If I was to complete this action research again, I would make three changes. First, I would change the pre and post student survey. When I went back and analyzed all the data I collected, I realized that I did not need the majority of the questions. Yes, it was interesting to know if students were excited to write and engaged in writing; however, it was not what my research focused on. In the end, what I really cared about was if my students knew the purpose of writing conferences. Next time, I would simply interview every student at the beginning as well and not just at the end.
The second change I would make is to try to incorporate a more detailed scoring scale. In writing, there is a small scoring scale, which runs from a one to a four; hence, it is difficult to see much growth in student writers. There is a great amount of variance within each level. For example, two writers could receive a three, but one is almost a four and one just passed the threshold of a two. When looking at my data, I saw many students who 'stayed the same' score wise, but did improve as writers. I could definitely see a great improvement in my students after implementing writing conferences but have no quantitative data to show this growth. Therefore, one consideration I would make if doing this action research again would be to create a detailed scoring rubric in order to see growth even within scoring bands. Finally, I would make sure my pre- and post-assessments were the same genre. I also feel as though they must match the genre being conferenced on throughout the research. By doing this, I could have a better idea of the impact of writing conferences. The change in genre impacted the student scores. My highest writers excel due to being able to showcase their creativity. In argumentative writing, students did not research information to support their topic. Informative was research based; therefore, their writing was more prescriptive. Of the 39% of students that decreased, seven of them are my top writers who consistently receive advanced scores. They did still receive advanced scores, but they were not as high as the pre-assessment score. Furthermore, throughout my action research, I conferenced with students most on informative essays. I would like to see better consistency next time in order to see growth.