And the Action Research Project has come to an end….

What a crazy few months it has been! Between my school’s renovation, resignation of our Principal and Administrative Dean, monthly schedule and student changes, AND an action research project…. I am worn out! All chaos aside, I am satisfied with the outcome of this project. Granted, there were plenty of times I felt the complete opposite, but I am glad I stuck with it! My students have been so wonderful through this rollercoaster and I owe all my success to them – I have some pretty special 4^th graders :) 

Now, let’s reflect….

At the beginning of this project, I wasn’t quite sure how this would all turn out. And honestly, I am still not super excited about the end result (like I said, satisfied) but it was quite the learning experience. I can proudly say that I have completed my first Action Research project – not quite sure if there will be another in the future! If I have learned anything from this process, I’ve learned to appreciate planning and organization a lot more than when I started. This project forced me to sit down and strategically plan every minute of my Small Group instruction. Through this, I was constantly incorporating before, during, and after reading strategies that I know helped my students and myself tremendously. This project also forced me to think outside of the box when planning these activities. I was constantly thinking of, and researching new methods of introducing a text, or incorporating science content into reading.

I am definitely pleased with the implementation of my dialogue journals and the narrow reading strategy. Both were new to me, and I am so happy they have been a strong component of my reading instruction. Being new to (and incredibly intimidated of) Science content, the narrow reading strategy helped me get a better grasp of what it is I am supposed to be teaching. Through this strategy, my students were exposed to a large assortment of text, while allowing me to slip in essential reading instruction. My students were so excited when I would introduce new books that correlated with our Science lessons, and this was probably the best part of this project. Seeing them rush to the bookshelf to read a book about reptiles, or hiding the Hide and Seek camouflage book in their desk was amazing!

The dialogue journals have also been incredibly fun. It is so important for teachers to take the time out of their instruction-packed days to truly get to know their students. And I feel like these journals have allowed me to do just that! I would like to get journals for the rest of my class started, and if not, I will definitely incorporate this activity next year with my entire class. I think I will have to split the class up into assigned days, because it was challenging to keep up with. The students enjoy learning about and questioning me as much as I do them.

Through this project, I have learned about two wonderful teaching techniques that I will definitely incorporate in the future. I have become more organized and intentional in my planning and instruction. My students’ attitudes toward reading and learning have improved, making teaching so much more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong – this process was anything but rainbows and butterflies. It had its unforeseen twists and turns, and just when I thought I was on the right track, I was thrown for another loop. But I survived. And I learned a few things along the way :)

Narrow Reading: My Favorite So Far

An activity students completed this week incorporating the narrow reading strategy has been my favorite so far. In Science, we began studying ecosystems and food chains. To build on this in small group, I separated students into two groups and assigned them either the rainforest ecosystem or the taiga. The reading required for this activity was a short passage about each, describing what the ecosystem looks like, the organisms that live there, the climate, etc. After students read the passage, they answered five, short comprehension questions. Next, each group created a summary, highlighting key details about their ecosystem. Then, I worked with each group to brainstorm a list of 20 words related to the ecosystem – this was the fun part. The brainstorming allowed me to determine how well students understood what their ecosystem looked like, and identified the information students remembered from their passage. Once our list was created, I explained the creative component of this lesson. Students were given large sheets of construction paper. The 20 words we brainstormed became the border. Inside the border, students created an illustration of their ecosystem, which again let me know how well they were able to comprehend what they read. When evaluating the students’ drawings, I noted that they were all very similar looking – meaning all students were on the same page and demonstrated a strong understanding of the passage and their ecosystem!