Action Research Summary by Janet Caluris
1. What is the title of the project?
Using Readers Theater to Show Off Good Reading
2. What is the Question?
What does Readers Theater look like in my classroom?
What is the impact of Readers Theater on my students’ levels of fluency?
What is the impact of Readers Theater on my students’ levels of comprehension?
What changes in students’ level of interest in reading and reading behaviors are noted following the use of Readers Theater?
3. What strategy is being used to address?
Readers Theater to impact levels of fluency, comprehension, interest in reading and reading behaviors.
4. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?
National Reading Panel in 2000 identified fluency as a key ingredient to successful reading instruction because of its effect on students’ reading efficiency and comprehension. Evaluating the impact of Readers Theater and noting the patterns in performance will help effectively implement an instructional program to meet students’ individual needs.
5. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work?
Surveys, observations, and fluency assessment.
6. How was the data analyzed?
Fluency assessments were used as an informal reading inventory to assess and monitor overall improvement of reading. Surveys were used to assess changes in the reading habits and interests of the students. A rubric was used for students to self assess their own progress on performances in readers theater throughout the study. The data was broken down into 4 major groups: academically talented, general education, bilingual and special needs.
7. What were the results?
Confirmed that utilizing Readers Theater does lead to improved levels of fluency and reading comprehension.
8. How do the results inform teacher practice?
They can use the results to guide future reading instruction activities for improvement. The author made a few recommendations for implementation of Reader Theater in the classroom. Readers Theater provides struggling students with an enjoyable way to reread that information. Readers Theater could be utilized across the curriculum. Fluency assessments should be done quarterly.
Action Research Proposal by a former Fairmont State student.
1. What is the problem?
Rhyme and word families are a critical literacy skill that can help beginning readers develop recognition of phonemes and decode difficult words.
2. What is the rational for the project?
Research shows that implementing a range of rhyming games can help students improve their recognition of rhyme and word families in text (Allen, 1998)
3. What strategy will be use to address the problem?
A variety of rhyming games will be introduced during reading instruction in the kindergarten classroom. The selected games will require students to use basic elements of phonetic analysis.
4. What is the question?
How can I use a variety of rhyming games to help my students recognize rhyme and word families in text? Will the rhyming strategies change student attitudes about reading instruction?
5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?
A study by Bradley and Bryant in 1983 used the rhyming activity “Odd Word Out” to help students build on the concept of rhyme and word families.
6. How will data be collected?
Pre-test (highlighting rhyming words in a passage)
Observations of student performance will be documented.
Post test (highlighting rhyming words in a passage)
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
PBL Anchor Video
This is the anchor video I chose for my PBL "Why do Paper Airplanes Fly?". I think this video will spark student enthusiasm on the possibilities of paper airplane design.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Verbatim Questions
This week in my clinical experience I was asked to write down some of the questions that are being asked in the classroom. The questions being asked by the teacher were mostly memory recall or basic short answer questions. Most of the questions being asked by the students were unrelated to the lesson.
Teacher Questions
Is 51 a prime or composite number?
Why is it prime?
How do we know that 51 is prime?
What is an exponent?
What do we do first in this expression? (order of operations problem)
Why do we change only one thing at a time?
Student Questions
Can I go to the bathroom?
Can we use our calculators?
How do you do #13 on the weekly worksheet?
When is the homework due?
Where do we turn in the homework?
Teacher Questions
Is 51 a prime or composite number?
Why is it prime?
How do we know that 51 is prime?
What is an exponent?
What do we do first in this expression? (order of operations problem)
Why do we change only one thing at a time?
Student Questions
Can I go to the bathroom?
Can we use our calculators?
How do you do #13 on the weekly worksheet?
When is the homework due?
Where do we turn in the homework?
Struggling Student
This week in my clinical I was able to take time to focus on a struggling student. I decided to focus my attention on a student that is repeating the 6th grade. During class he seems to not be on focused on the teacher and what other students are doing. He appeared to be bored and uninterested in the lesson being taught. I asked what happened that caused the student to be retained and if there were any underlying issues. I was not able to get much information other than he was lazy and that several people have tried talking to him and the he just doesn't care if he passes or fails. I do not think the school is doing anything to address this students needs. He is in the same classes and has the same teachers as last year.
When I tried to speak with this student he did not seem interested in talking about his lack of motivation to actively participate in the classroom. Luckily for me this was the same week that I was teaching my cooperative learning PBL which gave me a little insight into the problem. There were a couple of things that I did that I think the student responded well too. He definitely liked working within the group and even stopped me at the end of the lesson to tell me about a book he had at home the corresponded with the topic. He seemed very excited about the lesson and actually did very well in his role within the group. I had made popsicle sticks with the student names on them so I could call on students at random. When I called on the student he responded immediately with the correct answer.
I think that this student is bored with doing the same thing he did last year. His struggles are in no way related to not understanding the material. His struggles are because he is not interested in the material or the way it is being presented. Therefore he never feels as if he is a part of the activities going on in the classroom.
When I tried to speak with this student he did not seem interested in talking about his lack of motivation to actively participate in the classroom. Luckily for me this was the same week that I was teaching my cooperative learning PBL which gave me a little insight into the problem. There were a couple of things that I did that I think the student responded well too. He definitely liked working within the group and even stopped me at the end of the lesson to tell me about a book he had at home the corresponded with the topic. He seemed very excited about the lesson and actually did very well in his role within the group. I had made popsicle sticks with the student names on them so I could call on students at random. When I called on the student he responded immediately with the correct answer.
I think that this student is bored with doing the same thing he did last year. His struggles are in no way related to not understanding the material. His struggles are because he is not interested in the material or the way it is being presented. Therefore he never feels as if he is a part of the activities going on in the classroom.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future; Double Entry Journal 15
Give an example of an authentic form of assessment the students engaged in a PBL performed well on?
One example of authentic assessment that I found the article is where students were asked to apply the concepts of geometry to architecture and submit designs for a new playhouse for a community center. After evaluating these designs, 84 percent of the submissions were judged to be accurate enough to build.
How does project based learning promote intrinsic motivation?
Project based learning creates a strong sense of intrinsic motivation because students rise to the occasion when failing will result in letting down their peers.
What do students who experience PBL do better than students who receive traditional direct instruction?
Students who experience PBL instruction are better at problem solving than students taught with the traditional direct instruction. Students who experienced PBL instruction were also able to score higher on standardized test than their direct instruction counterparts.
How does PBL align with John Dewey’s philosophy of education?
Dewey proposed that learning by doing has great benefit in shaping students’ learning. This is exactly what project based learning accomplishes; students are working to solve real world problems using their own individual discovery. This type of learning creates a deeper understanding of all material involved and allows students to make the necessary connections between the content and its relationship to their lives.
Why do our assessment practices need to change if we are going to prepare students for the 21st century?
Current assessment strategies are based solely on the success of individual students’. Working cooperatively with others is an absolute necessity to be successful in life; therefore, students need to learn how to do it to become productive citizens.
Reference:
Bell, S. (2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future. The Clearing House , 39-43.
One example of authentic assessment that I found the article is where students were asked to apply the concepts of geometry to architecture and submit designs for a new playhouse for a community center. After evaluating these designs, 84 percent of the submissions were judged to be accurate enough to build.
How does project based learning promote intrinsic motivation?
Project based learning creates a strong sense of intrinsic motivation because students rise to the occasion when failing will result in letting down their peers.
What do students who experience PBL do better than students who receive traditional direct instruction?
Students who experience PBL instruction are better at problem solving than students taught with the traditional direct instruction. Students who experienced PBL instruction were also able to score higher on standardized test than their direct instruction counterparts.
How does PBL align with John Dewey’s philosophy of education?
Dewey proposed that learning by doing has great benefit in shaping students’ learning. This is exactly what project based learning accomplishes; students are working to solve real world problems using their own individual discovery. This type of learning creates a deeper understanding of all material involved and allows students to make the necessary connections between the content and its relationship to their lives.
Why do our assessment practices need to change if we are going to prepare students for the 21st century?
Current assessment strategies are based solely on the success of individual students’. Working cooperatively with others is an absolute necessity to be successful in life; therefore, students need to learn how to do it to become productive citizens.
Reference:
Bell, S. (2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future. The Clearing House , 39-43.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Teaching for Meaningful Learning: Double Entry Journal #14
One of the challenges to an inquiry approach to learning is that they take time to thoughtfully plan out and prepare. Students need to be taught how to work successfully in groups and be ready to cooperate and collaborate with others students. Assessment materials need to be carefully designed and explained prior to beginning inquiry instruction projects so that students know what is expected of them.
Students learn more deeply when they can apply classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems, and when they to take part in projects that require sustained engagement and collaboration.
Related Source
The strategy I chose to support group work is the jigsaw strategy. This is a wonderful technique that breaks up the work load and students work cooperatively with other students to learn the material. The website Jigsaw Classroom outlines how to implement this techinique in the classroom.
Students learn more deeply when they can apply classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems, and when they to take part in projects that require sustained engagement and collaboration.
Related Source
The strategy I chose to support group work is the jigsaw strategy. This is a wonderful technique that breaks up the work load and students work cooperatively with other students to learn the material. The website Jigsaw Classroom outlines how to implement this techinique in the classroom.
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