Site Supervisor Feedback on Action Research

During two conferences with my site supervisor about my action research plan, we looked at my blog and the feedback I’d received from my colleagues in class to get the discussion started about what we could do to improve my plan.  My site supervisor thought that my plan was very thorough and comprehensive, and he liked the fact that I included a wide variety of data in my research. 

Once we tackled the feedback from my colleagues, he took a good look at my action research template for a couple of days before we met again.  The feedback he gave me was this:  survey our ELL students at the beginning of the Classworks implementation to see what they thought their needs were and what their predictions about the program’s success might be and then survey them again at the end of the year to see what their personal evaluations of the program were.  I thought this was genius because I had felt that while my initial plan included a great deal of data, it was lacking something.  His feedback let me know that the plan was missing the “human angle” and qualitative data that our students’ personal thoughts could add to our research.  He also suggested that I include our two ESL teachers in the data meetings with the 8^th grade English teachers.  I feel a little sheepish that I hadn’t thought of doing that earlier.  These are the two components I have added into my research plan, and I believe that they will help round out my action research findings and add a new dimension to my research.