Exercises on Content Writing of 7th Grade Life Science Students Action Research Presentation Prepared by Alexandra Sloane

  2. Elkridge Landing Middle SchoolSchool Description • School • Elkridge Landing Middle School • 662 student capacity • Community Context • Located in Elkridge, MD in eastern Howard County • Residential with some commercial concentrations nearby along Washington Blvd (Rte. 1) • Median household income: $77,000 • Academic Achievement • 2008: Met AYP in all areas.

  3. Elkridge Landing Middle SchoolImportant School Characteristics •  Strong Extracurricular Activities including band, chorus, orchestra, theater, dance and art    •  Active Intramural program     • Strong Related Arts Program including family and consumer sciences, technology education, physical education, Spanish, French, art, health and music • PBIS Gold School  • STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) School     • Professional Development Partnership with JHU 

  4. Elkridge Landing Middle SchoolImportant School Characteristics • Educational Partnerships: Giant, Target, Pizza Hut, Safeway, T-Bonze Grille and Pub, Outback Steakhouse, and Wheels Skating Center • Health and Wellness Policy for School Lunches     • Large Media Center including laptops, mobile labs, and desktops     • Strong PTSA    • Active School Improvement Plan     • Green School Initiative

  5. ElkridgeLandingMiddle SchoolStudent Population (2008-2009) • Ethnicities • African-American: 20.9% • Asian-American: 10.4% • European-American: 60.1% • Latin-American: 5.6% • Native American: 0.5% • Unidentified: 2.5% •  Special Needs • Students with IEP/504: 7.8% • Students who are ELLs: 3.2% •  Students receiving FARMs: 11.0%

  6. Student Participants • The students participating in this action research project are 7th graders at Elkridge Landing Middle School • Students are participating through general education life science class • 3 of the 5 classes are inclusion classes • Students in all sections will benefit from integration of positive cooperative learning strategies

  7. Rationale for Study • Middle school is a crucial time for the development of peer interaction skills • Success in science class requires effective, collaborative group work in laboratory and classwork activities • Students who successfully work well in groups will be able to gain a stronger understanding of the content material presented in class and labs

  8. Rationale for Study • Prior to the intervention students were permitted to work with a partner of their choosing during classwork and labs. They were also free to work by themselves. • As a result, the reviewer has noted a rise in off task behaviors (disruptive, socializing, not following directions) during group activities. • Classwork and laboratory grades have not meet expectations.

  9. This Study • Students ability to write meaningful constructed responses about content area does not meet grade level standards. • Positive cooperative grouping experiences may improve the quality of written work produced in classwork and labs.

  10. Needs Assessment • Cooperative grouping has been shown to be effective for many types of students. Effective grouping strategies help students develop social skills as well as gain a stronger understanding of content knowledge. • All classes consist of learners who are below grade level, on level, and a few students who are above level. • Cooperative grouping can benefit all groups of students, especially our high percentage of students with special needs.

  11. School Improvement Goals The School Improvement Plan States that All Students will perform on or above grade level in all content areas. This action research initiative will encourage students to improve their science content knowledge. This Action Research program will help prepare students for the MSA in science. It will also help raise the AYP scores for all students, particularly those of students receiving special education services.

  12. Hypothesis • How will the implementation of cooperative grouping strategies improve students’ ability to write more meaningful expressions of content knowledge? • I Hypothesize that cooperative learning activities will improve all content classwork activities. However, I expect the greatest impact will be in laboratory reports and classwork • Cooperative group should have the strongest positive impact on students with special needs and lower achieving students

  13. Demographics • There are 5 periods (A,B,C,D,E) • Periods B,C, and E are inclusion classes co-taught with a special educator • Total Number of Students= 104

  14. Demographics

  15. Overall Demographics

  16. Baseline Data Measurements • Student progress will be assessed through: • Graded Classwork Activities • Graded Laboratory Reports • Constructed Responses on quizzes and tests

  17. Baseline Data: Overall Averages • Classwork: 75.25 • Labs: 69.19 • Quizzes: 84.61

  18. Baseline Data: Averages of Specific Assignments

  19. Averages by Class *Inclusion Class (Co-taught with special educator)

  20. Class A: Demographics

  21. Class A: Baseline Data OVERALL Disaggregation by Gender Disaggregation by Grade Receive on First Quarter Report Card

  22. Class B: Demographics

  23. Class B: Baseline Data OVERALL Disaggregation by Gender Disaggregation by Grade Receive on First Quarter Report Card Disaggregation by Students with Special Needs

  24. Support for Intervention Academic Support: Research based interventions

  25. McCracken, P. (2005). Cooperative Learning as a Classroom Management Strategy. Momentum, 36(4), 10-12. • Cooperative learning encourages students to emphasize their best rather than the best. Working together in groups helps provide active engagement and peer support while promoting achievement, critical thinking and creativity. Cooperative learning is crucial for developing positive peer communication skills. This can help improve students’ relationships and reduce conflict. To be effective, students should be placed in heterogeneous groups with equal opportunities to participate and individual accountability to the group. Rules and expectations should be clearly established.

  26. Parr, R. (2007). Improving science instruction through effective group interactions. Science Scope, 31(1), 21-23. • Cooperative grouping can be successful by establishing functional student groups. Students will remain with groups for 6-9 weeks before being placed with a new group of peers. Expectations should be established (everyone participates, considerate behavior, etc.) and they should be revisited regularly. Allowing students the responsibility to assign roles within their group will give them greater “buy into the process.” The teacher should regularly promote the ideas of collaborate, agree, and record. This gives students the opportunity to discuss, work to reach agreement, and produce a product of their work. The teacher should help model these processes. Students should reflect on the process of cooperative grouping

  27. Wood, B. S. (2009). Learning science while constructing learning teams. Journal of College Science Teaching, 38(5), 28-32. • The author advocates incorporating cooperative grouping at all levels (including post secondary). In the author’s classroom, cooperative groups are established immediately upon entering the class for the first time. Groups are randomly assigned by a word on the back of the syllabus which introduces the content students will be learning in the class. For example, students who have words such as, Neuron, Spinal Cord, Brain, Nervous System, would have to find each other and determine that they are in a group together. Once the students have established groups, a cooperative learning activity immediately follows. This helps reinforce the bond among the group that will continue throughout the semester.

  28. Intervention Implementation of Action Research Intervention Description of Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan

  29. Description of Intervention • Students were placed into new seating arrangements based on their future cooperative partner/group. • We are allowing 2 weeks to account for any changes that must be made. • Students will be introduced to the need for stronger group work.

  30. Intervention • I will present a 20 minute lesson on the effectiveness of working in a group including the steps: Collaborate, Agree, Record • Students will be given the opportunity to establish expectations for group work as well as acceptable consequence for not meeting said expectations • We will model appropriate behaviors during group work • Students will be aware of the specific goal of improving their writing ability through peer work as well increasing their content knowledge understanding • Students will reflect each well about their progress as a group • We will review the group process throughout the intervention

  31. Intervention • The intervention will address students with special needs as well as English Language Learners through working with groups of peers. • Students will participate in a lab activity in groups of 2-3 immediately following the initial lesson

  32. Intervention • A variety of grouping strategies will be used for group activities throughout the 6 week intervention. • Student behavior during activities will be qualitatively assessed and student writing will be assessed regularly quantitatively.

  33. Implementation • Students will be given a 20 minute lesson about the importance of cooperative grouping. During this time they will be given the opportunity to establish expectations for group work. • Each week, the class will take 5 minutes to reflect and debrief on group activities and offer suggestions for what worked well and what could have worked better.

  34. Data Post Intervention Data Collection Disaggregation of Data -Gender - Special Needs -Grade for First Quarter

  35. Initial Lesson + Activity (Cell Lab) • Period A • Allowed to choose their own groups • Period B • Grouped randomly by content groups (had to find members based on the part of the cell they belonged to) • Period C • Grouped by table configuration • Period D • Grouped by content groups • Period E • Groups chosen by teacher

  36. Class Averages on Initial Activity

  37. Data Collection throughout Intervention • Data collected will include student writing from quizzes, labs, and classwork

  38. Comparison of Scores (Before Intervention vs. After Intervention)

  39. Disaggregation by Gender

  40. Disaggregation by Students with Special Needs

  41. Lab Data

  42. Disaggregation by Grade on First Quarter Report Card

  43. Differences

  44. Class A: Comparison OVERALL Disaggregation by Gender Disaggregation by Grade Receive on First Quarter Report Card

  45. Period A: Before and After

  46. Period A: Before and After • Female students’ classwork grades improved • Male students improved in labs and quizzes • Classwork grades improved for A students as well as D or E students • Lab grades improved for D/E students

  47. Class B: Comparisons OVERALL Disaggregation by Gender Disaggregation by Grade Receive on First Quarter Report Card Disaggregation by Students with Special Needs

  48. Period B: Before/After

  49. Period B: Before/After

  50. Qualitative Observations • Student’s responded well to the initial lesson and follow up exercises • Students provided excellent expectations for themselves and their group members. They also express thoughtful reflections of cooperative grouping. • After the initial lesson, student on-task behavior increased during group activities. • Students were more willing to work with students they didn’t work with before

More Related