Work Sample – Dictation Strategy Sheet

Each student completed the work sample below during the sessions to support the multisensory strategies for writing and editing sentences that are the focus of the research project.  The work sample provides experience initially with segmenting and writing words that illustrating the current phonetic pattern or phoneme.  Following the writing of the segmented sounds, the students rewrite the words independently after they check their work with the teacher model of the word.  This builds student editing at the word level.  The second step of the strategy sheet requires students to “pound out” words to segment sentences with their fists on the table.  Students repeat the sentence while touching the individual lines for each word in the sentence – supporting sentence segmentation.  The sentence is written as a group while “tapping out” phonetic words with their fingers and tapping on their arms to segment the letter names of sight words.  Each of these strategies has a strong, neurological research basis.  The third piece of the strategy sheet requires that following the writing of each sentence, the students use the “COPS” strategy, along with visuals, to edit their sentence, first as a group, then independently.

Students required additional support and live scoring of the sheets to support their independent use of the editing and writing strategies.  At the end of the intervention, students were strong in writing sentences but seemed to get too excited about the reinforcement following the group and failed to complete their edits before marking their completion at the bottom of the sheet. 

During the sentence-writing piece, the segmented sentence is written together and checked together.  Following this choral process, students rewrite the sentence and check their work independently to generalize the strategy.  This step proved difficult for some students.

Observation and Reflection of Timeline Adjustment

To get all ten instructional sessions in and have time to complete analysis of the post assessments prior to the due date for the project, I had to double up my last two sessions.  Most students accepted that they would complete two strategy sheets in one sitting but some required motivation in the form of additional reward time and tangible rewards following the session to keep them engaged.  This allowed me to complete the sessions and instruction in on the timeline I posed initially.  I feel that this may negatively affect the ability of students to generalize the skills into their journal by decreasing the amount of time between the sessions focusing on different phonetic skills.  The focus of the study, however, is movement of students through the writing stages using the strategy so this may not affect the study as much as I assume. 

This is one of various modifications to instruction needed by the students to participate effectively in the action research project.  This adjustment is a part of Action Research in the classroom due the cyclical nature of the research approach.

Coding Thick Description

This was my first attempt at coding observational data and it was an interesting experience.  The most difficult part was deciding on my categories and I am still not sure they will be beneficial to the research project.  I used seven categories: student movement (SM), independent writing (IW), independent reading (IR), class resources (CR), teacher interactions (TI), visual supports (VS), and explicit instruction (EI).  The picture below shows my line-by –line coding of the thick description of Classroom B.  This was the most time consuming part of the process and I had difficulty deciding which category to place some observations in.  I was careful not to “double code” any data to ensure validity but this made it more difficult to decide on a category. 

The next photograph shows the sheet and organization I will use to collect coding data from my eight samples including three thick descriptions, two teacher interviews, and three material culture observations.  This analysis showed that the majority of observations in the classroom were concerning “teacher interaction.”  I found this interesting, especially during a mostly independent work time.  I also noticed that I have little observations concerning explicit instruction until I pulled a few students to the treatment instructional group.  Looking at this observation it seems that the teacher did not use much explicit instruction; however, she was working with a small group of students at the back of the classroom the entire time, I just did not observe this closely.  This made me think of how the biases and interests of the observer can affect the outcome of qualitative data; this is something to be careful of as a researcher.

Material Culture/Observation: Raw Data Sample 3

The following photographs were taken on October 1, 2012 in “Third Grade Class A”

This wall hanging in the classroom is part of the “material culture” of the reading program.  This is a visual that was created in collaboration with students.  First the teacher has asked the student to define what a question is.  They then explain why readers ask questions.  Lastly the class contemplates “How does asking questions help you become a better reader.”  This type of explanation of the need to ask questions, increases student motivation and engagement in the task.  This could provide strong support for students to refer to when reading independently in the classroom. 

The photograph below illustrates an independent writing activity created by the teacher in class A. This is an engaging activity where students are able to write their own comic strip after reading a mentor text to support the writing.  The activity sheet blow encourages students to “visualize” the story as they read to support their drawing of the student.  The students choose six events and make a comic strip.  This is an engaging activity that promotes independence and motivation in the classroom. 

This independent writing task prompts students to think while they read by recalling story elements and plot events during the reading process.  The title of the sheet, “Leaving Tracks of My Thinking While Reading Fiction,” leads on to think of leaving tracks when walking in the forest or on sand.  This is a great visualization to encourage in students to support their understanding of the need to remember where one came from.  Instruction here could go further by prompting students to reflect on what why someone would use tracks that they have seen in the wild (i.e. to track when hunting, to find lost people, to find your way back where you were, to lead someone where you have been, etc.). This would further the visualization and justification for “Leaving Tracks” while reading.

Reflection: Implementation of project. Thick description of treatment group.

Implementation of project:  Initially, during this research project, I strived to maintain the structure of my lessons, the schedule of sessions, and to exhibit some kind of control on the environment but this been mostly impossible.  There have been various changes made to the action research project that were required by circumstance but were unplanned.  This week one of my groups of students requested to work outside of my classroom at a table rather than in their classroom because it was distracting.  I allowed this to help the students focus but later felt that this would add an additional variable into the research student that was not planned for.  This change has been documented but should I change pull the other group from their classroom to the table to ensure consistency across the treatment groups?  I decided to offer this opportunity to the student in the second group and they agreed with their peers and wanted to work in the hall.  This issue will need to be taken into account the next time I run this intervention strategy in a classroom.

Implementation of project:  As I entered the classroom, students were station at various areas around the room engaging in their “Daily 5” instructional activities: some reading to peers, others making words independently, and some reading alone.  I walked over to interrupt each of the students during their center to ask them to come to our “writing group.”  Each of the students was excited to come to the group and jumped up quickly to put away their materials.  Some students forgot to put their materials away and needed to be redirected.  As I contacted each student I asked them to move slowly towards the door and to wait outside the doorway.  I learned my lesson from the first day that if I simply ask them to meet me at the door they some will run and yell to get their peers to come with them. 

            Once in the hallway, walking toward out table in the all (as the students requested), I asked them about their day and all of them began to talk at the same time.  I asked them to slow down and take turns.  The students told me about getting a new bike, going to see their family over the weekend, and all about their summer vacation.  They were excited to get the chance to talk to a teacher they rarely see in their classroom. 

            Arriving at the table, students were able to choose their seat and sit without prompting.  Once seated, they continue their conversation with me until I interrupted stating that we need to get started.  To promote compliance with group expectations, on the second session with the group, I offered a short reward at the end of the group if time allowed, playing catch with a soccer ball.  The students are excited to get this reward and are much more focused during the session. 

            I begin the lesson by briefly reviewing the phonics skills, sight words, and number of words in dictated sentences before instruction.  Students are impressed to find out they are working on five-word sentences.  One student states, “I want to write a sentence with 100 words!”  I encouraged him to learn how to write longer sentences and noted that some sentences can be too long and will not make sense.  We begin instruction by practicing dictation with three phonetic words on the back of the sheet.  I state the word, model segmenting the word, and write the word.  Students follow the process and segment and write the same word then check it on my paper.  This happens with each word. Students are becoming much more fluent with the segmenting strategy and are completing the words much quicker.  We then practice sight words by tapping the words on our arm and stating the letter names then the word three times.  Students are becoming more comfortable with this strategy and are able to write the words using the strategy.   Following the practice words, I advise students to flip over the paper and write their name.  This begins the structured sheet completed during each session.  We segment each of the three other phonetic words using the “tap out” strategy beginning with the pinky finger then ring, then middle finger to symbolize the three sounds. After the initial writing of each word, students check their work with my model paper and then write the word again while stating the letter names.

            Following the word dictation, three sentences are dictated individually to the students while all pound out the words to segment the sentence with fist on the table.  Students then segment the sentence while touching the lines on the sheet for each word.  They write the sentence independently while I write the sentence on my model paper. They are able to use this for a reference if needed.  As a group, we use the “COPS” sentence editing strategy to edit each sentence, they check their work on my sheet, and rewrite the sentence without broken lines to generalize spacing and line orientation skills.  This happens three times.

            Following the instruction, we discuss the next session and play catch if there is time.

Attachments:

1.  Treatment Group Dictation Sheet – 5 word sentences

Reflection: Attendance and Timeline for Research Project

            The first week of implementation of interventions with the treatment group went smoothly; however, the last couple of weeks have been hit or miss.  I see my group at 1:00pm each day and this time tends to be when students are being pulled for intervention assessments, the class is having a popcorn party, or some other activity.  Consequently, I have missed a few of the sessions and had to change the schedule of implementation.  I acknowledge that this must be included in the final write up of the action research project to provide sufficient information about the implementation of the strategies.  Following the first missed session, I realized that using the attendance record that I created initially was longer accurate.  This chart (see attached, Participant Attendance Sheet) was broken down by the days of the week to ensure the correct rotation of the Friday sessions; however, there was no room for adjustments.  I found myself becoming confused about which group I needed to see when looking at the disorganized sheet and redesigned it based on session number [see attached, Participant Attendance Sheet (Revised)].   This change in scheduling has put the timeline for the research project off by a few days.  The change in timeline will affect the quality of analysis of post test and qualitative data due to less time allotted.

Trends and Points of interest include:

·         Missed sessions may negatively impact the effectiveness of the instructional strategies being used in the project. This will need to be noted in the project itself and be addressed in the changes to methodology and research design.

·         Creation of a more efficient attendance record will allow for saving in time and instruction.

·         Students are becoming more fluent with the multisensory strategies and are engaging in the strategies independently when writing words and sentences.

·         Around half of participants continue to need prompts when editing to remind them of the meaning of each mnemonic and the procedure for editing sentences, even when provided with the visual. This may need to be addressed in through more effective visual prompts or initial instruction.

 Attachments:

1.  Participant Attendance Sheet

2.  Participant Attendance Sheet (Revised)

Material Culture/Observation: Raw Data Sample Class 2

The following photographs were taken on September 20, 2012 in “Third Grade Class 2”

Observations: During implementation of the treatment, students in the class are independently completing their literacy block which is based on the “Daily 5” structure.  The classes use the “6+1 Traits of Writing” and the “Café’” approach to literacy strategy instruction.  In addition to observations in the classroom, I wanted to provide information and photos of the material culture within each of the classrooms that have been observing and working in. In each of these classes, the walls are used for more than decoration; the walls are full of visual supports for students and interactive activities to support their independence. 

The paper plates that pictured above are attached to a wall with student names on them. These are the groups that the teacher is currently pulling for small group instruction.  During an informal interview with the teacher she stated that she used paper plates so she can pull them down and change them quickly when student skill needs change.

This photograph shows a sample of a “work on writing” ask from Class B to be completed during the “Daily 5” literacy block.  Students are provided with simple directions and a teacher-model to support their independent completion of the task. Students are able to creatively work on their writing while providing work samples for the teacher to analyze later.

The above photographs are visual supports for students who are engaging in the “Daily 5” reading time.  During the “Read to Self” component of the literacy block, students choose a book by using the “IPICK” strategy to ensure they choose a book that is a “good fit” for them.  The “Read to Self” poster provides expectations for students engaging in this activity.

This visual is displayed in the back of the classroom for students to use when working on their writing pieces.  This set of posters is not teacher-made or interactive without the teacher referring to the poster often. I have not observed the teacher drawing attention to the posters detailing the writing process but this may be occurring when I am not in the classroom.