Graduate Work

A lesson study cycle focused on self efficacy, academic safety, engagement, and student access in fourth grade writing. Our team noticed stark similarities in our students who showed  disengagement through task avoidance, frustration, and a lack of motivation to write and ideate. As my research team and I compared student experiences in fourth grade writing, we noticed that there were stark similarities across the board. We noticed through student writing samples and empathy interviews that the students who do not complete writing tasks with grade level proficiency claimed to not enjoy writing, need multiple verbal reminders to get started on their task, and show clear signs of frustration during independent work time. This sparked our curiosity and drive to introduce different practices into our respective writing workshops in an effort to foster student motivation and engagement. Through our research, we discovered that student motivation and engagement is often linked to academic safety and self efficacy in students. We began to understand that our students lacked confidence in writing which led to their behaviors of frustration and task avoidance. As a group, we moved to find ways in which we could foster student engagement and motivation in the classroom through pedagogical practices, scaffolds, and improvements to the classroom culture.

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