A Plan!

After spinning a few ideas around in my head and talking with my site supervisor, I believe I have come to a central question: How does the level of questioning in reading instruction (read alouds, conferencing) impact student comprehension and independent reading level?

I believe that as I raise the level of my questioning, comprehension and application of reading in the content areas will go up - then student level of questioning among themselves in reading groups will go up - which increases engagement - producing higher comprehension scores and independent reading levels. (Do you like how I used dashes to punctuate all that? I was lost in a sea of commas and semi colons, so I diverted to hyphens.)

Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template Goal: To increase student comprehension and independent reading level by increasing the level of questioning in reading instruction (direct instruction and conferencing) Action Step(s) Person(s) Responsible Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation 1. Gather initial data Bentrup 8/20-9/30 - 10-11 EOY comprehension scores and IRL - 11-12 BOY comprehension scores and IRL 2. Data Collection (baseline) - student- generated questions - teacher-generated questions Bentrup 8/20-9/30 - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences 3. Examination of data Bentrup 10/01-10/15 Recordings from Step 2 Tally/graph questions according to Bloom’s or RRR Frmwk 4. Reflection - At what level are most of the questions (2 data sets- T/S) - Where/How can we push those questions into a higher level? - Goal setting Bentrup/ Carranza 10/01-10/15 - Recordings from Step 2 - Tally/graph from Step 3 - Bloom’s/ RRR Frmwk reference list of questions/levels 5. Data Collection -implementation of ideas from Step 4 – Record student discussions, teacher instruction Bentrup 10/15-12/20 - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences 6. Examination of data Bentrup 12/20-1/15 Recordings from Step 5 Tally/Graph questions according to Bloom’s or RRR Frmwk 7. Reflection - At what level are most of the questions (2 data sets- T/S) - Where/How can we push those questions into a higher level? - Goal setting Bentrup/ Carranza 12/20-1/15 - Recordings from Step 5 - Tallly/graph from Step 6 - Bloom’s/ RRR Frmwk reference list of questions/levels 8. Data Collection – implementation of ideas from Step 7 – Record student discussions and teacher instruction Bentrup 1/15-3/15 - Recordings of student discussion of readings - Recordings of read alouds, conferences 9. Examination of data Bentrup 3/15-3/30 Recordings from Step 8 Tally/graph questions according to Bloom’s or RRR Frmwk 10. Reflection - What changes, if any, have occurred? Bentrup/ Carranza 3/30-4/30 - Recordings from Step 8 - All tally/graphs 11. End testing data Bentrup May 2012 - TAKS scores - EOY IRL 12. Summary Bentrup May 2012 - All tally/graphs - 11-12 BOY and EOY testing data for my class and other 4th grade classes - Compare growth with growth in other classrooms not following the research plan * Continue literature review throughout research process to find additional opportunities for questioning in instruction (student to student and teacher to student) * Updated 7/31/11

Template from:

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps to improve our schools. Eye on Education Press.