Week 5 Reflection

This class focused on the Action Research Plan or ARP. This plan is something that I am going to enjoy sharing with my colleagues. We learned how to put this plan together in the class. Action research was never something that I had heard about, I knew about research for research papers and that sort of thing, but never action taken. I chose to do my action research project on a reading intervention program used in my district called Fast Forward. This program is used for our special education students as well as our ESL/LEP students. I am looking to compare the student’s scores before they have used the program and look at where they are at the end of the year after having used it all year long.  The staff on my campus is looking forward to my findings. If the program is not working we need to find something that will help our students reach their goals.

One aspect of the class that I found interesting was the use of our blogs. I had never really created a blog. I have read them and researched them, but never had one of my own. I will be having some of my classes create these and use them in class. It will be a good experience for them and will improve their writing skills. I enjoyed getting feedback from my classmates on the blog.

Discussion boards were useful in the class as well. I really enjoyed connecting with my classmates. Reading their thoughts every week really helped clarify things that I was confused about. Our outside discussion board on facebook was a fantastic support system! I really loved connecting that way with my classmates. It wasn’t a required part of the class, but it should be! This was a way to connect and ask and answer questions in a very timely manner.

The lectures were short and concise, which helped. It can be difficult to find time to sit and watch a video. I appreciated that they only had vital information and they were quick. 

The assignments felt a little like busy work some of the time. I enjoyed reflecting in the blog and planning the ARP. However, some of the other assignments didn’t feel like they added to the ARP.  I would really like to see more expansion of the ARP in the class. I think that would definitely help in moving our projects forward.