Rationale
Rationale
My building is located in close proximity to a military base, which contributes to a high school mobility rate (27%). Many of the students that I serve have attended multiple schools before reaching the 6th grade, which often results in crucial learning gaps. As of the 2019-2020 school year, my school has a student membership of 482 students. Forty-one percent of the school’s students are members of minority groups, and about 45% of the students are part of the free/reduced lunch program. My 6th grade class has 13 students, with 6 males and 7 females. Out of my class, an unusually high number- 39 percent- of the students are either currently receiving special education services, are in the process of being referred/tested for special education services, and are receiving additional small group and/or individual support.
The data collected from my students showed a need in reading, specifically in summarizing/determining main ideas and details. When administering the baseline benchmark Fountas & Pinnell assessments at the beginning of the year, 9 out of 13 students were reading below grade level. On the Fall MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) assessment, 2 students performed in the lowest percentile range (0-20th), 3 students performed in the low-average percentile range (21st-40th), and 3 performed in the average percentile range (41st-60th). When breaking down MAP scores further into specific standards, I noticed that 6 (approximately half) of my students scored in either the low or low-average percentile range for the Informational Text: Main Idea and Analysis category. When our weekly whole group Reading focus skill had been Main Idea and Detail, I noticed that almost every student struggled with determining the main idea and supporting details within informational texts. The most common misconception was citing a specific detail from the text as the main idea of the text as a whole. Even within Guided Reading groups, where I was able to provide more scaffolded and differentiated instruction, main idea/summarizing had still been the biggest challenge for my students. They were in need of additional research based support in order to be successful with this skill.
The information gained from my study is important because students can benefit from summarizing skills throughout many content areas. As a 6th grade teacher, one of my responsibilities is to prepare students for middle and high school. When these students begin to take more advanced science, social studies, and electives courses, they will be doing additional reading of informational texts and will need strong summarizing/main idea and detail skills in order to achieve rich comprehension of their reading. As a new teacher, I do not feel that I have the resources, knowledge, or experience to feel confident in teaching students how to summarize effectively. This study will allow me to determine students’ current skill levels, differentiate for each student’s strengths and challenges, and provide research-based support that will drive my students towards success. I also believe that I can implement the strategies from my study throughout many different content areas that I teach, including Reading/Guided Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Health, which I hope can provide benefits for students across disciplines. Beyond my students’ experiences in school, they will also need to have summarizing skills in their future careers.