Double Entry Journal #12

Action Research Projects

Step One Questions:

1. Using Reading Theatre to Show Off Good Reading.

2.  How can I effectively utilize readers’ theatre to improve the fluency and reading comprehension skills of my students?

3.  Using readers’ theatre to help increase fluency and reading skills.

4.  Evaluating the impacts of readers’ theatre and noting the patterns in students’ performance will help effectively implement an instructional program to meet students’ individual needs.

5.  through surveys, observations, and student fluency assessments.

6.  Data was broken down into the four major groups- academically talented, general education, bilingual and special needs.

7.  Utilizing readers’ theatre does lead to improved levels of fluency and reading comprehension.  However, results did not show equal gains for all students.

It improved reading rate, word recognition accuracy and use of expression while reading as well as their attitudes toward reading.

8.  The results were all positive showing that this might be a good idea or practice to try.  It might make reading more enjoyable therefore helping to improve all areas of academics. 

Step Two Questions:

1.  Children struggle with recognizing rhyme and word families in text.

2.  Improving this basic literacy skill has been identified by primary teachers as a goal in the school’s Strategic Plan.  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.  A variety of rhyming games will be introduces during reading instruction and selected games will require students to use basic elements of phonetic analysis, one of the CSO’s for Kindergarten. 

4.  “How can I use a variety of rhyming games to help my students recognize rhyme and word families in text?” And “Will the rhyming strategies change student attitudes about reading instruction?”

5.  The writer provides a few different quotes that provide evidence that thus strategy will work including the idea that “Once students understand rhyme, they learn to use key words and their spelling patterns to recognize and read new words.  Reinforcing the concept of rhyme and linking the concept to spelling patterns helps students make these connections while they are reading (Allen, 1998). 

6.  There will be a pre and post test given and they will be compared to document the overall impact of the project.  Also a reading attitude survey will be given prior to and after completion of the project to assess changes in the students’ feeling towards reading instruction.  Observations will be made during group work using a checklist to assess student performance.  Observations of student’s participation will be collected as well as work samples collected to assess student progress.  Data will be viewed daily to identify needs for improvement.  All results will be graphed with the four lowest students graphed separately.  

Double Entry Journal #11

1. Formative assessment is responses, comments, and or feedback given to students instead of an actual score or grade.

2. The central purpose of formative assessment is student learning and understanding.

3. You can use low stake writing assignments to institute a formative assessment.  By having students write about different topics and giving them feedback and comments on their papers without assigning points and grades is a research based strategy that is a formative assessment.

4.  The example that it gives in this article is using a rubric that lists criteria for evaluating writing and it can be used for a formative assessment by giving students feedback and information on what is expected and can be used for summative assessment by assigning a grade.

5.  Students have a writing notebook in which they do short stories in daily.  At the end of each week the teacher collects them and reads through the entries to see the direction in which students are writing.  She gives the students feedback and then allows them to pick one of the articles that they liked the best, has them make corrections and then they resubmit that one paper for a grade. 

6.  A way to make formative assessment more effective is to provide students with detailed feedback on specific areas of strength instead of a general praise of their abilities or talents.

7.  For students it can offer an increased feeling of confidence and control among other benefits and for teachers it can help identify students who are struggling with specific tasks or operating under misconceptions.

8.  Being able to distinguish between high-quality formative assessment and assessment that is under-conceptualized or not fully developed is the most challenging aspect or idea for teachers to understand.  Practices such as comment only marking and peer evaluation are good ways to help implement high quality assessments.

Double Entry Journal #10

Why is it the responsibility of all teachers to provide writing instruction for their students?

            If students are going to be successful in school then they must be able to read and write.  Throughout every subject students will encounter some form or type of reading and writing.  If students need to know how to read and write for all curriculum areas, then why shouldn’t all curriculum areas be responsible for increases those reading and writing skills?  As it states in this article “reading and writing across the curriculum are essential to learning.”  The more students’ practice reading and writing the better their skills will become, and the best way to ensure this is to implement a little in every subject

Name and describe four research-based strategies to support writing instruction for students.
 1.  Use low-stakes writing assignments: Asking a student to write does not always mean assigning long papers and essays.  Use short answer writing assignments such as summarizing or outlining
  2.  Provide multiple forms of feedback: Teachers should stress about giving feedback on everything students write.  Allow students time to look at and critique their own writing as well as each others.

 3.  Employ variety in texts and their presentation: Reading materials need to be varied in many different ways.  Students should have a variety of things to read about and not just the normal text book.  Reading should also include all materials and not just books, such as newspapers, magazines, comics, etc.  Provide a variety to keep students interested and wanting to read more.
 4.  Employ a variety of levels of reading difficulty: Students read at a variety of different levels therefore teachers need to have materials available for every student.  Materials need to range in difficulty therefore all students can learn at their own level.  

Web Quest Changes/Modifications

The Web Quest that Tricia and I chose, deals with several different aspects.  Students are asked to plan a trip to the zoo.  They must carefully plan the entire day including cost and schedules.  Although the Web Quest is very interesting and overall a really good idea, there are several corrections that need to be made and a few items that we just want to change or adjust.  We are going to change the overall appearance, because there are no graphics, and the background is basic and not eye catching at all.  We are planning to change the situation and the tasks students have to complete.  The original Web Quest has the entire class researching the same zoo.  We are going to change this and each group will research a different zoo, and in the end the entire class will have to look at the information and decide which zoo is more travel and cost efficient.  They will also have to decide (based on information given) which zoo has the best accommodations and overall attractions.  In our new Web Quest students will have to use maps and other materials to determine the distance and time it will take to travel to and from their assigned zoo.  (This is not covered or asked in the original Web Quest, but we think it is a good idea for students to find the location of their zoo, and it is a good way to integrate social studies into the activity)  Overall I think this is going to be a really good Web Quest, and although there are several things we want to change and adjust the original (aside from many grammar errors) is really good.

Possible CSO's
 (for Reading/Language Arts) RLA.O.4.1.16 
use reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of information resources to support literacy learning (e.g., written directions, captions, electronic resources, labels, information texts).
(for Science) SC.O.4.2.2 
associate the behaviors of living organisms to external and internal influences (e.g., hunger, climate, or seasons)
( for Math) M.O.4.1.7 
add and subtract whole numbers(up to five –digit number) and decimals to the 1000th place, multiply (up to three digits by two-digits, and divide(up to a three digit number with a one and two-digit number).

Struggling Student

There are several students in my clinical class that seem to be struggling.  One in particular seems to be working soooooo hard, and really gets upset if she does not get the correct answer.  This little girl is one of the best behaved students in the class.  She always sets there quietly and pays very close attention.  According to the teacher she is involved in different programs to help with her work including after school tutoring.  On Monday 2/27/2012, I was asked to teach a math lesson on fractions.  I watched all the students very closely to see if they were grasping what I was trying to teach.  (This class is really struggling with fractions, so I paid close attention to be sure not to confuse them even more!)  During this lesson I asked several students to give me the answer, and this little girl tried several times to answer some of the questions.  I could tell just by watching her that she really wanted to solve these problems, but no mater how many times she tried, she still just didn’t understand.  Finally, toward the end of the lesson she seemed to be catching on, and I could see her smiling slightly as if she was proud of herself.  The problem is that today 2/29/12 when I attended clinical and the students were moving further into the fraction lesson, she seemed just as confused as she was before.  When I talked to her about what we covered earlier, she didn’t seem to remember what we went over.  Well, she remembered doing the fraction problems; she just could not remember the processes on how to solve the problems.  I discussed this with one of the teachers in the classroom, and she instructed me that this little girl is one of the hardest working students she has ever met, but there are many things and concepts that she really struggles with including math and reading.  

Double Journal Entry #9

“No human being can achieve his full potential if his creativity is stunted in childhood.”

“In a healthy kindergarten, play does not mean “anything goes.” It does not deteriorate into chaos. Nor is play so tightly structured by adults that children are denied the opportunity to learn through their own initiative and exploration. Kindergartners need a balance of child-initiated play in the presence of engaged teachers and more focused experiential learning guided by teachers.”

“The power of play as the engine of learning in early childhood and as a vital force for young children’s physical, social, and emotional development is beyond question.”

I chose these three quotes because they are stress the importance of “play”.  Each of these quotes (or paragraphs) discusses the fact that young children need to experience play in their education in order to promote creativity and imagination.  I really like the second selection that I chose, because it is straight forward in stating that children need to experience “play”, but that does not mean to let them do what ever they wish.  Children can have fun and play in a structured environment where they are free to explore and learn within reason and maybe with a little guidance (if needed). 

Kindergarten "Play"

Double Entry Journal #8

Inquiry based learning is often new to teachers and students; therefore it may cause a little confusing and difficulty in implementing these types of lessons.  Inquiry based learning requires simultaneous changes in curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. 

Reinforcing Effort:  In this researched based strategy it talks about how student’s attitudes and beliefs affect how well they learn something.  This is similar to project based learning in a sense that students will be building off of what they already ready know and are already interested in.  If students are interested in something then they will be more willing to learn about it. 

Nonlinguistic Representation: In this researched based strategy it is suggested that students need to receive information both using linguistic and nonlinguistic methods.  This is similar to project-based learning because students are building or creating a project that can be learned from.  Students are not only verbally learning and describing what they are doing but they are building it as well, therefore it can be seen. 

Simulations and Games:  Throughout this article is discusses how the more students learn through multiple strategies the more they will become familiar with the new concept.  With project based learning students learn the information and then build something that represents what they have learned in order to reinforce their new knowledge.  This is giving them multiple ways of looking at an aspect and how to understand it.  When students observe other classmates’ ways of viewing things and the projects that they come up with, it will give them even more ways of viewing the information.