Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 word.
Every family needs to buy groceries. Imagine you have a budget of $150 and need to feed a family of four for 7 days. Create a grocery list that details the items and quantities you will need to purchase to meet these demands. Use that grocery list to estimate your family’s weekly grocery bill. How did your results from the Show What You Know diagnostic reflect an understanding, or lack of understanding, about estimation? How has your understanding changed this week?
Meghan post
For my study, I am conducting research on the idea that English language learner educators struggle to find creative ways to encourage language learning, as well as, meet the grade level Common Core standards.My research synthesis began with patiently identifying sources that were applicable to my topic of study, and taking time to identify the reliability of each of those sources.
As I continued conducting my research synthesis, I found that I was trying too hard to find articles that agreed with my problem statement. I wasn’t researching and identifying varying viewpoints on the problem, and I was coming up short with research because of this. The goal is to synthesize findings from multiple viewpoints, sources, and research studies; in order to conduct a thoroughly developed literature review. As Gall, Gall, and Borg (2015) mentioned , “educators should combine research-based generalizations, research from related areas, and their own professional judgment based on firsthand experience to develop specific practices and make adjustments as necessary.” (p.75)
After reading this and going back and re-reading information on good literature reviews, I was able to adjust my thinking and begin to better identify studies of practice that not only perceived my topic of study as a real problem in the field of education, but also studies where the researchers posed perspectives that contrasted. Through the reading of these comparative and contradictory research studies, I was better able to see my research problem from different viewpoint, and begin to build a basis for my literature review.
Jessica post
Despite the prevalence of zero-tolerance policies over the last few decades, research continues to show that they may not be effective. When middle school teachers were encouraged to adopt positive approaches toward discipline, which emphasize trust-building and empathy, teacher-student relationships improved—and suspensions dropped by half.
There is increasing concern about rising discipline citations in K–12 schooling and a lack of means to reduce them. Predominant theories characterize this problem as the result of punitive discipline policies (e.g., zero-tolerance policies), teachers’ lack of interpersonal skills, or students’ lack of self-control or social–emotional skills. By contrast, the present research examined teachers’ mindsets about discipline. A brief intervention aimed at encouraging an empathic mindset about discipline halved student suspension rates over an academic year. This intervention, an online exercise, can be delivered at near-zero marginal cost to large samples of teachers and students. These findings could mark a paradigm shift in society’s understanding of the origins of and remedies for discipline problems.
Cynthia post
The problem of practice that I researched was whether English language learners (ELLs) are being misplaced into special education. The first two articles that I read, Eligibility for special education in elementary school: The role of diverse language experiences by Yamasaki and Luk (2018) and Disentangling language differences from disability: A case study of district-preservice collaboration by Brown and Ault (2015) agree that this a problem. As I continued to research most of the research agree that this a problem and one that will continue as the number of ELLs in schools continues to grow. The research showed patterns that exist with this problem and two stood out. One was the assessments being used to place students and the other teacher’s education. Out of these patterns rose two solutions. The first is to use multiple assessments not just standardized tests to determine if a student has a learning disability (Farnsworth, 2018). The second was that professional development for teachers needs to increased especially in how to tell the difference between true disabilities and language acquisition difficulties (Umansky et al., 2017). By increasing professional education and using better assessments will allow students to get the services they need to be successful.
December 4th, 2019 
