What are your goals for student learning related to your inquiry?
I want my students in my classroom to always be stimulated, challenged and never bored. Lower performing students tend to be given more attention/focus that high performing students. This may result in them plateauing, rather than truly reaching their full potential. Thus, with this inquiry, I hope to become affiliated with methods, strategies and opportunities that would allow me to meet the needs of all levels of my students, in order for them to learn to their full potential. Additionally, from having conversations with other teachers, I have realized that many want to gain additional insight or data about how to meet the needs of gifted/ high performing students. Thus, I hope this research can benefit others.
What data have you collected on your inquiry student(s)? Include at least one photo and an explanation of what it is. What does this data tell you? How does it inform and guide your research?
So far, the majority of my data on my focus student has been observation based. For example, I observe that she always wants to know "what's next," or announces the fact that "she's done, and it was easy." Additionally, she is eager to help others, wants to be involved with what the teacher is doing, which leads me to infer that she is simply not stimulated enough, and needs something extra. I have also collected diagnostic data that shows how far ahead Giselle is compared to her classmates, scoring 30 points higher than those in the AGP. Giselle is also often given worksheets that is supposed to be "harder," (See picture below), but she still does it with ease. Thus, I believe that she is not being challenged enough and I need to find more effective methods to ensure this.
My last year's inquiry was based on student motivation for all students. Thus, this included higher level students. Fro working with this, I have an idea about what works for gifted students, such as hands on, interactive activities, helping others (becoming the teacher), and giving more challenging work, rather than "busy work." Other than this, I do not have other ideas from last year's inquiry.
What future data might you collect to support your inquiry?
I believe that a lot of my future data to support my inquiry would be observation based. For example, observing how many times my student is bored, or how many times she is engaged. Additionally, I can make a tally to see how many times she says "what's next?". My goal would be for her to constantly be stimulated, and not have to sit there and ask what's next. I also plan to collect interview and survey data to determine my focus student's interests and preferences, in the hopes meeting her needs.