Data | context-clues

Third Step: Collect and Analyze the Data

I used many qualitative and quantitative data types during my action research to observe the impact of Context Clues on students' reading comprehension.

Qualitative Data

Quantitative Data

Reading attitudes: Before and after implementation
Video Think Alouds
Anecdotal Notes

Scholastic Reading Inventory Scores: Before and after inplementation
Independent Practice Assessments

These assessments will help with my action research because the purpose of my study is to see how using context clues affects attitudes and feelings toward reading.

I will use the feedback from my anectdotal notes to guide my instruction and to monitor my students' understanding of context clues and how to effectively use this strategy.

These assessmenst will help with my action research because the purpose of my study is to see how using context clues affects overall reading comprehension. The SRI is a test that assess reading comprehension so this data point is valid and reliable.

Using a variety of data collection methods will triangulate the data, so that my findings will be valid and reliable.

Feelings Toward Reading

I gave my students a four question survey that asked about their feelings toward reading. The first question asked if they liked reading and why or why not. The second question asked how they viewed themselves as readers and why. The third question asked about what they felt they could do independently while reading, and the fourth question asked students to list some things they could use help on in reading.

At the beginning of my study, 15 students felt okay about reading and thought they were fairly good readers and 5 students did not like reading. At the end of my seven-week study, 19 students said they liked and enjoyed reading and thought they were great readers and only one student felt he was an okay reader.

Reading Comprehension

The Scholastic Reading Inventory is an assessment students take to measure their reading comprehension. Students are scored using Lexile Scores. To be proficient at the end of the year in third grade, students must score between a 520 and 740. Twenty of my students participated in my action research and were given the SRI test two times during my action research, once at the beginning of my research and once after my action plan was completed. The bar graph below shows students' scores before and after the implementation and practice with context clues.

Oral Explanations & Anecdotal Notes

For my last data collection, I decided to have one-on-one conferences with each individual student to ask about the importance of Context Clues and how to use them. I took anecdotal notes on how students were using context clues in the books they were reading independently and on their responses to my questions in regards to Context Clues. After analyzing my notes, I graded student responses according to the rubric below. I followed my district's Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, Advanced categories. Below are the results of the oral explanations of how to use Context Clues and their importance to reading.

Test 1 (before Action Plan was implemented): 10 students, 50% were at proficiency level for third grade. 10 students, 50% were below the proficiency level for third grade. 6 students, 30% were below the proficiency level for second grade.

Test 2 (after Action Plan was implemented): 2 students, 10% scored an advanced level for third grade! 11 students, 55% were at or above proficiency level for the end of the year of third grade!

From test one to test two, 15 students increased their scores onthe Scholastic Reading Inventory! 2 students moved from a proficient score to an advanced score and 2 students moved from a basic to a proficient score.

Independent Practice

Students were given independent practice once a week for four weeks. I took the first week's data out because we did number one together as a class; as a result, the percentages were off compared to the rest of the three weeks' data. Each week they were given three sentences that had a bold word in them. The bold word was the word they were to be using context clues to help them determine the meaning. Because we followed the four steps of 1) read and read ahead, 2) identify the context clues around the unknown word, 3) decide on a meaning, 4) check to see if that meaning makes sense, students were to underline the context clues and explain how those clues helped them. I looked at all of the students' work and averaged how many the students got correct. For example, for week one, I counted how many got zero out of three, one out of three correct, two out of three correct, and three out of three correct. At the beginning of my study, seven students got 0 out of 3 correct, five got 1 out of 3 correct, seven got 2 out of 3 correct, and one student got them all correct. For the last week of my study, no one got 0 out of 3! Four students got 1 out of 3 correct, nine students got 2 out of 3 correct, and seven students got all three definitions of the unknown words correct!

Where Students Need help

At the beginning of my study, I asked students what they felt they needed help with the most in reading. Most of my students responded with vocabulary, comprehension, spelling, and flagging. Flagging is a reading strategy my school uses to annotate in textbooks using sticky notes. The word cloud shows the student responses. The bigger the word, the more students said that is what they needed help with.

After my study, fewer students said they needed help with vocabualry. Most of my students said they needed help with flagging and spelling.

Before

After

A random sample of students was interviewed about context clues, the definition, the steps, and how to use them correctly to help determine the meaning of an unknown word. None of the students scored a below basic, 10% of students scored a basic on the rubric, 60% of students scored a proficient, and 30% of students earned an advanced score on the rubric.