It has been a very busy last couple of weeks getting ready for the school year, finishing up finalizing my research project, sharing standards based grading with my campus, and working to create a tool that my students could use to track their progress as we move through our earth science unit. I have many more things to do as I move forward in my project, but am excited to begin working on it in my classroom next week.

This final week has been a good week of reflection and reaffirmation as to why I chose my topic. Just this morning I read an article in the Dallas Morning News about how districts continue to struggle with Science TAKS scores and inspiring students to measurable achievement gains. While my district and campus may have better averages than the state, our science scores are also our weak points and often can be a determining factor in a campuses rating. I am the first say that I don't want to just focus on a test, but if I can properly equip my students with a good foundation and critical thinking skills then I will have created young scientist that can easily master the state exam. It will be interesting to see how my students take ownership of their work with the standards based plan this September.

Updated Action Research Template

Action Planning Template
Goal:
To examine the effects of implementation of formative assessment and standards based grading in the fifth grad Science classroom.
Action Steps	Person Responsible	Timeline Start End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
For weeks two through seven of the first nine weeks I will use the district 5E lessons with a formative assessment for each activity to indicate the student’s comprehension of the instructional content at that point in time.	Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator and my principal during this process.	Lesson Plans and assessments will be created in August prior to school.	Eduphoria: For action step one I will access eduphoria and use our district 5E lessons which now include a formative assessment.	The only evaluation I will receive in this step will be suggestions from my administrator or science coordinator.
Each TEK that is covered will be broken down into smaller concepts/process skills using the districts Earth Science Scope and Sequence to create a student progress tracking tool.	Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator and my principal during this process.	The student progress tracking tool will be created in August prior to school.	To create the Student Progress Tracking Tool, I will use the 5th grade Earth Science TEKS, the districts scope and sequence and Classroom Assessment and Grading that Work to break each TEK into smaller concepts and process skills.	Parents and students will have the opportunity to comment on the tracking tool through the surveys. Also, I will receive suggestions from my administrator and science coordinator.
Each fifth grader in Mr. Brown and Mr. Waldrip’s class will have a copy of their progress tracking tool in their science journal to track their own achievement and evaluate where they need to grow.	Drew Brown: I will provide all of the fifth grade students a copy of the student progress tracking tool. Students: They will be responsible to record their progress in class when data is provided and parents can sign off on this.	The use of the tool will start August 30 and end October 19.	Time will be required to accomplish this action step. Students will have the tool in their science journals. We send a Thursday folder, so I will just ask students to bring their sheet home for parent to see and sign on Thursdays.	I will be able to compare my grades to the students tracking tool to assess who is keeping current and which students are taking initiative to continue to grow and achieve at a higher level.
Through reteaching and student led learning the students will have the opportunity to grow in the concepts/process skills that they need or want to improve and demonstrate their mastery to earn a higher grade.	Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator, my campus technology facilitator, my teaching partner and my principal during this process.	Reteaching and reassessing will be an ongoing process starting the end of the week of August 30th and going until Oct 19th.	Resources to complete action step 3 will include many other resources such as: Reteaching, Eduphoria/additional resources, internet research, blogs, audio blogs with voice thread, podcasts, student designed tutorials, foldables, text.	I will be evaluating the students products using the standards based grading and students and parents will have the opportunity to evaluate the activities in the surveys.
At the half way point and the end of the process, students and parents will have the opportunity to provide input through a survey.	Drew Brown: I will work with my teaching partner and principal during this process.	The first round of surveys will become available online at the end of the third week. This data will be assimilated as quickly as possible to consider any issues or concerns that need addressing. The second round of surveys will become available the end of the sixth week and then will be processed.	The survey can be conducted via survey monkey for ease of access on the internet. Paper copies can be sent to those that need them.	The surveys are an evaluation tool, but one of the questions can also ask about the survey
Compare this years CBA 1 data to last years data. Look for any patterns that could strengthen our program.	Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator, my principal and my teaching partner during this process.	CBA data will be returned to the campus by the day after the test. Any corrective teaching will then take place and then comparisons can be made between this and last years data during the week of the 11th.	All of our CBA data is in Aware, our online database.	Aware is used to analyze the CBA data. My administrator and I will then draw comparisons between this and last years scores.

productive meetings

This week has been a successful week meeting wise. I was able to meet with my principal and discuss my plan. I was also able to meet with my coworker that I am going to presenting with in a couple of weeks to share about formative assessment and standards based grading. I shared my action research plan with her also and she had some ideas to improve the implementation process. The third meeting I had was with the other science teacher on my grade level. After discussing my action research, some of the suggestions for implementation that I am going to include in the plan will be to apply the program to all fifth graders in both my and Mr. Waldrip's classroom. I will produce the student progress monitoring tool that will be in every students lab journal and they will have the opportunity to track their own progress. Mr. Waldrip and I will give them feedback on their formative assessments and they will record it in their journals. It is at that point that they will have to determine what score they will settle on. Our hope is that this will give the student better ownership of their education. Because we are talking about 10 year olds in fifth grade, we will have them take their journals home to have parents sign off that they know where their students stand academically.

Week in reflection

This week has been an intense week. I am thankful that it is summer because the amount of reading would have created major data overload during the school year. I feel like I am getting a better grasp on my action research plan. But every time I read through it, I seem to think of new things. I worked with my partner teacher for three days this week and was describing my plan to him and some of my wonderings. He is just as excited as me and gave me some excellent technology ideas. I know there is much to do, but I also am excited to under go the process.

Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan

Goal:

To examine the effects of implementation of formative assessment and standards based grading in the fifth grad Science classroom.

Activities:

1. For weeks two through seven of the first nine weeks I will use the district 5E lessons with a formative assessment for each activity to indicate the student’s comprehension of the instructional content at that point in time.
2. Each TEK that is covered will be broken down into smaller concepts/process skills using the districts Earth Science Scope and Sequence to create a student progress tracking tool.
3. Through reteaching and student led learning the students will have the opportunity to grow in the concepts/process skills that they need or want to improve and demonstrate their mastery to earn a higher grade.
4. At the half way point and the end of the process, students and parents will have the opportunity to provide input through a survey.
5. Compare this years CBA 1 data to last years data. Look for any patterns that could strengthen our program.

Resources in order by activity number

1. Eduphoria: For action step one I will access eduphoria and use our district 5E lessons which now include a formative assessment.
2. To create the Student Progress Tracking Tool, I will use the 5th grade Earth Science TEKS, the districts scope and sequence and Classroom Assessment and Grading that Work to break each TEK into smaller concepts and process skills.
3. Resources to complete action step 3 will include many other resources such as: Reteaching, Eduphoria/additional resources, internet research, blogs, audio blogs with voice thread, podcasts, student designed tutorials, foldables, text.
4. The survey can be conducted via survey monkey for ease of access on the internet. Paper copies can be sent to those that need them.
5. All of our CBA data is in Aware, our online database.

Timeline:

The timeline for my this first cycle of my project will be from the end of August until the beginning of October. In my workshop it was strongly suggested to take small steps because the development of resources can be time consuming, so using this first six weeks of our Earth Science unit will be more manageable. It also ends with the first district CBA.

1. Lesson Plans and assessments will be created in August prior to school.
2. The student progress tracking tool will be created in August prior to school.
3. Reteaching and reassessing will be an ongoing process starting the end of the week of August 30th and going until the week of Oct 19th.
4. The first round of surveys will become available online at the end of the third week. This data will be assimilated as quickly as possible to consider any issues or concerns that need addressing. The second round of surveys will become available the end of the sixth week and then will be processed.
5. CBA data will be returned to the campus by the day after the test. Any corrective teaching will then take place and then comparisons can be made between this and last years data during the week of the 11th.

Below is the breakdown of the data within our Earth Science unit. Because the district uses a traditional grading system, not standards based grades, ending in week seven of the nine weeks will also give the students the opportunity to self assess where they are on their goals and earn the grade they want before I have to enter the nine weeks grade.

Week	Grade 5
2 – Aug 31	5.11B rock cycle – 5.6B water cycle
3 – Sept 8	5.11A erosion, weathering, deposition, landforms
4 – Sept 14	5.12A destructive & constructive forces
5 – Sept 21	5.11C natural resources/non-renewable/renewable resources
6 – Sept 28	5.12B describe process responsible for coal, oil, gas, minerals
7 – Oct 5	5.6B carbon cycle CBA 1

Person Responsible for each activity acording to number

1. Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator and my principal during this process.
2. Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator and my principal during this process.
3. Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator, my campus technology facilitator, my teaching partner and my principal during this process.
4. Drew Brown: I will work with my teaching partner and principal during this process.
5. Drew Brown: I will be consulting with my district science coordinator, my principal and my teaching partner during this process.

Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives

The formative assessments will be the main tool used to assess student achievement in the different skill and concepts. Then the student data will be tracked on the student progress tracking tool. This tool is a continually changing document that will provide initial achievement information and any future growth information for the students in each concept and process skill. My hope is that with the clear communication of the standards and the opportunity to continue to improve, I will see students engaging in further work to earn a higher grade. Surveys will also serve as a tool for parents and students to communicate how they like the program. At the end of the cycle the CBA will also serve as a tool to analyze our strengths and weaknesses as we look toward future improvement.

Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study

The same tools used above in the monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives will also be used here. The student progress tracking tool will show how each student’s achievement level. Student and Parent surveys will give me valuable feedback from their perspectives. My action research blog and class notes will also serve as a reflection tool for me to look back on.

This past week has been a very interesting time of learning and stretching my thinking. I continue to have to hone in on one topic, but continually find new ideas that I would like to consider in the future. Some of those ideas that would aid me as a science teacher would be some of the reading I have been doing into the most effective use of science lab journals for younger students. This has both professional and personal implications for me. I continue to try to improve both my personal and student performance, but I also have three sons that are very inquisitive and enjoy science. I believe I may just start a list of ideas to file for the future because I will probably forget half of my wonderings otherwise. I have been on the road this week, so I enjoyed the readings during prolonged stretches of highway and then am actually in a Wendy's posting this and my assignment. I look forward to continuing in my action research on formative assessment and standards based grading. I have enjoyed some time reading further on this topic and realize I will only be scratching the surface of this topic, but it will be a good start. To truly understand and implement these concepts will take years, but I am excited to get started.