Change made to focus my research

Quite a lot of time has progressed since my last post. A change I made at the beginning of my action research was changing my focus from having teachers bring written samples to discuss to the surveying teachers understanding of a good writing prompt.   Focusing on the understanding the process of selecting a good writing prompt to measure students language ability. The district I work in does provide good prompts, however at times the prompts are not what the teachers are teaching. This can be frustrating for teachers.

Slowley comming along.

Here is my update on my action research that is looking at how to increase the amount of students that achieve advanced high on the TELPAS written section. So far I have created a spread sheet for each grade level that has three years of TELPAS information to help determine if the students are growing a proficiency a year. A spread sheet with for each grade level that has the demographiscs of the students, last years telpas, STAAR results, Woodcock- Munoz scores and am adding their reading LEXIL score. I have found binders and added tabs into the binders for each teacher. By Sunday this week each binder is going to have a copy of last years TELPAS writing samples and the TELPAS written rubric. I am also going to include a progress monitoring tool that the district has developed for motoring the language progress of the ELL population. There will be a discussion over how TELPAS is measuring language progress and STAAR is measuring academic progress. The a discussion over why students who are ELL need to have their language progress monitored like the read 180 students are every two weeks. The Sample writings are going to be used by the teachers to work together rating the students to determine their level as a base and then each month we are coming together to rate students to determine progress. There is also going to be a discussion over what is meant by authentic writing samples from the core classrooms.The progress of my action research is going slower than I anticipated.

Reflection Over Action Research Class

Five weeks ago when this class started I had no idea what an action research study was. I did not even know how to put the plan together to make sure I stayed focus and finished it in the eighteen months that this program takes to complete. Earlier in my educational career I have done research papers where you simply read the research about a specific topic and regurgitate the information into a paper and turn it in. This is a whole new way to find solutions. It is based on data collected throughout the timeline established in my action research plan. In Leading With Passion and Knowledge Nancy Fichtman Dana states that “administrator inquiry becomes a powerful vehicle for learning and school improvement.” (p, 3) By taking this cores and understanding the importance of the action research, I now can have a better understanding of how the action research can improve students, teachers, and schools. My school district has in the past encouraged teachers to do action research but there was not true understanding of how the research could impact both students and teachers. Each week during this class we dug a little bit deeper into the meaning and practice of how to do an action research study. Now I am a little nervous as the school year is about to start and I am going to involve the core teachers and support staff in this endeavor. As I was looking for specific literature that involves my research question, I found that there is not a lot written on how to improve TELPAS rating on the written part of the test. However there are a lot of strategies on how to help an ELL student developing their writing and developing writing in the core subjects. I will be using those academic journals to help me develop my own teacher toolbox. Last week’s assignment stretched my thinking. It introduced four different strategies to get me to look at my action research study from different perspectives. The Force Field Analysis was the easiest for me to write about because it focuses on “bringing about a change begins with understanding the circumstances surrounding the needed change”. (Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2009) I was new in my position last year, spent a lot of time listening and gathering information about the ELL program at my campus and realized that a change was needed to ensure that the ELL population is progressing at the same rate as their same age peers.  The CARE strategy was the hardrest for me because it wanted me look at concerns for making sure positive change continue happening in the future. Look at affirmations in the present to keep the action research process positive and give recommendations of how to successfully launch and complete the action research process. Last to evaluate the action research process often to determine the outcome and adjust if necessary. This assignment stretched my thinking about my action research study that I had not yet thought of. Blogging and receiving feedback from my peers have been helpful. I also enjoy reading others blogs and commenting on their blogs. The discussion board is another useful tool to stretch my thinking and read other students thinking. This has been a great class I learned a lot. Dana Fichtman, Nancy. (2009). Leading With passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. United States of America: Crowin and American Association of School Administrators. Harris, Sandra. Edmonson, Stacey. Combs, Julie. Examining What We do To Improve our Schools: 8 Steps From Analysis To Action. United States of America: Eye On Education

Week 4 Reflection on Action Research Study

After a week filled with leadership retreat with my campus and cognitive coaching for work. I can now sit down and share the progress I have made with my action research study.

Thanks to all the people that made comments on how to improve my action research plan I incorporated those in to the plan before I emailed it my principal reviewed the action research plan and she approved it without any changes. Throughout this process we have discussed the needs of the ELL population and brainstormed many times how to approach the fact that they are not progressing at the same rate as their same age peers. The meetings started in June when she helped me to focus my internship plan and in July when we sat down and discussed the focus for my action research plan. The last few times we have emailed each other to make sure I am heading in the right direction. The last Email from her was positive and she is very excited over the process of following me and my action research plan.
 

Specific challenges I can for see as I implement my action research study are, time constraints, core teachers not bringing samples of student writing with them to the meetings, teachers understanding how the focus of one sub population is beneficial for all students. Before I meet with teachers and start this process I am going to sit down with my principal and address the challenge of teachers not bringing essays to the meeting. I am also going to have an agenda sent out about a week before we meet to ensure teachers know what we are doing during the meeting. There will be a set protocol for how the meeting is run to ensure we have the time we need to evaluate the essays. Data will be used to help teachers understand the reason for focusing on the ELL population. There are probably unforeseen issues which I have to deal with as I encounter them.