classroom

In an effort to practice blogging more consistently and start including shorter blog articles (instead of always thinking I need to write essays for you all), I'm going to do a classroom series wherein I share a picture of one aspect of my classroom that I like or want to work on with a short snippet describing it. Are you ready?

Desk Materials

It's kind of strange summer where it's mid-July but I'm in full "Back-to-School" mode already. I blame stores like Shopko and Wal-Mart for putting their Back-to-School supplies out early! In any event, while I'm in the spirit, I might as well do something useful, right?

I searched high and low trying to find the best sources for doing a laminate bookcase makeover. I love DIY projects and couldn't resist the chance to fix up my ugly laminate bookcases in my classroom. I have five of them and they were showing signs of wear, desperately needing to be fixed up.

Inspired by Pinterest and the HGTV / DIY channels, I decided to recreate my boring old desk chair into something I'd be excited to sit in! My chair was ok before, but I wanted something that reflected my personality. I searched around the local fabric stores for the perfect fabric. In the end, I found it at Walmart of all places. 

Defining Action Research
With the annotated bibliography and literature review complete, it was time to begin my action research. For those new to research, or not familiar with the concept, action research is essentially the study of a subject (aka person) to monitor the effects of some kind of intervention. The research typically answers some kind of “yes” or “no” question, such as “Do graphic novels positively affect student comprehension when used in the classroom?” Action research quantifies the results of the study and typically includes graphs or charts.

Background to Researching Graphic Novels:
As mentioned in Becoming a Graphic Novel Expert, I recently received a grant from the Minnesota Reading Association to purchase graphic novels. To aid in deciding which graphic novels I should purchase for the middle school classroom, I used a bibliography I recieved at a graphic novels conference put on by the Arrowhead Reading Council. The librarian who had created the bibliography even included what level the graphic novel was appropriate for (i.e. young reader, middle school, high school, or mature). I felt confident in my choices before having read all of them because of this resource.