ACTION RESEARCH

By: Hailey Pierson

Monday, December 7, 15

Initial Meeting
Initial meeting with Mrs. Brown, my 4th grade clinical teacher at Trace Crossing
Elementary School
1. Choose students to work with
2. Determine the essential question
3. Discuss individual needs of each student chosen

Monday, December 7, 15

Students
Student A: struggles with reading comprehension and reading
pace. She is an ELL student. She is on reading level and enjoys
reading.
Student B: struggles with reading comprehension and expression
Student L: struggles with reading comprehension
Student M: struggles with reading comprehension, expression,
fluency
Student S: struggles with reading comprehension and expression

Monday, December 7, 15

Student Cont.
Commonalities
-struggle with reading comprehension
-all on grade level for reading
-struggle with identifying main idea and key details

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Question

What strategies are most eective to improve students

ability to identify main ideas and details?

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Research
Reading Comprehension is the ability to read text,
process it, and understand its meaning.
It is vital for a student to be successful. It links with
every subject, reading math problems, science articles,
books, etc.
There are a variety of dierent skills that can help
improve reading comprehension

Monday, December 7, 15

Strategies Used
1. Running Record Reading Assessment

2. Guided Reading

3. Fluency Rubric

4. Explicit Modeling

5. graphic organizers

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Lessons/ Assessments Used

1. Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
2. The Phone Call short story
3. The Phone Call assessment questions
4. Skeleton Key short story
5. Skeleton Key assessment
6. Sharks assessment
7. Sharks short story
8. A History of Zombies short story
9. A History of Zombies assessment
10. Fluency Self Assessment

Monday, December 7, 15

Name: __________________________________

Session 1

The Skeleton Key

by Kelly Hashway

Erik rang his grandparents doorbell and silently wished

the next four hours would go by quickly. He didnt want to give
up his entire Saturday afternoon at his grandparents house
where there were no kids in the neighborhood.

Youre right on time, Grandma Bethany said, opening

the door. Theres tea and cake in the dining room.

Cake? At least the first ten minutes would go by quickly. Erik hung his coat on the rack by
the door and saw a strange looking key hanging on a hook. Grandpa Bill, whats this funny key
for?

Thats a skeleton key. It opens the best room in this house, Grandpa Bill whispered so no
one else could hear. Its the room I go to when your grandmother tries to make me help with the
dishes.

Whats so special about the room? Erik asked.

Its a game room, Grandpa Bill said. Take the key and see if you can find the room by
the time I finish my tea.

Erik grabbed the key and stared at it. A skeleton key? It looks old. Erik decided the oldest
things in the house were probably upstairs in the walk-up attic. He headed past the dining room
and to the stairs.
Super Teacher Worksheets -

www.superteacherworksheets.com

Initial Assessment: I asses the students by giving them an on level short reading text titled
The Skeleton Key They completed reading questions that went along with the text. As
well we had a group discussion of the text talking about the main idea of the story and the
key details that went along with it.
Original Action Research Group
everyone takes a pretest of reading a selected text and answers given
questions about the text
discuss as a group what happened in the story. What were the main idea?
and key details?

Monday, December 7, 15

Session 2
- We read a short story titled Sharks.
- We alternated reading aloud pages from the short
text.
- The students completed a flip chart.
This required them to identify the main idea
and key details from the text.

Monday, December 7, 15

Session 3
I gave my students an article to read titled A History of Zombies. This article was a
little more lengthy and they had to answer questions about the comprehension in
complete sentences.
These were questions that caused them to reflect on what they read and relate it to their
everyday life and making predictions about the future.
In order for them to really understand and answer the questions fully they had to
comprehend the story and be able to make connections
A HISTORY OF ZOMBIES
Almost everyone is familiar with the modern zombie: a shuffling, ravenous, reanimated corpse that terrorizes and eats
humans. But since zombies arent real, how did their legend get started? Where did the word zombie come from?

Zombies Across the World:

For thousands of years, zombie-like monsters have appeared in legends and myths all over
the world. In the Middle Ages in Europe, many people believed in revenants ghosts or
reanimated bodies that would return from the grave to terrorize the living, sometimes
with a specific purpose, like revenge, or to torment someone who had wronged them in
life. In Norse mythology, draugr were said to be the reanimated bodies of warriors who
had been reborn with amazing abilities, like being able to turn into a wisp of smoke and
pass through stone. Draugr were said to drive humans and animals mad and cause chaos
everywhere they went.
Chinese cultures told of jiangshi, living corpses that had white hair and greenish-white skin,
doomed to hop everywhere because of the stiff limbs that had set in after death. Many
Asian countries have variations on the jiangshi, including Japan,Vietnam and Korea.
One of the earliest known references to the living dead is in The Epic of Gilgamesh, an
ancient Mesopotamian epic poem. In it, Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, travels to the
underworld and demands to be let in, threatening that she will bring up the dead to eat
the living.

REVENANT
JOHN??

BOO!

DRAUGR
2013-2014

Monday, December 7, 15

YOU TOTALLY
CHEATED AT THAT
CHESS GAME.

Session 4
-We did a lesson on how to describe the main detail in depth and the importance of being
able to describe a character is depth.
-We read a short story called the Phone Call . We discussed and completed a graphic
organizer on the main character.
-They did really well with the comprehension of the story and being able to describe the
main character in depth.
The Phone Call

Paul looked out the window and sighed. The driveway was still empty and it was getting dark. He
checked the clock and sighed again, deeper this time. His dad had said that he would pick him up by
5:30, but it was almost seven and Paul hadn't heard a word from him. He walked up the stairs to his
room and put away his baseball glove. Paul figured that even if his Dad did miraculously show, it
wouldn't be much fun playing catch in the dark. Paul sat down on the couch and tried to do some of
his reading homework, but he couldn't get his dad off of his mind.
The phone rang at about 8:00 and Paul let it go to the machine. It was his Dad: "Hey Paul, I'm so
sorry that I couldn't make it tonight. I had to finish up a big project at work. Maybe we can catch a
baseball game this weekend. Oh wait, this weekends no good. How about next weekend? That should
work. You and I are going to the stadium for sure, Paulie. I hope all is well"
Paul listened to the machine in disgust. He knew that his dad had a job and a life, but he couldn't
understand why he was always flaking out on him. Paul thought to himself: Couldn't someone else
get one of these bad news speeches once in a while? Why does it always have to be me? Paul crashed
on the couch with his book opened to the first page and fell asleep.
The next day at school, Paul didn't turn in his math or science homework and he failed a pop quiz in
reading class. Pauls homeroom teacher, Mr. Mathews, noticed Pauls uncharacteristically poor
performance and asked him to stay after class. Paul sort of murmured a response that sounded like
Ok. When the bell rang, the other children filed out of class. Paul huffed and waited with his head
on his desk. Mr. Matthews pulled up a chair next to him.
Whats up, Paul? Youre not doing your homework, youre not studying for tests, and this isnt like
you. Something must be bothering you. What is it? Paul didnt want to tell him. He knew that if he
started talking a flood of emotions would pour out of him. He just wanted to be alone with his pain,
so he sat there quietly, not even looking at Mr. Matthews. Well Paul, if you dont want to talk, I will.
I know that somethings bothering you and youve got to get it out. You dont need to tell me, but you
need to tell someone or this thing is going to eat you up. Paul, youve got to feel your best to do your
best. The sooner you get this thing off of your chest, the sooner you can heal.

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=tpOE0D51Hk0

As Paul walked home from school, he reflected on the things the Mr. Matthews had told him. He
knew that he hadnt been himself recently. Maybe he stopped doing his work because he was looking
for attention from his father. He hadnt really thought about it too much up until now, but as he
walked home that night he realized that he wasnt just letting his dad spoil his plans: he was letting
him spoil his life. Paul figured that Mr. Matthews was right. He couldnt do his best until he felt his
best. He decided to take his advice and talk to someone about it.
That night when Paul got home from school, he called his Dad. The call went to voicemail after
ringing seven or eight times. Paul had heard his Dads answering machine message more times than
he cared to remember, but this time things were different. When it ended, he would say what he
really felt. When the phone beeped, Paul began talking: Dad, its Paul. I cant go to the stadium with
you next weekend. Ive got a lot of homework to catch up on. Also, I dont really want to spend
another day looking out the window and waiting. When you break plans with me, Dad, it hurts me,
and Im sick of getting hurt. Its not too late to rebuild our relationship, but were going to have to
start small. Maybe you can help me with my homework sometime or something. Dad, I love you, but
thats how I feel.
As Paul ended the call, he felt as though a tremendous burden had been lifted off of his shoulders. He
didnt know whether his dad would change. He didnt even think that he would, but it didnt matter.
Paul had changed. He had expressed his feelings to the right person, rather than just bottling them up
inside of himself and he had a clear head as he worked though his assignments that night.
Name: ___________________________

The Phone Call - Reading Skill Sheet

1. Authors Purpose:

Monday, December 7, 15

entertain

inform

persuade

Session 5
Final meeting!
Looked at our progress monitoring charts to track how
far we have come.
We discussed what all we learned and how we
improved!

Monday, December 7, 15

Student Progress
Monitoring Charts

Monday, December 7, 15

Chart kept each day to

track growth!

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Data Analysis

Monday, December 7, 15

Data Analysis and

Reflection
Student A and Student M: We really focused on reading pace and slowing down when
they were reading. They really improved and by slowing down they were able to pay
attention to main idea and key details.
Student B: The more practice that we had she improved every session and became
more confident with reading especially with reading aloud. She is now confident with
being able to identify the key details and main idea from a short story.
Student L: She struggled with reading comprehension. The small group setting was
very beneficial for her. The group discussions were helpful and after being able to talk
it through really helped her.
Student S: He struggled with picking out the key details. We were able to really sit
down and learn some new strategies that would help just picking out the key details
that supported the main idea. He often thought everything was a key detail but by
referring back to the main idea was really beneficial.

Monday, December 7, 15

Reflection on what I learned

everyone learns at dierent rates
teaching in multiple ways and strategies is very
important
one on one and small groups make a very big impact on
students who are struggling

Monday, December 7, 15