Action Research Project Progress Report

Is Differentiation Done?

     Is differentiation done correctly?    I sat down with the principal of my school and we looked at our Campus Improvement Plan and TAKS data from the AEIS report for our school.  In completing the needs assessment, the following groups were the one we saw in need.  In the area of Reading, our White students scored in the exemplary level and all our other groups African American, Hispanic, and Economically Disadvantaged were in the recognized range.  In the area of Math, our White students performed in the recognized range and the other groups African American, Hispanic, and Economically Disadvantaged scored in the acceptable range.  In the area of Science, our White students scored in the exemplary level and all our other groups African American, Hispanic, and Economically Disadvantaged were in the acceptable range.  In all these indicators we see failure the close the achievement gap.  At our school, we want all the students to hit the exemplary range or at the very least we want to begin the process of closing the achievement gap.  

     We will implement the Differentiated Instruction philosophy at our school to help close the achievement gap between the white student group and the other groups including African Americans, Hispanic, and Economically Disadvantaged.  The vision of our school is that all children will learn, and we will find the best way to educate all children no matter what they bring to the table.  I will be looking at the impact of Differentiated Instruction Lessons on student achievement on district benchmarks.  By January 2012, we will see the closure of the achievement gap between white students and the other groups.  Currently the white students are performing at eighty-eight percent passing and our African American students are performing at eighty-two percent passing, the Economically Disadvantaged group is performing at eighty-four percent passing, and the Hispanic group is performing at eighty four percent passing.  I expect the teachers to use Differentiated Instruction to close the achievement gap on district benchmarks. 

     The first book that I am including in my literature review is The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson.  This is a good starting point when looking at Differentiated Instruction.  It discusses what a differentiated classroom looks like, and it looks at the ways one can differentiate instruction.  One can differentiate the content, process, or product for the students and they can differentiate by the level of the students’ readiness, interest, or learning style.  The book goes on to talk about the instructional strategies that lend itself to differentiation.  A second book that helped me in this process was Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for Responsive Teaching by Carol Ann Tomlinson.  This work talks about how students needs must be met for them to be successful at school and one of the best ways to do that is to differentiate.  Part of differentiation is giving students some choice.  If the teachers give the students some sort of control, they are more likely to actively participate.  This book also shares some different ways for teachers to differentiate assignments.  It is a good way to show teachers that they can be successful with the process, and they probably already do some part of differentiation.  This will get teachers interested and hopefully they will eventually move from strategies to embracing it as a philosophy.  A third book is Green Light Classrooms: Teaching Techniques That Accelerate Learning by Rich Allen.  This book talks about the difference in traditional type classrooms where there is stand and deliver type of instruction where the students are sitting and learning from the teachers.  The author urges to include the students in the classroom and learning.  They are to be equal partners in the learning process.  This is at the heart of differentiation. Students help design their learning.  The students should have a choice in the way that they learn.  The teacher and student should work together to combine the learning style of the student with the lesson.  In the differentiated classroom there should be multiple ways that the learning can take place.  The final book that I will discuss is Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About It by Eric Jensen.  This book talks about understanding the background of your students and then using purposeful teaching to overcome the economic status of your kids.  This book really talks about pre-assessment and that is one way that you can understand your students so you can properly differentiate for their individual needs.  Jensen also discusses the issue of respect.  Differentiation embodies respect because it gives the students a part in the learning process by sometimes giving the student a choice in their work.  It is valuable to let the student know that the teacher values and respects the students because they did not tell them which assignment to complete they gave a couple of choices and they let the students select the one that will help them be the most successful.  In a perfect world the teacher might even let the students’ decide on an option for an assignment.  My principal and I sat down and decided on a topic for my action research project.  This is an area that our building and district have provided a lot of financial support.  We have had training with a small group over two years and we have had multiple full staff professional development days on the topic of differentiated instruction.  We see differentiate instruction as a way to improve the achievement of our students.  We want a staff that views their students as learning partners because that should be the goal of a twenty-first century learner.  The school house of old where the teacher tells the students what to do needs to come to an end.  The avenue that we have decided to help our campus reach that goal is differentiated instruction.    

     Selling your product is essential.  My research project has to have the cooperation of my department.  I am the instructional support for my department, so I get many opportunities to help get them on board with differentiated instruction.  I was part of the original group that got the training with the consultant from outside our district.  This put me in the position of being the go to guy for my department with regards to differentiation. I also am in the position to dictate what kinds of professional development we take part in.  I have offered classes where we focused on differentiated instruction.  I also collect differentiated lessons from my teachers and share them with the other members of our department.  I also have them lead the professional growth sessions so my department members see their coworkers being successful using differentiated instruction.  Additionally, we get buy in from students by letting them have a choice in their education.  I teach at middle school level, and the students’ biggest complaint is not having any control over their lives.  They feel that teachers and parents are united in telling them what to do from the time the sun comes up to the time the sun goes down.  Differentiation gives the students some control of their learning and they are willing to go the extra mile in our classes. 

     I will admit that I felt we did have some troubles in implementing the project.  I had teachers implementing differentiated instruction at different levels.  This year we have full and proper implementation in my department.  I had to convince my department that teachers needed to seriously look at the types of lessons that they were teaching to make sure that they included differentiated lessons in their curriculum.   This is an expectation from our building leadership and our district leadership.  So I was really helping and supporting them by helping them meet the districts’ goals for them.  I insured that the individual students’ data is being protected because we are not looking at individual data we are looking at their scores as a whole on district benchmark exams. 

     I led the department through the process I am using to analyze data by using the same data that we go through as a campus.  We look at AEIS reports and benchmark data all the time.  I wanted to use this project as another data point for them.  I know, as a teacher, I am always looking for more data points to use to help my students.  There has been a little resistance to using differentiated instruction.  I used the strategy of making the use of differentiated instruction something that was required of us by the district and building leadership.  They were going to have to do it whether they liked it or not.  I urged them to get on board by showing them the successes of other campuses where differentiated instruction has proven successful.  I also showed them that I will be there for them at every step, and I led them by example.  I created some differentiated lessons for them at first and had them try them with me modeling in the room with them and later on their own.  The next step was to have them generate and use differentiated instruction lessons on their own with their students. 

     We have a big economically disadvantaged population.  We have really had to work hard with these and all of our students.  Our district and community is always asking us what are we doing to help and reach these students.  One of the ways is to push the differentiated instruction model.  Whenever we have a parent meeting, we are always talking about the philosophy and the potential impact that it has on our students.  We have a wall in our staff lounge that shows all the different types of differentiated lessons and which content teams have taught a lesson using that particular type of strategy.  When you explain that you base the lessons off the strengths and weaknesses of the students to drive instruction as opposed to regular lessons that are given to everyone in the class no matter what their level, it lets the community know that we are helping and reaching out to all of our students. 

References

Allen, R. (2008). Green light classrooms:teaching techniques that accelerate learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin ASAGE Company.

Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind:what being poor does to kids'brains and what schools can do about it. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom, responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Tomlinson, C. A. (2003). Fulfilling the promise of the differentiated classroom:strategies and tools for responsive teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

1st Six Weeks Results

Well out of the three grades that I work with we taught differentiated lessons on the following subjects: demographics, geography of texas, and economics of the colonial regions.  In one area the DI lesson support 58% of the students got the answered correctly on the benchmark.  In a second area the DI lesson support 93% of the students answered correctly on the benchmark.  In the last area the DI lesson support 95% of the students answered correctly on the benchmark.  So far this is very supportive of diferentiated instruction being helpful to student performance. 

1st Six Weeks

Well the first six weeks has ended and I am getting together an update of my progress.  Unfortunately we did not have a lot of progress in my the teachers using DI in their classrooms this year.  We did some professional growth this summer and that has changed.  I have teachers using DI alot this year. 

Week 5 Reflection

This course has been a good jumping off point into learning the action research process.  It has taught me many things, and I know that I will use these new talents in working with the action research project, and I hope to use this as a model for any research that I will perform as a principal at my own school.  I really have seen the benefits of this kind of study and how it truly can have an impact on schools.  It is a drastic deviation from what I consider classic research.  Classic research is performed as a study and a report of information is completed.  Action research takes the extra step of making a change in a school and seeing how this change impacts said school.  We need to be brave when taking the initiative to change processes in schools.  Some schools have become stagnate and almost cry out for change.  Action research is a way that alterations can be made in schools.  Administration and teachers have the benefit of not having to wait for the next big thing to come along and save the school if they use this process.  One can research a topic and place it into practice in a school.  Three things that I have learned from this class are: what an action research project is, the benefits of a blog, and data collection through videos. 

            Action Research is how a principal and a school can grow together. A principal starts with a question that he or she wants answered and then they implement a study of answering that question. (Dana, 2009) This is a crucial step in modern education.  Principals of today are required to be more than just the person who sits in the front office.  They are expected to actually lead the school.  One of the best ways to lead is to lead by example or model what you want from your teachers.  If, as a principal, you wish to show the staff that you want to be a data rich campus and that you really have to know your students in order to achieve this goal, taking part in action research will cause you to model your desires in order to ensure success.    This process provides data to drive campus decisions and feedback about students. When one’s goals as a campus leader are met through the process of action research, modeling expectations can be done with ease.  

            The second topic I learned about was blogging.  I have already found my blogging experience useful.  According to Dana, “Sharing your inquiry in the form of a blog will help you play with, develop, and challenge ideas that have developed about your administrative practice as a result of engaging in inquiry.” (Dana, 2009, p. 150)  Blogs give you the benefit of taking in others’ thoughts about your work without having to formally submit assignments.  It may open you up to new ideas that you had not even thought of during your research.  It is also a good way to bounce ideas off of peers.  Another good idea connected to blogs is the way we work with students.  One could see how this would help students.  It would give students yet another way to connect with their teachers.  In a class, some students are reluctant to ask questions out of fear of embarrassment.  Blogs give students an opportunity to ask questions without stigma.  Another benefit of a blog is that it would allow students to reflect on their learning and have an opportunity to see their learning grow in relation to others’ comments.  In addition, one could also see how blogging could be a benefit to teachers.  Adults can suffer from the same tendencies as our students, and teachers might find success with a carefree way to engage in a campus wide discussion.   In working with teachers, blogs have the added cache of not chaining the staff to a meeting room.  Staff could post on the blogs at their convenience. 

            The third thing I have learned is data collection through video.  One of the best ways to get an accurate picture of a classroom is by videoing.  When you video the lesson one removes the need for statements like “remember when” or “I think I saw.”  The video process allows for evidence that is viewable by the researcher and the teacher and there can be no discrepancy for interpretations when you are viewing the tape.  Dana states “. . .using video can help them collect descriptive information, better understanding an unfolding behavior, capture the process used, study the learning situation, and make visible products or outcomes.”  (Dana, 2009, pp. 86-87)  I think this would be a good tool when working with my action research project because I could video students taking part in a differentiated lesson and the teacher and I could work together to critique the lesson.  This way we could grow the use of Differentiated Instruction on my campus.  

Plan Comments

I feel that my action research plan is going well.  I welcome further feedback.  The comments so far have been very supportive and I am thankful that people are willing to take their time to share their thoughts.  One comment did make me think about expanding the impact on specific groups, but upon further reflection that might totally change the direction of my project.

Action Plan Draft

 

Action Planning Template
Goal: To prove Differentiated Instruction does make a difference in student achievement
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Meet with site supervisor to discuss possible action research topics	William Watkins   Intern Chris Hecker Site Supervisor	Start March 2011 End March 2011	Campus Improvement Plan Time of the Site Supervisor	We discuss different topics and settled on DI
Generate a Form to document which lessons are taught through DI	William Watkins	Start March 2011 End March 2011	Excel Spreadsheet	This document will allow me to see which lessons were taught with DI and which lessons were not taught with DI
Gather Information from Social Studies Lesson Plans to identify DI Lessons	William Watkins Social Studies Teachers on 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade	Start: March 2011 End December 2011 This will need to be done on a weekly basis	Copies of Lesson Plans	This will let me know which items are taught through DI
I will need to label the lessons with the appropriate Social Studies TEKS	William Watkins	Start March 2011 End December 2011 This will need to be done roughly every 3 weeks when teachers give their exams.	Copy of TEKS and lesson plans	This will make it clear which TEKS are being taught with DI and those that are not.  I will then be able to gage which TEKS DI is being successful with and not
I will need to gather test analysis data from the Social Studies Teachers	William Watkins Social Studies Teachers on 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade	Start March 2011 End December 2011 This will need to be done roughly every 3 weeks when teachers give their exams	Copy of Test Analysis Forms	I will be able to monitor student achievement on DI taught lessons
Evaluate the effectiveness of DI lessons and report to site supervisor on progress	William Watkins Chris Hecker	June 2011 October 2011	Data Charts	This will show that DI has been effective as a teaching tool
Deliver research paper to site supervisor	William Watkins Chris Hecker	January 2012	Research Paper	My site supervisor will decide how we want to share the information from my report.  I see it being shared with the entire faculty and with our campus improvement committee

What is DI

Differentiated Instruction allows you to deal with multiple types of students in the same classroom.  You have a basic topic that you are teaching in your class room.  You may differentiate what the student does in the following ways: readiness, interest, or learning style.  You would then differentiate the activity in the following ways: content, process, or product.  I hope this clears up what DI is in a small way.  You basically meet the student where they are and help them grow. 

What have I learned from Week 2

This is going to be a long process, but schools need help.  Schools also need leaders that are willing to work for the long haul.  To effectively carry out an action research project one must have a clear vision for their school and a plan if the school fails to reach that vision right away.  Also, it is interesting that I thought I had my action project ready to go and then upon further reflection I completely changed my topic.  Leaders must also be flexible.

Discussion From Week 2

Purpose
I plan to research the impact of Differentiated Instruction on student achievement in social studies at my school. We are ending a two year cycle that has included our school creating a DI leadership group with the hope that we could expand the use of Di in our campus. I still feel that there is push back to this philosophy. My study will show the impact of DI lessons on test scores. Our current requirement is that teachers teach two DI lessons per grading period. I can use test data to compare and contrast items taught with DI and items that were not taught with DI.

Significance

I think the teachers will benefit and see that the DI philosohy can lead to greater student achievment. I think our school as a whole will benefit because we have used grant money to pay for the training of DI. Our campus and district leadership can see that the money they spent was not wasted. I think that reluctant teachers who have failed to embrace this philosophy will see that DI is effective for our students.

 

How educational leaders might use blogs?

Educational leaders can use blogs to help organize their thoughts and research on an action research project.    It also allows you to value your own study of the problem.  (Dana, 2009)  We might wonder if we have the credentials to tackle problems in school, but in fact action research gives that expertise to principals.  It could be used to share your schools journey in dealing with a problem.  The blog would be two fold in purpose.  First, it would allow the school and principal to be reflective about their attempted solution to the problem and second, it would allow other principals to view and understand how you at your school deal with problems and then see if they could apply your solution to their campus. 

What I have learned about action research?

Action research is a way that changes can be made in a school.  When I first thought about doing research I thought that we would be doing a traditional research project that was required in high school and later on as I pursued by Bachelor’s degree.   That might have suited schools in the past, but action research is different from those methods.  Those methods do not act fast enough in the world of today.  An action research project allows a problem or issue to be worked out in the place where the problem must be addressed.  The problem is solved in the school itself.  No longer will research be completed outside the school and wait for the information to find its way to the school.  This process allows the principal to dictate his or her professional growth and does not have to wait for some superior to dictate what they will do.   (Dana, 2009)  What a feeling of empowerment that action research gives the principal.  There are many times when you sit down for professional growth and wonder how will this really impact me or my school?  Now you will decide what is best for you and your school.  The benefits are a principal can work together with other principals who can share your same problems, principals can show their staff that they are willing to do the same type of activities that you ask your teachers, and help your staff “toolbox” of teacher strategies can grow.  (Dana, 2009)  All of these are positives when it comes to action research.  There are four ways action research can be completed.  They can be completed through university coursework, superintendent/district meetings, leadership teams, and professional learning communities.  (Dana, 2009)  All four ways complete the same task and that is identifying a problem in a school and the school itself coming up with a solution to the problem.  As a principal I see me being able to use these methods to grow my school.  I would really enjoy the sense of controlling the destiny of the school.  There are not many things in this world that we truly can control.  As a principal being able to self-diagnose problems and then discover ways to fix the problems places a great ability to change schools for the better.  Counting on your fellow leaders either administrators or teacher leaders would be another way I would use action research.  I feel that if you have quality staff any problem faced by your school can be solved internally.  Showing that you have faith in your staff lets them grow as leaders and it allows you to sharpen your leadership skills.