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.
