• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

June 23, 2015 English Language Learners

The Real Benefits of Action Research

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Jon Hardy

  • Summer Reading For Teachers: How To Fly A Horse - July 20, 2016
  • Bilingual Education: Good For Everyone... and Dangerous Too - September 4, 2015
  • Advice For ESOL Teachers: Professional Development with "Speaking In Tongues" - July 6, 2015
  • The Real Benefits of Action Research - June 23, 2015
  • Advice for New ESOL Teachers: Whose Holiday and Why? - May 18, 2015
  • Tips for New ESOL Teachers: What To Do When Your Student Is Brand New (to English) - April 29, 2015
  • Advice for New ESOL Teachers: Communicating with Home - April 9, 2015

teacher and computer class roomThis past semester, as part of a graduate course for a new certification, I did an action research project with some of my second graders. Action research is basically the process of a teacher taking on the role of "researcher" in her or his own classroom with a specific goal in mind. The idea is that teacher can select a problem or area of concern to improve on and go through the research process to find out what is actually going on and how to be a better teacher.

As teachers we tend to follow this pattern without even realizing it: What's the issue? What do I already know? How might I fix it? What next? But we are often so caught up in the daily craziness that we lose sight of the big questions that we could be asking: Do I really know my kids got it? Why is Sarah or Ahmed shutting down every time we bring up finding ten partners? Ideally action research gives us a method to dig into what's going on and come out with better answers.

All this is very general so let me be more specific. My second graders this year were pretty strong readers as far as decoding and the "nuts and bolts" of reading went but they struggled with comprehension. This is fairly typical for English Language Learners  (ELLs). At the same time the school adopted a curriculum that made a traditional writing workshop almost impossible to fit into the school day. I found this very frustrating as I have often found that writing workshop builds the cognitive skills that support reading comprehension. (I'm not alone in this, by the way.) It seemed natural to explore the link between reading comprehension and writing. My research question became "How can I use writing workshop to support reading comprehension?"

The critical part of that question is "I". In working through this action research, I made personal discoveries about my own teaching and about my students that I might have never have found if I hadn't taken such a "deep dive" into my own practice. In this way it was the best professional development I've ever done.

To support my action research, I made home visits to most of my students. I created rubrics with my students and recorded out lessons to reflect on later. I took notes on our interactions and thought about the minute-to-minute interactions that make up my lessons. I planned and adjusted as we worked through the unit and conferenced with my students as they read and wrote and talked with each other about what they were working on.

In the end my action research finding were almost secondary to the value of the process of getting to know my students and my own teaching so well. I found that writing workshop supports reading comprehension as long as the teacher supports the students' writing through organizers, conferencing and co-created rubrics. But I also learned about my students as people and about my own teaching to a level of detail I did not expect.

I would offer the following advice for anyone interested in giving action research a try:

Make your question specific.  This is all about your classroom and your kids. It's called "action research" because the teacher should be able to take action based during the process and based on the results. The answer to your question should make a difference to you.

Incorporate your research into your daily teaching.  Again, this process is all about getting practical information about the learning and teaching going on in your room. If you base the whole thing on some cool project you will never do again, it's not useful.

Video or audio record yourself teaching. Get everyone's permission, or course. This is a really valuable source of information. Having a concrete record of what happened will allow you to go back and reflect on even the smallest interaction.

Ultimately I found my action research project really empowering. I learned where I needed to improve and where I was already doing a good job. I got to know my students and their families. It was "professional development" in the most meaningful sense of that phrase: it made me a better teacher.

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailAdvice For ESOL Teachers: Professional Development with "Speaking In Tongues" Hidden Stories of the Average American Classroom 2015: A Year in Which an ELL Teacher Goes from “Failure” to “Success” Writer's WorkshopUtilizing Writer’s Workshop with Newcomer ELLs
« The Media and Teachers..A Lens to the Truth
10 Resume Tips for Teachers for Guaranteed Success »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • Want to Keep Special Education Teachers? Try Mentorship
  • An Idaho teen who won his school board election has a message for educators
  • Moving Beyond Diversity to Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Lessons from a Sunday Sermon
  • Ask the Educator's Room: What do I do if a student won't stop lying?

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.