What is my hypothesis?

As I have been reflecting over the holidays and during my planning for learning for term 2 I have been thinking about some of the reasons as to why my learners are still reading between 7.5 and 8.5 years in year 5. I have some hunches as to why this might be which has given me a clearer idea of my hypothesis. Below I will discuss some of the key hunches/hypothesis that I have been contemplating. 

Confidence
Students confidence in reading is something that immediately stood out with these learners. I have wondered if this has to do with mask wearing and being able to hear and understand the children but this term with masks off the lack of confidence is still evident in reading. It it the confidence of being able to share their reading with others as well as answering questions. What I have noticed is many of my students will answer a question but they are not confident in their answers. They will answer the questions but will show a real hesitation in sharing the answers along with hesitation that they might be wrong.

Missing School
A big part of term 1 was lots of absences across these learners due to being sick or isolating. I think that this has had a large impact on my students as trying to come back to norms and routines after an extended period of time can be a challenge. Not only with student wellbeing but also the social aspect as well. I find that many of my students in my target group will either be away for the beginning of the week and our first reading or will be away at the end of the week and miss the follow up text that goes along with the topic. So this also could be a reason for these students reading at this age. 

Inferencing gaps
When I has interviewing for my CoL position last year one of the key things that I discussed as my hunch was the gaps in being able to inference. I have noticed with my target group that they are able to use the text to answer literal comprehension questions but struggle to read between the lines and answer questions that are not directly stated in the text. This is an area that I will focus on with this target group moving forward. 

Learning to read change to reading to learn
The biggest change with this group of learners is moving from learning to read to using reading to learn. The questions they are needing to answer are focused more on applied knowledge, inferring and vocabulary related questions. 

These are some of the wonderings I have had throughout looking at my inquiry so far and are some areas that I will continue to look into along with looking at further readings related to some of these hypothesis. 

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