Reflections and Revisions

After reading the questions on my blog, I realized, I need to be more specific with my action plan. The alternative grading system is going to be based on the grading system defined in Rick Wormeli’s Fair Isn’t Always Equal. A 4-point number scale, similar to the 4.0 grade average scale, will substitute the traditional letter grading scale. Rubrics will continue to be in place. Rubrics will be communicated to the students so students will be aware of the desired standards they are to complete. Motivation will be measured by student surveys/self-evaluations. Throughout the desired length of time, students will fill out the survey/self-evaluation to communicate if they were more, the same, or less motivated by the alternative grade. As far as the length of the action research project, I may need to extend my action research project to cover two classroom projects, which would extend the research project by two to three weeks. Based on the comment of reliable data, I scheduled a meeting with several team leaders this week to see if other teachers in the building would also be interested in implementing an alternative grading system. Recruiting additional teachers would elevate any shortage of reliable data.

I spoke with my site supervisor about my action research action plan and he thought that the plan was a good starting point. my site supervisor agreed with the additions I made to the action plan as a reflection to the comments and questions left from other students on my blog. My site supervisor suggested that I add parents as one of my resource tools due to the high involvement rate we have at our school. He believes that I would get an overwhelming amount of feedback from our parents. My site supervisor also suggested that I have the district curriculum specialist, building administrator, a first year teacher, and a veteran teacher analyze the data. He believes that collaboration with others in the district would give additional insight on the inquiry. I found my site supervisor's suggestions to be most helpful and I plan on adding these tasks to my action research plan.

A revised action research plan will be posted soon.