Mid Action Research Thoughts...

First quarter ended last Friday! Nine weeks of offering choices to my students in Reading Workshop has been completed, and at this point I am happy with the way that things have been going. Looking back on the past nine weeks we have slowly added choices, with the sixth and final choice being added this week. It has been a slow process, but I think that is part of what has helped the student’s learn the routines and expectations of Reading Workshop with choices.

When I started my Action Research in September my plan was to look at how implementing student choice during reading would affect my fourth graders’ comprehension and attitude towards reading. As the year got underway I realized that obtaining data on both comprehension and attitude was taking on a little more than I could handle, at which point I shifted my focus to specifically looking at how my fourth graders’ attitudes towards reading would be affected by having choice in Reading Workshop. That is not to say that I am not looking at their comprehension, however, I am just not looking at it in my data collection as closely as I am looking at attitude.

To collect data on students’ attitudes towards reading I have given a variety of short surveys to the students asking them to gauge their feelings on a scale of love it, like it, ho-hum, and don’t like it. I started the year off by giving a twenty question survey about students’ attitudes towards reading, both recreationally and academically. The shorter surveys that I have continued to give throughout the year have some of the same questions, which allows me compare how the students’ responses have changed over time.

The question I have asked most often to this point is How do you feel about Reading Workshop so far in 4^th grade? because I feel that this questions says a lot about students’ attitudes towards reading. What my results have shown so far has been reaffirming to me as I continue on my Action Research journey.

Week of September 26th – 30th	8 Love it!	12 Like it!	4 Ho Hum	1 Don’t like it!
Week of October 10th – 14th	10 Love it!	10 Like it!	4 Ho Hum	1 Don’t like it!
Week of October 24th – 28th	11 Love it!	12 Like it!	2 Ho Hum	0 Don’t like it!

The most positive thing I took out of my most recent survey was that there was a 0 in the “Don’t like it!” category. J If I can get all of my students to “like” Reading Workshop in some way, they I will consider my efforts a success. Creating students who like and enjoy reading is a huge step in helping to create successful lifelong readers.

My concern at this point is that as we continue our routine of having choices in Reading Workshop students will tire of the way we do things. Right now having choices such as this is new, exciting, and different. In February it will be the norm, and I am curious to see their attitudes then. This week we will add our final choice and from there we will perfect our routine, and in perfecting our routine students should benefit from having even more quality time with each choice, allowing them to truly become better readers!

I look forward to seeing how Reading Workshop will continue for us, today we had to switch Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop around and when it was finally time for Reading Workshop one student vocalized his thoughts, saying, “Yes! Finally it is time for my favorite part of the day!” It made me smile! Looking forward with my Action Research I am thinking about taking a week off of choices in the future, just to gauge my students’ reactions to having no choices in reading, to see if it is something that truly motivates them. Just a thought for later…For now, we will continue with our choices in Reading Workshop!