Any Suggestions?

As promised, I'm back to share more data that I collected this past week.  I planned on having students write in a journal once a week to see what they were thinking about the change in homework.  However, as I have written about previously, with the slight change to my research question, I have also found slight changes that need to be made with the plan.  My initial plan had a handful of students who would participate and I was going to give them a spiral journal to free write on the topic of the change in our homework.  I have since decided to use my entire class for my pool of data information.  With that, the challenge of getting every student to write freely without a prompt seemed difficult at best.

This week I typed up a sheet with a prompt for the first Student Journal.  When I started to create this I found myself listing a lot of questions and it felt more like a survey or questionnaire and not a journal.  Backing up to try to give less with the hope of getting more I gave only the question "What are your opinions on homework the way we have done it this week?"  I will say, when I handed it out and read the prompt aloud, one student commented "I hope we do this again next week!"  I guess all my efforts to fully explain this have fallen short. =)

After reviewing the responses, many students only wrote a few sentences.  I noticed many mis-directed responses as well.  Many of them included things about studying spelling words to do well on our spelling test.  Others wrote just that they did not like homework or my personal favorite, one student responded with the reason for not being able to do homework because they had to eat!  I suppose I should focus on the more fruitful responses one of which suggested that while the reading homework did change, the spelling homework did not and she would like to see that happen.  Sadly, I only had ONE student mention the reward of sticks in their response!

My initial reason for including student journals was to document student thoughts in the event that during interviews students were shy and did not want to talk.  I think it would be a good thing to continue, I am just a little lost on how I can get all of their opinions on homework without providing specific questions.  Or, should I select only a few to respond using these journals?  I am also struggling the the thought of interviews. I want to interview some students now, while the new look of homework in our class is fresh.  Do you think I need to interview the same students now and at the conclusion of this study?

It should be another promising week full of confusion, and laughs.  I hope that the class reading will help me this week to be better at writing field notes.  Is anything in particular working well for anyone else in the area of field notes?

Free Images courtesy of Gecko Galz.

Sheeew-weee!

This week FLEW by!  I'm glad I had the timeline to guide me through those 4 short days.  I might have missed something if not.  I got off to a running start, my Letter of Consent was sent home and those that returned it signed the Letter of Assent (which can be found along with the Letter of Consent link).  I only had one student whose mother didn't want to sign it and the other 5 were either absent or said they forgot to show it to their parents.

After I handed out the Letter of Consent and talked a little bit about my research question, not going into too much detail, I had my students complete the Student Survey.  I wanted to capture their attitudes on homework the way we had been doing it, when it was mandatory.  Once they completed this survey, I told the class more about our new homework policy and my action research.  When I told them that our principal said we would no longer have homework, you would have thought I told my kids that they won the lottery!   They thought that was the absolute coolest thing in the entire world!

There sure was a learning curve for me this week!  Roll with it might have been last weeks theme, but data, data, data was the theme for this week.  I found myself without things that I needed as I went through the each day.  I got to thinking that I might be able to look at how many students took homework home verses how many actually returned it.  I had not originally planned for this, but then again, I had not planned to make taking the homework a choice.  For starters, I needed a way to document what homework was taken by each student.  Tuesday after school I thought I created just the document, then... Wednesday rolled around and I was at a loss for how to document what was returned.  Wednesday after school I went back to the drawing board; I thought it was great, until Thursday rolled around.  I found myself wondering how in another couple of weeks I would know if I had actually handed out math homework on a certain day or if it was just that no one took it.  Those things are important to document.  I also had one student ask for spelling homework on Thursday.  Reading and spelling are always handed out on Mondays in my classroom.  But my record keeping document didn't account for someone taking reading or spelling homework mid-week.  This student got me to thinking that in the weeks to follow I will offer reading and spelling everyday, not just on Monday (which is what I did this week and have previously done).  The finished product to record such things can be found here.  I made this two sided so I could record what was taken on one side and what was returned on the back for easier comparisons.

I felt so rushed this week with a 4 day week and our entire school attending a ladies basketball game on Friday (all morning long).  Without the adequate tools (the record sheet for what was taken/returned), getting permission forms signed, the regular rigmarole of our job as teachers and so on I didn't have a lot of time to be the OBSERVER this week.  I made a form to help me be a better observer next week which can be found here.  I would say that was the most trying part of this week for me, trying to be the observer when things are rushing by at 90 MPH.  I was so excited about what student reactions would be and I found myself using time after school to complete needed things instead of sitting for a moment to truly reflect on what had happened, how the students felt and what they commented on each day.  I collected a lot of data this week, I will be back to talk more about that, but for now I think it was a successful first week!

Potentially Derailed Before the Start

I thought I had everything figured out, I thought all I needed to do was follow the steps and plans I had laid out for my action research.  Boy was I wrong!  Things change, that is truly the only constant in life.  As I sat in my weekly PLC meeting last week my principal announced that school-wide, we would no longer be sending homework home.  When change comes, you need to adapt and that is just what I did with my research question and the plan for my action research.  I added the component of reward and I am more curious about the outcome of this research question than I was with my original research question.  It is funny how things have a way of working out like that!  Just to remind you, my research question is how does student choice and rewards in homework impact student attitudes towards homework.  Originally, I planned on handing out the same amount of homework, but allowing the students to choose what assignment they wanted to complete.

I find myself much more excited overall with this new tweak on the old question and plans.  I think it will be interesting to see if any student take the homework, but don't finish it.  Also, if that changes once students see others receiving a reward (in the form of a stick to be spent in our stick store).  Many students in my class do not complete their homework.  There are some students that do, but lets be realistic here, there will always be at least one or two students who request homework!

I am excited to have my students complete the homework survey this week.  I plan on having students fill out the homework survey before I discuss our new school-wide no homework policy and our new option if students do complete homework.  I can't wait to see their attitudes on how we used to do homework.  I can't wait to announce that they will not only no longer have to do homework, but will get rewarded if they do!  My students know that I am going to school, but I have not had the full discussion with them about my action research plan and how it involves them.  I feel very overwhelmed, eager and optimistic all at the same time about the start of this!  Thanks for following me on this journey! 

The Plan

My action research will take place in a city school with a population of approximately 450 students.  Many of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch.  I am interested in how student choice and rewards in homework impact student attitudes towards homework.  I currently teach 3rd grade.  I have taught 3rd grade for the past 3 years, and I have had problems every year with students who do not complete or turn in homework.  I want to look into the role of student choice as well as rewards for the completion of homework assignments.  I want to see what happens to student attitudes about homework and homework completion rates with these changes.  Previously students were required to turn in spelling, math and reading homework.  I will no longer require that homework be completed each night, instead, I will offer homework each night (in the fashion it was previously offered) and reward students with one "stick" upon the return of each homework assignment.  The "stick" that I speak of is only a popsicle stick.  In my classroom once a month I open up "Stick Store" which is where students can purchase things such as grippers, erasers all the way up to rings, gliders and so on.  Previously students could only earn "sticks" for good behavior each day.  Now, students will be able to increase their "sticks" by completing homework assignments.

I plan to record the attitudes and completion rates of all of my students.  I will have all of my students write in a journal once a week describing how they feel about homework.  I plan to give them some questions to get them started in this journal process.  I will be selecting a few students to interview to gain more insight into the attitudes of my students on homework. 

My approximate timeline is shown below on the calendars courtesy of Win Calendar.  I have listed tasks on specific days, however, those days are not necessarily the day the task will be completed.  Each task will be completed within that week (in a perfect world)! =)