Ok, so I have completely dropped the ball on my blog site. I thought we only had to blog during our research course. Therefore, it has been awhile since I have blogged:(
Lots has happened since my last blog regarding my action research. The end of the year results were interesting but did not show the growth we had hoped for. My principal's first stipulation was that if we did not see positive results by the end of the school year, my research would be called off. When we first reviewed the data, she was still inclined to stick to her guns. However, the more we spoke about the positive impact that cross curricular instruction can have on students, we decided to move forward. I did have to make some substantial changes because my colleagues were overwhelmed by the amount of extra work they were having to put into my research. Therefore, we revamped the plan. It was decided that I could run the grade level meetings and set up a vision for common vocabulary, both academic and conceptual, and common themes for each of the nine weeks. So during Academy Week (teacher inservice before school begins), my grade level came together to collaborate and create a common lesson map. This map includes topics being taught by other subjects, so everyone is aware of who is teaching what. This allows other subjects to "piggy-back" concepts and vocabulary into their own subject areas. For example, History is teaching the Revolutionary War. ELAR is now incorporating poetry and short stories from this era. We are focusing on words like liberty, pursuit, and discrimination. Students are benefitting from this new strategy in instruction. They are traveling from class to class, seeing the same words and how they fit into various situations, and they are recognizing and transferring this knowledge. This is authentic learning in action! This change in my action research plan has not only relieved my colleagues, but it has also lightened the pressure on me to try and make others participate in something that was overwhelming. Our new approach has staff members excited about the collaboration we are creating across our grade level.
Hi, I think we all dropped the ball!
ReplyDeleteYour research project sounds like it is going very well. I am so glad to hear that the use of the common vocabulary across the curriculum is working for the students. I know for ELL's it has to be a blessing, because they need to be able to transfer the knowledge between classes. It's great that your teachers have gotten on board with that idea.
I attended a bilingual conference once, a long time ago, where one of the presenters spoke to us about using common vocabulary across the subjects areas to help our ELL students be able to transfer information. I think that was about 9 or 10 years ago that I attended that conference. I'm glad to see that her concept may be catching on, because it looks like you all are actually going to make it work. Congratulations!