Clarity on AR

Today I dug into all the research I have been collecting on Close/critical reading in the classroom.  I am getting a little concerned that this is a process, and I may not be able to see marked improvements in student reading comprehension with the class time I have available for AVID instruction.  I still have to teach the kids chemistry to prepare for the exam at the end.  Hendricks asserts in chapter 5 that I should define the amount of time that will be devoted to the intervention in class.  As a result of this statement, I will devote half a class period each day to model and teach the close reading strategies to the students.

According to best practices forwarded by the research I am consulting, I should select brief texts that allow for multiple readings; I may choose to support student reading in small groups if needed; I should allow for dialogue based on the text between students, so I plan to conduct a whole-group Paideia seminar on the text.  In addition, the final piece is for them to have a writing/reflection piece at the end of the seminar.

As a pre-assessment for measuring success, I would ask the students to read the text as they normally would-to mark as they see fit.  I will have them reflect on the knowledge gained as a result of reading the text in a passage.

According to the Hendricks text, I should create an intervention plan based on best practices reviewed in literature (p. 75).  In light of this information, I am using the AVID critical reading text as the base of instruction and will pull student handouts/resources from this text.

Here is what my intervention plan might look like:

      Reading instruction in the high school setting has historically been relegated to 'seek and find' teaching, mapping out the text structures such as headings and titles and basic information gathering.   The ability to read complex text proficiently and independently is an expectation of the Common Core State Standards and also of the Advanced Placement curriculum in all subject areas (Brown & Kappas, 2012).Within the framework of an accelerated, rigorous curriculum, students must have the skills to cope with such advanced expectations.   Research conducted by Brown and Kappas recommend the implementation of close reading strategies to bridge the gap between novice and experienced reader(2012).  Brown and Kappas define close reading as:
 ...the act of reading and rereading text over multiple instructional lessons.  Through text-based questions and discussion, students are guided to deeply analyze and appreciate key vocabulary and how the meaning is shaped by context; attention to form, tone and imagery; the significance of word choice and syntax; and the discovery of different levels of meaning as passages are read multiple times (Brown & Kappas, 2012 p. 5).

My concern all along has been that I am going to be overwhelmed with trying to take on too many strategies for such a small time frame for instruction.  According to Souvigner and Mokhlegerami, reading strategy instruction decreases effectiveness when too many strategies are applied at one time.  As a result of this research, I will restrict strategy application to rereading text and writing in the margins. If these strategies prove useful, then I may be able to add pausing to connect ideas within a text.  


     

Critical Reading strategies

I have received a copy of AVID's critical reading strategies for expository texts from our middle school administration that sat in this AVID strand last summer.  I am a huge proponent of AVID methodologies.  They are researched based and AVID retains data on implementation success.

There are twelve strategies for critical reading:
1. Planning
2. Pre-reading
3. Learning and retaining academic vocabulary
4. Rereading
5. Marking the text
6. Pausing to connect ideas
7. Writing in the margins
8. Charting the text
9. Responding to a writing task
10. Summarizing
11. Sentence starters
12. Investigating writers's choice

I can easily see 1-8 go together to build deep reading strategies. I wonder, though, if 9-12 are application?

Just to reinforce that this is a learning stretch for me, I did not know that these strategies were among a category of reading strategies called rhetorical principles.

I will follow reading comprehension while implementing strategies 1-9, possibly using a piece of literature that they have already been exposed to and responded to in their AP English class.  I can utilize these texts to see if their reading comprehension increased as a result of these strategies.  I can also use a current literature selection in their AP class (one that they have not been exposed to before) and see if the strategies improved the ability to respond to questions asked of the text.

I also have access to several AP english prompts (provided by college board for practice purposes) to measure effectiveness.  In addition, the final exam for these students from Honors English III (the class that pre-empts AP English) can be utilized to see if comprehension increased as a result of strategy application.

Cognitive coaching research?

I am simultaneously taking cognitive coaching at the same time that I am completing this class.  I just had the idea to combine the two!  I wonder if I can use the coaching with my mentee to also formulate the basis of my action research topic?

I haven't read all the articles on AR as of yet, so I wonder how different the process is from scientific research that I am familiar with?

My question would be:
How does cognitive coaching affect (effect? I'll have to look that up) student achievement?

Variable:
cognitive coaching

Controls:

Here is where it gets kind of sticky.  Need to have a group of students that we have a base line before coaching and after.  This won't happen because we just switched semesters and we have a whole new group of kids.

Same novice teacher
Same mentor

I wonder if we could use a baseline of data that was collected last semester (student achievement) from the same course that she is also teaching this year?  Still, different students.

I'll have to read up on that while I'm getting my hair done today.

Action Research, Anyone?

I am taking a graduate course to assist me in making decisions that will improve my practice and thus student learning.  This course is appropriately entitled action research! I will be making changes to the structure of my class, collecting data, assessing the data/reflecting and making more changes, continuing the cycle.

I am looking at looking closely at helping my AVID kids improve their reading comprehension and their writing abilities (synthesis) to communicate what they understood.  They are weak in grammar, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement and punctuation.  If I can make any improvements on students' progress through the use of close reading strategies and then help them formulate complete responses to essay questions, then we have success.

I plan to research effective close reading strategies then provide a pre-assessment on their abilities to form a base line for each student.   Implementation will occur in sections so we can learn how to do this (I have no idea!).  I will collect data on my students by randomly pulling cornell notes or learning logs from my class and any other class that they have, looking for evidence of transference from direct instruction to application in their every day writing. I will first focus on reading comprehension (close reading) and then move on to strategies to assist in the synthesis of articulating what they have read when given a prompt.