Teacher Action Research Project Proposal

By Victoria Coburn

Research Purpose

Looking back on my elementary school experience, I like to think of myself as a local
army brat. Every late spring, my parents would purchase a run down home, we would
move in, go to the neighborhood school, then the next late spring, my parents would sell
the home I grew to love as my own and start the process all over again.

From kindergarten through high school, I attended seven different schools all in the
various different school districts throughout Stockton.

One thing that was true in every new setting I encountered: I was top of the class in
reading and language arts and bottom of the barrel in mathematics. I can remember my
third grade teacher being frustrated with me that I had already read the third grade basal
text and did all the work that went along with it in second grade in a different school
district. By mid year, she ended up handing me an English dictionary and told me to read
it from cover to cover. I got about as far as the Ms by the time school let out in June. I
read it word for word, but didnt think it made for a great story!

Math was a different experience for me. I dont know if it was because of all the moving
and each district had a different way of teaching math. Perhaps, I never became
proficient at any of the proffered methods that each new school district taught, or maybe
it was the fact that I really needed glasses and I kept going undetected until the fifth
grade, but math was always a challenge for me.

Then came junior high when my teachers introduced the concept that there could be
letters and punctuation in math problems, it was mind boggling and just blew me away.
No one ever explained math to me in a way that I connected to.

When I first started teaching fifth grade at TCK in Lincoln Unified, a colleague of mine
introduced me to new ways of teaching math, some of which were quite old. We actually
laughed at the picture of the students on the front of a book he had showing students
holding up slates to show their answers to their teacher! This colleague ignored what was
written in the Envision textbook and taught out of the box. Had I have been shown that
there were many ways to arrive at the same mathematical answer, I could have had a
much more positive experience in math. I learned throughout my teaching career,
theres always the hope that every math problem has a solution, you just dont have to
solve it the exact same way as the student sitting next to you does.

Research Question
In what ways will increasing my content and pedagogical knowledge for teaching
mathematics affect my students understanding and engagement?

Sub-questions
1. MIAA 320
How will completing the MIAA courses help me to be successful in guiding students
with essential questions that will develop critical thinking and discourse in the
classroom? Will these questions and discussions help students learn the specialized
vocabulary needed to understand mathematics?
How will I be successful at guiding students with essential questions that will develop
critical thinking and discourse in the classroom? Will these questions and
discussions help students learn the specialized vocabulary embedded in mathematics?

2. MIAA 330
How will increasing my knowledge of various assessments help me find ways to have my
students use their results to improve their own understanding of mathematics?

3. MIAA 340
With a deeper understanding of mathematical assessment types, how will I be able to
successfully use the data collected to create interventions, accommodations and
differentiation what will effect all of the students understanding and engagement of
mathematical concepts?

4. MIAA 350
How will my taking additional math courses positively impact the students in my class?

5. MIAA 360/370
How will designing effective mathematics instructional techniques with my peers
increase student engagement and understanding in the classroom?

Data

MIAA 310
By creating my Action Research Project, I will have the experience of working not only
with my grade level, but three grade level spans. This experience will deepen my
pedagogical knowledge of math and improve instruction in the classroom.

MIAA 320
This course will give me opportunities for creating more experience with essential
questions in the context of mathematics. I will learn how to guide students with essential
questions in math lessons that will develop critical thinking and discourse in the
classroom.

MIAA 330
Through this course, I will become more aware of the various assessments used for
mathematics. I will get to know how to use the data to help students use their results to
improve their understanding of math. This course will also teach me how to share
knowledge gained from assessment with parents, support staff at school, and colleagues.




MIAA 340
This course will give me the knowledge that I need to design and implement targeted
instructional techniques for all three grade spans. This knowledge will help all students
have an opportunity to develop mathematical competence.

MIAA 350
This course will give me an opportunity to not only increase my mathematical
understanding by doing and participating in math, but being able to pass on what I learn
in the course to my students.

MIAA 360/370
The final course I will combine everything I learned throughout the year and use this
knowledge to together with my peers to create instructional Common Core units that will
benefit my students understanding and engagement in mathematics.

Reflection
The courses in the MIAA program will help me to become a more informed teacher. I
will have a deeper understanding of how to design appropriate lessons and how to engage
my students with rich discussions in the classroom. I will have a better understanding of
assessments and how best to use them as a tool for the students to improve their
performance in class. As it says in the course descriptions, the goal is equitable access to
learn high-level mathematics for all students.