Artifact #5: Action Research (TE 808)
Goals: 1, 3
Standards: 1, 3, 4, 5
Two things happened at once to make this action research project possible. The first was a move from New Orleans to Detroit and a shift in jobs from classroom teacher to school turnaround coordinator. I went from working with kids everyday to provide a good lesson to working with teacher everyday to provide support as they remake their school. The second was a class at MSU where I had to conduct action research.
As a part of my job we conduct quarterly report card conferences with the students. We do the same with parents as well, but the purpose of the student conferences are to get them thinking of their grades as their grades and no one else's. To give them that sense of ownership. During those conferences I notices that students were not drawn in by their report cards. It was a stale, cold report that told them no more than their letter grades. I wanted to make those report cards more meaningful and this action research project was the result of that desire.
From this project I learned that I am no designer. My goal of providing our students with more information also created a document that was hard to understand and seemed too cluttered. It was, I feel, a step in the right direction to provide student with more context as to WHY they received the grades they earned. It also provided the feedback for a second go at the report card redesign, which I am currently working on for this school year.
Standards: 1, 3, 4, 5
Two things happened at once to make this action research project possible. The first was a move from New Orleans to Detroit and a shift in jobs from classroom teacher to school turnaround coordinator. I went from working with kids everyday to provide a good lesson to working with teacher everyday to provide support as they remake their school. The second was a class at MSU where I had to conduct action research.
As a part of my job we conduct quarterly report card conferences with the students. We do the same with parents as well, but the purpose of the student conferences are to get them thinking of their grades as their grades and no one else's. To give them that sense of ownership. During those conferences I notices that students were not drawn in by their report cards. It was a stale, cold report that told them no more than their letter grades. I wanted to make those report cards more meaningful and this action research project was the result of that desire.
From this project I learned that I am no designer. My goal of providing our students with more information also created a document that was hard to understand and seemed too cluttered. It was, I feel, a step in the right direction to provide student with more context as to WHY they received the grades they earned. It also provided the feedback for a second go at the report card redesign, which I am currently working on for this school year.