Title:
Moving on Up: A study of strategies and interventions to
increase literacy scores in Early Childhood students
Needs Assessment:
Literacy data was
collected from students in Kindergarten and First Grade. I used a variety of sources including
Developmental Reading Assessment, Early Literacy Assessment, and DIBLES
data. What I found was low scores in
Kindergarten and First Grade students that are receiving free or reduced
lunches. The African American males’
receiving free or reduced lunch was the lowest scoring category with White
males slightly higher. The average Early
Literacy Assessment score is sixty-two, the previous two areas was six and
twelve.
Objectives
and Vision of the action research project:
Teachers
will learn effective strategies and interventions to use with students in
Kindergarten and First Grade that have free or reduced lunches and low literacy
scores. Due to scheduled parent nights and training, parental involvement in
this area will increase. Students with a free or reduced lunch status
will show an increase of one or more DRA reading levels above their beginning
level and an average of 75 points growth on the early literacy assessment.
Review of the Literature and Action
Research Strategy:
I
chose to do my Action Research Project on teaching strategies and interventions
to parents and teachers to use with low performing students because I saw this
as a great need in my school and district.
After collecting data, I found that students with free or reduced
lunches are typically the students who are struggling in reading. These were the students that I chose to focus
on. Since developing this topic, I
searched for resources addressing this need and focusing on strategies and
interventions. Pat Johnson’s book addresses several
strategies for struggling readers, but also gives a guide for how to compile
and analyze data to track progress. This
book will be a focus in our staff development for Kindergarten and First Grade
teachers this year. I have also compiled
the highlights from this book to use in our presentation to parents during the
Literacy Parent night. The article from
the Reading Rockets website provides an incredible resource for interventions
to use with struggling readers. It
provides data and research based information.
The website explains the Reading First plan which is a differentiated
plan for small groups. It focuses on the
frequency of meeting in groups, the size of the instructional group, the focus
of instruction, and the format of the lesson (Crawford, Torgesen). This will be an excellent resource to share
with teachers for their differentiated lessons.
Johnson,
Pat. (2006). One Child at a Time: making the most of your time with struggling
readers, K-6.. Stenhouse Publishing.
Crawford, E.C. and Torgesen, J.K. (2006). Teaching All Students to
Read: Practices for Reading First Schools with Strong Intervention Outcomes,
Summary Document. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Center for Reading Research.
Retrieved from www.readingrockets.org.
Articulate the Vision:
Kindergarten
and First Grade teachers at my school have decided to make this their goal for
their Goals Based Evaluation for the Professional Growth and Development Plan.
They are very eager to use the data we discovered last year to research
strategies and interventions to use with our low performing students in the
upcoming school year. I presented this to my administrators and they are very
supportive, as well. We will be hosting
two Literacy Parent Nights where I will educate parents on the data we found
and provide them with research based strategies and interventions to use with
their children at home. Community
members will also be invited to attend the Parent nights.
Manage the organization:
To
collect the data, I had to rely on the Kindergarten and First Grade teachers to
send me their classroom data for the Development Reading Assessment, Early
Literacy Assessment, and DIBLES assessment.
Once this data was collected, I was able to compile and compare the data
to identify our school’s specific needs.
I met with the Kindergarten and First Grade teachers to develop a
plan. At this meeting, I asked teachers
to help in different ways. Some teachers
were asked to assist in the planning and implementation of the Parent
Nights. Other teachers were asked to
help with charts and graphs used to present data to administration and Title
One facilitator. Monies were collected
from the Title One facilitator to use for the Parent night. The money will be used for refreshments and
materials for parents to use at home with their child.
Manage Operations:
Once
I had completed my needs assessment and decided what our greatest need was, I developed
a plan based on our school’s specific needs.
I collaborated with my teammates and administrators to develop a plan
that not only met our needs, but a plan that I knew we could feasibly
accomplish. We looked at the data and
were able to reach a consensus and decide exactly what group we were going to
focus on. We laid out the plan and set
priorities. Since I knew that one of the
most important aspects of this plan is the parental involvement piece, I
focused on this area first. I knew that
I wanted to provide some sort of parent night that focused on literacy. I developed a plan for this night and then
sought the approval of my administration.
A large part of this was articulating the vision and building excitement
within the Kindergarten and First Grade teachers and the administration.
Respond to Community Interest and
Needs:
Although
we are targeting students with free or reduced lunches that are low performing,
we are inviting all parents to the literacy night. All parents will be invited to hear
strategies and interventions that they can use to help their child in reading
at home. Community members and other
stakeholders (business partners) will be invited to attend these meetings, as
well. This will reach many parents and
community members with various backgrounds.
Teachers will also participate in staff development targeting these
areas and will learn research based strategies and interventions to use in
their classrooms to differentiate instruction.
