Students were able to improve their mathematical communication skills and overall achievement with the use of math journals. Through the implementation of written communication strategies in mathematics, the students who participated in this study were able to more effectively communicate their thinking in whole-group lessons. This allowed students to be leaders in the classroom when sharing their thinking aloud to the entire class. These students were able to dissect each step when finding a solution to a problem. Prior to this study, the students who participated struggled to talk about math. They would find a solution and be unable to express how they solved the problem. Additionally, they also lacked the use of mathematical vocabulary in their explanations. At the beginning of each new unit, students would be required to comprehend new vocabulary words, strategies, and concepts. This is a significant amount of new information for students to process through. Students rarely had the opportunity to critically think and grasp these items to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts being taught. With the use of math journals, students were able to critically analyze new concepts and practice using the vocabulary words associated with them. Journals also allowed students to critique each step of their thinking and make changes based on specific written feedback. Doing this allowed students to gain a deeper understanding and increase their ability to make sense of new information.
Prior to this study, I focused my teaching on whether students were able to find a solution to a problem. This left many holes in their understanding when they were unable to adequately express or share their thinking. During small and whole group lessons, my instruction focused on the pieces that my district curriculum pacing guide provided. The materials that were from the district curriculum supported conversations about the content being taught, but did not provide students with the explicit structures and supports needed to have meaningful math conversations. When I shifted the focus from end result to the mathematical process, I was able to reach my students on new levels. Not only did their math cognition improve, but so did their confidence and willingness to take risks.
Throughout the completion of this study, I grew in many ways. Collaboration was a key component to my learning. By collaborating with my colleagues, administrators, CADRE professors and peers, and other district staff, I was able to discover multiple strategies to best support my students. I discussed my study with my teaching partner, grade-level PLC, and math interventionist. We exchanged ideas and they provided me with different instructional strategies that would be engaging and purposeful for my students. This collaboration helped broaden my thinking and gave me many tools to use when encouraging students to write about math. My math interventionist was able to provide me with journal prompts that were specific to the state standards students were working towards mastering. My CADRE Associate helped implement my study by recording small group lessons, and providing me with an opportunity to go back and listen to students as they thought through their prompts. In addition, these videos allowed me to observe my teaching and identify areas where I needed to be more explicit with my language. All of these factors impacted my professional growth because it taught me how to ask for assistance from other professionals and receive feedback with the mindset of doing what is most beneficial for students. By continually seeking feedback and collaborating with other educators, I will continue to grow professionally as new strategies are introduced into the field of education.
As I reflected about the study, there are several areas that I would modify. The first adjustment would be when introducing the rubric to students I would provide journal examples for students to gain a better understanding of what was expected. Students initially struggled with their self-assessments and there was a significant discrepancy between student rubric scores and my rubric scores. The examples of an ‘on target’, ‘approaching target’, and ‘below target’ journal entry would benefit students by giving them concrete examples of what was expected at each rating. Another area to adjust would be more use of technology such as using Google Forms to document their weekly goals and rubrics. Students were able to go back and look at their progress on their previous rubrics, but it was different for students to see their overall progress from start to finish. This would automatically populate student results and the graphs could be presented to students during weekly conferences or printed out to have feedback written on them. The final adjustment to be made would be to incorporate writing strategies in math starting at the beginning of the school year. The third grade math curriculum begins the year with multiplication and division and these themes carry out through the rest of the year. Having students gain a deeper understanding of multiplication and division through writing about their thinking would set students up for success in future units and in upper grades.
Performing action research will impact my future instruction as I will be able to effectively identify needs and implement research-based strategies in my classroom to best support learners. Along with the other pieces of data collected on my students, I will continue to collect information on the effectiveness of instructional strategies being implemented in my classroom. If strategies are not having a significant impact on student achievement and understanding, then it will show me that other instructional strategies need to be brought in to assist students. Additionally, because of this research project, I feel more comfortable inviting other professionals into my classroom to observe and provide feedback on how to best support students.