Elena Olivo Action Research Plan Student Engagement Plan of Action The purpose of this study is to find effective

ways to engage students in my 12th grade English classes who have Ds or lower. It is essential to conduct this study, because many are expecting graduation in a few months, and will not have time to make up credits if they fail quarters. Variables During the study I will focus on engagement and performance, which I am hoping comes as a result. I am going to define engagement as active participation during discussions, note- taking when necessary, and initiative to arrange make-up work when class is missed. Performance shall be measured by the quality of work put into class assignments and assessments and discussions. Quality will be defined by the ability to write in complete sentences and have relevant responses to the topic. Relevant responses will have to be answers that address the topic and questions asked. To properly address the topic, specific and detailed answers will be expected. Some variables that may affect my research which are out of my control may be, student absences because of work or family schedules. By this I mean that there are students in my classes now who tend to miss class because of their current work schedule that overlaps with class time. There are also some students who do not attend class at times because of family situations that come up. Some of those include, babysitting or taking care of other family members during class time. Although this does not always

occur, those students are more prone to miss class and not actively engage when they do come to class. Research Questions 1. Will students take initiative to participate and complete class work if engagement strategies are structured for them specifically? 2. What strategy will engage Seniors the most? 3. Will students be more prone to turn classwork in on time if engagement strategies are used? 4. If the topics and materials in class are more culturally relevant, will the students be more engaged during class discussion and work? 5. Will small group discussions and activities help students be more engaged during class? 6. Will better engagement strategies motivate students to attend class more regularly? 7. Will students take initiative and ask for missed class work when they are absent or tardy? 8. Will different engagement skills motivate students to share opinions and want to participate more? Intervention To improve the engagement situation I am going to apply different strategies that I could use in the classroom. Many of my focus students come to class, but do not participate or stay engaged. They seem to be distracted and off task. I will attempt to hold students more accountable, by giving them time to individually work on tasks, and then

calling out on them randomly to share their responses with the class. Currently the same students speak out and volunteer in class. This is great, but I want to encourage other low performing students to participate in classroom discussion. Because they will have time to write a response, then they will have something to say or share if called on. Another implementation will be dividing up group activity time by tasks. I will begin having a timer on the board so that students have a visual about how much time they have left on a particular task. The reason I plan to do this is so students can complete small tasks more accurately. Many times when students are in groups, they tend to get off task and skip steps, or choose not to talk with peers. If I structure it in a way where students must complete a task in a determined amount of time, then they should be able to complete it. Also, instead of group work, I am planning on implementing more partner work. In partnerships, students must participate and respond because there are only two people in the group. Another engagement strategy will be the implementation of culturally relevant material. I will include contemporary issues and material that students can relate to and be more motivated to participate in. This will also hopefully help with classroom discussion, because students will be able to share what they already know about the content. Lastly, I plan to use the SmartBoard a lot more. By using the SmartBoard, I can have students come up and use the technology, which is very effective for engagement. When using the SmartBoard, I can also have more visuals and videos that engage students. Membership of the Group I will focus my research on students in my English 12th grade classes who have a D or less on the first mid-term of this quarter which is February 7th. Although I will look

into prior quarters during my research for data gathering, I want to make the Friday the 7th grades the determining grades. This will help me focus specifically on students who I have had this whole quarter and give me the ability to analyze their engagement so far, since I am the one who has been implementing particular strategies up to now. Most of the students who are currently failing or have a D are students of color. There are Latinos, Polynesians, and African-Americans. These participants are important because they are the students who are currently struggling in class. Many students are not asked why they miss class or do not choose to participate much. If direct attention is given to them, then I am hoping we can see improvement overall. Their roles will include, taking surveys, participating during class, completing class work, and asking for missed work when they miss class. My roles as the student teacher will be to teach class, but also take notes during their group work time and individual work time. Observations will also be a very important thing I do. Negotiations Before implementing my strategies, I will just have to inform my site-teacher that I am going to incorportae these strategies in my instruction and lesson plans. I do not plan on telling students of the new strategies being placed into the instruction. I feel they might loose their effectiveness if I do. Timeline I will begin implementing these strategies the week of February 10th. I will use them during A days, which are every other day of the week. I will specifically apply them into my two Senior English classes which are 2A and 3A. Although I will probably implement them in my B day Spanish classes, I will not keep data in these classes since

my focus group consists of Seniors only. Each week I plan to evaluate my strategies and reflect to see if my engagement strategies make a difference in the classroom with these specific Seniors. Strategies will be applied to the class every time. Because there are a number of strategies I plan to use, it will be easy to implement at least two during each class. Statement of Resources One of my main resources will be my site-teacher. Because she is very experienced in the teaching field, I feel she will be a great source I can go to almost immediately. Since I will be implementing more active participation on the SmartBoard, the SmartBoard and computer in the classroom will be used everyday. Other than that, I will use the classroom materials, which the students have already had. Data Collection Ideas To start off, I will pass out small surveys with questions about engagement. I will ask my target students about their current participation in class and what would make them participate more. I plan to conduct an exit survey too with the same students to ask about their engagement during the past few weeks. For class discussions, when I call on specific students to respond, I am planning on keeping a tally of what students I call on. This way I can know if the students responding are my focus students. I will also observe and keep track of students who volunteer on their own without being called on. This will help me keep track of any focus students who begin volunteering without being called on. Another form of data collection will be their finished work once they turn in any group or partner assignment. If they respond and engage in conversation, then thatll be an indicator to me that engagement is occurring. If their grades improve within the class,

then that will also be something to include in my data collection. Because my whole purpose is to increase engagement for learning and increase grades in the class, their assignments will be an essential part of my data collection. I also plan to keep track on the students I call up to model or use the SmartBoard. I will have a schedule to make sure I get all of my focus students to come and use the SmartBoard. Lastly, I will listen in on group discussions, which include culturally-relevant material. If students are participating and voicing opinions I will note every time so that I can know if the strategy is helping the students participate.