Week 2 Reflection: Narrowing Down a Question Choice

     As I sat down at my desk on Monday, I began to think about a possible action research question that I want to investigate. Immediately, I came up with multiple topics. I started writing them down on a notepad. I came up with so many that I had filled the page.
      When I looked up at the clock, I realized I had consumed my entire morning with this sort of wondering.
While my stomach was rumbling because it was lunchtime, I was amazed at how many ideas I had generated. I think this highlights an important fact about action research: topics abound if you are willing to look close enough.

     Because of how busy my week has been, I let the list sit for a couple of days. When I returned to it, I decided I needed to cut the list back. I was now left with coming up with a way to cull ideas.

     First, I decided that I was not going to totally toss away an idea. I learned from my studies in writing that an idea may not necessarily be a bad idea. It just may not be the right idea for right now. I have a file in which I save writing samples I have started or writing topics I have dreamt up that I, for whatever reason, have chosen to not to pursue in that moment. I also have scraps that I revised out because who knows how I can use those later.

     I decided to do that with my action research topics. Next, I prioritized them based upon what I felt was the greatest need on my campus. I also considered the length of time that I felt it would take to complete research on the topic. I gave a lower priority to items that I deemed to be short-term projects. A few other projects I culled that I felt would best be researched by someone else on the campus. For example, a few of these topics I believed to have been a great topic for collaborative research by my teachers. I also remembered that one idea was being pursued by a teacher on my campus. My idea could have been considered a subtopic of her topic, so I culled it. All of the topics I did not consider of high priority I saved as a list on my thumb drive.

     Finally, I had a list of three ideas that I felt were of high priority and of high interest. It was time to choose the one that I would pursue as my action research project for this program. At this point, I took more time to reflect (and to eat- it seems I do quite a bit of reflection while taking a bite).

     As I reflected, the data kept coming up in my mind. Our district is composed of 75% economically disadvantaged. I knew from previous reading that economically disadvantaged students do not increase in vocabulary at the same rate as non-economically disadvantaged students- a difference of 2,000 words a year in grades 1-3 (Baker, Simmons, and Kame’enui; 1997). I also knew from personal experience that our students do not have the academic vocabulary to answer questions on the STAAR test.

     Therefore, I decided that my action research question would be this: In what ways can increased focus on academic vocabulary help our students, especially economically disadvantaged students, improve student performance on standardized testing? I chose this topic because I am interested in this topic, it is relevant to my campus, and I believe it is the topic that will be of the greatest help at this time to my campus.

Administrators Using Blogs

     Blogging has become a popular tool for administrators to use. With the increased use of blogs, the uses for blogs increases. Ironically, I am using a blog to discuss how administrators can use blogs. There are many different ways administrators can use blogs. One administrator uses her blog to provide helpful tips to her blog followers. Another administrator uses his blog to provide humorous stories to help fellow administrators take a mind break. Finally, I plan to use my blog to review books that I feel are of value to administrators. These are just a few of the ways that administrators can use blogs. In reality, the number of ways that administrators use blogs is as numerous as the number of administrators using blogs.

What I've Learned About Action Research

    

While preparing for this week’s assignment, I was introduced to action research. Through the required reading and some unassigned reading, I was able to define action research, describe the process of action research, and realize the importance of reflection to the process of action research.

To me, action research is the process by which an educator can make inquiry into a problem that is taking place within his or her school/ district by means of analyzing data and reviewing pertinent literature. The research must then be applied to the situation to create change. Thus, the ultimate purpose for action research is improvement. This purpose requires consistent reflection to make corrections during the entire process.

                The greatest discovery I made this week concerning action research is the fact that I have already been participating in action research. For example, my first teaching position was at a district where high school writing scores were lower than desired by administration. After looking at disaggregated data, I decided to help African American males because, amongst my students, this sub-population had the lowest writing scores. I then researched into strategies to help students improve writing. I took several of the strategies and created a tutorial program to help students. I invited all students, but made an extra effort to invite African American males. The result of my actions was an improvement by twenty percent in the first year.

                During this whole process, I never knew this process that I stumbled upon on my own is called action research. I earned my certification through a post-baccalaureate certification program. My instructors in the program never taught action research in any of the courses for my certification. I did what I did that first year because I knew I needed to help my students. It just made sense to me to analyze the data, conduct a literature review, and apply what I learned to the situation.

                I now know that this is called action research. Action research starts with recognizing a problem in your classroom, on your campus, or within your district. For example, I can use action research to discover how to best promote the vision of the district on my campus or to discover the relationship between vocabulary and test performance among economically disadvantaged students. If you truly reflect on your current situation, you can easily recognize several ideas for action research within your own immediate context.