ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT: Every Teacher is a Writing Teacher

1
ACTION RESEARCH PROJECTEvery Teacher is a
Writing Teacher

• Lisa Noffo, Robin Atkins Kenneth Williams
• Miami Central Senior High School
• Superintendents Urban Principal Initiative

2
Abstract of the Study

• The focus of this action research is to improve
  the writing test scores at Miami Central Senior
  High School.
• 3 strategies were used
• Team teaching which served as a professional
  development tool for non-language arts teachers.
• An eighth period writing course was implemented
  for all 10th grade students.
• Writing across the curriculum was implemented in
  all core and elective courses.

3
Introduction/Background

• The major concern at Miami Central Senior High
  is that students are having difficulty mastering
  the writing process. The researchers believe
  that as a result of student difficulties and
  limited foundational writing skills our students
  demonstrate a lack of proficiency in writing
  semantics. Our goal is that Miami Central High
  School students will acquire writing skills which
  will result in an improvement in the writing
  process.

4
Background Information

• Miami Central Senior High School was built in
  1959 and resides on 95th Street and 17th Avenue.
  MCHS has 115 classrooms and utilizes 16 portable
  classrooms. Approximately.

• Student background information
• 82 of the student population is Black
  non-Hispanic
• 17 of the student population is Hispanic
• 1 of the student population is White
  non-Hispanic
• Less than 1 Asian/Indian Multicultural
• 17 of the student population is enrolled in the
  Exceptional Student Education program
• 5.5 of the population are Limited English
  Proficient Students(ESOL)
• 60 of the students are on free and reduced
  lunch.

5
Research Question

• How will team teaching, writing across the
  curriculum and an intensive 8th period writing
  curriculum improve writing scores?

6
Literature Review

• Kelly, Melissa, Writing Across the Curriculum,
  
• http//712educators.about.com/cs/writingresources
  /a/writing.htm
• This article was chosen because the author
  discussed many strategies that can be used to
  improve writing skills in tenth grade students.
  Most importantly these strategies were ones that
  could be used in all content areas. Theses
  strategies were most useful to our non-language
  arts teacher.
• Team Teaching - The Northern Nevada Writing
  Project Teacher-Researcher Group Paperback)
  http//www.todaysteacher.com/TeamTeaching.htm
• This article was used because it addressed
  various items needed to facilitate a good
  collaborative team effort between two teachers.
  This article was based on the book Team Teaching
  , (Stenhouse Publishing, 1996). This book gives
  multiple models of successful team teaching.
• Writing Across the Curriculum and Writing in the
  Disciplines - http//owl.english.purdue.edu/hando
  uts/WAC/
• This article was selected because in gave
  further insight on the need in writing in
  discipline areas. This article although focusing
  on the collegiate level, lead the researcher to
  various websites on topics that can enhance a
  writing program.

7
Methodology/Intervention

• To implement our plan we paired all non-language
  arts teachers with a reading or language arts
  teacher. This was done in order to provide
  professional development to the non-languages
  arts teacher and broaden the scope of language
  arts instruction. It was our hope that the
  non-language arts teacher would model the type of
  instruction they are observing in their
  co-teaching class.
• Writing across the curriculum was infused in all
  classes through daily mandatory journaling.
• The Academic Improvement Period (8th Period)
  was used as an intensive writing course for all
  tenth grade students.
• The Health and Physical Education classes, which
  are predominantly 10th grade students, were used
  periodically as a writing lab. The Reading Coach
  facilitated the instruction to reinforce writing
  strategies.
• These interventions were consistently employed
  throughout the school year.

8
Data Collection

• Tools used to collect the data
• Learning express prompts various sample writing
  prompts given to students on a bi-weekly and
  quarterly basis in their language arts classes.
• Teacher surveys given before and after the
  co-teaching model was put in place. Teachers
  were not receptive to the co-teaching strategy
  initially, but post surveys show that teachers,
  seeing the value in team teaching are willing to
  try it again for the 2006-07 school year.
• FCAT Writing scores were used to gauge the
  improvement of students writing scores. The test
  was administered in March

9
Data Analysis
10
Findings/Results

• Based on the results of the FCAT Writing test,
  our students did not show improvement in their
  writing performance. The baseline data that we
  started with, 3.5 dropped to a 3.3. While
  increasing in the expository component by .1,
  MCSH lost .6 points in the persuasive component.

11
Conclusions, Recommendations, Implications, or
suggestions for future action for yourself or
others

• Conclusions
• Our data revealed that more professional
  development and an increase in the rigor in the
  area of writing is imperative in order to yield
  satisfactory results, thus, meeting the state
  mandate.
• The states data showed a slight increase of .1
  in expository writing, but a .6 drop in
  persuasive writing.
• Our data indicated that our students must be
  exposed to a wide range of current event topics
  in order to respond effectively in writing to
  higher order prompts.

12
Conclusions, Recommendations, Implications, or
suggestions for future action for yourself or
others

• Implications and recommendations
• Focus on higher level prompts in the persuasive
  writing component
• Continue with the team teaching model as a source
  of professional development and modeling
• Look at ways to enhance the writing instructional
  focus calendar.
• Continue to use the writing disc provided by the
  state.
• Employ a full time writing coach to model writing
  across the curriculum.