Area+of+Focus+Statement+(Examples)

** Example 1: (Carrie Hillman) ** Writing with a Digital Upgrade: Using Wikis to Enhance the Six Traits of Writing
** Area of Focus Statement ** The purpose of this study examined the effects of using a wiki environment with third graders and evaluated the students’ application of the Six Traits of Writing (i.e. ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, and conventions) by using a wiki.

The main objectives of this action research project were:
 * to explore how a wiki environment can be used to support elementary students’ use of the Six Traits of Writing in their compositions and revisions.
 * to study how students engage with idea development, composition, and revision within the wiki environment.
 * to evaluate what type of writing revisions are suggested by peers.
 * to discuss the role of wikis in developing the writing skills of elementary students based upon the Six Traits of Writing.

The research questions arose during a conversation between the third grade Professional Learning Community team about the lack of quality in the writing of their students. Many of the teachers noticed that the students would write a draft and consider their writing complete, rather than improving their writing by working through the writing process. The main areas that the students were skipping in the writing process were the revision and editing stages. When students were editing, they were usually just fixing grammatical errors, rather than evaluating the content of the writing. After doing some research, using peer feedback with technology (i.e. blogs and wikis) seemed to be an effective way of getting students to revise and edit their writing.

There had been some research conducted showing the effectiveness of using technology to enhance writing, but most of this research included word-processing (Bangert-Drowns, 1993; Ulusoy, 2006; Van Leeuwen & Gabriel, 2007) or assistive technology (Englert, Wu, & Zhao, 2005; Gnash, Wiesner, Bertschi-Kaufman, & Perrin, 2007; Peterson-Karlan, Hourcade, & Parette, 2008; Zhang, 2000). Little research has focused specifically on using wikis to support the writing process or the Six Traits of Writing. There had also been some research conducted on using wikis to enhance student learning in areas such as geography, engineering, and science, but most of the research has been conducted at the secondary level (Chu, 2008; Lundin, 2008; Mak & Coniam, 2008; Morgan & Smith, 2008; Parker & Chao, 2007). Whether these findings of using wikis to support student learning, especially in the area of writing, are applicable to students at the elementary level still needed further examination. The following part of this paper will highlight the research questions developed for this action research project.


 * Example 2: ( ** **Melissa Schulze)** ** Communicating with Parents of Swim Team Participants: Are Facebook Groups Effective? **

** Area of Focus Statement ** The purpose of this study was to describe if and how using Facebook as a means of mass communication impacted communication with parents of swimmers ages 6-17 on a rural USA swimming club team.

As a current swim coach, the board of directors and I are constantly trying to find ways to get information to families effectively and in a timely manner. When the team began many years ago initial attempts to get information out to parents consisted of monthly print newsletters that were put into a filing box for swimmers to pick up. As the team grew and e-mail became prominent, we moved to using this as our primary method to communicate with the families. E-mail provides us with an easy alternative to monthly newsletters and also allows us to send communication as needed instead of only monthly as was done via printed newsletters. Through observation, it became more apparent that fewer and fewer people were actually reading the e-mails thoroughly, if at all. Frequently, after an informational e-mail had gone out, the coaching staff was bombarded with questions related to the e-mail which were actually answered in the e-mail. In an attempt to try and combat the flood of e-mails people were receiving and find another means of effective communication, we decided to create a Facebook group in January of 2011 to see if this might be a viable and effective way to communicate information with swimmers’ parents.

Originally, the Facebook group was used as a place to post comments about performances at swim meets and share pictures, more of a motivational tool than a communication tool. Thus, I have recently begun using the Facebook group as a means of sharing informational articles with families and important updates about swim meets, practices and expectations. The intent of this study was to determine if using the Facebook group is a viable and effective way to communicate important and timely information with the parents affiliated with the swim team.