Language Arts Action Research Essay

Classroom Management Inquiry: An Applied Study of Language Arts Data Zoo Southern Illinois university Daredevils Brian Walker Johnson, Literacy Faculty Inquiry into Teaching and Learning Project CLC 445 Language Arts at Elementary and Middle Levels November 22, 2013 Classroom Management Inquiry: An Applied Study of Language Arts The main phenomenon I have concentrated on throughout my Inquiry into Teaching and Learning Project for my applied study of language arts Is the role that speaking, writing, viewing, visually representing, reading and listening play in the management of an elementary school classroom. I have come to understand that classroom management is one of the hardest duties off beginning teacher. Being respected by students and colleagues is what establishes a teacher as an authority, and effective classroom management is a start towards this goal. Managing my students has been the hardest part of my school experience thus far, and I hoped that allowing language arts to become an active part of my management processes would allow my students to think more critically about their actions. When I began his inquiry study, I believed that writing classroom rules together, reading classroom rules critically, speaking and listening to how rules are applied, and viewing and visually representing class rules in daily walk and conversation might give students a sense of ownership over their classroom and greater respect for teachers. I thought the benefit of using language arts for classroom management might be measured by closer examination of critical conversations students have when rules are broken. So I proposed the following action research question: How does student behavior hanged when students read, write, speak, listen, view, or visually represent apparent misbehaver? Waxier (2007) suggests that written action plans which give older elementary students responsibility for their actions changes misbehaver. Research by Smith (2009) demonstrates that the use of other language arts with preschoolers can have the same effect. Reading these studies motivated me to pursue classroom arts. Method Secondary Sources to Answer Research Question I began my research into how student behavior changes when language arts are integrated into classroom management practices by reviewing two secondary resources. My first source, â€Å"Blending Effective Behavior Management and Literacy Strategies for Preschoolers Exhibiting Negative Behavior† by Smith (2009), was published in a peer reviewed early childhood education Journal specializing in articles that summarize a number of experimental studies. Smith’s (2009) summary of research gave the ideas in the article greater validity. Some of the findings Smith (2009) shared described classroom management techniques I have personally experienced as effective. Smith’s (2009) findings are limited to studies done with reechoes students, but I believe the findings can be used with older students as well. Unlike Smith (2009), my second source, Waxier (2007), was not published in a peer reviewed Journal. Washer’s eBook, teach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers, was self-published. However, the author’s online biography points to decades spent as a professional teacher and consultant who has helped hundreds of elementary teachers improve their classroom management. Waxier, like Smith, also describes a number of management techniques that I have found to be helpful in the past. Primary Source Data to Answer Research Question I continued my research into how student behavior changes when language arts are integrated into classroom management practices by collecting primary sources of data from my third grade classroom. The third grade classroom where I student teach is located in Roseville, Illinois, near the Mississippi River Just north of SST. Louis, Missouri. The third grade at Roseville Elementary School consists of 25 Caucasian students, 13 boys and 12 girls. Well over 70% of these students are on free or reduced lunch programs, suggesting that their families are struggling with poverty. However, the academic achievement of these students is especially high in language arts, evidenced by the school’s online report card. These students may represent an exception to the thought that poverty dictates low academic achievement. I began my research into how elementary student behavior changes when language arts are integrated into classroom management practices by conducting classroom observations and collecting artifacts. My classroom observations were done by filling out five observations forms over 1 5 minute intervals over a period of six weeks. I simply observed moments in the life of my student teaching classroom where misbehaver was occurring. Then, using the left hand column of my observation form, I wrote what I saw my teacher and student informants doing during these 15-20 minute snapshots of instruction, scripting the instruction to the best of my ability. I included exactly what I heard and saw. On the same days I made my observations, I went home and read over what I had written. Then, using the right hand column of my observation form, I summarized the â€Å"instructional moments† I saw in my written observations that I thought related to engage arts instruction and changing student misbehaver. Finally, in a different column that: 1) documented which of the language arts were being used in the instructional moment you summarized; 2) described how I thought an additional element of language arts could have been incorporated into the instructional moment. Together with artifacts including written action plans by students to correct misbehaver, photos of room arrangement, copies of class rules, and student/teacher interviews, patterns of how misbehaver changed as a result of language arts applications began to emerge. I believe these patterns are valid because they are supported by three different kinds of primary source data: my observations, informant interviews, and classroom artifacts. My initial primary source data response to the question, â€Å"How does student behavior change when students read, write, speak, listen, view, or visually represent apparent misbehaver? , emerged after examining data collected midway through my study with colleagues in my Language Arts at Elementary and Middle Levels class at Southern Illinois University Daredevils. I began to see at first that â€Å"Reading, writing, or speaking about subversive changes misbehaver. † As I continued to gather data, it became evident that all of the language arts gave misbehaving students opportunities for reflection that changed misbehaver. Results Results of my analysis of primary source data in the form of five 1 5 minute observations over five weeks, three student interviews, one cooperating teacher interview, and seven artifacts of student work in classroom management demonstrate that use of all of the six language arts gave misbehaving students opportunities for reflection that changed their misbehaver.