Preparation

Your progress on your action research component of the portfolio is apparent. Keep up the momentum. You all realize that very soon, you'll be walking around with a new "degree" of dignity! Below are your assignments for online session.

1. If it's ready, in an email attachment to Mary-Ann, Mike and Bruce, send your in-progress Review of Literature utilizing the Big V format clarified below.
2. The Big V format is simple but logical. Present your paper from the most general literature reviewed to the most specific. Use logical headings to show topic sections and, at the end of the review, transition to a paragraph or two about the focus of your action research project.

More about the Review of Literature for the Action Research project:

• Dr. Geni Cowan has uploaded a PowerPoint presentation on reviewing related literature.  
• Sample literature review by Mingo Greco and Ione Ringen. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to view this PDF.
• Your McMillan and Schumacher book also has an excellent section on the review of literature.
• Further, pages 29-37 in Geoffrey Mills' text, Action Research: A guide for the teacher researcher, provides an excellent guide for your review of related literature.

The organization of your literature review

Read the literature review completed by Mingo Greco and Ione Ringen. You will notice how these authors begin their introduction with a discussion that anchors their problem to constructivist theory. They establish a theoretical base for their work. By page four, the authors are ready to show how the rest of their review is organized. Note the headings. They have identified four specific areas that they feel are necessary to explore in some depth: (a) the effectiveness of computer- assisted writing in the language arts curriculum, (b) theories on the different styles of learning, (c) theories about teachers as learners, and (d) teachers and technology training. By the time the authors reach the last section, they are ready to deal with the most specific topic, the training of teachers.

Your literature review must be organized in a similar format. In the last face-to-face, we mentioned the importance of the literature review and its organization. Once you have introduced your problem, you should develop your rationale as Mingo and Ione have done and tie your position to a theoretical framework. Lead the reader to the logic of your review with a paragraph that explains how the remainder of the review will be organized. It is this structure that you need to be ready to present in Tapped In.

Back to the iMET agenda.