Assessments

Today I tested both the experiment and control groups in my World History classes. I have been using both of these classes for my action research project through Saint Mary’s University. When I ran the results sheet for the two classes I noticed a large discrepancy between average scores. The first class was my experiment group which has received updated text message alerts about homework assignments and class material. Unfortunately, their test scores were significantly lower than my control group, possibly putting a damper on my hopeful hypothesis. My hope was that not only would the experiment group see greater homework completion rates, but would also experience higher assessment results.

Instruction and Assessment

Today I realized that I did not remember to text homework to my experiment group over the weekend. Therefore, I decided not to check either groups completion record for that particular assignment. Instead, I have decided to send a couple of reminders via text to the experiment group reminding them to complete any late work before the test date so that it can be counted towards homework completion. I am also going to send texts indicating the importance of studying for the test to see if that improves overall test scores.

Homework - a lot or a little?

Today I did not check any homework because nothing was assigned the previous day. However, I did have a student explain that she would rather have me assign entire sections of the book instead of pieces of each section to focus on. My hope was that by having students focus on one or two key concepts, they would be able to complete quality work and critically think about their responses. What I told the student was that if she chose to she could complete the entire section if it works better for her in retaining information. This made me analyze and think about my current strategy I am using in my action research project because I know not every student is going to complete the entire section on their own if it is not assigned as a whole. Therefore, if I did assign the entire section, maybe I would see better assessment results from those individuals who do all assigned homework, small or big. But on the flip side, if I choose to have students complete an entire section, there may be a number of students who choose not to do any of it because it is just too much to complete.

Nearing the end of my Experiment

As I near the end of this experiment I continue to wonder if the reasons students may complete more of their homework is due to the use of text messages or if it is due to the nature of the homework itself. As part of this experiment and action research plan I have begun to implement shorter assignments that I challenge students to take more time on and critically think about. Additionally, an increase in homework completion may also be due to the frequency of feedback provided by me as a teacher.

Today I began to construct collected data into charts and bar graphs in order to analyze the effect my homework strategies have had on completion rates and assessment scores. I have found that the questions are very detailed in nature and student answers vary greatly. Because of this, my pie charts and bar graphs are full of a lot of information. I think it may have been more beneficial to specify a few answers for students to choose from in order to pinpoint reasons for lack of completion of homework.

Data Collection

Today I recorded data from homework collected the previous couple of days. Because we are in the middle of snowball week, I have a feeling that some students may be caught up a little too much in the festivities and decide to put off homework. In addition, there has been a lot of graduate testing that has been going on for juniors and seniors who have had to either take the math or reading tests a second time in order to meet graduation requirements. Lastly, students in both my experiment and control groups are in the middle of registration for next year’s classes and this has taken away from class time that would have been spent on curriculum. These are all significant variables that I will have to take into account during my analysis part of my action research project.

More homework collection

I collected homework from over the weekend again. The data collected might be skewed a little bit because this was Super Bowl weekend. I made sure to send out a text reminder four hours before the game in order to remind students of their homework so that they could get it done before the game. Also, I have been trying to limit the students’ homework load in order to have them focus on particular concepts from the unit and chapter. Unfortunately, through observation alone, I am not seeing a whole lot of change in students’ behavior regarding finishing homework. This might not be entirely true however due to the make-up of my control and experiment groups and who they are made up of.

collection of homework and problems

Today I collected homework from both my control group and my experiment group. I realized that there are quite of few students in the control group who continue to ask questions about texting homework assignments. I have told them that I will start the process during the next unit, after my action research work has been completed. There are still a few students from my experiment group who have not provided consent forms for data collection and have also not provided a text message number that I can use to contact them with homework assignments. I hope that this does not skew my information too much in the future.

Reflection on my Personal Life

I was not able to attend the quarterly meeting, so in place of that I am writing in response to this question:
1. Learning is changing...How is your learning changing? What roled does technology play in your learning culture?
2. What does your personal/professional network look like? How are you connecting, collaborating, and creating? Consider: what role does technology play in your networking process? What role could technology play?

I am choosing to answer these questions in reference to my personal life. With everything going on, and as much time as I put into my teaching vocation, I realize that I am not spending a lot of time reflecting on my personal life. Technology naturally plays a huge role in my life, it is the "way of today".

1. My learning is changing daily in my professional life, as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife and as a contributing member of our community. I am learning how to become better at all of these, and that my experiences make me better at all of these thing. Experiences really do shape our futures! Becoming a mother has been the most amazing event, and learning how to be a good parent is the most challenging role I feel that I can ever have (and balancing this with work can be difficult to say the least). I have to ask myself "am I disciplining right?", "did I just set the wrong example?", "can I teach her in a better way?". It is a lot to think about, but that is how learning changes. We learn from those experiences how to do it "better" the next time.

2. If I were to paint a picture of my personal/professional network, it might look like a huge montage of experiences and snapshots of the important people in my life (both personal and professional), the experiences that make me a better person, and the things I rely on. This montage would be created on one canvas, which would represent the blank canvas of Rachel. I started with a blank canvas and all of these things and people would eventually make up my network.

I do rely on technology a lot in communication at school as well in my personal life. I am a facebooker, however I have considered disconnecting from it. I like it because it allows me to hear about my daughters day at daycare, it allows me to communicate with my art club students, I can share pictures with long distance relatives, I can find long lost relative and friends, and I and can learn about what is going on in others' lives. However, I get annoyed with the information that people think is important to share. Do we really need to hear what people are eating? I have weighed the pros and cons, and decided it is in my best interest to stay connected with facebook, but choose not to read a lot of what goes on there. Technology has really changed the way people communicate.

My dad is a non-user of technology (as non-user as they get these days). I have tried to encourage him to skype with use so that he can see his grand-daughter grow up, bill his customers with a printed invoice, text, etc. He refuses to accept these ways. He might have a good point here, "I want my grand-daughter to remember me and our time together, not my on a computer screen." Through texting, cell phones, social networks, RSS feeds, etc., etc., etc. we are able to FEEL connected to everything, but we should ask ourselves, "Would it be better to just see these people in person?"

Text Message Alerts Problem

As part of my action research project I am studying what effect text message alerts have on student homework completion rates. Last night I sent a text to my control group students from my World History class reminding them to answer three specific questions for class. Unfortunately, a number of students did not receive the message in the experiment group and I have yet to figure out why that was the case. I am going to have to look into the problem and solve it very quickly because my research project is focused heavily on the effect of text message alerts and the completion rate for homework projects. I have not yet collect the data or recorded the data into bars, graphs, or charts but plan to at a later date. I will again try this same procedure with the experiment group tonight and over the weekend.

Action Research Project - first day

Today I collected students’ ARP forms that they were suppose to take home and have signed by a parent or guardian. This form gives me as an instructor to collect and analyze student data for my Master’s Action Research Project through Saint Mary’s University. In order to do this in a timely manner I had given the forms to first semester teachers of World History so that I could start my project as soon as possible. However, I realized that not all of the first semester teachers of World History had handed these out to their students. Other students had forgotten to get these signed and I also had a number of new students who did not have a World History class during the First Semester. Because of these problems, I have had to delay the beginning of my research collection because I would like to make sure that all of my students in the experiment group have access to the resources that I will be implementing. I have a feeling that if I started the data collection before all of the forms were turned in that my results may be skewed.