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!