10/26/2016 0 Comments Transition Method #1: LightsSo here's my first post to start off my action research project! After coming up with a list of transition ideas to see which ones could get my "friends" to move faster, I thought I'd start trying them out today. On a side note, my placement school refers to the students as "friends," so I'll go ahead and do that here too. Anyway, I figured I could begin with flickering the lights in the classroom to grab their attention or to signal them to start cleaning up. To keep track of how long it took for my "friends" to clean up or wrap up their current activity, I used the stopwatch on my phone. Before I started using the lights as a transition signal, I announced to the class that I was doing an "experiment" to see which method would get them to wrap their activity up faster. I also told them that whenever I turned the lights on and off, I needed them to start cleaning up and to sit quietly when they were finished. I broke it down in 3 steps to help them remember: "1) Stop what you're doing, 2) Clean up, and 3) Sit quietly and wait for directions."
The first time I turned the lights was when we were transitioning from Bell Work, their morning work, to Social Studies. Before I flicked the lights on and off, I asked, "Now class, what do we do when the lights turned on and off?" I raised three fingers in the air and my "friends" were able to repeat the steps back to me. When I flicked the lights on and off, they closed their Bell Work, put them away in their desks, and sat there. My stopwatch was on and it took them about six seconds to have their desks cleared and sitting quietly. Throughout the day, I continued to use the lights as my transition method as we changed from subject to subject. There were a total of nine transitions today. The times varied for each transition because the some of the times that it took for my "friends" to wrap up their work or clean up took longer than others. During the transitions, they were scrambling about the room and chatting each other up. There were a few who took their time, but I had some "friends" who were really good about it. They reminded their peers who were taking their time and said things like "hurry and clean up" because "she's waiting!" or "you have to have your social studies journal out before you can come to the floor!" The total amount of time spent during transitions was approximately four minutes. Out of all the transitions, I noticed that they moved faster during the transitions to Science, Specials, and Lunch. I'll try a different method next week and see if it's faster than today's time
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