top of page

Supporting Data

Qualitative:

  • Many students had difficulty recalling basic number sense when applying addition and subtraction strategies.

  • Many students had trouble applying the strategies taught in math whole group lessons.

  • Many students struggled to compute an addition or subtraction problem without the use of manipulatives, drawing a picture, using fingers, etc.

  • Many students were not motivated to use their math manipulatives and used their tools irresponsibly (i.e. using them as toys, losing tools, building things with their tools, etc).

Quantitative:

  • 82% (14/17) of my students scored proficient or above on the Chapter 3 Math test covering addition.

  • 53% (8/15) of my students scored proficient or above on the Chapter 4 Math test covering subtraction.

  • There was a drop of 29% of students who scored proficient on the Chapter 3 test, but did not score proficient on the Chapter 4 test.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this study was to determine if math stations increased student engagement.

Literature Review

Stations are an engaging way to differentiate instruction among any subject area. Click here to read more about the selected strategies and stations used for math instruction in a first grade classroom.

 
Research & Rationale

Why?

 

My initial reasoning behind implementing stations during math instruction was to help increase students' ability to compute basic addition and subtraction problems. Through many observations, including math tests, whole group discussions, and independent work, this need for improvement was discovered. Students were having trouble implementing the various strategies they had learned to solve addition and subtraction problems. However, upon further investigation, it was found that a common link among this area of growth was lack of engagement among students.

Until this point, math instruction relied heavily on whole group lessons, with stations typically only implemented as a means of review before an assessment. Further observations showed that students had a difficult time staying focused and engaged during whole group lessons, which could be a factor in the lower performance on math operations. I recognized, that as the classroom teacher, it was my job to find a better way to engage my students in order for them to be able to effectively apply what I was teaching.

To help improve my own teaching abilities and the abilities of my students, I decided to select several research based strategies to implement into math stations. During this study,math instruction would consist of a short introductory lesson taught whole group and the remainder of instruction would be via small group stations.

16 students:

9 boys

7 girls

ELL Services- 7 students

SPED Services- 0 students

Caucasian- 5 students

African American- 4 students

Hispanic- 2 students

Other- 5 students

Demographics

bottom of page