the HISTORY
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This capstone project was focused on 22 students in a fifth grade class in a suburban elementary. This elementary had 518 students enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade.
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In 2017-2018 students enrolled were
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73.2% White
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20.3% Hispanic
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1.9% Black
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2.1% Multi-Racial. ​
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75.3%, qualified for free and reduced lunch
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18% Individualized Education Plans(IEP)
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5.3% English Language Learners (ELL).
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Inside the classroom
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Two students (9%) with an IEP,
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Two students (9%) received ELL support,
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Four students(18%) received enrichment services,
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Seven students(32%) with diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
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Two students(9%) reported that have experienced personal traumas.
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The data that was collected on the 22 students shows that these fifth graders had abilities, but their development and growth during the fourth grade year were lower than the average student’s growth. Near the end of fourth grade, students completed the FastBridge screener, aMath. This screener is an adaptive assessment that allows teachers and students to see what skills students have mastered, are developing and what their future skills are that they have not learned yet. Only 50% of my students were proficient, while the other 50% of my class received scores that were of high risk, needing immediate intervention. The FastBridge Screener for literacy, aReading, showed the same results of students who were proficient and students that were in need of immediate intervention strategies. The district’s goal for the classroom proficiency is 70% of students at or above grade level. Furthermore, I looked at the minimal growth of this class in 2017-2018. The student’s data showed some if any growth, informs me as a teacher to provide and implement instruction to fill in the gaps for my students to reach and access fifth grade core instruction. I will need to implement effective instruction with strategies that contain routines with feedback. This feedback will impact my student’s growth in literacy and math by reflecting on their skills and development of their learning process.
the NEED
the IMPORTANCE
The importance of this action research is to support my students and allow me to provide self efficacy and ownership of their own learning. I want to highlight areas of growth, including every moment of success to build confidence among my students who haven’t seen a vast amount of success in the prior years. Providing a feedback routine with students will characterize my instruction by making it purposeful and meaningful to them. This will also increase engagement and build upon our community in our learning environment. I am confident that students are gaining trust and relationships through my classroom management. I desire to gain more confidence in time management to provide effective, purposeful and meaningful feedback to each and every student. I want to also provide the exemplar expectations of feedback, therefore students will have a model to follow when providing feedback to other peers and to themselves. Feedback that is shared between students and then to self has the greatest impact on achievement. Through research, guidance from my administration and mentor, I will gain and finesse oral and written feedback that impacts and guides my class to increase and jumpstart their growth and their confidence. At the end of their fifth grade year, I will examine the growth in the math and literacy screeners and show that their fifth grade growth is greater to their year in fourth grade growth.