Sunday, April 29, 2012


Which methods are more effective with motivating students to read?

Needs Assessment:  There are many wonderings that crossed my mind when I began my action research inquiry.  One of the many things I learned is that the action research I begin should be a topic that is of interest to me.  Last year, before I began this action research, our reading coach and I noticed a trend between our fourth grade at-risk students and their inability to achieve AR points through our Accelerated Reader program.  We looked at the data for our 4th grade below level students in reading and decided to compare their AR data to their current reading level.  We quickly noticed that our at-risk students were not gaining any AR points which in turn told us they probably weren't reading either.  How could we expect these at-risk students to begin gaining any progress in reading if they weren't practicing their reading everyday? I began looking at our Accelerated Reader program and all of the components that we were not utilizing.  This began my questioning and wondering into what motivates our students to read.  I also began wondering it if truly made a difference whether the teacher was involved with motivating the student to read.  Did certain teacher methods work better than other methods?  If so, which methods appeared to gain the best results? 

Objectives and Vision of the Action Research Project:  The objective of my research inquiry is to evaluate different forms of motivation each 9 weeks and determine which methods appear to be the most effective. 
  • 1st 9 weeks:  Develop a baseline for reading PM level and AR point level with no monitoring or guidance in place.
  • 2nd 9 weeks:  Students monitor AR performance by charting tests taken.  Once 3 tests have been taken with a score of 70 or above, students may receive a prize from the prize box. 
  • 3rd 9 weeks:  Students will set 9 week goals for AR points achieved.  Students will graph the number of AR tests taken each week and discuss the results to determine if they have increased, decreased, or stayed the same.
  • 4th 9 weeks:  Participate in a grade level competition to see which class can earn the most AR points for an incentive. 
The activities listed above were put in place and monitored by myself throughout each 9 weeks.  I also used student, teacher, and parent surveys, classroom observations, and field notes to determine which methods were preferred and which methods teachers were working with and implementing in their classes.  All of the activities above are able to be monitored through data which shows the number of points students accumulate each week during the inquiry.  The data will then be compared to show which method appears to be the most effective in motivating students.  This data along with student surveys will also help determine which methods work best for our students. 

Review of Literature and Action Research Strategy:
“Reading is such a vital part of a child’s education, and it takes everyone to reinforce and encourage children to read,” says library media specialist Monica McCollum. “As a teacher-librarian, I think it is vital we teach reading using a balanced approach that involves two components.  We must teach children how to read, and at the same time give them a purpose for reading. “Getting Kids Ready,” 2012.”  Knowing how our children react and perform is crucial in trying to determine what motivates them to learn.  Many of our children come from economically disadvantaged homes that don’t encourage reading or have the resources available to work with their child.  Having incentive programs such as the ones that were created through this inquiry, give our students the opportunity to be awarded for hard work when they might have never been awarded any other way. 
The decision to implement certain tasks for each nine weeks came through initial observations in third and fourth grade classrooms.  As I worked with students in the class the first nine weeks of school, I used that time to talk with students and survey their interests and background information with regards to reading at home.  Once I began working with the students, their surveys then lead me to change my action research plan to only include working with the third grade students.  I found that my group of students was too large to manage with the amount of data I was tracking.  By limiting my sampling to only include third grade students I worked with, I was more able to accurately track the students’ progress and stay in close communication with the students and teachers. 
Before the 4th 9 weeks began, I questioned what method I wanted to use in comparison with the others I had used in the previous 9 weeks.  After witnessing the affect an ice cream competition had on our 4th grade students during the 3rd 9 weeks, I began wondering if competition among the classes would result in the same conclusion during the last 9 weeks of school.  This inquiry lead to surveying our third and fourth grade teachers and students over the classroom competition and which methods of rewards the students would prefer the most.  By involving the teachers and students in the process, I was more likely to gain their support and involvement throughout the 9 weeks.  Once I met with my administrator, we worked together to brainstorm a variety of free resources that we could use to reward our students.  Through our 21st Century program we have the free use of iPAD’s and Wii’s.  The students will also have access to the use of the bouncy houses that will be provided by our PE department. 

Articulate the Vision:  The vision of this project was articulated and communicated through weekly team meetings.  Since I work closely with at-risk students in their classes, I was also able to meet individually with teachers as I worked in their classroom each day.  At the beginning of the year I took time to meet with student in small groups and individually.  I asked them a variety of questions regarding their reading at school and at home.  This gave us the opportunity to discuss with the students why I was asking certain questions and what I was trying to figure out.  The students have enjoyed being part of the process this year and taking ownership of their own learning.  Some teachers in grades K-2 know about the research I am performing, but not everyone on our campus does.  Each 9 weeks, I have taken time to communicate with the 3rd and 4th grade teachers about what I was trying to determine that particular 9 weeks.  Having the support of the teacher and making sure they understood my vision for each 9 weeks, helped to keep the lines of communication open and to determine what future steps might need to be taken when motivating our students.  I have had the opportunity to discuss the project with some parents, but not with all.  I will be sending a survey home to parents soon that will describe the project and enlist the help of parents in answering questions about what motivates their child to read.

Manage the Organization:  Many of the responsibilities required of the action research project were completed by me.  The use of the Accelerated Reader program on our campus is not an independent program, so teachers must do their part to actively monitor student use of the program.  I made sure to review our school AR policies and the importance of teachers monitoring student use of the AR program.  When attempting to organize the project, it helped to break the tasks down into 9 week time frames.  Teachers report academic performance through report cards each 9 weeks and they are also responsible for reporting student growth through reading running records, benchmark performance, and AR accumulation of points each 9 weeks.  Breaking the information down into 9 week time frames gave me the time needed to monitor growth over an extended time and to be able to implement different activities each 9 weeks.  By implementing a different activity each 9 weeks, I will be able to determine which method was more effective than others.  In the beginning, I planned on tracking growth with both 3rd and 4th grade students.  I quickly determined that this was too much for one person to handle, so I scaled my research back to only include third grade students.  However, there were some activities during the 3rd and 4th 9 weeks that our 4th grade classes participated in so I will be able to use that data as well. 

Manage the Operations: When I first begin looking at how I would manage this inquiry and its operations, I was very overwhelmed.  I had originally planned for too much and my inquiry was too large.  I shrunk my inquiry to only include third grade classes that I worked with.  Having the ability to change the plan allowed me the time to focus directly with those students I was working with and to look closer at the data that I was receiving.  By having weekly data to use with the students and teachers, it allowed for a constant communication between me and them.  When I shared my results with the teachers it helped in building consensus for the continual inquiry.  It also opened the door for other inquiry into teacher’s classrooms when they began their own list of inquiries.  I found it was important to stay in close communication with the teachers about the progress of my inquiry so that I had their continued support as well.  There were many teachers that used the information and graphs from my inquiry when meeting with parents to show them how their child had not been taking AR tests, which showed them they were not reading.  This opened the door for communication between the teachers and the parents about how to help the child increase their reading achievement and the importance of reading at home as well. 
Through my inquiry, the opportunity to deal with conflict also arose.  During the 4th 9 weeks, a competition was put into place between the third and fourth grade classes.  Each grade level would have one winner that was based on the class the won the most AR points at the end of the competition. The prize was chosen after taking a survey of students over which prizes they would work the hardest for.  The majority chose free play time, so a 45 minute block of play time with Wii’s, iPAD’s, and bouncy houses was chosen as the award incentive.  The classes have been excited and thrilled to be working together for a common goal.  The totals are posted at the end of each week and I also present the information on a graph to show the results.  During the third week of the competition, I noticed a huge increase with one of the fourth grade classes in the number of AR points they had earned.  When I looked further into the AR program, one of the reports showed me that four students in the same class all took the same test on a Harry Potter book.  Since I knew this book was above the level of two of the students and that our library didn’t have this many copies of this one book, the librarian took it upon herself to talk about it with the teacher.  Through further inquiry with the teacher and the class, the students confessed that one of the students had logged into the other students accounts to take tests on the Harry Potter books.  These types of books receive 20-30 points depending on the number of questions so many students take the tests because they have seen them movies.  This conflict brought up the validity of our competition and whether students were really reading for pleasure or just to gain points.  In the end, our goal is for them to read.  This is where teacher monitoring has to come into play.  I have found that teacher who continuously monitor their students reading closely, have a better understanding of student performance in their classes.     
Another conflict arose when some of the third grade teachers began making comments about one other third grade teacher having more computers in his classrooms.  This gave his students more access to taking AR tests during the day which is why his class had been in the lead during the AR competition the last 9 weeks.  I know that these computers are not filled with 5 students at a time, but in order to please the teachers I made them aware of other resources they could also use in the building.  I reminded the teachers that the computer lab was open in the morning and also throughout the day.  If they sent a student to the computer lab, they just needed to make sure that another teacher was in the lab to monitor them while they took their tests.  Teachers could also send students to my classroom where I have five computers that could be used for testing.  The library and office also holds access to computers for student use.  Giving these teachers another option for students allowed them to see that they had just as many options as the other teacher who had a few more computers in his classroom. 

Respond to Community Interest and Needs: 
When the use of data allowed me to look at how we were utilizing services on our campus, it was determined that we were not effectively using them as we should be.  During the 3rd 9 weeks, we began opening our computer lab in the mornings when students were arriving in class.  The thought was that if students were practicing their reading at home like they were encouraged to, then they should be ready to come to school in the morning and be ready to take and AR test.  Since we were encouraging this with the students, we needed to make sure the resources were provided in order for the students to take these tests.  The lab began being opened and monitored by two IA’s from 7:30-8:00. Students from grades K-4 were able to attend the lab to take a test.  By opening the lab, we also began seeing an increase in the lower grade levels, such as Kindergarten, taking AR tests.  By having monitors in the lab to help assist with the tests, it made it more helpful to the Kindergarten teachers since the tests usually need to be read to the students.  Opening the lab also required the use of more help, so our Student Council members were asked to use the lab as part of their rotation for community service to the schools.  Our third and fourth grade students assist the younger students with taking their tests and they help with running the computer equipment and making sure they are logged on and off each day. 
Since our school is a Title 1 school, it is important to instill the love of reading and to continually monitor our student performance.  More than 60% of our school population is also bilingual which requires our staff to be trained in working with ESL and bilingual students.  Knowing the culture of these students and families and how to communicate with them is crucial when looking at student performance.  By instilling the push for reading on our campus, it is our hope that the love for reading will also be pushed into homes where it might not once have been.  By partnering with our local library that provides services to families and individuals, especially our bilingual families, those barriers that were once there, might no longer be. 

Resources:
Getting Kids Ready To Read:  Keeping Their Eye on the Prize(2012).  Retrieved April 28, 2012 from http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin447.shtml

Education World: Getting Kids to Read By Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

Education World: Getting Kids to Read By Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

Saturday, January 21, 2012

All coming together...

So we just closed up the second nine weeks at our school.  This means I've closed up the second round of my current research.  During the first 9 weeks I interviewed students about reading interests, discussed book requests for the library, and reviewed the Accellerated Reader incentive program with the students in my daily reading groups.  After interviewing them about our current AR incentive program, I took certain requests they made for our AR store and gave them to the AR committee.  The AR committee purchased these specific items and they were made available to our students at our first AR store in December.  The students also stated that they wished they knew which items were going to be in the store in advance so they knew how many points they had to work towards.  The AR committee took pictures of items during our first AR store during December.  A huge display was just hung in the school to show the students a variety of items that will be available in the May store and students are encourage to set AR goals.  During the second nine weeks I implemented an incentive program.  Students that made a 70 or above on their AR test could mark a check on a list I had posted in my room.  Once students had three checks a week they could visit my treasure drawer.  The treasure drawer is just like a treasure chest filled with trinkets from the dollar store, McDonalds, Oriental Trading, etc.  I was truly surprised to see the number of students that truly increased the number of books they were reading just to visit my treasure drawer.  I've never been one for rewarding students for their actions, but I do have to say that they system did motivate some students that otherwise probably wouldn't have continued reading.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Motivating our at-risk students with an AR program

As we draw nearer to the end of our first nine weeks of school, our intervention team is looking more closely at data.  One of the first things we noticed is the number of our at-risk students that have limited amounts of AR points.  Students have plenty of time in class to take tests, but it's not happening and this makes us think they aren't reading at home at all.  We've noticed many of our fourth grade, at-risk, below-level readers bothered by having to read picture books instead of a large chapter book.  This made me wonder if the stigma of having to read certain books on a specific AR level, like picture books, turned students off of reading?  Our academic coach and myself are discussing having an AR seminar with our fourth grade students.  We want to show them incentives they'll be working for, discuss the benefits of AR, discuss any concerns they have, etc.  I'm curious to see if we have an increase in AR points over the next nine weeks after we meet with the students.