Location
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This research project was conducted at a Middle School in Rio Rancho, NM. The school is rated a B by the state. It current enrollment is 941+ - students, in 3 grades. 6th =324 students, 7th =308 students and 8th = 309 consisting of 61% Hispanic, 30% white, 5% native American, 3% African/American, and 2% Asian/Pacific island. Of theses 57% are considered Economically Disadvantaged, 17% disabled, 6% ESL.. This does not fully account for students with IEP. The Student to teacher ratio is reported as 17 to 1. Free or reduced lunch meals are 60.6% of students
I am a Student Teacher within an 8th grade science classroom which is composed of 5 science periods, 1 homeroom and one prep period for a total of 142 students. The school requires us to use the Amplify Science Curriculum which was “built on the foundation of Wireless Generation, the educational company News Corp bought in 2010, and launched the program in July 2012.” The students accessed the program thru their individual computers and from projections of the videos on the class Prometheus screen.
Home room starts at 8:10am to 8:37. this is for announcements and verifying students are in compliance to policy
2nd Period 8:40 – 9:38, 3rd Period 9:41-10:39
Prep(4th Per) 10:42-11:40
5th Period 11:43-12:41
Lunch 12:41-1:11
6th Period 1:16-2:14, 5th Period 2:17-3:15
During class I primarily focus on struggling students, most of the time its mainly redirecting their attention back to their assignment
Research Subjects
I chose students who were struggling in class yet worked hard, putting in an effort to learn but still struggled understanding the concept. I avoided students who were failing, do to attitude. Because they showed unreliable to the results of this study because some were very bright but refused to do the work assignments. Which was not part of this study. Choosing hard working yet struggling students meant that I would see a more honest result in the assessment, seeing an improvement if any in these students. Unfortunately not all desired students wanted to participate. Some didn't want extra work or be responsible for excepting the books and software used(Provided on a thumb drive). Although I felt this could help them, it was their chose and allowed for a control base group when verifying progress of participants.
