LAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS
ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE ACTION RESEARCH IS INITIATED
Teacher ResearcherName / Andrew Hobbs / Emp. ID / 111565
School or Department / Eustis High School – Math Department
Issue or Topic / Vocabulary / Student Assessment.
Research Hypothesis / How does learning Math vocabulary using the six-step model increase mathematical understanding for EHS students?
Principal‘s Signature / Date
TO BE COMPLETED AT CONCLUSION OF ACTION RESEARCH
RESEARCH PROCESS1. What student data formed the baseline?
I used the results of the CPS warm-ups for Q1 for my two Fall 2010 Algebra 2 classes.
2. What research resources, i.e., books, documents, were studied?
· Referred to the Action Research Text
i. Meetings with Dr. Taylor and Ms. Oldham
· Building Background Knowledge by Robert Marzano
· Vocabulary Strategies for the Mathematics Classroom by Dr. David Chard.
· Project CRISS manual
· Penda & Plato Software for Mathematics
3. What student demographic groups were used and how were they selected?
All the students in my two Algebra 2 classes (Fall & Spring) classroom were selected for this action research plan.
The demographics of my students are as follows:
· Baseline Classes (Q1 Fall 2010): Caucasian: 70%, Hispanic: 10%, African American: 10%, Other: 10%; Low Socioeconomic: 50%
· Comparison Classes (Q1 Spring 2011): Caucasian: 72%, Hispanic: 11%, African American: 14%, Other: 3%; Low Socioeconomic: 46%
4. What strategies were implemented during the study?
Classes are started with a warm-up on CPS “clickers.” Generally, these warm-ups contain 3 questions similar to the questions that were on the homework from the previous day. These warm-ups served the purpose of remediating absent students as well as increasing the topic exposures for the rest of the group. The strategy to increase the scores on these warm-ups was to scaffold the thought process necessary to solving the problem. Vocabulary was often the vehicle to increase understanding.
5. What was the timeline for the study?
2010 – 2011 School Year
Approved / Disapproved / Comments
Principal’s
Signature / Principal assigns
10-30 points / Date
Director of Staff
Development Signature / Date Acknowledged
LAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS
ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT - SHARING THE RESULTS
[Complete online and email to
Title of Action Research Project / Increasing Math VocabularyName of Teacher Researcher / Andrew Hobbs
Name of School / Eustis High School / Grade Level / 9-12
Answer the following questions in your abstract. DO NOT USE teacher or student names.
1. Classroom Problem: Students often completed basic math questions correctly, but during the same assignment, they failed to even begin problems of the same type that were slightly more difficult and/or worded differently. Weak vocabulary was identified as an issue. This issue went beyond the regurgitation of a definition, but instead went to the student’s ability to understand and apply the definition.
2. Research Process: Warm-up problems on clickers have previously been used to increase a student’s exposure to a concept. This exposure was helpful, but it had limitations….if a student did not understand the question due to some of the vocabulary, success on the warm-ups was limited. To help alleviate this problem, the warm-ups were modified to include vocabulary-style questions (not pure definition questions) that were designed to lead students through the thought process that they would need to solve a complex problem. For example, Q1 Fall students had the following three questions for a section dealing with slope:
1. Calculate the slope for the following points: (5, 1) (8, -4).
2. Calculate the slope for the following points: (-1, 2) (4, 3).
3. Are the following lines parallel, perpendicular or neither?
Line 1: (5, -1) and (6, -2) Line 2: (-2, 3) and (4, 8)
Q1 Spring students had the following three questions for the same section:
1. On a piece of paper, draw a line with the slope of -6. On the same graph, draw a line with the slope of 6. What conclusions can you draw about the slopes of perpendicular lines?
Answer: The slopes of perpendicular lines are not opposites. (Opposite is a vocabulary work often incorrectly used for negative reciprocal)
2. If line 1 has a slope of 2 and line 2 has a slope of -3, what conclusion can you draw?
Answer: Line 1 and Line 2 will intersect. (Students too often focus only on Parallel and Perpendicular that they forget other types of line intersections.)
3. Are the following lines parallel, perpendicular or neither?
Line 1: (5, -1) and (6, -2) Line 2: (-2, 3) and (4, 8)
Question 3 is the same on both, but questions 1 and 2 should lead them through the vocabulary to raise the probability of success.
3. Collection and Analysis: I collected clicker data from Q1 in the fall and spring semesters. Only warm-ups done in both semesters were used. This limited the data analysis due in part to the spring semester student doing FCIM warm-ups that the Fall semester student did not have.
WU Alg2 1-4 / WU Alg 2 1.5 / WU Alg 2 2-3 / WU Alg 2 2-4 / DQ Alg 2 2-4 / DQ Alg 2 2-5 / WU Alg 2 2-7 / WU Alg 2 3-1 / Total
Q1 (F) / 57.4% / 30.8% / 65.7% / 23.1% / 29.7% / 69.4% / 58.1% / 41.7% / 47.0%
Q1 (S) / 59.4% / 59.4% / 54.9% / 45.1% / 20.2% / 62.4% / 60.4% / 52.9% / 51.8%
% Increase: / 9.35%
4. Action: Despite the results, I believe there are real benefits to walking students through the thinking process that is necessary to solve more abstract math problems. I have continued to expand my library of clicker warm-ups to reflect this as time permits. However, it became painfully obvious that vocabulary scaffolding alone will not drive the improvement needed. Math requires practice, and because of the lack of motivation of my students to complete homework, I changed tactics within the classroom and put more emphasis on group work. This action certainly helped, but it remains a stop-gap measure until the homework completion rate improves.
5. Professional Reflection:
The result of this Action Research Project shows how the education process is not a single item but a system of items that reinforce each other. The vocabulary /multiple exposure goals of the project were reinforced by newly acquired access to on-line math computer programs such as Penda and Plato, as well as supported by educator’s coursework such as CRISS. And although a lot of work still needs to be done to adapt these tools to better coordinate with each other, all of these tools will benefit both students and teachers in the future. At the same time, other factors such as student motivation must be addressed because without that, the effectiveness of any of these tools is limited.
6. With whom did you share your action research? At the end of this school year, my results will be shared with my Action Research Team and the rest of the faculty.
ABSTRACT:
From the opening week Diagnostic Test, it was clear that my student’s weak vocabulary skills were impacting their ability to work math problems. On block scheduling, students often struggle to recall concepts and definitions from previous courses that often were months earlier. This forgetting due to lack of use (what I like to call “mind rust”) is common, and simple examples or small hints were usually enough to allow them to work the assigned problems. My concern was that my students were struggling with concepts from the previous class period. There were, of course, some students that had no idea how to work a problem, but more often, it was a problem of application. Most of my students, when pressed, could give a working vocabulary definition of a concept but often had no idea how to use it. This problem was seen in the results from the clicker warm-ups. The Fall 2010 baseline data shows a less than 50% success rate on the same type of problems that were assigned to them for homework. And what would typically happen is that the first question success rate was lower that the last question success rate. The reason for this is that the students would see how I modeled the ones that they missed and used that knowledge to perform better on the later questions. This is where the concept for the new clicker questions originated. The idea was to have the initial questions to act like hints to review the concepts and vocabulary that the later “full” problems required. By using scaffolding to up the degree of conceptual difficulty, the goal was to have the success rate increase on the very first “full” problem they had already seen the thought process steps. And although the data shows a 9% improvement over the base, I consider the results mixed and the process in need of improvement. I believe this process has the potential to have a positive impact on my student’s understanding of math, but it will require further refinement.
Source: A Guide to Becoming an Action Research – Department of Education
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MIS 64 035 05-01-07 RVS
Submitted by Staff Development