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For my Action Research Project, I am focusing on 11th grade students citing strong and appropriate textual evidence to support their claims when writing about literature. Graphic organizers and other guided strategies will help to improve citation skills and will help students provide relevant and effective quotes.

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Students should be able to analyze a text and provide textual support when writing about literature.

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What Teachers Need to Know About Action Research 

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What Teachers Need to Know About Action Research 

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As a veteran teacher, I have plenty of instructional strategies under my belt, but this past year I needed new tools. A group of students (mostly English-language learners) were struggling to achieve even minimal growth in reading. As 3rd graders, they were entering the testing phase of schooling-but were two or more grade levels behind.

My colleagues and I knew we had to boost these students academically in order not to lose them socially.

Multiple teachers were collaborating to serve the students, yet it seemed as if everyone was trying their own variations on the same approach. I wanted to sift through the redundancies and streamline my end of their instruction.

I decided to get back to the basics. Specifically, to better understand how learning happens at the neural level-and to translate some recent research findings into practice in my classroom.

I was about to conduct what is known as Action Research (AR), although I didn't learn this term until my project was underway. AR is not a new concept to many teachers, but grand stuff for those of us whose graduate courses in research were, ahem, one or two decades in the past.

AR is more proactive than reactive. It is deeply and systematically reflective, and pertains to real concerns, challenges, and goals within your classroom. Typical goals of AR include evaluating outcomes, enhancing student achievement, and improving educational practices.

Although I'm no expert, I certainly gleaned some valuable lessons from testing the AR waters.

AR is best when it's optional. It should be driven by your own desire to tackle an issue in your classroom or school. You-not an outsider-are designing the project to improve your own teaching practice. Allow it to be your own.

Ground yourself with a specific question. Your own classroom challenge will inform this question, of course, and initial background reading will give it nuance and depth. A definitive research question provides an indispensable focal point for your action plan, and its clarity will rein you in during inevitable wanderings.

Ask an individual, or even a team, to join you. I had a tremendous learning experience on my own last year. But a Professional Learning Community could conduct much more productive AR, especially if co-teaching occurs and students switch frequently among teachers. This ensures continuity of practices, encourages collaborative perspectives and ideas, and provides collegial motivation.

Make your goals public. My quest was encouraged by a grant that allowed me to attend a conference and purchase months' worth of reading materials. This made me accountable. My goal had become public, initially to my funders, then to my colleagues. And my teaching became transparent like never before.

Stick to the gist of the plan. The typical process of AR is cyclical: question, plan, reflect, take action, observe, reflect some more, rethink and re-plan, repeat. My experience was that reflection occurred throughout the cycle-I questioned everything, from students' emotional affect, to my methodology, to the amount of content presented. I wanted to change course several times. Be open to the unknowns (and take notes for later!), but resist temptations to try something different until it's time to do so.

Relate your learning to your students' learning. The AR process sometimes overwhelmed me, until I compared it with my students' journeys. I considered the risks I press them to take, the vulnerabilities they may feel, and the power of their (and our) community. I thought about the questions I ask them and encourage them to ask of themselves. This helped me continue-and remember to embrace failure.

Let students know what's going on. I felt it was important and respectful to tell my 3rd graders what I was doing. I believe this also boosted their metacognition, as they saw themselves learn explicitly in different ways and compared the whats, hows, and whys of their own learning. Remember that the AR relationship is not that of "observer and subjects"-all participants are learners.

Allow for obstacles. No matter how well you plan and analyze, the AR process involves human beings. Consider obstacles to be unavoidable. Approach them as opportunities to rethink your strategies or to think more deeply before moving forward.

Results from AR are rarely conclusive, so anticipate the desire to ask more questions, dig deeper or extend your research, and improve your instructional practice in new ways. This shouldn't preclude the sharing of your findings with others.

AR is timely to implement, in spite of everything on your plate. Whenever there's a problem, curiosity, or question, you can begin. Results may or may not be immediate, and it can certainly be a challenge to balance instruction with research planning and analysis. But the process will improve your confidence, affirm you as an engaged, reflective professional, and help strengthen your resolve regarding specific classroom goals and outcomes.

I learned a lot last year. Of course, I didn't come close to finding a panacea. But I did discover several strategic tweaks I could make to my instruction, some of which are outlined in Teachers as Brain-Changers: Neuroscience and Learning and What Neuroscience Tells Us About Deepening Learning.

I gained unexpected insights, too, thanks to learning about the process of AR. Consistent, systematic reflection has provided renewed purpose to my teaching, as I realized how "unaware" I had become.

And I have more questions than when I started, which is how AR becomes a delightfully cyclical addiction.

The word "research" used to be daunting to me. It reminded me of dusty tomes, eccentric professorial rants, and meticulous APA formatting. But now I realize that AR can be a way to practice what I preach, take my own learning deeper, and improve my effectiveness as a teacher. I hope you'll give it a try, too.

See you at the drawing board.

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What Teachers Need to Know About Action Research (Opinion)

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As a veteran teacher, I have plenty of instructional strategies under my belt, but this past year I needed new tools. A group of students (mostly English-language learners) were struggling to achieve even minimal growth in reading. As 3rd graders, they were entering the testing phase of schooling-but were two or more grade levels behind.

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1. Why do students struggle with finding textual evidence?
2. What strategies can help students find strong textual support?
3. How effective is group work and peer editing when essay writing?
4. Should different graphic organizers be used throughout the writing process?

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"A variable is a characteristic of your study that is subject to change" (Mills, 2018, p. 61-62).
Some variables in my study will be the way that I teach and the change in the curriculum. I know that I teach in various ways and try to change up my instruction and sometimes there are ways that students in class could learn better depending on the teaching method. Further, changes in the curriculum can affect student learning in this process depending on the difficulty of the material. In addition, there are outside factors that can affect students such as their personal environments at home.

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Examples of Graphic Organizers for Ctiations

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Examples of Graphic Organizers for Ctiations

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As Mills states, "Action research is intimate because there is little distance between teacher researchers and their subjects, the students in their classrooms and schools" (2018, p.41). Therefore, there are many ethic considerations that must be made. The first should be consent and every student and participant should give consent to the research. In addition, the researcher must assure all subjects that no harm will come to them and they should be transparent with both parents and administration.

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Six Strategies to Help Students Cite and Explain Evidence

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Six Strategies to Help Students Cite and Explain Evidence

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Discussions give students an authentic reason to find and explain evidence. But if you've ever encountered silence after asking a student to find or explain evidence for an answer, you know the challenge of teaching students to use textual evidence meaningfully. As with any skill, students must learn it through modeling, practice with support, and coaching. Try these classroom tips to help students understand how to find, evaluate, and explain evidence.

Model the importance of evidence whenever you can. From the beginning of the year, emphasize the difference between a guess and an idea that can be supported with reasons. Model giving evidence for your opinions or statements across different subject areas.

Choose texts and questions that reward close reading. Open-ended questions about rich, thought-provoking texts engage students' interest and naturally support looking for and explaining evidence. To make sure a text and question will repay some deep digging, try answering the question yourself. If you have at least two different, reasonable answers you can support with evidence, your students will have enough to work with. Choose shorter texts when students are new to working with evidence.

Explain what makes evidence "strong." Many students may not have learned what it means to say that evidence for an answer is "strong" or "solid." Explain that evidence is strongest when others can clearly see how it connects to the question and answer; it doesn't have to be stretched or twisted to fit an argument. Show students three pieces of textual evidence for an answer that you have rated from strongest to weakest, explaining your reasoning. Then have students try the exercise themselves with a different question, answer, and evidence. Identifying examples of strong and weak evidence from the same text can give students a valuable benchmark.

Ask follow-up questions. When a student gives evidence, ask a follow-up question about how it supports the student's point. Questions like, "What about this passage makes you think that?" or "Can you explain how that sentence shows [student's answer]?" help them understand that evidence is not self-explanatory. Asking, "Did anyone get a different idea from this passage?" can reveal that the same piece of evidence may be used to support different answers.

Draw on the power of pairs. Especially for struggling or quieter students, working with a partner to find and explain evidence can be very beneficial. Pairing up to talk about ideas before a discussion can help all students find relevant evidence and participate confidently in a whole-class conversation.

Help students reflect on their use of evidence. Sharing simple benchmarks with the class (see sidebar) can help students take more responsibility for their progress. After a discussion, pause to have students reflect on the evidence that came up and how it was used. Encourage students to cite particularly compelling uses of evidence, and to set goals for the next discussion.

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Six strategies to help students cite and explain evidence

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Discussions give students an authentic reason to find and explain evidence. But if you've ever encountered silence after asking a student to find or explain evidence for an answer, you know the challenge of teaching students to use textual evidence meaningfully. As with any skill, students must learn it through modeling, practice with support, and coaching.

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"Use Citations to back up your argument, not make your argument for you."
"Citing is as simple as including a quote to prove your point."
"Citing someone else's brilliant idea can add strength to your argument."

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Rubrics show the need for textual evidence in order to show full understanding of the content.

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This article further explains the action research project. In addition, the article explains what is not action research and the common mistakes that people make.

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Brown Digital Repository | Collection | The Education ...

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This collection holds materials from the Education Alliance at Brown University. The Education Alliance was a reform support organization committed to advancing equitable educational opportunities that prepare all student populations to succeed in the 21st century. From 1975-2021, the Alliance partnered with schools, districts and state departments of education to apply research findings in developing solutions to educational challenges.

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1. Make an Argument
2. Prove Every Claim
3. State the obvious
4. Follow the 3-to-1 Rule*
*for every line you quote, you should explain in three lines of your own

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For every line you quote, you should plan to write at least three lines explaining what the quotation means and how it relates to the larger point of your paper. This can seem really daunting, but try to examine every word of the quotation. Do any of the words sometimes have multiple meanings? What are the connotations of each word? What is the tone? (Notice that "stating the obvious" will help you meet the 3-to-1 rule.)

The Langston Hughes example I gave above provides a good example of how you can expand your ideas. The truth is, I don't think anyone could read that story and imagine that Bill thinks Mary is young and beautiful.

So try imagining a more complex voice disagreeing with you. Instead of claiming that Bill thinks Mary is young and beautiful, the voice says, "Well, sure, he thinks she's old, but that's not the only thing he thinks about." At that point, you could modify your claim. Or you could try to identify what exactly made you think her age was all he could think about. By the time you explained Bill's hesitant ellipses and the effect of Hughes' parentheses and the significance of the word "wanted," you'd surely have three lines.

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For every line you quote, you should plan to write at least three lines explaining what the quotation means and how it relates to the larger point of your paper. This can seem really daunting, but try to examine every word of the quotation. Do any of the words sometimes have multiple meanings?

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Making Action Research a Part of Your Daily Teaching Practice - Mills 

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Making Action Research a Part of Your Daily Teaching Practice - Mills 

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1. Actually try the process to convince yourself that the investments of time and energy are worth the outcomes.
2. Recognize that action research is a process that can be undertaken without negatively affecting your personal and professional life.
3. Seek support from your professional colleagues.
Mills, G. (2018). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (6th ed.). Boston, MA:

Pearson.

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Textual evidence is evidence from a text (fiction or nonfiction) that you can use to illustrate your ideas and support your arguments. All textual evidence should:

Support a specific point

Be cited with a page number at the end of the sentence - He shouted "no more stone soup" (14).

Be followed by an "connection" that explains the relationship of the evidence to your main point.

There are four types of textual evidence: referencing, summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. The types are listed from using general evidence (referencing) to very to specific evidence (quoting). The most common type of textual evidence for literary analysis responses is quoting. Read through the types below and decide which one best fits your need.

1. Referencing
Referencing is mentioning a particular event or action in the text. It's useful when you want to point to point something out to support a point you're tying to make but don't feel a summary, paraphrase or direct quote is necessary. See the chart below for examples.

2. Summarizing
Summarizing is putting someone else's words into your own words. It's useful when you want to point to a larger section of text but do not need the details of the original text. Summarizing literary fiction usually occurs in the introduction of a literary analysis essay. It is rarely used in the body of a literary analysis essay other than to provide some context when it is needed. Summaries should be written in your own words, include a page number, and be followed by a statement explaining its importance and connection to the topic sentence.See the examples at the bottom of the page.

3. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is also putting someone else's words into your own words. It is useful when you need more detail than a summary but less than a direct quote. A paraphrase focuses concisely on a single main idea. Paraphrasing should be written in your own words, include a page number, and be followed by a statement explaining its importance and connection to the topic sentence. See the examples at the bottom of the page.

4. Quoting
Quotations illuminate your ideas and support your argument using the exact words from the original text. It's useful when you want to capture the particular language an author uses. It is the most convincing evidence of the four types as they add credibility to the point you are trying to make.. As with all the textual evidence, make sure you explain how the quote is connected to your point - let the reader know the significance of the quotations you use. (Be sure to visit sentence starters for help explaining the significance of a quote.)

There are three levels of direct quoting:

Specific details-quoting words or phrases

Brief quotes-quoting 1-3 sentences

Lengthy quotes-quoting 4 or more sentences at one time (you will unlikely use this type of quoting in this course)

Specific Detail
Specific details uses words or phrases from the text to support your argument. Details should be short-a word or phrase-and they should be incorporated into your own sentences.

Jack was "bent double" with his "nose only a few inches from the humid earth" tracking the trail of the pig "dog-like...on all fours" (Golding 48)

Brief quotations
Brief quotations are fewer than three lines and should be carefully introduced and integrated into your writing. Put quotation marks around all briefly quoted material, as in this example:

On the wall of his room is a "large tinted photograph of his dead wife, who, if Masses willed and paid for out of her own estate could do it, was in Heaven" (99).

Lengthy quotations
Lengthy quotations (also called block quotes) are used when you want to quote more than three lines of text. Think carefully before using this type of quotation and make sure the entire section you want to quote directly supports your argument. Block quotes should be single-spaced and indented four spaces from the left margin, and should not use quote marks.

Steinbeck writes:

When the servant come in bearing the message that Juana and Kino have arrived, the doctor sat up in his high bed. He had on his dressing gown of red watered silk that had come from Paris, a little tight over the chest now if it was buttoned. On his lap was a silver tray with a silver chocolate pot and a tiny cup of eggshell china, so delicate that it looked silly when he lifted it with his big hands (701).

Examples:

Referencing:

This is clear when Meursault attends his mother's funeral. The Stranger by Albert Camus

This is clear when he flies over the sea. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Summarizing:

When Meursault's mother dies he claims that it was inevitable, explaining the absurdist idea that life has no meaning (33). The Stranger by Albert Camus

He did not worry abotu falling as he flew over the sea (298). Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Paraphrasing:

Original:"that it was one of those things that was bound to happen sooner or later" (33). Paraphrase: As an absurdist, Meursault doesn't put meaning towards any object or being. Therefore, he doesn't mourn over his mother's death and acts indifferently towards his loss(33).The Stranger by Albert Camus

Original: "Part of his flight was over the dark sea, but it didn't frighten him because he knew he could not fall" (298).Paraphrase: He wasn't afrad of falling when he flew over the sea (298). Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Quote:

The novel begins with his mother's death, but Meursault remarks, "that it was one of those things that was bound to happen sooner or later," which conveys the absurd ideology (33). The Stranger by Albert Camus

Morrison writes, "Part of his flight was over the dark sea, but it didn't frighten him because he knew he could not fall" (298). Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Learn More...

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Textual evidence is evidence from a text (fiction or nonfiction) that you can use to illustrate your ideas and support your arguments. All textual evidence should: Support a specific point Be cited with a page number at the end of the sentence - He shouted "no more stone soup" (14).

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Copyright ©2021 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. This website collects and publishes the ideas of individuals who have contributed those ideas in their capacities as faculty-mentored student scholars.