This week, I began working toward action research with interest surveys and such to determind what kind of graphic organizers students like. I also have been planning with using the graphic organizers more. I believe that with the upcoming story for next week, "Elena," I will be able to being to incorporate more "Narrative Elements" into my teaching leading up to implementing graphic organizers.
With the surveys, I also have two more prepared to have students complete this coming week focusing on their own writing, reading, and opinion of their comprehension, etc.
Anywho, I have been planning and thinking... just thought I would go ahead and post about my early work in action research!
During the week of October 5th, I began my initial phase of implementation. I did so by working with Narrative Elements and the story "Elena" to get a baseline for what the students understood and could comprehend about the graphic organizers.
On Wednesday, after the students had read the story, we learned about Narrative Elements: characters, setting, plot, and theme. The students used what they learned to categorize the different parts of our story, "Elena". Also, I used a transparency and we completed one as a class. Then, I told the students that instead of having a regular test, we would take a test on the Narrative Elements and it would be in the form of a graphic organizer.
The students seemed to like this idea. The commented that it helped them to understand the story better. My reaction: "YES!... we are going in the right direction!"
I finished grading the tests last night and the students that usually do poorly on the multiple choice reading test improved! Also, students that usually do average improved to high end Bs or even As!!! This is something that made me very excited! My students are understanding how to use a graphic oragnizer and it must be helping with comprehension even a little bit.
Something that I did notice, though, was that several of my usually A students in one class didn't do as well on the test as I had figured that they would. I'm not sure if this was because they rushed through it. (If I recall, these were the students that turned theirs in earlier than the rest of the class AND they were the students that opted not to complete the bonus question.)
This week, another survey to see how they felt about the test. I think I will have the students complete this survey before they receive their tests because I feel that maybe the students won't answer honestly if the students that usually do good see their test grades before hand.
Also, this week, I am going to be introducing my "8 Strategies to Comprehension". This, I hope, will help out the students that maybe needed some extra help understanding what we were doing and how we were categorizing information from the story into our graphic organizers!
What kind of results are you getting on their surveys? Make sure that if you ask them opinion questions, you're prepared to offer them changes (or continue an established routine) based on their opinions. No one likes to have a question asked, then not get a response--if you don't want to give a particular response/strategy/etc., then make sure you don't ask the question! :)
This week, I began working toward action research with interest surveys and such to determind what kind of graphic organizers students like. I also have been planning with using the graphic organizers more. I believe that with the upcoming story for next week, "Elena," I will be able to being to incorporate more "Narrative Elements" into my teaching leading up to implementing graphic organizers.
ReplyDeleteWith the surveys, I also have two more prepared to have students complete this coming week focusing on their own writing, reading, and opinion of their comprehension, etc.
Anywho, I have been planning and thinking... just thought I would go ahead and post about my early work in action research!
-ME
During the week of October 5th, I began my initial phase of implementation. I did so by working with Narrative Elements and the story "Elena" to get a baseline for what the students understood and could comprehend about the graphic organizers.
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday, after the students had read the story, we learned about Narrative Elements: characters, setting, plot, and theme. The students used what they learned to categorize the different parts of our story, "Elena". Also, I used a transparency and we completed one as a class. Then, I told the students that instead of having a regular test, we would take a test on the Narrative Elements and it would be in the form of a graphic organizer.
The students seemed to like this idea. The commented that it helped them to understand the story better. My reaction: "YES!... we are going in the right direction!"
I finished grading the tests last night and the students that usually do poorly on the multiple choice reading test improved! Also, students that usually do average improved to high end Bs or even As!!! This is something that made me very excited! My students are understanding how to use a graphic oragnizer and it must be helping with comprehension even a little bit.
Something that I did notice, though, was that several of my usually A students in one class didn't do as well on the test as I had figured that they would. I'm not sure if this was because they rushed through it. (If I recall, these were the students that turned theirs in earlier than the rest of the class AND they were the students that opted not to complete the bonus question.)
This week, another survey to see how they felt about the test. I think I will have the students complete this survey before they receive their tests because I feel that maybe the students won't answer honestly if the students that usually do good see their test grades before hand.
Also, this week, I am going to be introducing my "8 Strategies to Comprehension". This, I hope, will help out the students that maybe needed some extra help understanding what we were doing and how we were categorizing information from the story into our graphic organizers!
-ME
What kind of results are you getting on their surveys? Make sure that if you ask them opinion questions, you're prepared to offer them changes (or continue an established routine) based on their opinions. No one likes to have a question asked, then not get a response--if you don't want to give a particular response/strategy/etc., then make sure you don't ask the question! :)
ReplyDelete