Reflection
Through this action research I have learned the overall value of analyzing student data and putting in place valuable research based strategies to increase student impact. With the use of goal setting, conferencing, and writing checklists I have slowly began to see the power it can have on students' understanding and use of self-assessment in their own writing. One lingering question is how my students’ writing would have grown if these strategies had been in place at the beginning of the year. I learned that when giving students the tools to exercise the meta-cognitive and meta-linguistic parts of the brain, as are used in writing, they can become better equipped to adapt to various writing tasks. In my research of goal setting I found that when students were given opportunities to pair goal setting with feedback it can be more successful. Through this insight, implementation of both goal setting and conferencing into writing instruction earlier in the year will immerse students into the routine sooner. As a professional, I developed the necessary skills throughout this process to repeat similar steps of analyzing student data, conducting research, implementing strategies, and again analyzing the results to determine positive student outcomes. I hope to carry these skills over into new content areas with new groups of students each year to ensure I provide my students with the best possible learning environment, and create opportunities for them to develop skills that will guide them into their adult lives.
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​ I found my biggest successes throughout this research process to be in the students’ writing stamina. As I observed students during writing time, I discovered many of my low achieving students going from writing only strings of letters to composing multiple sentences and staying focused while writing. One factor that I believe contributed to this improvement was the accountability and purpose that was provided to students using strategies such as goal setting, conferencing, and checklists. When students were writing, they had a checklist to help remind them of the important things that good writers do. Students could also find a reason to write when they were working towards the goals they had set for themselves. Conferencing was a big motivator for students and they enjoyed when they could share their writing with me and have a conversation about how they were doing with their writing. Mini-lessons prior to implementation of each strategy provided students with a rationale as to how and why these tools can help with writing and allowed them to gain better understanding about what those tools might look or sound like when they were being used. In my future teaching, I plan to continue the use of mini-lessons alongside other writing tools, and I will revisit these tools throughout the year to refresh student understanding about how to effectively use these strategies.​
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One of the biggest challenges faced during the implementation of this action research was student behavior. Although student behavior often shortened the time that I could spend conferencing with students during writing, I was able to use the support from mentors, coaches, and paras as well as decreasing the number of students that were conferenced with each day to allow students to still get the time and attention for meaningful conferences. Working closely with my literacy coach we were able to develop a system that worked best to support the needs of all learners in the classroom and provide the adult support necessary for behaviors. Through student feedback received on the student interviews conducted at the conclusion of my study, I plan to simplify my writing checklist using larger, easier to understand pictures and more simplistic language for less fluent readers. Many students that did not like the checklists discussed that they could not read it or that they could not remember what some of the statements said. In reflecting on my initial design of the checklist, I might have become too focused on setting each statement to a portion of the rubric used and aligning it to a standard that I lost sight of my audience for the checklist and what would have been the most appropriate for Kindergarten students. Another change I plan to make for goal setting in my future teaching is to implement it earlier in the year to have students develop it alongside many other routines learned at the same time of year. Students had a difficult time utilizing the goal setting and I as the teacher could have done a better job in directing them to these goals and guiding them as they were ready to set new ones. Using sticky notes for student names next to goals was not permanent enough and other students began coloring on sticky notes and moving them to other places. Utilizing a water erase marker on goal charts may help to keep goals more permanent until they need to be changed and placing the goals in a place that was less frequented by students could discourage the moving and coloring.
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As I reflect on the impact these strategies have had on students' writing progress, especially among some of my lowest writers, I am excited to begin planning for the next year ahead and how I can implement these and new researched based strategies into my teaching.
TOP FIVE TAKEAWAYS
1. The use of self-assessment strategies in writing provided students with purpose during writing and held them accountable for utilizing good writing strategies
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2. Goal setting and conferencing would be best introduced towards beginning of the year to see the greatest effects on student writing achievement
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3. Checklists provided students with guidelines for what to include in their writing and were especially helpful to students who may otherwise not have known to use these strategies in their writing
4. Goal setting, conferencing, and checklists can be used with all students no matter their age or writing ability
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5. When analyzing student achievement in any area, research can be conducted to provide research based supports for students to help them improve their understanding and skill set
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CONNECTIONS
Reflection is becoming a large component in today’s classrooms as academic rigor increases in all core areas. One standard set by the NCTE and IRA for English Language Arts states, “Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.” Writing is just one way to communicate with an audience for many different purposes. Through the use of goal setting, conferencing, and checklists students were able to engage as reflective and knowledgeable members of a writing community to discuss with others and self-reflect themselves on how to best convey their message to their audience. Communicating through spoken, written, and visual language is another NCTE and IRA Standards for the English Language Arts. Therefore through the strategies used in this research, students became more equipped to develop writing that meets an intended purpose and audience.
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With the use of self-assessment strategies in writing, it is the hope that students are able to develop a deeper understanding for the qualities of good writing. As 21st century skills are discussed in today’s society, we want to build our students up to be successful in a life and work environment that is ever changing and adapting to new ideas and inventions. In order to build this in students we must instill learning and innovation skills that prepare our students for these environments, which includes communicating and collaborating with others, deep thinking, and creativity. We also need students to understand how to receive feedback and utilize that feedback each day, which can be done easily through the conferencing process. With these self-assessment strategies, students can use the foundational writing skills practiced as well as the meta-cognitive and meta-linguistic skills learned in new but similar writing situations into their adult life.
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Proposition 1 states, “Teachers are committed to students and their learning.” Throughout the research process I dedicated my time to identify areas of concern and analyze what could be done to impact student learning. I showed commitment and perseverance by reaching out to other experts in the field to see how I could help my students achieve and adapted my instruction and writing time to best meet the needs of my learners. In Proposition 3 it discusses the importance of teachers monitoring their students’ progress and learning and being responsible for facilitating and managing that learning. Throughout my research I developed data collection methods that ensured that student learning was documented. I used these data collection methods to drive my instruction and implement lessons that would best support what was needed. Goal setting also allowed me to monitor my students and held students accountable for monitoring their own learning as well. Through my research I found goal setting, conferencing, and checklists to be strong-research based strategies in the field of writing. The instructional strategies used showed visible growth in student achievement based on writing assessment scores after their implementation. Nebraska Teacher Performance Framework puts a strong focus in utilizing effective instructional strategies that will showcase student achievement. When looking at INTASC standards 1 and 2, learner development and learning differences, I found that through my research, the strategies sought to meet the needs of a wide range of learners and continued to set high standards for all students. Conferencing and goal setting allowed for learning experiences to be based upon students. After I began implementing the strategies I found myself as a teacher become more in tune with recognizing where I needed to challenge students and support their learning. The research process helped me expand my own knowledge as well as develop my critical thinking and reflection skills.