EDLD 5301 Course Reflection

Before beginning this course, EDLD 5301 Research, I had no idea what to expect.  I was nervous, yet eager at the same time to begin this class. 

As I began the first week of this course, I began watching the lecture video.  I began to panic when Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Arterbury began talking about “Action Research”.  What was it and how do we do it?  The lecture was very helpful in explaining the process and what was expected.  Dr. Arterbury suggested some tips during this lecture when searching the literature and drafting my literature review summary.  Those tips included stay on topic, create a visual road map for the reader, begin my outline with an introductory statement, general-to-specific flow works best, create a varied blend in writing and conclude with summary statements.  As I progressed through the lectures during this course, the lectures became more informative and helped me feel at ease when creating my action research plan.

The big highlight from the readings was in the Dana text, chapter 2, The Passions That Drive Your Journey.  This chapter had several significant moments for me.  The nine passions helped me break down the components at our campus and figure 2.1 (Dana, 31) provided a visual that helped me find my wondering on my campus.

This quote, “If sometime during the course of your inquiry journey you discover something that begs for you to “tweak” your initial wondering to better guide the remainder of your inquiry, or you learn something that makes your initial wondering ‘outdated’ and you must move in a new direction-tweak or abandon away and chart a new course for your study” (Dana, 68).  This was the best advice in the book.  I realized that the more I delved into my research and the more I talked with my supervisors, the more I needed to tweak certain things.  It put me at ease knowing that ideas should change as you learn.  

The assignments and activities for this course were very time consuming and a little frustrating at times, but with the help and aide of the discussion board I felt more relaxed.  The discussion board is truly a beneficial tool when working on assignments and activities.  It allows for current feedback from other students in the class to make positive and effective changes to my assignment or activity.

The blog was another tool that was very beneficial to me.  It was amazing being able to see and communicate with others in my class and rely on reactions and feedback from them.  In addition classmates offered suggestions or changes that needed to be made to my action research plan.   

With the use of the tools and resources received from this course, it will make the process of implementing my action research plan run smoother.  I will use the information I obtained to not only follow through with my current action research plan, but also to create and implement other plans to improve our campus as well as student achievement.  I have found this course to be helpful and relevant to my professional career, and one that has certainly enriched my professional life.

Assignment 3 Reflection

As part of the week 3 assignment, we were to generate our action research plan.  My action research topic addresses how different strategies aid and strengthen reading comprehension and fluency. As I listen to students read, one thing becomes glaringly apparent.  Most students are struggling with fluency.  My students read word by word or in very short phrases.  They do not differentiate dialogue from other text, they do not attend to punctuation, and they do not sound as if they are speaking.  Why is this a problem?  Research has indicated that if students are not reading fluently, they are spending too much cognitive energy decoding the text, and their comprehension will suffer.  Too much time and energy spent decoding text leaves little time or energy for constructing meaning from the text, which is the ultimate goal of reading today.

My action research questions or inquiry questions are:

1.       How does repeated reading impact students who struggle with fluency in first grade?

2.       What intervention strategies are effective for rapidly improving students reading skills and fluency rate?

Action Research Plan

EDLD 5301 Research ANL

Kemle Barroso

How Different Strategies Aid and Strengthen Comprehension Skills and Fluency

Goal and Outcomes: The purpose of this study is to research how different strategies aid and strengthen reading comprehension and fluency.  In order to research the student’s reading comprehension and fluency, four different strategies will be conducted over a period of time.  Each week a new strategy will be introduced.  Data will be collected from each strategy and analyzed to determine its effectiveness.  The study will benefit other professionals, because they will see the outcomes of the different strategies used throughout the study and realize the positive effect on students’ reading comprehension and fluency.  The study will also show how easy it is to use the strategies in their classrooms to help boost the confidence, comprehension, and fluency for their students.

Objective	Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Determine participants	Four struggling readers, who read, comprehend and demonstrate fluency below grade level will be selected for this study.	Kemle Barroso	Sept. 9-27, 2013	Benchmark and Tejas Lee Results	This step will help with the selection of students for the research.
Gather baseline data	Data from End of the Year Kindergarten Tejas Lee, First grade Beginning of the Year Tejas LEE, and reading benchmark will be gathered. Data should include the following question: How many students demonstrated comprehension and fluency below grade level?	Kemle Barroso	Sept. 9-27, 2013	Benchmark and Tejas Lee Results	This step will provide quantitative data on students who struggled with comprehension and fluency at the end of kindergarten and the beginning of first grade.
Small group fluency	Participants will receive small group fluency instruction. Four different strategies will be conducted. Week 1 Strategy: Direct fluency instruction lessons/ Reader’s theater Week 2 Strategy: Poetry Week 3 Strategy: Listening Center Week 4 Strategy: Rereading books as homework	Kemle Barroso	Oct. 7-Nov.1, 2013 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 30 minutes 12 repeated reading practices	Guided Reading Books Reader’s Theater Running records Fluency Assessment Poetry Computer Dual player with  multiple sets of headphones	Every third session, an assessment will be administered which will included name of passage, words per minute, accuracy percentile and fluency measure. Week 1: Students will receive a script with appropriate parts highlighted early each week. Week 2: Student will receive a collection of poems. Week 3: Students will listen to recorded books as a tool for developing competency in listening, reading fluency and comprehension and visual literacy. Week 4: Parents and their children work with a text sent from school.
Data analyze using student’s interest inventory	The students will answer 10 questions by circling a star representing their feelings of love, like, okay, and dislike. How did I feel when the teacher read to me?             How did I feel when asked to read in class? How did I feel about reading mystery stories?	Kemle Barroso	Oct. 7-11, 2013	Student Interest Inventory	This step will help me to have a better understanding of what kind of books the students like and with whom and where the students like to read.
Consent Form	Since the students are minors, parents will complete, sign and return an informed consent.	Kemle Barroso	Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2013	Consent Form	Parents will consent for the children to participate in the research to comply with the regulation of the proper and ethical treatment law.
Analyze/ compare data	A report will be prepared to explain comparisons of the strategies conducted. The report will include quantitative and qualitative data gathered throughout the research. Data will be provided in the form of text, spreadsheets, and charts.	Kemle Barroso	Nov.4- 15, 2013	Access to all data collected Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel	This step will provide analytical data to prove that repeated text will increase comprehension skills and fluency.