I am doing my action research on, how students benefit from literature circles. The two factors I will be observing are reading comprehension and student enjoyment of reading. Students will be grouped heterogeneously based on their book choice. I decided to use literature circles for my project because I have used them in the past with my classes, but the groups were homogeneous. I would group the students based upon their reading level. Through my research I learned literature circles are said to be more effective if students group themselves according to their book choice.
So far I have conducted a student survey assessing students likes, dislikes, and purpose for reading. I also used a baseline comprehension assessment created by the language arts program, Houghton Mifflin, that was adopted by our school district. The test includes reading comprehension; literary response and analysis. There are 3 short stories and a total of 15 multiple choice questions. After completing the pretest and 2 sessions of literature circles they will do a post test and the survey. The post test also comes from Houghton Mifflin's Summative booklet, testing reading comprehension; literary response and analysis.
Through my action research I want to find out if students reading comprehension changes and if students likes or dislikes change now that they are grouped heterogenously for literature circles.
About Me
- Ms. Carames
- I teach 4th grade in Stockton California. I have been teaching for three years. This is my last semester of my Masters of Arts in Teaching program.
7 comments:
This sounds so cool. I read a few articles over the summer while taking 2 classes from Dr. DeVoogd that stressed the importance of choice. I have implemented it in our independent reading time. I removed the Accelerated Reader book requirement as I noticed that it has the potential of limiting student choice. I have seen children feel freer in their selection and being more engaged during independent reading. I look forward to following your progress. Good luck, Dina!
I remember you mentioning this project before and it really sparks my interest because I have been grouping my students homogeneously by reading level for my literature circle groups (at least I did last year). It sounds like I should rethink this approach. I am really excited to hear more so that I can apply your work in my classroom.
I too am atempting to increase student reading comprehension. This seems like an issue at any grade level. I really like how you laid out exactly what you will be doing to accomplish your action research. I'm curious to see what your findings are throughout this project.
As a fellow fourth grade teacher, I am interested in what books you choose (or your students choose) for your literature circles. I find that providing appropriate "choices" for my students when it comes to chapter books is the key to success. As this is my first year in fourth, I am looking for all the good grade level books I can find.
I have something similar to Literature Circles in my classroom. I call them RESPONSE TO LITERATURE GROUPS. They are conducted primarily around Houghton Mifflin literature. The students have to answer the Responding questions at the end of each story and the Comprehension Check page in their Practice Books with group members. It has been working great. Many of the questions are opinion or inferential questions. This promotes a great deal of personal connection with the text. The group discussions are great. Students get to synthesize what they discuss with their group to come up with a "correct" answer on questions which require a "right" answer, so everyone gets a chance to contribute to the discussion and the final answer. Even my unmotivated students have hopped into the discussions. They are really connecting with the stories (even though, to me, the stories are rather boring--cough-cough---I do not find anything particularly engaging about them, but must teach them for "the test").
Anyhow, how are you going to get your data? Are you going to have students take Likert-type surveys answering rating whether they prefer responding to literature through either base program assessments or Literature Circles? Whether they are more motivated when they do one or the other? Feel more successful? Feel better about themselves as readers? Students? Are you going to interview students? Are you going to have open ended questions too?
I am interested to know.
Dina, why isn't reading level important? What type of summative test does HM have? Is it generic for any novel? I use lit circles in my room, but along with their circle task there is a comprehension packet that asks the students to utilize the Bloom's Taxonomy higher level thinking processes. I am interested in which books you have chosen and your rationale for grouping. What do you do when someone doesn't do their part? How do you manage Lit circles with HM, Math, Science, Social Studies,and PE? I am extremely interested in your project.
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