Moving On Up: An Action Research project identifying strategies and interventions to increase literacy scores in Early Childhood Students

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.