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.