A typical day in my classroom is academically jam-packed and in constant motion. My
classroom is a traditional general education classroom. In my classroom the students learn the
core academic subjects. Different teachers in different classrooms, those deemed as “specials,”
teach the other subjects. “Specials” include physical education, music, art, library, and
technology. My students are not the traditional general education class of one grade level; I teach
the grades of fifth and sixth grade combined as one class. The class is composed of 11 fifth
graders and four sixth graders. The ability levels run the range as well. A few of the students
attend additional pull-out instruction in reading, writing, math, or any combination of the three.
Two of the four students that qualify for the pull-out services attend the pull-out resource
instruction for 90 minutes a day. On other specified days there is further pull-out instruction for
selected students that include speech therapy, band, strings, and chorus. This additional
instruction lasts for 30 minutes and occurs from once to twice a week. The students in both
grades are expected to be taught their grade-level educational standards, which causes the day to
be fairly fast-paced.
A typical day starts with a pretty busy morning. At 8:55 the class watches the daily
announcements being broadcast on closed-circuit television. After the daily announcements is
the daily reading block. The reading block is a district expectation of 180 minutes of instruction
in reading, writing, and spelling. I have no uninterrupted block of 180 minutes, so there are some
breaks in the academic instruction. The first 30 minutes are whole group instruction in reading
comprehension. Those 30 minutes are followed by 70 minutes of differentiated small group
reading instruction. During this time the class is broken into small reading ability groups to
receive more individualized instruction in reading comprehension. While I meet with small
groups, the other students are completing an assignment that includes the following types of
activities: vocabulary work, journal writing, paired reading, and independent reading. After small
group reading is the subject of spelling. Spelling is allotted 25 minutes. At that time there is a
restroom break and the students attend a “special” for 45 minutes. The “special” is over at noon.
At that time I pick the students up and we go back to class for 20 minutes of grammar
instruction. After 20 minutes of grammar instruction, there is a 35-minute break for recess and
lunch.
The busy morning is followed by a demanding afternoon. Typically, right after lunch
there are 40 minutes of writing instruction and writing. After writing there is one hour of math
instruction. This is the first part of my day that I must really split my time between the two
distinct curriculums. To ease my instruction and to make sure everyone is taught for the same
amount of time I have broken the hour math time into three manageable 20-minute segments. For
the first 20 minutes of math I teach the lesson to the fifth graders, which includes taking notes,
examples and practice. Coinciding with this time of the first 20 minutes the sixth graders are
working independently or in the small group of four to complete a Problem of the Day. Then
fifth graders are then given their homework assignment to work on for the next 20 minutes,
during which time I focus my attention to the sixth grade students. The fifth graders have been
taught that they must ask two different people before they ask me a question if they get stuck on
their homework. The sixth graders are then receiving instruction, examples, and guided practice
for the second 20 minutes. For the last 20 minutes, the fifth graders work independently or in
small groups to solve a Problem of the Day and the sixth graders work on their homework. It is
during the last 20 minutes of the math time I help students individually or in small groups on
math. After math there is an hour of science or social studies. The sixth grade students go to
another sixth grade classroom for science or social studies instruction, so I then teach fifth grade
science or social studies. The last 15 minutes of the day the fifth and sixth grade students are
then in one classroom together and the time is spent completing self-reflection journals, end of
the day reminders, dismissal of the safety patrol students, and dismissal of the school at 3:45.
During the course of my action research, I made changes to my typical day. I assert that
these changes did change me as a teacher, the quality of student work, and the application of
problem solving strategies. These changes are noted and supported in my weekly reflection
journal, analysis of student work, and in the responses received during the student interviews.
What happens to my teaching when I create problem-solving connections with math through
literature?
I found that my teaching changed through the process of completing the action research
plan. There were three major changes that occurred to my style of teaching during the research
process. One of the major changes to my teaching was using the textbook less and teaching
concepts provided or mentioned in various children’s literature works. My teacher’s journal
reflects the change to more whole group activities not involving the textbook, when I stated on
February 7, “I did have a request that I am considering for next week’s lesson. A student
requested for a whole group lesson. I will do a whole group lesson next week that revolves
around fractions. Maybe the student’s interest will continue.” Of the 45 days in the research
period, 13 days of lessons did not involve the textbook. My lesson plans reflect that I used the
textbook to introduce a concept at the beginning of the week and then the last two or three days
of the week were spent exploring the concept with children’s literature. In contrast, a 45-day
period before beginning my research consisted of only textbook lessons. I did not really realize
that this was such a drastic change for the students because we were still covering math topics
and concepts until I ended my research. At the end the research there were a few more ideas that
I was unable to locate literature for or the concepts between the two grades were so different that
I went back to using the textbook to explore the concepts. The first day that I reverted back to the
textbook and told the sixth graders the Problem of the Day and the fifth graders to take out their
math book and notebooks, there was a chorus of groans. One student even said, “Oh man, we are
going back to learning math.”
The other change to my teaching was in allowing the students to work more in groups to
explore and complete assignments. Again my lesson plans reflect group work activities. In the
research period I had allotted for students to work together six of the 13 whole group lessons.
The benefit to this change was seen a couple weeks into my experiment when a student
exclaimed, “I like this project of yours, Miss Glacey, because we get to work in groups more.”
At the end of my data collection process I asked the students if they thought that working with
other people to solve math problems was sometimes frustrating and I heard varied opinions.
Sarah1
1 All names are pseudonyms.
replied, “I don’t get mad when I have to help someone out because we are helping each
other. Also, it’s not frustrating because how would you feel if someone else knew and you
didn’t.” I think this shows the true cooperative spirit. Ben saw the frustrated side of working
together and replied, “I would sometimes get frustrated because you are doing someone else’s
homework and they are not writing down what you are and they are not listening. They just keep
talking.”
The third change to my teaching was the insistence that I had at showing all of the work
and making sure that each statement was backed up or explained mathematically. This change in
my teaching I really liked, but it was met with a mix of reviews from the students. One day
during math I had once again told a student to explain a specific part of his work and he replied,
“It takes too long to put my thinking into writing.” During my interview with Sarah, when I
asked her what it looks like when she justifies her answers on a homework assignment, she
responded, “It means showing your work and showing every step you do. It’s kind of cool
because it shows your answer instead of just numbers. Sometime if the answer is just the
numbers it is confusing.”
Despite the protests, the students’ explanations improved and showed a clearer
understanding of their thinking. One example of clearer understanding is seen in Barb’s
explanations. One of the first assignments showed very little detail in her explanation, but one of
the later assignments shows a more thorough reasoning.