DIFFERENTIATED MATH INSTRUCTION
REFLECTION
IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING
Prior to implementing my action research, students were learning math as a whole group. It was difficult for me to provide interventions for my struggling students, and challenge my above level students throughout the math block. My action research, differentiated math instruction, impacted my students by providing opportunities for engagement and differentiation through the folder contents and games. Through my action research, the content became more accessible, and students progressed towards the learning goal at their own level.
IMPACT ON CURRENT TEACHING
I was impacted through my action research by having a deeper understanding of the math curriculum in my district. To ensure I differentiated the content with fidelity, it was important that I explored the curriculum, and discovered the infinite resources that I could utilize in my classroom to engage my learners. In addition, I became more intentional with my teaching during the process of my action research. I planned specific activities according to student needs, while still ensuring that all students continued towards the daily learning goal.
IMPACT ON PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
My action research impacted my professional growth by forcing me out of my comfort zone to implement a structure I had never attempted before. Before implementation, I was nervous to start because I was not sure if my research would be successful. I wanted differentiated math instruction to make a positive difference, and for my students to see the difference as well. After I saw the data and realized that my students had a positive reaction based on their scores and interviews, I will be substantially more confident to try new things in the future. In addition, I understood that the positive impact would not have been possible without my first grade teaching team, my capstone professor, CADRE associate and cohort. As a lifelong learner, it will be crucial to consistently collaborate with other professionals going forward.
WHAT WAS LEARNED?
Throughout my action research, I learned that I had to be flexible. An action plan was developed before implementation, but I quickly realized that I needed to adapt to student needs and changes in schedule. For example, there were several snow days that deterred my original schedule. With this in mind, I had to condense lessons to be sure that I remained on track with the grade level pacing guide, and covered all the content necessary for the post-test at the end of my study. As an educator, flexibility was necessary in order to develop lessons and weekly plans with success.
WHAT QUESTIONS REMAIN?
Several questions continued to remain after my action research: What if I would have started my action research at the beginning of the school year? Did the multitude of snow days impact my students’ progress? Are there resources outside of my curriculum I could have tried to improve student learning? Did group size matter when working with small groups at the teacher table? Could I have made independent work time more intentional? Although these questions could not be accurately answered, it was important to reflect, and to consider the impact of these questions on my action research.
IMPACT ON FUTURE TEACHING
In the future, I would like to change the timing of implementation. Instead, I would like to begin implementation at the start of the school year to ensure I can model expectations all year. In addition, I would like to incorporate a technology component to math instruction. Technology would be an excellent way to engage future learners, and assist them in mastering math skills. With this in mind, my future behavior will be impacted due to new groups of students year after year. I may need to change components of my instruction depending on a new group of students and their needs. Lastly, my action research will impact my future teaching by being a concrete example to refer back to. Going forward, I understand how to research a topic, create an action plan, collect data and analyze the data to decide if it was effective or not. In summary, the action research that I implemented and completed allowed me to improve my practice, and experience professional growth throughout my first year of teaching.