EDI 685: Action Research - Missing School Supplies: Pencils

Philippe Sylvestre

College of Education, Grand Valley State University

EDI 685: Secondary Education

Dr. Rosemary Cleveland

March 18, 2020

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Description of the situation

I was a student teacher in 6th grade math at Pinewood Middle School in East Kentwood.

Class generally began with a warm up for students as I take attendance. We then worked on the

warm up as a class to either transition into the lesson or correct the previous day’s independent

work. As teachers, my mentor and I, we supplied, when needed, daily copies of pages from the

workbook, note paper, and pencils. We spent quite a bit of time each class period getting

students organized with materials. Through this, Mr Morris’ cache of pencils diminished rapidly

as students knew we were not allowed to let them go without a pencil. I believe this wasted class

time and created an expectation that students took advantage of.

Summary of the problem

The problem is that several students came to class on a daily basis without a pencil to

work with. This prevented these students from engaging in the warm up and slowed class down

significantly, as we had to address the pencil issue at the beginning of every class period.

Pondering this issue, I decided to conduct an action research project on missing pencils in the

classroom. The goal was to discover a pattern in regards to missing pencils and possibly come

up with a solution to increase pencil compliance in the classroom.

Summary of related literature

In regards to related literature, I researched the GVSU online library catalog for

peer-reviewed articles or books on missing school supplies. I inputted: missing pencils, missing

school supplies, pencils, school supplies, and what to do in the case of missing school supplies.

My queries left me empty handed. I resorted to a pure internet search using Google’s search

engine. Using the same type of queries in Google, I came to find that missing school supplies is
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a common problem in the classroom and that there are a variety of ways to try and address this

issue. Kelly (2017) states that there are two schools of thought in regards to missing school

supplies:

Students should be held responsible for not bringing everything they need, and those who

feel that a missing pencil or notebook should not be the cause of the student losing out on

the day's lesson.

Donahue (2016) a middle school teacher in Seattle would always give students access to

pencils, as school attendance and behavior can take a turn due to the anxiety a student can feel

for being singled out. In his eyes, we all make mistakes and ​students learn best in a

psychologically safe, mistake-friendly environment (Donahue, 2016). That being said, many

teachers like to keep their students accountable and do so in a manner that is non-invasive.

Teachers want students to have equitable access in the classroom and to do this, teachers use a

few tricks such as letting students customize their pencils with tape, borrow pencils (borrowing

station), number pencils for each seat, have a docking station for pencils, print names on pencils,

create check out systems, and wall pockets for each seat number with school supplies (Mulvahill,

2019). On the other hand Ginsburg (2010) tried to implement a no-pencil, no work policy,

which was frowned upon by his school administrators. Ginsburg (2010) also tried to monetize

the process of being forgetful by bartering id cards and dimes, which was a total disaster. In the

end, Ginsburg’s (2010) approach was to lend or give pencils to students with a gentle reminder

to bring a pencil next time.

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A research plan

For my action research project, I gathered data for a period of eight days over two weeks

by asking students at the beginning of every class period who needed a pencil. The action

research question was, “If I could have your attention please. Who does not have a pencil today?

Please raise your hand”. I would hand out pencils to students with missing pencils. I did not

divulge the reasons for my daily question to students. Once my data was compiled, my plan was

to bring pencils attached to magnets, place them on the white board at the front of the class, and

ask students to check out a pencil by leaving their name on the board and a shoe. From there I

would collect another set of data to see if there was a change in behavior and decide if such

action was warranted.

Action

Following my data collection, I did not partake in the pencil check out process. Based on

the rambunctiousness of my students, I felt that students may enjoy a check out process far too

much or they may oppositely shut down. Also, I could see the second step of my experiment

backfire, as I was fearful students would find too much humor in leaving a shoe behind or might

even start throwing their shoes to the front of the class or around the class.

Findings and suggestions for further research

I was amused by my findings through the quantitative process, which allowed me to not

move forward with the second portion of my action research plan. Looking at Table 1. below,

we can see a significant drop in missing pencils between 1/21/20 and 1/30/20. We can also see a

significant drop off between the day when I began asking my action research question on

1/21/20, which was a Tuesday, and 1/27/20, which was a Monday. What convinced me not to
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enter the second phase​ ​of my action research plan was the rapid decrease in the demand for

pencils. It was so positive that I realized I might be jumping into a hornet's nest if I were to

undertake the bartering system.

I did reveal to each class that I conducted this action research as a university project, but I

was also curious as to what each class thought made the demand for pencils drop. So, I asked

each class to share informally why they thought the demand for pencils went down as the days

and weeks progressed. Most students answered that they did not want to be put on the spot or be

seen as the student not having a pencil at their disposal. Some students just suggested that being

reminded every day helped them remember. A few students thought it was a competition, so

they adopted a competitive mentality. An important fact to consider is that students cared about

something they knew nothing about and chose to live the event under their own conjectures. The

unknown created a variety of narratives for students to mindfully bring pencils to class. In the

end it, just raising the question of missing pencils seemed to impact student compliance for

bringing pencils to class.

Based on my action research question, “Who does not have a pencil today? Please raise

your hand”, seemed to minimize missing pencils in each class. Several questions for future

research come to mind. Would the decrease in demand for pencils hold if the question was
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raised for a longer period of time or weekly through the school year? Should there be a variety

of methods for pencil control dispersed throughout the school year to keep students on their toes?

Would having pencil stations help or hinder compliance? Could we do the same thing with

homework, notebook, workbook? Could we activate students’ competitive side to complete

homework? Could this type of compliance question be applied to other matters? Could we

challenge students more by raising awareness?

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References

Kelly, Melissa. (2020, February 11). What to Do If Your Students Come to Class Unprepared.

Retrieved from ​https://www.thoughtco.com/dealing-with-unprepared-students-7605

Donohue, Chad. (2016, August 4). Give the Kid a Pencil. Retrieved from

https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/give-the-kid-a-pencil

Mulvahill, E. (2019, March 29). 12 Clever Ways to Solve the Case of the Disappearing Pencils.

Retrieved from ​https://www.weareteachers.com/disappearing-pencils/

Ginsburg, D. (2012, October 28). The Pursuit of a Perfect Pencil Policy. Retrieved from

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2010/11/in_pursuit_of_the_perf

ect_pencil_policy.html