Initial Thoughts About Slides for Presentation

Area of Focus: Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension, most students are behind because they are reading in English as a second language. Accelerating student learning in this area is a major priority for me and my school to give my students their best chance at success in the future. Making inferences is a challenging step forward in reading and many students struggle with it. 

Focal Students
I chose these two students because they were on the lower end of reading performance in my class and I wanted to look at the fundamentals of learning how to infer. These two students did not seem to be able to do so on their own, so they seemed like good candidates to study in order to help me understand what is really involved in the process.

Routine Data Source
This was as much a part of my inquiry as the understanding of the skill of inference. I started with post-its during independent reading, evolved to using them during guided reading, became cumbersome to try and collect/review, tried small lined paper slips during read aloud, then settled into stop and jots during read aloud and independent reading. 

Tracking Focal Student Progress

Mills Teacher Scholars

Tracking Focal Student Progress

April 2013

My area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is: Students reporting their thinking in writing about reading.

My routine data source is: Student “stop and jot” during read aloud of a shared text.

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Indicators	Student Name ____Nathalie_____	Student Name ____Jenny______
1. Student correctly identifies type of strategy used in “Stop-and Jot”	£Met ☐Not met ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? 5 inferences made, 4 about characters’ feelings, 1 of a character trait	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? 5 questions, mostly basic comprehension (indicates low level of understanding); 1 inference about a character’s feelings
2. Inference was made based on the text	£Met ☐Not met ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? Quotes texts or relates to important plot points.	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “He is angry at the robbers because they took the coins.” (Next level would be quoting text)
3. Student was able to explain reasoning, give evidence	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? Does not explain beyond the quote. Inferences are reasonable, but she does not show so in her writing.	☐ Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? Does not explain reasoning.
4.  Inference is connected to a deeper understanding of the text	☐Met ☐Not met  £Part Evidence/How can you tell? Mostly she is writing about characters’ feelings, but she does go a little deeper for one character trait, which will help with a deeper understanding of the story.	☐ Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? Inference is circumstantial, and does not necessarily help with a deeper understanding of the text.

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Looking at Data

Natalia:

Natalia's Stop-and-Jot Sample

Something I have noticed about Natalia's learning is that, she focuses mainly on how a character is feeling for her inferential thinking. I wonder if this is the only kind of inference she is aware of, or if she is just comfortable with this kind of thinking and does not challenge herself to do more. I am also noticing that she is quoting the text directly, which is an exciting development for her! I would like to see her become aware of her thinking habits during reading so that she can push her thinking further even as she reads. 

Jennifer: 

Jennifer's Stop-and-Jot Sample

Something I have noticed about Jennifer's learning is that she is capable of asking basic comprehension questions and that she is able to infer about a character's feelings. This is interesting, because in earlier formats, where she did not have to identify the kind of thinking she was doing, she mainly would summarize. I wonder if this has added to her metacognition or if she just needed clarification on the expectations for the assignment. I notice that she has erased much of what she has jotted (in boxes 1 and 4) and am wondering why she erased what she wrote in those spaces. I would like to see her using different kinds of strategies also (connections, predictions), as I do not usually see her using them while she is reading. 

Post-Discussion Reflection

What I'm thinking now:

I'm really interested in students being able to notice what strategies (or what thinking) they are using while they read. Bloom's Taxonomy is an existing structure, which, if tailored, might lend itself to building student metacognition. If I build it into our Read Aloud routine, I would then be able to connect to it during our Guided Reading (small group) discussions of texts, which is another area in which I was hoping to have students thinking more deeply about themselves as readers.

Next Steps:

• Have students sit at their desks so that they can readily write while we read (and can refer to their book at the same time). Writing and listening and holding a book is a lot to manage at the carpet. 

• Continue to have students take free notes, but give them a quota (4?) of times to "stop and jot" while reading. Students will create quadrants in their Reading Log to be able to quickly see if they have stopped enough times to write down their thinking.

• Find/Create a Bloom's hierarchy for students to use in identifying what kind of thinking they are doing as they read. Ask Tessa, Morgan and Amy for resources.

• Have students take home their "stop and jots" (keep in Reading Log to help with management of materials?) to identify what level of thinking they were using each time. Then, have them take the highest level thought and use it to help write the Analysis section of their Reading Log entry that night.

Tracking Focal Student Progress, Round 2

Mills Teacher Scholars

Tracking Focal Student Progress

March 2013

My area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is: Students reporting their inferences in writing

My routine data source is: Student “stop and jot” during read aloud.

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Indicators	Student Name ____ ______	Student Name ____Jenny_____	Student Name ____Nathalie______
1. Student asks an inferential question (a question that requires inferential thinking in order to respond)	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	£Met ☐Not met ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “Why does her class room name the Junkyard?” and “Why did the teacher brought bottles to the class?”	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? N/A - Student did not make an inference
2. Inference was made based on the text	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met £Not met ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She wrote mainly summary and asked questions (above).	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “His heart sang while he went to school maybe because he is really happy.”
3. Student was able to explain reasoning, give evidence	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? N/A - Student did not make an inference	☐ Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She did not explain why it made sense that “his heart sang” would mean that he is happy—what’s going on in the story that made her think this was a possibility? That is the evidence that she should have listed.
4.  Inference is connected to a deeper understanding of the text	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? N/A - Student did not make an inference	☐ Met ☐Not met £ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She is keeping track of text and how it shows how the character is feeling. BUT, in her notes she was also summarizing and made two basic inferences based on illustrations (“the teacher was fat,” “the teacher is telling a story”).

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Notes:

It is hard to tell if students are being meta-cognitive about their ability to make inferences, or if it’s just throwing things at the page and hoping one of them is an inference. I don’t want to discourage them from recording their thinking in writing, so I’m wondering if, for the next round of data, I can ask the students to “star” or “circle” the inference(s) on their paper to show whether or not they understand what they are doing.

Assignment for 3/5/13

For Jennifer, when I look at how she did this time on the routine data source, one I notice is that she is starting to ask thoughtful questions about what she's reading, such as "Why does her class room name the Junkyard?" and "Why did the teacher brought bottles to the class?" While she is not yet making inferences, the skill of inferring is very linked to the asking of good questions and this progress is encouraging.

When I look at how Natalia did this time, she was able to pick up on the figurative language of "his heart sang," writing, "maybe because he's really happy." This is exciting because her other comments are mostly summative and do not show as much thinking, but this is a new development for Natalia, picking up on figurative language and writing about what she thinks it means.

I think one reason I'm seeing these changes is that we have been doing Read Aloud more consistently, and students are able to see me model, practice talking to a partner, and are better able to get used to the routine. I think this might make it easier for students to really show what they're thinking, and also better able to learn when they are comfortable and open with the routine. 

It has also been some time that we have been working on this! It's possible that they are developing mentally and have a greater capacity for abstract thought, or that they are finally understanding what I have been trying to teach them, or that I am teaching it better since I've been focusing on it so much. I don't feel like there's one really obvious link to their successes. 

Notes from Work-In-Progress Conference

Big Questions

• What do I do for my students who don't get it?
• How can I have them have productive conversations and have the listeners be as invested as the speakers?
• How can I track the students' data consistently so that I know that I am getting results?
• Are my students who haven't moved getting stuck in the comprehension of the book?

Discussion Notes

• Already has done deep thinking about levels of inference and can use that to track focal students' progress, lack of or movement on the rubrics of inference
• Plans on getting the data from one source—Read Alouds—and can track the growth through consistent structure and routines
• Keep backing up and focusing smaller
• Think about controlling for the text—this can happen in the read aloud
• What kinds of things do readers infer?
• Pre-think about what kind of things you want the students to infer
• Think about the writing snag of making inferences

Work in Progress Conference

1. What is your area of inquiry? What is your learning goal within this area?

My area of inquiry is reading comprehension of leveled text (either at an instructional level during a Read Aloud, or during Independent Reading at their independent reading level). My goal is that students will be able to make inferences based on fiction text that ground them in the story, character or theme of the text in order to help them better understand what they are reading. Students have to make a big jump in comprehension when they come into fourth grade, especially around deeper meanings, themes and making inferences. Since this is my first year teaching fourth grade, and because I do not feel strong in reading instruction, I chose this larger area as my focus for inquiry.

At the beginning of the inquiry cycle, my question was about the use of post-its as a form of regular assessment of reading comprehension in my class, and so my inquiry question was directly tied to my chosen data source. However, many of my students made progress as we were using the post-its, and because I had chosen a yes/no question, it was time to alter my inquiry. At ASCEND, we have grade-level loop inquiry cycles and a Critical Friends teaching cycle, and in both of these groups I found that we were trying to figure out how to get students to have big ideas and articulate their thinking about a book in writing. For me, this translated best in a fourth-grade context to the skill of inferring. So, my new question is how can reading routines support students in articulating their thinking about a text.

2. What is your routine data source and what are the indicators of success on this routine data source?

Because I had never used post-its in my classroom, and since many other teachers at my school were beginning to use them, I was curious whether or not they could provide me with good data to help me shape future instruction. Immediately, I could see that they were a rich source of data, and I wanted to hone the process so that I could pull even more nuance from this form of student writing. Do I require them to use frames? Do they write post-its only in guided reading, during read aloud, in their independent reading books? Together, as a table, discussing as a class first, or solo?

My routine data source has been student writing (on post-its or stop-and-jots), and the three indicators are:

1. If a student made an inference based on the text
2. If the inference is supported by textual evidence in writing
3. If the inference connects to a deeper understanding of the text.

Whether or not they provide the evidence to support their inference is not my area of focus, because it is a much clearer instructional direction to coach or re-teach students who can already infer to back up their inferences with evidence.

3.What have you learned from looking at your routine data source about your focal students’ thinking? Highlight for us one part of this data that stands out to you. What has surprised you?

My students STILL seem to be at three different levels of proficiency with inferring: 1 – Instead of making inferences, they are quoting the text with information they think is important, 2 – Students are making inferences that are very basic or that do not help them understand the story in a deeper way (i.e. “I know it was winter because in the picture there was snow.”)

4. What changes (large or small) have you made and do you plan to make to your teaching as a result of what you have learned about these students?

Since the beginning of inquiry, I have begun working with students in leveled reading groups, and have done mini-lessons on smaller strategies related to inferring (keeping track of important information as you read, using background knowledge to help you understand the story better) I-Do, We-Do, You-Do. I also made an attempt at an inferring strategy group, but struggled in guiding students because it was hard for me to identify where the breakdown was happening. Students either understood what an inference was or they didn’t!

I have tried to find the shades of gray in their skills by giving students different ways to respond during Read Aloud. I will pause and say, “I’m thinking something, are you thinking something?” and offer them a chance to write, I will ask a guided inferential question for them to respond to, and sometimes I will just pause and allow for writing when I notice that several students have begun to do so.

5. What have you noticed about your focal students’ learning progress in relation to these indicators?

Indicators	Student Name ____Arron______	Student Name ____Jenny_____	Student Name ____Nathalie______
1. Inference was made based on the text	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? very basic – “they are hungry” when there are other characters preparing food	☐Met ☐Not met  £ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “brother was disappointed” is an inference, but other things written are directly lifted from the text	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “Jim is happy because Jim gave grandma a hug”
2. Student was able to explain reasoning, give evidence	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? did not provide evidence or reasoning	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She does not provide any evidence from the text, or reasoning	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? very basic background information about “hugs”
3.  Inference is connected to a deeper understanding of the text	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? inference is basic and does not address the story or theme	☐Met ☐Not met  £ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met ☐Not met  £ Part Evidence/How can you tell? some inferences help with understanding of character, others are irrelevant to the story

7. Questions, Help!

Given Laura’s recent talk on the mode continuum and giving students opportunities to talk before writing, I am now wondering what meaningful opportunities I can provide for my students to discuss these inferences. For now, it seems that most of the class still needs the scaffold of teacher prompting/questioning, so perhaps it is modeling during read aloud, and student discussion on questions.

·      How can I use knowledge of the mode continuum, since I’m asking them to write about what they are inferring? How can I give them more opportunities to have productive talk before they are asked to write?

I wonder if where my students who haven’t moved are getting stuck is in the questioning. Perhaps students can come up with their own questions to each other about the book? How can I encourage the having of good ideas?