Research Focus

This research project was done jointly with Eleanor Pardoe, a grade 4/5 teacher at Jarvis Public School and Stacey MacDonald, Early Literacy Teacher. We have worked together on many other projects (particularly in the Arts) and recognize the value of teamwork and dialogue in professional growth and change. We also have had many professional discussions focusing on Language Arts instruction in the junior grades, and our expectations for student achievement. We are of like mind and most often found ourselves sharing a similar instructional philosophy and optimism for student ability. Early in the school year, Eleanor expressed a need to move her students' abilities beyond that of the "retell" into incorporating more higher-level literary analysis into her regular instructional programme, and thus our research began to take root.

The Junior classroom, not unlike the Primary one, contains readers of various levels and we wanted to provide experiences and instruction to students that would extend their thinking and understanding of literature. We wanted our students to become competent readers who could look beyond the words on a page to understand an author's message, the growth and change of characters, and use of personal experience to create context and meaning. Many of our beliefs about the skills that students need to become confident readers and writers is expressed in this statement, " Literary mini-lessons are of unique value because while they build students' understanding of and ability to analyze literary texts, they also help students learn how they can improve and extend their own writing." (Fountas and Pinnell. Guiding Readers and Writers 3-6, p. 131) We asked ourselves, "Can we promote student literary analysis through guided reading instruction and independent reading opportunities?"

Class Demographics

The classroom that we implemented our project was Eleanor's grade 4/5 classroom. As with most classrooms this room did not have a "matched set" of students. They all had with different skills and abilities. In this class there were 27 students. In Grade 4 there were 5 boys and 4 girls. The grade 5 part had 7 boys and 11 girls. The overall breakdown of numbers by sex was boys- 12, and girls-15.

Laying the Groundwork

The work in this Action Research project was shared with Eleanor and Stacey. Eleanor, the classroom teacher, chose and implemented most of the guided reading lessons. She also engaged and led the class and small group discussions as well as provided continuous feedback and assessment with the students as they travelled along on their reading journey. Stacey (Early Literacy Teacher), provided resources, professional dialogue, advice and some guided lessons. Together they worked on administering the initial assessment of the class using the DRA tool, organizing the class library and finally reading and responding to the students' journals. We also attended an invaluable BER reading conference in March, "Using Guided Reading and Literacy Centers to Help Your Students Become Better Readers".

The primary focus of the first term and a half of the reading programme in the classroom was the use of short stories from the anthologies. To allow for different reading levels within the classroom two stories with similar themes but different reading levels were usually chosen. The students were learning to select the reading passage that met their own level of understanding. It did not matter if they chose to read from a grade 4 or 5 text. As well, a novel, From Anna, was also read aloud to use as a tool to model and practise good responses that involved "Relate, Retell and Reflect" strategies. Responses to these readings were both oral and written, with both the teacher and students modelling a variety of levels of responses. Marking particular parts of a story using sticky notes was also introduced to the students for easy recall of certain special parts.

In November we chose to do a diagnostic assessment of the students' reading abilities using the DRA assessment tool. Our plan was to use it as a baseline to measure growth in reading. The students would be reassessed in May using the same tool. Throughout the year running records and miscue analysis of the individual students to track growth and monitor their choice of readings were completed by Eleanor. Our initial findings illustrated that there was a wide range of abilities in the class, from grade 3 up to high school level. Some areas of concern were evident. Many students seemed to have difficulties completing a summary (a lengthy retelling was the norm), locating proof to support their thinking and understanding the message of the story. It was clear that we would need to have more lessons and modelling in this area of learning.

Building the Framework

In February we decided to embark on a new strategy to address our question of improving the students' literary analysis. This time we were going to use student chosen novels. Previous experience with this had not been always positive. Over the years Eleanor had observed a constant exchanging of novels, students trying to prove that they had understood what they read (some with little success) and students pretending to read! The traditional book report for many young junior students was not the best method for assessing higher literary thinking skills.

We chose to use Fountas and Pinnells' book Guiding Readers and Writers grades 3 to 6 as our starting point. This book was full of suggestions, lessons, examples and encouragement which enabled us to implement this plan in the classroom. At times the amount of information and strategies provided were overwhelming to choose from but in the end was an invaluable resource.

Now it was time to move beyond the guided lessons that had taken place earlier in the year with the student anthologies. We had the same mixed group of students who now would all be reading different self-chosen novels, writing different responses and demonstrating different levels of understanding. Also, as teachers, we had not read (or could not remember!) the stories they would be reading (27 novels). Therefore, explicit guided reading instruction was going to be very important in order for this to be a successful literary experience for both the students and the teachers.

Before any lessons could begin, all the novels in the classroom were reorganized. After discussing whether we should sort them by reading level or genre, we opted for the easier route-genre, which turned out to be the best choice. We sorted and labelled each novel and placed them in tubs with the appropriate genre labels on the shelves at the front of the room. The labels were simple such as FIC for fiction, AF - animal fantasy, AR -animal realistic, F-fantasy, H-humorous M-mystery, HF-historical fiction, and A-adventure. The books were now neatly organized and easily accessible for students to peruse, choose and return. All of a sudden reading changed in the classroom. There was an air of excitement and students were able to easily view and access the novels from the bins.

The second thing that we did was to purchase special journals at the dollar store for each student. This was an important component of our research because the students sensed that they were about to embark on something special. They were shown how to organize their journals with tabs for easy access to different sections. The tabs were labelled: Reading List, Reading Interests and Responses. This created another buzz of excitement and also let the class know that we valued their writing and reading.

In this journal we would travel together through the joy of being immersed in reading good literature. We would be sharing our responses through the medium of handwritten letters. Letter writing would allow us to find our own "voices" and have a written record of our conversations. At this point we had no idea of the length of time that the letter writing exchanges would last. Our one concern was that like other initiatives, would it begin to lose its appeal and become onerous for the students? The answer to this concern would depend greatly on the responses of the students. We had no idea on how long the momentum for this activity would last before the benefits would be overtaken by routine and boredom.

Guided Reading in the Class

One of our goals in this part of the research was to use explicit guided instruction so that the students would have some effective strategies and skills to use as they "read to relate" to self-chosen longer texts. These tools were to help them understand and to effectively use the information that they had read.

In this part of the reading programme, the same reading lesson was taught to the large heterogeneous class group. With ample modelling and guidance we were confident that the students would be able to practise each skill with the novel that they had selected at their own reading level. The first lesson that was presented was "Ways We Choose books". In this lesson the students brainstormed suggestions to assist them in determining if a book was the right one for them. This was recorded on a chart for all to refer to. Shortly after this a lesson on "Easy, Just Right and Challenging" . This was presented in the same manner as the previous lesson. Other management lessons that were selected to implement early on were "What does silent independent reading look like?" and "How to write a letter". Some of these early lessons were very important in order to manage the expectations of using self-chosen novels and self-initiated response letters.

Guided practise was given through the choice of very specific reading passages. Often we chose picture books for these lessons. These were used to model how we used the skill and then time was provided for students to practise and refine this. When modelling "Reading is Thinking" Eleanor first read aloud the picture book, The Cabin Key. As she was reading aloud, she would stop and make personal connections to certain parts of the story. She also showed the students how she placed a sticky note at certain places where she had made personal connections to so that she could easily locate that part later. She then used the story, The Memory Box to reinforce this lesson and also to illustrate how to write a letter (the structure) and how to model writing about making connections to a book. This format was going to be the basis of communicating and exchanging ideas with the students. At this point the students wrote their first response to this very moving story about a young boy living up North with his grandparents when he learns that his grandfather has Alzheimer's disease. Their first letters were amazingly sensitive and revealing. Taylor (gr. 5) wrote of his memories. " I made so many connections with this story. I found a memory box in my grandma's desk when I was looking for a sewing needle. There was his wallet that had a bullet hole in it and his money... I also found his war medals and his army uniform...I never got to meet him.....all I have is some medals and pictures to remind me of him." Other students connected with the images the language of the story evoked. Luke (gr. 4) comments. "My most important connection is kind of two in one so I'll tell you both. When the sun slipped into the lake that reminds me of when I was sitting on the porch with my family to watch the sun set. The other is when the car sank into the horizon, when my mom and dad went on vacation and left me and my sister at the babysitter. I saw them leave." A text to text connection was revealed when Alyssa (gr. 4) wrote, "The first connection was the part where Zach said, 'I don't think she wants fish eyes staring back at her in her sink' and that made me think of another story that was Goosebumps and it had different kinds of stories in it and one was Live Bait and it's a boy who doesn't like fish and....the mean boy said then eat an eye of a dead fish." Already we were hearing the students' voices in their writing! We took this opportunity to allow the students to share their responses and had the others give feedback using the rubric that we had provided. Feedback (peer and teacher) was always provided before any summative assessment took place. The students then practised this connecting strategy using their own novels. The classroom became a place where risk-taking was encouraged and was recognized.

Some of the guided reading lessons were to familiarize the students with the techniques and literary devices that authors used in their writing. "Mini-lessons on literary analysis are designed to help students become familiar with the techniques and devices authors use to create works of literature. They also help students understand different genres and the characteristics and value of each." (Fountas and Pinnell. Guiding Readers and Writers 3-6, p. 131). Susan Finney who has written some excellent resources for literacy centres has some practical suggestions on management of these lessons and graphic organizers which helped keep my students on the right track (see bibliography).

Some Mini-Lessons Used

This collection of lessons is a series of modelled management lessons intended to facilitate our expectations of the students' reading and writing. Many of the ideas are from Fountis and Pinnell's resource book and Sue Finnney's pubications.

1. Expectations of independent reading
2. How to choose books
3. Making good book choices
4. Show, Don't Tell-effective vocabulary, sentences
5. Using Sticky Notes to mark important parts
6. Thinking and talking about your reading
7. How to buzz with each other
8. Abandoning books
9. Identifying genres
10. Writing responses to your reading
11. Topics for journal writing
12. Book recommendations
13. Checking for understanding
14. Solving unknown words
15. Using punctuation when reading
16. "Musing and Perusing"
17. Character and conflict in the story
18. Setting changing and Action
19. Literary Devices–effective vocabulary, foreshadowing, metaphors...
20. Questions to think about as you write
21. Buzzing in small groups

Participating in the Journal Experience

Participation in the journal experience has been a learning opportunity for all involved. The students would write once a week in their journals. By Friday of every week we expected an entry from every student. As teachers, it brought some unexpected surprises. We hoped that the children would enjoy the journal writing and grow in their abilities through participating. The level of enthusiasm they held for the letter writing was contagious. Students anxiously awaited a response to their entry and often ended their letter with complimentary closings that included, "Write back soon", and "Can't wait to read your letter". Students' ability to express in written form their thoughts and understanding of what they have read, in writing has continued to develop. For example, Rebecca C (gr 5) began her journal writing with some simple text to self connections with her immediate personal world. She writes: "I did have one other connection. It is that there is a boy in the story who wants a dog because his other dog died. I connected to it because I also want a dog because...." As Rebecca moved through the journal experience she begins to ask questions, connect with the characters' problems and predict what will be happening. "When I'm reading my book now I'm always wondering how is Patricia going to survive out there when she's only wearing...? How are they going to light the fire and make the shelter?" By the end of her novel Rebecca is recognizing that the author's message is about teamwork and survival. "It's about survival. It seems like they will not live but they do. It seems like nature does not want them to survive. It's been so stormy and cold. Everyone gets out alive. They got out by teamwork..."

Upon receiving their journals from us students would use highlighters to underline the questions and comments we had written. Our hope was that they would use these as a starting point for their next letter. We found that only occasionally would the student respond to this.

From time to time all students had a "lull" or an "empty" response filled with lengthy summaries or simple connections but we this viewed as perfectly normal. Not everything they would be reading would be filled with meaningful personal connections and messages. The main goal was for the students to see value in their writing, in that what they had written was important to us and would be responded to with meaningful comments.

This experience has encouraged the children to read many different genres. Lindsay, an eager grade four reader, was determined to read all genres. Her novel selections were varied in reading level as well as genre. The following chart from her journal demonstrates this.

The students now express an understanding and an awareness of genre through their literature selections, their requests for book recommendations, and their journal questions to the two of us about our favourite genres, authors and even about our families' preferences!

They see themselves as readers, making appropriate book selections, making connections between books and commenting on "good, " literature. Jake (gr. 4), for example, examined the cover of his novel and made some predictions. He writes: "On the cover it says 'Brian's no brain or is he?' I'm wondering why she did this?" Later on he discovers and comments on the reason. "I think that caption was put there because Brian has dyslexia and is full of ideas but does not show it so people think he's stupid and that causes trouble." Jake was also making an important connection to a fictional character.

The students have also refined their book interests and choices. Carlee (Gr. 5) realized that through reading Historical Fiction she was able to easily make important connections with the story and produce higher quality responses.

She comments, "I would recommend Historical Fiction over every other genre because Historical Fiction gives the reader more to think of. My letters improved a lot when I started reading Historical Fiction."

Empathy for the characters in their novels was often expressed as the students' ability to place themselves in the situations of the characters and make connections between themselves and the character developed.

Madison (Gr. 5) writes, "It bothered me when I heard Rachel talk about her house and now I look at myself whining and carrying on about the CD I don't have....Think about it, some people like a girl, whose family are in Bagdad where they are bombed. She doesn't even know if her family is alive or dead. How would you feel?"

Reading for the purpose of discovering the author's message and enjoying the language of the written word, rather than just reading for reading's sake, became our goal. We realized that we had, indeed, moved beyond traditional silent reading. In the "traditional" approach, the focus had been to simply provide more time for students to read and to increase the quantity read. Now silent reading had become a new form of independent reading. As teachers and students, we viewed reading as an interactive exchange of modelled lessons and engaging discussions, both oral and written, about what we were learning and discovering as we read. Most importantly the quality of the responses and choice of novels had improved as well as the students' abilities to record their feelings and thoughts through the written word. Steven (Gr 5) read The Magnificent Mummy Maker. He had this to say, "I learned a lot about Egypt, and I just couldn't put it down. I was on the edge of my seat reading to find out what came next! I learned that by judging other people, when you haven't given them a chance, won't let you find out their real self."

Students were also refining their writing skills by expressing their thoughts and ideas in well-developed paragraphs. In these exchanges they developed their "voice" and style of writing letters as well. (The journals also provided an excellent opportunity for small group lessons on grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, sentences structure and spelling.) Rather than just experiencing and enjoying their novels they were encouraged to do more such as: share, think and mark places in their reading, reread important or interesting passages and phrases, write a letter etc.

Evaluation of Reading Programme and the Student's Achievement

To assist the students and ourselves we created a rubric with our expectations of the journal writing experience. Each student was given one to glue in their response journal for reference. Students and teacher often shared and modelled responses to decide how we would evaluate that response using the rubric. This helped to prepare the students for their writing time.

Each student also had ongoing oral conferences with Eleanor in which miscue analysis, oral reading and comprehension were assessed. Conferencing was an important component of monitoring the students' progress and could be compared to our initial results of the October DRA. A dramatic improvement in oral reading and decoding was noted for many of the students. This was also a good time to help the students with fluency, word decoding, and their interpretation and the message of the story.