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.