AR Reflection

For my action research this week, I did a few things to help my students with story telling, drawing and writing.  I made sure I talked with the students about adding details to a story when sharing out loud.  I  asked, "Would the story makes sense if details were missing?" Many replied no.   I should have asked, "Could you follow along with the story if an author forgot to write a part of the story?" I need to remember that one! 

I also made sure to talk about the pictures in the stories I read this week.  In one of the articles from Time for Kids, they had a photo of a girl getting to school by a zip line because she lives in the rain forest.  In the background, it was all trees but blurry.  I asked if they could tell if the girl was going fast or slow.  They replied, "fast", why?  because the picture is blurry.  Then I said could you draw a picture of a person or animal moving fast like the girl, they said yes.  Then we talked about how they could draw blurry pictures. 

Today, I had my students make another class book about our Unit 3 theme Transportation.  The sentence was I like to ride a ____________.  They needed to draw a picture of a vehicle that can get them from one place to another.  I had a sub in my AM class, so I left a note to remind students of drawing picture first, add details and to use realistic colors.  The sub did talk to them about these three things and 10 out of 18 students did what was asked.  By looking at their page, I am able to see what their vehicle of choice is and then they were able to sound out most of the word on their own.  My PM class, 14 out of 18 did the same thing.  I might have had a few more in the PM class because I was there and not a sub or parent giving directions and watching them! 

I just figured out how to do some data collection and I don't know why I didn't think of it before!  I am going to go back and look at all of the class books that we created together and make a chart and graph to see if there is progress-I can see it but want data to back it up!

I feel that I am not using the Drawing & Writing Books justice!  I think I might just have them out during free time for the students to draw on their own and if they want ideas to help with their drawing then I will be able to help specific students.  Just an idea?  I will try it next week to see if it will work!

During the month of December, I am having my students create a homemade calendar for the parents for Christmas gift.  This is giving them a chance to draw things that go with the specific month.  This is another reason why I will not have time to use the books!

I have grad school tomorrow, and I am bringing the latest class book to show my colleauges if they can tell what they drew and wrote!  It should be fun! 

Check back to see the results of the adults view of the pages!