Action Research by Teachers

1. What is the title of the project?

Making Meaning Through Written Response

2. What is the Question? (two research questions in this case)

How do reading journals guide instruction to improve student learning?

How do readers with varying abilities respond to literature?

3. What strategy is being used to address?

 Noting similarities and differences between students and note taking were the two main strategies being used in this research project. The students were being assessed with the journals by practicing a note taking strategy and answering the prompts, which were questions..

4. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?

Similarities and differences in high level readers and low level readers will provide data about what high level readers are achieving and how. Studies show that reading journals show evidence of student comprehension (versus multiple choice) and construction of meaning. 

Teacher journals were used by teachers performing the research as a scheduled reflective time to better discuss their findings with each other. In these teacher journals, the instructors could write down the similarities and differences in the reading levels as they observed them.

5. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work?

Data was collected and separated into categories,  such as summarizing the text, opinion, real life connections, etc. Summarizing the text was discouraged, but the wider variety of categories addressed in the journals was considered a good indicator of comprehension. 

The students were also separated into 3 categories from high to low levels of reading. This allowed teachers to compare students in the groups, so the differences between learning styles and how students responded to literature became apparent. 

Changing around subtle techniques like teacher prompts and student prompts caused teachers to better examine the effect that reading journals have on student learning. 

6. How was the data analyzed?

The data was analyzed by noting that average and lower level reading students were more likely to summarize the text and not justify their answers. The higher level reading students used opinion and real life connections along with a variety of other ideas in their reading journal. Higher level reading students were also more comfortable with creating their own prompts. 

7. What were the results?

Learning is guided by using reading journals to link real world scenarios to the written text. Higher level reading students used what researchers called "higher thinking skills". Teachers wondered if they could instruct lower lever reading students to use these methods and create these wide varieties of structures in their reading journals. 

8. How do the results inform teacher practice?

The teachers from this research project wish to implement reading journals every year, now that there is evidence that it does guide instruction. It also informs instructors about how their students react to literature and on what reading level. This instructional tool is possible to implement in many classrooms and this project shows that the data can be used to get to know your students and spot comprehension difficulties.