School Improvement Action
Research Project Report
The
action research project that I conducted at my school focused on improving
independent reading comprehension using the “Four Blocks of Literacy” method (Cunningham,
Hall & Sigmon, 1999). This method
has four different blocks that you follow for your English Language
Arts-Reading instruction to improve students reading abilities. The four blocks include: Working with Words,
Guided Reading, Writing, and Self-Selected Reading. My action research project took place within
a second grade classroom at Buna Elementary School in Buna, Texas. This is a very rural community with a relatively
high population of low socio-economic students and White students. Our campus is 5.6% African American, 3.6%
Hispanic, 87.9% White, 1.2% American Indian, 1.7% 2 or more races, and 50.6%
Economically Disadvantaged. Our school
district has put a lot of its focus into improving our standardized test scores
for our Economically Disadvantaged subgroup and our Hispanic and African
American subgroup. These subgroups have
consistently performed the poorest on standardized tests and are coming into
the classroom underprepared and reading below grade level. This has proven to create a challenge in my
classroom as over half of my classroom is in the Economically Disadvantaged
subgroup. As part of the data collection
process for my project I used our school’s adopted reading computer program
called Istation. This program allows
students to be instructed and assessed on a weekly basis while constantly
gathering and organizing data into graphs and performance by each reading
skill. I used Istation as my primary
form of gathering and analyzing data to determine if this action research
project was a success.
My action research
project developed from majority of students entering second and third grade
reading significantly below grade level and having consistently low reading
performance scores within the following grade level. As of last year, second and third grade teachers
began collaborating and communicating about the majority of students’
weaknesses in reading and what was a high priority for students to be more
successful on the tests that were administered in third grade. After looking at our Istation reports and disaggregating
our reading data we discovered that students would benefit from improving their
comprehension skills so that they can read and think independently. The most common complaint by teachers was
that it is very difficult and, according to some, almost impossible to teach
children how to think about their reading so that they are successful at doing
it independently. So the question that I
am embarking on in my action research is: can you use a data driven reading
program to teach children to successfully read and think independently?
The
information that I obtain from this action research project will benefit all lower
elementary educators (Kindergarten through second) and particularly the upper
reading elementary educators (third through fifth). This information will benefit them because if
this action research proves to improve students’ independent reading abilities
then we can begin the process of changing and improving our reading
instruction. In order to achieve this
change, teachers will begin participating in the necessary professional
development to train them in this reading program and will be provided the
necessary modeling to comfortably and effectively begin this in their own
classrooms. This study will allow
teachers to better understand how their students need to be taught in order to
create successful independent readers and thinkers for the future.
Terms
and concepts that need to be defined include: Guided
Reading, Self-Selected
Reading, Working
with Words, Basal, Anchor
Chart, Fluency, Book
Club Groups, Intervention, Teacher
Read-Aloud, Reading
Conferences, Mini-Lesson, Writer’s
Workshop, Word
Wall, High-frequency
Words, Phonemic
Awareness, Istation
