Initial Thoughts for Three Slides

***Context Slide:

Our study was conducted in a K-8 Title I public school in Oakland. For the 2012-2013 school year, our school was a predominantly Latino school, with 80 percent of students identified by parents as belonging to this subgroup. Fifty-two percent of students are English Language Learners. Eighty-one percent of students receive free/reduced price meals (Education Data Partnership, 2013). See below for more specific data about ethnicity, English Learners, and home languages.

Our school is a small school in Oakland, and includes Kindergarten through eighth grades. We have an expeditionary learning model, which incorporates visual art and music classes with academic content in hands-on, multi-sensory ways. Kindergarten through third grade classes have a Spanish class two-to-three times per week, so that students can improve their academic Spanish vocabulary. Most teachers loop with their students for two years. This is Tessa’s second year with her class, and Kate’s first year with her class.

Our students are all in third grade, and at the time of this study, they were eight and nine years old.

Tessa’s Class: 24 students

Kate’s Class: 25 students

School Context:

Student Ethnicity

		Ethnicity	This school
		Hispanic or Latino	80%
		African American	8%
		Asian	6%
		Multiple or No Response	4%
		Filipino	1%
		White	1%
		American Indian or Alaska Native	0%
		Pacific Islander	0%

Home languages of English Learners

		Language	This school
		Spanish	94%
		Mien (Yao)	3%
		All other non-English languages	2%
		Vietnamese	1%

Student Subgroups

English language learners 1	52%
Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program 2	81%

***Learning Goal Slide:

After analyzing student work with Kate and discussing our hopes for our third graders’ learning in this area, we would like our 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.

***Focal Students Slide:

I have selected four focal students, LD, BM, BS, and NM, because after administering beginning of the year tests including the BPST, Teacher's College comprehension tests, and the Express Placement Assessment Systematic ELD, I thought they represented the middle range of levels in my classroom (the levels being from emergent to advanced, from far below grade level to above grade level). These four students represented the middle levels in all areas, and I thought that was significant to study because I wanted to figure out how to effectively teach the majority of students in my classroom, and figure out how to effectively raise the middle subgroup’s comprehension levels. Each of these four students are also identified as English Language Learners whose home language is Spanish. 

• LD is a student who is approaching grade level in both English Language Development and reading comprehension. She is above grade level in decoding and fluency, but below in reading comprehension. She is a sweet student who is easily distracted, does not have much stamina for reading, and needs constant reminders to focus on lessons and independent work. L seems to enjoy Language Arts studies over Math, and is below grade level in Math. She receives a lot of support from her parents, especially her mother, at home. Her mother is at school often, volunteering in classrooms and the main office. While her parents speak fairly proficient English, they speak primarily Spanish at home. L is the youngest of three children, all who have (or still do) attend this school. Her work is always meticulous and neatly written, although often incorrect. LD has lots of friends at school.
• BM is a thoughtful student who is approaching grade level in both English Language Development and reading comprehension. She is at grade level in decoding and fluency, but below in reading comprehension. BM is proficient in Math. She is a dedicated student, who stays focused on her work and lessons. She is quiet and patient with others. BM has a strong family network, and is the oldest of three siblings attending our school. She often cares for her younger siblings while her parents work during evenings and weekends. She does not receive academic support at home. She responds thoughtfully to the stop & jot prompts during read alouds.
• BS is an eager learner, who loves to participate and engage others in learning. She is far below grade level in English Language Arts, approaching grade level in reading comprehension, and at grade level for decoding and fluency. She is below grade level for English Language Development and Math understanding. BS seems focused most of the time during lessons and independent work times, but when she shares her thoughts they are often off-topic or tangential. She often tells long stories that don’t make much sense, or are clearly untrue. She has a very caring, close family, and an older brother who spends a lot of time helping her with homework.
• NM is proficient at English Language Arts, and at grade level for reading comprehension, decoding, and fluency. She is advanced in Math, and below grade level in English Language Development. NM is a hard worker, but can get easily distracted by peers as well as serve as a source of distraction for others. NM seems to enjoy Math much more than reading, and is more focused on her learning during our Math period. She is a bright, energetic child who has lots of friends. She is the oldest of three children in her family, and is very close with her parents and siblings. She receives a lot of support from her family in social-emotional issues, but I do not know what type of academic support she receives at home.

Student Work, April 9th, 2013

Mills Teacher Scholars

Tracking Focal Student Progress

April 2013

My area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is: 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. 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. To get them to a place where they can do that with their independent reading books, I am specifically focusing on student comprehension during read alouds where I can scaffold their reading and responses.

My routine data source is: Stop & Jots from Charlotte’s Web

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Indicators	Student Name Luz	Student Name Bianca
I: Students can retell accurate information from the text.	☐Met ☐Not met  x  Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Wilbur hears a voice that says “I’ll be your friend and you will see me in the morning”. 2. Because Wilbur does not see his friend he’ll maybe never see her/him. Retell 1 is an accurate retell of what happened in the text. Retell 2 is more of a prediction.	xMet ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Wilbur herd that little voice and can’t see it,… 2. Because Wilbur wanted to see his new friend,… Retell 1 and 2 are accurate retellings of what happened in the text. They are not very detailed, but they did occur.
II: Students’ own thought or idea about the characters or the story line is connected to their retell.	☐Met ☐Not met  x  Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Wilbur hears a voice that says “I’ll be your friend and you will see me in the morning”. Then I think Wilbur will not be able to sleep because he ceep’s on wakeing up. 2. Because Wilbur does not see his friend he’ll maybe never see her/him. Then I think Wilbur will maybe the spider and him will be friend’s. Prediction/Idea 1 is connected to the retell, but is also a retell of what happened in the text (not a true prediction). Inference/Idea 2 is not connected to the retell, unless I am misunderstanding what she wrote. I think she means that because Wilbur doesn’t see Charlotte, they will become friends. That doesn’t make much sense to me.	☐Met ☐Not met  x  Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Wilbur herd that little voice and can’t see it, then I think it is little and it is charlotte. and he is a Spider. 2. Because Wilbur wanted to see his new friend, then I think he really wanted a friend. Predictions/Ideas 1 and 2 are connected to the retell, but are also  retells of what happened in the text (not true predictions). She is literally retelling more information that we read in the book.
III: Students’ own thought shows deeper understanding through connections, predictions, or inferences.	☐Met x Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Wilbur hears a voice that says “I’ll be your friend and you will see me in the morning”. Then I think Wilbur will not be able to sleep because he ceep’s on wakeing up. 2. Because Wilbur does not see his friend he’ll maybe never see her/him. Then I think Wilbur will maybe the spider and him will be friend’s. Luz did not make true predictions or inferences that would help lead her to deeper understanding.	☐Met x Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Wilbur herd that little voice and can’t see it, then I think it is little and it is charlotte. and he is a Spider. 2. Because Wilbur wanted to see his new friend, then I think he really wanted a friend. Bianca did not make true predictions or inferences that would help lead her to deeper understanding.

What I’m thinking now:

After talking through my data analysis and thinking with my group, I have some new thoughts about my expectations and hopes for growth for my students. I have seen a lot of progress with my students in terms of their ability to retell from the text. I have scaffolded this process a lot while reading Charlotte’s Web, by charting main events and characters and their character traits (with help from my students). I think this has helped them be able to retain the storyline, themes, and characters while we read such a long chapter book. My expectations for student writing and thinking has really been structured around the CST expectations for student reading comprehension, and I think I haven’t scaffolded my students as much as I could have to reach those standards. I am going to take what feels like a step backwards, and give my students a stopping point in the text, and really explain to them WHY I stopped at that point. Then, I would like them to think about character traits in relation to the point at which I stopped to think in the text. This is really what the CST will be asking them to do, so hopefully it will help guide them to be able to do it more independently. I also want to show them anonymous examples of student work that are meeting expectations, and only partially meeting expectations, and have them explain why – and have them help improve the partially-meeting expectations work. I’m hoping these discussions and modeling with support students to understand my thinking, and deepen their own.

Recent Student Work and Reflection

Something I have noticed about Luz's learning is she is not making meaningful inferences based on factual information from the text. She wrote that "Wilbur hears a voice that says 'I'll be your friend and you will see me in the morning'. Then I think Wilbur will not be able to sleep because he ceep's on wakeing up." The author wrote that Wilbur couldn't sleep at all and kept waking up all night, so Luz was not able to incorporate her own thinking, or make her own meaning of the text, with this stop & jot. Her second stop & jot is not related to what she wrote what was happening in the book. If Wilbur does not see his friend, and might never see her, then why would Wilbur and the spider end up being friends? It's a confusing statement to make.

Something I have noticed about Bianca's learning is that she is able to separate herself a little more from the text, and incorporate her own thinking in her stop & jots. She was able to think about what Wilbur might want (a friend), and why he wanted it (proof from the book that Wilbur wanted to see his new friend). She could have added more details that we had already read about, such as that Wilbur was lonely and that his only friend Fern hadn't been to visit him in awhile. That way, she would have really been showing proof of her thinking. She is able to infer more than Luz is, and her sentences are more clearly written. Her English Language skills are more advanced than Luz's; I wonder how much that affects her ability to understand the text I'm reading aloud, keep track of the storyline and themes, utilize the comprehension skills I've taught her, and write her ideas down on paper in a way that can be clearly communicated to others.

Before the end of the school year, one thing I want to do is have Luz explain her thinking to me as I'm reading aloud, so that I can see if she can better communicate verbally. Maybe she is having deeper inferences but I am not understanding them through her writing?

Tracking Focal Student Progress

Mills Teacher Scholars

Tracking Focal Student Progress

March 2013

My area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is: 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. 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. To get them to a place where they can do that with their independent reading books, I am specifically focusing on student comprehension during read alouds where I can scaffold their reading and responses.

My routine data source is: Stop & Jots from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Indicators	Student Name Luz	Student Name Bianca
I: Students can retell accurate information from the text.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Fudge swolowed Peters turtle and Peter felt sad. 2. This event actually happened in the book, but Luz only wrote one retell.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Because Fudge is waving at a croud of people. 2. Because Fudge is getting an operation. These events actually happened in the book.
II: Students’ own thought or idea about the characters or the story line is connected to their retell.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1.  Because Fudge swolowed Peters turtle and Peter felt sad. Then I think fudge wil sorry to Peter for eating Peters turtle. 2. This prediction makes sense within the context of the story and her retell, but Luz only wrote one retell & thought.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1.  Because Fudge is waving at a croud of people. Then I think Peter is thinking that Fudge didn’t swallow a turtle. 2.  Because Fudge is getting an operation. Then I think dribble is going to get out. These connections & predictions make sense within the context of the story and her retell.
III: Students’ own thought shows deeper understanding through connections, predictions, or inferences.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Luz’s writing indicates that she’s made a logical prediction based on evidence from the text. I wish she was able to have a more meaningful prediction that led her to a deeper understanding of theme and storyline. 2. Luz only wrote one retell & thought: This makes me question how much she was thinking during the read aloud and how difficult it is for her to listen, think, translate, retell, and write at the same time.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence/How can you tell? 1. Bianca’s writing indicates that she’s made a logical prediction based on evidence from the text. She has either made an inference through character traits or she has made a connection based on previous events in the storyline. 2. Bianca’s writing shows that she’s either made a logical prediction based on evidence from the text.

After my small group discussion, here is what I'm thinking about my students' learning, and about my next steps...

I want to make thinking about reading/books easier for my students. We are about to start a new read aloud book (Charlotte’s Web) and I will make a poster with my class about the characters as they come up in the text. We can map out who the characters are and their character traits, and any big events that involve them and draw out the storyline. I want students to have visual reminders of who the characters are, and what has happened previously in the story, to help support them in thinking deeply about themes, make accurate predictions, interesting connections, and meaningful inferences.

My focal students’ retells have been accurate, but I imagine they would be difficult to understand if I hadn’t been there, reading the same text with them. I understand what was going on because we had a shared experience with the story. I want my students to write responses to the book in a way that their audience can understand what was happening in the text, even if they weren’t reading the same book. Eventually, I want to move my students from writing on these “stop & jot” templates during read alouds to writing on post-its during independent reading time, about their individual books. That means their retells need to be clear and descriptive, to allow someone who didn’t read their book to know if their thought was meaningful. I will model this more often for them, and discuss explicitly what the purpose is.