Staff & Organization Development

Madison Metropolitan School District

STARTING POINTS

• Ask individuals to complete the "Starting Points" questions (see below).  Tell them to think broadly about many areas for possible questions
  

• Go around the group one at a time and list on a flipchart all of the different areas that surface from this handout.
  

• Ask each person to take one of the areas from  the flipchart (could be an idea of theirs or someone else's) and practice writing a question in that area.
  

• Go around the group, and one at a time, ask each person to read their question very slowly twice.  The group should listen to the questions.  Absolutely no comments are made after each question is read.
  

• Ask the group to generate characteristics, qualities, and guidelines for what makes a good action research question.

1.  I would like to improve...
2.  I am perplexed by...
3.  Some people are unhappy about...
4.  I'm really curious about...
5.  I want to learn more about...
6.  An idea I would like to try out in my class is...
7.  Something I think would really make a difference is...
8.  Some I would like to do to change is...
9.  Right now, some areas I'm particularly interested in are...

We have had since March 2001

Last Updated: March 5, 2001
Editor & Publisher: Melanie Donner mdonner@madison.k12.wi.us
Webmaster: webmaster@madison.k12.wi.us