It's Go Time!

With the start of the 2011 - 2012 school year one day away it is time for me to take what I have learned through my Review of Literature (RoL) and implement it as my Action Research (AR). In my research my focus has been on student choice in the classroom, and the question at the center of my research is:

“How does implementing student choice during reading affect my fourth graders’ attitudes towards reading?"

The reason behind my research comes from my experiences in years past. I have always done a Reading Workshop format during my reading block, but I struggled to have all of my students ENGAGED in reading at all times. During independent reading time it was always quiet, but by looking around I could always pinpoint those that were not truly engaged in what they were do. I wanted to find a way to reach all my students in a way that would give them a positive attitude towards reading, and that lead me to student choice.


I met almost all of my 4th graders at Back to School Night last week, and I am already looking forward to a great year! This year I will have 25 students, 13 boys and 12 girls. Of those students I know that 4 students are new to our school ( 3 girls, 1 boy) and 4 students are currently on 504 plans. I know that the way I implement student choice in the classroom will change based upon the students in my class but I am looking forward to seeing how it goes and how their attitudes towards reading change!

The choices I will provide for my 4th graders will be based on ideas from The Daily 5 and the Reading Workshop model. At this point in my planning I hope to implement six choices into our reading block, each choice will be introduced individually throughout the beginning of the school year and it is my hope that by the end of October all six choices will have been introduced. The six choices I will implement into our reading block will be: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Working on Writing, Spelling/Word Work, and Writing About Reading. In order to determine the impact of allowing this student choice in the classroom I will use a variety of tools to collect data. This will include student surveys, parent surveys, comprehension quizzes, and teacher observations. I am looking forward to getting my action research underway and hoping to help students foster their love of learning and reading!