1. What
is the focus of your inquiry and why is this important to you?
The focus of my inquiry is to support
reading comprehension for the English Language Learners in my classroom through
the Teacher’s College Reading Workshop model. This is important to me because I
deeply believe that this model of teaching reading is effective in affecting
love for reading and therefore increases reading skills, and 24 of my 26
students are English Language Learners, so I need to adapt the program somewhat
to support their understanding of complex texts. One of the big differences
between what I expected these same students to do and think about while reading
second grade material last year and what I am expecting them to do and think
about this year in third grade is that they need to read more independently and
truly “read to learn” new information (as opposed to “learn to read” like they
were focused on in previous grade levels).
2. What classroom data are you
planning to use for your routine data
source to see how students are (or are not) progressing towards this goal?
[For example, Kimme used her weekly weekend journals that students wrote each
Monday after a writing mini-lesson].
I am going to use student post-its
documenting their thinking during independent and whole-class reading as my
primary data source. Students write post-its during the Reading Workshop
mini-lesson based on a structured sentence frame that I teach them that day,
using a whole class read aloud text as their content, at a stopping point that
I have decided for them. Then, during independent reading time, they write
post-its using the same sentence frame for what they are finding in books at
their independent reading levels. For these post-its, students have to choose
the stopping points where they will think deeply about their reading and then
write. I can use the post-its for assessment purposes of how they understand
the teaching point, as well as apply it during guided and independent reading
routines.
3. Take some time to look at the
routine data source for 1-2 focal students. What would indicate if a student was successful? What were you
hoping to see?
Write 3-4 indicators of success to meet
the learning goal. [For example, Kimme decided that to be successful in their
summary writing, students would: have one developed idea about their weekend;
this central idea must be clearly stated at beginning of entry; have at least 3
details that are relevant to developing the main idea; be written in complete
sentences; have proper capitalization/sentence punctuation]
In order to be successful in post-it
writing (and therefore, successfully comprehending their reading), students
need to be able to independently think deeply beyond the surface level about
their book using a variety of strategies that I have taught and write these
thoughts down on their post-its. In order to do this, students also need to
know how to independently find a good stopping point in their reading to “stop,
think, and jot” – this has proven extremely difficult for most of my students.
4. At the
end of the year what is the learning
goal that you would like your focal students to reach? [For example, Kimme
wanted her students to be able to write a summary, which she defined as using
relative details to support a central idea.]
I would like my students to be able to
think deeply about their reading and understand their independent reading books
in new, more interesting and varied ways that help them understand deeper
meanings and themes within each book.
5. What I am thinking now:
I’m thinking that I will conduct Read Alouds more frequently
than I have been, and stopping after every paragraph (or so) and have students
decide if they have a thought about what we just read. If they do, they can
write about it, and I will continue reading. I think this will help support my
students to find good stopping & jotting places in their reading, since the
content will be more difficult and interesting to them, yet scaffolded so they
can access it. I may also teach some explicit “when to stop and think” lessons.
I need more time for ELA instruction! They need so much:
fluency, partner reading, shared reading, etc., which I am just not getting to
at all.
After
Meeting With My Group:
1. After meeting with my small group,
the indicators of success I have identified for my routine data source are that
my students need to consistently write post-its independently that show they
are thinking deeply about their independent reading books and understanding
something more than surface-level text about the content.
2. My learning goal for my focal
students is to know when to stop, think, and write about their independent
reading, and to know how to think inferentially about their independent
reading.
3. The next steps I am going to take
are to teach my students how to “stop, think, and write” at appropriate
places in their independent texts, and hold them more accountable for
independent reading and thinking by collecting their independent reading
post-its at the end of each Reading Workshop session so that I can make sure
they were on task and completing the work as directed.
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