EDLD 5301 - Reflections

Though all the lectures were informative, I believe I was enlightened during week 2 with the presentation of the three interviews with instructional leaders who actively practice action inquiry. The three interviews we watched gave me insights into the importance of action inquiry and how they may benefit both myself and the students. They also helped calm some of my trepidation regarding the research itself. Dr. Timothy Chargois made a comment regarding teachers needing to learn how to be action researchers so they can touch every student in the classroom. This idea made me realize that my very informal, unstructured inquiries I did as a teacher were something I did to help me touch more than just one student. Dr. Kirk Lewis recommended that when we begin our own action research inquiry, to look at other research that addresses the problem we are trying to solve, look for patterns between our problem and the research that has been done before, and break it down for our own specific problem. His final recommendation was to create an action plan that was doable and practical. With both of these gentlemen, I have tried to apply their wisdom to my own research plan to ensure I will learn from the inquiry and students may show success in their learning.

Both textbooks had an abundance of information regarding action research and the steps to affect change on campus. From Ms. Dana, I have come to understand the meaning of action inquiry and how it helps one to grow professionally (2010). She broke down the process and explained each step in easy to understand language. For me, I came to understand why being concise and clear is important to the process. Since I had no idea of how to begin the process, Ms. Dana’s list of stages make it much easier. Pairing her steps with “Examining what we do to improve our school: 8 steps from analysis to action” (Harris, S. et al, 2010), made the perfect blue print for me to create my action plan. After outlining my action plan using the SIP form found in the resources folder, I used the eight step (Harris, et al, 2010) to review and analyze my plan. With both these forms, I believe I have a strong start to my inquiry.

The assignments, discussion boards and blogs provided help, practice and learning as I worked through my action plan. The assignments and related activities helped me process the information from both the lectures and readings. The discussion boards created an environment where I felt safe sharing my ideas and thoughts and allowed me to learn from others. The feedback I received from both the discussion boards and blogs gave me support and recommendations on how I could improve my learning and action plan. As we continue as a cohort through our master’s program, we are building a great learning community that, hopefully, will extend into our professional positions.

Dana, N. F. (2010). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Harris, S, Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Oakland, CA. Eye on Education. 

Survey Results for Action Research

We started our action research with a survey to collect some preliminary data from the students. We wanted to get a feel for the students' attitude towards their learning and preferences for learning in the AP English IV classroom. The English teacher and I were surprised about some of the answers and want to follow up on them with the focus groups after the Christmas break. The results are posted on my wiki:

http://qtmouser.wikispaces.com/Action+Research+Progress

Student Learning Preference Survey

Here is a list of questions we have created to find a baseline of student's preferences for learning in the AP English IV class.  If you have any other suggestions on what we might ask the students, I would enjoy hearing from you. 

Learning Preferences Survey

AR - Conference Reflection

After the conference with my District Site Mentor, I had to sit back and reflect on his comments and suggestions.  There were three items that seemed to be the main points: appropriate use of resources, wording and focus of the inquiry, and the celebration at the end of the research.

The first dilemma regards the use of appropriate online resources. We need to find a balance between the giving the students real world experience using the Web 2.0 tools available on the Internet and following the guidelines of the district by using the in-house resources that "simulate" the experience. 

On one hand, working with the tools on the Internet, the students would be able to work in the networking environment that they will probably be expected to use when they move on to college.  It also allows them to continue to create and maintain their ePortfolios once they leave the district. The drawback of using the Internet based tools is there is no guarantee the student data and information is protected.  Many of the sites do allow you to mark your "site" or collection of information as private. This permits the students to control who can see and access their information; however, though the data may be protected from the front end, the students have no control on how the host site uses their information. 

On the other hand, the district is concerned about the safety and privacy of the students data.  By using the in-house resources, the district has control over who can see and access the data. The students can access their data and that of their peers from both school and home. Using the district resources, students will not be able to maintain their ePortfolios once they graduate.  They will be able to burn the data onto a CD/DVD; however, it then becomes a stagnant portfolio with little chance of maintenance.  The main tool, Moodle environment, is based on the entire class contributing to forums, blogs and activities.  These would have to be separated out from the "class" and saved independently. After a conversation today, with the network systems manager, we will work together to see if there is an option for students to save their work in a portfolio like environment on the Moodle.

In my head there is a fight going on, do we disregard the District's guidelines and go on-line with publicly available Web 2.0 tools for this research or play it very safe and stay in-house with limited access to Web 2.0 tools, mainly to create products to be posted in-house (Wordle, Animoto, etc.). How do we find a balance between the two? Any thoughts or suggestions?

The next dilemma has to do with the wording of my inquiry.  Currently, How can the inclusion of ePortfolios in advanced English IV classes improve the students’ achievement on the AP and Dual Credit Exams? My mentor believed that the stated focus is more of a statement of measurement rather than outcome. He felt that students understanding about how they learned should be the main focus of the inquiry. After working on several different wordings, I came up with the follow options:  

• In what way can including ePortfolios, within the AP English IV classes, build (help develop?) students’ life long learning skills resulting in improved student success?
• How can ePortfolios help develop students’ life long learning skills and improve student success? 

I will need to work on the wording of the inquiry question and refine it.
 

The process of developing ePortfolios, according to Helen Barrett (2000), has many stages: defining the portfolio context and goals, working portfolio, reflective portfolio, collection, selection, reflection, connected portfolio and presentation My mentor’s final suggestion was to have a gathering at the end of the project with administrators, parents, and students to share the work they had done. It also should be a celebration of the students’ learning and contribution to the research. As we go through the research project we will need to make a decision on when to hold this celebration as the month of May for Seniors is filled with AP testing and many celebrations of their accomplishments.  Would this be just one more celebration to attend or a meaningful gathering? How would this celebration look like to make an impression on the students of what an accomplishment they have completed.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.  It's time to make them and get to go to work.  :-)

Barrett, H. C. (2000). Create your own electronic portfolio: using off-the-shelf software to showcase your own or student work. Learning & Leading with Technology. Retrieved on 11/30/2010. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/iste2k.html.

Action Research - Sharing of Site Mentor Conference

The conference started with my mentor reviewing the plan that I put together with input from the AP English IV teacher. He did not have any specific questions about the plan but asked me to start the conversation about the plan. I began by reviewing the process completed to evaluate the different resources that were available for the ePortfolios: campus server, campus Moodle system, Microsoft Live, Google sites, and Wikispaces.

As I reviewed the pros and cons of these resources, he brought up the District’s on-going conversation about what online resources to allow students to access and the strong opinion and belief that any such resources be housed in-district in order to ensure the students’ safety and privacy of their data. In the beginning, the ePortfolio will be work in progress. Since we would want peers to comment on specific content of the ePortfolio, we need a resource that will permit this type of access. On the other hand, as the ePortfolios morph into one that is more reflective in nature, the “challenge in this process is to keep these reflections confidential. The personal, private reflections of the learner need to be guarded and not published in a public medium” (Barrett, H., 2000). To handle both ePortfolio situations, he encouraged me to continue this conversation with the network analyst as to the requirements of the action research and what options is available in-district that may serve our needs.

Along these lines, we talked about the parent letter that has been drafted. He recommended that we include wording about using outside resources and that we would make every effort to instruct the students on appropriate choices to help ensure their safety. Also needed to include encouragement for parents to be aware of Internet safety so they could monitor the students at home. This might include websites for the parents to learn about how to keep their student’s privacy protected.

When we talked about the different assessments, I asked for guidance about the best way to create the focus groups. Was it better to create small (5-10 students) heterogeneous groups or large groups (20 students)? The mentor’s response was creating small groups of students who are comfortable with each other and would be willing to share information. Once the data is collected and compiled, we might want to share the results with each class, to validate the information.

After our conversations, my mentor brought up the focus of the study. He believed that the stated focus is more of a statement of measurement rather than outcome. He felt that students understanding about how they learned should be the main focus of the inquiry. We discussed the idea of having the students doing reflection on their learning and how they learn. In doing this type of meta-cognitive thinking, the students should be developing the skills to be successful life long learners. The secondary focus is the use of the ePortfolios to improve the students’ exams scores. The results of (hopefully) the improvement in test scores, demonstrates the success of the students using the ePortfolios to develop the meta-cognitive skills. I will need to work on the wording of the inquiry question and refine it.

My mentor’s final suggestion was to have a gathering at the end of the project with administrators, parents, and students to share the work they had done (presentation ePortfolio). It also should be a celebration of the students’ learning and contribution to the research.

Barrett, H. C. (2000). Create your own electronic portfolio: using off-the-shelf software to showcase your own or student work. Learning & Leading with Technology. Retrieved on 11/30/2010. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/iste2k.html.

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