Week 3 Action Plan

Action Research
Description of activity:

Will focusing on academic vocabulary using Marzano's training positively impact teacher’sinstruction?

Operational definition of the target population:

My target population will be bilingual teacher from first to fifth grade. Our focus as a bilingual campus is to improve vocabulary development so I feel that focusing on the bilingual teachers will provide much needed feedback.

Brief definition of how you will conduct your research:

Teachers will be receiving Marzano's in service prior to the beginning of the school year. I will collect feedback from the teachers at this point on their understanding of the staff development. After the staff development I will gather reflection from each grade level and survey before and after the first nine week grading period on the effect of the staff development and how it changed their instruction.

Persons Responsible: Team leaders from each grade level first through fifth grade, Reading Specialist & Language Support Teachers
Plan 1. All staff will receive a staff development full day session of Marzano academic vocabulary.
2. Teachers will identify academic vocabulary for building background knowledge in language arts and reading using the TEKS, KUDs, and Marzano lists, engaging in thoughtful and purposeful discussion with teachers representing grades kinder through fifth grade.
3. Each grade level will review the vocabulary on the TEKS and KUD’s and create a list of words for their grade level.
4. After all the grade level have completed this activities then as a group each grade level list will be reviewed and the team needs to be in agreement if the term needs to be included in the final list and if so in which grade should the term be mastered by the student.
5. Once the team has reviewed each list and agreed to the grade level which it should be listed under then the term needs to be identified by its source(KUD, TEKS)
6. This process will need to be repeated using the TEKS and KUDS in Spanish to identify the words in Spanish for the Bilingual classroom instruction. Consistency is important.
7. The process and the list will be presented to the staff with time set aside for discussion and understanding of the importance of identifying academic vocabulary for building background knowledge in language arts and reading.
8. I will survey the teachers to gather information on how this staff development affected their daily instruction after the first nine week period.
Start date: August 2010 End Date: September 2010
Resources: NISDdistrict & campus specialists, TEKS, NISD KUD’s , Mazano’s lists, LA/Reading Curriculum & TEA website
Evaluation:
Student improvement in TAKS, CDB’s and benchmark assessments.