Post for the Week of March 16-20

In planning my article, I most definitely am going to be writing an article that “makes the most sense” once I have the results.  My study has certainly taken a life of its own and has not at all looked like how I imagined it.  Most of this is due to unforeseen circumstances when planning my study which include our school’s new A/B schedule, nine snow days, and the almighty ACT.  Our time working in our reading journals has been slim (at best), and I see now that I am definitely going to have to make the best of what I have and I am praying that it all makes sense.

I am somewhat relieved to learn that the data may not be “strong enough to justify new insights formally” and that this may set me up for a future study. I feel like if I could do it all over again during a fall term, it would be so much better. The spring semester is always so sporadic with snow days, and  having to interrupt my study with intense ACT preparation really caused a lot of problems in my data collection.  In addition, the fall term would be fresh – I could really see their changes from the beginning to the end of my study. Starting mid-year just seems to be somewhat skewed.  I find that with high school students the apathy grows as they year progresses, particularly as spring approaches and as there have been huge interruptions of snow days. 

I am really glad to have this article as a resource as I begin crafting my paper, particularly the examples and strategies to use within each section.  I am getting a bit anxious about all of it and hoping as I begin the daunting task of “putting it all together” that I can utilize effective organization that will help my study to be useful to others.  J

Finally Back in the Groove!

The ACT, A/B schedule, and snow days have absolutely wreaked havoc on my study, and I am really freaking out that I don't have many journal entries at this point.  Spring break is only 7 days away, and I will only see these students 4 times during those days.  In addition, last week, I missed Monday due to a family situation, and on Wednesday, we had to STAR test, which took up nearly the whole block.  Our writing journals have suffered, and I am growing more and more concerned and upset about how my eventual findings will turn out. Ugh. So frustrating.

Yesterday, Tuesday, March 17th, we finally were able to spend time with our reading journals.  I decided to allow students to read a book or magazine of their choice and have them practice the skill of summarizing.  This is a skill that we have been working on all year to help with comprehension so they are familiar with doing this and know what is expected.  I then thought that it would be useful to know if students would read more thoughtfully if they knew that they would be expected to retain what they'd read for the purpose of writing a summary.

Before reading time began, I explained what they were going to do when it was finished by saying, "Read with the intention of summarizing when we are finished."  They then read for 15 minutes.

When reading time was complete, they were asked to summarize.  I gave them about 7 minutes to do so.  Some students finished very quickly and some took the entire time. I observed three students look back at their reading material for details.

Once the summaries were complete I posed the following question:  "Do you think you read more effectively having known that you were going to be asked to write a summary at the end of the reading session?"  They simply had to respond with a YES or NO.

53% NO

47% YES

.

I find this to be very interesting because I assumed that most students would read more intentionally, and I am going to ask a follow-up question on Friday as to why they did not read with more intention.  I am so curious as to whether this is apathy, lack of interest, or something that I am not thinking of...