Reflection
What challenges did you face?
One of the biggest challenges I faced throughout this study was making sure that I was meeting the needs of ALL my students, rather than trying to only focus on the 11 students that participated in my study. I had a variety of needs that had to be met during our writing block, so I made sure to meet those needs and the needs of my study. Since I was focusing on boys during this study, I purposefully scheduled their writing conferences at the beginning of our independent writing time so I was able to meet with other students at the end of the block, which proved to be challenging because everybody wanted my attention right away.
What successes did you experience?
In my study, I saw several successes from myself and my students. With my students, I saw them take responsibility with the goal setting and writing conferences. The majority of my students were prepared to discuss their writing and the areas of need during conferences as well as to make sure to have their forms filled out and ready for me. I also saw success through the scores of our Common Summative Assessments (CSAs). Seven of the eleven boys showed growth from the pre-test to the post-test. As for myself, I saw growth in my communication during writing conferences by condensing what needed to be said and making sure that I was talking in student-friendly language.
What new learnings did you find?
Through goal setting and conferencing, 7 of the 11 male students showed growth from the pre-test to the post-test, indicating that these strategies impacted their learning. While the other 4 of my male students remained stagnant or decreased in their scores from pre-test to post-test, I believed implementing goal setting and conferencing helped them with their understanding and confidence in the area of writing.
How did this study impact you as an educator?
This study allowed me to see the effects that goal setting had on fifth graders. My fifth graders took the goal setting into their own hands and ran with it. They were responsible for keeping track of their goal sheets and making sure we were reviewing them at every writing conference. Through this process, I was able to set limits and push my students so they were maximizing their potential. I will be able to take these successes and challenges and implement them in years to come.
How did you collaborate with other stakeholders?
Throughout this study I collaborated with a number of educators. My cadre associate was a stakeholder who helped to strengthen my implementation and questioning during writing conferencing. He also recorded many of my goal setting conferences for me so I was able to reflect on those conversations and plan for future ones. I also collaborated with the other fifth grade teachers in the building and our building instructional facilitator. All of these stakeholders helped me plan out the writing unit and observe a variety of writing conferences. Lastly, my cadre cohort was a great support through my study, collaborating with me to analyze data and determine strategies that would fit my students best.
What changes would you make?
If I were to do this study again, I would start this study at the beginning of the semester, rather than three weeks into the semester. I believe it would have been helpful to the students and me if all of the expectations were the same from the beginning. I would also change the rubric we used throughout the unit. The rubric that we used was mandated by the district, but being able to change the wording so it would be more understandable to my students would have helped to make this study more successful.
What will you do moving forward?
The action research has impacted future teaching by allowing me to see the positive effects of goal setting and conferencing during the writing block. Thinking to future years, I will continue to use goal setting and conferencing, so my students have that accountability and one-on-one instruction and feedback from me. The goal setting cards and use of rubrics were strategies that I will definitely continue to use for the benefit of my students. This study helped show me how to track student learning to guide further instruction and one-on-one guidance during writing conferences. I plan to continue to monitor student learning through a defined process as it was in this study.