Student Sample Action Research

1. What is the problem?
     Students are struggling with recognizing rhyme and word families.
2. What is the rational for the project?
     An over reliance on phonics instruction and recognizing the rhyme or word family can simplify the process; helping learners achieve reading fluency and avoid frustration.
3. What strategy will be used to address the problem?
     Simulations and Games; Implementation of a range of rhyming games
4. What is the question?
     Guiding question:"How can I use a variety of rhyming games to help my students recognize rhyme and word families in text?"
Supporting question: "Will the rhyme strategies change students attitudes about reading instruction?"
5. What evidence is supported that the strategy will work?
     She has different resources that she found that supported her strategy such as: Allen 1998, Bradely and Bryant 1983, Wylie and Durrell 1970, etc.
6. How will data be collected?
     Through observation, use of a checklist, and personal journaling

Secondary Action Research Article

1. What is the title of the project?
     Evidence of understanding in an 8th grade classroom
2. What is the question?
     What happens when students participate in the process of providing evidence of their understanding?
3. What strategy is being used to address?
     Identifying similarities and differences, cooperative grouping, providing feedback, and thematic instruction
4. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?
     Identifying similarities and differences: students were to provide evidence of their understanding and thinking about their reading. They did this by creating different artifacts that showed their understanding and thinking. The students were aloud to work in groups of 2, 3, or individually.
5. How will the data be collected to determine if the strategy would work?
     Class observations were conducted every 10 minutes while the students worked on their projects.
6. How was the data analyzed?
     Students presented their work to the class and they discussed whether their work "met standards" or not.
7. What were the results?
     With having the students involved in the process, they were more focused on what they were supposed to be learning and what it meant to provide evidence of their understanding. The class discussions of evidence that "met standards" or not showed a need to balance the freedom to assess in unique ways and the structure necessary for students to produce effective evidence.
8. How do the results inform teacher practice?
     Provide teachers with professional development to support their efforts at on-going assessment and involving the students in the process.    

Double Entry Journal #17

Here is the Venn Diagram for the similarities and differences between Assessment OF Learning and Assessment FOR Learning. 

Video for Webquest

Struggling Students

When we have struggling students in our class, Mrs. Whitescarver is very accommodating. She will even give two assignments sometimes; one that's more advanced than the other. She also lets kids come in AA and get extra help from me, herself, or other students. Along with helping in AA, if a student is really struggling with concepts, once they start their homework I'll go and sit with them and guide them along. We can't always get everyone on the same page, but we try our best to.

Double Entry Journal #15

1. Give an example of an authentic form of assessment the students engaged in a PBL performed well on?

• Standardized testing
• When measuring the basic acadmeic subject profiency, standardized tesing shows that students who participated in the PBL scored higher than their peers who were traditionally educated.

2. How does project based learning promote intrinsic motivation?

• Through the PBL students are given choices, and this differentiation allows students to develop their own interest and pursue deeper learning. By being able to develop their own project, they can really incorporate things they love into their final project.

3. What do students who experience PBL do better than student who receive traditional direct instruction?

• Students learn more about responsibility, independence, and discipline when creating the PBL. They also learn accountability. Since the PBL is completed by them, it truly shows their work and their thinking process, and students take pride in getting to show off something that becomes so personal to them.

4. How does PBL align with John Dewey's philosophy of education?

• John Dewey proposed that learning by doing has great benefit in shaping students' learning. The PBLs are just that; learning by doing.

5. Why do our assessment practices need to change if we are going to prepare students for the 21st century?

• When students enter the workforce, they will be judged on their performance.Not only will the outcomes matter, they will need to be able to work collaboratively, plan, and organize. The PBLs teach children to do exactly that, so we are helping to better prepare them for their life after school through the use of PBLs.

Classroom Learning Styles & Interests

Above is a chart containing the information for learning styles of students in a 7th grade, Academic Advisory class, at East Fairmont Junior High. Each student answered questions that yielded a response that indicated visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning preferences. Each student is listed by number.
From the chart, it is very easy to tell the preferred learning style is visual (16 of 17 students). From these results, teaching to meet students learning preferences is easy for this class; too bad every class doesn't always yield a majority style.  

I also gave five students in AA an interest survey. Interest surveys are a great way to get to know your students, however, they are time consuming depending on how in depth you go. Also, unlike learning styles where there are only three, interests among students have a extremely wide range.