Man, those snow days threw me for a loop! Not too happy about having to make those days up at the end of the year. However, with the coming week being a short week too before Mid-Winter Break, it gives me a little bit of time to extend the new strategy that was planned for this week.
This week I started the strategy of collecting "pod points" when focusing on transitions. I again have decided to keep my line-up order. Students have responded really well to it and it has cut down our line transitions drastically. This is something I will keep until the end of the year for sure!
I have student desks grouped into pods of 4, so there are 5 "pods." *I call them pods because my classroom is ocean-themed, and whales/dolphins swim in pods. :) * On the board, I wrote 1-5 so students could see how many points they were collecting. I focused strictly on transitions in the classroom. In the future, I could add points for working quietly, quickly, etc., but for the purpose of this research, I only gave out points for transitions. If pods were able to get to 5 points by the end of the week, they got to pick something out of the treasure box. I was originally going to do 10 points, but with the shortened week, I made the goal 5 to encourage/motivate them. I had 2 out of 5 pods make it by the end of the day on Friday, which was a good eye opener for the groups that didn't make it. I am going to try that strategy again this week, but have them start over and see if they can get to 5 again. After we return from break, I will give my students a survey about which strategies they liked and why. I want their buy-in, so it is important for me to get their feedback!
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017
Action Research: Week 5
This week I implemented a strategy called, "Beat the Clock." This strategy is used to help transitions to and from activities within the classroom, for example, going from the carpet back to their desks. I set the timer and let students know how much time they have to transition and get started on their work (or transition/put things away, etc.) I decide how much time is appropriate, so the "clock" time varies each time. Every time students are able to complete the task at hand and "beat the clock," I put a tally mark on the board. Each tally mark represents an extra minute of free choice at the end of the day on Friday (they already get 30 minutes).
On Monday, it was sort of a trial run for me. I set the timer multiple times throughout the day to see if students could beat the clock. It was a learning curve because sometimes I gave them too much time (man, were they rushing to get those extra minutes!) and only a couple times did I not give enough time. Even though there were a couple of times where I didn't give them enough time, even though they were moving quickly, it only seemed to motivate them further. They were ESTATIC about this strategy! They loved it so much and worked SO hard this week. By the end of the week, they earned an extra 20 minutes of free choice, totaling 50 altogether at the end of the day today.
Students have been so excited about last week's and this week's strategies that they have told their parents, who made a point to tell me how interested their child was during conferences. I was also able to take anecdotal notes during conferences, asking parents a few simple questions about how their children transitioned at home. It gave me good insight!
Next week I will implement pod points. This will help them to get more competitive in small groups. I will keep the lineup order, however, from last week. It has worked so tremendously so far, I already know I am going to keep it!
On Monday, it was sort of a trial run for me. I set the timer multiple times throughout the day to see if students could beat the clock. It was a learning curve because sometimes I gave them too much time (man, were they rushing to get those extra minutes!) and only a couple times did I not give enough time. Even though there were a couple of times where I didn't give them enough time, even though they were moving quickly, it only seemed to motivate them further. They were ESTATIC about this strategy! They loved it so much and worked SO hard this week. By the end of the week, they earned an extra 20 minutes of free choice, totaling 50 altogether at the end of the day today.
Students have been so excited about last week's and this week's strategies that they have told their parents, who made a point to tell me how interested their child was during conferences. I was also able to take anecdotal notes during conferences, asking parents a few simple questions about how their children transitioned at home. It gave me good insight!
Next week I will implement pod points. This will help them to get more competitive in small groups. I will keep the lineup order, however, from last week. It has worked so tremendously so far, I already know I am going to keep it!
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