Developing Consensus and Overcoming Obstacles in My Action Research Project

This week has been great in terms of getting feedback on my action research project.  The proposal was approved as is so as of now I don't need to repost it, but there were several very helpful suggestions made in terms of how to effectively implement a word wall in the classroom - strategies to use, examples of what worked and didn't work for other teachers and suggestions for overcoming problems with day to day use.  The biggest challenge I see now is how to evaluate the success or failure of the project.  If I look at only the district assessment or End of Course scores how do I know how much impact the word wall actually had on the outcome.  I could do some kind of vocabulary test, but I would want to make sure it is an authentic assessment.  I will be documenting informal assessments, but I don't feel like that is enough.  Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Action Research Project

Action Planning Template
Goal: What impact will the implementation of word walls and word wall activities have on promoting vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension in the World Geography classroom?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Conduct a literature review of research pertaining to word walls in secondary classrooms.	Lorelei Clark	November – End of Inquiry	Internet Campus/District Professional Library	Personal Notes and Reflection.
Identify the needed/initial content vocabulary words to be used on the word wall for the second semester Go to the Teacher Center to create a Bulletin Board display for the classroom.	9th Grade World Geography Team Lorelei Clark	December 2011 – Prior to the Holiday Break	World Geography TEKS Teacher Center	Word document of vocabulary divided by regions/topic.
Introduce Word Wall to the students and discuss its purpose and function.	Lorelei Clark	Week of January 3-6, 2012	- Bulletin Board - Vocabulary Words - Individual Student Word Wall sheet for Interactive Notebooks	Personal Notes.
Examine prior year TAKS and Fall District Assessment Scores of all students involved to establish a baseline of student performance.	Lorelei Clark	January 2012	Student data collected from cumulative folders  - TAKS  - District   Assessment  - First Semester Grade in World Geography - Demographic and other Subpopulation data	Spreadsheet of Student Data.
Implement word wall strategies and activities in the classroom.	Lorelei Clark	January – May 2012	Vocabulary Words Strategies/Activities – Warm-up, Mystery Word, Categories, Word Pictures, Bingo, Word of the Day, Story Time, etc.	Personal notes and observations.
Meet with the World Geography Data Team to discuss student scores on Chapter Assessments and the Spring District Assessment.	World Geography Data Team	January – May 2012	Student data from individual teachers.	Excel Spreadsheet of Objective Mastery by Teacher.
Observe use of a word wall by another teacher(s).  Interview teacher(s) on value of word wall in the classroom.	Lorelei Clark	February 2012	Interview Questionnaire	Personal notes and observations.
Conduct student survey on use of Word Walls in the classroom.	Lorelei Clark	May 21 -25, 2012	Student Interest Survey	Results of student surveys.
Examine student data from the Spring District Assessment and End of Course Exam to determine what, if any, effect the use of Word Walls had on student performance.		May 1 – June 1, 2012	Student data collected from cumulative folders  - EOC Exam  - District   Assessment  - Second Semester Grade in World Geography - Demographic and other Subpopulation data	Spreadsheet of student data.  Graph will compare students’ scores from the first semester with those of the second semester in order to determine the impact of word walls on student performance.
Meet with site supervisor to evaluate results of the action research project.	Lorelei Clark	May 2012	Accumulated Data from Inquiry.	Notes from discussion.