My action
research project is to increase reading literacy by using word walls and word
wall activities to increase the reading literacy of my eighth graders. I started the Action Research project on the second
week of school with my word wall activities. Before school started, I decided
what words I would tackle for the first unit. I picked the words and wrote the
definition for the words and affixed them to my wall. Every day my students
have a warm-up and they are to complete one of my activities that I used on the
word wall list on my action research plan. I have found that my students want
to use more time than I have allotted for my warm-up activity. The first week
the activities were taking longer than the five to six minutes that I had
planned. The activities that require a word or words to answer the warm-up are
the time savers. The activities that I have planned that require at least a
paragraph to use the word in the correct context require a lengthier amount of
time and I have assigned those as homework assignments. I also have added one
activity to my word wall activity list. I am utilizing the exit ticket strategy
as a formative assessment. My students receive three to four statements that
they agree, disagree, or put a question mark after they read the statement.
Before they leave class they are to justify their answer either in sentence
form or picture form. I have used this to introduce a concept or elaborate on
the concept with the word wall words. It is quick and easy for the students to
complete and quick for me to grade. I have documented my hours on my action research
project as twenty hours. I have broken this down by ten minutes per class
multiplied by six classes which equals one hour each day multiplied by five
days a week multiplied by four weeks that we have been working. I
continue to use the word wall within my class during instruction, labs, and
checking for understanding but I have set aside ten minutes each day for my
word wall activity. I have also
administered quizzes over concepts that use the word wall words and my students
scored well on the quizzes but the unit assessment is where their scores took a
dive. I can only keep on trying different activities for my students to learn
the words and have situations where they can apply the information.
Sonya, it looks like you are making great headway on your action research project. The exit tickets seem like a quick and easy strategy to check for understanding of the words used in the word wall. Your post definitely provides evidence that you have been hard at work in implementing your research project, and it seems like you are learning a lot about what works and what doesn't along the way. Best of luck as you continue to pursue it!
ReplyDeleteThank you Keith, It has been an challenging year with all the extra work. I was so happy that EDLD 5326 didn't take to much of my time with all the things we are working on. And we have a new schedule at school and it doesn't leave any extra time. (along with a kindergartner that takes dance, cheerleading, and karate!!!) Some days I feel like an ostrich and want to put my head in the sand and hide!!!
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