Reflect & Connect 1

For my level two internship, my focus was on how positive student/teacher relationships make an impact on students’ behavior. My internship school is a title I school with 624 students and around 75% of the school population being Hispanic. The updated school grade as of 2013-2014 is a B. In my classroom, I have 19 first grade students of all different backgrounds. There are 8 boys and 11 girls in the class.

Throughout my level two inquiry, I used data like newsletters, teacher’s notes, behavior management system, and advice from my CT to showcase a change in student behavior when a student has a positive relationship with the teacher. All of my collected data was used to prove that student behavior is connected to student/teacher relationships. Students are more likely to listen to an authority figure who they connect with. My students benefited from my inquiry because I was able to take the time and get to know them and build a connection with them and their behaviors improved.

After being in my classroom placement for over a semester, I am directing my focus onto a new inquiry based on my CT’s new classroom goal of always putting your best work forward. After discussing with my CT, we both felt it would be beneficial for me to take over teaching the math block every day that I am present. After looking at various student progress in math from last semester until now, I wondered how else I can help improve student learning. My new inquiry question is, “How can I improve student learning with the use of self-assessments in mathematics?”. I want to implement my own use of self-assessments in math specifically to see if students’ learning and understanding would improve with more reflection.

This inquiry would be very beneficial to my professional growth because I would be using this data and compare it to how well the students are actually performing. I can use the data to pull specific math groups, and also conference with those who feel they are struggling. It also would be beneficial for the students’ to also have a time to reflect on their own learning and think about their own strengths and weaknesses.

In my own time, I have researched different articles on the topic of the use of self-assessments in the classroom. In one of the articles, they conducted a study to see students’ view of the use of self-assessments and the conclusion was that students viewed the self-assessments as a useful learning tool (Shatri & Zabeli, 2018). In another article I read, pre-service teachers completed self-assessments specifically about their performance in math, and their self-assessment scores deviated from the teacher’s assessment scores for them. The pre-services teachers scored themselves high on the self-assessments, but then received low assessment scores from teacher (Podgorsek & Lipovec, 2017). This article definitely brought up good points I need to be aware of before implementing the use of self-assessments. Students need to understand honesty is important in their reflection in order for true development in learning. This will be key to my students’ success.

References

Shatri, Z. G. zamira. gashi@uni-gjk. or., & Zabeli, N. naser. zabeli@uni-pr. ed. (2018). Perceptions of students and teachers about the forms and student self-assessment activities in the classroom during the formative assessment. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 9(2), 28–46. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=130251581&site=ehost-live

Podgoršek, M., & Lipovec, A. (2017). Self-Assessment Ability of Pre-Service Teachers. New Educational Review,48(2), 213–223. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.15804/tner.2017.48.2.17