Results: This 3-week internship block seemed to be much busier and the time seemed to pass much faster than my other internships. I didn't have the chance to dedicate as much time to my action research project as I would have liked, as I spent much of my extra time organizing the Jump Rope for the Heart event . Not all of my questions were answered, but even though the time was very short, I think Student A made progress. I ultimately gained a lot of insight into my teaching and how to better differentiate work to reach those learners who are often overlooked due to time constraints or lack of support. Validation: Fourth grade slump is a term used to describe the phenomenon where students who were performing well in school before 4th grade experience a significant decline in their performance. Many researchers and educators believe that this transition period from 3rd grade to 4th grade is a critical moment in any student's education, as we move from "learning to read" to "reading to learn" ideologies (Sanacore and Palumbo, 2009). Does research tell us how to address this crisis? There is no one-size-fits-all approach because each child's learning styles and needs vary (Sanacore & Palumbo, 2009). Early intervention and appropriate reading instruction should take place in primary grades before the transition to 4th grade. Vocabulary work is very important to easily identify common words, but it is not enough because, "according to one estimate, explicit vocabulary teaching can teach, at best, about 400 words per year, which is a far cry from the approximately 5,000 words that students must add to their vocabulary each year to build the 80,000-word vocabulary they need to succeed in college” (Goodwin...... middle of paper ... ...t trends in education as more and more research studies are carried out Teachers must embrace lifelong learning to be effective and not become redundant. profession, we expect professionals to constantly update their skills and learn new technical knowledge. Becoming an educator means you will learn for the rest of your life and for myself, I believe it is a. exciting part of a teaching career. Works Cited Gee, James Paul Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children's Learning. . Joan Ganz Cooney Center Representative at Sesame Workshop, June 2008. Web.Goodwin, Bryan. “Don’t wait until the fourth year to deal with the crisis.” Educational Leadership 68.7 (2011): 88-89. Print.Sanacore, Joseph and Anthony Palumbo. “Understanding the fourth grade crisis: our perspective.” The Educational Forum 73.1 (2009): 67-74. Print.