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Thursday, August 15, 2013
The first few weeks of this Research course were so tough, involving so many hours of work! But, thankfully the last two weeks have been considerably less. I do think that balancing out the coursework more evenly over the 5 weeks would be a better plan, but it did work out in my favor since we started back to school last week. I feel that I gained plenty of knowledge to be effective in my action research project, but will still need that continuous guidance from my administrators. Lucky for me, I have two young administrators who haven't been out of grad school that long. They are still very familiar with the process, while they do have some experience under their belts. Perfect mix! I can't wait to get this year started with my action research and already have plans to give my pre-test and start collecting baseline data in the next two weeks. I'm anxious to start my interventions, but know that I need to get my baseline data first. Exciting!!!
Friday, August 2, 2013
My plan is finally finished! Feel like I should win an olympic gold medal now!
For my action research plan, I plan to focus on bullying, but in a non-traditional sense. I plan to use character education lessons embedded in my ELA lessons (stories that teach about different character traits, writing prompts that promote thinking along the same lines, ...) Rather than just calling kids in and having assemblies and traditional anti-bullying lessons, that kids block out and resist actively participating in, I think this way will be much more effective. My goal is for the number of incidences of bullying by 7th grade students to decrease, both office referrals for bullying and student-reported cases that are taken care of by teachers.
Action Planning Template
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Goal: To reduce the incidences of bullying through positive character
education embedded in students’ ELA coursework.
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Action Steps(s):
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Person(s) Responsible:
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Timeline: Start/End
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Needed Resources
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Evaluation
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Pre-Test
Students will take part in an online
or written survey, which will provide their baseline knowledge of character
education traits as well as knowledge and experiences with bullies or
bullying.
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Kaci Vinson
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August 2013
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Online survey and/or written surveys,
7th grade students
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Surveys will be tallied and I will be
able to see which areas are most critical to focus on and which areas
students are already familiar with or have adequate knowledge about. This will guide the focus and the topics
that I will include in the character education throughout the year.
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Each week, stories will be included
in the reading lessons that have connections to character traits such as
sympathy, empathy, compassion, and acceptance. As we come across those topics in the text
we will go into in-depth discussions of those traits and real-life examples
(both positive and negative) that students have with those specific
traits. We will discuss ways that they
should be used and how they should be a part of students’ everyday lives.
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Kaci Vinson
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August 2013 – May 2014
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Various fiction and non-fiction books
such as:
Chicken Soup for the Soul Middle
School, Character Counts!, All About Character
Various online sources to find
stories or scenarios
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Students will receive their regular grades
for comprehension, or the specific reading skills that we are focusing on
that specific week. But, students will also have a short-answer question
focusing on the specific character education trait for that week, as part of
their regular test questions.
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As part of our monthly writing
assignments, one of the writing topic choices will focus on character
education. Students will be able to
choose to express theirself through writing about the character trait that we
have been discussing. They will share
their personal experiences, which may be either positive or negative.
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Kaci Vinson
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August 2013 –
May 2014
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Writing topics, writing materials,
evaluation rubric
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Students’ writing will be graded
according to a writing rubric.
Students will also conference individually with the teacher about ways
they could improve their writing in this specific paper, positive aspects of
their paper. This will also give me
the perfect opportunity to have a one-on-one discussion with the student
about the character education trait we have been discussing and how it
applies to their life.
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Movie clips from popular movies that
students like will also be incorporated into the character education
discussions. Students will be able to
see the interaction between people either practicing being a good person or
not being a good person. We will
discuss things that were good/bad and ways that the character could have been
better.
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Kaci Vinson
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August 2013 –
May 2014
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Movie clips from: Coach Carter, The
Truman Show, and Ray
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Students will write a short
reflection on their exit ticket of either something that they learned from
the video or a way that they can use what they learned if they are being
bullied or thinking of bullying someone else.
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Meetings with the school counselor
will occur monthly. I will meet with
her to share my progress, get suggestions of books or topics to focus on,
learn new tips that she has learned from other counselors, and share with her
about specific students that I feel she should meet with more in-depth.
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Kaci Vinson &
Sherry Fournet
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August 2013 –
May 2014
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Counselor books and materials, list
of students who the counselor might want to meet with and contact information
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By meeting with the school counselor
monthly, we will be able to share matters that are confidential or things
that the students have shared in their writings or discussions that might
need further attention. This will
enable the counselor to more effectively target students with issues. I will also gain more knowledge and tips
for teaching strategies from the counselor.
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Obtain research providing ideas for
character education or anti-bullying activities that have been proven to be
successful.
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Kaci Vinson
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August 2013 –
May 2014
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Internet databases and professional
journals
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Read various articles about character
education and the effects of it on bullying.
Use knowledge gained from the research articles to guide my teaching
activities.
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Utilize a “mailbox” where students
can write me a note anonymously about any issues they are having dealing with
bullying, or topics that they would like me to focus on in our stories.
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Kaci Vinson
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August 2013 –
May 2014
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Mailbox in my classroom, note paper
and pens
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Students are often afraid that they
will be tattling if they tell a teacher of a problem they are having with
another student, or they are worried that they might get bullied even
more. Students will be able to drop me
a note in the mailbox and I can address the issue as a regular part of our
ELA lessons. The bully or the bullied
student will never be identified and hopefully a greater understanding will
come out of it.
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Analyze the discipline referrals from
the office periodically throughout the year.
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Kaci Vinson, Max Caldarera, Marc
Jardell
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August 2013 – May 2014
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School discipline referrals, teacher
write-ups of students
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Periodically throughout the year I
will meet with the Principal and/or Assistant Principal to check on the
number of discipline referrals for the 7th grade students. We will analyze the data and see if the
referrals related to bullying are increasing, decreasing or staying the same.
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Post-Test
Students will take part in an online
or written survey, which will provide their knowledge of character education
traits as well as knowledge and experiences with bullies or bullying.
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Kaci Vinson
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May 2014
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Online survey and/or written surveys,
7th grade students
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Surveys will be tallied and I will be
able to see which areas that we focused on were really beneficial to the
students and that they really comprehended.
This will help guide my teaching the following year. I expect this data to closely mirror the
behavior referrals. If a student has a
thorough understanding of the character education traits that we have learned
all year, they should not be a bullying issue.
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Formulate my findings about the
effects of integrating character education into the ELA lessons to try to
reduce bullying. Use the data obtained
from the pre/post tests, research findings, data from office referrals,
teacher statements, meetings with the counselor and principal.
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Kaci Vinson, Sherry Fournet, 7th
grade teachers, Max Caldarera and Marc Jardell
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May 2014
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Pre/Post tests, research articles,
referral data, teacher statements, logs from meetings with counselor and principals.
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After analyzing all data and meeting
with supervisors who were a part of the project, provide a written report
summarizing the project. Share the
data and ideas for other teachers to incorporate into their classrooms at a
faculty meeting or a PLC meeting.
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