InTASC STANDARD 9: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses

evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and
actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community) and adapts practice
to meet the needs of each learner.
Name of Artifact: Action Research Report
Course: Practicum
Date: Spring 2018
TESOL Standards Addressed: 3c, 4a, 5d
Rationale:
The practicum afforded me the chance to fix any issue within the classroom setting by
means of a small-scale action research project. I eagerly carried out this project because its
requirement both allowed and obligated me to concentrate on both content, learners’
abilities/disabilities, and my own pedagogy. Szűcs (2018) says, “Self-reflection and self-
evaluation are the most important factors in teacher trainers’ professional development. Existing
standards and criteria to which they compare their achievements play an orienteering role in
these two processes, as well as in their self-regulatory learning” (p.9). I focused on the
improvement of my summative assessments to improve summative assessment scores, or scores
on traditional class tests, in one of my larger classes over the course of a two-week period. To
improve summative test scores, I had to create activities that were engaging and that illustrated
linguistic points that could be easily retained. I also had to change the way that I viewed tests. To
determine the type of test that I needed to administer, I learned to think deeply about the skill
that I wanted to analyze. Then, I formulated a test that best enabled me to assess that skill. In
trying to improve test scores, I was also able to improve overall student academic performance.
The action research report project is the best demonstration of standard nine because it
allowed me to adapt my practices in the area of testing to meet the needs of a lower-performing
class. I took the time to find out how my students learned and the test formats rather than making
assumptions about how they learned. I looked for ways to incentivize students for participation
because I knew that engaged students tend to retain information when are a part of the
discussion. Because I wanted to get students away from mostly writing or from writing out their
ideas first, I decided that this nine weeks would be all about helping students to convey thoughts
and ideas, to begin communicating. To do this, I needed to get them comfortable enough to
immediately formulate ideas in words. In other words, I needed to work on their presentation and
conversation skills. I decided to do this by giving oral exams instead of the usual paper exams. I
had noticed that many students who did well on paper were still not able to articulate. After
finding out that almost 90% of my students were visual learners, I began to write things on the
board as I explained linguistic concepts. After teaching them how to make small talk about
weather and teaching them about weather phrases, I told them that they would have to create
their own forecasts. I showed them a variety of examples. First, I showed them what an authentic
weather forecast looked like in Spanish. Then, I showed them some videos from students at other
students who had done similar projects. Finally, I allowed in-class time so that students could ask
for my assistance and ensure that they were carrying out their task correctly. This small-scale
action research report allowed me to make observations, retrieve data, implement a plan, and
thus adapt my practice to the needs of my students.

Reference
Szűcs, I. (2018). Teacher trainers’ self-reflection and self-evaluation, Acta Educationis
Generalis, 8(2), 9-23. doi: https://doi.org/10.2478/atd-2018-0008