Revised Action Plan

Action Plan Study: If 2nd and 3rd grade teachers are provided with a writing mentor program and participate in ongoing book studies, will their students’ sentence length, syntax grade level, use of transitions and ability to write in paragraphs increase by a measurable amount?
Goals: ·         To improve 2nd and 3rd grade students’ ability to: write in paragraph form using effective transitions, increase sentence length, and syntax grade level. ·         To further develop teachers’ confidence and knowledge in writing instruction.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Collect student journal and writing samples to find strengths and weaknesses before and after study for the purpose of comparison.	Four classroom teachers in grades 2-3. Mrs. Meneses	May 2012	Student journals and writing samples	Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score on MS Word
Conduct writing curriculum based assessments every six weeks	Four classroom teachers in grades 2-3. Mrs. Meneses	Throughout the 2012-2013 school year	Curriculum based assessments for grades 2-5	Writing committee will record and analyze data by charting progress on given TEKS across grade levels. Teachers will use this data to guide instruction.
Coordinating book-studies that focus on writing instruction. An effective author is Ralph Fletcher, who has several wonderful books on the topic.	Four classroom teachers in grades 2-3. Mrs. Meneses	9/2012-12/2013	Ralph Fletcher literature (quantity to be determined at a later date)	Teacher and student questionnaires will be used to determine effectiveness of book study. Lesson plans and classroom observations will be used to evaluate progress.
Using effective teachers to share knowledge through co-teaching, modeling instruction, and mentoring.	Four classroom teachers in grades 2-3. Mrs. Meneses	Throughout the 2012-2013 school year	Lesson plans, anchor charts, etc.  created by mentor teacher	Questionnaires will be used to determine effectiveness of book study. Lesson plans and classroom observations will be used to evaluate progress in both teachers and students.

Revising My Action Research Plan

The conference with my site supervisor was extremely insightful and interesting. Mr. Silverman and I sat down for about 45 minutes to discuss my action research plan, therefore I had the opportunity to share my ideas and get some great feedback.

After discussing the questions and the activities on my action research plan, we came to the conclusion that it would be best to eliminate student motivation and focus on teacher development. This was due to the fact that whatever data being collected must be measurable. Mr. Silverman and I agreed that it would be far too challenging at this point to measure student motivation. Never the less, we concluded that focusing on specific writing goals would be measurable. Another revision made was to minimize the grade levels participating in the action research. We agreed that the grade levels with the greatest weakness are 2^nd and 3^rd grade. So we determined that I would collect writing samples at the end of this school year from those grades only. These writing samples will be analyzed for syntax grade level, sentence length, average of transitions per sentence, and students’ capability to write using paragraphs. I will be entering these writing samples into the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score on MS Word. By doing so, I will I will find the level of readability of each writing sample. Readability statistics are good predictors of the level of difficulty of documents, especially technical ones.

Mr. Silverman and I feel that these skills are the most challenging for teachers and students. If students are able to improve in these areas, they are most likely using stronger conventions and applying literacy skills to their writing. What we have planned is that I will collect these samples from 4 particular teachers in May of this school year. The following school year, the same teachers will provide writing samples in May again, but from their current students. This allows the teacher to apply knowledge acquired through the mentor program and book studies. If the teacher has grown professionally, it should be evident when data is collected and compared to the previous year. The groups of students must meet similar criteria though. We concluded that the activities that would be most appropriate for this study are the following: Implementing a mentor program among 2 bilingual teachers and 2 monolingual teachers, and organizing on going book studies that provide teachers with opportunities to develop professional competence. Both the mentor program and book studies will show teachers how to use mentor texts to teach writing.  That being said, I have revised my action plan question.

My new research question is:

If 2^nd and 3^rd grade teachers are provided with a writing mentor program and participate in ongoing book studies, will their students’ sentence length, syntax grade level, use of transitions and ability to write in paragraphs increase by a measurable amount?

Assessments and accountability was another topic discussed during our meeting. Mr. Silverman is allowing me to create six-week assessments for teachers who are participating in the mentor program to use during the upcoming school year. The purpose of these assessments is to monitor both teacher and student progress and to keep teachers accountable throughout the year. Too often, we hear that teachers “don’t have time” for writing because they are busy preparing kid for state exams. Other times, teachers say they integrate writing throughout content areas, yet they don’t do it effectively.

In addition, my principal and I talked about how we will select teachers being asked to participate. We want to make sure that teachers asked to participate are not only in agreement, but feel the necessity for the mentorship program. It is also imperative that these teachers are not currently using teaching strategies such as the ones discussed by the author, Ralph Fletcher. We feel that the study would be most effective if participating teachers were enthusiastic and eager to grow professionally.  One of my fears in conducting this research study was that my principal would not allow me to monitor other teachers, but he permitted me to observe teachers by conducting walkthroughs before and after the mentoring program is initiated.

After having this conference with my supervisor, I feel much more confident and ready to begin my action research. The meeting not only provided me with guidance, but also made me foresee this action research study much more clearly. 

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template Goals: 1.         To improve students’ ability to write cohesively and at grade level across all content areas in grades 2nd - 5th 2.       To further motivate students to become effective writers and develop a passion for it. 3.       To further develop teachers’ knowledge and passion in teaching writing for grades 2nd-5th Action Steps(s): Person(s) Responsible: Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation Collect student journal and writing samples to find strengths and weaknesses and for further comparison the following school year. Teachers should choose a low, medium, and high sample in each classroom. Bilingual teachers should provide samples in both English and Spanish. Classroom teachers in grades 2-5. Mrs. Meneses May 2012 Student journals and writing samples Use grade level TEKS to identify patterns of strengths and weaknesses amongst grade levels. Create a campus blog where students and teachers share great writing samples and lessons Mrs. Meneses and any teachers on campus who would like to join the blog 4/2012 - 5/2013 Parental release form for students’ information to be published such as pictures and biographies. The blog is ongoing and will be evaluating whether or not students and teachers are further motivated by publishing great pieces of writing and sharing them with other teachers and students across the district and/or nation. Provide professional development for teachers that demonstrates how to use mentor texts to teach writing. Curriculum Specialist Throughout the 2012-2013 school year To be updated at a later time. This is dependent upon teacher surveys and other data analysis. Principal and curriculum specialists’ observations. Conduct writing curriculum based assessments three times a year, in grades 2-5. All classroom teachers Mr. Silverman September 2012 January 2013 May 2013 Curriculum based assessments for grades 2-5 Writing committee will record and analyze data by charting progress on given TEKS across grade levels. Teachers will use this data to guide instruction. Coordinating book-studies that focus on writing instruction. An effective author is Ralph Fletcher, who has several wonderful books on the topic. All classroom teachers who teach writing in grade level 2-5. 9/2012-12/2013 Ralph Fletcher literature (quantity to be determined at a later date) Teacher and student questionnaires will be used to determine effectiveness of book study. Lesson plans and classroom observations will be used to evaluate progress in both teachers and students. Using effective teachers to share knowledge through co-teaching, modeling instruction, and mentoring. Committee members Participating teachers Throughout the 2012-2013 school year Lesson plans, anchor charts, etc.  created by mentor teacher Teacher and student questionnaires will be used to determine effectiveness of book study. Lesson plans and classroom observations will be used to evaluate progress in both teachers and students. Using a video camera to record teachers executing effective writing lessons. These lessons will be used to share with and motivate other teachers. Writing committee members Participating classroom teachers Throughout the 2012-2013 school year Video camera Teacher and student questionnaires will be used to determine effectiveness of book-studies. Lesson plans and classroom observations will be used to evaluate progress in both teachers and students. Honor students with a WRITING AWARD every six weeks. One student per grade level is chosen. Writing committee chooses the winner each six weeks. Students are celebrated on our Hopkins blog and given a certificate. Classroom teachers Throughout the 2012-2013 school year (every six weeks when students are awarded Certificates and spirit sticks used during award ceremonies Both teachers and students will be surveyed to identify increase in academic progress and motivation.

Brainstorming Ideas for Action Research

     My conference with Mr. Silverman, my principal, was quite interesting and very successful. We discussed a problem that we have noticed more prevalent as time has passed. Our bilingual program does not have a clear definition in terms of goals and objectives per grade level. What I mean is that the percentage of English and Spanish taught throughout content areas are not cohesive from grade level to grade level. I mentioned to him that students are coming into 3^rd and 4^th grade without the ability to transfer knowledge, which is expected by this time. We discussed the lack of teacher proficiency in either English or Spanish as well. In addition, we talked about the type of professional development that might benefit some of the bilingual teachers on campus. His opinion about this topic was that it was a good, but not a great topic for me to begin an action research study on, because he feels that I’m already very knowledgeable on the matter.

     We also conversed about the low Science scores on Curriculum based assessments and state assessments. We specifically talked about our Hispanic students scoring lower than the White and African-American populations. I mentioned about some ideas for possible solutions that I have been brainstorming. I asked him what his opinion was about choosing our strongest Science teacher and having him co-teach alongside other teachers in order to provide modeling for teachers who could benefit. I also mentioned that this teacher could be in charge of observing other teachers while they teach, not with the intention of criticizing, but with the purpose of providing feedback. Since this might be intimidating for some teachers, it could first be provided to teachers who actually yearn for guidance. I explained to him that I have had a teachers sent to my classroom; one by our Bilingual Coordinator and another by the Reading Specialist. For them it was a positive experience because I shared my ideas, my resources or materials, and I modeled my style of teaching. Both of these teachers were very pleased and unthreatened by the experience. One of the teachers was from another school in our district, and to this day we share ideas and resources. When I reminded my principal of this, he seemed to be more open to the idea of selecting an effective Science teacher to share the knowledge with others. Mr. Silverman shared with me how difficult it can be to wear so many hats as a principal. He said this might be a good opportunity to select someone else to do what might be an overwhelming for him. We talked about the duties that make-up most of his day. Handling discipline issues, answering phone calls, talking to concerned parents, and lunch duty. All of these things take away time that he could dedicate to modeling effective instruction and conducting longer walk-throughs. He thought it would be a good idea to have Mr. Hanberick, our most knowledgeable Science teacher take the lead in raising our scores, although he understood it might be somewhat uncomfortable to some individuals on campus.

     The last thing we discussed was a problem that he and I have discussed before. Our students tend to have difficulty producing a cohesive piece of writing. This is a weakness we are seeing in all grade levels. I believe that Mr. Silverman mentioned this topic of study because he knows how much I enjoy teaching Language Arts. He wanted me to know that he is not only concerned about the 4^th grade STAAR assessment, but more than anything, concerned about the quality of writers we are eventually sending to middle school and so on. We spoke about ideas fro professional development, the deep connection between reading and writing, and finally about how teaching with a passion can have a great effect on our students. Although I have not yet researched this deeper, and I have not conducted any data analysis, I have an idea on motivating both teachers and students. I shared some of these ideas with my supervisor and he was very interested. Because my supervisor demonstrated deep concern for this issue, I decided that this will be the topic for my action research project. I look forward to learning through my inquiry and making a difference on my campus. I plan to use my findings to benefit whatever setting I may lead in the future. 

What Every Leader in Education Should Be Doing

What is Action/Inquiry Research?

Inquiry research is the process in which a principal engages in systematic and intentional study of a topic involving administrative practice. The practitioner poses a question and devotes the time and energy in order to find new understandings. This process not only involves research such as reading relevant literature, but also a plan of action in which data is collected and analyzed. In addition, the process involves reflection, and the ultimate goal is to seek out change. Ultimately, an administrative inquiry is the vehicle for school improvement and success. The principal is able to feel ownership for his/her own development. This in turn, provides a great example for the teachers to do the same.

Advantages of Conducting Action Research

There are many benefits in conducting administrative inquiry. A powerful advantage in implementing action research is that the principal is able to control his or her own professional development because he/she becomes the head learner. Administrative inquiry is interactive, practical and designed around the needs of teachers and students. Without action research it is less likely that the principal will find the time to identify future problems or look for solutions to existing problems in the school. Also, because the principal is the only individual on campus with that position, this type of inquiry gives him/her the opportunity to venture out and have quality interaction with others in the school as well as other principals. When conducting action research, the principal focuses on a problem, plan of action, and solution; instead of pondering on several tasks and never fully completing them. Because the principal has a plan of action and is continuously reflecting, he/she is able to be proactive instead of simply reacting to existing problems. Consistent action inquiry provides the leader with the opportunity to model for his/her teachers and students, which benefits the school climate and organization. In conclusion, when administrators begin to practice action inquiry, best practices begin to flourish due to new findings in data. 

How Educational Leaders Can Use Blogs

Blogging is the journal of the 21^st Century. It is a powerful way for leaders in education to capture their own thinking and organize their research. Not only is it a great way to collect data, it is also a wonderful way to share it with others in the field. Principals are able to share their inquiry research with principals and educators who work all over the country. They are also able to learn from other principal’s research or reflections. Since bloggs are cumulative, one is able to go back and read in order to reflect on the past and any pondering questions one might have had. This means that learning is constant as well as the process of reflection. This turns into thinking with a motive and reason. The act of reflection is beneficial in four distinct ways. It provides the educational leader with clarification because it encourages one to think deep and big by creating questions that help mold our research. It provides us with empowerment due to the fact that we become advocates for our schools, hence challenging others. It is generative because blogging is tangible, and it’s a way to communicate with parents and coworkers. And finally, it provides the leader with a sense of accomplishment.