Action Research

When I first learned that our second class would be dealing with research I cringed as I'm sure a lot of other classmates did as well.  What I quickly realized, though, is that action research is what I've been doing in my classrooms for as long as I can remember.  In my current position as our school reading academic specialist, my job insists of addressing problems on a daily basis in regards to our students with reading difficulties.  I have to determine why students aren't reading on grade level.  My inquiry into the problem begins.  I discuss the student with the teacher to find out as much information as possible.  I use data from past and current grade levels to look for patterns or trends in the child's learning and discuss my findings with the teacher, our Academic Coach, and our district dyslexia specialist.  The teacher and I meet together to form a plan and implement interventions that will target certain areas for the child.  We continue to monitor the student through bi-weekly fluency and running records to track growth.  As the teacher and I come together to evaluate our plan, we make changes as needed if the child is successful and showing growth or if they are still stagnant and not progressing in the plan.  The information we gain while working with the child is then shared during our collaboration time so that other teachers who might have a child with the same difficulties in reading can learn from the experiences we had.  We continue to keep the child on the plan developed and monitor their growth through the RTI progress.  "Inquiring professionals seek out change and reflect on their practice by posing questions or "wonderings," collecting data to gain insights into their wonderings, analyzing data along with reading relevant literature, making changes based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others," (Dana 2009, p. 3).  Action research allows teachers and administrators the opportunity to look at why they do what they do and determine if their plan of action is effective.  If it isn't effective, steps are put into place to alter the plan and continue monitoring its progress.  If a teacher just goes into a classroom to teach and give grades and then leaves it at that, then they will never learn to determine why students are performing or learning the way they are.  As educators, we should always have that "I wonder" question looming in the back of our mind.  Only then when we begin to dig deeper will we have a true understanding of the effectiveness of our teaching and leadership skills. 


References:
Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.