Journal 3

Data collection is finished!  Now it is time to grade, sort, graph, chart and so on- in my opinion, the hard part.  I am really excited to start analyzing everything I have collected so far.  I haven’t even graded the pre-test yet, so I really don’t know what kind of growth, or lack of, I will see.

One of my favorite moments of this study so far was the day my students filled out a graphic organizer for an article on legal for illegal immigration.  My middle school students never cease to surprise me- just when I think they are slightly bored with what they are doing, they pull out some of the most amazing conversations.  I mostly teach math intervention classes, and students in those classes usually don’t get too passionate about math (can you blame them?).  Giving students a topic that they are interested in and want to discuss is another story. 

All of the students participating in this study are Hispanic, and about half of them were not born in the United States.  Immigration is hot topic everywhere right now, but really affects some of my students and their families.  After we read an article with facts about immigration, students asked if we could have a debate.  We then spent the entire class (usually these are mini lessons that last 15-20 minutes) discussing different aspects of immigration.  It was so neat to listen to the student’s ideas, opinions, and misconceptions that they had.  This was one of my favorite lessons I have done all year.  To see how involved the students get when the subject is of high interest to them, makes me want to work harder to find more lessons that students can directly relate to.  In my math class, this will be a little more difficult, but I’m going to look at it as a challenge!