Dr. Borel began the web conference reviewing the critical
dates calendar. I found this helpful as I was able to update my calendar and
know when my future classes started and stopped. She also reiterated what
updates to TK20 that are due by week 5. This was also helpful to be reminded of
those tasks since week 5 is just around the corner and there is still a lot of
work to be done. However the most helpful part of the web conference was Dr.
Borel’s turorial in our APA assignment. I learned through question number 3
that it is important to make sure that the text is double spaced and that the
first line is left justified and the other lines following must be formatted as
hanging margins which is a five space indentation. When citing a quotation the year must follow
the author and placed in parenthesis. When Dr. Borel examined question 4, she
taught us that when paraphrasing authors, the page number does not have to be
included and the names of the authors do not need to be mentioned twice. She
also talked about when to use the ampersand symbol and when it is not
appropriate, yet I found this to be a touch confusing. During the review of
number 8, the most interesting thing I learned was that the title of the book
was formatted in italics and only the first word was capitalized. It was
insightful to learn how to format a quote from a website during the review of
question number 1 since that introductory question seemed to be one of the most difficult.
Research in Action!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Action Update
I have completed the first 5 steps of my action research plan. I administered the surveys to the students regrading their confidence in writing and was not suprised to find that many of the students did not know how to begin to write a personal narrative. I also surveyed the teachers concerns with these students writing, and many indicated that not only is the ability to write a cohesive narrative or persuasive essay important, many of these students lack the application of grammar conventions. Therefore I have continued to follow the use of the writing workshop model and I have seen a great improvement in students' confidence and their grammar applications. I need to start sifting through some of the cuurent formative assessment data in Galileo, that the school implemented recently, in order to create a data tracking chart. My research plan will not be complete however until the state test scores come back this summer and then I will be able to compare these students previous 2012 scores.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Week 3 Action Research Plan
Action Plan
|
||||
Goal: To evaluate
the use of “Writing Workshop” portfolios in the Writing Intervention program
at Cactus Middle School, and monitor student progress.
|
||||
Action Steps(s):
|
Person(s) Responsible:
|
Timeline: Start/End
|
Needed Resources
|
Evaluation
|
1.Seek
approval for possible action research topic
|
Gretchen
Lutz
Deanna
Smith-Stout
|
December
2012
|
Action
Research Plan
|
Agreement
from Site Supervisor
|
2. Modify
the specific action research topic if needed
|
Gretchen
Lutz
Deanna
Smith-Stout
|
December
2012
|
*Questions
*Proposed
issues on campus
|
Approval
from site supervisor
|
3. Collect
writing benchmark assessment data
|
Gretchen
Lutz
Amy Powell
Deanna
Smith-Stout
|
January
2013
|
*Galileo
testing data
|
Target low
performing
objectives.
Record and
chart student scores
|
4. Collect
2011/ 2012 AIMS writing test scores for each student
|
Gretchen
Lutz
Amy Powell
|
December
2012
|
AIMS data
|
Target low
performing
objectives.
Record and
chart student scores
|
5. Survey
students regarding their confidence in writing
|
Gretchen
Lutz
|
January
9,10, 2012
|
Create
surveys
|
Record
initial data
|
4.
Interview target students Language Arts teachers
|
Gretchen
Lutz
6th,
7th and 8th grade LA teachers
|
January
2012
|
Student
schedules
|
Record data
|
4. Survey
students about their knowledge the components of writing workshop:
prewriting, rough drafting, edit, final copy
|
Gretchen
Lutz
Writing
Intervention focus students
|
January
2012
|
Create
surveys
|
Record data
|
5. Ongoing
collection of formative and summative writing assessments and data
|
Gretchen
Lutz
|
January-May
2013
|
Collect
Galileo assessment and benchmark data
|
Target
6-trait writing objectives improvement. Track and Record progress
|
6. Survey
students confidence in writing
|
Gretchen
Lutz
|
May 2013
|
Use same
survey to collect valid data
|
Determine
if confidence was built in certain areas
|
7. Gather
2013 AIMS writing data
|
Gretchen
Lutz
Deanna
Smith Stout
|
TBA (AIMS)
might not be released until summer
|
Collect
AIMS data
|
Analyze and
record areas of student progress
|
8. Present
findings of research project to
district principals and district
office.
|
Gretchen
Lutz
|
TBA (after
receiving AIMS data, compose presentation. I will need AIMS scores to make
this research meaningful)
|
Written
Presentation
|
Disseminate
the
results of
the action plan with the school district and possibly publish
|
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Blogs for Educational Leaders
Blogs can be a great way for principals to communicate with staff, parents, stakeholders, and other principals. We live in very hurried society these days. Administrators and staff rarely have day to day face contact let alone daily converstaion. Often the only time parents converse with the pricipal is when their child breaks a school rule and is pending the consequences. Blogging can keep the lines of communication open between prinicpals and parents as well as administrators and staff. For example the principal may blog about his or her reaction to an interesting article they about student motivation. The blog can be a tool in which the staff can comment and ideas can be generated regarding how to implement the motivational tools in their classrooms. Blogs can also be used by administrators to develop a repoire with busy parents. The principal can blog about up-coming events, post pictures, and generate campus improvements with parents. I also like the idea that according to Dana (2009) "principals can share their journal writing or blogging time with students to model a love of writing" (p. 89).
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Action Research Overview
Action research is an essential tool for administrators to use for self reflective professional leadership development, as well as implementing research and hypothesis for greater change on their campus. It can begin with a "wondering" about how to improve an on-campus area of concern or how to continue areas to flourish (Dana 2009). The true benefit of action research, with administrator as acting inquirer, is that the campus research is done by the on-campus administrative leader or leaders. Although off-campus university based researchers formulate data and conculsions about how to address certain eduational needs, the data may not reflect the real time needs of the school in question, and address all of it's nuances. The school's administrators, leaders, and staff are the network who observes the needs of their school and understands the needs of their students. Therefore the action research should take place on-campus. The research can be guided by the principal yet further shared and implemented with the staff. From this collaboration ideas can be generated and conclusions made regrading how to make the best changes for all involved.
One way I am going to use action research is to model for my staff and students the role as life long learner. By sharing this inquiry into my own self development to be a better leader and showing the methods I used for looking into campus improvements, I will inadvertently model this research process for my teaching staff. As Roland Barth states, "Perhaps the most powerful reason for principals to be learners as well as leaders, to overcome the many impediments to their learning, is the extraordinary influence of modeling behavior" (Dana 2009). As I formulate and share my inquiries with my staff and leadership groups, I can further this process by generating my staff to inquire and self reflect on their own teaching methods.
Another way that I can use action research is to personally invest in my own development as a leader. I will need to reflect on my personal actions and the processes I may need to take in order to have a better rapport with my staff, parents of students, and stakeholders. I may need to question myself regarding my leadership style and subsequently find solutions to build a better degree of trust in my leadership ablilities.
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
One way I am going to use action research is to model for my staff and students the role as life long learner. By sharing this inquiry into my own self development to be a better leader and showing the methods I used for looking into campus improvements, I will inadvertently model this research process for my teaching staff. As Roland Barth states, "Perhaps the most powerful reason for principals to be learners as well as leaders, to overcome the many impediments to their learning, is the extraordinary influence of modeling behavior" (Dana 2009). As I formulate and share my inquiries with my staff and leadership groups, I can further this process by generating my staff to inquire and self reflect on their own teaching methods.
Another way that I can use action research is to personally invest in my own development as a leader. I will need to reflect on my personal actions and the processes I may need to take in order to have a better rapport with my staff, parents of students, and stakeholders. I may need to question myself regarding my leadership style and subsequently find solutions to build a better degree of trust in my leadership ablilities.
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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