Running Head: ACTION RESEARCH PLAN SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF

Action Research Plan Showing the Effects of Teaching Strategies Used by a Student Teacher
Christina Torres
University of Utah
November 2, 2015

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Abstract
This action research follows one student teacher who wants to improve on her teaching
strategies in all content levels by using the following two teaching strategies I do, we do, they
do and teacher talk. Due to the wide varieties of concepts taught in elementary school, this
action plan collects data only from the science lessons taught in class. During the process the
student teacher starts off using the teaching strategies, but ends up changing it during
instructional time due to inexperience. Overall this paper will show you the struggles student
teachers faced and how they learn from their experiences while teaching. In the end this paper
will give you a better understanding that there is a lot more strategies that must go on in the
classroom besides I do, we do, and they do and teacher talk.

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Purpose
This action research study, investigates the benefits of using scaffolding techniques in
lesson planning and delivery from a student teacher point of view. An average student teacher is
exposed to multiple theories on how to teach while attending college and countless hours of
observing expert teachers uses these same scaffolding techniques along with others as they teach
their students. However, like everything else in life, watching and doing are to different things.
There is always a learning curve you have to overcome. This action research plan follows one
student teacher as she learn how to teach her students the require content while using the
following scaffolding techniques "teacher talk" and "I do, we do, and they do". The goal is to see
if the scaffolding techniques she learned will work for the class regardless or not that she is a
student teacher.
Research has proven, scaffolding to be the most important tool in a teachers' toolbox;
especial when it comes to addressing all your students individual needs. In addition, scaffolding
helps students make the necessary connections between prior knowledge and new knowledge.
The main reason "teacher talk" and "I do, we do, and they do", were selects as the two
scaffolding techniques to be used in this study is because, it allows the more knowledgeable
teacher an outlet to explain their understanding of the material to the children. Also it provides
steps for the teacher to follow to help guide her students from beginning to end through a lesson.
Literature Review
Scaffolding, define in educational terms is a variety of instructional techniques used to
move students progressively towards a stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater
independence in the learning process (Edglossary.org). Learning is a process of guided and
mediated participation in meaningful/authentic activities where learners construct the meanings
of the practice and develop the needed knowledge and skills with support (Lave & Wenger,
1991; Tharp & Gallimore, 1989). So, teachers use scaffolding to help students increase their
knowledge, problem solving skills, and ability to make inferences in order to learn. The key
word is support, and by scaffolding a lesson we can provide just that.
Although we try to provide the support students need, we sometime fail to provide the
correct support. When we failed in a lesson it is easily seen, by the students blank stare, the time

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spent re-teaching a lesson, or the answering of 20 questions during independent work. Due to the
student teacher failed attempts with teaching and having to experience these blank stares the
student teacher has decided to add more scaffolding to her lesson plans. Out of all the different
techniques available she has decided to incorporate teacher talk and I do, we do, and they do
into her lesson plans. The following paragraphs explain the importance and how each technique
helps the students master the content.
Teacher talk is when you share with the students how you solve the problem in your
head. Instead of saying the answer is ____, you think out loud and walk the students through the
strategies you are used to find the answer. In addition, you show the students how to use prior
knowledge to answer a new and challenging question. Here are a few examples of teacher talk:
rereading a math problem and ask yourself what the problem is asking you to find, explaining I
know the sun provides light and heat so that why it must be heater in the sun than the shade, and
so forth. By going through the problem step by step we show them how we reason through the
assignment to come up with the correct answer.
The other method I do, we do, and they do allows the transfer of ownership from the
teacher to the students. After all, our goal is to have the students be able to complete their own
assignment and use their brain in order to get it completed. If we spend all our time lecturing to
them then we have no way to see if they are learning the concept. By completing this method we
are gradually releasing ownership while still explaining to them through teacher talk and doing
what is going on in our heads.
Fisher and Frey (2008) [show how] responsibility is handed over [to students] in four
distinct steps, generally known as:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Focus Lesson (I do it)

Guided Instruction (We do it)
Collaborative Learning (You do it together)
Independent Practice (You do it alone).

The first step is to demonstrate an understanding of the content and to set an example of
what you will require from the students. By combining focus lesson (I do) with teacher talk, you
can share almost everything you know about the subject and assignment. The next step is
important because it gives you a chance to see what students have picked up during the first step.

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Also it will help determine if your instructions were clear and understandable to the class. The
last two steps give you a feel of what the students understand and are capable of doing on their
own. By observing students while they work and collect samples of their work will give you
more information on what to do differently next time and what to keep.
Overall both methods eliminate assumptions of students prior knowledge or ability to
solve a problem using strategies they learned before. One thing to keep in mind is gradual release
takes a long time to present so it best to use this technique when introducing new and important
content or strategies the students can take with them in use in other content areas.
Plan of Action
In order to properly address scaffolding techniques in the classroom, there needs to be
some changes made to planning, delivering, and assessment. Planning is important, because it
gives the teacher a direction on what they are going to teach, how they are going to teach it, and
how much time they will allow their students to practice the new concept. Next is delivery! No
matter how much you plan; if you do not practice the material then it might come out all jumbo
and get the kids confused and lost. Lastly, the assessment must cover the material that was taught
and only what was taught. Although scaffolding is part of the planning and delivery portion of
the process, it carries through to the assessment. Not only does the assessment give you an idea
of what the students have learned and retained, but it provides information on what areas you
need to reteach. The following paragraphs go into more details of each step of the process.
During the planning stage you want to review the standard and objectives that will be
cover on the final test. Once you have the end goals in place then you can take the big picture
and break it down into smaller, manageable lessons known as "backward design". Each lesson
written will include "teacher talk" and the portion of the lesson plan that will be "I do, we do, and
they do." The goal is for the students to be able to complete the "they do" potion on their own
without the teacher assistant.
The delivery phase allows you take your written ideas and put them into practice. By
reviewing the material out loud and performing the projects yourself, you get to see where
changes and accommodations need to be made for your class. In addition, you notice areas of
improvement, where you can change a sentence or two and everything will fall into place for

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your students. Besides all the major benefits, you get to practice your lesson so you become more
confident during delivery. Overall your goal is to make sure the information comes out clear, so
your students can learn the objectives during each lesson.
In order to see if the planning and delivery was affected then you need to assess your
students knowledge on a continuous basis by using informal observations and students sample
work. So for this experiment students' science journals will be used as part of the informal
observations. The end of unit test will be a formal assessment to see how much they have learned
and retained. The goal of the assessment is to see if the strategies teacher talk and I do, we do,
and they do were able to help a student teacher with making sure her students understood the
require content.
For this action research plan, the student teacher will follow the steps above to collect the
most accurate data. Data will be collected from one high, middle, and low student to see if there
are any changes in their understanding and ability to retain the knowledge. All data collected will
be assessed to see how well the student is responding to teacher instruction.
For this experiment, the student teacher will teach 5-10 lesson using the following
scaffolding techniques "I do, we do, and they do" and "teacher talk". The students will take a
minimum of 1 formal assessment and minimum of 4 informal lessons or more. Journals will be
collected after each lesson and grade. The teacher is looking to see how well the student answer
the science question of the day based on the learning objectives. The following is the journal
rating scale.
Informal Test
Score

On grade level

Answers to the question

Next Step with Students

On grade level

Can expand on the topic

Approaching grade
level
Below grade level

Answer the question

correctly.
Understands somethings,
but not everything.
Answer was incorrect

Need to cover main ideas /

objectives
Need to reteach

The formal assessment will be given at the end of the unit and the kids will be grade
number of points correct versus the total number of points possible. The grading of the
percentages is as follow:

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Formal Test Percentages

100 % - 90%
90% - 80%
80% - 60%
60% and lower

Letter Grade
A
A
B
C

Overall Understanding of Content

On grade level
Approaching grade level
Needs more assistant to reach grade level
Below grade level, needs re-teaching

In order to make sure the teacher is following the lesson plan and providing the
scaffolding support to the students as needed. The student teacher will undergo observations by
her site teacher and university supervisor to make sure she is using "teacher talk" and "I do, we
do, and they do" techniques. A minimum of 3 observations will be used in the data collection. In
addition the teacher will reflect on the lessons delivery and provide feedback on their strengths
and weakness in the lesson delivery.
Data Collections
Here is the informal data collected from the science journals on one high, medium, and
low student.
Students
High (Student A)
Medium (Student
B)
Low (Student C)

Entry 1
3
3

Entry 2
3
2

Entry 3
3
3

Entry 4
3
2

Entry 5
3
2

Here is the formal data collected from the formal science test.
Student
High (Student A)
Medium (Student B)
Low (Student C)

Test
25
16
11

Here is some of the feedback provided to the student teacher during her observations.
Observer

Feedback

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University Coach

University Coach

Site Teacher

Science Coach

Great job including different learning styles in your teaching. Might want to
make sure to have an activity students can do while waiting for others to
finish that will keep in them on task.
Make sure your lessons are clear and are presented in linear fashion. One
suggestion would be to write down 5-6 steps and keep each step instruction
a few words long.
Practice your delivery at home. Review the material and make sure you
really understand the content this way you will be more confidence in what
you teach. Try to avoid errors. Make sure when you are speaking to the class
think of it like your putting on a show.
To keep the students more engage I would start the lesson off with the
experiment first and then ask them to explain their reasoning based on what
they learn from the experiment. Also I would keep it simple and try to cover
only 1 topic at a time.

Findings:
Due to the time restrictions and other factors that were not though of before the action
plan research plan went into the effect, the data does not provide the most accurate picture.
However, there is evidence the students did learn from the teacher by using these strategies. In
order for this data to answer the original question the following factors must have been address
and taken care of.
1. The student teacher would have needed to make sure all her lesson were clear and convey
information in linear fashion. This way the students would be able to understand the
concepts more clearly and not be confused about what is being taught.
2. The student teacher would have needed to make sure to include both teaching strategies
in her delivery in every lesson. Some lesson the teacher did and others the student teacher
messed up or forgot.
3. Also students should have been given a pretest to eliminate prior knowledge. This way
the final test could measure the students growth.

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Since these factors were not realize until after the experiment, it is really hard to see what
outside factors influences the data. What the data does show is on the days the instructions were
clear and possibly where the students had more background knowledge, majority of the students
scored a 3 in their journals. On the other days where it was new content being presented and/or
the instruction was unclear only the high students scored a 3 and the middle and low students
scores 2's in their journals.
Next Steps:
The biggest take away the student teacher learn was to make sure every lesson plan is
convey in clear and simple way. In addition, she learned a better way to teach science lessons so
they are more engaging and keep the student interested. Lastly she will make sure to implement
a 5 minute review section in her lesson plan to remind the students of the lesson objectives and
facts they learn to support that objective. This way all students who were unclear about the topic
will know the correct information before she moves on to the next topic.
When it comes to data collecting the student teacher will assess each student prior to
teaching the unit this way when the final test comes along she can assess the students growth
without guessing. The student teacher will continue to use journal as a way to assess students
since it proved to be a fast and simple way to gather data on her students. Lastly she will
welcome people into her class and continue to have experts come in and demonstrate a lesson to
her class.

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References
Clark, S., (2014) & Fisher and Frey (2008a). Avoiding the Blank Stare: Teacher Training with
the Gradual Release of Responsibility in Mind. English Teaching Forum, v52 n2 p28-35
2014. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/

Kidwai, K., Munyofu, M., Swain, W. J., Ausman, B. D., Lin, H., & Dwyer, F. (2001) Effect of
Visual Scaffolding and Animation on Students Performance on Measures of Higher
Order Learning. Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Retrieved
from http://eric.ed.gov/

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Kong, A ( 2002) & Lave & Wenger, (1991); Tharp & Gallimore, (1989). Scaffolding in a
Learning Community of Practice: A Case Study of a Gradual Release of Responsibility
from the Teacher to the Students [PDF Document]. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/
The Glossary of Education Reform. (2014) Portland, ME: Retrieved from: http://edglossary.org/