Welcome to our third issue! Our four authors all happen, coincidentally, to be middle school teachers. We hope you will appreciate how each of them started their action research with the kind of challenge that all teachers face. In each case, the teacher was not satisfied with some aspect of his or her classroom practice - there was a real problem….something was not working as it should.
Vivian Dodson struggled with a common problem of the middle school language arts teacher - getting her students started with ideas down on paper and peer editing their writings. She shares how she broke the tasks of writing and assessment down into small steps. Focusing on traits of good writing, Ms. Dodson showed students the difference between plain “rice cake” and more descriptive “salsa” words. Another language arts teacher, Tawnya Schroeder wrote, “I struggled with how to get students to develop an appreciation of the world they would come to know.” Ms. Schroeder tackled the factual inaccuracies and stereotypical thinking of her reading students through a multicultural literature approach. We find interesting Ms. Schroeder’s use of concept maps as a tool for documenting her students’ thinking about migrant cultures. A music teacher, Nicole Williams, was unhappy with the results of traditional assessment at the beginning of her music classes. Her results with reflective journal writing as an alternative to tests and quizzes are impressive. Finally, science teacher John McCoy wondered “whether there was anything I could do to have a positive influence on my students’ attitudes toward science and school.” In his article, he shares his efforts to encourage his students to use reading strategies as they read news articles of science.
As seasoned educators, we have come to appreciate that reflecting on one’s practice and systematically attempting an intervention are marks of a good teacher. Furthermore, that kind of dissatisfaction, coupled with decisive action, is needed for sustained change in education. We are pleased to offer you the accounts and stories of the problems these teacher-researchers encountered and the solutions they attempted!
