Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template Goal: To determine what body of teacher practices and classroom assignments and activities best promotes the rapid acquisition of academic English in a classroom of Mandarin-speaking students, as well as to better understand how well current ESL techniques geared towards speakers of Romance and Germanic languages translate to instruction for Sino-Tibetan speakers. Additionally the research hopes to discern what cross-cultural activities and practices can be put into place to best support the learning described above? Action Steps Person(s) Responsible Timeline: Start/ End Needed Resources Evaluation Literature Review Margaret Eubanks Present – June 2011 Internet Access, additional texts as acquired for review. A written evaluation of the literature will be produced, organized into statistics, best practices categorized by school grade range and class subject if possible, and observations. Meet With Teachers: Initial meetings will involve the dissemination and creation of possible lesson plan additions and activities to incorporate into instruction. Then teachers will be given Teacher Observation Forms with questions regarding the language acquisition of their students and the most promising activities/practices. Margaret Eubanks August 2010-June 2011 Lesson Plans, Activities, Academic Vocabulary Lists, Internet Access, Teacher Observation Forms Information from Teacher Observation Reports will be collated and incorporated into a large report of best practices as observed by teachers and validated by in-house assessments and teacher-graded work. Assessment of Standardized Tests Margaret Eubanks, ESL Support Staff, SYPAC Teachers and Administrators September 2010- June 2011 Data from Standardized Tests, Data Analysis Software The data from the standardized tests taken at multiple times over the course of the year will be analyzed for progress and to determine significant areas of improvement or need. This will help to evaluate the validity of practices being put in use and will also be used to support and validate teacher observations. Student Surveys Margaret Eubanks, SYPAC Teachers, SYPAC Students May 2011-June2011 Surveys created to assess the value students saw in certain practices, as well as ideas for additional activities that might assist students in language acquisition. Data from surveys will be analyzed and collated in the hopes of cross-referencing responses with Teacher Observation Reports to seek meaning. Best Practices List By Strength Margaret Eubanks June 2011 Teacher Observation Reports Data, Standardized Test Data, Student Survey Data Practices incorporated into classroom instruction will be given numerical weights by value placed on them from both students and teachers. A list of best practices by strength will be created as a means of truly evaluating and analyzing the ability of certain activities to best help students acquire academic English. Cross-Cultural Best Practices and Observations Margaret Eubanks, SYPAC Teachers and Administrators, SYPAC Students and Families August 2010-June 2011 Literature on Cultural Appreciation, Cultural Appreciation Activities, Internet Access Through observation and discussion, discern what practices best create a spirit of cultural appreciation and cross-cultural value in order to add this information to the body of knowledge. Additionally make note of any practices that appear to not help or, worse yet, to hinder cross-cultural appreciation and understanding. Monitoring Achievement of Goals and Objectives Margaret Eubanks, Site Supervisor August 2010- June 2011 Internet Access, Appointments with Site Supervisor Monthly Self-Monitoring of Progress Towards Goals With Responses Recorded Electronically In Blog. Additional appointments with Site Supervisor discussing progress over the course of the school year. Work Collaboratively Margaret Eubanks, Site Supervisor, SYPAC Teachers, Administrators and Staff August 2010-June 2011 Access to other staff members through various communication means, copies of wok completed so far, literature reviews. In order to better utilize the pool of talent and knowledge among the staff, the researcher will work collaboratively and use other staff members as idea-generators and sounding boards to both produce and analyze ideas, questions, comments, actions and suggestions related to the research throughout the process.