Results

Well, I didn't post progress throughout the study, but here are the results:

Data Collection

Because the data was qualitative rather than quantitative, much of it is anecdotal. I sent out a post-project survey to poll participants’ perceptions of the process. Questions included rating scales regarding the effectiveness of the project as well as participants’ opinions of the most effective part of the process. The survey was taken independently through Survey Monkey online. When I had follow-up questions related to the surveys, I contacted the participants by email.

Findings (Section Four)

The online survey generated the following results:

Helpfulness of the collaboration:

- “Really helpful… I gained a lot from the experience”         60%

- “Somewhat helpful… I’m glad I participated”                    40%

- “Not very helpful”                                                                0%

- “A complete waste of time”                                                  0%

Participants commented that the greatest benefit of the face-to-face meetings included “exchanging ideas on what actually worked in the classroom to increase editing/revising skills,” knowing that other teachers were facing the same challenges, and sharing activities, ideas, materials, and strategies to improve teaching.

When asked what could have been added to make the meetings more helpful, answers included:

-          classroom visits and observations

-          make-and-take sessions

-          exchanging ideas for conferencing

-          ideas for first semester instruction

-          extending the project to include reading instruction as well as writing instruction

Same direction, new course

Well, the ultimate goal is student achievement, but I've decided to chart a new course. This is all still pending approval from a number of sources, but here's what I have so far:

Week 3 Assignment, Part 3

Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

I. Title: How does collaboration with professionals on other campuses improve instruction and/or student achievement.

II. Needs assessment – This exact data is on my campus in a notebook. The data that’s available online is “taking too long to respond.” (sigh)

III. Objectives and vision

a. I intend to show that collaboration with professionals on another campus yield instructional gains by broadening our resources and as a result, positively influence student achievement.

b. I will evaluate at the end of the school year by using a survey of the teachers involved and a series of reflections.

IV. Review of literature and strategy

a. Because I just changed my plan, I do not have any literature to support my research as yet.

b. My site supervisor and I collaborated to create this action plan.

c. We considered a couple of ideas and decided on this one because it includes an appropriate scope and the application is broad.

V. Articulate the vision – Frustrated by the lack of resources to address the demands of the new STAAR test and concerned with students’ mid-year scores, our team decided it would be advantageous to team up with language arts teachers at another school.

VI. Management the organiztion – This group meets about once each month either in person or via email as our schedules allow. We discuss lessons – what’s working, what’s not – then we set an agenda for the following meeting including which resources we’ll share.

VII. Manage operations – STAAR resources are what we focused on first. We then looked to engaging lessons with the kids. As time allowed, we discussed management and motivation of students.

VIII. Respond to community interests and needs

a. One of the advantages of this project is it includes teachers with a variety of experiences. Our schools have similar needs in terms of student populations, so sharing resources is a great way to work “smarter.”

b. Should our partner school not meet AYP, their students will be able to elect an alternative school, and our school is the closest of higher achieving schools, so we have a additional, vested interest in this other school’s success outside of the desire for success as a district.

A quick reflection

As I reviewed the research plans of my peers this week, I came to an encouraging conclusion: We're doing something right on my campus.

As I read through plan after plan of research, most looking at one way or another to improve test scores, these plans often included some form of:
- Being in close proximity with kids, working with and by them... not teaching to them
- Purposeful planning
- Purposeful talk with kids
- Recognizing and reinforcing in instruction
- Critical Writing

These strategies correlate directly with Sean Cain's Fundamental Five (c) which we have been incorporating into our instruction along with Marzano's instructional strategies. It's good to start the year with a feeling like maybe we're on the right track!

Apologies for multiple reposts!

To those of you who are kind enough to "follow" my site... While updating my plan, I inadvertently hit "Publish," so you received some non-updates. Thanks for your patience while I learn the technology!

A Plan!

After spinning a few ideas around in my head and talking with my site supervisor, I believe I have come to a central question: How does the level of questioning in reading instruction (read alouds, conferencing) impact student comprehension and independent reading level?

I believe that as I raise the level of my questioning, comprehension and application of reading in the content areas will go up - then student level of questioning among themselves in reading groups will go up - which increases engagement - producing higher comprehension scores and independent reading levels. (Do you like how I used dashes to punctuate all that? I was lost in a sea of commas and semi colons, so I diverted to hyphens.)

Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template Goal: To increase student comprehension and independent reading level by increasing the level of questioning in reading instruction (direct instruction and conferencing) Action Step(s) Person(s) Responsible Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation 1. Gather initial data Bentrup 8/20-9/30 - 10-11 EOY comprehension scores and IRL - 11-12 BOY comprehension scores and IRL 2. Data Collection (baseline) - student- generated questions - teacher-generated questions Bentrup 8/20-9/30 - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences 3. Examination of data Bentrup 10/01-10/15 Recordings from Step 2 Tally/graph questions according to Bloom’s or RRR Frmwk 4. Reflection - At what level are most of the questions (2 data sets- T/S) - Where/How can we push those questions into a higher level? - Goal setting Bentrup/ Carranza 10/01-10/15 - Recordings from Step 2 - Tally/graph from Step 3 - Bloom’s/ RRR Frmwk reference list of questions/levels 5. Data Collection -implementation of ideas from Step 4 – Record student discussions, teacher instruction Bentrup 10/15-12/20 - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences 6. Examination of data Bentrup 12/20-1/15 Recordings from Step 5 Tally/Graph questions according to Bloom’s or RRR Frmwk 7. Reflection - At what level are most of the questions (2 data sets- T/S) - Where/How can we push those questions into a higher level? - Goal setting Bentrup/ Carranza 12/20-1/15 - Recordings from Step 5 - Tallly/graph from Step 6 - Bloom’s/ RRR Frmwk reference list of questions/levels 8. Data Collection – implementation of ideas from Step 7 – Record student discussions and teacher instruction Bentrup 1/15-3/15 - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences 9. Examination of data Bentrup 3/15-3/30 Recordings from Step 8 Tally/graph questions according to Bloom’s or RRR Frmwk 10. Reflection - What changes, if any, have occurred? Bentrup/ Carranza 3/30-4/30 - Recordings from Step 8 - All tally/graphs 11. End testing data Bentrup May 2012 - TAKS scores - EOY IRL 12. Summary Bentrup May 2012 - All tally/graphs - 11-12 BOY and EOY testing data for my class and other 4th grade classes - Compare growth with growth in other classrooms not following the research plan * Continue literature review throughout research process to find additional opportunities for questioning in instruction (student to student and teacher to student) * Updated 7/31/11

Template from:

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps to improve our schools. Eye on Education Press.

Interesting...

After reading about the nine "passions" that drive inquiry outlined by Dana (2009) and watching online videos as assigned in my Research for Teachers class, I have noticed a common thread regarding how to choose my course of inquiry: personal interest.

- At the end of his interview with a University of Lamar professor, Dr.Kirk Lewis’ advice to researchers is to look at what is practical for you. “What do you need to know in order to apply directly to student learning?” He goes on to say that if the research is relevant to what you’re doing, you are more likely to apply it in your instruction.
- In Johnny Briseno's interview with a University of Lamar professor, he suggested that researchers “read in their areas of interest as much as possible.” He went on to say that when you’re struggling with something to go out and see what research already exists that can offer insight to your problem.

Anyone who works in a school building could point out weaknesses that need attention or generate questions regarding improvements they see that need to be made. The process of action research requires enduring, ongoing attention... gathering data, reflecting on data, tweaking the question for inquiry, gathering more data... and on, and on... if a practitioner's heart and focused attention aren't on the research, the data is likely to be incomplete. When choosing a topic of research, an inquirer must sift through all the issues lying before them and locate the one that piques their curiosity and generates an energy within them. The process has to be a priority. With that in mind, researchers need to focus on issues they have a heart for and are willing to not only put the time in to research but are also willing to take the effort to exert the change resulting from the research.

Resources:
Dana, Nancy Fichtman (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

University of Lamar & Briseno, Johnny. Interview retrieved from online course materials.

University of Lamar & Lewis, K. Interview retrieved from online course materials.

Blogs in Educational Leadership

Blogs are a rapidly growing medium in all professional fields and have many uses in education. Through this action research project, this blog will serve as a collaboration forum. As I set about designing my inquiry, my peers, as well as the general public, have the opportunity to comment and offer their expertise to my design. As I go through the data collection process, input from other professionals allows me to see data from different angles. As I reflect and set out to exact change in my classroom, others can benefit from my experiences by applying similar changes to their classrooms or investigating a new question brought about patterns found in my data.

Blogs also offer an excellent opportunity for educational leaders to brag on their staff. Principals can maintain blogs to keep the district and community up-to-speed on the goings-on in their buildings. Pictures and quick blurbs can boast classroom successes and building accomplishments while showcasing teachers and students.

How have you seen educational leadership use blogs?