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!