Three Topics for Possible Action Research
- Individual
Teacher(s): What types of support help new teachers succeed? What will
help new teachers attain success in their teaching careers?
- Individual
Student(s): What is the effectiveness of AM tutoring on struggling
students? What is the
relationship between struggling students’ participation in AM tutoring and
their academic success?
- Management:
How can we all
work together to make the transition to lunch and PEAM a cooperative and
pleasant time for both Kindergarten and 1st grade?
Conference with my Site Supervisor
My conference with my site supervisor regarding topics of interest
for my action research went extremely well. Mary Dawn, my site supervisor, and
I worked collaboratively on developing some of the ideas and some of the ideas
I thought of on my own. For instance, when I sat down with Mary Dawn to develop
my internship plan back on class one, Mary Dawn thought of the idea of creating
a way to help teachers remember to take attendance at 10:00 a.m. everyday. This
task would help me meet the requirement of the leadership skill titled “school
operations/policies.” The reason Mary Dawn mentioned this idea is because my
mentee this year is one of many staff members that continuously forgets to
submit her attendance. Mary Dawn wants me to help my mentee and the rest of the
staff members who forget to submit their attendance remember to submit their
attendance daily at 10:00. From this point in our conversation, we sidetracked
and started discussing my mentee’s progress so far. We discussed some areas my
mentee is strong in and some areas my mentee is weak in. I then asked Mary Dawn
how I could help my mentee succeed more and that is where one of my idea for
the action research study came from. The other two ideas for action research
were thought of on my own. When I shared my ideas with Mary Dawn, she was very
impressed. After sharing my ideas, Mary Dawn gave me some advice on both
topics. Mary Dawn then asked me the golden question, “which topic would impact
students the most?” I thought about that question for a couple of days. The
topic pertaining to AM tutoring impacts struggling students across the campus.
The topic pertaining to transitioning impacts two Kindergarten classes. After
answering Mary Dawn’s question, my decision for which topic I would complete my
action research on was simple.
The Topic Agreed Upon for the Action Research Project
The topic my site supervisor and I agreed upon was
the topic of individual student(s): What is the effectiveness of AM tutoring on
struggling students? or What is the relationship between struggling students’
participation in AM tutoring and their academic success? We both feel like I
will be able to collect a lot of data on this topic as well as read a lot of
articles and research. Also, we both feel as though my action research will
benefit our campus as well as the students a great deal because we will either
learn that AM tutoring is effective or we will learn that AM tutoring is
ineffective and if it is ineffective, a new strategy will need to be put into
place.
I almost picked this too. I think the time of teachers and students needs to be protected so if tutoring is not working, a new idea needs to be implemented. Good Luck and I look forward to reading your research.
ReplyDeleteAs you presented your am tutoring topic on the audioconference on Thursday night, I tried to think of ways to enhance that question. I know you were struggling with it as well; and therefore, I hope you are feeling comfortable about your decision and that it will all go well for you. After reading your 3 ideas as well as the discussion with your site supervisor, I think you could have explored the new teacher mentor/mentee program on your campus as well...strong, successful teachers promote success across the campus. We currently have before and after school tutoring on our campus. It is assumed that tutoring is always beneficial, but I often wonder how impactful it truly is. Anyway, I hope all goes well and I will be curious to see the outcomes of your study.
ReplyDeleteI am also examining the effectiveness of tutoring. I have lots of ideas about the data I think would be most helpful in answering the question and the comparisons I would like to make with the data. However, I look forward to following your blog and reading about your discoveries. I can always benefit from another perspective! I think you have picked a great topic! I can’t wait to read your plan!
ReplyDeleteI'd be glad to see what information you receive or what data you find. We are currently doing AM & PM tutoring at our school, so that we can try and get these students of ours back on track from the STARR tests.
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