Update on My Adventure

I wanted to provide an update as to the progress I have made on my Action Research Project, titled, 

     After School Tutoring:  Targeted Practice for Success.  

I did a lot of data collection, then disaggregation of that testing data and created my groups over Spring Break last year.  In May, I met with teachers who had demonstrated improved student scores with the inclusion of after school tutoring, be it ever so slight.  In meeting with them, I was able to compile a list of those techniques and strategies that they had used when tutoring students during the year.  At the end of the year, I went through the attendance records to determine the average number of minutes that students spent in after school tutoring.  During the summer I completed my research and developed my targeted and structured mini after school tutoring model.  In July I met with my principal to go over the proposed plan.  She approved the implementation and is excited to see the results.  My plan is to provide after school tutoring that is structured and uniform for all participants.  The sessions will be targeted toward certain tested standards, whose selection is based on classroom data.  Students will attend only three sessions prior to a major test.  In addition to this, we are providing more staff development to teachers to strengthen lessons and classroom instruction.  We are also increasing the number of Saturday Math Camps.  The idea is that if we can improve first instruction, and offer periodic Saturday camps to allow students to practice math skills in fun, novel ways, then we can use that brief, targeted burst of repeated instruction and practice (after school tutoring) to solidify the information, so that it is ready for use on the day of the test.   To this end, I have set the dates for staff development, tutoring and camps on the calendar.  We have already begun our staff development sessions, focusing on improving lesson plans, expanding opportunities for higher order thinking, and helping teachers examine data and putting the results to use.  We begin our Saturday camps in one week, and tutoring planning will begin shortly after that.  At the end of October we will have our first set of Math Target Practice days, and in early November, students will take their first major math test.  After that, I will again begin compiling data for comparison to last year’s groups.