Checklist for Action Research Proposal

Part 1.  Introduction

* Introduce topic
* Provide background and context
* Purpose Statement - example:  "The purpose of this study is to examine the the writer's workshop of my class classroom and to see what impact graphic organizers have on student writing."
*Research Question (1 or 2) - example: "What impact will graphic organizers have on developing writers when use as a pre-writing strategy?"
* Importance of study statement - example: "The study will help clarify writing strategies that are effective in my third grade classroom..."
*Definition of terms

Part 2 Lit Review

*Grounds your study
*Justifies your research questions, methods, data gathering, analysis, conclusions, etc.
* What have other people done in similar situations?
*Provides justification and rationale

Part 3 Methods (future tense for proposal - past tense when you actually have done the Action Research)

*Describe participants (might have been done in Intro)
*Describe environment (might have been done in Intro)
*Materials - surveys, test scores, journals, checklists, canned programs like "thinking maps" or "class meeting" etc.
                        (put actual survey in Appendix not in Part 3)
*Procedures - describe at least 2 cycles, length of study, how you collected data, if you are doing a specialized program, fully describe,
     fully describe how you will analyze data (contrived because you don't have any data) Example: "median tests scores will be use
     in both cycles..."
 

Suggestion: reread the three action research I provided in BlackBoard as examples.

This checklist is NOT exactly an outline, although you can use it as one. Good action research may combine elements or rearrange their appearance in paper. For example, the Importance of Your Study and the Purpose Statement  may be the same in your paper.