Student Interviews

Student interviews were administered to each of the students in the group. I wanted to talk with them more about their experiences in reading class and how they felt about themselves as a reader. The student survey asked the students to create their "dream" reading class and they were asked to share what they would do and who would be in it. I found it interesting that on the survey, the students from the class of struggling readers all included students from the advanced class and the students from the advanced class all included students from the advanced class in their hypothetical class. This made me want to continue our conversation about this and I wanted to see how the struggling readers would feel if they were grouped with more advanced readers and I also wanted to see what the advanced readers thought about this. I asked all students the same questions but often times, the questions led to other questions that were not discussed with all students. I conducted the interviews in hopes to get a better understanding of certain students more so than others. There were some comments made on the survey that I wanted to discuss further.

Over all, the results of the survey again yielded that almost all students felt comfortable with where they were at in class and who was in their class. Some knew they were better readers than others and some knew they struggled more than others but this didn't seem to bother any of them in regards to their confidence. I asked every single one of them how they would feel if they were in different classes where there was a mixture of students with different abilities. I came right out and named several students from both groups intentionally because I wanted to see their reaction. Here is were I sensed some resistance and some negative feelings from both types of readers. The struggling readers were very apprehensive about this as were the advanced readers. This led me to wonder if we are not preparing our students for the real world. They all voiced concerns about having to work with someone better/worse than them which makes me think that we are doing our students a disservice for the real world. The advanced readers were actually even more apprehensive than the struggling readers. The struggling readers were okay with the groupings once they found out that kids like them would be in the class as well.

I have seen time and time again, students who are grouped with like students, strive only to be like those they are around. I can only feel that we aren't pushing these students enough by putting them with others different than themselves.

MAP Data

I decided to use the MAP data from my students in the sample size to see if there was a positive or negative relationship in student achievement. The data was used from the fall, winter and spring of their 4th grade year and the fall of their 5th grade year. I analyzed the percentiles of each of the students in the sample and noted these. After recording all of the percentiles, I then graphed the results of each student to determine if there was an overall positive gain from their 4th grade year carrying into their 5th grade year. The results helped me determine that the students from the advanced class made positive gains as they should have and the students from the struggling class made negative gains. This helped me to determine that the struggling readers are not benefiting from the way they are grouped in their class and the data proves that. I understand that there are many factors to influence this type of data such as summer break (most low readers don't read over the summer), but the numbers show that the problem is more than just not reading over summer break. The MAP data at our school is used to group our students so I am wondering why the students are continuing to be grouped in this way. Is the data not noticed? I hope to share this data with my principal and administrators and hopefully we can rethink how to group our students. The data sure shows that something is not working.

Data Collection Recap

As mentioned in earlier posts data collection was something that I struggled with. I began the process with a survey that I administered to the students. The survey was a teacher created survey in hopes to gather insight into how students felt about themselves as readers. The survey is posted in several places on my blog and the initial findings were described through a thick description of the results. I gave the survey initially to all students in both classes. This was around 46 students. There were some students who I did not receive their consent forms so some of the surveys were not used in the data collection. I was hoping that with my findings I would see that one class had a positive self image of themselves as a reader and one class would have a negative self image as a reader. When looking through the results, I realized that I had too much information to reach a valid conclusion. That's when I decided to reduce the sample size. I chose my sample size based on their answers and my personal experiences with them as a student in their 4th grade year. The results from the survey showed that the students in both classes, overall, had a positive self image as a reader. This was a shocking finding to me because I was sure students in the class of struggling readers would have a negative view of themselves as readers. I spent a whole year with these kids and saw the lack of confidence in these students which stemmed from their ability as a reader. I knew the students in the advanced class had a positive self image and some proved to have almost an arrogance about themselves. I would like to look further into this idea in the future and see if there could be other options for other types of data collection. I feel like maybe the fact that I was the teacher in charge of administering this tool that the students wanted to give me the answers they thought I wanted to hear. The sample size may have had an influence on the results as well.

Recap

I would like to take a moment to recap this process of the evolution of my research project and the process of data collection through out my research project. I have really learned a lot through this experience. The process of this project began with me wanting to see how ability grouping affects students. I wanted to initially observe three classrooms of students, two classes that were ability grouped (4th and 5th grade) and one class that was not ability grouped (3rd grade). It became quickly evident that my subject sample was way to large and given the circumstances, I would not be able to use this sample size. I then decided to focus on a group of students that I had the previous year. My sample size then became two classes of fifth grade students, one class of struggling readers and one class of advanced readers. These classes were ability grouped. My focus question then shifted when I decided to focus on how student self perception is affected by ability grouping. I administered a student survey to all students in the sample size (both classes). Once the surveys were collected, I began to analyze their findings. Upon analyzing things, I began to feel overwhelmed and realized that, yet again, my sample size was too large. So, from the survey results, I chose five students from each class based on their responses to the survey and my personal experiences with them in the previous year. This became my new focus group and things became much easier to analyze. This whole experience of choosing a sample size was very stressful but helped me realize that you don't have to look a huge sample size to gather the data needed to come to various conclusions.

There are some issues with the sample size and I realize that. These will be discussed in the limitations section of my paper. One thing I think really influenced the results of the surveys and interviews was that I was the teacher administering these surveys. I think if I hadn't conducted the interviews, some of the student responses may have  been different. I feel like some of the students game the "answer that I would want" instead of being honest with me about their true feelings. Its really frustrating knowing this now and how it could have influenced my data. I really think some of my data could have had different results had someone else administered some of the tools used. I guess that's the beauty of research!

Reporting on what I've found

After trudging through all the data and coding all of the interviews and questionnaires, I am starting to realize that I don't think I am going to really answer my question. I have gained some insight into how ability grouping affects our kids both academically and socially. Things that I thought would have been present weren't and some things have surprised me. Even with some of my results, I still stand strong in my belief that ability grouping does our students a disservice. I think that they would benefit so much more from flexible grouping. As I analyze more data, hopefully I can reach this conclusion.

Thick Description

The following descriptions come from the survey given to students in September.

Class A (Struggling Readers)

Please rate your experiences with reading by recording your answer to the questions in the space provided.

1. What do you like most about reading at school?

One student likes nonfiction; several students mentioned liking the fact that they have choice in book selection; they can learn from books; reading is an adventure; feel more comfortable reading at school than at home. 2 students said they really don't like reading at all.

2. What do you like least about reading at school?

4 student specifically mentioned that they aren't good at reading and don't like reading and don't like reading in class because of that; some mentioned not liking it because its noisy; one said because they were too social; five students talked about specific assessments being a reason they didn't like reading at school; one student complained of having no time.

3. Does your teacher divide your class into small groups at all during the class period?

This teacher does not use small groups other than table groups in her class so this question is not valid to this survey.

4. If so, what is your favorite part about being in small groups?

N/A

5. If you answered yes to question 3, what is your least favorite part about being in small groups?

N/A

 

6. Use the scale to rate yourself on your ability as a reader.

5 – Always 4 –Sometimes 3 – Not sure 2 – Rarely 1 – Never

I read most all words correctly 5 4 3 2 1

13/17-sometimes; 1/17-always; 1/17-not sure; 2/17-rarely

 

I understand what I read 5 4 3 2 1

10/17-sometimes; 2/17-not sure; 4/17-always

I am reading the same kinds of 5 4 3 2 1

books as my peers

3/17-never; 3/17-not sure; 2/17-rarely; 6/17-sometimes

 

I am a good reader 5 4 3 2 1

1/17-never; 3/17-not sure; 5/17-sometimes; 8/17-always

 

I don’t like reading because I am 5 4 3 2 1

not good at it

8/17-never; 3/17-rarely; 3/17-not sure; 3/17-sometimes

 

I love reading. I am good at it 5 4 3 2 1

4/17-never; 1/17-not sure; 8/17-sometimes; 4/17-always

7. If I could create my perfect reading class, who would be in it and what would we do? (Please be realistic).

All students mentioned that they wanted to have their friends in their class. Some students said they would have small groups. Most wanted to play reading games or go outside.

This description is from one class. This data helped me to choose the focus group of students based on their various answers to the questions.

Thankful for the help...

Our recent assignment for class asked us to view the blogs of our group members and provide feedback on what we see. My shortcomings were definitely present when viewing and critiquing the work of my group members. But seeing my short comings and using the suggestions from my group members, I am thankful for their support and suggestions. I have done a lot of work tonight as far as my data goes and several conclusions are surfacing as I really dig deep into what I have collected so far. I had planned to finish my research this week because of fall break coming up. I thought that maybe I was finished after completing the last few interviews but there is one more area that I want to focus on to help me answer my question. I will visit both classes tomorrow to observe interruptions in each of the classes. My plan is to hopefully gain some type of conclusion in regards to the negative effects of ability grouping and how that grouping can cause a variety of behavior problems. These new ideas come from my personal experiences with ability grouping and how challenging it can be to teach a group of students where there are not enough leaders or too many leaders. I hope that my findings reveal that this type of grouping can have a negative effect on the behavior of students. I always remember this being such a struggle when I taught students who were ability grouped.

I finished analyzing my MAP data from 10 students that I have chosen to focus on for various reasons which will be laid out in my findings presentation. I chose five students from the group of struggling readers and five students from the group of advanced readers. Based on student percentiles over the course of fourth grade (Fall, Winter, and Spring) and the beginning of fifth, I can conclude that students who are considered struggling readers and were in the struggling reading class in fourth and fifth showed a negative growth from the beginning of fourth to the beginning of fifth. The students who were advanced readers and were grouped accordingly in both fourth and fifth grade showed positive growth from the beginning of fourth to the beginning of fifth. I can conclude that high readers benefit from this type of grouping and low readers do not benefit from this grouping. I feel confident about this finding and its evident, based on this data, that ability grouping negatively effects low readers.

This information from the MAP data is what I expected but the findings from my interviews and surveys contradicts this theory. I'm anxious to analyze my further findings and determine a final conclusion.

Interesting

I had the chance to talk with some of my students from my advanced class and I am really surprised at how much they really would prefer the groupings that they are in versus being grouped with students of different abilities. I expected this from my struggling readers because they have a lack of confidence and a fear of being looked down upon. I thought that the advanced students would have been a little more accepting of the different groups. I wonder if we are teaching students to be intolerant of people different than themselves? Because they have been grouped this way for so long, are they oblivious to the differences between their classmates and them?

On the writing front.. I got a little ahead of my self on the last post hoping that I could begin my writing but I need to take a step back and really rewrite several portions of my paper. I am finishing up my data collection this week so that I can take some time over fall break and really attempt to begin writing about my findings. I'm worried this is going to sneak up on me faster than I expect...

Conversations

I've been interviewing several kids from the class of struggling readers and I'm actually surprised with some of the findings from the kids that I have talked to. One question that I have asked all of the students is "If you could be in a class with other students (and I name specific students who they are know are higher readers) and most of the students say that they wouldn't want to be in a class with those kids because they would feel like they were the lowest reader in the class. One thing I notice from this comment is that they realize that they are a low reader and don't have the confidence in themselves to compete with those students. My initial thoughts would be that students would want to be in classes with the higher readers but their comments are proving me wrong. This response led to a common prompt that I used. I then would ask the student if it could be them, the higher readers and then another student who is on their same level would they then like that set up. They all agreed that this was a group formation that they would like because they first wouldn't be the only student who struggled and then they could ask for help from those other students. This finding was interesting to me and has led me to the heading of student perception. This will be one way I will classify some of my findings in the actual write up of my paper.

I plan next week to finish my data collection with conversations from the students in the higher reading class. I wonder what types of findings I will find on the same question from these students.

Starting to Write...

After reading the sample research project in class, I feel like I am ready to start writing. I am no where near finished with my data collection but I have several changes that I need to make to my previous processes written in previous classes. My methodolgy has changed as well as my sample size. I want to get a jump start on this so that when I finish my data, I can begin to add to what I have already accomplished. Things are looking better on this end, I just wish I had several moths to compile all of the information ;)).

What I'm Finding...

Upon analyzing all of my data that I have collected thus far, here are a few themes that I am noticing. The students who are in the class of struggling readers really do dislike reading. I was able to observe the students in their classroom setting during the first thirty minutes of class. The students began the class period with AR reading. I was anxious to see how students responded to this time during class. Several students were seen not reading at all. They would either open their book and stare off into space or they would look at the pages and be flipping back and forth through the pages clearly not reading. A handful of students didn't even have a book that they had been consistently reading because they immediately got up and went to the classroom library where they quickly grabbed a book without really paying attention to even what they were choosing. One student, a fifth grader, chose a "Clifford" book. This is really uncommon for a fifth grader to be reading and I would imagine a little embarrassing. These observations made it obvious to me that reading does not hold a high level of importance. This seems to me that they have never been able to foster a positive relationship with reading because they simply aren't good at it. Being in a class full of kids like this for several years can cause these feelings of reading to decrease if they aren't surrounded by students who do care about reading. In the adjacent classroom where there are students who are advanced readers, the students are deep into their chapter books with every single student either reading or taking a quiz on a book that they have just finished. There are no interruptions and the teacher doesn't even have to ask the students twice to read. To me, grouping students in this way is giving the struggling readers an extreme disadvantage at improving their ability to be better readers. They have no one to look up to. I'm anxious to see what my further observations and future conversations with these students might provide me with.

Relief is on the way!

After class tonight, I have an easier feeling of where I need to go with my research. I realize now that I am heading in the right direction, I just need to tweak a few things. For example, I had the idea that I needed to stick to the plan that I had devised in my previous classes which to tell the truth, was a pretty lofty goal. I wanted to observe students from a third, fourth and fifth grade classroom because of the way the classes were structured and the way the students were grouped. I now realize that this is just impossible under the current circumstances. I have decided to reduce my sample size to only fifth grade students and specifically two class periods. From these two class periods I am going to choose a focus group. This focus group I will observe and interview to gather further data.

My focus question has kind of shifted as well. I will still focus on ability grouping and the achievement of students but I also want to look at student perception. I plan to gather this data on the smaller sample size of students whose responses I found interesting based on survey results and on my prior knowledge of the students performance in reading.

After looking at MAP data, I am starting to look for trends of student improvement. Are they really benefiting from the types of instruction that they are receiving being ability grouped? I know that MAP data can't completely answer this question for me but I think this data can help me decide why students aren't achieving the desired level of performance.

I feel a lot more confident about where I need to go and my passion for this project has finally been restored!

Collection has Begun

My data collection was started last week with a survey that I gave the students. As a part of my question, I want to know how the kids feel about the classes that they have been placed in. I think they have a pretty good idea as to why they are in the class that they are in and I wanted to gather their take on this type of grouping and hopefully gain some type of insight as to how they feel about themselves as a reader and the class that they are in. The survey looked like this:

Name: ______________________________________                   Date: 9/20/2012

Please rate your experiences with reading by recording your answer to the questions in the space provided.

1. What do you like most about reading at school?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What do you like least about reading at school?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Does your teacher divide your class into small groups at all during the class period?

________________________________________________________________________

4. If so, what is your favorite part about being in small groups?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. If you answered yes to question 3, what is your least favorite part about being in small groups?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Use the scale to rate yourself on your ability as a reader.

5 – Always  4 –Sometimes        3 – Not sure            2 – Rarely    1 – Never

I read most all words correctly         5          4          3          2          1

I understand what I read                     5          4          3          2          1

I am reading the same kinds of          5          4          3          2          1

books as my peers

I am a good reader                                   5          4          3          2          1

I don’t like reading because I am       5          4          3          2          1

not good at it

I love reading. I am good at it             5          4          3          2          1

7. If I could create my perfect reading class, who would be in it and what would we do? (Please be realistic).

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________                 

All students have completed this survey and I have organized the data based on the various responses from the students. There were several interesting comments and trends that I found in reading thier responses. For example, the reading class with the struggling readers reported to question 7 that they wanted to have class with their friends. Of course they all want to have class with their friends, they're fifth graders, but their friends are the kids from the class of advanced readers. When the advanced readers answered the same question, the kids they chose to have in their dream reading class were the kids they already had class with. I somehow can't help but wonder if this feeling comes from their opinions of themselves as a student as well as the stigma that may be placed on them for being in the reading class they are in.

A little light at the end of the LONG DARK tunnel

After talking with our curriculum resource teacher and asking for her guidance with this project, I have decided that I am going to work with the students that I taught last year for two reasons. One, I am familiar with how they performed last year and have data on those performances in an ability grouped class. Two, the class that I am in now is not ability grouped. After further reflection though, I still feel led to use my classroom as well. I have not been able to begin the data collection or analysis because A. I'm drowning in a new grade level and can barely get my lessons planned, and B. there are still so many questions I have about the project. I have sent home the consent forms and I am awaiting the completion of these forms. I have to leave my classroom in order to observe the students which poses a problem because finding someone to cover my class while I observe is a challenge. We are getting it worked out with my administrators and I am hoping to begin the data collection next week. I am finishing up a survey that I want to give the students but I also feel led to somehow implement the affects of ability grouping on behavior and reading. I always noted that as one of my major complaints of having the same ability children in one classroom allowed for increased undesirable behaviors. I would really like to look into this or hope the observations will provide an avenue for me to explore this more.

Data, Data, Data...

So call me a nerd, but I really love data. It guides my instruction daily and sometimes even by the minute! I love assessing my students and seeing where they are and where they have come. Data collection for this project, on the other hand seems to be a dark cloud looming over my home and classroom. I do not feel at all adequate to conduct this type of research but hopefully when the data starts rolling in, I will feel a little more at home. I have begun constructing a student survey where the students explain to me how they feel when they are reading in small group, how they feel when they are reading with a whole group and how they feel when they are reading independently. I want to get an idea of my students thoughts about reading and themselves as a reader. I haven't yet begun to even meet with my students just yet in small groups because we are still working out all the kinks of our daily schedule and time together. Hopefully I will see a light at the end of the tunnel soon. Right now, it's pretty dark :((.

The beginning...

This issue of ability grouping has plagued me throughout my career and I have grown increasingly attached to the idea of finding a better way of grouping our students. My opinions are obviously not taken into consideration when the grouping decisions are made so hopefully this research project can help me prove that grouping our students based on their abilities is not our best practice. With that said, I am not so sure that I am the person who needs to be conducting this type of research. It seems, right now, to be such a difficult task that an amateur like me should not be the one beginning this process. I really have no clue where to start as far as data collection is concerned. I understand the process of Action Research and look forward to trying it, but I sure hope I am capable of creating the quality assessments and surveys needed to give this project the best implementation possible. Hopefully once I get the data collection started, things may be a little easier and the next steps may appear a little more clear. I feel like my passion for the topic is beginning to interfere with my ability to remain unbiased throughout the beginning of this process.

My Plan

As a teacher of 4th grade English Language Arts, I was given the opportunity to teach all of the fourth grade students in our building in this subject area. We are departmentalized in fourth and fifth grade, meaning that the students switch classes between teachers and have different class periods for each subject area. This also means that our school chooses to ability group the students in both reading and math. My day would usually consist of two classes comprised of mainly struggling or non motivated readers and then two class periods of more advanced students in the area of reading. My lessons would consist of several different differentiated plans for each of the class periods with all students doing the same or similar tasks. One year, I was approached by my principal who informed me that we would not be ability grouped for upcoming school year. I was very fearful of this change because I had been teaching in this way for a few years and didn't know how I was going to meet the needs of ALL of the students in my room as they each presented a different ability. As I figured out how to do teach a group of all abilities, it became the best year in my teaching career. I grouped the students in several ways throughout each class period and all students benefited so much from the arrangement of our class structure. The following years, we returned to the act of ability grouping and I have yet to have another fantastic year as I did when my students were not ability grouped. This year, I am teaching third grade so I again have all of the abilities in my classroom. We haven't had the chance to really get into groupings and content as we are still working on procedures but I hope to have another successful year with a group of students from all abilities.

The problem I have observed having taught classes with the same abilities is that there are no leaders or too many leaders. In my classes of struggling readers, there was not a high interest in reading. The students knew they struggled and hated to read. With these feelings, attitudes toward the class influenced the behaviors in the classroom. There were no students who could act as leaders because they all had the same feelings toward the subject. We spent much of our time in lots of whole group lessons and lots of guided instruction. The students were rarely able to complete activities with partners because both students struggled with the concept. There was a student that could lead and coach the other to independence. In the higher classes, there were too many students who knew what it meant to be a leader which can cause problems in a classroom as well. It was hard for several of them to resume a passive position when needed.  These two combinations made for a very long day and in my opinion, did not provide students with the best instructional practices. Having taught one year where my students abilities were mixed, I saw so many improvements in my struggling readers as their behaviors and attitudes towards reading changed and they improved as readers. My more advanced students learned patience and were also given the opportunity to use their natural leadership abilities in a positive way. This one amazing year among four not so amazing years has led me to this question of are we doing what's best for our students by grouping them with like abilities? I am hoping with the start of this school year in a new grade level, I can really gather some data on the effects of grouping students.

I plan to begin the collection of data beginning the week of September 3rd. We are still learning procedures for reading class and still getting to know one another. My data will begin with a survey for the students that asks them to reflect on their abilities as a reader and how they feel when they read with others. I will also give assessments to the students to determine their starting point and how I should group them. I plan to group the students both homogeneously and heterogeneously and observe the various behaviors as well as desegregate data to determine which groupings were more effective and improved the learning and moral of the students. I will then administer the same assessments and surveys at the end of my research collection. This data will help influence my conclusion of what might be the best practices for our students.

About me!

I am in my sixth year of teaching at Emma B. Ward Elementary in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. I am currently teaching 3rd grade for the first time in my teaching career. I was a 4th grade ELA teacher for five years. I attended the University of Kentucky where I received my Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. I am currently working on my Master's degree at Georgetown College. I will graduate in the Spring of 2013 with a Reading and Writing endorsement. I have a passion for reading and hope to teach children that reading is not just a chore but can be an adventure!