1st Idea for Action Research

The purpose is to determine if technology will increase student engagement and learning.

After meeting the campus principal I’m interested in using the Study Island program as possibly a method of Flipped classroom. She described Flipped classroom as where students take notes and get basic instruction on their own before units to introduce themselves to topics. Then during instructional time, teachers are able to spend more time on clarifying, discussing, and applying concepts. Study island provides a summary and information where students can take notes and quiz themselves on understanding. Then in class we can spend more time doing labs or practicing STAAR questions.

Both students and teachers will benefit from the action research study. I plan first to teach students how to process information using Mind Map to take notes. Many students are only accustomed to copying information from PowerPoint and not having to decipher information on their own. The note passages in Study Island are more rigorous than copying from PowerPoint. So students will also benefit from having to process the more advanced reading. STAAR requires them to be able to decipher information from more difficult readings than they have been exposed to in class. Students also will benefit from the ability to know their weaknesses from the beginning of the topic,   have time and ability to go over the information again. Instead of only quizzing students after all learning has occurred, Study Island allows students to retake quizzes with different questions over the same standards.

Teachers benefit from the action research study by allowing them to use technology to track student success. Having Flipped classroom allows more time to revisit and concepts that majority of students missed. Also for my campus, teaching students how to process information using Mind Maps will increase student autonomy. Many students feel that they cannot do if the teacher does not explain everything. Giving them the skills to process on their own from the beginning of the year should promote accountability on their own.