Thoughts on Action Research

My action research was based on center use with older elementary school children (grades 4 and 5). This is my first year working with older ESL students. I previously only worked with Pre-K -2nd graders. A specified program is used with the older students that incorporates reading, writing, listening, and drawing. It has been a bit challenging holding the students attention and I thought the use of centers for these activities would allow for more student engagement and an increase in student learning.

I found that the art and writing centers had a positive effect on student engagement and learning. When at these centers the students showed an increased amount of creativity in their work. They were able to discuss what they had created and written and tell how it went along with the lessons. They were excited and enjoyed what they were doing. Conversely, the reading and listening centers had a negative effect on student engagement and showed little evidence of learning. Students were off task more frequently at these centers and were unable to answer most questions about or discuss what the material covered. Some students saw the time spent at these centers as "free time."

I must say that action research is very interesting. As I read about it before hand, I was not sure that it would actually work. Some things sound really good on paper but do not actually work. For me, I found that this did work in my classroom. It raised questions that, if answered by doing more action research in my classroom, I believe will help my classroom to become one where learning is achieved. Having participated in it, I can see this type of research as beneficial and would suggest to those who have not yet tried it to do so.