"Action researchers in education often focus on three related stages of action:

1. Initiating action, such as, adopting a text, choosing an alternative assessment strategy.

2. Monitoring and adjusting action, such as, seeing how a pilot project is proceeding, assessing the early progress of a new program, improving a current practice.

3. Evaluating action, such as, preparing a final report on a completed project." (Sagor, 1992, p. 8)

*"...it is an important component of the professional disposition of teachers because it provides teachers with the opportunity to model for their students how knowledge is created" (Mills, 2014, p. 13)

*"Action research is also about incorporating into the daily teaching routine a reflective stance-the willingness to critically examine one's teaching in order to improve or enhance it." (Mills, 2014, p. 13)

*important ethical considerations: freedom from harm, informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, lack of deception, personal ethical perspective, accuracy of data (Mills, 2014, p. 32-37)

*it is critical to examine your bias and/or educational foundation

"the theories that impact your practice

the educational values you hold

how your work in schools fits into the larger context of schooling and society

the historical contexts of your school and schooling and how things got to be the way they are

the historical contexts of how you arrived at your beliefs about teaching and learning" (Kemmis, 1988)

*Photography of students within small group; screenshots of iPads

*Conventional sources (surveys, questionnaires, etc.)

*Inventive sources (exhibits, portfolios, etc.)

*Observation

*Visual recordings ((ex) footage of iPad small group)

*Personal journal" (Mills, 2014, p. 83)

*"Structured Formal Interviews

-Pilot questions on a similar group of respondents

-Use questions that vary from convergent to divergent

-Persevere with silence and "wait time" to elicit a response

-Consider using an audio recorder to capture the interview responses

-Locate a private place to interview

-Carefully choose whom you will interview

-Take notes during the interview" (Mills, 2014, p. 89-91)

*Artifacts: "written or visual sources of data that contribute to our understanding of what is happening in our classrooms and schools" (Mills, 2014, p. 98)

*Attitude Scales

*Triangulation (students' writing samples in Writing, performance on Word Wizard, students' writing samples in Social Studies/Science, students' oral spelling of a CVC word, magic e word, and word with blends)" (Mills, 2014, p. 100-105)

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20205010?uid=3739448&uid=2134&uid=382491581&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=3&uid=382491571&uid=60&sid=21104184337961

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27667151?uid=3739448&uid=2134&uid=382491581&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=3&uid=382491571&uid=60&sid=21104184337961

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20204630?uid=3739448&uid=2134&uid=382491581&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=3&uid=382491571&uid=60&sid=21104184337961

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6254

http://ohiorc.org/adlit/inperspective/issue/2007-03/Article/feature.aspx

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/41846/

http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=542&sectionid=3737

http://www.fcrr.org/assessment/pdf/smallgroupalternativelessonstructures.pdf

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/bloom.pdf

Possible Educational Tools for Interventions

https://students.education.unimelb.edu.au/LiteracyResearch/pub/teaching_strategies/annon3.pdf

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Category.aspx?CategoryID=1101

http://www.carlscorner.us.com/Blends.htm#sl

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=5641&CategoryID=2879

*How long of a time period will I have with the focus group on Tuesday/Thursday mornings? Should I split the group into two (non ELL vs. ELL) in order to be more effective?

*Double-check Word Wizard to ensure that the words in each assessment remain in the same order (in other words, if "cat" is the second word in a list of ten questions, is "cat" still the second word when I retake the test?)

*How will I keep track of student data? ((Ex) assigning each student to a school iPad may not be feasible long term in case another teacher takes one of my 'assigned' iPads for his/her student; should I take pictures of students' final data scores and subsequently print pictures for each student's individual data folder?)

*What will my baseline for moving from CVC to helper e to blends be? ((ex) will using the "hint" icon on Word Wizard ultimately penalize students? will the baseline be 8 out of 10 words without a "hint"? how will other data sources ((ex)writing samples from Writing and other subjects) play into the determination to move students to the next topic?)

*Will I use a specific program like Cunningham's Making Words as the basis for my interventions or will I use a mix of different interventions ((ex) phonics videos, interactive games, etc.?) Will I use Word Wizard as a teaching tool as well as an assessment tool?