Action Research Blog Assignment-Month 8-FPE

My Action Research Project is based on helping struggling readers to understand Main Idea and to gain a better understanding of what they read. Essentially, comprehending and being able to respond with accuracy to questions concerning their reading selections. I have developed a strategy that I hope will be the answer or part of a solution to aid these students in becoming proficient readers. My strategy is for them to create avatars, write a story, and/or embed themselves or their character into their story. It is hoped that by "living" with the character from its inception, will give them a better understanding of plot, setting, character development and of course, the Main Idea of the story. Once they have perfected their understanding by participating in this project, the knowledge they have have procured will follow them for a lifetime of learning.

In this post, I will be specifically addressing four questions posed to us by our Action Research Mentors and Instructors.

The first question is to respond to what changed in your set up from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2.

I had to tweak Cycle 1 in order to complete it near my estimated completion date in order to stay on track. Ten of my students were lagging behind a bit in getting their final draft completed for the writing of their avatar story. I had allowed my students to first paint their avatars, then write their stories. Some of my students changed their minds two-three times and painted much too long. For those students, I placed their avatars in a cabinet and explained that they needed to complete their drafts of their stories and then I would let them finish their painting. Cycle 1 was delayed by about a week.

In regards to what is happening that I didn't expect is that I always hold my students to high expectations and I fully expected all of them to complete their assignments timely. I looped with my students from third grade to fourth this year and granted, those students that I looped with did complete their assignments on schedule. My new students did not respond as I had hoped they would. Additionally,I did not expect for our district to block many of the sites that I wanted to access for my students in the completion of their projects. Also, my start time for Cycle 2 is going to be delayed a couple of weeks. I had not anticipated a change in our curriculum assignments. We are no longer doing writing until FCAT has been completed, so that will delay my ten students completing their revisions of their final drafts.

The eleven students who are ready to proceed with formatting their stories on the computer can move forward with that part of the assignment. Theirs is merely computer time now which is allowed. My ten students cannot complete their revisions until after FCAT.

It is going to be a tight schedule, but I am hoping to complete Cycle 2 by April 4th. Originally, my plan was to complete Cycle 2 by March 19th.

I have had to totally revamp the tracking of my data. I had a tracking form on my Mac that I was entering data into on a regular basis. My charts depicting pass/fail ratios over a five-year period for FCAT scoring on Main Idea which has everything to do with my AR project. I had entered test data from 4 different screenings since the inception of my project. I have lost all of that data because of a malfunction in the MobileMe program software on my computer. I have lost over 75% of my total files.

Fortunately, I have hard copies of all my data. I will have to reconstruct the tracking form that I was using. I am in the process of doing that on my computer at school which I will save on a flash drive to transfer to my Mac once it is fixed.

I have also added a student input piece of data to my program. I am asking students questions throughout Cycle 1 and will in Cycle 2, about how they are thinking this project is helping them with their reading comprehension. I am hoping to include excerpts in my final project. I think it is important for them to know why they are participating in this project and what benefits they will derive from their participation. So far, the response has been terrific. The students are excited about participating and many are feeling confident that they will do well on the FCAT.

Last week, we had the writing portion of FCAT, Florida Writes. I am hoping the experience of writing their avatar story, editing, revising, etc. will have helped them to do well on that test.

Responding to our last question about how FPE has contributed to our Action Research: It is an amazing coincidence that this month's course, Film making, digital storytelling is exactly what I needed in order to refine my project. I had planned to assist my students in creating some type of animated story using web 2.0 tools. In December, our course involved using Flash and Dream weaver which also was inclusive of what I had planned. However, that plan was thwarted when our school district blocked the web sites that I wanted to access to create the digital stories.

Since we do not have Mac capabilities at school nor wireless, it was becoming more of a challenge as to how I was going to follow through on my promise to let the students make a CD of their story. Well, if it had not been for my Mac crashing, I would not have discovered Movie Maker which I have found out is allowed on our servers at school. So, some good is coming out of my Mac crashing. My instructor, Kathy Craven has been so gracious in allowing me to complete my work with Windows programs. I have learned so much from her this month. And, I have a program that my students will be able to complete their stories as I promised.

In my final project, I wanted to share one of their stories, because I know our project is limited in minutes, but I want to at least have an excerpt to show what they have learned, as well as my charts hopefully illustrating their successes with FCAT. That data will not be available until the last week of May, so it will be the last piece of data that I will format.

All of my courses at FSO have been wonderful, but these last three, DAE, MLT and FPE have been "exactly what the doctor ordered" for a successful project completion.