Michael's+Research

Student Need: Though students write effectively, students can make improvements in the writing area of Word Choice. A primary issue facing the students with word choice is even to recognize the correct part of speech to use in a certain situation. From that point, many students fail to reach for more impactful words, but rather for the first word that pops into their head. (In what areas do you see a gap in student achievement or behaviors? What is the present reality in your classroom? Describe your students- academics, demographics, behaviors)

Research Question: Will students be able to identify words in sentences that can be improved, and find a word to replace that fulfills proper part of speech and necessary connotational needs more productively once their vocabulary is supplemented? (What question would you like to answer? e.g. How will the use of Socratic Seminar in an 8th grade language arts classroom increase student achievement in reading comprehension?)

Literature Review: I read books and things. (What literature/articles/books have you looked at to support your question and to help guide you in your intervention?)

Intervention Plan: At the bottom of vocab tests, I will give students a sentence including a synonym from the words on the test. The students will be asked to rewrite the sentence using the word from our vocab list. On Wednesdays, when new vocabulary is introduced we will take time to discuss connotation that goes with the word along with definition. Furthermore, I will stimulate buy in with the vocabulary during 3rd quarter by allowing the students to create their own vocabulary lists via Google Docs.(What do you plan to do in the classroom?)

Evaluation Measurements: I will look at writing samples from the end of 2nd quarter to assess where students fell on the 6 Traits Rubric for Word Choice. I will then look at their scores from a writing sample that was gathered at the end of February to serve as a benchmark. Finally I will look at a writing sample provided on April 8th to determine how they progressed overall. I will also look at scores on vocabulary tests. Finally, I will ask students questions regarding their self-efficacy as it relates to word choice, which will allow for my qualitative data.(How will you measure success? Quantitatively (with data) and qualitatively (by asking students) and by observation?)

Results: My kids are smart.


 * Year Two: 2009-2010**


 * Student Need: Teacher needs to provide more resources to allow students to maintain engagement in classroom instruction**

__**Literature Review**__: (What literature/articles/books have you looked at to support your question and to help guide you in your intervention?)
 * Research Question:** How does physical movement affect student engagement in tasks?


 * __Intervention Plan__**: Students will be given different opportunity to engage in movement around the classroom through intra-class period transitions where students change seats to promote more alertness which would lead to more engagement.


 * __Evaluation Measurements__**: I used three different tools to measure student engagement. First, students were questioned via an ASPIRE quiz to self-declare levels of engagement. There was also constant exit tickets that ask students to respond to explicit material delivered during the class. Finally, I relied on observational data to rate student engagement in each class.


 * __Results__**: Ultimately, what I decided at the end of my research was that student engagement increased dramatically not with the opportunity to move more frequently, but with increased connection to the material. When we switched to the Outsiders, the students became much more engaged than they had for most of the previous semester. When questioned about their engagement, students frequently spoke about the interest brought about by the book.


 * Year Three: 2010-2011**


 * Student Need:** Students struggle with true mastery of vocabulary and the ability to entrench it in their daily language and writing.


 * Research Question:** How can students gain the self-efficacy or strategies necessary to master vocabulary and make it part of their daily lexicon?

__**Literature Review**__: (What literature/articles/books have you looked at to support your question and to help guide you in your intervention?) Literature I've looked at recently suggests that mnemonics can help students memorize vocabulary, but there is little in the writing connecting this memorization of vocabulary to usage as part of daily language.


 * __Intervention Plan__**: Teacher will idenfity students who are struggling the most with vocabulary acquisition. Teacher will ask these students to participate in a weekly after school tutoring session, where the students get together to formulate pneumonic devices that best support their learning. Teacher will model and scaffold pneumonic practices appropriately, but the groups will work together to create pneumonics that match their learning styles and fit the words most appropriately.


 * __Evaluation Measurements__**: The teacher will primarily use vocabulary tests and self-efficacy surveys to identify improvement in vocabulary acquisition.

Intervention Plan described after enacted: As the new quarter commensed, based on vocabulary grades from the first quarter, I selected a group of students to personally invite to an after school study session, to be held one day a week, after school on Mondays. Of approximately 30 students invited seven students attended at least one meeting (3 the first week, followed by 4, 6, 3). In these meetings, students looked at the vocabulary list for the upcoming test. We discussed what a mnemonic device is as a preparation for the study session, but students and teacher worked together for approximately 15 minutes each session creating a mneumonic to remember at least 7 of the vocabulary words.


 * __Results__**: All students scores improved as a result of the sessions that they attended. For one student, scores improved after he came the first 3 weeks, and continued to improve for the rest of the quarter. Some students saw dramatic improvements, while others say an improvement of only one or 2 points out of the ten available per test.