Forming my hypothesis: Academic and Professional Readings

Share three pieces of academic or professional reading and explain how they and other sources helped you form hypotheses about aspects of teaching that might contribute to current patterns of learning. 

In order to form a hypothesis I have looked at some research papers that have looked at reading achievement and how progress can be made at an accelerated rate in reading. The first piece of research I looked at was:

1. "Sustained Acceleration in Reading Comprehension: The New Zealand Experience" by Mei Kuin Lai, Stuart McNaughton, Mealoa Amituanai-Toloa, Rolf Turner and Selena Hsiao. This piece of researched looked at how to lift reading achievement through comprehension. From looking at my own data and my own individual learners I can see that comprehension is an area that some of my students are struggling with which is keeping their reading age below standard. I do also however have some students who need work on decoding in order to make the progress in reading they need. This research looked at the summer effects of reading and how that can effect students with their reading each year. This is something that we have also seen with our learners over the years, the summer drop off. This research showed that the quasi-experimental design not only saw increased rates of reading achievement but this was also sustained over a three year period. From reading this is has given me a better understanding of my hypothesis of reading comprehension needing to be improved in order to accelerate my learning reading progress. 
   
   This has strengthened my hypothesis around this. The research used baseline data of PAT star and reading comprehension which is also something I will be using as baseline data. This has deepened my understanding of important baseline data and also given me some other areas that I could incorporate in my teaching of reading. 
   
   
2. "Vocabulary Development During Read-Alouds: Primary Practices" by Karen J. Kindle was another piece of research that I have looked at. Another hunch I had about my readers from what I have seen in guided reading sessions across my class is the ability to read in and understand new vocabulary as an area that needs development.
   
   "Reading aloud to children provides a powerful context for word learning" (Biemiller & Boote, 2006; Bravo, Hiebert, & Pearson, 2007) 
   
   This is something that we have been looking at widely as a school and how we can increase vocabulary with read aloud's. Previously I have read novels to m y learners due to being in year 5 & 6 but in the last few years have also discovered that picture books are a timeless classic and all of my learners love being able to see the pictures. This is something that almost seems common sense in a classroom but is also something that is greatly over looked. Reading this paper and seeing the importance of this in the classroom has made me make sure this is part of my daily reading program - whether is be a picture book or a novel. 
   
   This research has strengthened my hypothesis of vocabulary being an important aspect of reading acceleration. It has also highlighted why it is important. The biggest part of this research was making sure that these read aloud's are planned like any other lesson. This is something that I would like to develop not only in my guided reading sessions but in my read aloud's too. Being prepared brings out richer vocabulary and important key parts of what is being read. 
   
   
3. Finally I have looked at "Utilising Nonfiction Texts to Enhance Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary in Primary Grades" by Karen E Kuhn, Casey M. Rausch, Tiffany G. McCarty, Sarah E. Montgomery and Audrey C. Rule. This research looks at how important nonfiction texts are for learners and reading achievement. This linked how non fiction texts are not only enjoyable for learners but they lend greater vocabulary and wider reading making the students think about connections as they are reading. 
   
   This was another important piece of research to read especially with those students reading below 8 years as it is often easy to access fiction texts at their levels but it is important to extend readers and give them non fiction options. This also links well with the previous reading and how to improve vocabulary development. 

This research that I have looked at has given me the hypothesis of reading comprehension specifically vocabulary development could be needed to make accelerated progress. This is something that I will continue to look into and strengthen in my classroom as I have also need this in my running record and PAT data. 

References

        Biemiller, A., & Boote, C. (2006). An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 44–62.

        Bravo, M. A., Hiebert, E. H., & Pearson, P. D. (2007). Tapping the linguistic resources of Spanish-English bilinguals: The role of cognates in science. In R. K. Wagner, A. E. Muse, & K. R. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary acquisition: Implications for reading comprehension (pp. 140–156). New York: Guildford Press.

        Kindle, K.J. (2009, November). Vocabulary Development During Read-Alouds: Primary Practices. The Reading Teacher, 63(3), 202-211.

        Kuhn, K.E., Rausch, C.M., McCarty, T.G. et al. Utilizing Nonfiction Texts to Enhance Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary in Primary Grades. Early Childhood Educ J 45, 285–296 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0763-9

        Lai, M., McNaughton, S., Amituanai-Toloa, M., Turner, R., & Hsiao, S. (2009). Sustained Acceleration of Achievement in Reading Comprehension: The New Zealand Experience. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 30-56. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20304572

 

 

Repeated Measure: Baseline data and end of data comparison

What are the repeated measures that I will use to understand student learning? 

These measures that I will use as baseline data and then will use the same measures at the end of the year to see if what has implemented has made a difference to student learning outcomes. 

• Running records: this is a continued measure that I will use. From looking at last years running record data, mid year running records and end of year running records. I am also in the process of analysing previous years running records to see if there is a trend in the data and progress for my students. 
• PAT Reading: I will look at these results from the beginning of the year and compare these at the end of the year. 
• STAR test: I will also look at these results from the beginning of the year and the end of the year to compare. 
• ARBS: I will use these throughout the year to access my target group of learners. 
• Student voice: Reading habits and feeling, again I will compare these reading habits and how they are feeling with their reading at the beginning and the end of the year to see if there is a difference. 
• Teacher observations: These will be from guided reading sessions, I will take notes throughout guided reading sessions at different parts of the term and throughout the year to see if there is any changes needed to this. 

These are some of the tools that I will be using as repeated measures in order to see if the tailored intervention improves student learning. I will use these repeated measures as a pre and post intervention measure to see if there is improvement. 

Inquiry Update & Target Group Pondering

Yesterday we have had our inquiry meeting where we had the opportunity to discuss our inquires with other teachers at school. The group that I decided to collaborate with was those with a focus group of children who are reading to learn. As I am inquiring into my students who are beginning to read to learn. As I was listening to some of the others in my inquiry group it made me think about pervious years of inquiry that I have done in year 6 and seeing a number of students reading between the ages of 9-9.5 years. 

Target group pondering: 

As I am thinking about my hypothesis and what are some of the things that might be important to my inquiry it has made me reflect on my previous years inquiries. This year my target group is my students in year 5 who are reading between the ages of 7.5-8.5 years. While I have been focusing on these group of students I have also been thinking about my students who are reading at 9 years. 

What is the significance of these readers at 9 years?

This is something that I have been wondering about as I focus on my students reading under 8.5 years.These group of students are just below the reading age for their level by the end of the year they should be reading at the age of 10 years. I have about 10 or 11 students at this level. The reason I am thinking about these group of learners is the importance of the shift they need to also make this year. From observing previous year 6 students there does seem to be a number of them reading between the ages of 9 and 9.5 in year 6 which also seems to be a level where students get "stuck" with making progress. I'm not changing my target group however this is another group that I will keep a close eye on with reading and will continue to observe and record this group in order to see what I can do to make sure that these students don't become year 6 students reading at 9 and 9.5 years. 

Just an interesting observation I thought that I would share. I will continue to update on this throughout the year also. 

CoL Inquiry: tools/measures/approaches

After looking at my data and having guided reading sessions with this group I have come up with a number of tools, measures and approaches that I will use with this group. 

Manaiakalani CoL Achievement Challenge: 
Lift the achievement in Reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Māori students (both genders) years 1-13. 

This is what I have identified in my classroom for this year as the challenge or area that needs to be focused on for my learners. 

Testing:
I will be using a range of different measures in order to track my learners and their progress throughout they year. I will look at:

• PAT Star
• PAT Comprehension
• Running Records
• ARBS 
• Guided reading notes

These measures will be used throughout the year in order to check where students are and see if they are making progress and what other areas they require progress.

Approaches:

At the end of last term I was updating my MIT reading site that I created in 2019 as part of the MIT program and I found a new passion to get this back up in running in the classroom. This is perfect for this group of learners as it is aimed at their reading level. I want to try and incorporate this in my guided reading session for the rest of the term as an extra recourse. From what I have seen so far my students love completing the activity where they record themselves reading and share it on their blog. I will later add these to my recorded stories section where others will be able to listen to them reading their stories.

Data: 

I am continuing to look through the data I have collected and look at each individual learner and what they are requiring. From my guided reading sessions this week I can see that vocabulary is a major part of what we are needing to focus on. I am in the process of finding key words that my students are unfamiliar with and creating a spelling list each week for them to take home and learn.