Week 4

Hey here is my week 4 update - I have had to change my project, so now I will be researching how to implement on my campus, behavioral tiers for RTI. There is not much research on behavioral RTI tiers, so I am open to any and all suggestions. If you know of any good research out there, please let me know. My campus is an elementary campus and we house the district behavioral unit along with our regular education classes. Many times these students are mainstreamed into the regular ed classrooms to work along gen ed students. I am hoping to come up with a set of protocols so that my reg. ed teachers know what to do when faced with the challenges of having these students in their classrooms. We do not have a clear district vision as of yet for what RTI looks like in regards to behavioral issues. So, that is the new plan. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

Week 3

Dear Friends,
I am sorry that this is late, but I had a family emergency. I am behind in my postings and I am trying to catch up. - Rachael

Here is my action research plan.

I have changed the topic of my action research after much thought. I am now planning on studying the effects of group size on small group RTI instruction in reading for K-3 grade students. Will a group of three or less be more or less effective than a group of four to six students? That is my question. I am also interested to see which groups are more effective (push-in groups, where the reading instructional specialist or assistant goes in to the classroom for instruction or pull-out groups, where students leave the classroom to have their RTI reading instruction). However, my main focus will be on the size of the groups. I am planning on using TPRI, benchmark assessments, and progress monitoring to help me gather the data needed for my project. This project will last all year and I hope to be able to tell by the end of this school year, which type of grouping is better (at least for my particular campus).

Week 2 Reflection

This week I have learned that action research is a process where you are constantly revisiting your initial question to see where your research is leading you. After listening to this week's three interviews, I understand the importance of making your action research a project that is relevant and important to you. I also appreciated the advice of not trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. There is lots of great research out there and being able to read what other people have written about, researched, and studied will be a wonderful help to me when it is time to do my research.

Week 1 Part 2

Here is part 2 of our Week 1 assignment. In this part of the assignment, we are supposed to write an analysis of how educational leaders might use blogs. Here goes!
To start with, I don't think that I have ever met an educator who didn't like to talk. Talking is what we do, all day, every day. So blogs provide educators with an outlet for talking to other educators about any number of things. Many young educators started using blogs in college. They understand the power that blogs have in keeping people connected. Blogs can connect educators in one part of the world with educators in another part of the world.Years ago, we had pen pals, now we have blog followers. It is basically the same thing. People writing about what is important to them and having other people respond in kind. Locally, blogs can help educators within the same school district form research teams to study and analyze problems that are occurring across the district and across campuses. Educational leaders can use blogs on their campus as a way to share information and research with teachers plus these same leaders can blog with other campus leaders, sort of as a support team for each other. Blogs are a wonderful way to communicate with new friends and old.

Week 1 Part 1

To start with, I have never been a big fan of research. Well, research that involved me doing the research. I think it goes back to a bad undergrad experience I had that involved a research paper over the Russian revolution..but I digress. Anyway, when I saw the title of this course, I was understandably a little nervous. My forays into research have not proved successful. However, after doing all of the readings and watching this week's video, I am feeling a little better. Action research does not seem so intimidating. True action research is a process of inquiry and discovery. A process that does not always take the researcher down the path that he or she thought they would be going down when first starting. I have learned that action research involves time for reflection. Without reflection, there is no way to gauge whether the path you are going down is the correct path or if, heaven forbid, you should get off the path altogether and get back on the street. Maybe just changing paths would best the option, but without reflection, you would not ever know. Action research also allows for an educational leader to step out of his or her role as the campus leader and become a more active participant in the learning that is going on through Leadership Teams, in university coursework, district meetings,and/or PLC's.I am hoping to use my action research to address an issue that has plagued my school district and I know that it has been a problem in other districts as well. The issue is how to convenience upper elementary teachers (those in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades) to utilize small flexible groups for teaching reading and possibly math and other subjects if presented the option. I have a theory as to why there is such resistance and reluctance (a lot of it being because of high stakes testing that goes on in those grades) and I am hoping to discover ways and methods to meet the particular needs of those teachers so that they can better differentiate their instruction to best meet the needs of all of their students. At least, that is the plan. We will see where the research road leads me. More to come!