Getting There: The Beginning of the End

After a long battle with mini-unit 3, my class finished up today with the assessment.  They completed the science content assessment, but will have to wait until tomorrow to complete the reading part of the assessment.  My students did fairly well with the assessment, though not as well as they did on the last one.  The scores ranged from 40% to 90%, with the majority of students scoring 70% or 80% (8 students for each one).  The mean from my scores was a 74%, and the median score was a 75%.  The assessment consisted of 10 multiple choice questions; 5 were about the sun, and 5 were about the moon.  The questions centered on the location of the sun and moon, their basic properties, and their movements in relation to Earth.  Students had the most difficulty with the 3 questions dealing with rotating vs. revolving.  Students had a hard time keeping the two of them straight through the unit, despite my attempts to provide examples and reminders.  In the final unit, the concepts of revolution and rotation are highly important, as we will investigate the effects they have on the Earth.  I will continue to try to develop some ways to enhance students' understanding of these two crucial vocabulary words as we move forward.  My plan is to also continue with the use of read-alouds during this unit along with students reading various passages with a purpose to strengthen the sutdents' content knowledge and reading strategy use.  Finally, this last unit will have several hands-on demonstrations where students can see the effects the sun and moon have on Earth.  We will demonstrate the moon phases using lamps and Styrofoam balls, simulate day and night on the Earth using a lamp and a globe, and explore what happens during eclipses.

Looking back at the past several weeks, it is hard to believe this study will soon be over.  I have learned a lot about teaching reading and science and how the two benefit each other.  Over the course of the study, I have realized the importance of student engagement and reading with a purpose.  I knew they were important, but it wasn't until I watched videos of my students that I realized how unengaged some students were and the role that reading with a purpose could play in keeping them focused.  There has been lots of trial and error throughout this study, and I suppose that is the way action research should be.  We (researchers) try something, note its effects on the participants (students, in my case), and adjust our plan accordingly.  Several times I noted activities or lessons were not as effective as they could have been, and through my reflection afterwards, I was able to create more productive lessons for my students.  This experience was a wonderful reminder of the power of reflection!  Having the support of my small group has also been helpful.  Reading their feedback on my blog is encouraging because it shows how other educators are interested in what I am doing and in my results.  It was also helpful for me because I was able to share ideas with my fellow researchers and learn from them and what they found useful.

My study is not quite over yet, but it's getting there.  I plan to gather data for about 1 more week and then have my students complete their post-assessment.  It will be a time crunch, I know, but I feel it is important to get this last unit in.  I am excited about the idea of finishing up my study and pulling all the data together, but I am also nervous.  It seems like such a monumental task, even with all I've been doing along the way to help.  We will see how it all goes, I suppose.  It's the beginning of the end!

Oh dear...

One group's KW(L) chart for the moon.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this unit has been fairly difficult.  The title for this post could, perhaps, be the title for this unit in some ways.  We started off strong, with students creating a KWL chart for the moon and the sun.  Students shared their knowledge and questions with partners, then created posters for both the sun and the moon recording their current knowledge and questions they had.  The students did well with this, and I felt we were off and running.

Afterward, it seemed like slow going.  Instruction seemed to be disjointed as a result of snow days, scrimmages, student sickness, and assemblies.  We read texts on the moon and on the sun.  Students listened for answers to their questions and recorded what they learned.  Students read and discussed texts with partners.  Overall, I think they learned the science content.  We will soon see...

The reading content was more difficult for me.  I tried to embed this instruction with my science instruction as students listened to read-alouds and read texts with partners.  We practiced reading nonfiction texts and finding the main idea and supporting details.  We used different colored highlighters to show the main idea and details.  I had a brilliant idea the other day.  I took information about the moon that and created paragraphs about different topics.  I created cards (one sentence on each) and mixed them up on a page.  Students were to work with partners to cut out the different sentences, group them by which ideas went together, and then decide which sentence was the main idea and which ones were the details.  The students would then glue the cards in the correct place on their pages.  It was brilliant...a veritable "marriage" of science and reading that would be incredibly effective. 



Oh, the carnage...

Sometimes what you plan and what actually happens are two completely different things, however.  This "marriage" of science and reading seemed reminiscent of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries's marriage.  Glue sticks malfunctioned, students lost the ability to cut, and students' cards were "eaten" by that sneaky little monster that sometimes comes around and gobbles up homework pages and notes that were supposed to go home.  Many of the students were confused about which ideas went together, and even after getting that straight, some students had trouble distinguishing between the main ideas and details.  Students glued their strips down incorrectly, then ripped them off, and tried to reglue them.  As I walked around supervising the groups, I became overwhelmed by the number of students who needed help.  During the activity, it was all I could do to not throw up my hands and run away.  In the end, we went over the page together to check it, and some of the final products looked pretty rough. 

It was definitely one of those "live and learn" days.  I learned to make the content a little easier for the main ideas and details so students can easily sort out the topics.  I learned that maybe having 4 different topics was too much at first.  Most of all, I learned never to hand out the glue sticks until students have laid their strips out and had their answers checked by me. 



Where am I?

Imagine you are a graduate student conducting a research study.  You realized you only have about 2 weeks left to gather data for your study.  How do you feel?

A. Excited.  You are almost there!

B. Anxious.  There is still so much to do!

C. Apathetic.  It isn't really THAT important...

D. Both A and B.

The correct answer is, of course, D.  Actually, either A, B, or D would be accepted, but C is definitely not an option, at least for me!  With only a couple of weeks left to gather data, I thought I would stop and take a look at where I am in the study.  Hopefully this will help me focus on what really needs to be done during the next several days.  Here we go...


Where have I been?

• My first unit covered the Earth and its properties (science) and using text features to read nonfiction (reading).  The students did fairly well with the science content, and began to use text features some when reading.  We did some round-robin reading (why, oh, why did I do that???), partner reading, and read-alouds.  I felt like my students were not as engaged as they should be, though, and I sought out ways to "up" their engagement with the texts to make learning more interesting and meaningful.
• My second unit focused on the general structure of the solar system (science) and continued with text features (reading).  I had students do a lot of partner reading while completing an outline of the main ideas.  This increased their engagement and also held them accountable for the material.  I also included read-alouds and some more "fun" activities like creating trading cards for the planets and completing a mini-book on the unit.  The students really learned the material well, and were highly engaged in the learning process.  Lots of great discussions took place between students as they interacted with the texts.  The students showed skill with using text features to find information, though not all showed this learning through the assessment. 

Where am I now?

• I am finishing up my third unit, which introduces students to the basic properties and locations of the sun and moon.  The reading skill for this unit is identifying the main idea and details in a passage.  This unit sets students up for our final unit which explores the relationship between the sun, moon, and Earth.  This is a BIG idea for our unit.  This unit has been okay.  It wasn't as big of a flop as I thought the first unit was, but I'm not sure it is going as well as the second unit did.  I am still using some read-alouds and some partner reading along with outlines.  Integrating the main idea skill with the science content has been difficult to do. I feel as if I am either doing "reading" time or "science" time, but not doing them together well.  Part of this "scrambled" feeling may be because we've had so much sickness at school that it seems I never have all my students there.  It could also be because we've had a difficult schedule lately with assemblies, scrimmages, snow days, and other interruptions.  Finally, THE TEST is looming imminently in the future, so the concerns of "Have I taught everything I need to?" have also been running through my mind.  So...

Where am I going?

• I will finish up my third unit and head into unit number four.  This unit has students combine knowledge from other units to explore the relationships between the sun, moon, and Earth.  I will focus on identifying cause and effect for the reading skill in this unit, which will be important because students are, in fact, looking at cause and effect relationships between these three objects in our solar system.  After this unit, students will complete the post-assesment (the same as the pre-assessment) for both the science and reading content.  This will (hopefully) show student growth in both areas.

What do I need to do?

• Continue to use nonfiction texts with students
• Really focus on integrating science and reading, not just having both things during the same time
• Keep my students engaged and interested!

I'm not sure if this helped me or made me realize how much more I have to do, but at least I've reflected some on my journey.  Hopefully I am able to make the most out of the next few weeks!

Text Features Assessment

While I taught my first 2 mini-units in science, my reading focused on 1 main skill: using text features to read non-fiction.  My assessment results provided an interesting look at what my students learned about text features. 
 
The assessment consisted of 2 parts.  The first part required students to read a non-fiction passage and answer questions that required them to use the text features found in the text.  The second part required students to match the name of a text featurs (ex. title) to its "job".  This provided me with 2 sets of information.  First, could students identify the basic jobs of the text features (recall level) and second, could the students apply that knowledge to reading a passage and answering questions.  Below is a breakdown of my students' scores on the assessment.


Part 1: Answering questions on the text requiring use of the text features.  10 questions, multiple choice.

• 3 students answered fewer than half of the questions correctly
• 3 students answered exactly half of the questions correctly
•  13 students answered more than half of the questions correctly

Part 2: Matching the text feature with its "job". 9 questions, matching.

• 8 students answered fewer than half of the questions correctly
• 11 students answered more than half of the questions correctly

*Note: 1 student put no effort into the matching section and simply wrote the letters on the blanks in reverse alphabetical order.  His answers to the 9 questions were I, H, G, F, E, D, C, B, and A, in that order.  It's hard to say whether he really did not know the jobs of the text features or simply chose not to try.


Overall, the scores weren't terrible, but they weren't as stellar as the science assessment scores either.  Text features are difficult to teach, because there are so many of them that can be used.  In addition, most students I have taught did not have much background with text features, so introducing them all AND expecting them to apply the text features as they read is a tall order.  I am concerned that perhaps I am not spending enough time or effort on the reading aspect of my instruction.  The students are exposed to a variety of texts each day and have several different opportunities to interact with the texts.  During read-alouds, I consistently asked students quesitons about the text features they saw and how they felt the features helped them understand the text better.  Perhaps I did not have enough "focused" time working specifically with text features.  I am trying t correct this as I work through my next unit, but it is a difficult balance to achieve.  I have been greatly surprised over the course of this study to see how flexible my plan has become.  It really is just like what I do in my classroom everyday; I teach the students, see what does/does not work, and "tweak" it to make it more effective.  I am hopeful that I can continue to strengthen my integrated reading and science instruction as I get nearer to the end of this study.

Unit 2 Assessment: Success!

Last week my students took the assessment on mini-unit 2.  The unit focused on the general structure of the solar system.  The questions and results from the assessment are listed below.

Question: What is at the center of the solar system? (Multiple choice)

• 18/19 correct

Question: Name the 4 inner planets. (List)

• 4 correct: 17/19
• Only 3 correct: 2/19
• Only 2 correct: 0
• Only 1 correct: 0
• None correct: 0

Question: What is one way the inner planets are alike? (Short answer)

• 16/19 correct

Question: Name the 4 outer planets. (List)

• 4 correct: 17/19
• Only 3 correct: 2/19
• Only 2 correct: 0
• Only 1 correct: 0
• None correct: 0

Question: What is one way the outer planets are alike? (Short answer)

• 15/19 correct

Question: Tell one way the inner planets are different from the outer planets. (Short answer)

• 13/19 completely correct
• 5/19 partially correct (gave detail about 1 only, did not tell which was which, etc.)
• 1/19 completely incorrect

Mean: 92.3%
Median: 100%
Range: 62% - 100%
Scores:

•  100% (10 students)
•  92% (5 students)
•  85% (1 student)
•  77% (1 student)
•  69% (1 student)
• 62% (1 student)

Notes:

• 62% - Sarah – absent 3 days of unit
• 69% - Kara – absent 2 days of unit

Overall, I was very happy with the scores.  Students showed an understanding of the structure of the solar system and were able to identify and describe both the inner and outer planets.  This unit was likely successful because of the increase in student engagement with the material.  Students worked with partners to read a variety of texts about the solar system.  The students read the texts with a specific purpose in mind each time.  This allowed students to focus in on the important information from each passage and remain engaged with the material as opposed to sitting and listening to me present the information.  In this unit, the students were the ones doing most of the work, and I believe it paid off.

Innies vs. Outies...

To finish off our brief mini-unit on the solar system, we discussed the four inner planets and the four outer planets.  The students were really interested and engaged as we discussed the planets, and I feel confident that they really understood the material.  During these lessons (it took 3 in all) students used several strategies to learn science content and practice reading skills.  Below is a general summary of each day's lessons:



Day 1
Students read two pages in their science books about the inner planets.  These pages named the inner planets and discussed similarities and differences between them.  The students worked with partners to read the text and specifically looked for and recorded ways the inner planets were similar and difference in their learning logs.  At the end, we came up with a list together as a class showing what we read.  This was effective because the students were reading with a specific purpose in mind.  Finally, students created a trading card for each of the inner planets, including the name of the planet, a drawing, what it's made of, the number it is from the sun (ex. Mercury is #1), and an interesting fact.



Day 2
We watched a video from www.brainpopjr.com on reading non-fiction.  It reviewed various text features.  Students read through the rest of the textbook lesson with partners and completed a Non-Fiction Text Feature Scavenger Hunt page.  They had to find examples of a heading, photograph, caption, diagram, and special type (bold words) in the text.  They then had to record what page it was on, write/draw the example on their page, and explain how it helped them understand the text better.  Most of the students did pretty well with this, though some showed a limited understanding of the text features.  For example, some students wrote that the text feature helped them understand the text better, but this did not specifically say how.  Overall, 12/16 students were able to correctly identify all 5 text features, and 11 of these students were able clearly and accurately describe how at least 3 of the text features helped them understand the text better.

Day 3
Students read two pages in their textbook with partners and look for ways the outer planets are all similar.  They recorded these similarities in their learning logs.  We discussed our findings together as a class.  Then, the students worked with partners again, this time to compare and contrast the inner planets and the outer planets using information they have gathered in their learning logs and their textbooks.  They completed a Venn diagram to show this information.  During this time, I noticed one group in particular having difficulty focusing, but the other groups did well.  One group was especially impressive as they used science vocabulary ("They all go around...they all orbit the sun.") and acted as teachers to each other during the process (one student gave a detail, and the other asked her to tell which section of the diagram that should go under).  To sum it all up, we shared what we found as a class and made one large Venn diagram to show this.  During the last few minutes, students worked to complete trading cards for each of the outer planets.

 

These lessons went very well, and I am confident in my students' knowledge about both the inner and outer planets at this point.  I believe this came from a combination of more effective teaching methods (reading with a purpose and more student engagement) and a high interest in the topics being covered.  In my next post, I will share the results from my assessment from this mini-unit.

Using Mini-Books

During this lesson, I utilized reproducible mini-books about the solar system to get students reading and talking about the content.  The mini-books came from the book "Nonfiction Read & Write Booklets: Science", by Alyse Sweeney (2010), and they are wonderful because they use various text features, discuss science content, and ask students questions based on what they read.  During this lesson, the students worked in pairs, reading the books and answering the questions.  There were many discussions that came about from this book, especially regarding one question that asked "Which planets do you think are the hottest?  Why?"  Some of my discussions are transcribed below.

A discussion with Leslie revealed that sometimes students don't think things through, but just take what the textbook says as "Gospel Truth":

• Me: Which planets do you think are the hottest?
•  Leslie: Um… (looks at the diagram in the mini-book) Mercury…and Venus.
•  Me: Why do you think they’re the hottest?
•  Leslie: I think because…it said…in our science book.
•  Me: Is there anything from that diagram that makes you think that they would be the hottest?
• Leslie: Because they’re closest to the sun. 



Calvin shows some strong critical thinking in answering this question.
 

A discussion with Kara and Caleb exposed some misconceptions about why some planets are warmer than others:

• Me: Which planets do you think are the hottest?
•  Kara: Jupiter.
•  Me: Jupiter? Why do you think Jupiter is the hottest?
•  Kara: Because it’s big and it has gas.
•  Me: What about you, Caleb?
•  Caleb: I don’t know. (shrugs)
•  Me: Look at that diagram. How can the diagram help you see which planets are the warmest? (both students look at their mini-books) Like, do you think Venus…is warmer or colder than Jupiter?
•  Caleb: I don’t know. (looks at page)
•  Me: Well, what do you think?
•  Caleb: Warmer?
•  Me: Why do you think it might be warmer on Venus than on Jupiter?
•  Caleb: (scratches his chin and looks at his book)
•  Me: What part of the solar system gives us heat?
•  Kara: The sun.
•  Me: So what planets do you think are the hottest?
•  Kara: The sun?
•  Me: The sun’s not a planet, remember? What planet do you think would be the hottest?
•  Kara: Venus.
•  Me: Venus? Why?
•  Kara: Because it’s closer to the sun than all of the other planets.
•  Me: Is there another planet closer to the sun than Venus?
•  Caleb: Mars?
•  Me: Mars is farther away (pointing to diagram).
•  Caleb: Mmm…Mercury?
•  Me: Mercury. So, Mercury and Venus are probably the hottest because…they are…
•  Kara: Closer to the sun.
• Me: Right. Now being a big planet doesn’t have anything to do with how work or how cold it is…it’s just the size of it, okay?

That conversation took a lot out of me!  I thought we would never get to the point of understanding that the closer a planet is to the sun, the warmer it is.  Looking back, I do wish I would have done a couple of things differently.  I should have asked if there was anything on the page they were looking at that could help them figure out which planets were the hottest instead of directing them to the diagram first.  This would have probably been more effective.  I also wish I would have asked Kara if the sun was a planet instead of telling her.  It's those little things, asking questions to make them think instead of telling them, that can help them become better thinkers.



After reading and completing their mini-books, my students used their Science textbooks to correctly color the planets.


Finally, I had a great conversation with Melanie and Evan, who showed great critical thinking skills to think through their original misconceptions:

•  Melanie: We don’t really know why Neptune and Uranus would be, um, so hot, but I remember reading it in one of the books we read. But at first we said they’re so far out and if they’re so far out, then they would be colder.
•  Me: Mm-hm… So if they’re really far awayfrom the sun, they would be colder, right?
•  Melanie:(nods)
•  Me: So if that’s true, the probably wouldn’t be the hottest planets, would they?
•  Melanie: (shakes head) No.
•  Me: So which ones would be the hottest?
•  Evan: I think the ones that would be it were Venus and Mar- (sounding it out) Mercury.
•  Me: And why do you think that they’re the hottest, Evan?
•  Evan: Because they’re so close to the sun.
•  Me: I think that's good logic.  That's good thinking!  Good job!

Evan's mini-book and the infamous question about the hottest planets...

Using the mini-books was a really helpful activity, and it exposed some misconceptions my students had about the solar system.  I plan to try to use others with this unit to help strengthen my students' reading skills and content knowledge.

Catching Up...

I think I may finally be getting caught up on things now.  This past week nearly killed me, with Site Base meetings, Staff meetings, Face-to-Face class, and a visitation, I've been exhausted.  Thankfully, I've had some time now to get caught up on things and feel more confident about where I am and where I am headed.  Now, for some data...

I recently began my second mini-unit for the study.  During this unit, we focus on the basic structure of the solar system.  It is the shortest unit we will have, but it is an important one to build students' understanding of the solar system and its parts.  I planned to use the textbook a lot more during this unit simply because it has all the information I need right there in one spot.  Since using an outline and having students read the text and complete the outline worked so well before, I decided to use it again during the lesson. 

As the students worked with their partners, I walked around and took notes, talking with students as I went.  Here are some of the conversations I heard...

A conversation between Maria and Nadia (pseudonyms):

• Maria: The sun’s gravity is very strong because of its “blank”. (Nadia begins searching in the book; Maria sits for a second, and then looks in her book too. Then she looks back at her paper and then at her book again.)
• Maria: It’s bec… , the grav..., the gravity is strong because of the sun’s size (motions with her hands to show a large round shape in front of her).
• Nadia: (nods)
• Me: How’d you know that, Maria?
• Maria: Because I read. (points to book and reads) “The gravity on the sun is really strong. That’s because of its great size.”

This was great because it shows how Maria has learned to read non-fiction to find the answer she needs.

Another conversation I overhead happened between Eric, Caleb, and Calvin:

• (The boys are sitting on the beanbags with their books and clipboards. Calvin seems to be unsure of something. Eric is eyeing me, and then continues to talk. Calvin’s book is not open. He opens it now as they talk.)
• Me: Were you two debating something?
• Eric: What’s “debating” mean?
• Me: Debating means, like, kind of arguing, but not like “fighting”, arguing. It’s like discussing back and forth. One of you thinks it’s one answer and one of you thinks it’s another.
• Eric: (shakes head)
• Me: No? I heard you were looking at the one that talks about how big the sun is. Are you thinking about what we saw in the BrainPop [video]?
• Calvin: Yeah, because it said there was a hundred Earths.
• Me: I think it said more than a hundred, so that would... they didn’t give the exact number, but you know it’s more than a hundred.
• (The boys nod and continue to search for the answer.)

The videos on www.brainpopjr.com are a resource I frequently use.  The students love the way the material is presented, often making it fun and easy to remember.  We can take a "quiz" at the end to see what they remember, and there are even games and other activities as well.  This is also a great resource because it provides more exposure to the content the students need to know.  According to Heisey and Kucan (2010), using multiple texts increases the chance that students will remember and really understand the information afterward, which is what I am hoping for. 


References:

Heisey, N. & Kucan, L. (2010). Introducing science concepts to primary students through read-alouds: Interactions and multiple texts make the difference. The Reading Teacher, 63(8), 666-676.

Another "Thick Description"

I certainly hope that "Better late than never" is an acceptable phrase with my study.  It's been a crazy week and a half, and though I've been keeping data and videoing my observations, I haven't had time to post about them on here.  I blame it on my perfectionism.  I don't want to work on something until I have enough time to do it all and do it right.  Unfortunately, in a life as busy as mine right now, that time rarely comes around.  I'm working on it...

This thick description came from a day last week when we were finishing up our first unit.  The unit focused on the Earth, and to review, I had students do an activity called "10 Most Important Words".  This activity is from a book called Content Counts!: Developing Disciplinary Literacy Skills, K-6 by Jennifer Altieri (2011).  For this activity, students work with partners to come up with the 10 most important words about a topic.  Then, all students share their words and create a graph to show which words were most popular.  You can then have discussion about which words were chosen most frequently and why.  Below is a description of the activity within my classroom...

After introducing the activity, I had students get to work and began walking around the room, taking note of what was happening.  The room was again filled with discussion and debate as students worked together to come up with the 10 most important words to describe our Earth unit.  Many students had out their learning logs and were flipping through the pages, finding key ideas and vocabulary.  Walking around the room, I noticed some reluctance of students to look for information.  In one pair, M was actively looking through her learning log for words, while E had his book open, but his head down on his desk.  In the next group, J was writing an important word down and his partner, B, was watching me make my rounds.  Both of their journals were closed.  The next group was more productive, with M writing with her learning log open while R watched and waited.  Then M passed the index card over to R and he wrote a word.  As I made my way to the back of the room, I heard some arguing and went to investigate.  Two groups were in a dispute because one group accused the other of cheating and listening to their words.  With a reminder to keep our eyes to ourselves and whisper so others don't hear our answers, I moved on to the next groups.  The pattern continued as I circled around the room.  In pairs, both students were beginning to work together, with one writing a word as the partner watched and/or looked for the word he or she wanted to add.  A couple of students ducked behind their learning logs as I came around with my camera to capture their interactions.  They are still a little camera-shy.  Some students ask questions as I pass by.  B wants to know if they can use words from when we read The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over.  She also asked for some help in remembering a word from earlier in the week. 

 

B: "What was that word from yesterday?  It was long and started with an "a"."

Me: "Atmosphere?"
B: Yeah!

 

After several minutes of collaboration with their groups, I called the students back together and had them share their words.  With each new word, we created a spot on a line plot and put an "x".  Each time a word was given after that, we added an "x" to the plot.  To help students see the breakdown of how each group responded, I even used a different color for each group's words.

 

 

The most popular words chosen along with the reasons given by the students are listed below:



• Core - because it's the middle of the Earth
• Crust - it's a part of our Earth
• Gases - it's a part that happens in the clouds and a little bit on our Earth
• Mantle - part of the inside of our Earth
• Evaporation - it happens in the water cycle
• Liquid - it's part of how our rain comes down
• Earth - the unit is about the Earth

While most words were closely aligned to the main ideas of the unit, some words were listed that were irrelevant or loosely linked to the unit.  These words are listed below:

• Sink
• Creek
• River
• Toilet
• Pool
• Ocean
• Aluminum

The first 6 words likely came from the list we made during our day discussing water on Earth.  We first brainstormed places where we saw/used water.  Several of these words were on the list.  I'm not sure exactly where "aluminum" came from, however.  We had a discussion about how even though these words were mentioned during our unit, they weren't exactly the most important words we found.
The students seemed to enjoy this activity, and though we had some trouble getting all students involved at the beginning, most students were engaged by the end.  This activity is great for getting students to really think about the most important ideas and vocabulary from a unit and was an excellent review for our first mini-unit.  I plan to use it again!

"Thick Descriptions": Finally a success!

During this lesson yesterday, I finally felt like I had some luck with keeping my students engaged while incorporating science content and reading instruction.  Here are my notes from the observation, which also serve as my first bit of "thick description".  Please note: this is my first attempt at "thick description", and while I am getting the hang of it, I am not quite there yet...bear with me! 

The article the students read

Students were working with partners on reading the article “Why Can We Breathe on Earth?” and then completed an outline together with important ideas from the passage.  First, we previewed the article, and I asked students to identify words they were not familiar with or did not know by highlighting them.  After a few minutes, the students shared the words they had highlighted and we went over them.  I did this because during some of the other lessons, students were not familiar with words used in the reading and this became an obstacle for them.  At least now, the students were somewhat familiar with the words and had heard them before.

Afterward, students paired themselves up and read the article together, working to complete an outline I created.  The students seemed really bored during one of our last lessons when we read and discussed material from the science text book.  Using this article outline gave students a chance to search for relevant science information in the passage and use their non-fiction reading skills as well.  As the students read and discussed the article, I noticed how engaged they all were.

Students read with partners

I walked around the room, careful to avoid stepping on the pairs of students working on the carpet, in the floor, and on the bean bags.  Two students played “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to determine who read the first part of the article.  Other pairs were already busy at work, using their highlighters to help them understand the passage better.  Some students highlighted important ideas, while others used the highlighters to find the information in their outline.  The room was filled with conversation as students read and discussed the article about Earth’s atmosphere.  One pair raised their hands frequently, asking what certain words in the passage were, even though we discussed those words before reading.  I wondered if they had paid attention during that part of the lesson.  Another pair chose to work on their outline separately, reading silently and then completing the outline individually before checking their answers together. Two boys who were working together surprised me as they sped through the outline page, getting all the questions correct.  They are best friends who tend to become more interested in talking to each other than in doing their school work.  Apparently, something about this assignment “worked” for them.  Students followed along with the article as their partners read and debated the answers to some of the questions.  I experienced one pair having this conversation about the answer to question #5 (Some of the gas in our atmosphere is oxygen, but most of it is _____________.):

     M: I think I found number 5.  It’s Nitrogen!
     S: (throwing her hands in the air) I told you that!
     Me: Why do you think it’s nitrogen?
     M: It said (pointing to the outline) “Most of it is a ‘blank’, most of it is, but in here (pointing to text) it said, um, most of it is a gas called nitrogen.

As I continued to walk around the room, I was amazed at how engaged the students were.  Most students were working diligently with their partners, either reading or completing the outline.  Several pairs, like the one described above, had different ideas on what the answers to the quesitons could be.  I heard students explaining their thinking and sharing their ideas.  When I checked the students’ outlines, I saw that most of the answers were correct, showing they read and understood the information. 

At the end of the lesson, I asked a few students whether they preferred this method of reading or reading out of the textbook better.  Of the six students I asked, all of them agreed it was better.  One student explained why:

     S: I like it better ‘cause, um, we get to work with a partner and we don’t have to just sit and listen and then go back to our seats and, like, do our work, and we can just read it and do our work.

This lesson showed me that my students can become engaged in this process.  The students really loved working with partners, especially since they were able to choose them.  Using the outline held students accountable for the new information they had to learn and required them to use the non-fiction reading skills we have talked about during previous lessons.  In addition, the outline really gave them a purpose for reading, making it more authentic than simply sitting and listening.  This gives me hope for future lessons!

More Meaningful Conversations

After a few days of struggling this week, I saw some progress during our lesson about water on the Earth.  The students gathered on the back carpet and listened to a read-aloud.  We read The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over, a book adaptation of the animated TV series based on The Magic School Bus book series by Joanna Cole.  This book was a great choice because my students are highly familiar with the characters and format of the TV series and books.  We watch The Magic School Bus videos often on Fridays when we eat lunch in our classroom.
During the read-aloud, I asked the students to use their learning logs to write down any important information about the water cycle.  This took a little modeling because we did this once before and I had several students who simply listed every word they heard in the story that they could.  Before I began reading this time, I gave some examples of what types of information to write down, including important vocabulary, facts, questions, or connections.  As I began to read, it was obvious that the students were more engaged in the story than they had been with the textbook.  Throughout the story, students took notes about key details they heard.  We had several meaningful discussions about the difference between evaporation, condensation, and precipitation and the three states of water on Earth (solid, liquid, and gas).  The students made connections and asked questions as well.  One student made a connection between the evaporation of water from her deck at home during the summer and what happened in the book.  She said:

"In the summer when my brother, like...um...gets water and puts it on the deck, it dries so quickly.  That's probably because it goes all the way up to the sky."

One student's learning log

Students also had questions about how we are drinking the same water now as people and animals did many years ago.  They were fascinated by this and also slightly disgusted.  Fortunately, the book took a mini side-trip through the water purification process so students gained information about how our water is cleaned up before we drink it.  That information eased some of their worries about drinking water that others had used before them.
At the end of the read-aloud, students turned and talked to the person sitting next to them and shared an important fact they learned from the story.  Several students shared their facts, and while some required a little clarification, others were accurate.  Some facts that emerged from the discussion were:

• Water always flows to the lowest spot.
• The water cycle never ends.
• Water can drip.
• Evaporated water turns into clouds.
• Evaporation is the rain that pours down on the land.  (This one required some clarification and we revisited the meanings of "precipitation" vs. "evaporation".)

Overall, I was pleased with how this discussion went.  The students were much more engaged than they had been earlier this week, and the discussions we had were meaningful and included many references to our new science vocabulary.  I plan to use The Magic School Bus books more during this study to help students have meaningful conversations about content within the context of a story.

Tweaking

This week has been a struggle in many ways.  I'm getting over tonsillitis, it's been a crazy week at school (and yes, it's only been 2 days so far!), and I'm very overwhelmed with the research study right now. 
I can't seem to master being able to teach and deliver my lesson and also take notes at the same time.  I am too busy teaching, redirecting, and working with the kids during the lessons to be able to take notes, and though I'm trying to video tape the lessons so I can review them after school, that adds another couple of hours to my day on top of the regular duties I have as a teacher.  Managing my time and getting good observation notes is absolutely my biggest struggle right now.
Another struggle I have had is the feeling that my students are not as engaged as I would like during our lessons.  We are reading a lot of non-fiction and currently studying how to use text features to read and understand that type of text.  We are applying these strategies to non-fiction texts about the Earth.  I have been trying to have students exposed to a lot of different text about our topics because studies I have read on teaching content through literacy have found it is most beneficial if you don't simply rely on one text (for example, the science book).  I thought everything sounded good to go when I originally planned out my units, but after watching through the taped lessons, I see several students who are not engaged.  They seemed to perk up a bit during today's lesson when we addressed a question they had earlier in the unit.  When we discussed the layers of the Earth, my students wanted to knw how scientists knew what the inside of the Earth was like if they couldn't dig there.  It was a great question, and I let them know I would dig up an answer.  Today, they weren't particularly interested in what we were talking about when suddenly we came across the answer to their question in the text we were reading.  They became excited about it and wanted to know what it said. 
That incident got me thinking...maybe I need to have more student influence in my units.  I don't feel like they can completely guide where we go in our study because I have certain content I need to address, but perhaps we could start a list of questions we have at the beginning of each mini-unit and actively see if we can find the answers to those questions as we read.  This question of how to keep students engaged while still teaching them the content they need is one I am going to ponder for a while.  I am going to try a few different tactics during tomorrow's lesson to keep them engaged while we are reading and see how that works out.  During the next couple of days, I will be in "tweaking" mode for sure.  Stay tuned to see how that turns out!

Pre-Assessments: Lots of Room to Grow!

This past week, my students completed pre-assessments to measure their current knowledge of reading skills and science content which I will teach over the course of the study.  The results are in and it looks like my student participants have a lot of room to grow, especially in the area of science!

The reading pre-assessment tested several different skills, including using text features to read non-fiction, main idea and details, and cause and effect.  The bulk of the test focused on non-fiction text structures because it is such a broad topic to cover and most of the instruction during the unit will focus on introducing and developing these skills.  The assessment included two page-long reading passages (both non-fiction) and was a combination of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and questions requiring 1 or 2 word answers.  Students read the passages on their own and answered the questions with no help from me.  Data from the assessment is found below:

• Range of scores: 16% - 89%
• Mean score: 64%
• Median score: 65%
• Average percentage of text feature questions answered correctly: 66%
• Average percentage of main idea and details questions answered correctly: 65%
• Average percentage of cause and effect questions answered correctly: 52%

When I looked at these scores, I noticed several things.  The students who scored at the top are the students who typically perform the best in my class, so these test results seem to correlate with typical student performance.  Likewise, the students who scored the lowest on the assessment are those who typically perform lower in my class.  On average, students performed worst on the cause and effect questions.  Is this because there were so few of them or because the students have a more difficult time understanding cause and effect relationships within non-fiction texts?

My science pre-assessment was similar to the one given in reading.  It covered science concepts that I will teach during the unit.  To develop the assessment, I took the targets from each unit (which I wrote using the Core Content for Assessment) and created questions to show whether or not the student met that standard.  Some standards had multiple targets, so there were multiple questions.  Similarly, some targets were not as broad, so there were fewer questions.  The questions on the assessment were a combination of multiple choice, true/false, listing, and short answer questions.  One major difference between this pre-assessment and the one for reading is that I read the science pre-assessment to them.  I did not offer any help or hints on what words meant or what the answers were, but I did read the questions and answer choices (if applicable) to the whole class.  The reason for doing this is to really measure the students' science content.  If students were expected to read the assessment and answer the questions, then this would assess both their reading capabilities and their knowledge of science content.  I realize that in real life, students will be required to read assessments (I'm thinking of the KPREP assessment), but for the purposes of this study, I wanted to only measure what they knew about science before and after the unit.  When I give students the post-assessment, I will follow the same procedure, reading the questions and answer choices to them, but giving no help or guidance.  Data from this assessment is shown below:

• Range of scores: 3% - 33%
• Mean score: 21%
• Median score: 22%
• Average percentage of Unit 1 questions answered correctly: 29%
• Average percentage of Unit 2 questions answered correctly: 23%
• Average percentage of Unit 3 questions answered correctly: 97%
• Average percentage of Unit 4 questions answered correctly: 9%

Again, I saw several patterns in the data.  Students did most poorly on the Unit 4 questions.  As I considered why this could be, I looked back at the questions.  Six of the seven questions for this unit required short answer responses, whereas other units contained more multiple choice questions.  The short answer questions are much more difficult for students to answer correctly if they don't know the content because they can't just guess a letter choice or take a stab at writing the correct term down.  Instead, they have to fully understand the concept.  Though I realize these questions are more difficult, I did this intentionally because they take several smaller concepts about the sun, moon, and Earth, and combine them to discuss the effects these bodies have on each other.
Similarly, the students performed best on Unit 3 questions.  These questions are all multiple choice, which tend to be easier because students can simple guess even if they don't know the correct answer.  Again, I tried to match the level of understanding needed for the concept to the level of difficulty for the question, and I hope that students show more understanding in both unit concepts by the end of this study.  Units 1 and 2 were similar in their averages.  Both had some listing questions and multiple choice questions.  Unit 2 also had 3 short answer questions.  Most students had no idea what to even guess on these questions, and it showed in their performance.
One last observation on these scores is that the students who scored highest on the science pre-assessment were not necessarily the students who typically perform highest in the class.  The same is true with those students who scored the lowest.  This is interesting, but since these students have likely had much less exposure to science content than reading, I don't find it too out of the ordinary.

After looking at the data, perhaps one of the most important findings is that students performed significantly better on the reading pre-assessment than the science pre-assessment.  This supports the idea that students receive a large amount of reading instruction, but very little content area instruction.  I hope that by the end of my study, students are able to perform well on both assessments!

Survey Time!

My students have been very busy so far this week completing some different requirements for our study.  They completed a pre-assessment over science content and reading skills that will be taught during the course of the unit.  My students were not big fans of this because it took some time and meant testing, which they generally dislike.  I assured them, however, that this was an important task to do because it will let me see how much they have learned and grown over the course of the study.  I'm still scoring their pre-assessments, and I'll share those results a little later. 

They also filled out a survey asking their opinions on reading, science, and non-fiction.  For both reading and science, students were asked whether or not the liked the subject and then asked to tell what parts they liked, didn't like, and wanted to change.  The last section simply asked whether they liked reading non-fiction or not and why they felt that way.  The results were very interesting to read!  Before discussing the results, it is important to note that 18/19 students have completed the survey.  I have one student who still needs to complete it.  My students were given the option of putting their names on their papers or not, and most chose not to.  When I collected the papers, I put them facedown in a pile and then mixed them up once they were all collected.  This helped ensure that I kept the surveys as anonymous as possible for those students who didn't put their names on the page.

Below I have listed the results of the survey.  The answers to what students liked, disliked, and wanted to change showed the most popular responses, and similar answers were grouped together.  Hopefully showing the results like this will make the data easier to read and understand.

Reading
Do you like reading?  Yes - 13, No - 5
What do you like about our reading time?

• It is fun/read funny stories - 3 students
• I just like to read - 3 students
• Miss Kendall reads to us - 2 students
• Nothing - 2 students
• Other answers given by individual students included reading non-fiction, asking questions, the quiet time, independent reading time, it "gives me something to do", and comparing and contrasting.  One student did not answer this question.

What do you not like about our reading time?

• It's boring - 5 students
• Nothing - 3 students
• Having reading spots (during independent reading time) - 2 students
• Don't like the type of books (short books, fiction) - 2 students
• Other answers given by individual students included that it takes too long, we write sometimes, when Miss Kendall reads, there are no games, answering questions, and we don't read enough

What would you change about our reading time?

• Nothing - 4 students
• No reading spots - 3 students
• Make it more fun - 2 students
• Not as long - 2 students
• Other answers given by individual students included getting more beanbags to sit on, reading longer, playing reading games, reading more non-fiction, letting students read aloud instead of the teacher, getting to draw, and reading more books

Science
Do you like science? Yes - 18, No - 0
What do you like about our science time?

• It is fun/exciting - 4 students
• We do projects/make things - 4 students
• We learn about stuff - 3 students
• We work in groups - 2 students
• Other answers given by individual students included doing experiments, "everything", looking closely at things, and talking about animals.  One student said she did not know what she liked.

What do you not like about our science time?

• Nothing - 12 students
• It's too short/not often enough - 2 students
• We don't "explode stuff" - 1 student
• Doing reading - 1 student
• Not enough projects - 1 student
• One student gave an irrelevant answer (told about spelling time)

What would you change about our science time?

• Nothing - 6 students
• Make it longer/do it more days - 4 students
• Do more projects - 2 students
• Make it more fun - 2 students
• Explode things - 1 student
• Make more stuff - 1 student
• One student gave an irrelevant answer and one student did not answer this question.

Non-Fiction
Do you like reading non-fiction?  Why do you feel this way?

• Yes - 13 students
• I like to learn - 4 students
• It gives information - 3 students
• "I just do" - 1 student
• It "feels good" - 1 student
• It helps you learn - 1 student
• I like the pictures - 1 student
• It's interesting - 1 student
• I like true facts - 1 student
• No - 5 students
• I like fiction better - 2 students
• Reading is boring - 2 students
• It is not cool - 1 student

 As you can see, there were many feelings about reading, science, and non-fiction in my room.  The students answers to the open-ended questions were particularly interesting, and have given me some things to think about.  Some final thoughts from this survey:

1. I may get rid of independent reading spots.  Maybe students will be more encouraged to read.
2. Students need and want more exposure to non-fiction texts.  I focus on fiction too often.
3. My students LOVE science.  They want more science time, and I intend to give it to them.
4. Most of my kids like non-fiction because they like being able to learn about new topics.  Those who did not like non-fiction did not provide strong reasons for this and mostly centered around it being "boring" and "not fun".

Sorry for the long post, but I thought these survey results were interesting, and I have already used them to impact my study.  We'll see what effect they have!

Timeline

The timeline for my study is as follows:

• Jan. 21-25:
• Send home letter of consent
• Have students sign letter of assent
• Have students complete the survey I created to gauge their feelings on current reading and science instruction, what they would like to see change about it, and how they feel about reading non-fiction
• Jan. 28:
• Students will take the pre-assessment for the science/reading unit
• Jan. 29 - Feb. 8:
• Teach Mini-unit 1 and assess with quiz
• Feb. 11-19:
• Teach Mini-unit 2 and assess with quiz
• Feb. 20 - Mar. 1:
• Teach Mini-unit 3 and assess with quiz
• Mar. 4-13:
• Teach Mini-unit 4 and assess with quiz
• Mar. 14:
• Review unit skills and concepts
• Mar. 15:
• Students will take the post-assessment for the science/reading unit

Creating this timeline makes the study seem so much more real than just a few weeks ago!  I am a little nervous about getting the study off the ground, but I really believe that once I get into a rhythm I will become more comfortable.  My students seem intrigued and excited to be a part of the study and to help me learn more about teaching.  They are also thrilled with the idea of more science time during the week.  The next few weeks promise to be very interesting!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!  I am a Graduate Student at Georgetown College and this semester I will complete a research study in my classroom.  The goal of my study is to find effective ways to incorporate science content with reading instruction.  This topic is important to me because there are only so many hours in a school day and teachers have a lot of content to cover during that time.  If teachers are able to "double dip" and teach science content while also teaching students reading strategies, it could greatly impact the amount of learning that occurs each day. 

I will use this blog to document my journey as I learn how to conduct action research within the context of my classroom.  I also hope to share my insights, concerns, breakthroughs, and frustrations along the way.  Thanks for coming on this exciting journey with me!