What Are Some What Are Some Successful Strategies in Successful Strategies in

Helping Students to Helping Students to Complete Their Work on Complete Their Work on

Time?Time?

What Are Some What Are Some Successful Strategies in Successful Strategies in

Helping Students to Helping Students to Complete Their Work on Complete Their Work on

Time?Time?

Inquiry ProjectInquiry ProjectJessica LatanzioJessica Latanzio

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”

- Chinese Proverbs

Group “A” are active and intelligent students who have trouble finishing their work in a timely fashion. They are typically the students who have to stay in for recess on a weekly basis for either failing to complete their homework, or in-class work. They typically have trouble finishing their completed work on time because they are easily distracted and lose focus, or forget about the assignment. For example, while the rest of the class is on step five, these students are still lingering at step one.

From this anecdote I developed the inquiry “What strategies would be effective in helping students to get their work completed on time?” I conducted my research in my classroom of 23 differing ability students in a K-8 wealthier school district, with low ethnic diversity.

Time Management This question is very important because it is a typical problem

in classrooms everywhere. Due to the fact that many students have difficulty in finishing all the assigned work, we do have differentiated instruction, but what do we do for the students who have trouble no matter what level of instruction we use? And what do we do when a student is constantly forgetting things, including completing their work and returning homework? These students may be bright individuals, and their grades are reflected poorly of this due to their incompletion of work. So, that is why it is important for all teachers to effectively help these struggling students. Not only do we want to help these students to be more productive in class, we want to teach them to effectively manage their time. This life skill, along with the strategies that may prove to be effective, can be utilized inside and outside of the classroom and only the benefit the students for the rest of their lives.

Strategies for Completion of Work

• Time Management- (checklists, time cues, unit outlines)

• Encourage Creative Thinking (assignments with less time constraints where students are encouraged to think creatively)

• Personal Reflection (student evaluations, unit goals)

• Create Classroom Environment (surveys, interviews, student responsibilities)

Literature Review Glasgow, Neal A. & Hicks, Cathy D. What Successful Teachers Do: 91

Research-Based Classroom Strategies for New and Veteran Teachers. Corwin Press, Inc. California : 2003.

In this book, Glasgow and Hicks have developed a list of strategies to help teachers help their students in the classroom for a variety of different classroom issues such as managing classroom organization and discipline, managing classroom time, special needs, celebrating diversity, organizing goals, etc. The few strategies I chose to look at were: #5- Helping students learn to reflect on their own academic success and failures, Section 3- Managing Classroom Time, and Section 2- Managing Classroom Organization. These strategies are not only effective for the students, but they help the teacher by exemplifying what the research says, explaining when and where to apply it in the classroom, and lists possible pitfalls and precautions.

Literature Review Hale, Dr. Judy Ann. “Healing Art: Young Children Coping with Stress”. Alabama

Association for Young Children. Birmingham: January 30-31, 1998.Recognizing the fact that a lot of stress is put on students to perform not

only correctly, but within time constraints can lead many children to feel overwhelmed, as was the case with some of my students. Dr. Hale has written an article which describes how powerful the healing strength of art can be, especially for young students, and gives us a list “suggestions for preparation” for our classroom environment. She stresses the importance of making the students feel, “safe, in a place of no judgment, but in a place of trust and love”(3).

Stoycheva, Katya. “The School- A Place for Children’s Creativity?” Institute of Psychology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Sofia, Bulgaria.

Stoycheva discusses the importance of creative thinking in the classroom. She states, “Creative thinking in fact contributes to children’s academic achievements, but teacher’s fail to recognize creativity’s impact for effective learning and teaching” (7). Due to her findings that creative thinking has a significant, positive correlation to grades and intelligence, she exemplifies that creative thinking could be useful to students similar to those in my class, who do not use much creative thinking because they are too worried about getting the assignment done.

Literature Review Thurman, Richard & Wolfe, Kenton. “Improving Academic

Achievement of Underachieving Students in a Heterogeneous Classroom”. Saint Xavier University & Skylight Field-Based. Chicago: 1999.

This article has provided the most effective strategies in helping students in my class compete their work correctly and on time. Thurman and Wolfe used the combination of unit organizers, individual goal setting and monitoring, grouping, and cooperative learning activities to have students complete their work, hand it in, and remember to bring it to school. In essence, the techniques used in this research helps students to reach their highest academic potential by aiding them trough the use of personal evaluation sheets, unit goal sheets, and questionnaires.

Methods To conduct my inquiry and delve deeper into the

underlying problems I did a lot of “kidwatching”. I took anecdotal notes on the instances when homework was forgotten again, or when recess was lost due to incompletion of work, and at these instances I would interview the student and ask him why was the homework left at home? Did you remember to check your assignment book? Etc. Every time there would be a different reason, but it was too frequent to ignore so I came up with a plan…

Anecdotal NotesMarch 8th- Today I started a checklist

program with a boy in my class. He struggles in getting work completed on time and turning in his completed work. We typically find completed/lost assignments crumpled in the back of his desk or bottom of book bag. He is easily distracted by his group members and has difficulty completing work because of this (has to stay in for recess to complete work). My checklist system has separate lists, that the students will switch during the specified times of the day. The first day I explained the lists to him, showed him when to switch them and explained his reward program.

March 16th- The first week went well in the sense that the student caught on to the checklist system quickly and started doing it without my assistance on the 3rd day. So far he has 3 smiley faces. He does also have an “at-home” checklist in his book bag so he can regulate at home as well. His work coming back to school has not improved as much as his class work. I, and my co-op, still have to help him get ready in the morning, and we still check his assignment book before he leaves in the afternoon. As we check his assignment book, his assignments are already recorded, but a few times I have had to check his homework folder to make sure all his homework materials were in there.

Anecdotal NotesMarch 28th- This was the returning week

after NJ ASK. I pulled the student aside and praised him for having done well thus far. I also asked him how he thought his checklist system was working. He said he liked it, especially because now he doesn’t miss any recess! This morning I had a parent conference for a young girl who is very disorganized. The mother feels that this is affecting her school work. I suggested a modified checklist system for her. She tends to rush through her work just to complete it, but most of the time it is still incomplete because she is missing elements to the assignment.

April 21st- The checklist system is working well for both students. The boy is especially using it well whenever a “Do-Now” list is put on the board. The girl has been really taking the time to check her work and has been handing in improved completed projects. She has forgotten homework twice since the checklist system began, but we are striving for even less than that. The young boy has acquired 10 smiley faces already, so we are in the process of scheduling computer time. Unfortunately, he is still struggling somewhat with remembering to bring assignments from home back to school.

** I received an email from my female student since I have left. She made it a point to tell me that she always makes sure to cross her T’s because of the checklist!

Methods I soon noticed that these students were bright, but misguided. They

were distracted easily and really worked very slowly. I decided to develop a “checklist” system for these few students.

There were 4 lists that I used for these students that were Velcroed onto their desks and easily removable throughout their different uses of the day.

• List 1- The Morning Checklist• List 2- “Do-Now” Checklist • List 3- The Afternoon Checklist• List 4- The At-Home Checklist• Monthly Motivational Chart

ChecklistsMorning Checklist Take all homework out of

backpack Take all important

papers out of backpack Put your backpack away Take out your folder,

pencil, and math book and get ready for math

Afternoon Checklist Take out assignment

book and write down homework for tonight

Bring all materials you need for homework (worksheets, books)

Make sure to put everything in your backpack

Sit and wait for dismissal

Checklist and Motivational Chart

Do-Now Checklist______________________________________________________________________

Motivational Chart

Methods Through this checklist method I began to gather my data as to how

effective it was. I used a monthly motivational chart with smiley faces to determine how well they did that day—a smiley face meant they remembered everything independently, a straight smile meant they needed some reminders, and an unhappy face meant they forgot homework or did not do their work on time. This served as their personal evaluation of how they were doing as far as staying focused and finishing work on time, and it served as a form of assessment for me to recognize how effective the program was.

Their reward was 15 minutes of computer time for every 10 happy faces.

To understand how well the rest of the class was doing with finishing work on time, I gave them all a survey to figure out some of their techniques to remembering homework or staying on task. I thought that maybe these strategies could help their peers, and if anyone else had a better method, I might be able to incorporate it into the implementation of the program.

Survey Questions• How do you remember to do all of your homework?• Do you think that your assignment book helps you to

remember?• Are you distracted when people talk and you are trying to

do your work?• Have you ever used a checklist to makes sure you have

done everything you needed to do? If so, how did it work? If not, do you think you would use it in the future?

• Do you like to know your schedule for the day?• How do you think you would feel if you did not know

when an assignment was due or what you were doing next?

• How would you feel if you did not have a clock in your classroom and you were unable to tell the time?

Methods To incorporate some of my other research, I attempted to

change the classroom environment so that all the students were able to feel safe and loved. Following Dr. Hale’s list, I incorporated fairness and consistency into my lessons, as well as letting every individual know they belonged in the class. We held a class meeting to practice friendliness, and I made sure that everyone had some sort of classroom job on a weekly basis. Most importantly I allowed my students to laugh through the use of funny poems, stories, or just simply enjoying their work (4).

I allowed for a lot of creative thinking to occur in my lessons through the use of projects for formal assessment instead of relying solely on tests and quizzes.

Methods- AnalyzingAfter analyzing the checklists and motivational charts, and

reviewing the surveys and anecdotal notes, I found that the checklist method was successful for those students who really stayed on top of it and were somewhat self monitored. Many of the students not only received their reward of computer time, but they also began to start working without the aid of the checklist.

The creative thinking and classroom environment was beneficial to everyone in the class, but especially to those who were struggling with the completion of their work. This is because those students felt less pressure to complete everything exactly the same as everyone else. On some assignments uniformity was required, but many of the assignments allowed students to use their creative thinking (science projects, journal writing, story writing, arts & crafts projects in English & social studies, book reports, etc.)

Findings• 48% of the students said they use their assignment book to

help them remember their homework• 71% of the students use another method such as memorizing,

relying on Mom or aftercare to remember to complete their homework

• 33% of the students think their assignment book actually helps them to remember

• 29% of the students have used a checklist before to help them remember things

• 43% of the students that have never used a checklist said they would use one in the future to help them remember things

• 33% of the students said that they would probably not use a checklist in the future

Findings• Out of the 4 students who used the checklist method:• 3 of the students reported remembering their

homework easier and feeling more organized• 2 of the students were able to apply the

checklist when accomplishing tasks at home (chores, etc.)

• 3 of the students were able to self monitor and get more class work done without having to stay in at recess

• 76 % of the students like to know their schedule• 76 % of the students are distracted when people talk

Conclusions and Implications

After reviewing the surveys and checklists I realized that the checklist method does work for some students, but not all. The student has to possess some self monitoring skills for it to work completely effectively, so if they do not possess this skill, it is skill that would definitely need to be developed with assistance over time. After a student has the ability to self monitor and realize that creating a list of what they need to do, and then checking off item per item after it is completed, the checklist method might prove to be a very effective way for them to remember homework, chores, etc.

Conclusions and Implications

I also believe that giving these students classroom jobs, creating a caring classroom environment, and allowing the students to exercise more of their creative thinking abilities also helps them to complete more of their assigned work on time. I believe this because the students feel less stress and pressure to perform at the same level as other students when they are allowed to work creatively and at somewhat of their own pace, and they feel more comfortable expressing feelings of confusion or frustration during an assignment when they are in a caring classroom environment.

Conclusion and Implications

When I have a classroom of my own, I plan on using some of these methods; especially the checklist method. I personally use checklists when I have a lot to remember, and I feel strongly about the fact that we should incorporate teaching students some of the life lessons that they need to know, versus just school work. Checklists are used from everything to planning an event, to a grocery list, to a to-do list, etc. I will also definitely create a classroom environment where students feel safe and cared for, and where they know that the stress level is low, but the expectations for doing their personal best is high.

I will surely continue to incorporate a lot of creative thinking into my lesson plans and my assessment. After this inquiry project, I watched as some of my students soared from average grades (B’s-C’s) to above average grades (A’s-A+’s) when they were allowed to work creatively and put their own thoughts into the assignment. This creative thinking made them feel more engaged in the assignment, thus they worked just a little harder and put a little more effort into completing it. This is the type of work I hope to produce from my students; work they enjoy and can be proud of while they are learning.