This week, I gained a LOT of new knowledge about how and where to use action research in school. I am very happy to have chosen a research project and I am excited to begin working toward the goals of the project.
In my action research project, I plan to investigate the correlation between school-home communication and academic performance and discipline incidents in 9th grade students.
Students face a critical transition when entering high school. The atmosphere and expectations between middle and high school are drastically different and the success or failure of students in 9th grade can set the tone for the rest of their high school career. Many students fall behind academically and make poor social choices due to the anonymity that comes with a larger, less restrictive high school setting. It is my belief that with increased school-home communication students will be more successful academically and see fewer discipline incidents per student.
I plan to employ several different communication strategies through technology and traditional communication methods. I would like to keep parents informed about classroom behavior and performance, involvement opportunities for both family and students, extracurricular events and important campus information. My hope is that by opening the lines or communication, parents and families will join the team of administrators and educators working to ensure student success. My goal is to increase student success and lower discipline issues. If students know that their actions (both positive and negative) will be communicated to their families, then they will be more apt to make positive academic and social choices.
My goals for the project are more positive academic performance (earning credits toward graduation, higher state test scores) and lower incidence of discipline referrals both in the classroom and out.
I'm curious as to how you're planning on communicating with parents. What methods are you going to use? Maybe you could have a parent night with some of your students and have the students explain to their parents what is going on in the classroom? Our reading specialist did this last year and it worked out really well.
ReplyDeleteI agree that 9th grade is a crazy time. Your study could be an awesome topic, the tough thing is just finding the focus you want. I agree with @Sarah, what contact methods are you going to implement? Getting parent involvement is like the unicorn: everybody loves it but few achieve it. I hope you have great success and that your parent involvement is high.
ReplyDeleteI teach 8th Grade Reading/Writing, so your action research topic for 9th grade students is very interesting to me. I do believe the students go through a drastic change from middle school to high school. If you could increase parent communication and involvement,it could make the transition easier and get the kids to make the "right" decisions. I will definitely be following your blog to see how it goes. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteLike Victoria, I also teacher 8th grade and believe this also relates to my 8th graders as they are beginning to feel the freedom, but have not yet hit the drastic change that they will receive in high school. With today's society, I think one one of the best ways to get the parents involved is through technology like you mentioned. But do you want parent involvement at the actual school? If so, any ideas?
ReplyDeleteTo answer some of your questions. I plan to use a system called remind101.com. It is a site/app that allows parents and students to sign up for text and/or email alerts sent out by the teacher. I am going to work with teachers to use this to communicate homework, tests, grades being sent home, etc. I am also going to work with teachers on a classroom calendar (in the google suite) as well as a campus Facebook and Twitter account. We are going to track the communication through google forms and hopefully we will start seeing more academic improvement. I am also going to solicit email addresses at meet the teacher night and Freshman orientation to make sure that we have good info for parents. I will also be putting the teacher's email addresses in the hands of the parents. Lots to do, but hopefully reaping the benefits!
ReplyDeleteYou are awesome for thinking of this! It sounds like you may have a very productive year. Parental involvement is so critical especially when dealing with freshmen students. They are at that pivotal point in their lives to where making good choices will help them have a very productive future, and bad choices can send them down the wrong road. I can't wait to see how this goes for you!
ReplyDeleteThat is great. I have been fortunate to have a lot of success in my Adaptive Behavior class with guiding the students to making better choices and get back in gen ed. But I have always told others- including a conversation from today- that the kids that I have had the most success with are the ones who's parents are involved. We may agree or disagree at times but when our focus is the student then they make much greater gains. I hope you find great success with this.
ReplyDeleteRemind 101 is the greatest asset to a teacher EVER! If you haven't ever used it before, it will change your whole outlook on parent communication. It has made my life so much easier and cut down on so many issues. Good luck on your project! Your plan looks great!
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