Well, my Action Research plan has been
going since October. I had initially
planned to begin in September, but once I shared it with the other teachers are
school, I decided we needed to get the kids into school and little before we
started. I also wanted to allow time for
teachers to adjust to school and to get in the swing of a new school year. I planned to include all grade levels on my
campus. (Pre-K-4th) I got the
opportunity to attend all PLCs one day with my principal in order to explain
the plan to all teachers. Everyone
seemed to be on board at the meeting. I
asked each grade level to come up with specific skills they wanted to work on
and give me a list of activities that they were all willing to do daily and/or
weekly with their students. All the
grade levels gave me the list. I also
stated that I needed a checklist, or progress report, at the end of each
month. This is where they began to lose
their willingness. After a month of
having to remind them, I went to talk to my principal.
My principal and I decided that for this
year, I needed to focus on 4th grade only. This was fine with me because this is the
grade I teach and the reason that I came up with the plan to begin with. 4th grade has implemented the
plan. I made flashcards for all 64 4th
graders at school. I designed a parent
signature page for them to have their parents initial or sign nightly. All three 4th grade classrooms have
made this a nightly requirement. It is
even required over the weekend. We all
play multiplication games each week. I
make my give me an answer to a multiplication problem as their exit ticket to
go to lunch at least one day per week. We
all have multiplication problems posted in our rooms. I had planned to put them all over school,
but when we decided to contain it in 4th grade, I decided for us to
keep the facts within our classrooms. All
4th graders are required to get on the FastMath computer program at
least two times per week. We all print
off the monthly reports from this program as our documentation. I have been using it to track progress. I have been extremely pleased at the results
and progress many students have made.
We have some students that do not
regularly do their flashcards and their scores on FastMath are lower. It has proven that being consistent with
multiplication facts has been a positive task for 4th grade. It has proven to them that they can learn
those facts. Some of the students that I
have that struggle have learned and memorized their multiplication facts
because of this research plan.
I plan to continue my research plan into
next year and add third grade. I may add
second as well, but I will have to talk to my administrator to see what she
would like me to do. I have proven that requiring
the students to learn and practice their multiplication facts daily had helped
them increase their math skills. I have
been pleased with the results we have gotten.
I was a little disappointed in some of my colleagues that were not very
willing to participate, but I still feel that we have made great progress and
strides in mastering multiplication facts in 4th grade!
