Action+Research+Plan+and+Reflective+Summary


 * Action research Plan and Reflective Summary:

Essential Question: //How does incorporating 21st Century Skills format help students compare and contrast information on one topic from multiple informational texts?//

Rationale for Reading Standard 6.R.5.1 (South Dakota 2009):** After reviewing the eMetric data, I again discovered that standard 6.R.5.1 "Students can compare and contrast information on one topic from multiple informational texts." was low achieving and has been low achieving for the 6th grade students for the past three years. According to the eMetric data, in 2006 this standard had a 47.6% average; 2007 - 45.4% average; and 2008 - 43.8%.

I looked back at what I did last year and decided to take a different means to accomplish my goal of raising this standard. I wanted to incorporate 21st Century Skills and Tools into my action research. My first step was to monitor the students to see where they were at with this standard. I had them take the pretest in November of 2008 over 6.R.5.1. The results showed a 66.7% average for the class average for 6.R.5.1.

I then started to incorporated many formative and summative lessons that consisted of many informational reading strategies and included many of the 21st Century Skills and Tools. I gave the students the posttest (the same as the pretest) on May 4, 2009. The class average for 6.R.5.1 was an 81.3% which was a 14.4% increase from the pretest. A few of the students had 0% on the pretest and had great gains on the posttest - some even went to 100%. These students are ones that I already knew were having trouble with higher order thinking skills. They could get the simple, literal questions answered but if you threw in more than one topic, it always confused them. I was very excited to see their gains in this test! The percentage that dropped surprised me as these students think in higher order thinking skills almost all the time. I don't know if they had a bad day or things just were not clicking for them. I noticed a great increase in the amount of critical thinking and questioning that was going on in the classroom through observations, anecdotal notes, discussion paragraphs, questions posed and answered, and discussions amongst themselves. Of course, the true test will be when the Dakota STEP results come back in July.
 * 1) The students would be in groups of 3 or 4 and each have a different text to read. They filled out a graphic organizer that would be an anticipatory set of questions (activating prior knowledge): [[file:AnticipatorySeton TextSets.doc]]. This was a formative assessment as they were tapping into prior knowledge to see what they knew about the texts. They then would read the text and fill out another graphic organizer for discussion purposes: [[file:Nonfiction Discussion Articles.doc]]. I scanned this formative assessment as they were reading and working. I would give suggestions on what to underline or write into the margins of the text if I saw they were not understanding the modeling I provided at the beginning. After they had read the text and filled out the discussion organizer the group would have their discussion, comparing and contrasting all of their articles. During the discussion groups, I would meander from table to table and listen to what they were discussing - sometimes giving them suggestions to make the discussion richer. When the discussion was over, the group participated in a silent discussion in their notebooks where they would write what they thought was the most interesting in the articles, comparing and contrasting the three or four articles and then they would respond to two other people in their group: [[file:Rubrics over Write AroundNonfiction.doc]]. I did grade this part of the assignment but once I read something that I thought could be enriched or not done correctly, I spoke to that person right away so they could modify it. We did this type of activity a couple of times after the pretest of 6R51. This type of activity had many 21st Century Skills working together: communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, and evaluating information
 * 2) I also had an activity where the students were in groups of 3 or 4 and they read silently the same article and wrote down facts they thought were important (placemat activity)[[file:Placemat Consensus.docx]]. During this activity, I would circulate the room and read what they were writing and would give suggestions if they were not on the right track. They had a discussion over what each had written down, which ones were the most important, and then, they, as a group, came to a consensus regarding their opinion on the informational text and wrote their opinion with the fact or facts that supported their opinion in the middle of the placemat. I collected the placements and commented as a formative assessment for the next project. This incorporated the 21st Century Skills of communication, collaboration, evaluating informational literacy, and critical thinking and problem solving.
 * 3) Students also read a true mystery: __The Mystery of the Mary Celeste__ - and had to research different articles that were written regarding this mystery to form their own theory about what happened to The Mary Celeste after reading the articles. [[file:Mystery of the Mary Celeste Nonfiction Discussion Articles.doc]][[file:Mystery of Mary Celeste What I knew before.doc]][[file:Mystery Theory RubricReadingNo project.doc]] One formative assessment was the notes they took on the articles and how they compared with the book's version of this true mystery. I looked at everyone's notes to see who needed the extra guidance and worked with them. The students could collaborate with each other regarding their theory and they also evaluated (gave each other descriptive feedback) each other's theories before I graded them (gallery walk). The students then could read the feedback and change what they needed before the summative assessment. There were many 21st Century Skills in this project: communication, collaboration, evaluating, informational literacy, and critical thinking and problem solving.
 * 4) My final teaching project was the wiki I created for them to research and discuss their topic they were interested in. They posted the articles on their page in the wiki. They answered questions posed to them and then created questions for others to answer. They composed a discussion comparing and contrasting two articles regarding their topic and they had to have facts regarding each of the articles. I then posed questions for them to research a little bit more which was the formative assessment used. They then determined a reader's theater they would like to participate in that had the topics that were discussed and will perform this. Also, the students chose which project they wanted to accomplish from the matrix to further assist them to understand fully the content of their topic. Lastly, they chose a saying from the article and will present a choral montage at the very end ( we haven't come to this point yet!) The 21st Century Skills that were incorporated here were civic literacy (rights and freedoms people have), global awareness (researched what people in other countries were going regarding this freedom or right), media literacy (posting articles from the web, creating media-radio announcements, movie, etc.), information literacy (accessing information efficiently and effectively and evaluating the sources), ICT Literacy (posting on the wiki and networking together), communication and collaboration (discussing through the wiki, reader's theater, matrix project), creativity (creating puppet shows, powerpoints, radio announcements, posters, bookmarks, etc.), and critical thinking and problem solving (asking questions of higher order thinking, determining how they would help their cause right now in their lives). [|www.mohrriors.wikispaces.com]

Going back to my question //How does incorporating a 21st Century Skills format help students compare and contrast information on one topic from multiple informational texts?// - I believe that it does help because they are thinking critically, problem solving, using technology through media and literacy, communicating and collaborating with peers and teachers, creating different ways to be accountable for their learning - after doing all of that I know, without shadow of doubt, that these students are better able to compare and contrast information on one topic from multiple informational texts.