Implementation of Phase 2
Phase 2 Preparation
As I mentioned in my Phase 2 Planning, the foundation for phase two was laid in phase one, with the students working on self-awareness, other-awareness, anger management and problem solving. Building on that, phase two focuses on self-management, accountability and cooperative learning.
At the beginning of the week that phase two began, we had a morning meeting in which we looked at emotion cards (a review of phase one) and discussed how the people in the cards felt, how they could handle their feelings and how other people could help them. This review reminded the students of being aware of how their bodies feel with certain emotions, and how they can identify and help friends with certain emotions (self-awareness and other-awareness components of phase one). It also reminded the students of what to do when they are mad or angry, and the importance of handling their emotions appropriately (anger management and problem solving from phase one). This was an important reminder because students need to understand and take responsibility for their own actions, starting with emotions, to be able to take responsibility for behavior and academics, which are components of self-management and accountability in phase two.
During this meeting the students were very productive and encouraging of each other. The ideas they had for helping others deal with negative feelings were positive, valuable, and appropriate. An example of a positive response to feeling jealous towards a student who had a nice new pencil was “tell them you like their pencil and ask if you can borrow it". An example of a student response of what not to do was “take their pencil”. These responses showed me that the students were prepared to continue with community building and begin phase two.
As I mentioned in my Phase 2 Planning, the foundation for phase two was laid in phase one, with the students working on self-awareness, other-awareness, anger management and problem solving. Building on that, phase two focuses on self-management, accountability and cooperative learning.
At the beginning of the week that phase two began, we had a morning meeting in which we looked at emotion cards (a review of phase one) and discussed how the people in the cards felt, how they could handle their feelings and how other people could help them. This review reminded the students of being aware of how their bodies feel with certain emotions, and how they can identify and help friends with certain emotions (self-awareness and other-awareness components of phase one). It also reminded the students of what to do when they are mad or angry, and the importance of handling their emotions appropriately (anger management and problem solving from phase one). This was an important reminder because students need to understand and take responsibility for their own actions, starting with emotions, to be able to take responsibility for behavior and academics, which are components of self-management and accountability in phase two.
During this meeting the students were very productive and encouraging of each other. The ideas they had for helping others deal with negative feelings were positive, valuable, and appropriate. An example of a positive response to feeling jealous towards a student who had a nice new pencil was “tell them you like their pencil and ask if you can borrow it". An example of a student response of what not to do was “take their pencil”. These responses showed me that the students were prepared to continue with community building and begin phase two.
Above are pictures of emotion cards I used. These emotions were custom, as I found these pictures to address feelings the students still struggled with (jealousy and anger). Other emotion cards are pre-set, such as the last picture. The front of the card, the side the students see, has only a full size picture. The back, the side pictured, has a small picture with questions I can ask the students, and helpful emotions the students should recognize. These cards give me opportunities to show examples of situations in which complicated feelings arise, without singling out students as examples.
With the phase one life skills fresh (self-awareness, other-awareness, anger management and problem solving) phase two began. This next phase started with self-management and accountability, and brought my students and I closer to our goal of a safe and collaborative learning community.
Phase 2 Outline
In addition to continual reminders of the life lessons taught in phase one, the intervention for phase two revolved around the two themes; self-management/ accountability and collaborative learning. Below is an outline of the specific categories for each theme. Descriptions follow in the next section.
Self-Management and Accountability
1. Verbal Cues
2. Homework and Individual Behavior Chart
3. Other Supportive Lessons
a. My Mouth is a Volcano
b. Helping Yourself
Collaborative Learning
4. Appreciation Cards
5. Classroom Behavior Chart
6. Partner Science Project
Phase 2 Components and Details
Self-Management and Accountability
As was discussed in the Planning for Phase Two section of this website, the students often blamed other people for their actions. Specifically, students blamed other classmates for behavior issues such as touching, poking, talking-without hands raised, etc. To address this, I used verbal cues to redirect off-task or inappropriate behavior.
Additionally, students blamed parents and guardians for their incomplete homework. To address this, we introduced a Field-Trip Monitoring Chart that keeps track of homework and behavior interventions, as a motivation to complete assignments and behave appropriately.
Verbal Cues
Two specific verbal cues the students have heard throughout the semester include “don’t stop your friend’s thinking” and “control your body”. As such, I exclusively used these phrases, or variations of these phrases, to remind the students of what was expected of them.
The phrase “don’t stop your friend’s thinking” is used when students speak when it is not their turn or shout out answers when I ask questions that require a raised hand. When this issue arises, we revisit the meaning of thinking time and review that everyone thinks at different speeds, and we need to make sure everyone gets a fair chance to try to solve a problem.
The phrase “control your body” is used when students are touching another student, twirling around on the carpet, or otherwise not sitting appropriately and distracting the students around them. This phase was reintroduced and emphasized to the students as a self-management responsibility. The use of this phrase reminds my first graders that they are responsible for their own bodies and that those around them deserve to be respected.
Since these phrases were already used before phase two, just inconsistently, the students reacted well to them. The consistency helped remind the students of what was expected of them, and even caught on in the classroom student to student conversations. When students would talk when it wasn’t their turn, other students shifted from the common “shhhh” or “teacher, I can’t hear” to directly asking the student speaking out of turn to “not stop their thinking”. These peer-to-peer interactions were positive and impactful in correcting and redirecting disruptive behaviors.
Homework and Behavior Field Trip Chart
The Balboa Theater donated tickets to our class for a showing of “The Grinch” but unfortunately was only able to give us a limited amount, so every student would not get to attend. As such, I wanted to work this into my Action Research (and be consistent with the other first grade classes in the same predicament), and it was decided that a chart that tracked students’ homework and behavior would be used to decide who would get to come and who would need to stay behind, working on the student accountability. The Field-Trip Chart is something that I still have mixed feelings about, because I never think leaving a student out is a good idea, even if you can position it for a positive outcome.
The chart specifically tracked the student’s homework and behavior for the two weeks prior to the fieldtrip. The required homework was 20 minutes of reading, one journal entry, and one math page every night, Monday through Thursday. Each day the homework was turned in, we would check the reading, journal and math, and give one point of credit for each completed assignment. If it was not turned in or not complete, the student did not receive credit and was given a verbal reminder of the importance of homework and the consequence of missing a fieldtrip. It was very black and white.
The behavior component of the chart tracked behavior issues, and was less black and white. The consistency of this component of the chart was based of focusing on physical issues (such as unwanted touching, hitting or pushing), verbal reminders to students who did not follow instructions, and verbal reminders to students who “stopped their friends thinking”. Every time a student needed a reminder of appropriate behavior, it was marked on the chart.
This chart was kept private, to protect students from embarrassment as well keep specific issues private. To me, letting an entire class know that little Johnny was in trouble for using bad language did not add value to an entire class. However, to keep student’s aware of their own progress, when a student did get a note or mark on the chart, he or she was informed at an appropriate time and given the chance to explain an action.
The students’ responded well to this chart, and eventually took pride in completing their assignments, although the self-fulfillment in the accountability was slow to start. With the behavior chart more private, students were often checking in with me to make sure they were “being good” and reacted appropriately when they received feedback from check-ins. Students who had no noted behavior issues felt proud, and students who had noted issues were proud when they corrected their behaviors.
Other Supportive Lessons
My Mouth is a Volcano
As I have mentioned many times, phase one reminders were necessary throughout this phase. We had learned that while many kids were doing better after phase one about controlling their actions towards others, they still had a hard time differentiating between hurtful things and non-hurtful things when talking with one another. Specific issues that arose were students calling other students “fat, ugly, or funny looking” or telling them their pictures were “ugly”. As such we had the school counselor read them a book My Mouth is a Volcano and followed it with a meeting and writing on how students can help themselves.
With the phase one life skills fresh (self-awareness, other-awareness, anger management and problem solving) phase two began. This next phase started with self-management and accountability, and brought my students and I closer to our goal of a safe and collaborative learning community.
Phase 2 Outline
In addition to continual reminders of the life lessons taught in phase one, the intervention for phase two revolved around the two themes; self-management/ accountability and collaborative learning. Below is an outline of the specific categories for each theme. Descriptions follow in the next section.
Self-Management and Accountability
1. Verbal Cues
2. Homework and Individual Behavior Chart
3. Other Supportive Lessons
a. My Mouth is a Volcano
b. Helping Yourself
Collaborative Learning
4. Appreciation Cards
5. Classroom Behavior Chart
6. Partner Science Project
Phase 2 Components and Details
Self-Management and Accountability
As was discussed in the Planning for Phase Two section of this website, the students often blamed other people for their actions. Specifically, students blamed other classmates for behavior issues such as touching, poking, talking-without hands raised, etc. To address this, I used verbal cues to redirect off-task or inappropriate behavior.
Additionally, students blamed parents and guardians for their incomplete homework. To address this, we introduced a Field-Trip Monitoring Chart that keeps track of homework and behavior interventions, as a motivation to complete assignments and behave appropriately.
Verbal Cues
Two specific verbal cues the students have heard throughout the semester include “don’t stop your friend’s thinking” and “control your body”. As such, I exclusively used these phrases, or variations of these phrases, to remind the students of what was expected of them.
The phrase “don’t stop your friend’s thinking” is used when students speak when it is not their turn or shout out answers when I ask questions that require a raised hand. When this issue arises, we revisit the meaning of thinking time and review that everyone thinks at different speeds, and we need to make sure everyone gets a fair chance to try to solve a problem.
The phrase “control your body” is used when students are touching another student, twirling around on the carpet, or otherwise not sitting appropriately and distracting the students around them. This phase was reintroduced and emphasized to the students as a self-management responsibility. The use of this phrase reminds my first graders that they are responsible for their own bodies and that those around them deserve to be respected.
Since these phrases were already used before phase two, just inconsistently, the students reacted well to them. The consistency helped remind the students of what was expected of them, and even caught on in the classroom student to student conversations. When students would talk when it wasn’t their turn, other students shifted from the common “shhhh” or “teacher, I can’t hear” to directly asking the student speaking out of turn to “not stop their thinking”. These peer-to-peer interactions were positive and impactful in correcting and redirecting disruptive behaviors.
Homework and Behavior Field Trip Chart
The Balboa Theater donated tickets to our class for a showing of “The Grinch” but unfortunately was only able to give us a limited amount, so every student would not get to attend. As such, I wanted to work this into my Action Research (and be consistent with the other first grade classes in the same predicament), and it was decided that a chart that tracked students’ homework and behavior would be used to decide who would get to come and who would need to stay behind, working on the student accountability. The Field-Trip Chart is something that I still have mixed feelings about, because I never think leaving a student out is a good idea, even if you can position it for a positive outcome.
The chart specifically tracked the student’s homework and behavior for the two weeks prior to the fieldtrip. The required homework was 20 minutes of reading, one journal entry, and one math page every night, Monday through Thursday. Each day the homework was turned in, we would check the reading, journal and math, and give one point of credit for each completed assignment. If it was not turned in or not complete, the student did not receive credit and was given a verbal reminder of the importance of homework and the consequence of missing a fieldtrip. It was very black and white.
The behavior component of the chart tracked behavior issues, and was less black and white. The consistency of this component of the chart was based of focusing on physical issues (such as unwanted touching, hitting or pushing), verbal reminders to students who did not follow instructions, and verbal reminders to students who “stopped their friends thinking”. Every time a student needed a reminder of appropriate behavior, it was marked on the chart.
This chart was kept private, to protect students from embarrassment as well keep specific issues private. To me, letting an entire class know that little Johnny was in trouble for using bad language did not add value to an entire class. However, to keep student’s aware of their own progress, when a student did get a note or mark on the chart, he or she was informed at an appropriate time and given the chance to explain an action.
The students’ responded well to this chart, and eventually took pride in completing their assignments, although the self-fulfillment in the accountability was slow to start. With the behavior chart more private, students were often checking in with me to make sure they were “being good” and reacted appropriately when they received feedback from check-ins. Students who had no noted behavior issues felt proud, and students who had noted issues were proud when they corrected their behaviors.
Other Supportive Lessons
My Mouth is a Volcano
As I have mentioned many times, phase one reminders were necessary throughout this phase. We had learned that while many kids were doing better after phase one about controlling their actions towards others, they still had a hard time differentiating between hurtful things and non-hurtful things when talking with one another. Specific issues that arose were students calling other students “fat, ugly, or funny looking” or telling them their pictures were “ugly”. As such we had the school counselor read them a book My Mouth is a Volcano and followed it with a meeting and writing on how students can help themselves.
My Mouth is a Volcano is a book about a kid who keeps saying mean and hurtful things to other people. In the book, the student keeps trying to keep these mean things in, knowing that they are hurtful, but has a mouth like a volcano, that keeps erupting and can’t be controlled. In the book the kid learns tricks to keep the words in, such as lightly biting your tongue or taking deep breaths.
In reflection, the students gave specific examples to the counselor of things that are either said to them, or they have said to others that may be hurtful. Again, the issue of students criticizing others pictures calling them “ugly” came up, and the counselor discussed that even though we may not like another’s art, we do not need to tell them. Instead, we can say nothing and use the tongue biting technique or take deep breaths to control our words. This lesson and discussion was rich in student input and ideas, and helped many students understand how their words were hurtful, and what they could do to control them.
Helping Yourself
After the book conversation with the counselor, the students and I had a meeting. We, as a class, discussed the meaning of helping yourself, and that included keeping mean and hurtful words in, as well as many other ways of helping yourself. After our meeting and brainstorm, each student went back to their seat and wrote and/or drew a picture of a way they helped themself that day. The prompt was “Today, I helped myself by_______”. I had each student read it to me when they completed the writing, and helped those translate who are still learning to write.
See the results of this below.
In reflection, the students gave specific examples to the counselor of things that are either said to them, or they have said to others that may be hurtful. Again, the issue of students criticizing others pictures calling them “ugly” came up, and the counselor discussed that even though we may not like another’s art, we do not need to tell them. Instead, we can say nothing and use the tongue biting technique or take deep breaths to control our words. This lesson and discussion was rich in student input and ideas, and helped many students understand how their words were hurtful, and what they could do to control them.
Helping Yourself
After the book conversation with the counselor, the students and I had a meeting. We, as a class, discussed the meaning of helping yourself, and that included keeping mean and hurtful words in, as well as many other ways of helping yourself. After our meeting and brainstorm, each student went back to their seat and wrote and/or drew a picture of a way they helped themself that day. The prompt was “Today, I helped myself by_______”. I had each student read it to me when they completed the writing, and helped those translate who are still learning to write.
See the results of this below.
Collaborative Projects
The overarching goal of this Action Research was that the kids were able to work together in an effective way, so more enriching and exciting group projects could take place. Before the Action Research began, we noticed that collaborative work would often result in fights, tears and negative feelings about one another. Addressing the issues was complex, and multiple steps needed to take place to build the foundation to make collaborative work a realistic possibility. As such, the life skills and lessons that have been taught up to this point in this Learning Inquiry Project were intended to lay the needed foundation.
I approached the collaboration issue in three ways. The first was ongoing appreciation cards the students could fill out when someone did something they appreciated. The second was an on-going collaborative behavior system, known as the brownie chart. The third was a collaborative project in which the partners were hand selected and consisted of students who had difficulties working together in the past.
Appreciation Cards
As a fun way for the students to appreciate each other, I introduced an Appreciation Card Box for the students to write appreciations for each other. The box was on a table, with a sentence strip that read “I appreciate _______ because _______.” and a stack of index cards. The students were encouraged to appreciate their friends for “everyday things” such as helping tie a shoe, sharing a snack or lending a pencil. This box was intended to remind students of the good in each other each and every day, and to encourage those who may not want to help one another to do so. It encouraged kids to work together to solve problems, even if it was not required.
See the Appreciation Cards on the Phase 2 Results Page
The overarching goal of this Action Research was that the kids were able to work together in an effective way, so more enriching and exciting group projects could take place. Before the Action Research began, we noticed that collaborative work would often result in fights, tears and negative feelings about one another. Addressing the issues was complex, and multiple steps needed to take place to build the foundation to make collaborative work a realistic possibility. As such, the life skills and lessons that have been taught up to this point in this Learning Inquiry Project were intended to lay the needed foundation.
I approached the collaboration issue in three ways. The first was ongoing appreciation cards the students could fill out when someone did something they appreciated. The second was an on-going collaborative behavior system, known as the brownie chart. The third was a collaborative project in which the partners were hand selected and consisted of students who had difficulties working together in the past.
Appreciation Cards
As a fun way for the students to appreciate each other, I introduced an Appreciation Card Box for the students to write appreciations for each other. The box was on a table, with a sentence strip that read “I appreciate _______ because _______.” and a stack of index cards. The students were encouraged to appreciate their friends for “everyday things” such as helping tie a shoe, sharing a snack or lending a pencil. This box was intended to remind students of the good in each other each and every day, and to encourage those who may not want to help one another to do so. It encouraged kids to work together to solve problems, even if it was not required.
See the Appreciation Cards on the Phase 2 Results Page
Classroom Brownie Behavior Chart
The Classroom Brownie Behavior Chart was my way of encouraging the students to both work well with their table group, and reward them for great behavior as a whole class. The chart had four rows; one for each table, and the students earned a point for their table when the entire table was on task, working well together, or doing something outstanding. At the end of each week, the table with the most points got a trophy to boast on their table for the following week. The way the classroom component came in was that when every table in the class has earned ten points, I would bake the whole class brownies. This component got the students to not only encourage great behavior from those at their table, but great behavior of all of their classmates in their efforts to earn brownies.
Science Project
The big collaborative project that I had planned for the students, and was using to measure how effective the implementation of everything up to this point had been, was a very detailed science project that required teamwork to be successful. I carefully selected partners who, in the past, had issues working together, and partnered them together. The project was something the students had been working towards for a week. It was a “Cloud in a Jar” project that one of my fellow classmates had done with her students. To prepare, the students learned about the water cycle, studied weather, and became “scientific observers” in “science journeys” we would make outside to view clouds. The season was perfect for the project, as it was December and rainy, and the project focused on making it rain.
To view the lesson plan for the experiment, click the button below.
The Classroom Brownie Behavior Chart was my way of encouraging the students to both work well with their table group, and reward them for great behavior as a whole class. The chart had four rows; one for each table, and the students earned a point for their table when the entire table was on task, working well together, or doing something outstanding. At the end of each week, the table with the most points got a trophy to boast on their table for the following week. The way the classroom component came in was that when every table in the class has earned ten points, I would bake the whole class brownies. This component got the students to not only encourage great behavior from those at their table, but great behavior of all of their classmates in their efforts to earn brownies.
Science Project
The big collaborative project that I had planned for the students, and was using to measure how effective the implementation of everything up to this point had been, was a very detailed science project that required teamwork to be successful. I carefully selected partners who, in the past, had issues working together, and partnered them together. The project was something the students had been working towards for a week. It was a “Cloud in a Jar” project that one of my fellow classmates had done with her students. To prepare, the students learned about the water cycle, studied weather, and became “scientific observers” in “science journeys” we would make outside to view clouds. The season was perfect for the project, as it was December and rainy, and the project focused on making it rain.
To view the lesson plan for the experiment, click the button below.
In order to have a successful raining cloud, the students had to alternate between holding a water dropper and recording drops. Each partner got to do 5 drops, then switch, while the other recorded. If they were to argue or try to physically take the dropper from one another, chances were that their delicate cloud would fall and their project would have been over. As such, positive and effective communication and collaboration between partners was necessary.
Other Collaborative
Projects
While the science project was the big project the students worked towards, I took many notes about their interactions with one another in day-to-day activities. I found that these notes were actually more helpful and beneficial to me in measuring the success of effective collaboration in this classroom and Action Research, and will discuss those results in my findings write-up.
While the science project was the big project the students worked towards, I took many notes about their interactions with one another in day-to-day activities. I found that these notes were actually more helpful and beneficial to me in measuring the success of effective collaboration in this classroom and Action Research, and will discuss those results in my findings write-up.