For four years, Pat Paugh, a university teacher educator, and Mary Moran, a teacher researcher, collaborated on action research by systematically studying literacy development connected to the latter's third-grade community gardening and urban farming curriculum. Their goal was to support an existing classroom culture that valued…

Beginning in third grade, Pennsylvania students are required to take the Pennsylvania State Standardized Assessment (PSSA), which presents multiple-choice mathematics questions and open-ended mathematics problems. Consistent with the Communication Standard of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, while solving the open-ended problems,…

This action research project involved the implementation of a program designed to improve student motivation to write through the use of children's literature. The targeted populations were students in one kindergarten class and one third grade ELL [English Language Learners] class in two elementary schools. Both schools were located in a…

This action research project report summarizes the methods used to reduce boredom and frustration and increase students' academic motivation in three mixed-ability classrooms. This action research project included 21 third grade students, 23 fifth grade students, and 28 eighth grade students (n=72) during the dates of September 10, 2007, through…