When I began my inquiry, our team had identified three areas to focus on to increase reading. They were phonetic knowledge, oral language, and working memory.
Phonetic knowledge is something I’ve been teaching as a whole class activity, as well as through Word Work with all my Reading Groups. It has not been something I’ve spent time on with my Teaching group, and so I think gathering data that identifies a positive outcome through specific activities/interactions will be challenging, as all students took part in the same activities, and the majority of students have made progress.
That being said….here is the data I have on phonetic knowledge, and you can see that all children are making progress.
T= Teaching Group. C= Control Group
Oral language is also being developed through whole class discussions, and one-to-one as needs arise.
I have recently decided to focus purely on increasing working memory. I believe I’ll be able to gather data that compares students I’ve ‘worked’ with against those that are just left to themselves.
What I did:
Each child had three chances to copy a coloured block arrangement using three or four out of seven blocks. Each child had a practise go before I took score. The scores show how many they got correct in mid June.
Rc, Wo = Right colours, wrong order.
After gathering this data the teaching group (T) were given 10 minutes daily to play a 16 block memory game https://www.helpfulgames.com/subjects/brain-training/memory.html to hopefully improve their memory.
Problems: Children A, C, D did not get to have many chances to play the game, as they had a number of absences. While 3/4 of the group enjoyed playing the game, child B did not enjoy it (unless they were in the mood), and consequently did not focus well during their ten minutes.
Child BB, accidentally got to have a few chances at playing the memory games, before I realised he wasn’t ‘supposed to’.
These are the results after the two-week trial. (I know two weeks isn’t long enough, but it’s all I’ve got for now). Again I began with a ‘practise’ test before the ‘real thing’.
Rc, Wo = Right colours, wrong order.
What do these results tell me? Well firstly, it’s only been two weeks, so the data does not give the best possible information. I will continue the inquiry over term 3, and will hopefully have better data then.
I do question whether personality impacts this particular test, as the ‘rushers’ (Students C & D) would be very quick to say ‘I’m ready’ and when I’d ask them if they were sure, they’d say ‘Yes’. Inevitably they’d make a mistake. Whereas the ‘plodders’ (Student A) would look and look and look, and I’d have to tell them it was time to start, and these students were quite good at getting them correct.
Things I would do differently:
* I’d decide beforehand the colour patterns I’d use, so that each child had exactly the same chance to improve. I think this because I wonder if some colour combinations are easier to remember. For example, red, white, blue might be easier than orange, yellow, red. (it’s just a thought).
*. I’d ensure each child had the same amount of time to commit the colours to memory. (I had simply let the child decide when they were ready).
*. I’d plan to have another ‘test’ - the ability to follow a set of four instructions. I’ve got this already in my head to implement in term 3, so that could be quite interesting (or maybe not. I don’t know).
* As students played the memory game on the iMacs, I would monitor the number of moves it took for them to complete the levels. They would need to complete Level 1
I also plan to add the twin of student DD, and bring one of them into my teaching group.
I’m hoping that the next update I will have some obvious and concrete trends in the data.
