Teaching as Inquiry
Otonga Rd Primary School – Performance Management – Teaching as Inquiry 2013
Name: Matthew Liley Professional Buddy: Kathryn Cochet
Date: 25/9/13
Inquiry Action model questions
Question: Can the use of specific comprehension strategy instruction within a Daily 5 literacy structure raise student comprehension reading levels?
1. Goal: To raise the reading comprehension level of a specific group of children through intensive strategy teaching within a Daily 4 literacy programme.
2. Initial/final Data
After analysing the February running records I identified a group of children reading at a range of levels whose decoding level was noticeably higher than their comprehension level.
Year 5/6
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April Running record
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Level
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Acc
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comp
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Kelvin Cunliffe
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10
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98%
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60%
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Viren Patel
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10-10.5
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100%
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60%
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Troy Robson
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9.5-10
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100%
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70%
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Holly Gardner
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11
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99%
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60%
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Riddhi Ram
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9.5-10.5
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98%
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60%
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Danielle Reeves
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11-12
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100%
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60%
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Alicia Tahitahi
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11.5-12
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99%
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60%
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I individually conferenced each child discussing which of the main comprehension strategies they used, using the Oral Student Survey 1 from ‘Teaching Comprehension Strategies’ by Alison Davis.
Comprehension Strategies Identified Pre-Inquiry (Most important in bold)
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Kelvin Cunliffe
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Prediction/Visualisation/Reread to check for sense
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Viren Patel
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Prediction/Asking Questions/Reread to check for sense
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Troy Robson
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Prediction/Reread to check for sense
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Holly Gardner
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Reread to check for sense
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Riddhi Ram
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Prior Knowledge/Visualisation/Reread to check for sense
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Danielle Reeves
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Visualisation/Reread to check for sense
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Alicia Tahitahi
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Prediction/Visualisation/Reread to check for sense/Asking Questions
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In analysing the data I observed that all children identified that they used ‘Reread to check for sense’ as a comprehension strategy with many highlighting it as the main one used. Prediction and Visualisation were also common strategies used. It was noticeable that none of the children identified ‘Inference’ as a strategy they used.
3. Research:
After observing and discussing Kathryn’s literacy programme I researched the ‘Daily 5’ and ‘Café’ literacy programmes. Without going into too much detail the ‘Daily 5’ and ‘Café’ programmes allows for specific group instruction while those children not involved are actively choosing their own learning activities to suit their personal learning styles and goals. The children’s instructional texts are chosen by themselves according to their own interests. One of the advantages of this system with regards to my inquiry is that the group can be made up of mixed abiltiy readers as the instructional texts are chosen by the children at their particular level.
I also spent lots of time reviewing the many websites and blogs relating to the ‘Daily 5’ and ‘Café’ programmes to further familarise myself with the system.
In terms of the specific teaching strategies I decided to focus on teaching Inferring, Prediction, Visualising, and Summarising. I chose these because I believe they are particularly important strategies and they are reasonably easy to understand.
4. Actions
While my other teaching groups changed according to need this group stayed the same throughout the entire term. I met with the inquiry group twice a week focusing on a particular comprehension strategy. The first session would involve introducing the strategy followed by an activity to reinforce. The students would then
during their independent reading time focus on practicing the strategy. The subsequent three sessions for each strategy would involve a mixture of group and independent activities as well as a sharing opportunity where each child would discuss where in their current reading they had practiced the strategy.
5. Results
Year 5/6
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Oct Running Record
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Level
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Acc
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comp
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Kelvin Cunliffe
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10.5-11.5
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98%
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70%
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Viren Patel
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10.5-11.5
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99%
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60%
|
Troy Robson
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10.5-11.5
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98%
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70%
|
Holly Gardner
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11-12
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98%
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70%
|
Riddhi Ram
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11-12
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98%
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70%
|
Danielle Reeves
|
11.5-12.5
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99%
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60%
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Alicia Tahitahi
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12-13
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98%
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70%
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Comprehension Strategies Identified Pre-Inquiry (Most important in bold)
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Kelvin Cunliffe
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Prediction/Visualisation/Reread to check for sense/Inferring
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Viren Patel
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Prediction/Asking Questions/Inferring/Visualising/Reread to check for sense
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Troy Robson
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Prediction/Visualising/Inferring/Reread to check for sense
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Holly Gardner
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Reread to check for sense/Inferring/Visualising
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Riddhi Ram
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Inferring/Visualisation/Reread to check for sense/Visualising
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Danielle Reeves
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Visualisation/Reread to check for sense/Inferring
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Alicia Tahitahi
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Prediction/Visualisation/Reread to check for sense/Asking Questions/Inferring
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As can be seen from the results all children have increased their reading ages with most increasing their comprehension levels. All children during the same oral survey identified understanding and using a greater range of strategies with the biggest change being the inclusion by everyone of Inferring.
6. Analysis
P
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M
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I
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· Having all the children in one consistent group for the entire term made planning, monitoring and assessing much easier.
· The Daily 5/CAFÉ system of using individually chosen books worked well even in the group situations. The children were more enthusiastic about practicing the strategies.
· I found the children really responded well to the discussion. They were keen to share how they had used the particular strategy being looked at.
· Increase in student awareness of comprehension strategies.
· Increase in instructional reading ages in all children.
· Really pleased at the recognition and uptake of more strategies especially inferring.
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· Using the Daily 5 and CAFÉ programmes correctly requires a lot of time. This was a constant challenge. Some of the planned sessions were missed for one reason or another.
· I felt the time I had to spend with other groups and individuals was to some extent, compromised.
· Since I started implementing Daily 5/CAFÉ I have been self-reviewing and refining how it works in my classroom. This has affected the consistency of the programme.
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· What would have their levels been if I had continued with my old literacy programme?
· Surprised at the children’s enthusiasm for the actual discussion of the strategies.
· Most children seem to love the freedom of choice that the Daily 5 programme offers.
W
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Future steps:
· Continue with the (now) Daily 4 literacy programme as a means to introduce and teach comprehension strategies.
· Retain the idea of multi-level grouping of high accuracy/low comprehension for instruction.
· E-asstle reading test at the start (and end) of year to give more formative and summative data.
· Increase the discussion aspect of our group meetings.
· Complete one to one comprehension strategy discussion with all children
Reflection:
Sharing: Thoughts, discussions with colleagues/ students
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Self Evaluation
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My professional buddy was Kath. We chose each other because both of our inquiries involved reading within a Daily 5 reading programme.
Throughout the inquiry project we had many conversations regarding the delivery of the system and the progress of my inquiry focus within that. Kath’s questioning revolved around the time demands of the Daily 5 programme and how that was affecting the intensive comprehension strategy teaching I was trying to provide. We regularly discussed the nature of the programme and the ability to adapt it to suit my needs.
As a result of these discussions I researched the changes other teachers had made and I implemented some significant changes to my programme. These changes involved increasing the time I was able to take group instruction as well as having more control and accountability over what and when the children focussed on during their independent time.
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The purpose of my inquiry was two-fold, firstly to improve the comprehension levels of a group of children in my class, and secondly to do it within a newly implemented literacy programme called Daily 5. Overall I was satisfied with the outcomes. I was generally happy with the increase in comprehension levels across all children in the inquiry group and I was pleased with the increased knowledge of useful strategies. In terms of the Daily 5/CAFÉ implementation I really enjoyed the whole process. It’s a system that makes sense with modern education philosophies as it gives children the opportunity to monitor their own learning and allows them choice about their learning tasks. I made some important changes to the programme which affected consistency but were important to suit mine and the classes needs. I’ll definitely use it again next year.
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