Plan chosen... Now time to put it into ACTION!

After going back and forth on what to do for my action research plan, I finally chose a topic. I went ahead and went with effective strategies used for students being considered for a behavior plan. I decided to go with this topic because it was something that would benefit me directly and immediately, as well as, it would be easy to carry out. I'm looking forward to doing this research because I am very interested in trying different strategies, and seeing how well they work. I plan for this research to keep growing throughout the years as new students and different cases are considered for behavior plans. This offers validity to my research that comes from this action research plan, or improvements that need to be made in the future.
Here is my draft research action plan so far...

Action Planning Template
Goal: Does positive or negative reinforcement Behavior Plans show a more significant improvement on severe behavior in the classroom?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Evaluate student’s behavior on a normal basis. Observe students without any type of behavior accommodation or modification in place.	Ms. Beckham (ELA teacher), Mrs. Taylor (Math teacher)	October 24- October 28, 2011	Teacher generated observation documents. Conduct reports	Teacher comments and observations. Conduct grades and reports for the week.
Develop and carry out a positive reinforcement Behavior Plan to complete for the duration of the 2nd 9 week period.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill (school counselor, case manager for progress monitoring program.)	October 30- December 16, 2011	Positive reinforcement behavior strategy, Behavior Plan documentation log, Teacher observations	Behavior Logs will be compared with teacher observations and comments.
Develop and carry out a negative reinforcement Behavior Plan to complete throughout the duration of the 3rd 9 week period.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill (school counselor, case manager for progress monitoring program.)	January 3- February 24, 2012	Negative reinforcement behavior strategy, Behavior Plan documentation log, Teacher observations	Behavior Logs will be compared with teacher observations and comments.
Analyze the data assessed over the two 9 week periods and determine the effectiveness of each.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill, Mrs. McCain (Assistant Principal), Mrs. Holcomb (Principal)	February 27- March 2, 2012	Positive and negative reinforcement behavior plans, Behavior logs, Teacher observations and comments, weekly conduct reports.	A spreadsheet will be created to track the students progression in behavior. Teachers will discuss what strategies were effective or ineffective. A conclusion will be made on which plan the student excelled with the most.
Brainstorm ways the chosen “effective behavior reinforcement plan”, would cause problems in certain cases.	Ms. Beckham, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Hill, Mrs. McCain, Mrs. Holcomb	March 5- March 9, 2012	Positive and negative reinforcement behavior plans, Behavior logs, Teacher observations and comments, weekly conduct reports, Spreadsheet created of students progression, Documentation on student history.	Based on the information given, the teachers will brainstorm specific cases that could be problematic with the given outcome of this study. We will discuss ways to continue with the positive information found from our current research, and continue to improve it in the coming years.
The process for monitoring effectiveness of a behavior plan system will be to simply assess, compare, and analyze the progress of the students involved in the behavior progress-monitoring program. When the 18 week trail period is completed, I should have multiple data points from each participant, teacher, and school counselor to evaluate which type of reinforcement was most effective in promoting substantial behavioral growth within the classroom. At the conclusion of my research I should be able to determine if the time to implement the behavior plan outweighs the alternative, un-accommodated behavior. This action research plan will also be an on-going improvement as new cases progress through the program each year, offering new information or validations to our study.

I'm excited to see how it all will turn out, and what I learn from this process!