Being respected by students and colleagues is what establishes a teacher as an authority, and effective classroom management is a Start towards this goal. Managing my students has been the hardest part Of my school experience thus far, and I hoped that allowing language arts to become an active part Of my management processes would allow my students to think more critically about their actions. When began this inquiry study, believed that writing classroom rules together, reading classroom rules critically, speaking and listening to how rules are applied, and viewing and visually representing class rules in daily walk and conversation might give students a sense of ownership over their classroom and greater respect for teachers.
I thought the benefit of using language arts for classroom management might be measured by closer examination of critical conversations students have when rules are broken, So proposed the following action research question: How does student behavior hanged When students read, write, speak, listen, view, or visually represent apparent misbehaver? Waxier (2007) suggests that written action plans which give older elementary students responsibility for their actions changes misbehaver. Research by Smith (2009) demonstrates that the use of other language arts with preschoolers can have the same effect Reading these studies motivated me to pursue classroom inquiry research into the relationship between classroom management and language arts.
Method Secondary Sources to Answer Research Question began my research into how student behavior changes when language arts are integrated into classroom management practices by reviewing two secondary sources. My first source, “Blending Effective Behavior Management and Literacy Strategies for Preschoolers Exhibiting Negative Behavior by Smith (2009), was published in a peer reviewed early childhood education journal specializing in articles that summarize a number of experimental studies. Smith’s (2009) summary of research gave the ideas in the article greater validity. Some of the findings Smith (2009) shared described classroom management techniques I have personally experienced as effective.
Smith’s (2009) findings are limited to studies done with preschool students, but I believe the findings can be used with older students as well. Unlike Smith (2009), my second source, Waxier (2007), was not published in a peer reviewed journal, Washer’s shook, teach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers, was self-published. However, the author’s online biography points to decades spent as a professional teacher and consultant who has helped hundreds of elementary teachers improve their classroom management Waxier, like Smith, also describes a umber of management techniques that I have found to be helpful in the past.
Primary Source Data to Answer Research Question I continued my research into how student behavior changes when language arts are integrated into classroom management practices by collecting primary sources of data from my third grade classroom. The third grade classroom where student teach is located in Roseville, Illinois, near the Mississippi River just north of SST. Louis, Missouri. The third grade at Roseville Elementary School consists Of 25 Caucasian students, 13 boys and 12 girls. Well over 70% Of these dents are on free or reduced lunch programs. Suggesting that their families are struggling with poverty. However, the academic achievement of these students is especially high in language arts, evidenced by the school’s online report card.
These students may represent an exception to the thought that poverty dictates low academic achievement, I began my research into how elementary student behavior changes when language arts are integrated into classroom management practices by conducting classroom observations and collecting artifacts. My classroom observations were done by filling out five observations forms over 15 minute intervals over a period of six weeks. I simply observed moments in the life to my student teaching classroom where misbehaver was occurring, Then, using the left hand column of my observation form, wrote what I saw my teacher and student informants doing during these 15-20 minute snapshots of instruction, scripting the instruction to the best of my ability.
I included exactly what I heard and saw. On the same days made my observations, went home and read over what had written. Then, using the right hand column of my observation form, I summarized the “instructional moments” I saw in my written observations that thought related to language arts instruction and changing student misbehaver. Finally, in a different colored pen or pencil, put a note by each summary statement in the right hand column that: 1) documented which of the language arts were being used in the instructional moment you summarized; 2) described how I thought an additional element of language arts could have been incorporated into the instructional moment.
