1.
What
is the focus of your inquiry and why is this important to you?
I am focusing on clarity of student writing in response to
literature. One of the big shifts in 2nd grade is from talking about
what you read to writing about it. Students need to be able to both write a
cohesive retell and respond to questions that require them to think beyond the
text (What was the author’s message?). Students’ writing about their independent
reading tends to have big parts missing and so I want to figure out what
scaffolds I need to put in place to help them write more clearly.
2.
At the
end of the year what is the learning
goal that you would like your focal students to reach?
I would like my focal students to be able to write a five
point summary of a book they read at their independent level and answer (in at
least two complete sentences) the question: what is the author’s message?
3.
What
classroom data are you planning to use for your routine data source to see how students are (or are not) progressing
towards this goal?
I am going to use their language arts journals. In their
journals, they are writing responses approximately twice a week to the books
they read. Currently, they respond to three prompts: What happened? (This is a
beginning, middle, end summary), Reading Connection (They make a text to self
connection and explain it), My favorite part (they explain their favorite part
and draw a picture). While I am looking for them to ultimately be able to
explain the author’s message and to write a five point summary, I am thinking
that they need to start somewhere simpler. The “What happened?” graphic
organizer will soon be replaced with a five point summary organizer (once each
student masters the “What happened?”, they will get a new organizer). And,
hopefully, the “My favorite part” and “Reading connection” organizers are
helping them think about books beyond the text as a step towards author’s
message.
4.
What would indicate if a student was
successful? What were you hoping
to see?
Indicators of success:
1.
Written in complete sentences.
2.
Includes proper names of characters.
3.
Summary is written in correct sequence.
5. After talking with your
small group, what are you thinking now about what success would look like for
your students on your routine data source? What specific indicators of success
have you decided on? What are your next steps in your inquiry?
I am going to focus only on summary writing. I want to be
clear about my indicators for success being focused on clarity in writing, not
elements of a good summary. I am still researching how to help students write
more clearly and the sample writing I am looking for clarity within is
summaries (of books read at their independent levels). My next step is to look
at their summaries over the course of a month (about 2 per week) and see what
(if any) new indicators I need to add. I also want to add in a component of
orally telling a partner a summary before writing it down into their summary
writing.
