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

additional minutes of reading instruction in smaller groups to help pinpoint difficulties and
give students extra instructional time to get caught up. This insured sufficient time with the
curriculum. There was a pacing requirement that was added to the mix so that all children
would be exposed to the entire curriculum ensuring that students would not develop gaps
because some parts of the curriculum were not taught. At this point in time I felt very
confident that the level of expectations for both the students and myself were high. However
at the same time, I wondered if maybe they were too high.
As I moved into making connections to the curriculum I knew I faced a challenge. Due to
some of the risk factors my students face (second language learners, low level of education,
lack of background knowledge due to lack of experiences which cycles back to issues of
poverty) finding connections to the curriculum is always a challenge, but a necessity.
However, I have found ways to do it in the past and felt confident I would find ways to
succeed again. What I soon discovered was the pacing of the curriculum (grant required) was
making it a challenge to find time to make the connections for my students. I didn’t have
enough time to even cover the curriculum, let alone pull in additional resources to help
students make those connections. My next thought was instead of trying to add to the
curriculum I would replace parts of it to make it more relevant to my students. I also believed
that by addressing some of my instructional strategies I could access the curriculum at a
different level for my students. This led me into my fourth cycle. I knew expectations were
high for my students, I knew they felt a connection to the school and their classrooms, but
could I make the connection to the curriculum for them? I still had faith that I could be
flexible with my instructional strategies in order to make the curriculum accessible to my
students.
Cycle 4
My intent for Cycle 4 was to focus on my use of flexible instructional strategies, but as it
turned out I struggled with the lack of flexible instructional strategies I was able to use and
saw additional signs that I wasn’t connecting the curriculum with my students’ backgrounds
Cycle 4 started as the first semester was coming to a close. As with any change there had
been ups and downs. I had struggled with some of the pacing for a while, but I was feeling
Action Research to Study Homelessness and High Mobility in School Communities 86