Running Head: FINAL REFLECTION PAPER

Final Reflection
Jason Carter
University of St. Mary

FINAL REFLECTION PAPER

My area of focus question was: Will using close reading during story problems
increase student scores? I teach 6th and 7th grade math. Students in my classes have issues
with weeding out the actual math problems out of story problems. They were focusing on
all of the wrong information and their answers were coming out incorrect. I was seeing
that the biggest problem was with my 6th grade students.
During our professional development meetings, we have been learning about
close reading strategies and the usefulness of implementation in language arts
classrooms. While I was listening to our principal, I decided that I could use the same
strategies when teaching students how to solve story problems. The other math teachers
on my team were very interested in my ideas and were anxious to see my results.
Through my research, I found that I can use the same close reading strategies that
the English teachers use. The kids were able to pick out the important information from
their story problems. As a result of them focusing on the important information, their
story problem scores improved. I was very excited to see this method work because it
was pretty simple to teach and use. With this area of focus statement, I plan to keep using
close reading when I am teaching my 6th and 7th graders how to do story problems. I plan
to teach at this school (Knoxville) for many years and I am hopeful that when I teach
them to use close reading, it is a skill that they will take with them to high school.
Action Research has really helped me better the education of my students. I saw
an issue, and I found a way to resolve it. I plan to keep using research any time I think
that something needs to change in my classroom. I believe that part of being a responsible
teacher is constantly evolving. I would be doing my 6th and 7th graders a dis-service if I
wasnt always trying to find the best way to teach to them. My teaching team of math

FINAL REFLECTION PAPER

teachers are currently using close reading to teach story problems as a result of my
positive data.
Standard 1 of the USM conceptual framework talks about fostering the learning of
all students. I think that I did this when I realized that my kids were bad at story
problems. Our school is pushing close reading, so I thought I would try it. The data that
our administrators showed us made me believe that this could be a good way to resolve
the issue in my classroom. I was fostering the learning of all students by finding a way
(that is proven to work) to teach them to accurately solve their story problems.
My research supports teaching standard four: Uses strategies to deliver instruction
that meets the multiple learning needs of students. Close reading is often used in
differentiation. Close reading meets the needs of multiple learners because they are
looking at the information and separating it out (visualizing) and they are moving around
information in the problem (kinesthetic).
My research supports graduate outcome number two; Demonstrate(s)abilityto
use,integrate,analyze,andinterpretcomplexinformationandconnecttheoryand
practicetodrawnewandperceptiveconclusions.Throughmyresearch,Iintegrateda
newmethodofteaching,IinterpretedmydatacollectedandIdrewanewconclusion
aboutteachingstoryproblems.Thewholeprocesstaughtmequiteabitaboutmyspecific
learnersandhowtoteachtothem.My6thgradersrespondverypositivelytotheclose
readingstrategy.Manyofthemenjoyedtheprocessandbecameexcitedaboutmath.Itis
easierforstudentstobeexcitedaboutaclasswhentheyarebecomingsuccessful.