Action Research - Artifacts

Qualitative research is all about appropriate artifacts. The RWJF website lists common types of artifacts used in social science research with a specific example from nursing. In the classroom, artifacts might include lesson plans, handouts, assessments, the gradebook and student work. An artifact is any kind of physical documentation that sheds additional light on the research question.

In the LGL study, I could collect everything that is produced from all 22 students. If the study covers 12 lessons, three quizzes and capstone projects, I am going to be up all night and cry a lot.  So I can sleep at night, I am going to select a few choice items to measure academic progress. The first idea that comes to mind is to use a checklist.

To the left, you see an attempted Logo triangle. It is imperative that I have a rubric that is easy to use on my checklist. For this task, three levels is enough: plus (segments meet when I hide the turtle), minus (segments do not meet) and zero (not done).

A quiz problem would also provide some helpful information. One item I plan to use asks for the Logo commands that will draw a given shape.

For example, a regular pentagon with side length 50 pixels would be repeat 5[fd 50 rt 72].  Recall the pretest - one of the items asks for the measure of the exterior angle of a pentagon.

As I think about the capstone project, I am reminded that students should be able to use the rubric. Read more about this in the next post.