Multisensory, “Simultaneous Oral Spelling” and the “COPS Editing Strategy” to Increase Development Independent Spontaneous Writing Ability.

I am currently certified as an LBD p-12^th, Exceptional Child Instructor.  I work at a local elementary school with students with special needs ranging from hyperactivity to more severe disorders.  In addition to my role as a resource instructor in 2^nd and 3^rd grades, I collaborate and coteach within classrooms to provide intervention for struggling students who may or may not be identified through special education.

During this collaborative time, it has become an increasingly more common that students receiving daily specially designed instruction in the resource room exhibit a higher rate of growth in writing than struggling students, who are not receiving intervention.  Consequently, I have taken it upon myself to focus the efforts of my action research project on combining a scaffolded phonetic structure with a research based, multisensory writing method and an effective sentence editing strategy to expedite student writing growth. 

Through implementation of this project, I hypothesize that all students selected, whether identified for special education or not, will show increased growth according to assessments of student developmental writing stages and use of conventions, sight word skills, and phonics skills in sentence dictation.

The title of my action research project is: 

Multisensory, “Simultaneous Oral Spelling” and the “COPS Editing Strategy” to Increase Development Independent Spontaneous Writing Ability.

v  The timeline my action research project can be seen below:

Week of:	Action Research Stage	Activity
8/27	Acting Stage: Collecting Data	Ø  Collaborate with teacher to plan assessments / instruction times. Ø  Complete pre-assessments with whole class to determine struggling readers: Ø  Sentence dictation (conventions, spelling) – Repeated Measures T-Test Ø  Developmental Writing Assessment (qualitative spelling checklist) – Repeated Measures T-Test Ø  Turn in IRB forms to EPSB. Ø  Complete whole class pre-test assessments. Ø  Observe students in regular classroom. Obtain consent forms.
9/3	Acting Stage: Collecting Data/ Selecting Students	Ø  Select students for intervention based on predetermined criteria Ø  Send Informed Consent Forms to families Ø  Receive Informed Consent Forms
9/10	Acting Stage: Implementing the Plan	Ø  Initial meeting with small group. Ø  Teach routines, Ø  Begin implementation of intervention; following the scaffolding within the project.
9/17		Ø  Second week of implementation of intervention Ø  Reflect on student performance on independent informal writing probes Ø  Adjust instruction to focus on needs of students.
9/24		Ø  Third week of implementation of intervention Ø  Reflect on student performance on independent informal writing probes Ø  Adjust instruction to focus on needs of students.
10/1		Ø  Final week of implementation of intervention Ø  Reflect on student performance on independent informal writing probes Ø  Adjust instruction to focus on needs of students.
10/8	Acting Stage: Gathering and Analyzing Data	Ø  Complete post-assessments with whole class to determine growth of all students within the four weeks of intervention: o    Sentence dictation (conventions, spelling) – Repeated Measures T-Test o    Developmental Writing Assessment (qualitative spelling checklist) – Repeated Measures T-Test Ø  Analyze data o    Determine growth on assessments o    Compare growth to non-intervention students
10/15	Developing Stage: Create Action Plan	Ø  Develop school level action plan to work in conjunction with teachers, assistants, and interventionists within the school building. Ø  Present Action Plan to peer group
10/22
10/29	Communicating Stage: Presenting and Reflecting	Ø  Reflect on Action Research Process Ø  Complete Draft of Journal Article Ø  Present Action Plan to group of professionals

Reflection: Creating Blog, Planning, Acting

            The use of “Blogspot” to create a free, public space to share my experiences throughout my Action Research Project was very user friendly.  I did have some difficulty incorporating the table that I created to organize my timeline, but once I editing the document in a word processor, all the kinks seemed to work them out.  This activity provided an opportunity to review the information and action items from my planning phase.  This allowed for a comprehensive reflection on the project, brief edits due to a change in grade level, and helped me understand exactly where I am going with my research and when I need to be completed.

            The timeline signified the end of my Action Research Planning phase.  The timeline is organized by week, provides the phase of Action Research, and outlines the tasks that need to be completed each week.  This planning exercise clarified the process and required a well-thought out structure for the research project. 

            The Acting Phase has been planned and will begin this week.  I will consult with my collaborating teacher to determine the best times to assess her class and select struggling students according to criteria stated within the Action Plan.   Laying out the exact tasks that need to be completing during this phase will make the process much easier and allow me to stay on top of the project and data collection.