GRADING PROFIENCY SCALE
The data that was collected was based on a 4 point scale. The following is the proficiency scale:
1 - Below BasicStudent shows difficulty in understanding the information and performing the skills expected for the course/grade level standards. 3 - ProficientStudent demonstrates a proficient understanding of the expected course content/grade level standards. |
2 - BasicStudent shows a basic understanding of the information expected for the course content/grade level standards. 4 - Advanced Student consistently demonstrates a thorough understanding of course content/grade level standard by making in-depth inferences and showing extended applications of the course content/grade level standard. |
Pre & Post Test
The purpose of my pre and post test was to determine if students grew in their ability to determine the main idea of a complex text with the use of summarizing strategies. On the pre-test 0% of my students scored a 4, meaning that 0 students were at an advanced level for identifying main idea. It seemed that students weren't really aware of what main idea really meant. Many of the students confused main idea with theme, so I knew that this was a misconception that needed to be addressed.
After 7 weeks of implementing research-based summarizing strategies, 38% of my students were at an advanced level. Furthermore, there was a decrease of 69% to 14% in students that scored a below basic level. This shows that by having students summarize their reading, they were in fact able to more effectively identify the main idea.
After 7 weeks of implementing research-based summarizing strategies, 38% of my students were at an advanced level. Furthermore, there was a decrease of 69% to 14% in students that scored a below basic level. This shows that by having students summarize their reading, they were in fact able to more effectively identify the main idea.
Summary exit tickets
After each day's readings, students used one of the research-based summarizing strategies. The purpose of this was so that students had a chance to interact with the text and put meaning in to their own words. From the exit tickets I was able to see the students who were comprehending the reading and the students who were not comprehending. The line graph shows the growth that students made with the 9 exit tickets that they turned in. Beginning on January 29th, my class was split with about 50% comprehending and the other 50% not comprehending. As the weeks went on, it was clear that student comprehension increased. By February 25th, 93.5% of my students were comprehending the text and about 6.5% were not.
|
Main idea formative
At the end of each week students completed a main idea formative. The purpose of this exercise was to see their growth in identifying the main idea and to collect data on the effectiveness of the summarizing strategies.
Over the course of 7 weeks students completed 5 formatives. For the first one the majority of my students scored a 3, which is the equivalent of being proficient. Additionally, 17.9% of my students scored 1 (below basic.) As the weeks went on, my students' ability to determine the main idea increased. By the last main idea formative, 10.5% fewer students scored a 1 and 27% more students scored a 4 (advanced.)
|
Triangulation
When looking at the data points above, it is clear that using summarizing strategies increased student achievement. By the end of the action research my students were better able to determine the main idea of a complex text as seen from the main idea formative. This increase was due to their increase in reading comprehension as seen from the summary exit tickets. Once analyzing the post test data, it became ever more clear that the use of summarizing strategies was effective because student scores went from 0% getting a 4 to 38% getting a 4. This confirmed my hypothesis that using summarizing strategies increases student achievement in identifying the main idea of a text.