Math Workshop and Student Achievement

Rationale

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My capstone project was centered around increasing fourth grade students’ achievement in math. In October 2018, there were 530 students enrolled at my school. For the 2018-2019 school year, 19.6% of our school’s students were minorities and 13% of our students were a part of the free and reduced lunch program. In my own classroom, two students were minorities and four students received special education services. Of the four students that received special education services, only one received academic assistance. Finally, my classroom included two students that were in our gifted students program. Our gifted students program is for high-ability students who have been identified through our district’s identification procedures as needing enrichment that is beyond their grade level. One student had been identified as being gifted in math, while the other was gifted in reading. With such a wide range of student needs, differentiation and small group instruction was key to making everyone successful. I also included a variety of intelligences from the theory of multiple intelligences into each lesson to help all students learn. Since each student learns differently, I often included the logical, interpersonal, bodily kinesthetic, linguistic, and spatial intelligences to meet as many student needs as possible.  

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The data I collected from my students showed a need in math, as many students were either above grade level or below. Of the twenty-two students, two students were considered below average in math. In this class, five students were average, or on-grade level, in math. For the 2016-2017 school year, 82% of the fourth graders were considered proficient in math on the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS). The NSCAS test is the Nebraska state achievement test that measures student progress towards meeting Nebraska state standards. On the fall Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Math Test, five students fell into the below average category in algebra, while four students fell below in the data, number sense, and geometry categories. The MAP test is an adaptive test administered three times a year and it provides a score that is based on their abilities and national and district grade-level norms. These students were often frustrated during small group and whole group math and gave up easily when they came to a problem they did not know or could not easily solve. This struggle was leading to high levels of disengagement and a dislike for math. According to the program MobyMax, ten of my students did not have their multiplication facts memorized and therefore, were struggling in division, factoring, and problem solving during class. My students who were frustrated with math the most were also the ones with the lowest scores in each category. I frequently retaught the multiplication facts, regrouping in addition and subtraction, two-digit by one-digit multiplication, and basic division as these concepts failed to stay in the students’ memory.

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The information gained from this study was important because many of these fourth grade skills are the foundation for all future math curriculum. If students could not perform well, then they would continue to struggle as they moved forward and their dislike for math would increase.  This study helped me to meet each student where they were through differentiation and small-group instruction.  As an educator and math lover, I wanted to see my students succeed and have confidence in their abilities. Before this study, a good portion of my class was extremely insecure in math and struggled to engage. I wanted all my students to make growth, not just my students who were below grade level.  I believed this study would help my students reach grade level through targeted instruction and many opportunities for skill practice. I hoped my students would gain confidence in their math skills as I created lessons that were tailored to their needs. To make myself a more effective educator and make my math workshop model as meaningful as possible, I worked with several qualified professionals in my building who specialized in differentiation and math.