Week 3 Action Research Plan

Topic: How does performing ongoing informal assessments help to increase student achievement of students performing below grade level.

August-September 2010: I will research the benefits of informal assessments in improving achievement in students performing below grade level. Google information on informal assessments and find articles in educational journals. Notes will be taken from research

September-October 2010: Observe informal assessments taking place in a classroom setting by an upper grade teacher volunteer. Observations will take place several times. Observational notes will be taken and documented.

September-October 2010: After observations are done, I will conduct an interview with the volunteer teacher to find out how he/she feels informal assessments are beneficial in the classroom as well as how they are used to drive instruction and form small groups. Interview notes will be taken for evaluation.

October 2010-April 2011: The site supervisor, volunteer teacher, and I will come up with a tracking system to use to follow the class' progress throughout the year. The tracking system will be used to evaluate the benefits of ongoing informal assessments.

October 2010-April 2011: I will meet with the classroom teacher periodically to review student progress on the ongoing informal assessments. Assessment data will be taken and updated on the tracking system.

May 2011: At the end of the year, my site supervisor, the classroom teacher, and I will look at the cumulative data and focus on the progress made by those students that were performing belwo grade level. The tracking system will show the collection of assessment data and show whether or not progress was made throughout the year.

Week 2 Reflection

After watching the videos for week 2 and reading chapter 2 in the Dana book, it seems to me the big message is to always keep in mind that your focus when doing action research is to be practical and data driven when making decisions for your school.

How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs

Blogs could be used by educational leaders as a sounding board to gather information about a certain issue they may be facing on their campus from other leaders or to simply connect to other leaders in their field. Blogs can also be used as a storage space for thoughts and ideas to be accessed at a later time for futher investigation.

Dana Fichman, Nancy (2009). Leading With Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

How I Plan to Use Action Research

I am interested in looking at the impact of small group instruction on students reading below grade level as the topic of my action research investigation. Every year we have many students that are reading below grade level on my campus and of course I have some of those students in my classroom. My district curriculum has teachers providing small group instruction in the classroom setting from the first 9 weeks of school. After Christmas break, our campus begins pull-out programs as well as an after school tutorial program to prepare students for the upcoming TAKS test. Both of these programs consist of groups that are no larger than 8 students so that their individual needs can be met. In one day, a struggling student could conceivably be pulled two times during the day and then be expected to stay after school as well. They are tired and often times not focused and it is a struggle to keep them motivated to attend and participate. I know that these struggling students need extra care, but I am wondering if we are hammering them with information that, at the end of the day, they are not retaining. Through my action study I am hoping to learn what a good scope and sequence would be for these struggling readers so that I can help them more effectively. Right now, I feel that my campus is providing these small group pull-out and tutorial programs a short time prior to the TAKS test and I can’t help but feel that this should be happening throughout the school year. I do want those struggling readers to pass the TAKS test, but most importantly, I want to ensure that these students become proficient readers.

Action Research

Action research allows administrators to be thinkers and pose questions that are specific to their campuses needs. The process informs administrators and gives them the power to make educated decisions that best fit their campuses. First administrators pose a specific question that they feel is worth investigating, they then gather data, analyze that data, and decide how to use their findings to make changes to teaching and/or leading practices. Administrators are encouraged to work in collaborative groups made up of other administrators, faculty, and/or staff as this process is pursued. Collaboration allows for all involved to feel a sense of ownership and buy in when change is called for. This differs from traditional research which relies on an outside source to do the research and then tell a campus what would be best practice. Many educators don't buy in to this type of leadership because they see that change as not realistic because it stems from someone or group that is not directly involved on the campus day-to-day.


Dana Fichman, Nancy (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Test

just checking to make sure this shows up on my blog...
I will be posting what I have learned about action research and how I might be able to use it as well as how educational leaders might use blogs soon!