No Such Thing as A Quick Fix:

Creating My Own Answers for Classroom Issues

Nicole Messina
MATC Synthesis Paper
Michigan State University
Summer 2020

Introduction
 When I first set out to begin my MATC program in early 2019 I was working with a
student in my second grade classroom who was struggling to learn to read despite what felt like
all of my efforts as a teacher. After daily interventions, several diagnostic assessments, parent
meetings, working with the reading specialist, and hours spent pouring over the internet for ideas
I was more motivated than ever to improve my craft as an educator. I sought out to receive my
Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum (MATC) with a concentration of Language and
Literacy with the hope that I would somehow find the quick fix answer that I needed to help this
student and future ones like her. I thought that by enrolling in this program I would be given the
answer that I assumed more experienced teachers already knew. However, as I embarked on my
journey through this program, I discovered that no such answer existed. In fact, I realized that
there really no quick fixes in education at all. Instead, I would have to carve them out and shape
these answers for myself. Through the practice of actively engaging in pertinent research in my
field, collaborating with colleagues and peers, and by refocusing on students’ specific personal
and academic diversity I was able to create answers for myself that would allow me to become
the type of educator that I strive to be for my students.

Incorporating Field Research Into My Practice

After three years spent away from academic life as I focused on establishing my identify

as a young educator, conducting relevant research became less salient within my day to day

practice. While professional development within my districts incorporated field research in the

strategies and topics that were presented, it was not always truly relevant to the issues I faced

within my actual classroom and practice. Working within the MATC program grounded me by

refocusing my actual problems of practice under a lens of relevant research that provided data

backed insights for me to incorporate into my personal solutions for issues in my classroom. As

Language and Literacy was my concentration, I primarily wanted to address problems of practice

related to that area of my teaching.

the student in my class who struggled with decoding despite a myriad of interventions and

instructional strategies. My primary goal in this program was to further develop my skills to help

students like her. However, doing so would not be possible without embracing research and

inquiry based principles into my approach for finding the answer in how to do so. During TE 842

I was able to focus on learning about instructional strategies aimed for helping students with the

needs that were similar to my student presented earlier. In doing so, I was able to inquire into an

area that I truly wanted to improve on as an educator, decoding and knowledge of word parts.

Through Artifact One (TE 842 Book Review), I was able to learn about word study when I chose

to read Words Their Way by Donald Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, and Francine

Johnson. I chose this reading for my course book review as I was interested in possibly

integrating the practice into my classroom and wanted to examine it through the needs of myself

and my students. I was able to critically analyze its strengths and deficits and make decisions

around whether it would be valuable within my classroom. This is markedly different than

professional development opportunities that impose the use of strategies and do not allow for

personal examination of merit within one’s classroom. Through a critical eye I determined that

word study was appropriate for my students’ needs and began applying it into my classroom in a

modified form that aligned with the values of my practice. My decision to implement this

strategy with my own students can be seen in Artifact Two (TE 846 Case Study) when I

designed intervention for an additional student needing support with decoding of digraphs.

Another prominent example of using research to address personal problems of practice

occurred during my time in TE 848, Writing Assessment and Instruction. After analyzing my
students’ writing I determined that their opinion writing generally lacked the necessary level of

supporting details and examples to qualify for grade level appropriate writing. After discussing

this with my grade level colleagues and realizing that they also faced similar challenges with

their class’s persuasive writing, I decided to embark on a critical inquiry to address persuasive

writing in my classroom. My goal was to make substantial changes to my instructional approach

with persuasive writing and to the quality of writing products that my students produced. As

seen in Artifact Three (TE 848 Teaching Project), I did this through the process of identifying

relevant research on persuasive writing and the use of rubrics to improve the quality of my

students’ writing. What is significant about this research is that I did not simply transfer the

findings from one researcher directly into my classroom. Instead, I integrated research regarding

effective opinion writing instruction and merged it with a student strategy, using genre specific

rubrics, to improve my students’ writing. Rather than making the decision to use these strategies

based on the needs of the students conducted in the research, I considered what was appropriate

based on children of the age level that I taught while adapting it to meet the needs of my

students. In Artifact Three (TE 848 Teaching Project), this is specifically apparent in the choice

of the style rubric that I used. Using critical inquiry, I was ultimately able to address the writing

concerns that I had in my classroom.

In addition to academic problems of practice, I was also able to use critical inquiry to

address social emotional and behavioral concerns in my classroom. Within CEP 832, I was able

to systematically study a behavior concern in my classroom and gather information that would be

essential to make positive adjustments in my classroom. After using research to learn more about

behavior issues in the classroom I was able to identify my student as having behaviors consistent

with hostile aggression. I used this information to then focus on gaining information about
strategies to support students with hostile aggressive behavior. Finally, I incorporated this

research and my knowledge of my student to develop a plan to support her in the classroom,

including a behavior contract, a home note, precision statements to clarify expectations, and a

known and stated plan for consequences. Again, this is relevant because it addresses specific

problems within my classroom using tools and resources that I purposefully chose and modified

to fit the needs of my classroom. As seen in Artifact Four (CEP 832 ABC Project), I utilized

research on the specific behaviors that I wanted to modify and made changes using hand picked

strategies for my student. Rather than using a solution provided for me, I inquired into my area

of need, analyzed and reflected on the available strategies and tools, and incorporated strategies

into my classroom.

Focusing on Students’ Diverse Needs and Capital

While integrating research was imperative to learning how to discover answers to issues I

faced in my classroom, I also realized that reframing that research into a context that addressed

my students academic, cultural, and social needs was equally essential. Curriculum and research

run parallel to students providing a wealth of information and strategies. As a teacher it is my

role to create intersections of curriculum, research, and my actual students in order to really meet

their needs.

This type of work was a major component of my program and truly was at the forefront

of the majority of the assignments that I completed. However, it was highly apparent in Artifact

Two (TE 846 Case Study). In my case study I was able to integrate research that I had done for

my TE 842 Book Study, as seen in Artifact One ( TE 842 Book Review). While doing that I did

not simply read a script or follow a prescribed plan. Instead, I focused on the elements of word
study that would support my student based on what his academic needs were as determined by

data and observations. In doing that, I was able to see what level of word study he should work

at. I also incorporated what I knew interested him. For example, the student in Artifact Two (TE

846 Case Study) expressed an interest in playing games. Therefore, I made sure to incorporate

the game element of word study based on that expressed interest. By keeping this students’s

needs and interests, I was more successful in appropriately using research while keeping my

student at the forefront of my teaching process.

Research based practices can be very effective when combined with student interests and

academic needs. Likewise, cultural considerations must be made when supporting students in the

classroom with research based methods. While my primary focus for this program was driving

forward my ability to support my students’ literacy, I also had a desire to address cultural

diversity within the school system. To do so I focused on learning more about multicultural

curriculum. What I discovered through extensive readings and discussions is that students need

to be met where they are and challenged to grow from there. For my teaching and learning

conditions, I needed to support diversity while addressing it from the perspective of a mostly

white classroom. I could not dismiss the culture of my students, but I did need to help them

analyze new perspectives. As seen in Artifact Five (TE 822 Multicultural Unit) I was able to

integrate the research calling for multicultural education, but did so in a way that was relevant to

my students and their needs. As I developed a unit on communities, I drew on issues that my

students could relate to, such as class inequality which was present within our school

community, as identified in Artifact Seven (TE 822 Teaching Interview). While my TE 822

course focused heavily on strategies that supported students of many different cultural identities,
I needed to adapt what I learned from my course to the students and issues that were actually

happening in my own classroom in order to truly support my students’ growth. This process led

to a planned and implemented unit that demonstrated both the content and skills learned in my

course with an authentic topic modified for my students.

Collaborating with Field Professionals

Through my journey, I came to realize that discovering answers to problems of practice

did not, and should not, have to be done alone. While I knew my students best and ultimately had

the final say in how I instructed them, I could gain valuable insight in how to do so from working

with colleagues and peers. This could be done in many different ways such as informal

discussions, targeted analysis of data and curriculum goals, or through collaborative field work.

When keeping my students and field research in mind, working with colleagues proved to be

beneficial to leading me toward the answers that I was searching for to help me serve my

students.

To support my goals of improving my literacy instruction, I was able to participate in

instructional rounds with my colleagues in my building. In Artifact Six (Instructional Rounds

Memo) I contributed to my school’s goal of supporting teachers by identifying major strengths

and areas of improvement for our school. By allowing staff to view my teaching, they were able

to give feedback that further benefitted my practice specifically and our school in general.

During a professional development with the entire staff we were then able to further discuss

trends and develop solutions to best support our students. As I strive to improve my practice

within the school context, I found that the perspectives of my peers offered new insights that I

could then weave back into my classroom.

and the exchange of perspectives is another form that has allowed me to expand my practice.

When thinking about how to better implement multicultural education curriculum into my daily

instruction as I did in Artifact Five (TE 822 Multicultural Unit) , I found it extremely valuable to

learn from the three other second grade teachers with whom I worked with very closely. Being

that I am the least familiar with the district and the community in which I teach in, it was

extremely valuable to hear their ideas about what was going well in terms of diversity in our

curriculum and what needed to strengthened to be more inclusive. In Artifact Seven (TE 822

Teacher Interview) I was able to freely ask questions about this topic. When discussed, I found

that my colleagues actually had some very different ideas than me while still offering important

information about the realities of diversity in our school. I found that I did not necessarily agree

with my colleagues. However, since we had developed a mutual respect for one another, we were

able to discuss the implications of our current status off including diversity in our curriculum.

The findings that we discussed directly impacted the multicultural unit that I planned for Artifact

Five (TE 822 Multicultural Unit). For example, after discussing social class as a form of

diversity in our district, I used that as a guide to help inform how my class discussed social

inequalities in different types of communities during my multicultural unit. Had I not discussed

this with my colleagues, I may have missed this piece of information and my unit could have

been lacking because of it.

Discovering Answers
 Throughout each of my course and professional field experiences, I gradually discovered

more and more how unrealistic it was to believe that the MATC program would grant me a

simple answer to my problems of practice in my classroom. As I have stated, the answers

emerged as I learned more about the importance of using research, modifying instruction and

building curriculum around diverse student needs and backgrounds, and working with others.

Through this process I blended what experts and professionals in my field recommended and

combined it with my own experiences and the individual needs of the students. In completing

this work I realized that no quick fix answer to any problem in the classroom exists. There are

simply too many variables and it is impossible to capture that in any form of research

professional development, or curriculum. So instead of answers, I have attained the skills to find

the answers on my own to improve my practice and make a lasting impact on my students.