Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: Determine what the most economically and instructionally feasible model for double blocking our secondary students in English in order to improve reading and writing across the district/
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Collect enrollment numbers, and ELA Staffing numbers for 6-12th at each campus across the district.	Erica Ysbrand (HS ELA Curriculum Director) Shirley Wright (MS ELA Curriculum Director), Louis Harvill	December/January 2012	Enrollment numbers	Enrollment Spreadsheet Staffing Spreadsheet
Interview department heads and curriculum directors to gauge support for Double Blocking	Louis Harvill	January 2013	Surveymonkey	Survey Data
Review Literature, develop several logistically sound models	Louis Harvill	February 2013	University Research Databases, Excel, manipulatives	Spreadsheets
Present Models for feedback from Curriculum Directors and Department Heads	Louis Harvill	March/Apri 2013l	Livebinder, Survey Monkey	Survey results
With approval, pitch best model to district principals	Louis Harvill	June 2013	PowerPoint, Moodle	Notes, feedback, moodle
If campuses accept, assist in implementation of Double-Blocked ELA	Louis Harvill	June/July/August 2013	TEAMS, face to face	Master Schedules
Survey teachers. Administrators, department heads on pilot campuses	Louis Harvill	December/January 2013	Survey Monkey, face to face	Survey results, notes from face to face
Analyze STAAR Data for evidence of improvement	Louis Harvill	May 2014	District Data database	Spreadsheets

Research: Questions, Reflection, and Profession

This week gave us the opportunity to see a lot of examples of action research topics, and spend a lot of time reflecting on what we want to do for our own research.  

This set of assignments came at a very appropriate time for me.  I spent Wednesday through Friday at a conference hosted by the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented (TAGT) in downtown Dallas. 

There were a wide range of excellent presenters, giving presentations on everything from Curriculum and Instruction to Program Design and Implementation, to the Social and Emotional needs of learners. 

The sessions I sat in on gave me a lot of great tools to take back to teachers, but also presented a lot of research that had been done by educators to determine best practices for gifted students.  They also reminded me some of the reasons I got into education, and I had an opportunity to speak with a lot of administrators about their experience in their education careers.

Through the course of the reading, and the course of the conference, I found some goals and some areas of interest for myself.  I know that one thing I want to continue to work on is helping my district improve cooperation between the Social Studies and ELA departments in order to increase student performance.  

I also spent a lot of time thinking about how data was presented and how research was done, and whether or not those processes had produced valid, applicable, verifiable, repeatable data.  All of those are important factors to consider about the research design for my Action Research Project.

Overall it was a really good week for me professionally, and in addition to the readings I had a lot of great experiences.  

P.S. If anyone’s looking for some great resources for using technology in instruction, I highly recommend http://www.brianhousand.com

How Educational Leaders Can Use Blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs in a variety of ways.  They could create a blog for parents to communicate information about upcoming school events.  They could create a blog to share the books they are currently reading, either to share educational philosophy with teachers and parents, or to share literature with students.  They could create an internal blog for teachers in order to raise questions or reflect on recent changes in practices.

Action Research 101

I’ve learned that action research is a targeted, systematic, local way of examining and improving instructional and administrative practices.  It looks at problems that are specific to a campus or classroom and examines the data to determine how best to solve them.  One comforting thing I learned is that, usually, most of the data required for action research is already being collected. We just have to be sure to capture that data and then examine it in a meaningful way.

I realized through the course of the reading that I’d already participated in action research at my campus and in my district on a fairly regular basis. I just didn’t have that particular vocabulary to describe it.  In my classroom, I called it triage.  When essays were submitted, I’d keep track of where students were having the most trouble, and then I’d look for ways to improve those skills in my classroom.  Then I’d look at the next essay, paying special attention to the areas addressed, and look for the next major concern.   On our campus, we examined various standardized testing data to determine what issues might need cross curricular intervention. We implemented short answer questions in all classes in order to improve student performance on that part of the ELA test. 

As an administrator, I’ll emulate the example of my principal, and work collaboratively with staff, to identify issues, gather data, and implement improvements to instructional practices.