Module 4 Application- Stephanie Herrera

Running head: ANALYZING DATA AND COMMUNICATING FINDINGS1

Analyzing Data and Communicating Findings

Stephanie Herrera

American College of Education

ANALYZING DATA AND COMMUNICATING FINDINGS2

Part 1: Research Report: Polishing Your Draft

Research Purpose:

As an educator it is vital to pay attention to the students one has and observe what they excel at

and what they struggle with so that the teacher can provide the appropriate way to address the

learning or behavioral need in order to make them better students. In order to attempt to improve

instruction for the benefit of the students, action research can be performed. According to Slavin

(2006), action research is a less formal model than other types of research and it requires

teaching and building administrators to conduct research for one specific main purpose that is “to

improve teaching and learning” (as cited in Ross-Fisher, 2008, p. 160). In my Spanish level III

class, the students are great students that have received A’s or B’s in Spanish level II last year.

This year, they seem to understand the content, however, when it comes to the unit tests, the

students do not score as high as they used to. Their unit test scores tend to be in the C, D, or

even F range which is lowering their average overall; this is not normally something I see in my

Spanish level I or II even though the content tends to be challenging for those levels. Based on

the concern for Spanish III students’ grades lowering because of their unit tests grades compared

to what they are capable of doing based on their success from last year’s Spanish II class, the

following research questions were created: 1.) Will practice with relevant information on the

students’ lives, so that interest in the content increases, improve my Spanish III students’

performance on their unit tests?; and 2.) Can review on content, that was previously learned over


a period of time, eliminate many errors found in the Spanish III unit tests and motivate students

to continue to improve?

Problem Statement and Description of Setting:

I am concerned that the students’ unit grades are so low in my Spanish III class and that it

lowers their overall grade and performance in my class by about 10 points. Therefore, it prompts

my question: Why do high school students in Spanish III score poorly on unit tests compared to

their exceptional Spanish II scores last year? The Spanish III unit tests consist of the content that

is practiced and reinforced over and over again during each class period. Based on the data, as

shown below, the 12 students in my Spanish III class are students who did extremely well in

Spanish II last year. However, the same students in the class do not perform as well in Spanish

III no matter how much the content is stressed and practiced in class.

Spanish II vs. Spanish III Table

Students Spanish II average on unit tests (2014-2015)

Spanish III average on unit tests (2015-2016)

Student 1 88 75

Student 2 90 88

Student 3 97 89

Student 4 86 70

Student 5 86 77

Student 6 93 85


Student 7 96 83

Student 8 97 91

Student 9 95 88

Student 10 100 93

Student 11 86 79

Student 12 83 65

Literature Review:

The research by Lam, Cheng, and Ma (2009), is based on capturing students’ attention

through learning that can become meaningful to them. A strategy that is used to make learning

meaningful for the students is through project-based learning. In order to improve students’

skills while making the content meaningful, “teachers are encouraged to use more student-

centered approaches in teaching” (p. 566). Project-based learning is an approach that is

extremely stressed in order to reach these goals. With this method, “students in a small group

collaborate with one another to reach a collective outcome over a period of time” (p. 566). This

is a praised approach that many believe in to be a “powerful teaching strategy that can enhance

student motivation” (p. 566). However, it is said that this challenging process requires intrinsic

motivation in order to complete it well since students must play an active role by collaborating in


the whole learning process. I can use project-based learning with the content I need to review

from the past levels of Spanish, over a period of time, in order for my students to find meaning

within the material they must know so that the simple errors that were made in the past, due to

not remembering past knowledge, can decrease and therefore help them learn the language better

and make them stronger students. By increasing motivation in learning the content through

project-based learning, it will also affect unit test grades.

In the article by Ford and Roby (2013), the topic of motivation in teenagers is stressed

and looked into while trying to answer the question regarding what motivates students to achieve

academically. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are defined and it is explained that teenagers are

usually motivated by both at the same time. There needs to be a personal desire to want to learn

as well as a desired outcome or result. In order for teenage students to learn, a number of factors

play significant roles on whether or not a student will want to stay motivated in the content they

are expected to learn such as self-determination, ability beliefs, self-efficacy, effort beliefs, and

value placed on the task. These factors will be positive with the teacher’s lead in exercising

these factors in the classroom through a positive attitude and instructing. It is obvious that

“motivating high school students is not an easy task, but it is definitely rewarding when teachers

successfully engage their students in the right way” (p. 106). The teacher must hold his or head

up even when the content can be challenging, simply for the sake of the students’ belief in the

curriculum being attainable. Ford and Roby (2013) conclude by stating, “research has shown

that a great deal of motivation comes from good everyday teaching practices. It also goes back

to the three R’s: Relevance, Relationship, and Rigor to motivate students” (p. 111). If I can keep


positive motivation and thoughts in mind, it will help in creating relevant lessons that can

connect to their lives while making sure it correlates with the desired outcome in the unit tests.

According to research by Royer (1996), it is mentioned that “authentic learning requires

authentic teaching, and that the assessment of authentic learning must meet three criteria:

disciplined inquiry, integration of knowledge, and value beyond evaluation” (p. 174). There is a

great deal of authenticity put into teaching a language that will best serve students when it is

done this way. The components of growth and process are built into the assessments mentioned

and students prove to love learning a language this way. The students, whom are learning

French, in this reading are extremely eager and willing to perform in the summative assessment

because of the relevance it has to their lives and the authenticity. Through the summative

assessments, in which students perform orally in front of their peers and through original writing,

the students were motivated to learn, improve their knowledge content, and confidently perform

their summative assessments in front of the class. The assessment process ends with the students

knowing “exactly the level of proficiency they had attained and why, they had set a goal level of

proficiency for next semester, and they had detailed a plan of action to reach that goal” (p. 176).

A desire to learn was attained through such authenticity and great leadership in doing so. If real-

life situations are brought to my unit tests and are practiced through formative assessments

throughout the year, my students will most likely improve because of the relevance it will have

to their lives.

Methodology:


The data I plan to collect is through a survey of Spanish level III students asking them to

indicate, from a given list of activities, which activities they enjoy the most to help with their

comprehension and development in the Spanish language. The survey will also ask students to

add any additional activities they wish to do in the classroom to help them improve that is not

shown in the list of activities. The data collected will be qualitative based on opinions and

preferences. Data will be collected through an in-class survey on a school-based program called,

Schoology, that students can complete on their Chrome books in class and I will immediately

receive the results from the survey so I can make note of how students prefer to learn. The

students will be notified that the information is confidential and no names will be released so that

honest opinions can be shared on the survey. Data that is collected from this survey will help me

answer the first research question I have in finding out if practice with activities that are relevant

to the students’ lives will spark interest in learning Spanish, and therefore, improve their

performance on the unit tests overall. If the data collected indicates that students prefer certain

type of personal activities, such as writing about relevant topics in the target language or creating

projects or doing assignments in which their hobbies or sports are incorporated somehow in the

target language, then I will know to focus on more of those type of activities for their academic

benefit and finding more joy in learning Spanish.

Incorporating a focus group is another way I plan to collect data. I will engage my Spanish

III students in a dialogue in which they must demonstrate their thoughts on the Spanish III class

overall. The data collected will also be qualitative based on their thoughts and opinions. I will

collect this data by holding one-on-one conversations with the 12 students I have to ask them

questions in person about how they feel they are doing in the class what they feel can help them


improve their grades on the unit tests. Each dialogue with each student will last 3-5 minutes and

performed during one class period as they complete other work. The data will help me answer

both research questions since the dialogues are able to offer me information as to whether the

students rather see more personalized activities that are relevant to their lives and or if review is

something that students feel is needed in order to improve their grades since the curriculum in

Spanish III moves along so much faster than the previous levels of the language.

The third method I plan to use to collect data is through a baseline assessment on old content

learned in Spanish levels I and II. The data I plan to collect will be quantitative based solely on

statistics on how they score on the assessment. I will collect this data by randomly giving them

the baseline assessment on content that is review from previous two levels that they have all

taken to prove their competence in more basic vocabulary and grammar in Spanish. One part of

the assessment will be objective and the other will be an essay portion, which will require them

to write about their personal lives, to demonstrate their skills overall. This data will help me

statistically see how well the students actually remember and understand the review material

they should know at this point. It will answer my research question whether or not review is

actually needed for these students to improve their grades. Depending on how the students do on

the essay portion of the assessment, it will also be indicative as to how much effort is put into

writing about something that is relevant to their lives since the essay is more personalized. This

data will help me answer both research questions in one way or another.

Data Analysis:


Using the survey, I collected qualitative data based on my students’ opinions and

preferences in learning the Spanish language. The students completed an in-class survey,

through Schoology, on their Chrome Books by choosing the top three activities they enjoy the

most in order to improve their comprehension and development in the Spanish language. Out of

the 12 students in Spanish III, 10 students indicated that they prefer activities that are more

personal to them and their lives such as: writing about their families and friends, completing

activity drills that relate to sports current media, and developing projects that incorporate their

lives along with the Spanish content. From the data collected, it is evident that the majority of

my students from Spanish III prefer to see more activities that they can relate to and interests

them so that they can improve their performance on their unit tests. If the activities they practice

with are relatable, they will definitely be more interested in learning and it will result in

demonstrating an improvement in Spanish overall.

Through the focus group, I was also able to collect qualitative data based on their

thoughts and opinions on learning Spanish in Spanish III. As students were completing

independent activities that drills them on the current grammar point, I called all 12 students one

at a time to hold a 3-5 minute dialogue in which they shared their thoughts on the class overall. I

asked each student how they felt they were doing in the class and what they think can help them

improve their comprehension in this class so that their unit test grades can improve. Just like the

survey, 10 students strongly felt that the class would be more beneficial towards them and their

grades if the content can be related to their lives in some way. One student stated, “I can learn

better when the material we learn is relatable to something I care about whether it is my friends,

my family. If the drills or speaking points require us to talk about things I rather have it be about


pop culture and stuff that interests me because it will make me learn it better since I am

interested in it.” This statement alone relates to what nine other students expressed in the

dialogues I had with them. It truly helps to answer the first research question in the responses

they give me realizing that the students prefer personalized activities that they can relate to and

when students do mention that some review is helpful to keep developing their language, it helps

to answer the second research question in review helping reduce errors found on tests. All 12

students agreed, in their dialogues with me, that having some type of review always incorporated

into the lessons in some way will be helpful to remember the minor points that can so easily be

forgotten when learning new content. A student stated, “Since learning a language is collective

and relies on knowing prior knowledge, it is helpful to have constant reminders of the grammar

and vocabulary so that we won’t forget it as we move forward in learning Spanish.”

The baseline assessment on old content learned in Spanish levels I and II demonstrated

quantitative data since it was based on the statistics on how the students score on the assessment.

This data was collected by unexpectedly giving my students the baseline assessment on review

content that was learned in Spanish I and II, which they have all completed. The assessment was

given to prove their level of competence in basic vocabulary and grammar in the target language.

One part of the assessment was objective and the other was an essay portion, which required

them to write about their personal lives, to demonstrate their skills overall. This was given

without an announcement so the students would not have an opportunity to review the content

before the assessment so that it can be a true status on their comprehension level. Three students

scored in the C range, five students in the B range, and 4 students in the A range. Many of the

errors found were minor errors that affect their grade and some were even based on content I


thought they knew better than they actually do. Even though there were some errors, the

strongest portion of the test lied in the writing component, in which they had to write about their

lives. Considering that the baseline assessment was all based on review, the scores should have

been higher and it is a true indication that these students need more review to be touched upon as

they continue to develop their Spanish comprehension and usage. This certainly helps to answer

the second research question in having to incorporate review to eliminate errors that were found

in their current tests that relate to prior content learned in the past. However, the writing portion

also helped indicate that students can perform better on tests when the content is relatable to their

lives, which helps to answer the first research question of making content personal. Once

students are more confident with the basic content they should already know, it will allow them

to be stronger students in learning the Spanish curriculum they are expected to learn in level 3.

Conclusions:

According to Slavin (2006), action research is a less formal model than other types of

research and it requires teaching and building administrators to conduct research for one specific

main purpose that is “to improve teaching and learning” (as cited in Ross-Fisher, 2008, p. 160).

I am confident that the action research found on my Spanish III students will help increase the

unit test grades for them in many ways if my teaching is improved. I need to be the leader to

implement these strategies effectively so that students can feel a positive difference in learning

Spanish and receive the grades they were used to getting last year in Spanish II and back in

Spanish I. They are extremely capable of attaining excellence in the Spanish III unit tests,

however, they need a change of instruction and motivation for this challenging level of a foreign

language. Based on the data analysis and findings, it is evident that students wish to see the


curriculum relatable to their lives in some way and believe that the interest can help improve

their grades through gaining more interest in wanting to learn the Spanish language. It was also

clear that review of the content is strongly needed throughout the class in order for the students

to have a chance at improving their grades. My students clearly need a refresher with the content

they have learned in the previous two levels of Spanish, which is why incorporating review will

be the most appropriate way to improve their knowledge in the language. I will definitely make

content relatable to their lives and practice more review content throughout each class period so

that each basic grammar point can be touched upon in some way and revisited so that the

students can have less of a chance of forgetting the content that is so important to remember for

the new knowledge they have to learn in Spanish III.

Part 2: Communicating Your Findings

In sharing research report with my colleagues in my school, I addressed a small group of

four teachers who share a common interest in trying to find out why students in higher levels of

different subject areas struggle to maintain good grades in their classes. The presentation was

displayed through a PowerPoint presentation and took place in an after-school informal, non-

threatening, and face-to-face setting in which everyone listened to my data analysis and findings

and were able to offer suggestions when they had an idea. A reading teacher, K.L. Pappas

(personal communication, May 4, 2016), suggested that each warm-up activity, that I do at the

beginning of each class, include different review content each day so that new content can still

be the main focus but the review content is still re-visited at the beginning of each class so

students can keep it in mind as they are learning new material. The English teacher, S.R. Bosso

(personal communication, May 4, 2016), insisted on asking other English teachers for ideas on


making the content relatable to high school students’ lives since they have a lot of experience in

doing this with the English content that is built into their curriculum. Both teachers had

excellent ideas that touched upon both of my action research questions and I would not have

thought of those suggestions that easily without their input. This informal presentation to my

colleagues was very worthwhile.

Part 3: Future Actions

After retrieving the data I did and listening to my colleagues’ suggestions, I plan to listen

to the suggestions and implement them in my classroom by incorporating review material in my

daily warm-ups and by asking the English teachers for ideas on how to make content relatable by

meeting with the English department next week. If I could do something differently I would

have had the interest survey, the dialogue with students on their feelings on the class, and the

baseline assessment at the beginning of the school year. In doing this, I could have aligned my

teaching strategies right from the start of the school year so my students would benefit from the

change of instruction for as much time as possible. A change in student achievement that I

expect my research to promote is for my students in Spanish III to improve their unit test grades

and achieve to the same caliber they did in the previous levels of Spanish by making the content

relatable to their lives and by incorporating review material in the daily lesson plans so that

interest could be sparked in learning the language and the previously learned content could be

remembered in order to move forward successfully. I expect the students to have more of a drive

to want to achieve in Spanish III and find more of a joy in learning the Spanish language, which

will ultimately improve their grades in this class.


References

Ford, V.B., & Roby, D.E. (2013). Why do high school students lack motivation in the

classroom? Global Education Journal, 2013(2), 101-113.


Lam, S., Cheng, R.W., & Ma, W.Y.K. (2009). Teacher and student intrinsic motivation in

project-based learning. Instructional Science, 37(6), 565-578.

Ross-Fisher, R. (2008). Action research to improve teaching and learning. Kappa Delta Pi

Record, 44(4), 160-164.

Royer, K. (1996). Summative authentic assessment in the french classroom. The Clearing

House, 69(3), 174-176.

Module 4 Application- Stephanie Herrera

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