ACTION! Research

Action Research is something new to me that I haven’t heard of before.  I have always thought of the word research with such a negative connotation.  Even my students hear the word and just groan.  This action research is different though.  Action research involves actually doing something more than reading out of a book and citing where the information is from.  All the back ground work you complete reading out of a book will be able to see put into good use!

Action research is a four step process for evaluating current procedures and asking where there is room for improvement and growth.  From your posed question and a topic identified, literature is read on the topic and key personnel are surveyed or interviewed.  Once literature is read, an action plan is put into place. This action plan is then evaluated and reflected upon to find if improvements were found or not. 

I believe I will be able to use this action research in my own classroom.  I currently have RtI students as well as GT students in my classroom so I am constantly struggling with making sure I create the time needed in the classroom to be able to meet the needs of all the individual students.  GT students are my main focus because in my district they are only served by their GT teacher once a week for one hour so I feel as their classroom teacher I must bridge the gap.  I will be able to use action research to actively collaborate with others and read information to help me to meet the needs of those students.  I will be able to create an active plan of attack from my information gathered then implement it.  Once implemented for a measured set of time I will be able to evaluate and reflect on my plan and if student learning was improved and if I met the needs of all my students, especially the GT students.