Embedded Files
Problem
One of my goals for the year was to increase academic rigor in my class by ensuring students were reading and discussing texts. I know that for some students, being asked to read leads to disengagement. I wanted to practice a strategy that would support students in leading text-based discussions with their peers. This was intended to be a space where students could be vulnerable and admit when they were confused or didn’t know something and receive support from their peers. It was also aimed at helping students make connections and identify main ideas to deepen text comprehension. Finally, I wanted students to reflect on their ability to work together and identify how they could continue to build their social skills. To sum it up, I wanted to think about building students’ ability to ask and answer questions as a way to increase their ability to lead supportive discussions.
Hypothesis
If students receive feedback on reading logs and exit tickets (writing pieces following the reading activity), students will engage with the activity in more depth and show growth in their ability to identify main ideas and ask probing questions.
Target group
I focused on students who had not submitted work in MP1 which indicated to me that they were likely experiencing a challenge (be it academic, social, or executive functioning) that was creating a barrier to their engagement levels. My co-teacher and I were both using this reading strategy for our inquiry work so we made sure we had different target groups. Julie primarily looked at the work from SWDs and I primarily focused on gen ed students who were struggling in MP1. Through tracking these students closely, my intention was to ensure that my strategy was accessible to students who are both low and high functioning.
Planning & resources
Resources
Text: Collaborative Strategic Reading
This outlines the strategy that I am trying in my classes. I have made some modifications, especially to include an opportunity for students to generate their own question to dig deeper
Video: Collaborative Reading- Building Successful Readers Together
I love this video because students are talking about how this strategy engages them and helps them build skills in a very collaborative and supportive way
Video: Teacher uses questioning techniques
I think this shows how a classroom can build in support for student-led discussion by teaching discussion stems and setting an expectation that students are calling on each other (and supporting each other). I also see that students are facing each other while they discuss so it makes me think about classroom setup.
Teacher Made Materials
Based on these resources, I developed my own version of the reading protocol. Here are the resources I gave to students & used in my classroom:
Student role cards
Handouts & text example
Data collection
Data collection
Baseline data
During MP2, I did the reading protocol 3 different times and collected reading logs and exit tickets each time. I had introduced the reading protocol one time during MP1 so, in retrospect, that would have been a more authentic baseline; however, I used the first reading cycle of MP2 as my baseline.
Measuring success
I tracked engagement in three ways.
I collected reading logs after each cycle and I tracked the different components of the reading log. For example, I first tracked who was present and then tracked whether they engaged with the different sections of the reading log (preview: before reading, gist/clunk: during reading, reflect: after reading).
In the second cycle of the reading protocol, my co-teacher and I tracked whole class engagement by counting how many students were engaged (reading text, discussing text, writing on the log) every 5 minutes. We used that to generate a percentage of how many students were engaged throughout the period.
In the second and third cycles of the reading protocol, I sat with small groups for about 10 minutes and took a running record of their conversation. This allowed me to do a deeper analysis into the conversation to see participation in the group and understand how they were approaching concepts.
Overall findings & impact
Observations
In terms of overall engagement, my co-teacher and I found that 80-90% of our students were engaged with this activity throughout the class period.
Sitting with each group and taking a running record allowed me to see moments of student interaction in which they were successful in supporting one another in asking probing questions and deepening an understanding of main ideas. The following conversation is a good example of seeing students create space and support each other in productive struggle:
C: I guess what the rituals consisted of?
S: that’s a good question
S: A, any ideas or things you don’t know about this section?
A: [thinking]
S: what do you think the gist is of this section?
C: ummm
S: let A start
S: it talked about ancestor worship, what other information is this section talking about?
A: it talked about how ancestor worship tied into…
S: is the word you’re looking for dynasties?
A: yes
S: so basically if I’m not mistaken you’re talking about how ancestor worship tied into how dynasties maintained power
A: yes
Reading logs findings (based on target group)
The number of students gisting and the quality of their gists increased
19 students in original target group; several has had decreased attendance and were not there every time we offered the reading group so that made it difficult to see progress
10 of the students are now passing the class; indicating increased engagement overall
Actionable steps
If you want to use this strategy in your classroom, I recommend …
Consider your students - my kids did better when I had more structure (such as group roles and clunk cards) but this may not be necessary for all.
If you are trying this for the first time and students are unfamiliar with the expectation to pause and discuss routinely, it can be helpful to chunk the text so that students are asked to pause and gist several times.
The first time I introduced this strategy I modeled it in front of the whole class with another teacher and two student volunteers.
In subsequent cycles, I focused on giving a piece of feedback to the whole class right before starting the reading activity. For example, I showed examples of gists. One merely identified the topic while the other more fully explained a main idea. Students analyzed which one was more helpful in reviewing the big ideas gathered from the text. Students then set a goal for the class period and most chose to improve in gisting. I saw an increase in on-target gists after using these grassroots examples and goal setting.
Sarah Baggs-Eastwood | sarah.baggseastwood@uamaker.nyc
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