Action Research DRAFT

Increasing the Fluency Rate of Beginning Readers

Action Research Draft

Tiffany Hazard

Needs Assessment:

 The first grade TPRI data from spring 2012 proved that we didn’t meet our goal of 60 words per minute for 90% of students. Our district focus for the year is to increase the fluency rate of all the students in first through fifth grades.  As a first grade teacher, I decided to work towards the district goal to increase the first grade students’ reading fluency rate through implementing a new program to track student fluency.

Objectives and Vision of the Action Research Project:

            Within this program students are tested using the TPRI assessment. From the TPRI data, the teachers set individual reading fluency goals for each student. The students chart their progress in fluency folders every week. The teachers are to council each student weekly on their progress. This action research plan is a way for teachers to evaluate the progress of their students in hopes of reaching our district’s fluency goal for the end of the year. On the TPRI, first grade is the first grade level that is tested on reading fluency. Therefore, this action research project focus is on first grade students.  I created a fluency goal sheet and fluency graph to use with each student. Each student has a personal fluency goal based on the beginning of the year TPRI data. The students are monitored bi-weekly by performing fluency tests. The fluency tests are conducted by students reading a leveled book on their current reading level each week from our core curriculum. Then students, with teacher support, chart their fluency rate on their fluency graph. The teachers council the students on their progress and make adjustments necessary to help students continue to make progress. At the end of the school year I will review the TPRI and evaluate the action research plan. The goal is to have 90% of first grade students reading with a fluency rate of 60 words per minute or higher on the end of the year TPRI results.

Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy

            The reason for the focus on increasing fluency came about while reviewing our 2012 end of the year TPRI data. I discussed the scores with my reading specialist on my campus as well as the principal. Together we came up with the plan to implement reading fluency folders for every student. The fluency folders would include reading fluency goals for each student as well as a graph to help the students to visualize the reading goal. The plan was based on research by Ransinski in articles from The Fluent Reader.

References that will be used on final project:

Penner-Wilger, M. (2008, April). Building and Assessing Reading Fluency:            Academy of Reading with Oral Reading Fluency. Autoskill International,           Inc., p. 1-6.

Wilfong, L. G. (2008, September). Building Fluency, Word-Recognition Ability, and

        Confidence in Struggling Readers:  The Poetry Academy. The Reading Teacher,

        62, 4-13.

Ransinski (1991). Training Teachers to Attend to their students Oral Reading Fluency, Theory into Practice.

Nation, Paul (2009) Reading Faster. International Journal of English Studies.

Articulate the Vision:

            I shared the vision of my action research plan with my first grade team by holding a team meeting with the other first grade teachers. When I introduce this new plan to the first grade team, I used a power point presentation to help support my presentation. In the power point presentation, I included the background information on my action research plan. I also discussed my action research plan when providing professional development training in August on reading intervention strategies.  I met with my reading specialist and principal throughout the process to monitor the progress of the action research plan and project. During weekly first grade team meetings, we reviewed and discussed the data from the weekly assessments as well as the TPRI data. We discussed the importance of fluency with our students during our weekly conferences as well as with parents during parent conferences.

Manage the Organization:

The action research plan was set up to be a collaborative effort. The first grade team, the principal, the reading specialist and I all work together to ensure the success of the fluency plan for our students. I set up the plan and managed to collaboration among the teachers and administration. I monitored the progress and made the changes necessary for the plan. The teachers were all individually responsible for keeping track of the student fluency progress and monitoring the use of the fluency folders. Through the weekly meetings, the teachers were able to ask questions and gain feedback. Changes were made to the original plan to allow for more time to complete the fluency tests and to score the fluency progress. We decided that weekly tests were not necessary and wanted to provide more instruction time between fluency tests in order to see more progress between testing weeks.

Manage the Operation: The strategy used to lead the project was based solely on what is best for our students and their needs. After analyzing the TPRI data, we were able to see that our students scored low in the areas of comprehension and fluency. After meeting with my principal, reading specialist, and the other first grade teachers, we all agreed that we were in need of improvement in the area of fluency. I presented the plan that the principal and I came up with at the first team meeting. The teachers and I brainstormed ways to accomplish our goal. We agreed to the weekly fluency checks but had some debate on which stories the students were to be tested on. I initially wanted the students to be tested over stories or reading passages that were on their Fountas and Pinelle reading levels. The reading specialist wanted the TPRI intervention reading passages. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each, we decided to go with the TPRI intervention stories. The main reason for this decision is that the stories were researched based and all students would be tested on the same stories in order to see progress and compare students in order to see which students needed more intervention.

Respond to Community Interest and Needs:

            The action research plan to increase fluency among our beginning readers that was implemented in the first grade this year can be adapted based on the changes we made and the data we will have by the end of the year to implement to the other grades of our school. Hopefully we will find this plan to be successful and be able to share our research results with the other elementary schools within our district. This plan will also address ways to help students with special needs and diverse backgrounds by allowing the students to be monitored individually with individual reading goals. The school community will work together to help resolve the issue of students not performing well on the TPRI in fluency and comprehension by focusing our efforts in increasing the fluency rates of our students. The students will all benefit from more individualized and focused reading instruction.

Progress Reflection

The first grade TPRI data from Spring 2012 proved that we didn’t meet our goal of 60 words per minute for 90% of students. We need to find ways to increase the student’s reading fluency. Increasing reading fluency will be a campus improvement goal this year. One way my site supervisor and I have decided to work towards this goal is to increase students’ reading fluency rate through implementing a new program to track student fluency. Within this program students will be tested using the TPRI assessment. From the TPRI data, we will set individual reading fluency goals for each student. The students will chart their progress in fluency folders every week. We will council each student weekly on their progress. This action research plan is a way for me to evaluate the progress of our students in hopes of reaching our fluency goal for the end of the year.

 I have been able to complete steps 1-4 of my 15 step plan. I am right on schedule with my proposed action research plan. I have been able to meet with the reading specialist to review the TPRI data from the 2011-2012 school year. We discussed the overall first grade data and found that we needed improvement in fluency and comprehension. I reviewed my action research plan with her and she supports my plan and is excited to see the results and support me and the other first grade teachers through this process. I made my fluency plan outline and shared this idea and plan with the other first grade teachers. I created the fluency folder templates and have distributed them to the other teachers. This step was very time consuming. I was able to find examples of other teacher’s templates on the internet in order to find the best possible template for my grade level to use. I have met with the other teachers every week to discuss the plan and answer any questions they may have and also listen to suggestions and make needed adjustments. Two weeks ago we administered the TPRI assessment to all first graders. We met with the reading specialist to determine who would need intervention activities and to assess the fluency rate of the first graders at the beginning of the year. We discussed fluency goals for each student based on the reading assessment. I plan on meeting with the first grade team this week to be able to review the data and set fluency goals with the teachers for their students. We also need to discuss and decide on a fluency goal for our grade level to reach on the end of the year TPRI assessment. The next week we will create the reading fluency folders and start conferring with students on their reading fluency goal and how to record their reading goals in their personal reading fluency folders. We will also discuss the goals with the student’s parents at parent conferences.

Web Conference Reflections
I think the web conferences can be helpful when you have questions or need clarification. Although, the last web conference I watched left me very frustrated. The professor had not reviewed our assignment before conducting the web conference. When questions were asked, she didn't know what the students were asking and started asking the other students in the conference what the answer was. I also think that too many times people ask questions that confuse me. I think I understand the assignment, and then listening to others questions and the professor not knowing the content, left me more confused and frustrated than if  I never viewed the web conference. Sometimes I found that the conferences got off track, talking  about things other than our class. My time is very valuable to me especially now that I am in grad school. I think for the web conferences to be a more valuable there should be an outline to follow and everyone should be prepared by reviewing the assignments and expectations. I do think that being able to interact with the professors and to have a personal interaction with them is helpful. I know they have many students and I appreciate that they take the time to conduct the conferences and are so willing to help.

Action Research Reflection

When I first began this course, I was very scared that I would be doing research that I wasn’t interested in just to fulfill the requirements of the course. The first week was very much a wake-up call for me. I quickly learned by reading the “Leading with a Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher” by Dana, that I was very wrong. My past experiences in college dealt with the traditional research and now I was learning about action research. I was very relieved to learn that action research would be a project that I could implement to help improve an area of my school. I was able to learn the steps needed as well as the many areas that action research could be implemented. I never had thought of this as something school leaders do. I knew they made changes, but was unaware of the process to initiate that change. The text resource, “Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools” by Harris, was a great resource that helped me to understand all of the steps needed to implement an action research plan.

Through this class I changed my topic several times and was overwhelmed from the possibilities of topics. Every day I found myself wondering and worrying about what type of research I could actually manage. I really think posing my thoughts on the discussion boards and on my blog really helped me to shape my action research plan. At first, I was nervous to put my plan on my blog afraid of others’ criticism. I quickly learned that I was not alone. Other people were having the same struggles that I was. I really enjoyed learning from others through the use of the blogs. The blogs were a great reference of help. I really enjoyed reading other student’s comments on my plan. They really helped me to think deeper and include every necessary step when creating my plan. At first I had a huge project in mind. I posted my idea on my blog, and found feedback from a fellow classmate that really helped me to narrow my research topic and stay focused on a plan that was easier to implement. The discussion boards were also a great place to give and receive feedback.

 I really enjoyed participating or viewing the web conferences that were set up by Dr. Abshire. I really found this to be a helpful tool in deciphering all of the information on the assignments.  A few times, I was unsure of what I needed to do to complete the assignment. I always felt like I all of my questions were answered in the conferences.  I also felt more prepared going into the following week because of the information that was given and the questions that were asked.

Overall, I know I have learned a great deal about action research. I learned how to pose a wondering or inquiry. I learned that being a reflective practitioner is vital in being a successful action researcher. I was made aware of all of the ways to collect data such as surveys, questionnaires, and reflective journals.  I am very excited about my opportunity to make a positive change for my grade level or even school by implementing an action research plan. I can’t wait to get started and to see what results I will find, the changes I will make, and the challenges I may face.

Action Research Plan

ACTION PLANNING TEMPLATE GOAL: To increase the reading fluency of Castleberry Elementary first graders Action Step(s) Person(s) Responsible Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation 1.meet with Reading Specialist to review 2011-2012 TPRI data Hazard Blowers (reading specialist) August 2012 2011-2012 TPRI data Summary of meeting 2. plan fluency program outline and create fluency folder templates Hazard Blowers August 2012 Harcourt TE Completion 3.meet with first grade team and provide information on implementing new program Hazard First Grade Team August 2012 Harcourt TE Power Point Presentation Teacher feedback 4.Administer beginning of the year TPRI Hazard First Grade Team September 2012 TPRI assessment kit Net-book TPRI data 5.Review TPRI data-set first grade fluency goal for the year Hazard Blowers September 2012 TPRI data TPRI data 6.meet with first grade team to review data and set individual student goals and create student fluency folders Hazard First Grade Team September 2012 TPRI data Student fluency folders Teacher feedback TPRI data 7.Introduce fluency folders and set individual fluency goals with students First Grade Team October 2012 Student fluency folders TPRI data Evaluation of lesson and student completion of charting fluency rate 8. Start weekly fluency assessments and chart weekly goals with students Hazard First Grade Team October 2012-January 2013 Leveled readers Student Fluency Folders Timer Student’s weekly fluency charts and assessments 9. Administer Middle of the Year TPRI assessment Hazard First Grade Team January 2013 TPRI assessment kit netbook TPRI data 10   Meet with the first grade team to evaluate program and student progress Hazard First Grade Team January 2013 Notes on meeting results Meeting notes Number of areas to address 11. Make any needed adjustments Continue weekly fluency assessments and chart weekly goals with students  Hazard First Grade Team January 2013-May 2013 Leveled readers Student Fluency Folders Timer Students weekly fluency charts and assessments 12. Administer the End of Year TPRI assessment Hazard First Grade Team May 2013 Assessment Kit Net-book Testing data 13. Meet with teachers to review TPRI data Hazard First Grade Team May 2013 TPRI data Student Fluency Folders Meeting Summary 13. Create and email teacher survey  about fluency program Hazard May 2013 Created survey on surveymonkey.com Survey results 14. Present overall first grade TPRI results and survey results to staff Hazard June 2013 Survey results TPRI data power point presentation Evaluation of meeting from teachers

This was my thoughts at the beginning of the week:
I am interested in doing my action research on monitoring students that were provided reading interventions in first grade. So often we work with students that are struggling and see some progress in first grades, pass those students on and only hope they are being successful in the next grade level. Currently, my school does not monitor students from grade level to grade level. We only focus on the student while they are in our current grade level. I find it intresting that we haven't done a better job of monitoring our reading intervention program to see if students are actually making progress or continuing to struggle. I plan on focusing on students that have been in our reading intervention program in first grade and finding out how many of those students are still in reading intervention in third grade. I want to find the gaps and find the areas in which we need to give more focus. I will use TPRI, benchmarks, and STAAR testing data to help me in my research of this topic. I know this will not only benefit our students, but help guide our teachers in knowing if what we are doing is enough, and in what areas could we do more.
 Now I am wondering if this topic will be too hard to monitor and assess. My reading coach is super excited about this project and is willing to help me collect the data on all of the students. I guess I am just feeling nervous about taking on too much, but also not having a solid enough topic to complete all of the requirements. My site supervisor basically said anything I wanted to do would be fine. Any thoughts? Should I just monitor the student that are currently in first grade intervention and monitor thier progress through the year?I think not knowing all of the steps of this process and how the 7th class will go makes me very nervous. Help! Please!

How Educational Leaders Can Use Blogs

There are several ways that educational leaders could use blogs. One way could be to use a blog for a reflection on leadership practices. Blogs could be used to connect to their staff and other leaders, gather information, and collaborate with others. It's a useful way to inform faculty members of upcoming dates and events.