INQUIRY QUESTION: WHAT

ARE EFFICIENT METHODS OF FULL GROUP GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION THAT BOTH INCREASE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND UNDERSTANDING ?
* ENGAGEMENT, as measured by completion of bellringer exercises and grammar homework * UNDERSTANDING , as measured by student performance on bi-weekly grammar quizzes -

INQUIRY STANCE:
Intelligence is malleable, not fixed

CONTEXT: The students in my focus class

(English III, 7th period) have struggled with grammar since the start of the year something of which neither my mentor teacher nor I were unaware, but that of which was brought into sharper focus by the imminent arrival of the ACT and an email we received five weeks ago from a students mother relaying to us some of her daughters concerns regarding the lack of feedback in general (and in regards to grammar specifically) she felt we were providing her. This email both surprised and upset me: this student is one of my highest achieving students in my focus class. If she felt that she was not receiving adequate and timely feedback, than I could only imagine how her lower-achieving peers felt.

(Farr, 2010, 60) You should praise processes, rather than ability (e.g., by following Good job with you must have worked hard instead of youre smart). In addition to praising effort (when appropriate), you might praise a student for persistence in the face of challenges or for taking responsibility for her work (Willingham, 2009, 10)

IMPLEMENTATION (EXAMPLE WEEK ):

*Grammar instruction comprises the first ten minutes of every class period*

MONDAY: Review of Subject-Verb Agreement

Most-missed quiz questions Revision Support Sheet TUESDAY: Introduction to Verb Tense: standalone sentences (Grammar tutoring offered afterschool for struggling students) -

WEDNESDAY: Verb Tense: block text; discussed

and evaluated by full class (Grammar tutoring offered during lunch for struggling students)

THURSDAY: Verb Tense: block text; paragraphs

edited individually

FRIDAY: Verb Tense paragraph review and ACT review

RESOURCES : Why Dont Students Like School? Because the Mind Is Not Designed for Thinking, by Daniel T. Willingham Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teachers Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap, by Steven Farr

DATA:
Subject-Verb Agreement Grammar Quiz

Subject-Verb Agreement Grammar Quiz

Every other Friday is a dedicated ACT Review Day where we answer ACT-style questions, cementing prior grammar knowledge Grammar tutoring is offered to students as reinforcement to full group instruction

90-100%

80-89%

70-79%

60-69%

0-59%

Class Average: 69.22% SVA/Verb Tense Grammar Quiz

SVA/Verb Tense Grammar Quiz

90-100%

80-89%

70-79%

60-69%

0-59%

The biggest problem my mentor and I saw in terms of student engagement before was that students were not individually editing the grammar paragraphs during the bellringers, waiting instead to insert the corrections as we made them as a class. Knowing instead that their work is going to be collected and assessed, they are more willing to put the time and effort in to make their paragraphs perfect, to borrow a phrase of my mentors. This has assured engagement (student participation during grammar bellringers) more or less across the board. Another heartening finding was the fact that students were turning in the Revision Support Sheets on a more regular basis than they were their other homework assignments. 18 students completed the support sheets for the first quiz; compare this with the average turn-in rate for their other homework that week, 13 students per assignment.18 students completed the support sheets for the second quiz compared to a class average homework turn-in rate of 12 per assignment that week. It appears that the reconceptualized full group grammar instruction may actually be having a net negative effect on student understanding, however. Student performance actually dropped from the first quiz given to the second (from a class average of 69.22% to a class average grade of 63.13%). This gap between student engagement and student understanding I hope will be lessened in time. If student engagement stays at its current level, I see no reason for student quiz performance not to rise to meet it. This also suggests to me a limitation of the study: the number of assessments taken into consideration; whos to say that the second quiz wasnt simply harder than the first. Having looked at a broader pool of data, I would have had more conclusive results on the success/failure of my project.
RESOURCES (CONT.): The English Teachers Companion: A Complete Guide to Classroom, Curriculum, and the Profession, by Jim Burke

Class Average: 63.13%

FINDINGS: The strategies I employed in carrying

out my Inquiry Project were rooted in a prizing of process over product. Through providing consistent and authentic feedback and formative assessment, I wanted to help my students learn from their mistakes and begin to view knowledge not as something one is born with but as something one gains through hard work. Herewith the specific changes I made to full group grammar instruction: For the grammar bellringer on the Mondays after quiz Fridays, students review most-missed quiz questions Revision Support Sheets are given to all students to take a second look at their quizzes and complete for homework Students work individually on editing grammar paragraphs, discussing with instructor/peers when finished; graded paragraphs are revisited the following day