Reflection

Reflection

Through the action research, my students were not the only ones who learned as a result of my action plan. I have learned a lot about the benefits of well-structured daily guided reading lessons. I now have a much better understanding about how to develop effective reading instruction. I developed a greater understanding for how to best meet the needs of students who are reading at different levels, this includes different levels of fluency and motivation needs. Having this in mind allows the planning process to be more efficient, targeting specific skills and strategies within each lesson. This planning process boosted my confidence in teaching with every lesson. I have seen my growth when conducting guided reading groups, especially knowing what to say when students miss words or do not understand what they have read. Using tools like the decoding strategy bookmarks have helped me to know how to talk to students about how to learn new words and to gain new tools when reading.

I observed my students' growth throughout my action research. Prior to the beginning of my study, my students lacked motivation and skills in decoding words. They were not equipped with the strategies to help them in these areas of reading. I did not see a lot of growth in the areas of reading accuracy, fluency or comprehension. I introduced decoding strategies into reading instruction through guided reading groups and whole group discussions. I saw great improvements in how students actually used the decoding strategies while reading and decoding words, often using the language of the reading strategies to help them decode words and their meanings. Students would say, "I am going to use stretchy snake to sound out each word," or "I am going to chunk up this word to know what it is." Prior to the action plan, several students would make guesses on words they did not know. Students would not consider using decoding strategies, and would be focused on getting through books as fast as they could to move on to the next activity. I have seen students become more comfortable in front of their peers when reading out loud, knowing that it is okay to not know every word while reading. I feel that students are overall more comfortable reading now than they were prior to implementing the action plan. I believe this is from implementing the decoding strategies and growth mindset activities in reading instruction.

Overall, developing new strategies to help in reading instruction is not an easy task for second graders. It was definitely a challenge getting the students to use the decoding strategies while reading independently. After introducing the decoding strategies I started to implement growth mindset activities to increase their motivation in reading instruction. I feel that the data represented from my action plan was accurate. The post student interest survey showed more positive attitudes about reading the implementation of goal journals, and exit tickets gave my students the motivation to keep going when reading became harder and harder. Another challenge I became faced with was time restrictions. My action plan was conducted over six consecutive weeks, this made me feel rushed and most of the weeks were inconsistent because of days off, and student illnesses. Although these challenges did arise over this action plan, I had excellent professionals in my building and in my district community who were willing to problem solve and share ideas with me. My grade level team in my building provided guidance and resources for me to use during my action plan. In addition, my CADRE cohort, professors, and associate have all provided me with support that I needed to make my action plan successful.

Going further, because of the positive impact on both myself and my students, I plan to repeat this action plan next year. However, I would change a few things at the beginning of the action plan. One thing I would change would be to introduce a new decoding strategy each week and practice whole group together while reading, and sharing examples of using the animal decoding strategy. This would allow students to have more opportunities to use the decoding strategy and feel more confident when using it independently. To maximize instructional time, I have learned that my whole group instruction needs to become specific and concise to provide more time for small group instruction. Another change I would make would be to incorporate more cold reads throughout the action plan with all students. Cold reads allow me to get a more accurate fluency score. Implementing more cold reads throughout this action plan would also allow me to intervene with students if their fluency scores dropped by implementing more Fluent by Friday folders.

I am very impressed with my action research experience. I have grown as a professional, and educator through this experience. I have learned how research can drive my instruction. I have seen how growth does not just happen overnight. My hope for my students is that they have gained new strategies while reading and have more motivation as they move onto third grade. Implementing and practicing growth mindset strategies have given them the tools to be successful not only in reading instruction but in all areas of learning.