Another change of plans

My Action Research Project “2^ND Chance at Homework” allowed students to have the chance to turn late work until the day before our campuses 9 week exams are administered. My goal was to have more students turn in their homework and since more students were turning in homework I was also hoping for better academic performance on test I would be administering during this time period.

The initial results of the project were inconclusive because I was having more students turn in homework which could be viewed as somewhat of a success but I was still struggling to have students do well on more rigorous test I was using. I decided to add another element to allowing students who wanted to turn in late homework. That extra element that I added is that students who wish to turn in late homework must write at least a paragraph summary about what subject was covered during the homework. I received negative thoughts from my students when I explained the new rules and because of this I had lower amount of students turn in late homework because some students refused to write the summary of what the subject of their homework was about. Even though I had a smaller amount of students turn in late homework because the new stipulations, the students who were electing to complete their homework despite having to write the summary about the subject of their homework were doing better on test. The reason I feel they are doing better on their test is because I feel that by having to write summaries over their homework the students were able to better understand the content and therefore achieve higher scores on test. So overall I might not have as many students turn in late homework to me but the students who are choosing to do their late homework are achieving higher test scores which I feel is a success in my opinion.        

A Change of Plans

The day before my meeting with my site team supervisor (Mrs. Stidom Assistant Principal) I felt that I knew exactly what I wanted to do for my action research project which was to attempt to fix the Social Studies department two weakest areas which are Economics and Government but at lunch the day of the meeting I had scheduled with Mrs. Stidom I was talking with a fellow teacher who was discussing the problems she was having with students who weren’t turning in work and then were proceeding to not pass her assessments. I shared with her that I was also having similar struggles in my classroom.

After having that conversation with another teacher I have decided to change my action research plan. I have decided to change my homework grading policy to see if that will affect the success on test. Like other teachers on my campus I was following the procedures on late work policies which are that you have up to 3 days to turn in late work (unless you are sick) but afterwards you no longer can receive credit for the assignment. Starting in January when there is homework assigned my students will be allowed until the end of chapter test to turn in their work. My goal is that by allowing students to turn in their work later I’m hoping that more people will attempt to do their work which will allow more success on test. Once the new grading policy will be in effect I plan on recording data not only on test but also the amount of people who are turning in work to see if there is any correlation between the amount of people who are turning in homework compared to the amount of people who are passing test administered.

I discussed the change I wanted to make for my action research project and my site team supervisor felt that this project could really create a positive change within my classroom and approved of the change. She also made me aware that there still will be students who will not take advantage of the opportunity of having more time to complete assignments but not to get frustrated and continue to give full effort to my action research project plan.      

my action research project

1. Examining the work: Setting the foundation: A topic that could use action research to solve the problems its facing would be how to attempt to prevent the social studies department at my campus from having low scores in the subjects of government and economics even though they have scored low in these subjects mentioned the last 7 years.
2.  Analyze Data: The data that I will analyze will be the state test from previous years and also test that our campus have administered to our students to see if our campus has been doing a good job of giving test that are rigorous. Also the creation of student focus groups that will discuss the type of learning they prefer will help me to understand what way the curriculum should be introduced to the students. I also feel that once a month the department should get together analyze test together because I feel that if I were just analyzing data myself I would only have my opinion instead the entire group’s thoughts.

3. Developing a deeper understanding: To help develop a deeper understanding I plan on creating student focus groups which will help me understand what ways students prefer to learn. I also plan on reviewing state test from previous year which will help me create test during year that provide the same rigor as state tests.

4. Engaging in self-reflection: Engaging in self- reflection will help me to hopefully see things that I possibly missed involving the action research project. Through reflection you are able to understand things that maybe you didn’t before spending time reflecting about the project.

5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns:  In exploring programmatic patterns it’s important to ask questions that initially you might not have considered as important. The reason you want to do this is because if you only focus on your initial questions you might have a false sense of success. What I mean by a false sense of success is that there might be other questions that should be answered by doing your research but if you choose to ignore those questions your project wouldn’t be considered a complete success. It’s also important to understand equity issues involving your project. You have understand the type of students that are involved in the project and their economic backgrounds to better understand your results.      

6. Determining direction: In determining the direction of the action research project is important that you reach a collaborative decision on what direction you want the project to go. If you can’t reach a consensus decision the project will not reach its full potential. When determining the direction you must review your goals and make sure your direction is leading towards the goals you are planning on reaching.

7. Taking action for school improvement: When taking action for school improvement it’s important to have some type of written format that allows you to monitor, evaluate, and plan during your action research project. Monitoring, evaluating, and planning are 3 major parts of action research but are things that can’t always be done verbally.

     8.  Sustaining improvement: As an educator you always should be seeking ways to improve even after the completion of an action research project. I feel the best method to sustain improvement involving my action research project would be the CARE Model because I really like the idea of how it emphasizes the good things the group is doing but also keeps the group aware of possible future concerns.

Lessons learned from week 2

This week I learned that the action research project must have individuals who are committed to allowing the project reach its true potential because if everyone involved isn’t truly committed to the project it will not work. The concept honestly makes me think of the soccer teams I was on in college. We had a lot of potential on the team but at times not everyone was committed including me and the results were us not reaching our ultimate goal of winning the national championship.  

Action Research/ Blogs in education

So far by reading about Action Research I have been able to learn many things involved with the process of action research but the major point that I have taken away so far in my readings has been that action research can only be successful if there is a group committed to solving the problem that the group has encountered. I really like and appreciate that idea because I feel in anything you do whether it be solving a crime as a police detective or game planning for a upcoming opponent in a sport it’s always better when you have multiple people collaborating together to solve problems instead of just one person attempting to solve the problem. The idea or theory of having a group working together to solve issues within education I feel has been around for quite a long time but I feel a problem with this is that groups or organizations don’t properly work together to solve problems they are facing. I feel that I am going to be able use action research in a positive manner because it will allow me to collaborate with other educators to solve problems that I feel by myself would be harder to solve.  

I feel educational leaders could use blogs for multiple purposes. The major purpose I could see educational leaders using blogs for would be to share methods with each other and report the results of these methods and also how to enhance each other’s strategies in education.