Enjoy the Show

 Our teachers are please to present their final ARPP in the form of a Web 2.0 presentation.  Enjoy the show!

Pre-K Hallway-Ms. Kelly Bryant-
Conscious Discipline

1st Grade Hallway-Ms. Aprell Adams-
Reading Fluency 



 3rd Grade Hallway-Ms. Stacey Seiler-
Meaningful Work Centers in Mathematics

4th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Jaime Lambrinos-
Interactive Notebooks


5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young-

Apply the Results, FINALLY!

We are officially in baseball season which provides a great metaphor for how our teachers are feeling at the moment.  It is easy to see that they are rounding the "ARPP bases." They have left Step IV, Apply the Results, in the dust.  Take a look...

   
Pre-K Hallway-Ms. Kelly Bryant-

This week, I have been working on how I plan to discuss my results. So far, I have decided to organize my results by each of my research questions and potential key findings I might get, as well as the potential conclusions I may find. Here is what I have been able to conclude: 

1. How does Conscious Discipline affect student to student interactions? Specifically, does implementing the program increase the amount of positive interactions between students? Between students and teachers?

Key Findings: My results could potentially show an increase in positive interactions as opposed to negative interactions between students. I hope to see an increase in positive interactions following the intervention and a decrease in negative interactions. If I find that there are more negative interactions following the intervention, I would want to look at my implementation, as well as other factors that could have affected the results.

2. How does Conscious Discipline  affect independent problem-solving and group conflict resolution? Specifically, does implementing the program help children to use talking words to resolve conflict as opposed to reactive interactions such as yelling or physical altercations. 

Key Findings: My results could potentially show an increase in the percentage of student independence with conflict resolution, as well the amount of solved conflicts vs. unresolved conflicts. I hope to find a decrease in teacher intervention with conflict resolution following the intervention. Following this investigation, I would like to look into how to further support student independence using the other elements of the Conscious Discipline program.

3. Is there a difference between how effective Conscious Discipline is for students with and without special needs? 

Key Findings: The results of my ARPP would show whether or not there is a significant difference in how the intervention affects students with special needs vs. students without special needs. The results will allow me to determine whether or not the program affects students with special needs differently and whether or not I should look into other resources for supporting my students with special needs.

Overall Key findings: I would like to represent the key findings with a narrative as well as through graphs. For the qualitative data, I plan to use a side-by-side comparison chart, such as a Venn diagram, to display the changes from before and after the intervention. For quantitative data, I plan to represent the data with bar graphs, pie charts, and other visual presentations. 

Conclusion: The conclusion will be mostly narrative which will present the key findings from the research and any further questions or concerns. I also plan to use a summary chart of some sort to help easily display the data from each data source. From my results, I will be able to determine whether or not this element of the program will be effective with specific student behavior in the classroom. It will also allow me to report my results to my superior in regards to success with the program in the classroom as this is a school-wide initiative.  
1st Grade Hallway-Ms. Aprell Adams-
As I begin to finalize my possible findings and review my data, I have concluded with many useful recommendations for my colleagues. Reading fluency remains a hot topic in education and closing the gap between fluent readers and non-fluent readers is a problem educators are passionate about finding effective solutions for. After the completion of my action research project using sight word instruction to increase reading fluency, I have found this to be a very effective strategy for struggling readers. Increasing sight word vocabulary will allow students to read more words accurately and fluently without spending extra time decoding and in return increasing the flow of their reading. Being able to offer a possible solution to an ever growing problem through my action research project is rewarding and life changing not only for myself but for educators and students.

 3rd Grade Hallway-Ms. Stacey Seiler-

This week I worked on applying my results.  One thing I am struggling with is truly believing that my treatment has made an impact.  I found myself wondering how can I truly determine if results are significant? After speaking with some colleagues, I can see the importance of setting an expected growth outcome, rather than looking for changes in my results after the experiment is over.
It is almost too easy to find SOME type of growth in a result but it’s important as teacher researchers to separate our desires and opinions from our research.  We want so badly for our teaching to make an impact, and for our treatment to make a difference, but we have to be realistic is recognizing that it may not.  Interestingly, this became clear to me this week as I reviewed fifth graders projects at our school STEM fair. I loved that one of the best projects (it actually won first place) came from someone who disproved their hypothesis.  Is that the point of doing research? The find out something new, that goes against original thinking?  The important take away is that results that disprove our original thinking are not a failure! 

4th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Jaime Lambrinos-
 One of my goals of this research was to develop a plan that would impact the way in which teachers teach in the classroom and impact the academic success of students.  Now that I have analyzed the data collected from my action research I can now make suggestions to the administration and teachers of my school that will impact students’ achievement! 

  HOME RUN!!

My action research has revealed that interactive notebooks do have a positive influence on student perception on note taking, occurrences in which students utilize their notes, and ultimately student achievement in the mathematics classroom,  So, now it is onto the task of how I will grab the attention of my fellow educators and share this information with them…

5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young-
  finally overcame the Step IV blues!  I was quite hung up for awhile on creating the perfect Jeffrey Glanz approved chart to analyze my data through.  I struggled with the lack of mathematical formulas that I felt I must include to have a valid set up for my data and results.  However, I knew exactly what I wanted to create and what would be useful for other teachers who would potentially want to use this action research plan.  It makes perfect since though.  It is not about making a statistically impressive data table, but rather a useful one.  After I overcame that last hurtle the remaining components of Step IV and Step V were a breeze. This can be attributed to the fact that I knew all along what the potential results would mean it was harder for me to just decide how to show the results.  My last to do list item for this action research project is to decide what it would mean to market my plan to others.  How will I grab other educators attention with my unique action research plan?  Stay tuned for next week's post to find out!

What Does it All Mean?

As we sat down at one of our last School Improvement Team meetings for the year our discussions revolved around putting our research into action. It's amazing to see a plan come full circle, and we can actually apply what we have gathered in our research. This is the piece that makes the research feel worth it!


Pre-K Hallway- Ms. Kelly Bryant

First Grade Hallway- Ms. Aprell Adams 

I have to admit when we first embarked upon this journey I did not ever think I would be able to utter the words, "It is all coming together." When gathering your initial thoughts and resources to conduct an action research project it is an overwhelming process because most times you are looking at the big picture. However, when I approach this task again I will keep in my mind the baby steps that led to the success of the final product. Taking each section at a time and reflecting on where you are in the process is very important because it allows you to remain focused on your research topic and questions. The success you feel once you have put everything together is beyond words. The excitement to spread the news of your findings and offer solid recommendations to fellow colleagues is rewarding! Doing your part to make a difference in the world of education and the lives of learners is what being an educator all is about.

Third Grade Hallway- Ms. Stacey Seiler

In a recent discussion at our last school improvement team meeting we were all excited about applying our results.  However, it is important remember that our findings may not always result in a clear action plan or positive result.  After reading chapter 10 in the Glanz text, we thought it was important to keep in mind is that the results of action research shouldn't be exaggerated. Glantz cites Foshay (1994) in a quotation where he writes, "Education is not yet a science and may never be, given the differences in individual human behavior: There is very little about education that we can claim with certainty" (p. 177). The effects that our treatment have on students should not always just be interpreted by sheer numbers, just as a student's worth should not be implicated only by a test score.  Like any human interaction, there are many facets that can contribute to any interaction, and multiple types of evidence should be considered.  Just some important food for thought as we wrap up our research! 

Fourth Grade Hallway- Mrs. Jaime Lambrinos

This evening as I read Chapter 10 of Action Research, I realized that my months of hard work and dedication to one set of research questions is all coming together.  As the title suggests, I really am "Putting It All Together"! This is now my opportunity to share with my colleagues what I have discovered and learned from my research plan.  For sometime now, teachers in my school have been talking about using interactive notebooks and how fun they are but now I have the opportunity to share with teachers that interactive notebooks are so much more than that...they are proven to increase student achievement.    I now have the opportunity to make a recommendation that could potentially affect so many children and educators for the better.  My chance to make a difference...this is terribly exciting!

Fifth Grade Hallway- Mrs. Rebecca Young

After reading Chapter 10 of Jeffrey Glanz's Action Research, I thought the chapter title, "Putting It All Together:  What Does it Mean?," describes exactly how I'm feeling.  I just spent a few months engrossing myself in this topic, I can see the finish line, but now I have to put together and explain in words what I was able to find.  If I was actually completing my action research I imagine this step would be rather exciting because you would finally see what your data tells you and be able to make decisions and recommendations based on that data. Because my action research review of the literature had limited information on my topic of NSLP aiding in student attention I would be thrilled to provide insight into if a correlation exisits or not.  Also, my first research question which asks if students attitudes will change towards healthy foods after participating in nutrition integration lessons had conflicting research from across the world.  I would be excited to add my findings to the debate.  This is it...the home stretch in action research.  I can see the finish line now.

Data Collection is Continuing

With Spring right around the corner our teachers are harnessing the extra daylight to keep pushing forward on their action research.  They are still modifying their data collection methods based on what they are learning in Jeffrey Glanz's "Action Research," a highly useful resource to any educator partaking in action research.

Pre-K Hallway-Ms. Kelly Bryant
This week, I've been working on refining the types of data that I will be collecting during my action research plan. Specifically, I have been working on defining the independent variable, Conscious Discipline, by specifying the elements of the intervention that I will be implementing. 

The independent variable will be the Conscious Discipline intervention, which includes elements of the program regarding student interactions and conflict resolution. The aspect of Conscious Discipline that will be implemented will be derived from the Assertiveness section of the program. Specifically from this section, I will be searching for:

1. Assertive Voices: tells the other child what to do instead of negative behavior, uses clear and direct speech, and uses a tone that says, "Just do it."
2. Proactive and Practiced Words and Phrases: "I don't like when you          , please   actvitity instead," "I'm sorry, I will    activitiy instead,"
3. Presence of Physical Response: Looking for whether the child was able to use words or react using hitting or physical altercation and whether or not the problem was able to be worked through.
4. Independent Action: were the children involved able to independently use problem solving skills to resolve a conflict or was teacher intervention required.
5. Special Needs vs. Non-Special Needs: were the students involved considered special needs students or not and was there a significant difference in data.

I hope to further refine these areas of my action research plan and will begin to work on planning how to organize and collect my raw data within the next few weeks.


1st Grade Hallway-Ms. Aprell Adams

Here comes the fun part! I am now at the stage of my research project where I begin to collect data. I am in the process of organizing my data sources in order to be able to clearly visualize my results. Having a variety of sources to collect data is beneficial when attempting to gather accurate data that will support my research questions. As I reflect on my research questions it seemed most useful to conduct observations, give surveys and norm-referenced tests to gather data for my action research project. Neither of these resources is powerful enough to stand alone, so by combining them I am confident I will collect a sufficient amount of data. Glanz states that observations are limited and should be rarely used as the sole means of collecting data. I am conscious of the biases that may exist with conducting observations and will consider my personal biases as I analyze the results. As I develop my survey questions Glanz suggests that the questions are related to the major purpose of the research project. I am fine tuning my questions to ensure they are both age appropriate and relevant to my topic. Having norm-referenced tests are valuable, but Glanz suggests that they are sometimes overused when trying to arrive at a decision about student achievement. Although test are easy to use and can give immediate data, I am aware that they are only a piece of the overall puzzle of the progress and growth of the students involved in the project. I am excited to combine all of my results from each data source and display and summarize my conclusions.

 3rd Grade Hallway-Ms. Stacey Seiler
his week the data analysis portion of our research got me thinking about how to code the responses to my questionnaire. The questionnaire that I created deals with student attitudes toward math class, and their own perceptions of the strength of their skills. At first I thought of this as qualitative data because I wasn’t understanding how I could turn opinions and feelings into numbers.
The Glanz text (p.141-143) helped me out greatly with how to code my survey data and turn it into a statistical analysis. The survey had three possible responses (strongly agree, agree, disagree). The most favorable response will be coded with a score of 3 points, the next favorable response will be awarded 2 points, and the least favorable response will be awarded a 1. There are 9 response items, therefore the most favorable score would be a 27 and the least favorable score would be a 9. From there I can analyze this data using descriptive statistics including percentage, mean, and standard deviation. I decided to use all three of these statistics because each of them make it a bit easier for the reader to interpret the findings. The mean shows the typical answer choice (in points). Unlike the mean, the standard deviation will show how much the choices differ per question. Lastly, the percentage will show the number of respondents who chose a particular answer choice.
Coding the survey was easier than I thought! It actually got me thinking about the connection to customer satisfaction surveys, and how that data is calculated. Though the data analysis portion seems complicated, I am finding that as we move piece by piece it is becoming clearer! 



4th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Jaime Lambrinos

Ms. Lambrinos is out of the office and will respond with her update as soon as she returns :)  

5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young
After taking a few days to read through Glanz's "Action Research" I feel ready to actually create my first Likert scale and observation checklist. I am looking forward to using Survey Monkey to create my survey about attitudes towards healthy foods.  I have never used Survey Monkey before, but I have heard it is user friendly.

No Rest for the Weary…

Let’s Take a Look Back at the Week…multiple snow closing, an early dismissal, SLO Data was due, and PARCC testing began.  Most teachers would be waving the white flag from their desk but not ours! These dedicated teachers have been actively seeking out and determining their methodology for conducting action research. Take a look at each teacher’s progress…

Pre-K Hallway- Ms. Kelly Bryant

I plan to use a one group pre-test/post-test system for my action research. The benefit of using this system is that I will be able to use the students within my classroom making the plan easier to implement and will allow for my time to collect the data. Essentially, this method provides flexibility for conducting the action research plan. This is also the best method of measuring the impact of the treatment as it is not possible to have a control group. As a result, I will only be able to measure the students prior to introducing Conscious Discipline and following its introduction to analyze the impact of the program on my students. The issue with the lack of control group is that there is no way of proving it was the program that created change as there are many other variables that could potentially affect the behavior of the students. Instead, I will only be able to make note of any changes and determine correlations between implementing the program and the students' behavior.

Research Design: One Group Pretest-Posttest Design
Measurement: Observations	Treatment: Conscious Discipline	Measurement: Observations
Student Interactions		Student Interactions
Independent Problem-Solving		Independent Problem-Solving
Special Needs v. Non-Special Needs		Special Needs v. Non-Special Needs

This would be the chart used for data collection:

STUDENTS #	NEGATIVE INTER. (TALLY)	POSITIVE INTER. (TALLY)	KEY WORDS USED	INDEPENDENTLY SOLVED (TALLY)	TEACHER INTERVENTION (TALLY)
1
2
*3
*4
5
*6
*7
*8
9
10
11
12
13
TOTAL:

The chart assigns each student a nominal number, which will be kept track by putting the students in alphabetical order. This was deemed easiest because this is already a current system used to conceal identity with note taking in the classroom. The chart will tally the amount of positive and negative interactions each student engages in over the course of the week. The chart also denotes any key words used such as emotional descriptions like "I feel..." or "It makes me sad when..." in order to see if the students are using terms encouraged by the program. Additionally, there is a section that tallies the amount of times a conflict was independently resolved, as well as the conflicts that required teacher intervention. Furthermore, a star has been place next to each students' number who has been deemed as a student with special needs.

1st Grade Hallway- Ms. Aprell Adams

Research Design: Nonequivalent Control Group
Measurement: Pre-test	Treatment: Explicit small group instruction	Measurement: Post-test
Student Achievement: - Timed Reading Passage - Sight Word Recognition - Reading Level	Experimental: explicit small group instruction Control: general classroom instruction	Student Achievement: - Timed Reading Passage - Sight Word Recognition - Reading Level
Student Attitudes: -Survey	Experimental: explicit small group instruction Control: general classroom instruction	Student Attitudes: -Survey
Student Behaviors: -Observation	Experimental: explicit small group instruction Control: general classroom instruction	Student Behaviors: -Observation

3rd Grade Hallway- Ms. Stacey Seiler


I will using a quasi-experimental one-group pretest and posttest design.  The data collection can be summarized in the table below. 

Measurement	Treatment	Measurement
Student Achievement: Pretest	Experimental: centers and small group instruction with teacher	Student Achievement: Posttest (same as pretest)
Student Attitude: Survey	Experimental: collaborative centers and small group instruction with teacher	Student Attitudes: Survey

4th Grade Hallway- Mrs. Jamie Lambrinos

My research design will closely follow the nonequivalent control group model as described in Action Research by Jeffrey Glantz (2014, p. 67).  This model involves an already intact experimental and control group which will have separate treatments administered to each group.  Classroom A will receive the treatment of interactive notebooks (T1) while Classroom B will receive the treatment of traditional three-ring binders (T2).  Though they receive separate treatments, both classrooms will receive the same pre- and post measurements in effort to identify the way in which the dependent and independent variables are affected by each of the treatments administered.  The independent variable can be seen as mathematics instruction. The dependent variables are identified as student achievement, student motivation, and the occurrences in which the students utilize their notes throughout assigned tasks. 

Nonequivalent Control Groups

                                                  Classroom A             M - T1 - M

                                                  Classroom B             M - T2 - M

Research Design:  Nonequivalent Control Group
Measurement:	Treatment:	Measurement:
Student Attitudes: Questionnaire	Experimental:  Interactive Notebook Control:  Traditional Binder	Student Attitudes: Questionnaire
Student Achievement: Unit Assessment - Select and Constructed Response	Experimental:  Interactive Notebook Control:  Traditional Binder	Student Achievement: Unit Assessment - Select and Constructed Response
Student Observations: Student Observation Form	Experimental:  Interactive Notebook Control:  Traditional Binder	Student Observations: Student Observation Form

5th Grade Hallway-Mrs. Rebecca Young

This week has been full of answering the “how” of this action research project as well as a growing passion for my research topic.  I enjoyed listening to a TED Talk from Jaime Oliver on the childhood obesity epidemic and the roles schools play in it.  I especially enjoyed his point about the lack of silverware in schools and its implications on what you can serve children.  At around minute twelve Jaime addresses my 1st research question and gives me hope that perhaps the critics I found while doing my literature review were wrong Nutrition integration in schools can make a difference and in fact it is necessary to integrate nutrition into schools.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver

Nonequivalent Control Group
Measurement:  Pretest	Treatment: Nutrition Integration	Measurement: Posttest
Student Attitudes:                                              -Likert Survey	Experimental: "Apple Group"                                           The apple control group will receive lessons that incorporate healthy foods in examples of fraction concepts like estimation and comparing as well as in the adding and subtracting of fractions. Control: "Fraction Bar Group" The fraction bar control group will receive the same lessons on fraction concepts like estimation and comparing as well as in the adding and subtracting of fractions, but the teacher will follow the BCPS curriculum guide with the suggested methods of teaching fraction concepts and operations (without nutrition integration).	Student Attitudes:                                              -Likert Survey
Measurement:  Pretest	Treatment: National School Lunch Program (NSLP)	Measurement: Posttest
Student Attention:                                          -Observation checklist	Experimental:     NSLP                                       Student off task behavior will be noted on a checklist during small group mathematics and compared against students that do not participate in NSLP. Control: Packers Student off task behavior will be noted on a checklist during small group mathematics and compared against students that participate in NSLP.	Student Attention:                                          -Observation checklist