Description: This presentation discusses a research project on the relationship between African American parent volunteer involvement and student reading scores.

Description: This presentation discusses research on reading. One of the biggest problems in today's classrooms is the ineffective use of transition times. Transition times are mostly spent re-directing children and attempting to control chaos and confusion in the classroom. This research work presents the idea of using re-entry transition times (i.e., returning from lunch, music, etc.) as silent reading. When tested in December 2009, approximately 40% of the children in the author's classroom were reading at level E, when compared to the other 60% who were reading at G or higher. For six weeks, all children were required to read for five minutes immediately upon entering the classroom from a school event, increasing their reading time up to 25 minutes a day. The results conclusively show that students who have the extra opportunities to read daily have increased their measured reading level from E to H, significantly increasing their reading fluency as measured by running records.

Description: This paper discusses research on the effects of tutoring with concrete manipulatives and real life concepts. Abstract: Place value is a concept many elementary students struggle to accomplish. Many misconceptions arise when students are attempting at mastering this concept. The fourth grade class the author was observing was no different. The author gave a pre-diagnostic test to determine the exact concepts. The author assessed six students who were all performing below grade level and determined that all six had not mastered the understanding of place value. Students, who have not mastered place value, cannot fully master other basic math skills. The author began the 7 week tutoring period with basic place value. The students were able to make progress in math by building a foundation for their knowledge to prosper. The use of concrete manipulatives and the connection to real life concepts helped the students relate the information to their lives and made it possible for the students to visualize the mathematical processes that were occurring with certain mathematical functions.

Description: This presentation discusses research on an auto-ethnography of a pre-service teacher during the first semester of Professional Development School, documenting the change in confidence. There is no hypothesis for this study, due to the qualitative nature of the research. The method used in the study was an analysis of prior personal perceptions of teaching, as compared to experiences in the teacher preparation program. This presentation discusses the study that examined the pre-service teacher's perception of teaching/teachers, classes prior to methods classes, prior teaching experiences, and perceptions of what is a professional development school. The findings show that due to the Response to Intervention Model learned during a mathematics tutoring project, experiences with children, and assignments completed during the University of North Texas math methods class, the pre-service teacher gained confidence and felt like a professional teacher.

Description: This presentation discusses an action research project that studied the effect of growth plan interventions on kindergarten students' increased appropriate behavior in class kindergarten students.