Final Post

Final Post November 7, 2013

Here is a link to my completed paper:

Final Research Paper #seaccr


Here is a link to my Screencast-O-Matic presentation of my paper:

YouTube presentation of Research

#Week 8 Draft and Reflection

Week #8 Draft and Reflection

I uploaded my Research Paper Draft to Google Docs for viewing.  It did adjust my formatting slightly.   Please post comments about the paper on this blog or note them directly on the Google doc.  (I have a real copy on my home computer).  Thank you for taking the time to review it.  The areas I am most interested in feedback are the Analysis and Conclusion.

click on the link below

Research Paper Draft

What a trip this has been traveling on the new road of Qualitative Action Research!  Frustrating at times, fun at times, but the final result is making me a better teacher.   I have re-learned the importance of a PLN and plan to continue not only my current research topic but others as well.  Since my TEP plan is directly tied to this research paper, the Action Research itself will continue throughout the entire school year.

Contributions I made this week:

• Shared APA Owl link and explanation of how to take advantage of it on #seaccr for specific peers who asked 
• Shared Refworks.com on Twitter 
• Shared how I could have improved my project ...now that I know what I didn't know
• How to cite CC standards

Intentions for resources I shared and actual (discerned) impact

• APA Owl link was used this week by two peers 
• Several peers thanked me for Refworks.com and told me they planned to use it
• Helped other people and was helped by sharing how we could have improved our projects, we all have a better understanding by what was shared for future reference in research 
• Many of us need to cite CC and AK standards - I have not had any feedback on these
• A couple of my peers asked for info on some of my graphics I posted on my blog and I replied with the website in hopes they will find it useful in their own projects

Next week?

• Turn in final paper by November 8
• Try out screencastomatic
• Sleep well November 8th!

What did I learn from others?

• Again Tweet Sessions were invaluable even though they were small in numbers
• Learned about the Daily 5 and plan to implement it in my classroom after I spend time learning more about it - inspired by Lisa Banner!
• Help finalizing my research paper's title
• Was reminded about the triangulation process and to include it in my research paper

Even though this class was at times frustrating, I think I may have learned more in this class then in any other MAT class.  My kids are impressed with my tech savvy and I am on my way to teaching like a pirate!

Week #8 Analyzing Data

Week #8 Analyzing Data

My data is complete.  Data is in final format.  Some of the data analysis is complete.  Final steps include finishing analysis, and writing a conclusion after triangulating needed information.  The graphic organizer below is a reminder of the need to triangulate data and how to go about it.

Triangulation includes the following types of data formats (from my research paper):

Parent Survey Highlights Results

1.      Does your child like to read?  

Yes	No	Sometimes	No answer
9	2	3	1

2.       Do you read with your child at home?

Yes	No	Sometimes	No answer
12	2	0	0

3.      What kinds of books does your child like to read?  (Fiction/non-fiction/topics)

Fiction	Non-fiction	Fiction/Non-fiction
5	3	6

1.      Have you noticed any changes in your child’s enthusiasm for reading?

Yes - comments	No
8 ebooks mostly She is exited to read harder books especially funny books	6

Appendix E

Librarian Interview Highlights

Date:  October 18, 2013

Time:  12:30 p.m.

Interviewer:  Lenore Swanson

Interviewee:  Alexandra Basargin, McNeil Canyon Elementary School Librarian

1.      What are this this year’s Battle of the Books titles?  The list includes 15 books for the 2^nd grade level “Battle of the Books”.  A committee of librarians, teachers, and students across Alaska, select books.

2.      What is the ratio of fiction to non-fiction?  All the books are fiction for the second grade age group.

3.      In general, which books are the most popular among the readers?  Fiction is most popular, particularly for reading aloud by librarian.

4.      What trends in reading do you see for the second graders?  Second grades tend to follow popular trends such as dinosaurs, birds, automobiles, and horses.  The trends are usually within a classroom group.

5.      How do you choose new books for the school library?  Basargin chooses books based on publisher reviews, award winning books, Amazon and Barnes and Noble ‘best picks’, teacher requests, and Google lists of best choice books.

6.      In your opinion, do you think second graders prefer fiction or non-fiction?  In her opinion, second graders prefer fiction books.

7.      Can you print out a list of all the books the second graders have read this year? 

8.       Do you notice any trends in the list of books second graders have checked out?  

Do you plan to increase non-fiction informational text in your classroom this school year in light of the new Alaska standards?

·         Answered: 9 

·         Skipped: 0

9 (100.00%)

YesNo

0%20%40%60%80%100%

Answer Choices–	Responses–
Yes	100% 9
No	0% 0
Total	9
Comments(0)

Q2

Do you think students will like having more non-fiction?

·         Answered: 7 

·         Skipped: 2

6 (85.71%)

YesNo

0%20%40%60%80%100%

Answer Choices–	Responses–
Yes	85.71% 6
No	14.29% 1
Total	7
Comments(3)

I had a little trouble trying upload my Excel documents to my blog.  I had to go through Paint.  More self-learning/teaching using Google questions.  I have also found a new Reference builder/citation insert tab on my Microsoft 2010 that I did not know existed.

I am feeling much better about this process.  I am realizing that this is an on-going project and will not be complete even though my paper will be turned in on November 8th.  I am excited to find new ways to inspire my students to become exited about learning.  I can't wait to read, "Teach Like a Pirate" after my research paper is complete and turned in.  The next hurdle will be creating a presentation document on screencastomatic of something similar.  

Now it is time to pull it all together. 

Week #7 Reflections

Week #7 Reflection

Resources etc. I shared/participated in:

• Twitter sessions this week were helpful.  I was especially grateful for the session that dealt with creating quality and engaging titles.  I enjoyed helping other students with their titles and then in turn received help with my own title.   I particularly enjoyed the conversation surrounding Jeffrey's title update.
• I helped Karen understand the usefulness of Wordle and posted samples to help.
• After several questions about bubbl.us I posted my own example so my peers could see how I had been using it to locate themes and ideas.
• I suggested to "Berry" that she talk to her speech pathologist to look for games she could play that would help with listening and speaking skills.
• The most significant thing I helped with was assisting Shauna with her proposal.  I sent her my own original proposal to let her use it as a guide to organize her paper correctly.  I emailed it to her. 

How did I intend these new resources to pact other' learning?  What impact did it actually make?

• All of us were hoping to help each other improve our titles.  We came up with very good and more engaging titles.
• Karen commented on Twitter that she understood how Wordle might work for her.  She even said that she was hoping to try it out.  I had shared my sample to give her a visual understanding of how a graphic organizer could help find trends and themes.
• Several people commented on how they might use Bubbl.us in the future to look for themes after they had seen the sample and understood how it could help.
• I hoped to help "Berry" to get help from some of the other resources in her building to suggest games and ideas for her project.  Her response was that she does not have a speech pathologist in her building but might be able to find some others to help.
• I have not heard from Shauna any response to the use of my sample proposal.  I can only hope that she has indeed used it as a template for ordering and organizing.

What will I do differently next week?

• Not be in San Diego - I found it very hard to focus on writing and blogging during my trip with my two daughters.  However, I did enjoy sitting in my daughter's dorm room and participating in the Twitter session from her computer.
• I will write narratives for two of the data collections that are only in graph form
•  I will review the literature review and adjust as needed for the final paper
• I will begin to write the conclusion

What resources did others share to increase my learning?

• I learned about screencastomatic from both professors during a Tweet session this week.  I might have to give it a try and see if I can use it.
• I learned tips on APA style, how to add the title, have an engaging title, and how to make a running head correctly.
• My PLN helped me re-name and improve my paper title!  

I have found the PLN to be exceedingly valuable.  We have and continue to help each other improve our thinking, question ideas, clarifying ideas that are confusing, and many other supports to improve our learning.  I am wondering if the PLN will be as successful without a host for Twitter sessions, and specific questions for a common goal.

Week #7 Seaccr

Week 7 Data Reflection

A quote I re-directed toward research:

Vincent Van Gogh 
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

I actually feel like I will finish this research paper.  All the little steps are beginning to add up and become something attainable.   I am excited and enthusiastic to find the results.  I have all the data into graphs, tables and tools for the reflection and analysis.  I plan to use the 'narrative' data analysis method for this project.  I will tell what has happened and what findings resulted in a story and event based discussion.  I will also use the content analysis method of organizing data.  I have found strands and themes in my research that have emerged from the studies and data I have received.  Some I expected, and some I did not expect.  I am exited to add a creative element in order to integrate these ideas into an organized and effective discussion.

My personal goal is that I will be able to improve my teaching due to the results I find in this study.    One of the biggest discoveries I am unearthing is that reading comes alive to children at about the 2nd grade level.
As a group they are devouring books, all kinds of books.  I am finding that the more excited I am about books, the teaching of books, and the actual reading aloud, the more excited the students are to read.  The same thing happens in the library.  Whatever book the librarian reads to the students, over half the class wants to check it out at the end of the class period.  My parent surveys are also showing me that the parents who read regularly to their children have children who are enthusiastic about reading.

I talked to my administrator about this phenomena and he believes that student enthusiasm is directly related to teacher enthusiasm for all subject matters.  So, how will I be a better teacher?  I will show enthusiasm about all the subjects I teach.  I will relate real world experiences to topics studied, and give ample opportunities to explore and experience different types of literature, math manipulatives,  play various instruments, and provide as many opportunities as possible for students to become excited about learning.

I have some new technology under my belt:  Worldle, Bubbl.us, concept maps, Survey monkey, Screencastomatic, and new types of graphs and charts using Excel.

This week I will begin put narrative to my data analysis.  I think the biggest challenge is making sense of the pieces and organizing them accordingly.

A final thought from one of my favorite inspirational speakers:

Andrew Carnegie 
Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

Week 6 Collecting Data

Week #6 Reflection

Resources etc. I shared/participated in:

• Hosting Twitter was fun, educational and highly focused - I barely had time to get coffee during it, but my level of involvement in both sharing, facilitating, and learning was greatly increased!  I highly recommend everyone trying it.
• I shared Emerging Technology Tools for Qualitative Data Jeffrey who is using technology which includes recording lessons.
• I shared an excellent comprehensive article/resource from the Learning Store about analyzing qualitative data.    It has all the steps, processes, methods and creativity to accomplish an effective data analysis.
• I shared APA Do's and Don'ts on both Twitter and my blog.  This article helped me answer some of my specific questions.  A great quick resource to review before beginning narrative of analysis.
• I shared an amazing website which unpacks all the Common Core Standards and breaks it down into specific teaching topics that our site used today in an in-service.  North Carolina is in its 2nd year of practicing the Common Core Standards and has a head-start on what all of us need to understand.  In fact, NC has done most of the unpacking work for us.
• Many of the questions I asked during Twitter sessions resonated with other students enabling us to all understand how to proceed.
• I gave an example of how I am using Wordle to find themes in my research.  

How did I intend these new resources to impact other' learning?  What impact did it actually make?

• I shared the Learning Store article about analyzing qualitative data as a resource that I am currently using in hopes that other students will also use it as a resource as they begin to analyze and organize data.  After our Twitter sessions, I recognized that others were also struggling to analyze and found this an excellent and helpful site.
• The PPT about APA Do's and Don't is a quick and effective method to help students know tricks of the trade.  I intend it to be a resource for a quick review before my peers begin the narrative analysis.
• I shared the NC CCSS in hopes that my peers will connect and remember that our research should be directly related to improving our teaching in view of the new CCSS.
• The questions I proposed at Twitter (both as host and not as host) helped other students who had similar questions gain clarification.  Several of my questions were addressed by peers by comments on Twitter such as "I was wondering that too", and "Thanks for asking, I didn't understand that either." 
• I also posted on peer blogs, some to encourage  and some to support through evidence and personal examples.  
• The Wordle samples were intended to help peers see how I am using it to enable them to use it as a analysis tool also.
• Comment from my peer:  
  Thank you, thank you, thank you for the resources you shared. I especially like the one that breaks down the common core standards, as this is something new to me that I am implementing in my classroom.
• I suggested to a peer an idea about a reminder to complete survey's.  Here is his response: I have used your advice and we will see if the "LAST CHANCE TO HELP ME" plea works.

What will I do differently next week?

• Since I am going to be traveling to San Diego from Wed. - through the following Tuesday (my daughter turns 16 Saturday the 26th and we are celebrating with her older sister at PLNU where she is in college) I will take my laptop to Tweet in Twitter sessions.  I have saved many of the resources to my USB flashdrive so I can travel without all my paper printouts. 
• I am moving into into the analysis process as all my data has been collected.
• I need to re-learn how to make graphs on Excel as my first attempts failed.

What resources did others share to increase my learning?

• Dr. Jones gave several specific tips that helped immensely.  She reviewed the steps:  Results (data), Analysis (what data tells me) and Discussion (what data means).
• Michelle introduced us to Blog Clouds - which I am experimenting with.
• Jaime shared her Sharpie Context map which gave me ideas of how to look for themes.
• My peers shared Worldle and Bubbl.us which I am in the process of applying.
• Jeffrey shared on his blog about Ref Works and 'Write and Cite" through the program - I LOVE this!  I am using it for my references for my paper.  It is so nice and puts it into perfect form.
• I learned from my instructors how to use 1st person or 3rd person in writing research, how to do the analysis and then write a narrative of analysis (which will be creative), to include explaining graphs and to give a  few samples in appendix to show data analysis.

Resources:

Kimbler, J.; Moore, D. ; Maitland, M.; Sowers, B.; & Snyder, M. Emerging Technology Tools for Qualitative Data. Nova Southeastern University, Jan. 18, 2013.  Retrieved from: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/TQR2013/Kimbler_etal.pdf

Powell, T.; Renner, M.  Analyzing Qualitative Data.  University of Wisconsin, 2003.  Retrieved from:  

http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf

PowerPoint from Emporia State University.  Retrieved from: http://www.suu.edu/faculty/white_l/MMPI/powerpoints/apa_writing_style.pdf

North Carolina's Unpacking of the new Common Core State Standards website: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common-core-tools/

Ref Works tool:  http://www.refworks.com/

Week #6 What am I finding as I collect data?

What an exciting week of data collection and Twitter.  If you have not hosted Twitter yet...go for it.  It's fun! The highlight of the week for me was interviewing my school librarian, and organizing my student data. 

Below is a Wordle that shows what my 2nd graders said about reading.  Most of the words appear to apply to fiction reading, but some apply to informational text.  I love the words:  wonder, magical and information. They are a nice contrast of fiction and informational text.  

My family has been eating at the bar the past week since the kitchen table and hutch are overflowing with data that needs to be organized and ordered.  I received 2/3rd s of my parent surveys back this week.  I have looked them over quickly but will organize them over the weekend (End of the quarter grades were due today!).    I am finding that my class swings from fiction to informational text in direct relationship to the quality of the books being read aloud.  

The highlight of the week was interviewing my librarian.  She printed a computer generated list of every book my 2nd graders have checked out since they started kindergarten in chronological order.  This data will be interesting to analyze.  Mrs. B. (librarian) found that none of the 2nd grade "Battle of the Books" texts were non-fiction this year.  In 6th grade, two of the ten were non-fiction.  Mrs. B. has found it difficult to find age appropriate quality non-fictional texts, even though she uses the following sources:  Award winners, Usborne, Scholastic top picks, Amazon best picks, Barnes and Noble best picks, book publishers best picks and other professional reviews.   She discovered that books with fictitious characters but true informational text were especially interesting to young students - books like The Magic School Bus with Ms. Frizzle.  

Mrs. B. is wondering how the Common Core State Standards can be supported with informational text if there is a small selection of quality informational texts available.  Perhaps it is time to start writing quality non-fiction books!

Next week:  Start sorting, organizing and looking for themes, the beginning stages of analysis.

For your information:  

APA Do's and Dont's:  http://www.suu.edu/faculty/white_l/MMPI/powerpoints/apa_writing_style.pdf

Our site has been using the North Carolina District Common Core Unpacking to evaluate our Alaska Standards.  The website is very helpful to compare to our Alaska State Standards.  Since our research is tied to the standards, I wanted to share this site with you to evaluate your research with the current unpacked Common Core State State Standards.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common-core-tools/

Another website that I found very helpful in analyzing Qualitative data and which helps shed light on 'how':
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf

Resources:

Interview with Alexandra Barsargin, 10/18/2013, McNeil Canyon School Librarian

http://www.wordle.net/create

http://www.clipartsfree.net/svg/460-job-interview-vector.html

Week 5 Action Research Sleuth #seaccr

Week #5 SEACCR Reflections on Sleuthing

What do I see in new light?  

Several PLN members have emailed me this week with some new insight in my research.  In every case I have chosen to do it.  I am so thankful for my PLN.  I am wondering if we will continue to be connected after our class ends or if we will slowly go our own ways.  This has been invaluable.

This week I shared visual templates for concept mapping and triangulation.  I am such a visual learner, I thought it would perhaps help other people as well.  I shared the APA YouTube site with a student who missed the Twitter session where the site was addressed.  I sent Amanda a list of songs for use in her research for 1st grade (I teach music two mornings per week).  I included several lists of songs and YouTube lists she could also use.   I also completed a 3rd peer review for a peer that needed a reviewer.  Not only is the review process becoming clearer, I am finding that I am connecting the same findings to my own research.  I also included the rubric from Livetext as I think the student is perhaps taking the class via Mooc and might not be able to access the Livetext rubric.

I intended the visual tools to help students think about a new way to consider data collection.  I do not know if anyone is using the templates but I certainly plan to for my own research.  I know the APA sites did help the peer who used them this week to fine tune the proposal section of the research project.  I hope the list of songs I sent to Amanda will be useful in her classroom.  I have not heard back from her to know if she has had the time to listen to them.  I have not yet heard if the peer who I emailed the review and rubric will use the rubric as I recently sent the document.

Next week, I am going to start analyzing data!  I have several completed data collection activities and I will begin to look for themes and threads.  I am changing my method of reading fiction/non-fiction to the 2nd graders and will ask them to talk to me about why they prefer one when I read aloud and another when they read silently.

What did I learn this week?  Costerhout explained how to embed a survey directly into a blog.  Both Jeff and Carollea encouraged me to make my parent survey anonymous, which I did.  I am excited to receive the surveys back next week.    The Twitter session attendance was quite small on  Thursday but I gleaned a ton of ideas for analyzing data.  I learned from my professors to cite connections or differences between my data and literature and new literature.  I learned from Carollea to have a written protocol.  I started documenting my comments in my journal with dates!  I was challenged to ask the boys why they preferred fiction or informational text.  I learned about content analysis and Wordle.  Jeff encouraged me to put information into an Excel sheet to look for themes (I may have to go paper and scissors though for my textile learning quirk).  I learned about Triangulation, and tips on validating and giving credibility to my research.

I must repeat what I wrote last week!  I know the Twitter sessions say, "Optional" but they are the bulk of my learning in this class.  Whew!  Great week.

Have other questions come up?

Yes!  I am wondering why students choose the fiction book overall when I read them aloud, but when they have free choice, why do they choose informational text....hmmm.  I will have to ask them!

Am I seeing any themes emerge?

I am not so sure about this yet.  I certainly and finding new information.  For example, I am finding that my students are becoming literature reviewers!  And I didn't even intentionally teach this concept.  I am excited for my 2nd graders.

Week 5 Action Research Sleuth #seaccr                      

Another week of stretching and growing as a professional teacher and researcher.  Looking at data leads to what?  That is the question I am searching for?  I have some new (and old) tools to help me understand my data.  As of today, I have collected several pieces of data.  I have completed one read-aloud of a fiction and informational text book on the subject.  I have tried to keep the bias at a minimal by reading with a variety of voices and energy.  The students had a card template that had them write their name, choice of book title, and a reason why they chose the book.  I will repeat this process three more times to get more information.  On initial investigation, I am surprised that some of the boys in my class chose the fiction story.  Both stories were quality literature.  

A second test I have run is simply inviting the students to have a free choice reading time and documenting what books they chose.  This time, all the boys chose the informational texts to read.  Interesting.

Another study I have conducted this week is listening to students interact about books.  I have written down many of the conversations.  At one point I had 7 boys crowded onto the couch sharing one book (informational text).

The parent survey is going home tomorrow.  I am hoping to get at least 18 of the 22 parents to fill it out and return next week.

In Science, we are studying mammals and habitats.  We had drawn pictures of a selected animal and put them on the bulletin board.  Today, we wrote Haiku poems using the same animals.  We needed to think in terms of informational text in order to complete the poem.  All but two students were very successful at this project.  We hung them up on the bulletin board next to the habitat picture.  An example of one of the poems formed from informational text:

Mammal

Brown, claws, omnivore

Running, hibernating, parenting

Bolting, hunting

Brown bear

This process required the student to know and understand some basic informational information about the animal they chose.  All students had some success.  This process also made informational text a necessity to student learning.

My survey is complete and I am depending on Survey Monkey to do some work for me.  At first viewing I find that all classroom teachers who responded planned and are integrating much more informational text. 

I have learned to use several new tools during this study.  Below are some template examples of concept mapping which I plan to use with student responses.

I have also learned about triangulation during Thursday's Tweet session.  Here are two samples of this type of template:

I plan to use triangulation to identify themes and threads in my research. After finding some interesting  beginning data, I plan to look again at current literature and see what things I might have in common with studies that have already been made.  I keep reminding myself that this type of analyzing is creative!