Action Research Project: Develop a strategy to help struggling readers to understand main idea.
Cycle 1- Data Analysis
Data: Throughout Cycle 1, I tested the students weekly on reading comprehension, kept running records, continued to research this topic, analyzed daily writing and reading assignments and utilized student surveys to determine growth in the area of main idea.
I compared test scores from before we initiated Cycle 1 to after the completion of Cycle 1. I have analyzed their writing skills and grammar development as well as each student has been keeping a writing portfolio.
Each student had created a wooden avatar and written a story about the avatar. I tested the students on their own stories with reading comprehension questions including Main Idea, which is what this project is about. Each passed with high scores.
Insight
What I discovered from my data was that students must have some background knowledge in order to understand main idea. The majority of these students have no background knowledge of what their reading text, science and social studies texts are presenting; therefore, students must create their own background knowledge.
Surprises
What I was disappointed with was the fact that not all twenty-one students were on target for completion of Cycle 1 and I had to revise my approach in order to complete it close to the scheduled date.
One major surprise was that the students who range in age from 8-12, had no idea of how to hold a paint brush, dip the paint or mix colors. Another major surprise was that the majority of these students were not familiar with over 20 fairy tales that I named when they were trying to decide what they wanted their avatar to be.
Reaction From Critical Friends
This is a reaction from one of my critical friends: Kerry Marquis
This is from my principal: Angela Hutchinson
This is from Coach Webb:
This comment from Jan Rutherford:
As stated above, I was very pleased with the outcome of the eleven students who completed the Cycle. Even those students who did not complete on time, 60% had overall improvement in each category of reading assessment.
Critical friends have been very supportive of my research and project strategies.
Where do I go from here? What are my next steps? Was it relevant?
Because of the delay in completion of Cycle 1, I had to adjust the start of Cycle 2 by a couple of weeks and because of FCAT testing schedules.
Another small glitch is a change in our curriculum schedule which I did not anticipate. Therefore the students cannot resume their task until after FCAT which will delay my cycle completion by about three weeks.
I realize I will have to tweak Cycle 2 a bit, based upon the fact that only half of the students completed the entire first cycle on time. Instruction in painting which took a week or so, delayed us a little.
I think this is a worthwhile endeavor and I plan to continue with the method I have envisioned. I had to make a few minor adjustments; however, all is well.
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