Area+of+Focus

Area of Focus

The purpose of this action research is to find a way to address the attention deficits of middle school students. The research is specifically focused on the impact that Kinesthetic learning and movement experiences have on student engagement and achievement.
 * Area-of-Focus Statement:**
 * Original -**

The purpose of this action research project is to explore if role playing activities help build students understanding of different historical conflicts and thus improve achievement results in Social Studies/History.
 * Revised -**

Over the past several years we find that many students have a difficult time remaining focused & engaged when listening to lectures and or demonstrations about complex human relation issues such as the perspectives of the people in the North & South prior to the Civil War or how Brown vs. Board of Education impacted desegregation. Thus many of these students have low and under performing academic results in Social Studies & History. The members of our team currently teach middle and high school. We want our students to be interested in learning about History and Social Studies so we are proposing role playing as a teaching and learning method to help increase students’ involvement and interest. Traditionally, History and Social Studies teaching strategies have focused on rote methods of memorization of facts and dates. Although this approach worked for us as children, it no longer suffices as an effective teaching method today, especially for kinesthetic learners.


 * Variables: **
 * Do teachers understand role playing (teacher proficiency)?
 * Student interest
 * Student motivation
 * Students with introverted personalities
 * Diversity of learning styles
 * Will teachers be able to incorporate role playing into their lessons?
 * Resources (props, space, scripts, etc)
 * Teacher buy in
 * Student buy in
 * Is their time for role playing during class?
 * Will teachers need more prep time?
 * Where will teachers get ideas for role playing?

Can an integration of role playing into lessons on a regular basis increase achievement results? Does role playing increase engagement and make learning more meaningful to students? How does role playing enhance students understanding of the topics they are role playing/acting out? Will role playing have less of a significant impact on the results of non-kinesthetic learners?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Research Questions: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We will implement a role playing guide of resources for the History and Social Studies curriculum. Once the teachers are comfortable with role playing, each will be responsible for creating a specific number of role playing lessons that will be shared within each department.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Intervention of innovations: **

To participate in the study of role playing effectiveness, we will need teacher release time for planning the projects, reviewing related literature, and completing other tasks; funds to purchase role playing props; and a small budget for copying and printing the curriculum materials. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Statement of Resources **