Draft Action Research Plan

Action Inquiry: How can the inclusion of ePortfolios in advanced English IV classes improve the students’ achievement on the AP and Dual Credit Exams?
Goal: On our campus, we have many students who enroll in advanced classes during their Junior and Senior years. Looking back at the final exams for AP and Dual Credit English IV scores, the student did not perform as expected.  To help the students be more successful on the exams, we brainstormed several ideas. In reviewing the suggestions, we wondered in what way the many different Web 2.0 tools might impact our students’ learning and exam scores. Since there are many Web 2.0 options, we narrowed our inquiry to, How can the inclusion of ePortfolios in advanced English IV classes improve the students’ achievement on the AP and Dual Credit exams? We want the students to be engaged in the learning.  With engagement, the students begin to develop a deeper understanding of the material. Using ePortfolios as a way of looking at their learning, we also expect the students to develop and use 21st Century skills of collaboration, reflection and problem solving which should put them on the path to being life-long learners. Rationale: Using the ePortfolio as an assessment for learning, students select the article and artifacts that will be included in the portfolio.  These items are used to tell the story of the students learning (Barrett, H. C., 2006). The students can reflect on their progress and request feedback from others to help them improve on the learning. This process makes the ePortfolio “a powerful tool for the new 3Rs, representation, reflection, and revision” (Acker, S. R., 2005). Using ePortfolios as part of the learning process, students will come away with a deeper understanding of the content and their learning. Acker, S. R. (2005). Overcoming obstacles to authentic ePortfolio assessment. Campus Technology. Retrieve on November 29, 2010. Retrieved from http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2005/03/Overcoming-Obstacles-to-Authentic-ePortfolio-Assessment.aspx?p=1. Barrett, H. C. (2006). Using electronic portfolios for classroom assessment. Connected Newletter. 13(2). Pp. 4-6.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Pre-test??
Analyze how students are currently learning / preparing for the exam.	AP English IV Teacher; Dual Credit English IV; Howard – CIT	December 6, 2010 / December 8, 2010	Computers;On-line Survey; Paper and Pencil – for taking notes during focus groups	Survey & Focus Groups – This information will be used to plan and design the ePortfolio activities and assignments.
Create the structure of the portfolios and the rubrics to be used by teachers and students to evaluate their learning and the portfolios.	AP English IV Teacher; Dual Credit English IV; Howard – CIT	December 8, 2010 / December 17, 2010	Computers; Word processing; Wikispaces Account	Evaluation of the ePortfolio structure will be on-going. Rubrics will be both for how the portfolio process worked and evaluating the content of the portfolio.
Compose and send home letters for parental permission for student work to be posted on-line*. *Students without parental permission will create an ePortfolio that will be posted on campus server.	AP English IV Teacher; Dual Credit English IV;	January 4, 2011/ January, 2011	Letters, envelopes and postage	Compile a list of students with permission/ without permission Phone calls to parents will be made for students who did not return permission form.
ePortfolio Process presented / begins.	AP English IV Teacher; Dual Credit English IV;	January 13, 2011 / May 20, 2011	Computers; Wikispaces; Project outline; Rubrics;	On-going evaluations through unit tests, rubrics, focus groups and surveys.
Final data collection from students	AP English IV Teacher; Dual Credit English IV; Howard	May 23, 2011 / May 25, 2011	Computers; Wikispaces; On-Line Survey	Survey; Focus Group
Data Analysis & Sharing of Results	AP English IV Teacher; Dual Credit English IV; Howard	August 1, 2011 / August 4, 2011	Surveys; AP Exam Scores	Results will be shared with Administrative staff and English Department Teachers

Action Research Project - I wonder ...

Within the District, our campus has the largest number of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses and exams, usually exceeding the combined number of the other three high schools. We have had great success with our students in math, Spanish and Art; however, our success with language arts and history has been mediocre. In order to address this problem in English IV AP, the teacher wanted to look at having the students create ePortfolios of their learning. In conversations with her and my site mentor, we wondered, How could the inclusion of ePortfolios in English IV AP improve the students’ achievement on the AP Exam?


The outcomes of the ePortfolios would be determined on the structure and use of the portfolio. Helen Barrett, Assistant Professor and Educational Technology Coordinator at the University of Alaska, Anchorage had this to say about ePortfolios, “They can support learning, play an assessment role, or support employment. The purpose dictates the structure and contents of a portfolio.” (Brown, M. D., 2002). Our discussion lead us to the following expected outcomes:


a. Increased student engagement in the class. 
b. Reflection leading to deeper understanding and retention of the material. 
c. Improved test scores.
d. Develop 21st Century skills of collaboration, reflection, and problem solving.
e. Develop skills that encourage life long learning. 
 
As we create the blueprint for the action research, the teacher and I will be looking at the different structures and what will be included in the ePortfolios to achieve the overarching goal of improve scores on the AP English IV exam. Along with improving the AP scores, we also talked about the stagnation of the TAKS scores for the Exit Level ELA test along with concerns for student achievement on the new STAAR assessment being administered 2011-2012 school year. How could the development of an ePortfolio, beginning in the 9th grade, improve the student achievement on the STAAR assessment in 2014? We decided to start with the AP ePortfolio to see if we could improve the students’ scores on the AP English IV exam. At the end of the study, depending on the results, may explore the idea for the Freshmen in 2012.

Brown, M. D., (2002). Electronic portfolios in the K-12 classroom. Education World®. Retrieved on November 21, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml

Action Research - Reflection Week 2

While listening to the videos about action research, the gentlemen clarified, in my mind, what action research entailed and its importance in the school. I came away with two pieces of information that I hope will help me along this path. The first was from Dr. Timothy Chargois; he reminded me to never stop learning. The best way to encourage students to be life long learners was to model that behavior.  Dr. Kirk Lewis gave me the second piece which related to the action research. He indicated that when you come up with the plan to solve the problem, make sure it is practical and doable for your campus.

After reading about the nine different passions of action research (Dana, N. F., 2010), I realized that there were several areas that I was passionate about in my inquiries. This led me to begin a list of inquiries I would want to tackle in my first research project. After several conversations with teachers and my campus mentor, I was able to narrow my list to one. Working with the advanced Enghish IV teacher, we are going to implement a technology tool into her 3 advance and 2 regular English classes.

I am looking forward to the process and the results of this project. If the results are what we hope, I would like to look at incorporating this technology tool in the Freshman English classes next year.

Action Research - How can it be used?

The purpose of action research is to become a better teacher by improving methods of instruction so the students can be more successful in class. The process begins with a question about the lesson and how it can increase student achievement. By collecting and analyzing data, problem areas for students will become apparent. Researching about one of the problems, a teacher can then create a plan for solving the problem and implement it. The final step in the process is evaluating the results and sharing the information with others. A principal or educational leader, to solve a problem on a campus or in the district, can apply this same process (Dana, N. F., 2010, p. 2-4).

There are several areas on my campus I can visualize using action research as a technology facilitator/leader. Our campus is technology rich and yet the teachers are not taking advantage of it with their students. Though we do have teachers that use the technology make presentations to the students or with the students for basic productivity (research and word processing), very few have integrated technology fully into their curriculum. As part of my internship, I am looking at activities that encourage teachers to embed technology into their lessons. 

One idea for action research is to monitor the students’ achievement when interactive white boards (IWB) are integrated into the teaching in a way that the students are interacting with the information being taught. Another area of inquiry would be the use of Web 2.0 within the instruction. In using these tools, will student be more engaged and increased scores than those using paper and pencil activities. One final area to explore using action research is implementing “Partnering” a form of problem-based learning described in Marc Prensky’s book, Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning “ (2010), within a math or science classroom. As with the other inquiries, increased student achievement would be the expected outcome.

 

These are just a few of the ideas I have been considering for my action research. As we go through the course and learn more about the process, I hope to narrow it down to one to begin my research.

Dana, N. F. (2010). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, A SAGE Company.

Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real learning. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin, A SAGE Company.

How This Educational Leader Might Use Blogs

Writing is not a passion for me; however, I do enjoy writing about experiences as we travel. As an educational leader, blogs can be used to document the journey being made throughout the year. It may be used as a general overview of things happening on campus or be focused on a particular project.

In my position, I can see using the blog in three main ways. First, use it to summarize new technologies available and the “best practices” in embedding them in the curriculum. This will enable the teachers and staff a way to keep up-to-date in this area. The second use of blogs would be as a way to document and reflect on any action research I am facilitating with one of the teachers. This web-based journal will allow others on our campus to see what their peers are doing in the classroom and, maybe, inspire them to rethink their teaching techniques. The final way I can use a blog is for “Technology Tip of the Week.” The blog would focus on a technology tip that might help those who are technology challenged. All these blog topics are food for thought as I work through my internship as possible ways to incorporate more technology into the faculty and staff environment.

Web Conference - November 3, 2010

This week’s web conference was informative and yet a bit confusing. There is information about the assignment coming from too many places, the course site, the PowerPoint, Mrs. Borel’s information and the announcements. Mrs. Borel did clear up information regarding the internship. She gave several examples of tasks as we looked at the textbook and the Internship Plan form. We also reviewed the field-based activities monthly logs and the embedded course activity logs. The monthly logs of the field-based activities are due, obviously, every month. The embedded course logs are due at the end of each course. Each of these is being evaluated as part of our internship course. Mrs. Borel recommended that the course embedded logs be completed as close to the end of the course rather than trying to complete them during our final course for our internship.