Fall Conference

The fall conference was a time for professional discussions with colleagues from other learning communities.  It is always engaging to me to hear what others are doing and find new ideas that I can use in my classroom.  The fall conference discussions inspired me to find new ways to incorporate literacy across all content areas.  It was also inspiring to me to share and hear about action research topics.  I am starting to feel more excited about my own, but also excited to hear about what others are doing.  The Lasallian principles I believe were supported through the sharing were association and generativity.  Association was present because we were brought to together to share and learn from one another.  Generativity was present because we worked in small groups to contribute and appreciate what others had to say.

Action Research

The question guiding my research is: How will daily oral repeated reading practice affect my students’ reading fluency?  My research has shown that fluency is the ability to decode and comprehend text at the same time.  If students are not able to quickly read words, they will spend more time on decoding versus comprehending.  Third graders are expected to read about 100 words in a minute.  In second grade, many students are still learning to read, but by third grade they are expected to read to learn.  My research suggests the importance of repeated reading to help improve fluency.

Through my research, I have improved the way I teach fluency.  Students are reading phrases and passages repeatedly to help build their fluency.  Students are recording and hearing themselves read and then evaluating their reading using a rubric.  Students are being exposed to the importance of reading rate, expression, punctuation, and accuracy.  I am finding my students becoming more aware of what they are doing well and what they need to work on.  They are setting goals and striving to meet them.  I plan to continue having students recording and listening to their reading and graphing their results.

Questions:
What does the action research timeline look like?
How many students should I be tracking?

Backward Design

My favorite part about backward design is focusing on the big idea.  It has really helped my students to make connections to the different things we are doing and reading.  It has been enjoyable for me to spend more time building background knowledge with them and engaging them in meaningful conversations.  I feel that I have been more intentional with what I am doing with my students.  I feel that my lessons have been very meaningful.

Questions:

1. I have many students who want to share their background knowledge with the class.  Do you have any suggestions on keeping this sharing to a reasonable time?

2.  How can I get my struggling students to answer higher level thinking questions?

Differentiation

I decided for my differentiation idea to focus on fluency.  We practice fluency daily throughout the week.  This week, I divided my class into three groups to practice fluency.  I have an approaching level group, an on level group, and a beyond group.  I copied passages based on their level for them to practice.  Each group was a different color.  During the practice time, they partnered with a student who had the same color to practice their fluency.  The reason I did this is because I have many low readers who are not able to read the on level passage they are given weekly.  I noticed my beyond readers challenging themselves to finish the passage in a minute.  I noticed my approaching readers feeling success as they finished a shorter passage.

Children’s Principles of Learning

Safe: Students need to feel loved and cared for.  They need to know that they can trust their teacher with any problems they have.

Teamwork: Students will interact together to understand knowledge and make connections to understand the concepts being taught.  Students will help to teach one another by sharing their responses and asking for questions.  Students will be able to rely on their classmates for help and support.  All students will play a role in our team.  Without each member, our team will not be complete.

Meaningful Activities:  Students will participate in activities that are meaningful and relevant to their lives.  They will know the purpose for activities.  Students will come to understand and respect different cultures because they will share their stories as they relate to learning activities.  New knowledge will be presented with prior knowledge in mind so students are able to see the relevance in different activities.  They will be able to see how things are applied to real-life situations.

Relationships: Students will build relationships with one another.  They will interact with one another to learn.  They will play and explore on their own to help build and maintain these relationships.  Students will participate in small and large groups to express themselves and build upon differences.

Active Engagement: Students need to take ownership of their learning.  They need to pay attention and set goals in order to learn.  Students will explore with hands-on activities and participate in collaborative activities.  This will allow students to have control over their learning.  They will be able to make decisions with the assistance of the teacher.

Reflection: Students will know that it is okay to make mistakes and to learn from them.  Students will set goals, strive to reach them, and reflect as to whether they met their goal or not.  They will learn how to solve problems on their own and to assess how it went.

The principals above are very important to me.  I want my students to feel safe, loved, and cared for so they are able to reach their full potential.