Andrea's+Research

__Year **One: 2008-2009**__

__**Student Need**__: Historically, our school has displayed low levels of performance in language arts, so students need to be motivated to improve achievement in that area.

__**Research Question**__: How much can improving relationships in the classroom increase student achievement in Language Arts?

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

1. “Tips for Using Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships to Improve Student Achievement” (American Association of School Administrators, 2009) = 2. “Student Motivation: The HMC Teacher-Coach Model” (Human Motivation Circle, 2008) = 3. “ The Relationships between Playfulness in Teaching, Motivation of Teaching, Perceived Happiness in Teaching and Creative Teaching among Junior High School Teachers” (Journal of Education and Psychology, 2008)

__**Intervention Plan**__: I plan to use Character Education and other team-building activities to increase the emotional connection and sense of belonging among my 4th hour class, as well as to improve their individual relationships with me.

__**Evaluation Measurements**__: (How will you measure success? Quantitatively (with data) and qualitatively (by asking students) and by observation?) I will measure success quantitatively by tracking the number of students who earn a “D” or “F” each quarter. I will also measure qualitatively through observation and the gathering of anecdotal evidence.

__**Results**__: T he extra time and attention did help my 4th hour students to achieve higher scores overall (making them my only class without a single “D” or “F” during 2nd quarter). However, part of why I believe that relationship-building was the element which had the biggest impact on student achievement is that I did NOT focus on it nearly as much during 3rd quarter, and replaced it with additional time on focused AIMS preparation. As a result, student achievement dropped slightly during 3rd quarter across all of my classes.


 * Year Two: 2009-2010**


 * Student Need:**


 * Research Question:**

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


 * __Intervention Plan__**:


 * __Evaluation Measurements__**:


 * __Results__**:


 * Year Three: 2010-2011**


 * Student Need:** Students need to a better way to evaluate their own learning, and they need to feel empowered to achieve higher levels of academic success.

__**Literature Review**__:
 * Research Question:** How can implementation of the PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) Cycle positively impact student performance and feelings of self-efficacy?

Jim Shipley & Associates. (2010). //Continuous Classroom Improvement, 2nd Edition//. North Redington Beach, Florida: Integrated Systems Solutions. My plan for implementation came directly from this publication. Its use was a directive from our principal, Dr. Lynn Miller. Due to the level of trust I have in his vision for the success of Deer Valley Middle School, I have embraced this plan whole-heartedly.


 * __Intervention Plan__**: I implemented the PDSA Cycle over the course of twelve weeks. Three full cycles were completed, during which students will took detailed pre- and post-tests to measure their final results, along with several formative assessments to assist them in measuring their own improvement throughout each cycle.


 * __Evaluation Measurements__**: I implemented the PDSA Cycle over the course of twelve weeks. Three full cycles were completed, during which students will took detailed pre- and post-tests to measure their final results, along with several formative assessments to assist them in measuring their own improvement throughout each cycle.


 * __Results__**: Forth-coming

__**Additional Research Questions**__**:** How can we improve individual student performance by using this system without the processing being time-prohibitive for teachers?

How can we better correlate the formative and summative data using this system? How many standards or concepts are realistic to study in any one cycle, while still being able to obtain the most reliable data?