Week Five Action Research

Well here it is week five and I have submitted my assignment and completed my course completion survey. It feels good to be done. I have learned so much in this course and am pumped to get started on my action research project. Met with the site base team at school this week and they have agreed to assist with the project. Now my principal wants me to present to our staff on Monday when we go back to school. One of my favorite quotes from the text was if you are not moving forward you are moving backward. In Science terms if I'm not in motion then I'm inactive or at rest. Loved the course and loved blogging. I plan on using blogging with my kids this year at school. I am ready to go on a positive note for this school year. Stand by as I journey through middle earth and beyond this year. I hope my little hobbits and I have a great year.

Fourth Week Action Research Plan

Well I have completed week four and have revised my action research plan following a meeting with my site supervisor. My plan currently involves improving the TAKS Reading scores of our Hispanic sub group by using "hands on" and moving from very concrete to abstract thoughts and strategies. Many of these I learned this summer during a four day ESL Academy that was led by two ESL teachers in our district. They are also our language diagnosticians and they had some excellent research and strategies. We will also use vocabulary in Spanish and English starting at the early grades and progressing. Win win no matter what ethnicity as the Hispanic group is the fastest growing group in the United States. I would love to post my entire action research plan but have not quite figured out how to do that. Does anyone have any tips for how to do that? Thanks so much and signing off from middle earth.

Cheryl

Action Research Plan

This third week of my action inquiry involved making an action research plan. My goal is to improve the Reading TAKS scores among the Hispanic sub-group investigating what is working in Science and incorporating into REading. I plan on using ESL techniques that I learned at an ESL Academy this summer and also techniques of going from vocabulary to vocabularioo and concrete experiences. It is also important to build relationships with Hispanic students which will help to build success. I will use DMAC scores on Benchmarks and TAKS released tests. If required I will tutor students over each assessment following the objectives. I will use walk-throughs to help with observational assessments. I will also use a lot of concrete activities and move to abstract testing. Then I will also move from journaling with informal language to a more formal language. The final assessment will be the improvement of this sub-group on the TAKS test. This seems like a lot to do but as I went through the plan I realized how much of this we are already doing at our school but now just taking an area that works/Science and trying to use some of the same techniques in Reading.