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.