The Phorum for this week is all about the return of the draft. Eh? You're working on taxes and haven't time to post your questions and URLs to the Phorum or send drafts of your literature reviews to the Amigos? We do need to see your progress on your various projects. The format is similar to the last Phorum. You're still making progress ... we hope! We've included some nice examples below.
We still have a thread for Action Research Questions in the Phorum. Not many have posted, but we have responded. If you have no questions, that's fine, but use this link if you need it. You can also use our Yahoo Groups listserv or email us privately.
At this point, you should be thinking about what your data means and how you want to write your report. Below are some comments to be used as a guide.
After your literature review is written, the last section of your action research work is your AR report. What did you do? What did your data show? What action did you take? Chapter 7 in Mills provides guidelines. Essentially, this is where you close the gap between research and practice. What you need to produce is the logical outcome of your action research. In some cases, as the name and definition of action research implies, this will be ongoing. So, back to the questions: What did you do? What did you learn? How will you use what you know? The vignette at the beginning of chapter 6 in Mills provides a pretty good example of the reflective teacher presenting the outcomes of action research. Larry may also have some comments on this procedure.
Take a look at Mike LaMarr's review of the literature. As you skim through this you'll notice at the end he makes a voice change to the first person as he transitions into his action research project. At this point, he has reviewed the literature of others and will now move into a highly situated context within his direct control: his own action research. He has a link to the action research index at the bottom of the page. You need to know that Mike has all this in Word. The action research project with its review of the literature has been read over twice and needs one more review. The website portfolio has also been reviewed. He's nearly finished. The formatting for the literature review appears a bit different on the web. Later, Mike will have a link where his audience can download a Word document or a PDF file of his entire action research project including the review of the literature.
Email your in-progress writing to the Amigos in Word. One of us will comment on your work.
We also still have a Phorum thread for you to post your Portfolio URLs. There are some new portfolio urls there for you to check out. Everything is considered in-progress. Post your ideas, get feedback, and provide leadership. Thanks you to those of you who have already done this.
We continually receive updates from Rio Linda and San Juan. This week's featured portfolios are those of Mark Moorhead, Robin Nahhas, and Pat Cory. They are in-progress but coming along nicely. Particularly interesting are the personal sections about the growth of these individuals as effective teachers and staff developers. You can also get ideas as to how you want to present your Product section and reflections.
http://cohort.csus.edu/riolinda1/cory/portfolio/
http://cohort.educ.csus.edu/riolinda1/moorehead/masters_portfolio/webpages/home.htm
http://cohort.csus.edu/riolinda1/nahhas/E-portfolio/
