Visual Display of Data - Yay!

Finally I have figured out a way to display some of my data results through graphs on my blog! The graph, of course, does not show up in exactly the same way it did when I created it on my computer, but you get the idea! The above graph shows my students feelings about reading when simply asked, "How do you feel about reading?" They had the option to choose Love it! Like it! Ho-Hum! and Don't Like it! The blue graphs show the Fall responses and the purple graph show the more recent responses! I am thrilled to see that no one falls into the "Don't Like it!" category any more! My main goal in offer choices in Reading Workshop was to create students with positive attitudes towards reading, and while Ho-Hum may not be the most positive attitude, the majority of my students fall into the Love it! and Like it! categories! I hope that I am creating students who go through life enjoying reading!

Connections

Over the past week I have had so much fun watching my students connect to their reading. I can not say specifically what it is that has brought this on, but there is not question that the statement: Reading is Thinking is ringing true in our classroom. In everyday interactions I have seen students comment on the likeness between one students actions and a character from our weekly reading story. While commenting on different things I have noticed many students beginning their comments with, "I can connect to this..." I do not feel that I have suddenly given extra time to the ideas of connection to our reading, nor has it been a part of any recent mini lessons. Regardless of where it is coming from and I am really enjoying all the connections being made to reading in our classroom! The specific incident that sparked this post happened today during Read Aloud. We end each day on the carpet with Read Aloud, and at the end of the day I do not expect that everyone is always listening fully as I read from our current book, but most students are usually willing and able to answer questions that I ask when I pause or when we review what was read the previous day. Today after a quick review of what was most recently read last week I dove right in to the chapter, and as I read some specific events that were occurring in the chapter hands started shooting up. While I had made the connection right away, I was fully expecting to have to pause and question the class in regards to any connections that could be made. But as I looked out at all the hands I simply asked if their hands were up because they had made a connection and they all eagerly nodded. We are currently reading Escaping the Giant Wave by: Peg Kehert and the students connected to a book we had read earlier in the year called Chasing the Falconers - On the Run Book 1 by: Gordon Korman. The connection was made that in both book characters were caught in a fire and both went to the bathroom to cover and/or use a wet towel to escape the fire. There connection was nothing amazing, but just that fact that they are making this connections with prompting makes me smile! :) Reading is Thinking!

Wordle - A Visual Display of Data

                                                               
This is a Wordle, created on www.wordle.net, which shows the opinions of my students when asked about how they felt about having choices in Reading Workshop this year in 4th grade. The words "Reading" and "Choices" are words that I typed in to emphasize what this illustrations was referring to. The other words shown are the words the students used to describe Reading Workshop. With this program, the bigger the word the more often it was used by the students. The big words that stand out are "awesome", "fun", and "exciting" which are three positive descriptions from the students about their opinions of providing choice in the classroom. There were a few "negative" words used, such as "dislike" but those words are small, indicating that very few share that opinion. I am not sure how well you can read all of the words in this image, but if you click on it I believe it will take you to a larger image on the Wordle site. This Wordle is a different way to show some of the data I have gathered from the students directly, and I think continues to support that idea that student choice in the classroom is a positive thing!

Always Learning...

I am still looking for a way to display my data on this blog, but I am struggling with the technology part of it. Hopefully I can figure something out soon.

What I have learned from my data (data = surveys, grades, and observations) is that choice is motivating! When students were asked to write down three words to describe their feelings about the subject of reading at school their responses remained positive! They included words like: fun, awesome, cool, good, fine, love it, excellent, sweet, exciting, relaxing, and interesting, among other positive words! Of course I did get a few ho-hums and OKs, but the majority of the students used positive words to describe reading.

Additional information that I gathered from the surveys was not exactly what I had hoped it would be. At the start of the year I gave students a Reading Attitude Survey, and I administered this survey again in January. The survey looked at their recreational reading, academic reading, and then combined the two for a look at their full scale attitude. I did not see as many significant changes as I had hoped to see, and in fact some of the percentages decreased from September to January. In reflecting on the surveys and the results I am able to see where and how some of these shifts, or lack of shifts, may have occurred. The initial survey was given during the first week of school, which is a time when most students are still in the "honeymoon" phase of being back at school. During this first week students are enjoying seeing friends, having fun, building a classroom community through a variety of different activities, and trying impress their new teacher in different ways.  Lets face it, the first week of school is not that rigorous in the academics department. By January the students have settled in to the routines and things may no longer feel as exciting, even if they are enjoying what they are doing. While the overall attitude percentages did not show any significant changes, but specific questions, regarding reading, have shown that students attitudes towards reading at school have become more positive over the year. They have shown that they are enjoying reading and the choices that come along with it.

I am thrilled with the results that I am seeing, even if the data is not as strong as I had hoped they would ultimately be, but do I think they Reading Workshop I have created is perfect... by no means. Moving forward there are things I would like to change and improve on, some things I will try this year, and some things I will implement next year. Some things I would like to change and/or improve are: the Word Work/Spelling choice, looking at the value of the Work on Writing choice (knowing that students have time to write during Writing Workshop), the way in which students log their choices, and a way to find a way to incorporate more than one choice per day. This will always be a work in progress... it will change as I gather new ideas, it will change each year as the students I have in my class change, it will change as we adopt a new reading curriclum, but one thing I am certain will remain, I will continue to offer choices in Reading Workshop.

The Peek into Our Classroom for this week is another choice that the students have had a chance to partake during the month of February. Because February is I LOVE TO READ MONTH I invited my 4th graders to be Mystery Readers in our classroom. We typically have Mystery Readers every Friday (parents, siblings, other teachers, etc) but during the month of February I allow my students to be Mystery Readers if they would like to be. They write down clues about themselves that are then shared with the class on the day that they are the Mystery Reader. I started out with quite a few Student Mystery Readers, but after a few students had their chance to read they inspired others and we have now had to extend our Student Mystery Readers into the beginning of March! Students are embracing this chance to share their love of reading with their classmates. It has been a lot of fun to watch! Below is a picture of one of last week's Student Mystery Readers:

  

Thinking About EVERYTHING...and Drawing Conclusions

Taking it all in... looking at everything.. trying to figure out what it all means! This has been my most recent task as I prepare to present my learning with others. I am currently surrounded by surveys, comprehension quizzes, and logging sheets trying to make meaning of all of the work that I have done this year to enhance my Reading Workshop through student choice.

My focus has been on the attitudes of my students and my hope was to create students with positive attitudes towards reading. Research and experience have taught me that if a student has a positive attitude about something they are more likely to truly engage and therefore learn more and be successful.

As I look through the different data that I have collected over the months one thing has become very clear, each and every one of my students is different. I know that seems like an obvious statement, but it became very apparent to me as I read through one of the most recent surveys. On the survey there were quite a few questions, but two questions that I have come to see as very valuable data were: "What part of Reading Workshop do you enjoy the most?"  and "What part of Reading Workshop do you enjoy the least?" I did not intend for these questions to overly important, but as I read through their responses I reazlied that everyone had different feelings towards the choices that they enjoyed the most and the least. It was like an AH-HA moment. Why would I want to "make" someone always Read to Self (as I have in the past during Reading Workshop) if that was something they do not enjoy,  clearly they are not going to be engaged in something they do not enjoy. Offering choices allows students to figure out what works best for them, in terms of their enjoyment and their understanding, and the majority of the time if students are doing something they enjoy they are motivated and engaged in what they are doing. The variety of responses that I have about most and least favorite parts of Reading Workshop is DATA, students want and need different things in order to have a positive attitude and therefore be engaged in what they are doing!

I am currently working on some "numbers" data that shows how my students attitudes have changed over the year so far. Not all of that data is showing significant changes, and some are showing changes in the opposite directions of what I would like to see, but  I know there are different factors that contribute to that, and I will save that analyzes for an upcoming entry. What I do know is that what I  am seeing in the classroom is showing me the power of choice. Today during Reading Workshop I took a moment to stop and look around, and what I saw was 25 students ENGAGED in reading. Some were doing it in pairs, some were listening, some were reading alone, and some were working on patterns in different words, but everyone was truly engaged.

As the implementation of my Action research project begins to wrap up I have decided to try and bring a little bit more of my classroom and what we do each day to this blog. I will try and include a few different peeks at what we do each day in some of my upcoming blogs.

This Peek into Our Classroom shows a student's weekly reading log. Each student has a log that they fill out daily. This first picture shows the log, this tracks what choices the students has completed over the course of a week. On this log the Writing About Reading choice was blocked out as no journals were due, and Friday was blocked out as we were on our Catholic Schools Week field trip to the roller
rink that day! :)

                          
      

This picture shows the back of the reading log. Each week on the back of the log the students apply some of their learning through our weekly story. On this log students had to fill in Venn Diagram as we had been talking about comparing and contrasting. At the bottom of the log are the week's vocabulary words which students fill in through our discsussions or through the glossary in the back of their reading book.

Looking at Data... Data... Data...

Throughout my Action Research I have tried to collect data mainly through observations and surveys. My students also take part in NWEA testing, however we only test in the fall and the spring, so at this time I am unable to use that data at this time. In April when I present my Action Research to other educators I will have the NWEA test scores and will be able to use them as a part of my final presentation.

Overall my goal of providing choices during reading was to create 4th graders with positive attitudes towards reading. My research stated that one way to help promote positive attitudes towards something is to allow for student choice. Therefore I provided choices in reading in hopes that the students would be more motivated to take part in reading and the correlating activities associated with reading. Ideally this would then have positive impacts on their success in reading, which would carry over into many areas, as reading plays an important role in many aspects of our lives.

My observations are a comparison of my students from previous years (keeping in mind that each class is different) with my current students, and a comparison of my current students and how they have changed throughout the year. At the start of the year I had a handful of students who struggled with settling in to read, and reading for the duration of "choice" time. As the year has progressed and more choices have been added I have seen some of those students fully engaged in their choices during "choice" time. Some continue to need my support, but I definitely spend less time keeping students on task then I have had to in previous year, or since the start of this year. I find that to be a sign of success for allowing these choices during reading. In the past I have felt that half of the battle of independent reading time can be keeping students on task and focused, at this point in the year I do not feel that is a battle I need to fight with my students as they often times are motivated to complete the task that they are working on.

My survey results have remained positive throughout the year. At the beginning of the year I gave a Reading Attitude Survey. During the first week of school, before introducing choices my 4th graders had the following results:
When asked: "How did you feel about independent reading time in 3rd grade?"
11 = Love it! 9 = Like it! 4 = Ho-Hum! and 1 = Don't like it!
When asked: "How do you feel when it's time for reading class?"
13 = Love it! 6 = Like it! 5 = Ho-Hum! and 1 = Don't like it!
These reults showed me at the start of the year that I did have a group of studets who, for the most part enjoyed reading.

At the end of September a survey with different questions showed similar results.
When asked: How do you feel about Reading Workshop so far in 4th grade?"
8 = Love it! 12 = Like it! 4 = Ho-Hum! and  1 = Don't like it!
When asked: "How do you feel about having choices in reading?"
12 = Love it! 11 = Like it! 2 = Ho-Hum and 0 = Don't like it!

In December when asked the same questions, the results had shifted slightly, and the attitudes stayed positive. At this point in the year as I looked at the results I also thought about the fact that we had been in our routine for awhile, and over time things that are routine can become a little less exciting. The results however continued to show postive attiudes towards reading and my observations continued to show engaged and motivated reader. At this point in the year I was THRILLED to see 0's in the Don't like it catergory.
When asked: How do you feel about Reading Workshop so far in 4th grade?"
8 = Love it! 14 = Like it! 4 = Ho-Hum! and  0 = Don't like it!
When asked: "How do you feel about having choices in reading?"
12 = Love it! 12 = Like it! 1 = Ho-Hum and 0 = Don't like it! I have made a few bar graphs to show a comparision of some of these results, however I can not figure out how to upload them to this blog. I will talk to some of the "tech support" people in my life and see if the can assit me with gettin the visuals onto this blog.

Looking forward I plan to give my students the Reading Attitude Survery again to look at their overall attitude towards reading, compared to the start of the year. This survey is 20 questions, compared to the smaller 4 - 5 question surveys I have given throughout the year. I look forward to getting the results of the attitude survey and comparing them to the start of the year.

Thinking about Challenges and Changes

This past week we have taken some time to get back to the basics. As we hit the mid-point of our year together I was starting to observe some of the things I have seen in the past throughout the year... a lot of movement during independent reading time – a lot of “time wasting” movement! I am happy that I have not been seeing this all year, and it is a challenge I expected to arise sooner or later. So as a way of refocusing our independent choice time I decided that we were going to spend some time reviewing and getting back to the basics.

This was done through a lot of conversations this week before and after independent choice time. Mid-week as the students were settling in for choice time I heard one student say to other (as they were about to do Read to Someone) “Remember to grab your back up book in case we finish this one!” YES! They were really listening to me! On Friday we had mandatory Read to Self  practice time, some student were bummed that they could not do other choices, however we reviewed why we needed to have this time and overall it was great. It was very quiet and there was little movement and most of the 25 students were on task and reading, only a few were “fake reading” so I feel a conversation about that would be helpful next week.

Overall my observations and surveys have continue to yield positive results, the student enjoy Reading Workshop, and I am confident that choices are something I will continue to offer as a way of keeping my student motivated to read, but the question has been asked “How do you plan to sustain what you have started?” The answer to that question is simple, for this year, we will just keep doing things the way we have always done them; this year’s 4^th graders don’t know any different. But to truly sustain what I have started there are some things that I would like to change.

My biggest challenge right now it TIME, and that is not something I have the power to change. Using our Reading Workshop time for independent choices and our basal reading book leaves us with very little time to spare, and there are other things that I would like to include into Reading Workshop as well. For example, this week in our basal we read a story title The Last Dragon, because this story took place in Chinatown we also took time to focus on the Chinese New Year, which started this Monday. It was a perfect story to connect to something that was going on in the world. We talked about the Chinese zodiac calendar, what “year” we were all born in, and made paper lanterns for the Lantern Festival, celebrated on the last night of the Chinese New Year, not to mention needing to find time for a comprehension quiz. The students enjoyed all of these extras, and it was a great learning experience, however, if you add all that stuff in to our already crammed Reading Workshop block and you are not left with much time for choices. In my research much of what I read talked about having time for more than one choice each day, but in our classroom that just hasn’t fit. Students have a weekly log on which they log what they have done each day, I have thought about making it a two week log where students can look at what they have done over a two week period and try to complete a variety of choices, versus just a week by week log. I feel that the log does help to hold students accountable for what they do each day, as I take time over the weekend to look at their log and comment, or take notes, as needed.

Moving forward as I continue to offer choices in Reading Workshop I would also like to build a more concrete plan for how I meet and work with my students on their reading skills and abilities. I have read the CAFÉ book and would like to implement some of those ideas, not that I am confident in how to offer choices and manage my classroom as a group of independent readers.

Teaching is a never ending process of learning new things, trying new things, and finding great ways to motivate your learners and help them be successful!  

Back to the Basics

This week we tired to spend a little time getting back to the basics of what we should be doing in Reading Workshop, while also accomplishing everything that needs to be accomplished. (Easier said then done.) Our main focus this week was on the movement that seems to occur lately during Reading Workshop. I have noticed a trend... after a good solid 10 - 15 minutes of independent choice time there tends to be a lot of movement, too much movement. Students are getting up to put books away, get a new book, take a walk around the room, etc. We reviewed how and why this should be avoided, and the next day things seemed to really improve, except for 3 specific boys. Next week I plan to head right over to them at the start of Reading Workshop and make sure they have everything they need to get started.

While spending some time focusing on the "management" of Reading Workshop I have also made an intention for myself. Now that I have worked to create a reading block where quality independent work is being completed I want to really focus more on one on on and small group conferences and guided reading. I am not sure what exactly I want that to look like yet, but I know I would like to move towards using the CAFE model as I continue to work with offering choices in reading.

Sometime I feel like there is so much I want to do... and there is always so little time.

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year! We started 2012 off with a great week back at school, and many students came back from their Christmas break with NEW books that they were excited to read! One of my students listed off all of the new books he had gotten for Christmas and then told me that he was now "set for the rest of the year!" I was thrilled to hear this and to see so many students excited to tell me what books they got Christmas' I love to see my students LOVE READING!

Prior to Christmas break (as I mentioned before) we took some "time off" from Reading Workshop with Choices and strictly did Read to Self while completing certain tasks on an Independent Reading Contract. I used this change in our routine to guage students feelings and attitudes towards having choices in Reading Workshop in a different way. Upon returning from break I had the students complete a survey a few questions regarding which approach to Reading Workshop they enjoyed the most, and the results speak for themselves.

Question 1 asked: How did you feel about doing the Independent Reading Contract before Christmas instead of having choices in Reading Workshop?
1 = LOVE IT!      4 = LIKE IT!      10 = Ho Hum...     9 = Don't Like It!
Question 2 asked: How would you feel about changing Reading Workshop and doing more contracts like what we did before Christmas?
1 = LOVE IT!      2 = LIKE IT!       9 = Ho Hum...     12 = Don't Like It!
Question 3 asked: How would you feel about continuing to have choices in Reading Workshop like we usually do?
18 = LOVE IT!     4 = LIKE IT!      2 = Ho Hum...     0 = Don't Like It!

I also asked the students a more open ended questions about which approach to Reading Workshop students prefered and why... and again the responses were overwhelming. The majority of the students prefer Reading Workshop with Choices, for reasons such as: I like not doing the same thing everyday. I get to read in different ways which is more fun. Because it is better to work with friends.

The final question on the survey was a complete this sentence questions: In 4th Grade Reading Workshop is... Students answered this in a variety of ways: Fun! Awesome! Nice! Very Helpful! but the one that stuck out the most to be and helped to validate everything I am doing was the one that read: Great when we have choices!

Last week Reading Workshop was back to having choices, but not fully "back to normal" as we did not have a story out of our reading hardcover book. Instead we launched the next theme in our reading book called: That's Amazing! by doing a short study on Tall Tales. Students enjoyed reading and doing activities relating to a variety of different Tall Tales. This week we will be fully back to our routine with a story out of our reading hardcover book as well.

As I went over the student's Reading Logs this weekend I did notice some students getting lazy with their logging. I did have to be gone for 2 days last week, so part of it may have been not having me there to give my usual reminders, but I also took this to mean that this may be a good time of year to review the expectations of Reading Workshop and all of the different choices, so that will be on our list of things to do this week....

Happy Teaching! Have a great week!