• What was being implemented?

I implemented hands-on activities, games and, manipulatives to help improve math operations achievement.  Manipulatives can be important tools in which students can use in order to learn in more meaningful ways.  These were used in guided math and at math stations. Stations needed to fit the math skill resembling the current unit and some units took longer than others. I wanted to ensure the manipulatives being used for guided math and math stations were backed by research instead of using random fillers.  I aimed  that the hands-on activities, games, and manipulatives aided in acquiring the number sense knowledge needed to improve MAP and district assessment scores.  

 

Instead of only differentiating the station work, I also differentiated my guided math.  This was an accommodation I made halfway through the study.  The reason I made this accommodation was because students were needing more differentiated instruction besides station work. Differentiating guided math allowed me to witness their successes and struggles.  Differentiation was intended to enhance student knowledge, which allowed math stations and guided math to be much more effective together. 

 

• Whom was it being implemented with?

The individuals that were a part of this study were 18 second grade students.  The students were evaluated from small group number sense work, surveys, and questionnaires, along with guided math instruction.  Furthermore, I personally documented small group rotations and how students were working.  Documenting during guided math directed my instruction for math, future guided math sessions, and even stations the following day.

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• When was the study implemented?

This study began on January 30th, 2017 and ended on March 31st, 2017.  I took into account missing days throughout this study, such as no school and in-service days.  The study was intended to be a six week study, but after taking into account missed days, it ended up being an eight week study. Specifically, it was implemented in the middle of the day during math instruction.  The math journals were completed during the mornings for bell work.

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• How was the study implemented?

I implemented my study through individual and cooperative station work along with guided math.  The type of work that was involved was hands-on manipulatives and math games.  Such games included work as a group, partners, or as individuals.  I was interested to see how students would respond to number sense games or stations that could be used with a number of participants. During guided math, I differentiated each group based upon the skill or topic for that unit.  Students were receiving differentiated instruction during guided math while they were participating in current topic games and station activities from previous topics.  

Students completed their journals daily with a number sense question that was aimed to review and enhance their number sense knowledge.  There was a morning time block for students to complete school work, which I took advantage of that time by allowing students to complete their student journals regarding the math problem of the day.  

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My groups were formed by students who were in the same areas of developing, on level, and above level on number sense knowledge based off of the initial MAP test.  The developing group had 5 students, on level had 7 students, and above level had 6 students.  The following is an example of how I differentiated guided math instruction and math stations.   

 

Skill: Adding Three-Digit Numbers

The numbers signify which group I was working with.

1-Developing

2-On Level

3-Above Level

 

Guided Math                                    

1-Breaking down of three-digit addition frame and walking through every step.

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2-Practice adding 2 three-digit numbers that I have created

Ex:  341+241 gives students the opportunity to look at adding each place value without regrouping.

346+246 gives the students an opportunity to regroup in the ones digit.

Based on time, I had created problems that involved regrouping in each place value with the culminating problem of being able to regroup the ones and the tens while working over to the hundreds place.

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3-Determine the missing number in a number statement. 

Ex:  Given three numbers (458, 621, 183) which number would be used if you added to 333 and you would have to regroup in the tens place?  There were two other problems that consisted of doing the same process but with different numbers and using the tens place.

 

 

Math Stations

Since students have already learned about adding money, I combined money with these stations because it was similar to adding three-digit numbers.  

1-Students were given money bags with all the same amount.  They would have a tub that contained objects that would cost an amount.  Their jobs would be to buy the objects that they could buy with the money they were allotted. They would record the object they bought on their recording sheets. I knew their amount total, so I knew what they started with.  This would be a starting point as later on they would have to tell me the object they bought while also recording how much money they had left after buying an object.

 

2-Students were given money bags that contained different amounts of money.  In their tubs would be objects that they could buy with the amounts of money in the bags. The difference between groups 1 and 2 was that the amounts of money were different. This was the starting point before this group would proceed to what group 3 would accomplish.

 

3-Students were given money bags in their tubs and objects that they could buy with their money bags.  The difference from the other two groups is that in their bags would be coupons that they could use to buy their objects with.  These coupons were either cut out of an advertisement or they were created and cut out by me. 

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• Why had the strategies been selected for implementation?

The strategies selected were based off of independent and cooperative games, stations, and guided math instruction.  I wanted to ensure my students were receiving the skills necessary to improve number sense scores

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• What was the timeline?

I conducted an 8 week study.  I began to personally journal at week 5.  I had noted the weeks before but only on sticky notes.  I color coded my journal paper to which groups I was meeting with, so I could keep my notes organized and efficient.  I knew which students belonged to each group, but I was able to more effectively note where a student was developing on a skill and what I needed to do the following day in instruction.  I found this to be beneficial for planning or extending the concepts for an individual or the entire group of students.  Students completed math journals every day during the study and consisted of number sense math problems.  I always observed students while they were working on them, but I had a few students share how they solved the problem to the entire class.  This allowed for students to witness different ways to solve a problem while still coming up with the same answer.  The students that were selected were observed by me doing the same problem differently than others. The sharing of examples was not done daily.  My decision for that was because there were problems that were straightforward answers.  For example, “What is the next number in this pattern?” to where it could have been explained further upon in this example, “How did you solve this 3-digit addition problem?”  There were more problems for students to use their own strategies and strategies they learned in class, but student sharing was not conducted every day. 

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• What data collection methods were used and why?

My first set of data collection was a pre-survey that I implemented at the beginning of the study. I also had the students redo the survey at the end of the study. I witnessed how students were responding to math stations at that point of the year, and I used that data to drive my instruction as a result from this survey.  Additionally, I used a personal teacher journal to document how students were responding to math skills, stations with independent and cooperative work, guided math work, and pure observation.  This journal was simply a different color of paper for each group, but it was only implemented at week 5 of the study.  With the color coding, it allowed me to note skills each student was learning and not learning, so I could build upon that during the next day’s instruction or during extra time in the mornings.  Every note made before then was a small sticky note used for the next day or the current week.  Unit Tests and district assessments had also been administered during this study.  These were required by the district and curriculum that we had been using.  This was an additional resource for data collection although it was not used as one of my highlighted areas of data collection methods.  I used that as a part of my group creations for guided math.  Lastly, the MAP math test was the most vital piece of data collection that I had accumulated. It was the piece of data that broke down each students' score, and how they scored in each category, specifically number sense.