My action research project is going well so far, but is definitely an assignment that must be given attention and great effort in meeting the deadlines I have set in my timeline. I’m sure we will all agree time is an issue, there’s never enough of it. However, I’m learning that “having more than one iron in the fire” makes it difficult, but not impossible. I have completed most of my steps within the time I indicated in my plan. These completed steps include organizing my notebook to store all documentation, obtaining the list of Read 180 fifth grade students, discussing my project with the Read 180 teacher, collecting student reading data and student observations in the Read 180 classroom.
I began my Action Research Project one week before school started with the organization of my action research notebook. The final Read 180 student rosters were posted the week before school started so I was also able to add the rosters to my notebook at that time. There are two fifth grade Read 180 classes. Some of these students are new to the program and others began the program in October 2012. I have documented this in my notebook so I can consider the effect this may have on the outcome of my project. The data I have collected so far includes last school year’s STAAR scores and beginning of the year SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory)results. This data has been placed in my notebook and recorded on a spreadsheet for convenience in analyzing and comparing scores. I will have more data to record on my spreadsheet next week since students have just completed the beginning of the year screener, ISIP (Istations Indicators of Progress) and their first reading benchmark. I have written a reflection on my first observation of the fifth grade Read 180 students during class and added this documentation to my research notebook.
The student reading survey I planned to give the fifth grade Read 180 students is still incomplete and my original survey idea has been tweaked. My plan was to create or find a simple survey that would give an inside look at the way these students view reading. The Read 180 teacher and I met to discuss the survey activity in my action research project and what we hope to learn from the survey. I felt involving the Read 180 teacher in the reading survey process would be beneficial because of her reading knowledge and experience with students who have reading difficulties. Getting her help with the reading survey has been a great idea, but finding time to do so has been an issue. We both have very busy and conflicting schedules which has slowed this process. We have met two more times to brainstorm questions we felt should be on the survey and take a look at any surveys we could find already created that might meet our needs and save time. I would like to mention one of the surveys I discovered on a website because I found it quite impressive and wish to share it. I found Measuring Attitude Toward Reading: A New Look for Teachers by Michael C. McKenna and Dennis J. Kear on the website http://www.professorgarfield.org/parents_teachers/printables/pdfs/reading/readingsurvey.pdf. I like this survey because it is obvious the authors took great care in the survey’s development. It contains components that none of the other surveys I found did such as; the research in its development, how to administer, score and interpret the survey. I also like that this survey uses a simple pictorial format with the comic strip character Garfield. However, upon discussion with the Read 180 teacher we agreed that at this point in time any survey we could find or create would not show accurate information and would be skewed because attitudes had already began changing since the first and second day of class. The Read 180 teacher came up with a great suggestion that I agree will show a truer picture of these fifth graders’ view on reading since they started the program to now. Her suggestion to gain this student information was to incorporate their attitude about reading into a writing assignment. Read 180 has a writing component that is proving to be very successful and I liked the idea of having students write about their view on reading. We are currently thinking about a prompt for this writing/reading assignment and are scheduled to meet Wednesday, Oct. 2, to agree upon a writing prompt that will lead students in expressing their views on reading and the Read 180 class. October 4 is the scheduled date for this writing assignment.
Now that the beginning of school frenzy is slowing down I am feeling more confident that it will be somewhat easier to stay on top of my action research. Getting the students to complete their writing assignment and express their views on reading and Read 180 will put me right on target with my action research.
