Benchmark Assessments

   The last two weeks have focused on benchmark assessments for my project.  First, my team needed to agree on a benchmark assessment for editing and revising.  We created a rubric to use for the students' authentic pieces of writing.  We disagreed about what pieces to use, but we ultimately decided that as long as we asked the students to write about a memory, it would be considered a prompt.  Then, we decided to take this through the writing process and include editing, so that the students would be submitting their best work. 
   We also wanted a second assessment that was similar to the CMT, since this was an assessment that our students typically struggle with.  It is not set up in an authentic way, so we want to be sure that we set up our students for success with this aspect of the CMT.  The test that we agreed upon was very difficult for our students to navigate through.  We are not allowed to write in our CMT pratctice books, so we created an answer packet for the stuents to write in.  The act of going back and forth from a book to an answer key proved to be too cumbersome for our students at this point in time.  We decided that this was not an accurate benchmark because of the level of stress for our students.  Finally, we decided to use three pages from the You Be the Editor practice materials as a benchmark, and we will be implementing this assessment next week. 
   The editing rubric was very helpful in assessing my students ability to use proper mechanics in their writing.  I was able to pinpoint the students that need some differentiation. I am very happy to have this important information about my students.  Without the rubric, I may not have been able to pinpoint these students as easily.

EDITING RUBRIC

Student Name_____________________________________                                 Date____________

Story Title_______________________________________________

	4	3	2	1
Capitalization	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are almost always capitalized.	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are capitalized most of the time.	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are capitalized some of the time.	Beginnings of sentences and proper nouns are seldom capitalized.
Punctuation	Appropriate punctuation is almost always used (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)	Appropriate punctuation is used most of the time (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)	Appropriate punctuation is used some of the time (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)	Appropriate punctuation is rarely used (ending punctuation and commas in a series, date, and city & state.)
Spelling	Writing includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns) almost always.	Writing includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns) most of the time.	Writing includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns) some of the time.	Writing rarely includes grade appropriate spelling (homonyms, sight words, and words that follow taught spelling patterns.)
Sentence Construction	There are very few examples of run-ons, fragments, and rambling sentences.)	There are few examples of run-ons, fragments, and rambling sentences.)	There are some examples of run-ons, fragments, and rambling sentences.)	There are many examples of run-ons, fragments, and/or rambling sentences.
Word Usage	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are almost always used appropriately.	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are used appropriately most of the time.	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are used appropriately some of the time.	Verbs (subject-verb agreement and verb tense,) comparative and superlative adjectives, and pronouns are rarely used appropriately.

Reading Professional Literature

I have been reading Mechanically Inclined, and it is a very interesting way to approach teaching mechanics and grammar to my students.  It is basically pulling out sentences that show the correct way to form a sentence.  You can use a text that you are already using in your instruction, and use it as a model of how to write a sentence correctly.  For example, you may want to teach students how to use commas in lists.  After exposing the students to a sentence that does this correctly. the students practice making similar sentences in their writer's notebook.  Then, they try to apply this type of sentence into the piece that they are currently working on.  This strategy seems like a very manageable to include mechanics and grammar into your writer's workshop instruction.

Action Research Revisions

This week, I needed to read comments on my action research and have a conference with my site supervisor.  I made revisions to my plan and updated the plan on the blog.  I felt that my research plan was validated by the comments left on the blog.  Thank you Kim and Tfitzger!  I realize that the areas of editing and revising each deserve their own units.  I am planning on creating a unit on mechanics and a unit on revising.  I know that this will be difficult to fit in with an already jam packed curriculum, so I would like to create a systematic way of addressing these areas that will take roughly ten minutes a day.  I think that by doing this, it will be easier to implement the additional instruction.  I have begin reading Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop, by Jeff Anderson.  It is proving to be an invaluable resource!!

Action Research Plan

This week I have been working on developing a plan for conducting my action research project.  As I was developing the plan, I realized how many steps there were going to be.  I am happy to have a plan because it will provide a focused course of action to cdomplete this project.  I am excited to see what the research shows is best practice, and I am excited to implement new instructional strategies into my classrrom writing instruction.  Here is my plan!

Here are my steps to follow!

Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
List wonderings	Elizabeth Exias	September ‘11:	CMT Data, Research on editing and revising instruction, Dana (2009) Text	Research that addresses needs
Discuss topic with literacy instructional leader to provide insight.	Elizabeth Exias, Ellen Tuckner	September ‘11:	Ellen Tuckner, Books and other resources that she provides.	Identifying research that matches her insights
Inquire about databases for professional journals provided by Lamar University	Elizabeth Exias Lamar Professor	September ‘11	Email Database	Ability to locate professional journals
Research effective writing instruction with a focus on editing and revising, PLCs, and differentiation.	Elizabeth Exias	September and October ‘11:	Database for journal articles, Texts on editing and revising instruction such as Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop, Additional workshops in this area	Implementation of strategies in the classroom. Collecting and analyzing student data to monitor their progress after implementing research based strategies.
Give baseline assessment and analyze it.	Elizabeth Exias	September ‘11:	Baseline Assessment	Summative assessment in June will provide data that evaluates the implemented techniques. Anecdotal Notes will serve as data for the effectiveness of the PLC
Collect and analyze data	Elizabeth Exias	September ‘11:	Benchmark assessment, ongoing formative assessments, and summative assessments, CMT Results, rubric for editing and revising strategies in everyday writing	Analysis of the assessments will evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional strategies used.
Discuss Research-based Practices	Elizabeth Exias PLC Team	October ‘11	Professional literature	Implementation of research-based strategies in action plan
Meet with the PLC to discuss data and determine an action plan that includes two units, mechanics and revising.	Elizabeth Exias	October ‘11	PLC Team, data from a variety of assessments	Anecdotal records, formative and summative assessments, CMT results
Implement the action plan in the classroom.	Elizabeth Exias	October ’11 – June ‘12	PLC, Action Plan, Resources for Instruction	Formative and summative assessments that monitor progress
Monitor the progress of the students with formative assessments and adjust instruction accordingly.	Elizabeth Exias	Monthly October ’11 – June ‘12	Data from Formative Assessments	Analysis of data from the formative assessments
Give summative assessment and evaluate the growth that was made through this action research study.	Elizabeth Exias	May ‘12	Summative Assessment	Comparison of benchmark assessment and summative assessment
Share learning with others on blog, in discussion boards and at a staff meeting.	Elizabeth Exias	October ’11 – June ‘12	Blog, discussion boards, staff meeting	Comments on my blog and discussion posts

1. Examining the work: Setting the Foundation:

Our administration set a goal for the teachers in grades three thorough five to focus on making decisions on writing instruction using a study group, or a PLC.  In our initial meeting, my third grade team discussed the writing scores of the previous year’s third grade students, and we noticed that the students scored very well on their prompt writing portion of the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT.)  The area where the students struggled most on was the editing and revising portion of the CMT.  Based on this information, we decided to focus our PLC meetings, for the 2011-2012 school year, on the area of editing and revising. 

2. Analyzing data :

My data collection plan will include looking at the results from the CMTs in my class for the past 3 years, as well as the classes of my colleagues.  I will also examine the results of a benchmark assessment for the students in my class to analyze their needs in this area.  I will read a variety resources including journal articles and textbooks to explore research based techniques for teaching editing and revising.  I am going to explore options for teaching editing and revising that have been proven to carry over into everyday writing.  In a PLC, my team and I will develop a research based action plan to meet the needs of our students and implement the plan.  We will monitor the progress of our students using additional assessments.  Through the analysis of this data and the continued exploration of best practice, we will revise our action plans in a PLC setting.

3. Developing deeper understanding :

I will begin to understand the pros and cons of specific instructional strategies focusing on the editing and revising of writing.  At this point, the team decided to use daily language reviews to begin practicing editing and revising writing.  This is done in isolation, and I am interested to learn the pros and cons of this decision.  Once these are defined, we can revise our plan of action to a plan that matches the research.  I will interview Ellen Tuckner, the literacy instructional leader, and get a variety of resources to use in developing a plan of action.  I will use Ebscohost to find recent journal articles of similar research projects that have been done by professionals in the field.  

4. Engaging in Self-Reflection:

• Do I have the skills and resources needed to develop an action plan that will help my students to improve their editing and revising skills and strategies?
• Will the resources that I use help my students edit and revise their everyday writing, not simply edit and revise in isolation?
• Will I be able to convince my team to alter the action plan if it is not successful or research-based? 
• If I do not have the knowledge on best practices in teaching editing and revising, can I gain those skills?
• If I do not have the resources to teach editing and revising well, can I procure them?
• Is the PLC process that we currently use, the most efficient way to conduct a PLC?
• Where will I find the time to focus on editing and revising and continue to stay on track with the demands of the writing curriculum that is currently in place?
• Will I be able to differentiate my instruction to meet the editing and revising needs of my students?

5.  Exploring Programmatic Patterns:

In speaking with the literacy instructional leader, I found out that teaching editing and revising in isolation has very little carry over into everyday writing.  She shared a resource called , Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop by Jeff Anderson, that I will begin to read in order to find a more effective way to teach editing and revising. 

• Will I be able to develop an effective action plan to teach editing and revising strategies to my students?
• Will my team be open to changing their action plans along with me?
• Will I be able to fit research based instruction into my schedule?

6. Determining direction:

After reevaluating my approach to this action research study, I feel that my research questions are very clear.  I understand what I am attempting to solve.  There are two parts to this project.  The first part is analyzing the effectiveness of the PLC process.  The second part is developing and action plan to meet the needs of the third grade students in the area of editing and revising using research based strategies.  I have a good starting place for beginning my research.  I will look at previous year’s CMT scores and my current students’ performance on a benchmark assessment.  I will begin to read Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop by Jeff Anderson to help me understand some strategies for teaching editing and revising that follow the current research and trends.  I have discussed my plan with my site supervisor and the literacy instructional leader.  My action research is collaborative in nature because I will be using a PLC to develop an action plan for meeting the needs of my students.  The timeline is one school year.  This is realistic because I can monitor the progress of the students in my class throughout the year.  The project will be completed before they leave school for summer vacation.  My plan for monitoring the progress of my students and for determining the level of success of the project is to re-assess the students monthly.  This will give my team and me an idea of how effective the plan was, and it will help us to determine if we need to revise the plan throughout the year.  The plan will be determined to be effective if the students editing and revising skills are improving and if they are effectively editing and revising their everyday writing.  If the plan is ineffective, my PLC will use research based strategies to revise the plan.

7. Taking action for school improvement:

The committee that will assist me with my action research project is my third grade PLC team.  We have already agreed to focus on improving our instruction of editing and revising.  I have also discussed my plan with my site supervisor and the literacy instructional leader.  The three of us will be a second committee to discuss my findings with and to lead me in the right direction. 

8. Sustaining improvement:

If and when my research reveals an effective way to teach editing and revising, I will share it with my site supervisor and the literacy instructional leader.  Together, we will determine a way to share our findings with other teachers in the school.  I will look into presenting my findings at a staff meeting.  I will be posting my findings on my blog as well as discussing my project with my online peers in the discussion boards. 

Wish me luck as I begin this project!

Importance of Action Research

This week’s assignments were to reflect on two action research projects that were effective for two administrators.  I was interested to see the variety of projects and I was happy that they were based on specific needs of the schools.  I think that it is so important for people in the field of education to continue to grow professionally so that their students’ receive the best possible education.  Action research is a great tool to use to continue to grow professionally.  It gives a relevant purpose for the action research study because it derives from the needs of the school.  There are countless projects that can be done in the nine passions of administrators.  I also like how they are labeled as passions, because one must be passionate about educating children!  I have come up with three ideas for action research projects that fit in with my internship plan.  I am looking forward to hearing about what my site supervisor thinks about them.  Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene hit and school has been canceled for an entire week.  The Internet is down, so I have not been able to email my ideas to my site supervisor or even to post this blog.

Using Action Research

I have learned quite a bit about action research.  Action research requires the practitioner do develop questions around an area of concern.  The practitioner must collect and analyze data, read relevant literature on the topic, and create an action plan to try to resolve the issue or concern.  The practitioner must then collect and analyze new data and begin the process again.  There are many benefits of action research.  It helps the practitioners focus their energies in one area so that they can effectively solve problems rather than being spread too thin.  It also helps practitioners work together, make data based decisions, and implement best practices.  As a teacher, I currently use action research.  I use data from assessments that I give and create action plans to meet the needs of my students.  After implementing the action plans, I re-assess my students to monitor their progress.  I either create a new action plan to meet their needs or determine a new focus to assess.  I don't always document each of these steps in a focused way, but I use a version of the process daily.  I could use action research when I implement a new curriculum unit, or program of study.  I can take prior student work and compare it to the student work completed at the end of the unit to see if the unit was effective. 

Educational leaders could use action research to choose a new program or curricula based on the needs of the school as a whole.  It also could be used to analyze the effectiveness of new programs and curricula.  Action research could also be used at the administrative level to analyze the needs of the staff for professional development, and to improve the climate of the school.