Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

                                                       
Title -
My action research project is entitled:  Are Word Walls an Effective Tool for Promoting Vocabulary Acquisition in a High School Classroom?

Needs Assessment –

My principal recommended the topic during a discussion about my Internship Plan.  She was interested in implementing word walls in all the core subject classrooms, but she was not ready to make them mandatory for the teachers.  I had used them in the past with little success, because I seldom used them for little more than decoration.  I then did an initial literature review to see what was out there on the topic to see what others had found out and to see if I thought this was a topic I was interested in pursuing.  I surveyed my subject area team as well as additional teachers in my department to get their thoughts on the topic and I visited a few classrooms in which the teachers were utilizing word walls  and discussed with them their use of the word walls and whether or not they thought they were effective and why they felt this way.  Pre-test scores showed that my students were struggling with basic content vocabulary as well as vocabulary often found on the TAKS tests and more recently EOC exams.  

Objectives and Vision of the action research project. (ELCC 1.1) –
My goal when designing this action research project was to address a need I saw in my classroom.  A need that teachers in all subject areas struggle with on a regular basis in their classes.  How do I teach my students all the vocabulary that they must learn and retain to be successful in my class? I am always looking for strategies or ways to help my students learn subject area vocabulary as well as the needed vocabulary found on standardized tests.  Not only learn it, but also take an active role in that that learning process.  Many of my colleagues think that Word Walls are only effective at the elementary school level.  I wanted to gather the data to see whether or not they were right.  By the end of the project I will be able to provide them with a definitive answer. 

Research shows a strong relationship between student word knowledge and academic achievement (Stahl and Fairbanks 1986).  As a result, building academic content vocabulary becomes crucial to instruction in any content area.  This project is designed to review one strategy for improving student vocabulary, the Word Wall, to determine its effectiveness in the classroom.  I will be looking at whether or not there is measurable improvement in learning the content vocabulary as well as its application in student reading and writing across student subpopulations.

Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy –
Current research has been found and noted at the bottom of this paper and I am at present looking for additional sources to round out my research.  The majority of the research I have found on Word Walls thus far tends to target elementary or middle school level students, while my focus is on high school students.  I am looking for more information on how word walls are modified for an older student while at the same time still keeping them engaged and how they can be effective in improving student performance. 

The decision making process for this project included first and foremost a discussion with my building principal of the feasibility of the project and its possible implications for the faculty and student body.  I then discussed the project with my Department Head to keep her in the loop and then shifted my focus to working with the World Geography Team on implementing the project first in my classroom and then extending it into additional classrooms.  I wanted to facilitate teacher buy-in to expand the scope of the project to beyond my classroom walls. 

Articulate the Vision -
I articulated the vision of the action research project first with my head principal and supervisor.  She had mentioned during our discussion about my Internship Plan that she was interested in having the teachers utilize word walls in their classrooms in the near future.  I then shared my vision for the action research project with my Department Head and Department.  I would be working closely with the members of my subject area team and their support and input would be invaluable.  I introduced the topic of word walls to my students and discussed with them their purpose and function.  I also explained the concept to the parents of my students in one of our weekly e-mails as well as provided them with activities that they could do at home to help their students become more familiar with the words we were learning. 

Manage the organization -
With the help and support of my head principal, as well as my subject area team, I have been in charge of the entire process.  I have not had to deal with any money, nor do I plan on having to do so for the duration of this project.  The only materials I have used thus far are classroom supplies as well as materials created in our district Teacher Center.  I have spent many hours working with staff, colleagues and in the classroom accumulating data and conducting research.  Faculty members have graciously shared their time to answer surveys, to be interviewed and as sounding boards for any issues or stumbling blocks I’ve experienced as I pursue this line of inquiry.  The focus is entirely on improving student learning through a wide variety of activities utilizing a Word Wall.  At no time will student safety be an issue. 

Manage Operations (ELCC 3.2) –
The strategy that I have used for the organizing and implementing this project is by systematically introducing the word wall project and making it a daily part of our class agenda.  I have done this primarily through warm-up activities, but I have used small cooperative learning activities and a few home-work assignments as well as required students to reflect on their own learning in their journals.  I also focused on making sure that the students took ownership of the word wall and it was not strictly a teacher creation.  The students brought in pictures and added additional information to the wall as the project progressed.  I referenced it weekly in the e-mails I sent home to parents and a section of their interactive notebooks was set aside so the students could create their own personal word walls. 

I have built consensus and communication by clearly sharing my goals and objectives for this project to my colleagues.  They are aware that that goal is simply to try and improve student achievement and success in the classroom for all students.  The teachers on my team do not have to participate, but for the most part I have found teachers to be receptive to at least trying a word wall out especially if I provide the start up materials as well as daily activities and strategies for their implementation. 

After reviewing and disaggregating data accumulated in our Data Teams meetings as well as in the Freshman A Team meetings is clear that there is a definite need to improve student reading comprehension, which  as the research shows can be dramatically boosted with improved vocabulary skills.  The students have to be able to understand the vocabulary to be able to understand the question.  A key focus for me will be using the data to show why there is a need to pursue this line of inquiry and ultimately what the data showed in terms of student improvement. 

Respond to Community Interest and Needs (ELCC 4.2) –
When students’ vocabulary improves so does their overall ability to learn.  Word walls are a tool that can be used for all level of learners, but can be especially beneficial to ELL students who must not only learn the new word, but also in a second language.   Word walls can provide multiple opportunities for ELLs to hear, speak, and write academic language related to a content area topic which aids in their ability to learn the vocabulary.  With an increase in the number of ELL students on my campus over the last few years, the implementation of a strategy to help learn new vocabulary and tie it to course content would be invaluable to improving student learning.  I will be tracking the success of word walls on subpopulations in my classes as the project progresses to determine if there has been more of an impact on any particular group. 

Source Pages (thus far in my research)
Cronsberry, Jennifer. (2004). Word Walls A Support for Literacy in Secondary Classrooms. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.org/tcf/teachers/projects/repository/wordwalls.pdf


Harmon, J. M., Wood, K. D., Hendrick, W. B., Vintinner, J., & Willeford, T. (2009). Interactive word walls: More than just reading the writing on walls. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(5), 389-408. Retrieved from http://writinginthecontentareas.pbworks.com/f/Article%2520-%2520Word%2520Walls.pdf

Jackson, J., Tripp, S., & Cox, K. (2011, November). Transforming content vocabulary instruction. Science Scope, 35(3), 45-49. Retreived from http://navigator.compasslearning.com/learning/reading-the-writing-on-the-word-wall/

Jasmine, J & Schiesl, P (2009) The Effects of Word Walls and Word Wall Activities

on the Reading Fluency of First Grade Students. Reading Horizons, 49(4), 301-314. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=reading_horizons

Stahl, S.A., & Fairbanks, M.M. (1986). The effects of vocabulary instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research. 56(1), 72-110.

Action Research Project Update

I am currently writing a preliminary report on my action research project for EDLD 5397, which has given me the opportunity to really reflect on what I have accomplished and what I still need to do to complete the project.  I really enjoyed presenting at Region IV this past semester and with a packed house of 85 teachers was amazed at the demand to learn more about the topic and not just from elementary school teachers.  I shared my strategies for setting up a Word Wall as well as providing them with daily activities that can be utilized to engage the students with the words. 

My focus now needs to be on gathering more data to evaluate their effectiveness.  I have changed schools and subject areas this summer so I am interested in seeing how successful this strategy is for improving vocabulary within this new group.  I have discussed what I am doing with my new team and they don't seem that interested...yet.  I'm hoping that if I can show them that they work that they would be interested in learning more. 

School Community Relations Web Conference Reflection 3/18/12

Unfortunately there were a lot of technical problems during the course of this conference so basically I ended up reading the entire conference.  It also seemed to me to be all over the place.  There was no agenda or designated topics to discuss so we spent most of the conference jumping around from topic to topic.  About forty-five minutes in to the conference Dr. Jenkins asked if anyone wanted to talk about about their community relations project and several people did type in the topics they were addressing.  There were several I would have liked to follow-up on and learn more about them.  I think the size of the group made true two-way communication to difficult.  Dr. Jenkins did do his best to include everyone and answer all of our questions. 

Much of the conference focused on questions relating to the field supervisors, the amount of reading we have in this week's assignment, tests for certification, and the schedule.  I felt like many of the questions (and comments) could have been answered by simply checking out the website or were personal and not really appropriate for a group conference.  I do read the transcripts for all the web conferences, but I did not find this one particularly helpful except in answering basic questions about requirements for the program overall. 

The Principal's Role in Dealing with Conflict

Principals must deal with conflict on a daily basis. They handle conflict between teachers, students, their fellow administrators, parents and sometimes even community members  . There are a wide variety of strategies that can be employed to handle conflicts depending on the nature of the conflict, the severity of the conflict and the amount of knowledge they have about the conflict.

Conflict is inevitable, but the key to being an effective leader is how you handle the conflict.  It is important for principals to deal swiftly and effectively with conflict. If there is not a solution or at least an effort to come up with a solution then the conflict will continue to grow. It can also create other conflicts and exacerbate the problem. Fixing the conflict is generally the best choice for the principal.  If a principal chooses the flight option then the situation generally becomes worse. If a principal chooses the fight option then teachers may become antagonistic toward the principal as well as other teachers and this can result in an unproductive and hostile environment that is not conducive to student learning.

I have found a very useful tool in resolving conflict is listening.  Often the parties involved don’t’ feel like they were heard and often the conflict revolves around a miscommunication that can more easily be resolved by hearing each of the parties out.