EP- DRA

I chose my research because when the year started and we tookthe MAP test, I had 5 ESL students that scored extremely low. The ESL teacher told me that it is common because they have been home all summer and not around the English language so they regressed but they will show quick improvements. She pointed out two students that would be on grade level in no time, which did in fact happen. The other three did not. In my research I came across an article, Effects of adding multisensory components to a supplemental reading program on the decoding skills of treatment resisters, that I found interesting. On reason becasue I had never heard of this term, the other because it described my focus students almost exactly. The study focused on a small group of African American students that were considered "at-risk" because they had failed to aquire basic skills. The Orton Gillingham program (multisensory) was used. Campbell, Helf, & Cooke (2008) have researched that students like the ones in the study often encounter the Matthew Effect and continue to fall behind. An analogy to explain the Matthew Effect is “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer”, which is what I was afraid of for my struggling readers. I already knew that they were very low ESL students from discusssion with their last year's teacher and their testing data. They were reading on level C and D, which correlates to DRA 3 and 4. I have had an ESL student here and there, but never a group and never as far behind as these students. I felt like the research project would be a great way for us all to learn and improve. From the beginning of the year, EP has stood out to me. Just when I think I have her on track, she puts on the brakes. Thanks to my research, I have TONS of data. I am conferencing with mom about the options we have for EP to be successful, retain or refer. The fact that EP is an ESL student makes the decision much mroe difficult, but my gut(and data) tells me she needs more individualized instruction. I have serisouly lost sleep over this child!

EP
In January, EP read independently at DRA 10. I was impressed because BD and FP were at 8. She read with 95 percent accuracy. EP scores higher because she TALKS ALL THE TIME (and about everything under the sun). She made great predictions during the picture walk, she reflected and connected to the story which helped her comprehension score because her retell was very limited. She really would have been a solid 8. EP relies very much on pictures when she reads.
In March, I DRA'd EP at a level 12. Her accuracy level was "emergent" because she made 14 mistakes. At this point of the DRA, they recommend to stop and reassess with a lower text level. I have a hard time doing that because I always want to check comprehension. Again, her retell was very limited and the events were general. For example, the ending is "Robert decided he liked Maria and tells Mama he will help take care of Maria, too." After prompting "How does the story end?" She responds, "Robert was happy." So...EP is still at a DRA 10.
*Next steps: EP's errors were lazy errors, so we will review word reading strategies also, but focus more on sentence comprehension and asking "Does that make sense?" For example. "Robert want share he liked Maria." was what she read and she didn't stop to self correct.
I will also help her to rely less on pictures and more on context clues when reading. I think these things will help make her retell stronger with more specific details/events from the story.

BD and FP- DRA

I DRA'd my three focus students in January. I wasn't sure how much progress I would see in just a couple of months, but I was very pleased with the results.

BD
January's DRA was a level 8. He read with 95 percent accuaracy. He scored high in comprehension, but his retell took away a point. He didn't retell in order and he needed some prompting. He was able to make literal connections with the story. The story was about a dog doing tricks. His first connection was circus dogs, which I thought was funny. Then he started telling me all about his dog and that his dog doesn't do tricks.
Based on the running records from the ESL teacher and his phonics/sight word progress, I decided to test BD on level 12. He read with 93 percent accuracy, which is considered "developing". It would have been higher but he made a couple of silly errors like "mom" instead of "momma" and "is" instead of "was". When it was time for him to retell, he made a connection and said "She looks like my mom. She's going to have a baby." He is so excited to be a big brother. It's sweet. BD's retell was in order this time but I did need to prompt to get more details and the ending of the story. His comprehension scored just one point away from "independent" level.
*Next step: In the recent DRA, BD didn't use his word reading strategies. He stopped and asked what words were. I will definitely review those and make sure we practice in small groups.

FP
January's DRA level was 8 for FP. He read with 93 percent accuracy, which is developing. For "Duke" he would say "Duck" he asked how to read the word "shake", he said "back" instead of "black". Twice he left the "s" sound off of words. In small groups we practiced CVCe words and digraphs like crazy, so I was happy to see his accuracy rate improved in March to 96 percent on DRA level 12. He said "feeling" instead of "feeding". The other errors were me telling him the word. This just reinforced the fact that I MUST review word reading strategies. In January, FP retold the events in the middle of the story out of order with some prompting. In March, he retold the story in order  with one prompt. For comprehension, in January he was one point away from independent level, but his lack of reflection and connection to the story hurt him. The same with March's DRA.
*Next step: Not only do I need to work on word reading strategies, but for FP I need to help him think about the story and make connections.

Garfield Survey

I gave the Garifield survey again today. I did the first one whole group (students) so I thought I should do the post survey whole group too. Although, I am thinking I should have done it one-on-one in the fist place. Before I compare the scores, I want to point out in my first post about the survey's, I didn't feel like the students answered honestly. I also didn't think the students were mature enough to answer questions that deal with thinkings about thinking. (metacongnition, right?) Anyways the scores were interesting and somewhat unsettling, but I am going to use it as a learning tool and not take it personal :) (easier said than done)

Garfield Survey Results

 



                           1-28-13                                                                                  3-13-13

 

             recreational      academic        full scale              recreational        academic        full scale

              percentile        percentile                                     percentile           percentile      

 

EP            74                      46                    60                       50                       6                      18

 

FP            68                      78                    74                       44                       11                    20

 

BD           20                       67                    45                       37                        7                     15

 

 

I thought their attitude about reading would have improved, not drastically dropped! Am I pushing them too much and making them frustrated? I'm not sure how to use this data in my research. I wonder if they understood what I was asking better yesterday because they have a better understanding of the english language now.

 

I used the "Mid-year percentile ranks by grade and scale" to analyze both surveys. From the information of have on the survey that is the only sclae to use, right? I was a little confused if there was a different one since it says "Mid-year".

Running Records

As I looked over my running records from the ESL teacher, I am left confused. One of my students (EP) is showing the least amount of progress on the phonics assessment, but is making steady progress, equivalent to her peers, with the ESL teacher with running records. So when I expressed my concern with the ESL teacher, she was surprised she hasn't done better. At first, it was hard for me to feel like I was doing something wrong. In another discussion I had with the ESL teacher, I learned that the running record is from a text they have read and discussed duirng the week. Of course her assessments are showing more progress than mine. I am using DRA (cold reads) and phonics assessments to measure progress. I looked over the running record again with a new focus. If she has read and discussed this story during the week, then I would expect less mistakes.
Her mistakes were: (Level F)
says- should have said

climbs- crawls
big- dig
mother- many
flips-fills
to swim- for swimming
under-inside
climb- come
shlecks-shells

compared to FP (level G)

something- sometimes

The difference between the two students is extreme. FP is reading a level ahead and only makes one mistake. The mistake is more reasonable because the similarity in the two words. When you look at EP's mistakes most of them are very unreasonable showing that she does not decode. She looks at the first sound and guesses a word. Then she doesn't even stop to think if it makes sense.

My next steps for EP is to pull her in the mornings and review segementing and blending to help her decode words.

Hallelujah!

I am beginning to update my major assessments that I am using to measure progress. One is the Literacy First Phonics Assessment test. BD has made so much progress! He only has 6 more sections to master! They are *beginning consonant digraphs *vowel dipthongs *closed multisyllabic words
*open multisyllabic words * List B and C

There are a total of 22 sections. BD started the year not knowing his long or short vowel sounds and of course struggled reading CVC words!

FP has made more progress than the Lit First test shows. He would have more of the test mastered if it wasn't for those nonsence words. He just can't seem to apply the skills when the words don't make sense. My old reading coach works at Rusell Cave where they have a very high Spansih speaking population and she said they adapted the test and took out the nonsense words. I know it is important for them to be able to apply the phonics skills but ESL students struggle to understand REAL words, let along NONSENSE words.

EP just hasn't made much progress. The ESL teacher and I are discussing our next steps for her.  :(

I feel safe to say that BP and FP have benefited from multisensory learning. In an article I read for this research, Learning Styles vs. Multiple Intelligences (MI) Two Concepts for Enhancing Learning and Teaching, Prashnig (2005) explains that learning styles (LS) “can be defined as the way human beings prefer to concentrate on, store and remember new and/or difficult information” and MI as “a theoretical frame work for defining/ understanding/assessing/developing people’s different intelligence factors”. (p. 8) LS is the input of information being taught and MI is the output of what was learned. When these two concepts are understood and used correctly in the classroom, Prashnig (2005)  says, “teaching strategies become more useful and effective and learning becomes more enjoyable for students who struggle in traditional classrooms”. (p. 9)

Sight Word Check

It's Friday, so this morning I updated the students' sight word lists. EP didn't seem very excited about reading through the list. She complained and said, "That's a lot of words." She was suppoed to start List B, but didn't really want to. When she realized another student in the group started the list she asked how they did (because she is nosy like that) and said she would try List B. I put the list in front of her and she said,"These look hard!" She read 53/100 of the list.

While updating BD's list, he said, "I don't know this word. It's not in my Wikki Stix list." I explained because they are new words because he was starting List B. He was excited. He read 64/100 words from the list correctly.

While updating the lists, I realized I needed to have the students continue to practice the words they've mastered because they are missing some words they knew the week before. I will make a couple of sets of List A and List B sight words tot he students to practice when they finish work.

Letter Tiles Take 2

After reflecting on my "letter tiles gone bad" lesson, I only put the letter tiles they needed to make their spelling words in their individual baggy. Today EP is absent. The group was so much more focused. EP tends to talk A LOT and get the whole group off track. Students got out their tiles and made sure they were all facing up. We practiced making spelling words again (ui,ue, and ew word families). This time they did not have the spelling list to look off of. I said a word aloud and the students needed to make the word.  BD was the first to make the words first. About half of the time he was correct. HS was consistantly one of the last ones to make words and he was looking around at what the other students were doing. All of the students made "glue" and "blue" correctly. "Fruit" and "suit" were also spelled correctly by almost the whole group. "Clue", "threw" and "knew" were the most missed.

• Clue was spelled as "klue", "clui", and "cluew".

This let me know that it would be helpful to review the different sounds "c" makes. It also shows that on Wednesday, the students have not practiced enough to remember which vowel pair goes with each word. Maybe 3 word families was too much,

• Threw was spelled as "thui", "thrue", "thru", and "thrui".

The student that spelled "thui" often leaved out important sounds when spelling words. They have been working with "th" sounds with the ESL teacher so I was glad to see that they all made the digrah correctly.

• Knew was spelled "new".

This would be a good time to go over multiple meaning words again with this group. (threw also). I also need to expose them to more silent "k" words.

At the end of the lesson, all the students said they had a lot of fun. I was hoping spelling test scores would have been better than they were. the scores ranged from 2/10 to 6/10. They usually have higher scores, but the words were more difficult this week.

Letter Tiles

Yesterday I finally was able to do a lesson with the letter tiles. Prior to yesterday, the group was able to explore with them so when we did the actual lessons, they would (hopefully) be able to stay focused instead of play with the tiles.

The first lesson was horrible! I don't know what I was thinking. Part of it was the fact that I didn't get fully prepared for the lesson due to meetings and family schedules. I gave each student their baggies with ALL the letter tiles rather than just the tiles they would need. Students couldn't find letters, tiles were everywhere, and they maybe made 1-2 words each during the activity.

Today I made sure the students only had the letters they needed to use to make their words. Our phonics skill this week is -ew, -ue, -ui. While looking at their spelling lists, students were asked to make their spelling words using the letter tiles. When they made a word, they had to read it out loud to me.

EP began the lesson not looking at the list of spelling words and made "trew" as the word "true". After the making words activity, students read from their bookbags as I went around and listened to their reading. EP got stuck on a word (chew). She was not able to read the word. When asked what sound -ew makes she said /o/(long o sound) That was a little discouraging because Monday we used bumpy writing the practice the -ew, -ui, and -ue words. It showed me that EP still isn't able to apply her knowledge to read unknown words. Hopefully by the end of the week the group will be able to read words other than their spelling words correctly.

I have also decided that since I am using bumpy writing and letter tiles to practice phonics skills which match our weekly spelling words, I might be able to use spelling tests scores as data. Or would that not really fall under my research questions "How does multisensory activities impact struggling ESL readers?" because it is spelling not reading.

Raw Data

After class tonight, I have realized that I will use field notes as my main data collection and inductive analysis. The activity in class, actually taking field notes and putting them into categories, was very helpful. Now that I will rely mostly on my field notes, I need to make sure that I am taking them often and going back soon after taking them and creating thick descriptions. (which is much more clear after class tonight as well) I haven't been paying enough attention to setting features. I also wasn't being descriptive enough in my thick descriptions.

Thick Description

Today a new student joined the small reading group that I have been using for my research project. I am not collecting data on him as of now, but I might send home a permission slip just in case.

In my original plan I  was going to start a new activity, but I decided to do another week of bumpy writing with this week's phonics skill. BP joined our group and I began to pass out the screens for bumpy writing. He had a big smile and said "This is cool!" The other students were excited to tell him how we use it in our reading group. The students divided their paper into thirds to practice writing a few of their spelling words. First we go over the phonics skills by tracing over with thier finger "ee" and "ea" that they have already bumpy written on Monday. Then they listen and write the spelling word I say, "meat". They write it then trace it with their finger and say the letters then read the word. They do this for the next two words, "seat" and "treat". Most of the students were able to write the words on their own, but some of the other students depended on our conversation as we talked about "ea" and "ee". FP needs me to remind him to say the letters as he traces them. He is a very quiet student and doesn't really like to say much during class time. I have watched him at recess and he is much more social. I wonder if it is because he doesn't feel as comfortable in reading group.

I hope that using the bumpy writing to initiate our phonics skills will help them with their spelling words. I need to remember to use their spelling test scores as data.



Wikki Sticky Sight Words is the first multisensory activity I taught the group. Now they do it independently during word work center. They use the sight words they don't know to trace with wikki stix. It seems to have great results when I introduced it and practiced it with them during small group. I recently assessed them on their word list and they did not make the improvement I expected. They are supposed to say each letter as they form it with the wikki stix and then read the word. I have told them if they have trouble reading the word, they have to ask a group member or another student to help them. I could tell they were not doing that because of the small gain in words. I figured that I better pay more attention to them as they are working in that center. Today I noticed that they take way too long to get started on the activity. After they leave my reading table, they are strolling around the room and then finally they get their materials out and get started. BD seems to be more focused than the others. He sat a little father away from the others. EP didn't even go through her entire list. I had to remind them to stay on task 8 times in 20 minutes. The whole class was very chatty and off task during reading centers. Maybe it is because of the anticipation Valentine's Day.

Bumpy Writing

This is the activity I introduced today. I am using this multisensory activity to practice the phonics skill for the week. They students wrote the vowel pair "ai" then traced it with their finger and said each letter then said the sound it makes. They repeated it 3 times. Then they wrote "ay" and did the same. After that we did some phonemic awareness by adding/deleting beginning and ending sounds to make new words. Tomorrow they will "bumpy write" their spelling words, which have "ai" and "ay" and trace and say them. It's called bumpy writing because writing on the screen creates a texture feel. The students had never done anything like it before and they really liked it.

Wikki Stix data

This is what we call "Wikki Sticky Sight Words". Last week, I modeled and they practiced expectations during small group. I use their High Frequency Sight Word Lists from the Literacy First Phonics Assessment test. I typed out the words they have missed and printed them in a large font. The students have to say each letter as they make it, then read the word. This week, the students are doing this activity independently, but with an updated list of words. Once they have made all their words with the wikki stix, they have to choose one of the words to use in a sentence. Today was the first day of independent practice and it went really well.

Since we were out of school Friday, I didn't get to assess their word list. I did this Monday and I was happy with the results.
*EP gained 13 new words, but missed 6 words that she read correctly last time. This has been typical for EP. She has 10 more words to move on to List B (second grade word list) I am really excited to asses this week and see the results!
*BD gained 8 new words, but missed 4 word that he read correctly last time. BD needs 10 more words to move on to List B.
*FP gained 7 new words, but missed 7 words that he read correctly last time. FP needs 5 more words to move on to list B. Technically, he has mastered List A, but I would like for him to read all of the words correctly considering List A are 1st grade words.

Garfield Reading Attitude Survey

Yesterday I began my small reading group time by giving the Garfield Reading Attitude Survey with my focus group. I explained to them that it is very important to be honest about how they feel about reading and reassured them that no one would get in trouble for how they answer. To make sure they didn't see what their neighbor was choosing, we got out our "offices" so they could have some privacy. I read each question aloud and explained what it meant, since most of my students in this group are ESL students and need paraphrasing to help them comprehend. I sat down last night with them and added up their scores and was very surprised at the results. One student has been absent this week so I don't have his results, but three out of the four I scored were above average, which means they enjoy reading more than the average student. One student scored in the 45th percentile, which meant that he enjoyed reading less than the average student. I was surprised because I figured since they struggle with reading, that they wouldn't enjoy it very much. My conclusion is that they are not aware of how to look of themselves as readers. Do they know they aren't reading at the level of most of their peers? I am hoping that their attitude about reading stays positive because it will be easier to motivate them and teach them strategies that will help them become better readers.

Catch-Up Time!

Friday was a lovely surprise, but now I have some cathing up to do! Not to mention I was already a day behind on my timeline. It didn't take me long to get behind. :) Oh well, tomorow I hope my students bring back their consent forms so I can officially begin. Tomorrow I will also be giving my students their reading interest surveys and begin teaching them their first multisensory activity! I think they are really going to love it. They will be using wikki stix, which I have alwasy heard about, and my kids have gotten them at resaurants to play with at the table, but I never really knew how I could use them in my reading instruction. My plan is to look at each student's word list from the Literacy First Assessment, and take a small group of words (about 5) they haven't learned yet and write them on half sheets of card stock (I really needed the big index cards, but didn't have any at the moment). They will use the wikki stix to make the word on the half sheet of cardstock. I am a little nervous about making sure I write down and collect quality qualitative data. I am excited to get started!

Action Research Timeline

January 23- Send home consent forms
January 24- Letters of Assent given to students/ Student Reading Survey
January 25- Literacy First Assessment for focus group students/ DRA focus group
January 28 to February 1- Teach/Model/Practice: Multisensory Activity #1 (Wikki Stix with Sight Words)
February 4 to 8- Teach/Model/Practice: Multisensory Activity #2 (Textured Sight Words/Phonics)
                           Independent Practice MA # 1
February 11 to 15- Teach/Model/Practice: MA #3 (Magic Sand for Sight Words/Phonics)
                           Independent Practice MA #1 and #2
February 18 to 22- Teach/Model/Practice: Fluency Recording on RazKids
                           Independent Practice MA #1, 2, and 3
February 28 to March 1- Teach/Model/Practice: Letter Tiles (Sight Word/Phonics/Vocabulary)
March 4- Literacy First Assessment for focus group
March 4 to March 15- Continue MA activities, Fluency Recording, and Letter Tiles at beginning of small group and during indpendent practice time
March 15- DRA focus group
March 18 to 22- Collect and analyze data/ present to peers
March 25 to 29- Complete Action Research paper/ present to colleagues

*Check sight word list every Friday

Introduction

I teach second grade at Keithshire Elementary. It is a new school that opened in 2011, located in the south central part of Fayette County. The current enrollment is 652 students. The population is approximately 71% White, 9% African American, 7% Hispanic, 9% Asian, and 4% other. There are 99 second graders divided between 4 classrooms. The average class size is about 25 students. We have a floating assistant that is a retired classroom teacher. She works with small groups of students among all four classrooms. I have 25 students in my class, 7 girls and 18 boys. Among these students I have a total of 6 ESL students. Three of them are transitional students, meaning they have tested out but are still monitored and receive accommodations for testing, but do not get pulled out. The other three receive intense ESL services. They get pulled out twice a day, working on reading comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary. These students are also included in a small reading group with other struggling readers during my reading centers block.

Right now, my group of struggling readers is learning different strategies to help them read independently. I begin the group with sight word practice, then I introduce the strategy we are practicing and model it, then they practice the strategy on their own by reading a leveled text. I observe them reading and assist them when needed. Overall, these students seem to enjoy reading and want to become better readers. They get excited when they can read a text on their own. One problem is it takes extra practice to retain skills/strategies and then they seem to get “lost”, meaning they do not apply what they learn in small groups independently, which makes for slow and sometimes little progress. 

Multisensory teaching is when a student learns through more than one of the senses. Bradford (2008) states, “Studies from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development have shown that for children with difficulties learning to read, a multisensory teaching method is the most effective teaching method.”  Students that struggle to read often have trouble with visual tracking and processing auditory information, which are characteristics I have noticed with Ella, Bill, and Frank.

            I am hoping that adding multisensory activities in my small group of struggling readers, their reading skills and comprehension will improve. My struggling ESL students have a lot of gains to make, but I think once they find the confidence and are able to read and comprehend, they will move mountains! My research question is, “How will multi-sensory activities impact struggling, ESL readers?”