Action
Research Project Title: Utilizing pre-assessments to guide flexible grouping in
the Math classroom
AR
Project Summary (at least 250 words):
My
Action Research Project is to test whether using pre-assessments to guide
flexible grouping would be effective in raising our math test scores. I’ve had some struggles getting this project
going. Originally I spoke to our math
curriculum director for the district and she was excited and said she could
easily send me the new scope and sequence for the year. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to secure
that at this time. Why everything has
been different this year is because our district is changing all of the 4th
grade math curriculum. Based on last
year’s 4th grade scores across the district, it was realized that
our math curriculum was a key factor in the equation. So, in order for our district curriculum
writers to keep up, they are only a few weeks ahead of where the classroom
teachers are. To make the situation more
challenging on my end, in order to fit in all of the rigor that they are, there
is seldom time for teacher table lessons which is where the flexible grouping
should be happening. I’m considering
testing the flexible grouping based on pre-assessments on my classroom
only. It might be a more feasible
solution at this point. Plus, if I
compared my class’s growth to another class with a similar make-up, it might be
more telling how effective pre-assessments are. If I could log all of the hours
I spend worrying about this project, I would be nearly done, but actual time spent
is far less. My goal is to sit down this
week and really see how I can rearrange each math class into rotations so that
I will be sure that I will have the instructional time and can implement the
flexible grouping that I know needs to happen.
I feel like I’m finally getting into the “groove” of my schedule and my
students, so I’m more confident putting this into place at this point.
One additional concern is that my
principal spoke to me yesterday about the possibility of reworking all of the
math classes to include an additional advanced math class. If this happens, then I may be starting with
a new class of kids in a few weeks.
