Assignment 1.2 Investiagion of Ancient Manuscript

I chose to review the Bible from Ethiopia, and was initially drawn to the detail and clean lines in the images and print of this text. The images consisted of deep backgrounds with bold colors depicting the images. This drew my eye to the details of the text as well as the images. The use of colors for this text is an excellent illustration of contrast. The oranges, reds, blues, and yellows work together to draw attention to the images and borders of the pages. I also noted a difference in print color interchanging from black to red. I wondered about the significance of this, and found through my reading that the black ink represented the main text, while the red ink represented the titles and essential rubrics. Repetition can be seen through aspects of the illustrations in the text. The curved lines over the heads of the people represented repeat throughout the text. The bold colors depicting the images and deep backgrounds are repeated throughout each of the images. While the borders are different they do follow a similar pattern of rich lines and columns over print and arches over tables. The unified order of the print is a strong example of alignment. Most pages of print are divided into columns of block alignment. They are neat and spaced in a way that is easy to see. The borders of the pages serve the purpose of helping align the block alignment of the pages. The placement of the print on the page denotes the use of proximity. The text remains close together throughout the work. There are spaces used as needed to separate a title or table. The borders assist the spacing of the print on each page. This early work exhibits the qualities of design that draw a reader in and maintain attention. The principles of design are clearly present in this work.

Action Research Update

My project, Effective Tutoring, is designed to analyze the effectiveness of various tutoring times on student achievement. I tutor two groups of students twice a week, one before and one after school, and my colleague tutors one large group during lunchtime twice a week. We have conducted probes at the beginning and will again after the final session as one form of evaluation. We also will compare scores from the beginning of the year and end of the year Measures of Academic Progress assessment. Before we established our tutoring groups, we analyzed the students 2012 assessment data and Beginning of the year MAP and Quarter One District Assessment data to determine student needs. We then developed a tutoring schedule that would span a four-month time frame. Within the first week of tutoring, we did comprehension probes as a baseline evaluation. We didn’t tutor during Winter or Spring break, but immediately began again upon returning to school. We have completed twenty-eight hours of tutoring with the students. After this last week of tutoring, we will complete the comprehension probes again with hopes of noting significant growth in at least one of the tutoring groups. My colleague and I will meet again to examine the progress of each group and determine whether one group showed greater success, or growth, than the other groups. We currently have met to discuss data, student progress, tutoring activities, and planning for each tutoring session for approximately twenty hours. Five additional hours were spent giving students the comprehension probes. I have just concluded the data collection portion of my action research project. I have only started on the literature review and have a great deal more to contribute. I have enjoyed the process of collecting data and am ready to begin sorting through and analyzing to determine the results.

Partnership Program Prezi

Reflecting on Research

This course has introduced me to a new world of research!  My district had actually implemented a ‘strategic plan’ a few years back, but in the middle of implementation our Superintendent retired and the direction of the plan fell apart. After learning more about action research, I realize the leaders were trying to implement action research. I believe it would have been much better received with a bit more background and buy-in to the process, or with some understanding such as what we have learned in this course.

In the first week of this course, we used Blogger to create our own blogs. This was a new format of social media or communication for me.  I have developed a Weebly and worked with Wikis, but using Blogger has been a whole new experience, and sometimes a challenge, for me. I plan to continue building knowledge in blogging through more practice and searching the Internet for tips.  I believe I will gain a better understanding as I work through it. I will also reach out to a co-work who loves to blog. She will be an outstanding resource for me.

The video interviews of educational leaders also helped me develop a better understanding of action research. The explanation Dr. Chargois gave for various ideas of research made me realize it can happen at a campus level, or come from an outside source.

The Dana text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge, was a very helpful resource for me. Chapter two gave explanations and examples of the nine areas of major wonderings, which pushed me to start thinking of examples from my campus that would fit into these categories. It seemed that several areas that came to mind addressed the need to improve student achievement. This led to my initial idea for action research.

The action research planning models eased a lot of my tension. When I developed my question, I felt lost and wasn’t sure how to work through the process, but the SIP/PIP Plan and Tool 7.1 Template helped me develop a very workable outline plan for my research.  This helped me feel much more confident in what I was preparing.

I would like to learn more about the procedures for quality literature review. I will discuss this further with my site supervisor and also research more articles similar to the one we read in our first week to gain insight into this topic.

I had never heard of Force Field Analysis, the Delphi Method, or Nominal Group Technique. It was fairly clear for me to understand how Force Field and Delphi Method could benefit a researcher. It took a little more for me to understand the process of the Nominal Group Technique. After first reading about it, I had a negative perception of this technique, but as I thought more about implementation, I felt it would actually be a great way to develop and increase staff buy-in. 

I was very nervous about taking this course initially, but it has actually been a very engaging and informative class that helped me build more confidence in myself as a leader and an educational researcher.

A Plea for Comments

I was a bit discouraged over this past week at the lack of comments I received. I tried to comment on several blogs this week and added my blog to my discussion posts and posted it on the web conference. It sure made part three of this week's assignment tough! If you notice that my settings are not conducive to commenting or if I am doing something to make it more difficult, please feel free to let me know! Share my blog with some of your followers, as well!

More Reflection

This week brought some beneficial changes to my research plan. I had an excellent meeting with my site supervisor and received some very helpful suggestions. She recommended that I not give monthly DRA for my tutoring groups since I will have the standardized data from the comprehension probes. I also had a great comment from one of the blog followers that encouraged me to add a survey of student perception to the end of the research plan. I began tutoring this week, which means I also began collecting data! I have also worked with my site supervisor to begin pulling the reports from last year's testing to get some initial data analysis underway.

Effective Tutoring Action Research

Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template (Harris, Edmonson, Combs,  2010)

Goal: Determine the most effective time of day for reading tutoring/intervention
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Action Steps	Person Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Review data from 2012 Reading STAAR	C. Bice	November 2012- December 2012	STAAR report, tutor list from 2012	This data will be used to compare to current needs and findings.
2. Analyze MAP data from Fall administration	C. Bice	November 2012- December 2012	MAP Dynamic reports with RIT score	I will analyze this data to determine greatest needs for striving learners.
3. Analyze quarter one District Assessments	C. Bice	November 2012-December 2012	Schoolnet report on reading scores	I will compare this data with the MAP data to determine the students with the greatest need for intervention.
4. Collaborate with colleagues to discuss findings and determine tutoring schedule	C. Bice C. Busby H. Chavez	December 2012	MAP report, Schoolnet report, student intervention list	We will discuss classroom observations of students to ensure the students with the greatest needs are being serviced. We will also determine our tutoring schedules.
5. Give initial DRA and comprehension probe	C. Bice	December 13, 2012	DRA kit, comprehension probe	Assess student for baseline evaluation
6. Begin tutoring before winter break	C. Bice C. Busby H. Chavez	December 13-21, 2012	Istation lessons, guided reading lessons	Students will receive rigorous instruction either before school, at lunch, or after school.
7. Resume tutoring after the break	C. Bice C. Busby H. Chavez	January 8-31, 2013	Istation lessons, guided reading lessons	Students will receive rigorous instruction either before school, at lunch, or after school.
8. Give follow up comprehension probe	C. Bice	January 17, 2013	comprehension probe	Compare with baseline data to determine progress
9. Give follow comprehension probe	C. Bice	January 31, 2013	Comprehension probe	Compare with previous data to determine growth
10. Give follow comprehension probes	C. Bice	February 12 and 28, 2013	Comprehension probe	Compare with previous data to determine growth
11. Add student survey at the end of process	C. Bice	May ?	Survey	Compare student satisfaction to test scores.