significance
Relation of Community Building to Social and Academic Success
The correlation between community building in the classroom and both social and academic success was very strong in my learning Inquiry Project. This finding was consistent with the findings of Ralph Wells and his establishment of a safe learning community with increased community interactions leading to academic success that I discussed in my literature review. When I started teaching in this classroom, very little academic progress could be made because we were constantly stopping to redirect students’ behavior and resolve conflicts. In a first grade classroom, once one or two conflicts arise during a lesson, the attention span of my little learners has expired. As such, the addressing of the classroom community was necessary.
Once the community building lessons of phase one began, and my enforcement of our already established community rules started, there was a noticeable change in behavior. However, there was not a noticeable change in academic achievement. The students were so focused on behaving and practicing whatever skills we had worked on that day, that I think the immediate impact may have hurt their academic success.
In the weeks of this Inquiry Project, as the behaviors became more routine and the students needed to apply less effort to their actions, the academics seemed to improve. The noticeable impacts were during group learning time, when answers were not being shouted and encouraging behaviors were used between students. As all teachers know, every student learns differently, and the ones that benefit from the direct and group lessons were missing out when behavior issues were distracting. Once those behavior distractions were minimized, I noticed more interactive and productive participation from the students who were previously not participating.
When students worked on independent work, I noticed a big difference as well. The most obvious, and one that I believe most teachers will be happy with, is that I had less students go to their desks and ask that oh so frustrating question, “wait, what are we doing?” The better the behavior on the rug, the better of a teacher I was able to be, and the more clarifications I could address. While at their seats, I observed the conversations between students were mostly helpful and constructive, answering each other’s questions and helping solve problems.
Transferable Life Skills
The skills that the students worked on during this Inquiry Project are not only classroom community skills, but life skills as well. Specifically, anger management, problem solving, and conflict resolution.
Many of the students I worked with have anger management issues, or come from a home in which someone has anger management issues. I discussed my biggest breakthrough with one of my students who not only has anger management issues, but has a father that does as well. The success with him, and him teaching his dad the strategies learned in class, opened my eyes to the impact these skills can have outside of school. Everyone has something that can upset them, and providing equipment and protocols for addressing and controlling anger is something every person can benefit from.
Problem solving is a big life skill. Students, who were flustered because they didn’t have a pencil, now understand that they can solve their own problem by finding a pencil. This is also a life skill. In first grade, a skill such as tying shoes was obvious. If you can’t tie shoes, either learn or find a friend who can. When the students get older, they can transfer this skill to bigger life issues, and be more independent in finding the right resources needed to solve problems.
The success in establishment of these import life skills, and in building a safe learning community, were expected based on the research I did using The Responsive Classroom. Giving the students a protocol to follow to solve their own problems as well as solve conflicts with others helped them understand appropriate approaches to problem solving that would not create bigger problems. The students actual use of the protocol differed from what I expected however, as students used a less versed approach, which I actually found to be a better fit.
Importance of Consistency
From a teacher’s standpoint, this is the most significant finding on a personal level. Nobody is perfect and, unfortunately, teachers are no exception. The consistency of my own enforcement of rules, encouragement of students, and holding students accountable often varied.
The consistency of enforcing rules, problem solving strategies and holding students accountable also varied from classroom to classroom. In our school, the students are taught English Language Development according to level, so all of the first grade students shuffle around between teachers. In this, it was clear that while teaching community building to 24 students is successful, when only six of those students remain in your classroom and 18 new students are brought it, the community skills are not as valuable. As such, I found it would bring more significance to community building if every teacher were teaching the same skills, specifically those related to tattle telling and problem solving.
With the success I had in my classroom, I believe that if all of the teachers worked on community building using the same problem solving strategies and key phrases, the success could be exponential. Most conflicts in the school happen at recess and lunch, so having all of the students aware of how to solve conflicts could minimize conflicts that arise because of unclear communication.
Importance of Differentiated Rewards
Throughout this research, I used many different types of behavior and reward systems to motivate the students, some intrinsic and some extrinsic. As the students were ages 5-7, I found the extrinsic motivators to work well with my younger learners, and intrinsic motivators to work well with older learners.
The extrinsic motivators, specifically the Grinch tickets and brownies, were two motivators that I was not particularly excited about, but rewards that the students responded to. However, over time, and with the introduction of the Appreciation Cards, I was finding new ways to motivate the students, using less obvious and more intrinsic factors. If I were to compose a third phase of this research, I would attempt to completely remove the brownie point system, and focus more on appreciation cards and meetings, in attempts to get my young learners to feel better about accomplishments intrinsically.
Additionally, the significance of a third phase would have helped me identify additional age appropriate intrinsic motivators, still differentiated to reach the variety of developmental levels and learners In the classroom. To me, the significance of finding ways to reach all of my learners was significant and challenging, and still something I am struggling with, but hoping to develop and fine tune with my continued teaching.
The correlation between community building in the classroom and both social and academic success was very strong in my learning Inquiry Project. This finding was consistent with the findings of Ralph Wells and his establishment of a safe learning community with increased community interactions leading to academic success that I discussed in my literature review. When I started teaching in this classroom, very little academic progress could be made because we were constantly stopping to redirect students’ behavior and resolve conflicts. In a first grade classroom, once one or two conflicts arise during a lesson, the attention span of my little learners has expired. As such, the addressing of the classroom community was necessary.
Once the community building lessons of phase one began, and my enforcement of our already established community rules started, there was a noticeable change in behavior. However, there was not a noticeable change in academic achievement. The students were so focused on behaving and practicing whatever skills we had worked on that day, that I think the immediate impact may have hurt their academic success.
In the weeks of this Inquiry Project, as the behaviors became more routine and the students needed to apply less effort to their actions, the academics seemed to improve. The noticeable impacts were during group learning time, when answers were not being shouted and encouraging behaviors were used between students. As all teachers know, every student learns differently, and the ones that benefit from the direct and group lessons were missing out when behavior issues were distracting. Once those behavior distractions were minimized, I noticed more interactive and productive participation from the students who were previously not participating.
When students worked on independent work, I noticed a big difference as well. The most obvious, and one that I believe most teachers will be happy with, is that I had less students go to their desks and ask that oh so frustrating question, “wait, what are we doing?” The better the behavior on the rug, the better of a teacher I was able to be, and the more clarifications I could address. While at their seats, I observed the conversations between students were mostly helpful and constructive, answering each other’s questions and helping solve problems.
Transferable Life Skills
The skills that the students worked on during this Inquiry Project are not only classroom community skills, but life skills as well. Specifically, anger management, problem solving, and conflict resolution.
Many of the students I worked with have anger management issues, or come from a home in which someone has anger management issues. I discussed my biggest breakthrough with one of my students who not only has anger management issues, but has a father that does as well. The success with him, and him teaching his dad the strategies learned in class, opened my eyes to the impact these skills can have outside of school. Everyone has something that can upset them, and providing equipment and protocols for addressing and controlling anger is something every person can benefit from.
Problem solving is a big life skill. Students, who were flustered because they didn’t have a pencil, now understand that they can solve their own problem by finding a pencil. This is also a life skill. In first grade, a skill such as tying shoes was obvious. If you can’t tie shoes, either learn or find a friend who can. When the students get older, they can transfer this skill to bigger life issues, and be more independent in finding the right resources needed to solve problems.
The success in establishment of these import life skills, and in building a safe learning community, were expected based on the research I did using The Responsive Classroom. Giving the students a protocol to follow to solve their own problems as well as solve conflicts with others helped them understand appropriate approaches to problem solving that would not create bigger problems. The students actual use of the protocol differed from what I expected however, as students used a less versed approach, which I actually found to be a better fit.
Importance of Consistency
From a teacher’s standpoint, this is the most significant finding on a personal level. Nobody is perfect and, unfortunately, teachers are no exception. The consistency of my own enforcement of rules, encouragement of students, and holding students accountable often varied.
The consistency of enforcing rules, problem solving strategies and holding students accountable also varied from classroom to classroom. In our school, the students are taught English Language Development according to level, so all of the first grade students shuffle around between teachers. In this, it was clear that while teaching community building to 24 students is successful, when only six of those students remain in your classroom and 18 new students are brought it, the community skills are not as valuable. As such, I found it would bring more significance to community building if every teacher were teaching the same skills, specifically those related to tattle telling and problem solving.
With the success I had in my classroom, I believe that if all of the teachers worked on community building using the same problem solving strategies and key phrases, the success could be exponential. Most conflicts in the school happen at recess and lunch, so having all of the students aware of how to solve conflicts could minimize conflicts that arise because of unclear communication.
Importance of Differentiated Rewards
Throughout this research, I used many different types of behavior and reward systems to motivate the students, some intrinsic and some extrinsic. As the students were ages 5-7, I found the extrinsic motivators to work well with my younger learners, and intrinsic motivators to work well with older learners.
The extrinsic motivators, specifically the Grinch tickets and brownies, were two motivators that I was not particularly excited about, but rewards that the students responded to. However, over time, and with the introduction of the Appreciation Cards, I was finding new ways to motivate the students, using less obvious and more intrinsic factors. If I were to compose a third phase of this research, I would attempt to completely remove the brownie point system, and focus more on appreciation cards and meetings, in attempts to get my young learners to feel better about accomplishments intrinsically.
Additionally, the significance of a third phase would have helped me identify additional age appropriate intrinsic motivators, still differentiated to reach the variety of developmental levels and learners In the classroom. To me, the significance of finding ways to reach all of my learners was significant and challenging, and still something I am struggling with, but hoping to develop and fine tune with my continued teaching.