Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Taylor Biedermann
December 5, 2014
Action Research Paper
Action Research
Initial Meeting with Teacher:
The teacher had already selected students to be a part of my group. Miss Burton
wanted us to focus on student interest and see how it impacted their reading. She
suggested we create a small project at the end of working on action research so they
could share with the class what they had been learning about.
Student T:
This student was chosen to be apart of this action research group because she was
a higher end student in the most advanced reading group who Miss Burton felt needed to
be challenged. While she is sometimes easily distracted it typically stems from not having
enough to do. Miss Burton felt that she would enjoy working in a small group and
flourish in a direct instruction type environment.
Student L:
This student was also chosen because she was a more advanced student when it
comes to reading and Miss Burton decided it would be good for her to be challenged and
grow as a student with extra support. Miss Burton felt that she would also enjoy a change
of pace and different reading environment.
Action Research
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The Question:
After identifying the students for my action research group and realized while I
was going to be working with higher end students, they were still in kindergarten and
beginner readers. Therefore I decided my question to focus on during the course of the
action research would be: What are the best practices to increase fluency in young
readers? This question was chosen so I could support my action research group and help
them continue to grow into more developed readers by increasing their fluency skills.
Fluency is a critical part of reading that supports other reading components that come
later on such as comprehension. After developing a question, my goal for the students
was to improve their accuracy, expression, phrasing, smoothness, and pace so that they
are able to read to the best of their ability.
Action Research
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Meeting
Meeting with Miss Burton
o She provided me with students to work with
o Disscussed students strengths
What are the best practices to increase fluency in young readers?
Session 1
Initial Assessments: Student Interest Inventory
Gather baseline data- One minute reading sample (WCPM)
Session 2
Choral Reading
Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom By: Bill Martin Jr.
Session 3
Midpoint Assessment
One minute reading sample (WCPM)
Session 4
Multidimensional Fluency Scale
Session 5
Partner Reading
Grub to Ladybug By: Melvin and Gilda Berger
Ladybugs By: Melvin and Gilda Berger
KWL chart
Session 6
Repeated Reading
Grub to Ladybug By: Melvin and Gilda Berger
Ladybugs By: Melvin and Gilda Berger
KWL chart
Session 6
Final Assessment
One minute reading sample (WCPM)
Created Ladybug poster- to share with class what they have been learning about
Action Research
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Action Research
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able to measure fluency growth over the course of this project. During this assessment I
noticed that Student L struggled with reading at a consistent pace and was a little quiet as
she read. I think the more she learns about fluency the more confident of a reader she will
be coming resulting in a louder reading voice. Student L is a positive student who is
going to flourish into a more fluent reader over the course of the action research project.
Date/ Time
Spent
Strategy
10/9/14
20 mins
Anecdotal
Assessment
Observation
Plan for
Next
Session
Reflect/
Respond
-begin
choosing
books
focused on
student
interest
During this
meeting I
truly
realized the
passion and
zeal for
school that
both of the
students in
my group
had. Based
on the
information
gathered
from the
interest
inventory I
was able to
conclude
that both of
them really
do enjoy
school and
reading in
general.
Action Research
10/20/14
10 min
Baseline
Assessment
!6
Student L
and T came
into my
session with
smiles on
their faces
already
anticipating
the
Halloween
holiday a
week in
advance.
They both
appeared to
be having a
good
morning.
At the
beginning of
this session I
took a one
minute
reading
sample of
each student.
Both
students did
well and it
provided me
with
baseline data
of where
they stood.
-come up
with
example and
nonexamples for
the
multidimens
ional fluency
scale
-prepare for
lesson
-find more
books
-record data
This
assessment
gave me
information
on both
Student L
and Student
Ts accuracy
and rate.
Student L
had 29
WCPM and
Student T
had 23
WCPM/
I gathered
important
data at this
meeting.
Both Student
L and
Student T
were having
good days
and I think
they
preformed
well. I feel
that the
assessment
is a good
representatio
n of where
they are at as
far as
accuracy and
rate go.
Action Research
10/22/14
25 mins
Choral
Reading
!7
Student L
was having a
great day,
once again
she was
excited
about being
pulled out of
class to do
other work.
Student T
was a little
distracted
this
morning,
seemed to be
a little tired.
Both
students did
a great job
with the read
aloud. They
read with
almost one
hundred
percent
accuracy and
practiced
their
expressive
fluency
skills. The
students
really enjoy
working
outside of
the
classroom
and
spending
extra time on
reading.
Action Research
10/23/14
20 min
Multidimens
ional
Fluency
Scale/
Midpoint
Assessment
!8
Student T
was very
talkative
today and
had trouble
focusing on
the reading
and
understandin
g the
different
components
of the
multidimensi
onal fluency
scale.
Student L
was also a
little
confused on
the dynamics
of the scale.
Ultimately
going
through the
Multidimens
ional
Fluency
scale was an
assessment
of itself. I
was able to
observe both
students
response to
guided
instruction
based on
modeling.
Student T
scored 12/20
and Student
L scored
14/20.
What I liked
most about
this
assessment
was how it
encompasses
all aspects of
fluency
other than
just rate and
accuracy.
-further
research
partner
reading
-choose
books for
lesson
While the
students
both showed
a little
confusion
about the
terminology
on the
fluency
scale, they
seemed to be
receptive
and
responsive
to the
modeling.
Overall they
were able to
figure out
what fluent
reading
should
sound like
based on
modeling.
Action Research
10/24/14
Partner
Reading
25 min
KWL chart
!9
Student L
was a little
tired this
morning, did
not seem
like herself.
Student L
came around
when
learning
about what
we were
going to be
doing today.
Student T
and Student
L were
looking
forward to
reading lady
bug books
together
since it was
their topic of
choice!
One thing I
noticed
during this
session was
how the
students
would point
out things
such as
punctuation
and help
each other
with words
along the
way. It was
evident that
they were
putting the
fluency
skills they
had been
learning to
practice
while
reading
books
together and
taking turns
reading the
pages.
-continue
working on
KWL chart
This
appeared to
be the
strategy that
the action
research
students
enjoyed the
most. It may
have been
because they
were friends
from class,
but these
two loved
reading
together and
taking turns
practicing
their fluency
skills. The
students
were
somewhat
familiar with
this skill
because it is
a part of
their daily
five centers
that they do
in class.
Action Research
11/6/14
20 min
Repeated
Reading
Even after
all this time
Student L
-KWL Chart and Student
T still enjoy
being pulled
out to work
on
improving
their fluency
skills. It is
clear that
these two
want to
become the
best readers
they can be.
It is quite an
inspiration!
!10
While hearing
the students
continue to
read the same
books it was
clear the
progress they
were making.
They had
made vast
improvements
from the first
time they had
read the same
books the
previous
weeks.
Both students
were making
changes to the
way they read
especially
when it came
to expression.
Student L was
very aware of
punctuation
and what she
should do
with her voice
because of
that. Student
T was more
consistent in
her pace once
understoodng
who the text
should sound.
-find final
assessments
-write down
strategies to
review with
students
prior to
assessment
Considering
the girls
interest in
learning
about
ladybugs
they
continued to
be eager to
read books
about
ladybugs
even though
they were
the same.
The students
enjoyed
making note
of what they
had been
learning
about in
their very
own KWL
charts.
Action Research
11/18/14
15 min
Final
Assessment
Both Student
L and
Student T
Created
were having
Ladybug
a great day.
poster
We were all
sad our
-one minute meetings
reading
were coming
sampleor to and end,
was that
but excited
your final
about
assessment? making our
final project!
!11
Based on the n/a
final
assessment
data both
Student L
and Student
T increased
their
WCPM.
Student L
went from
29 to 31
WCPM and
Student T
went from
23 to 28
WCPM.
Also the
poster they
made about
ladybugs
showed
information
they learned
over the
course of the
project about
ladybugs
and fluency.
Strategies Used:
Multidimensional fluency scale
Partner Reading
Explicit Modeling
Choral Reading
Repeated Reading
Examples and Non Example (Fluency Rubric)
Lessons/ Assessment Used:
Multidimensional fluency scale
Student Interest Inventory
One Minute Reading Sample
I am
extremely
proud of the
progress
these two
students
made over
the course of
our action
research
project.
They were
also proud of
themselves
and that was
evident
during their
presentation
of their
project they
got to share
with the rest
of their class
about what
they had
learned.
Action Research
KWL Chart
Fluency Lesson (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom)
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Action Research
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1. While the One Minute Reading Sample is a great assessment for assessing rate and
accuracy, it does miss a few components of fluency. After realizing this, I noticed that I
needed to look at other aspects of fluency. I choose the Multidimensional Fluency Scale
in order to do this and allowed for this to be tool that drove my instruction. It provided
more details of where Student L and Student T stood as readers. Based on the results of
this assessment, I was able to determine I needed to put more of a focus on both
expression and volume because both students had lower scores in that portion of the
assessment.
2. When analyzing all aspects of the Multidimensional Fluency Scale it also came to my
attention that both students could also work on phrasing. The best way I could assist their
phrasing skills was through modeling. I realized that showing them how proper phrasing
is read aloud was much simpler than trying to explain it to them. In order to do this, I
modeled for them examples of proper phrasing and also provided non examples so that
they could understand the difference. As they continue to grow as readers, it will be
important for them to understand this concept.
3. When first looking at the Student Interest Inventories, it was extremely evident that
both students enjoyed school and the more time I spent with them I could tell that they
were both very social and active. After realizing this I made sure to incorporate activities
they could work on cooperatively and made sure to mix things up. I realized that because
of their young age they didnt always have the longest attention spans and if we spent too
much time on one thing they would get easily distracted or bored. Keeping them on task
and engaged was very important in order to maximize the short amount of time I had to
Action Research
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work with them. I made sure that we moved around and changed the environments where
we learned in order to keep things fresh and new.
Initial
Final
Student L
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Action Research