Section 1: Academic Achievement - National Center for School ...

The Lowry community provides the underpinnings for strength as a school. The PTO
encourages parent involvement and participation in many school activities, as well as
monetary assistance through fund-raisers. The CSC presents a strong voice that represents the
robust and diverse community.
Introduction to the Project
My role at Lowry Elementary was to serve as an ELA-E second grade teacher. I was
responsible for teaching seventeen second-grade students. It was my job to vary the
instructional pace for a variety of levels of learners. In order to do this, I needed to collaborate
with the other second grade team members, the special educator, the gifted and talented
teacher, the ELA instructor, and the other specialists at the school (school counselor,
psychologist, nurse). My teaching style combined times for whole group instruction mini
lessons, small group instruction, peer to peer time, as well as time for independent practice. I
had a handful of involved parents in her classroom, so a big job of mine was to communicate
with them. I tried to keep all of my families aware of what was going on in the classroom as
well as in the school. I sent home a monthly newsletter, put the newsletter on the school’s
website, and made phone calls whenever possible.
I was responsible for coordinating individual learning plans for all students who were
achieving below grade level. For this plan, I had a conference with the parent(s) and explained
the goals that I would work on in the classroom to try and get the student back to where they
should be. I then offered strategies that the parent(s) could do at home to help meet these
goals as well. I could have as many conferences as needed with the parent(s) to make sure that
action was taking place not only in the school setting, but also at home.
A problem that I was noticing in my second grade class was that many of my students,
including my highly mobile students, were not doing homework or turning in quality
homework assignments. Since this was a problem that I was seeing this year and in years past
I decided to investigate the homework issue further. This project was designed to help
students and their families get the most out of homework. The purpose of this study was to
determine what barriers were making doing homework difficult and to teach appropriate
Action Research to Study Homelessness and High Mobility in School Communities 53