The new school year

The beginning of this school year was stressful. I was notified at the end of last school year that I might get moved to 1st grade this year because the enrollment of kindergarteners was low. The week before school started I checked with my new principal to see if she knew what grade I would be teaching and she said she was not sure yet. The day before school started she told me that if enough kindergarteners enrolled during the first week of school I would be moved from 1st grade to kindergarten. I told her that I would prefer to stay in 1st grade if that is where I was starting the year but she could not make any guarantees.

I started the year with a class of 1st graders but I did not have any of the 1st grade curriculum. I had to make copies of worksheets and busy work for the first three days of school until they agreed that I would be staying in 1st grade and could finally deliver the curriculum. After two and a half weeks things are finally settling down and I am starting to figure out 1st grade. I am enjoying my students and I am getting familiar with the curriculum.

• What is the context for your action research? What are your research questions and why did
you decide to investigate them?

I want to know how I can help students learn phonemic awareness (PA). PA is a set of skills in which a student learned to manipute spoken sounds to make words. These skills help students to learn to read and write. I chose this topic because I have a few students every year who have a difficult time learning these skills and these students are usually English learners.

• The MAT focuses on social justice and multicultural curriculum. How is your research
related to these?

Since it seems that English learners have a difficult time learning these skills I want to help them learn but I do not want to give these students a lot of extra attention if it will take away from teaching my other students. Through my research I learned that most students will benefit from these PA activities, even if they already have a basic understanding of PA.

• What results have you found from your study? Did they surprise you? Why do you think they
did or didn’t?

In my class last year I gave all students a PA partner. I would give students a task (i.e. what are the sounds in the word cat?) and they would whisper with their partner. When they were ready with an answer they would raise their hands together. I always made sure to match an English learner with a native English speaker so that the EL could have a model. When they students were whispering I was able to listen to hear if one or both of the students in each partner were participating and whether or not they were giving a correct answer. My students from this class performed better on their end of the year PA test than my class the year before. This did not surprise me because this was my goal.

• How will your study influence your future practice?

I will continue to use partners for different activities in my class. It not only helped my students learn but it also helped me observe students when they were whispering. I will continue to use partners for PA in my 1st grade class since some of my students still need help with these skills and it is good practice for my other students.