Will Improved Attitudes Result in Greater Academic Achievement?

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1 Simcoe County District School Board Improving Attitudes Towards eading and Writing Will Improved Attitudes esult in Greater Academic Achievement? Baxter Central 2010 MISA Project Our Focus Questions How can we improve students attitudes towards reading and writing? Will our efforts to improve attitudes result in improved academic achievement? Mr. Sloan Board superintendent as the paper bag princess Our Belief Why We Chose This Focus After looking at our school s EQAO data, more specifically the responses on the student questionnaires, we noticed that most students reported that they do not like to read and write at school. We want to implement new strategies this year to try to improve their attitudes towards reading and writing. We believe that if teachers choose materials based on their students interests, students will enjoy what they are learning and become more engaged, resulting in improved student achievement and more positive attitudes towards reading and writing. We will further investigate existing research in improving attitudes towards For students to achieve academic success, they have to be engaged in their learning. Our primary teachers are committed to planning and teaching meaningful literacy lessons and meeting with their colleagues to reflect on their practices. We are striving to create a community of learners who enjoy reading and writing lessons, are able to identify their personal likes and dislikes and improve their attitudes towards reading and writing at school. esearch Team Members Dean Maltby, Principal Heather Smith, Vice-Principal Leanne Nelson, Literacy Coach Laura Stelmachowicz, Librarian Lori Gregory, Gr. 1 Teacher Jessie Zwezdaryk, Gr. 1 Teacher Lynn Greer, Gr. 2 Teacher Kim Cleghorn, Gr. 2 Teacher Samantha Lacey, Gr. 2/3 Teacher June Fisher, Gr. 3 Teacher

2 IMPOVING ATTITUDES TOWADS EADING AND WITING Page 2 Tracking Data We used the following assessment tools: CPS Attitude Survey (once per term) Making Connections student responses (once per term) eport Card Marks Teacher Observations of Student Behaviour Master Morrison eading to the primary students. Students using CPS clickers for their attitude surveys. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats CPS Clickers The CPS Attitude Survey was a series of questions that students answered using a CPS (clicker) system. The questions asked if they like reading and what topics they enjoy reading about. We found these results surprising because the students were not necessarily interested in the topics we thought they would be drawn towards. This was valuable information for the teachers because it showed the topics their students were most interested in, which guided them in choosing meaningful read alouds for their class. It was motivating seeing how the students attitudes towards literacy changed from term to term. eflecting on the Instructional Strategies We Tried Strategy #1: Using non-fiction texts for modeled and shared reading and writing eflection: All the primary teachers made a conscious effort to use more non-fiction texts for modeled and shared reading and writing lessons. We gathered non-fiction big books, shared useful websites (i.e. bookflix) and tried to expose our students to a variety of non-fiction topics. Some teachers also added a non-fiction section to their classroom libraries. The kids proudly shared their prior knowledge on the new topics that were being introduced during read alouds and shared readings. All students from grade one to three liked listening to texts on the Smartboard using bookflix and learning new factual information. Using BookFlix on the SmartBoard

3 Baxter Central 2010 MISA Project Page 3 Strategy #2: Inviting people from the community to visit classrooms and talk about and encourage reading and writing (i.e. athletes, musicians, parents, principal, intermediate students, etc.) eflection: Having people from the community visit our school and read to our students is a strategy that we will continue to use in future years! Each visitor explained why reading is important in their job and daily life. Intermediate boys were role models as they demonstrated positive attitudes towards reading through sharing of a favourite picture book. Jefferey Buttle, bronze medal Olympian, spoke to the whole school about his life journey and the big role school played in his success. He stayed afterwards and read his favourite picture book to the primary division and answered their questions. Many of our students parents volunteered to do class visits talking to kids about how reading helps them do their jobs (i.e. police, fire fighter, newspaper reporter, tai kwon do master, our school superintendant). Our students looked forward to meeting visitors from the community and excitedly anticipated which book they would bring along to read. Jefferey Buttle Bronze medal Olympian eading to the primary students The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Strategy #3: Daily ead Alouds Chosen with Purpose eflection: Teachers read a book (fiction and non-fiction) aloud to their class daily for five weeks and noticed their students were able to orally make connections. Teachers taught text to text, text to self, and text to world connections. Teachers shared their successful read aloud books with each other and across grade levels. All teachers involved agreed that they would continue to use this strategy year round. Our Making Connections Trains

4 Simcoe County District School Board Page 4 Professional esources and Professional Development Our Data With our MISA funding, we purchased copies of Good Choice by Tony Stead for all the teachers involved in this project. We used the remainder of the funds to release teachers to meet. At our meetings we analysed our data trends, did moderated marking of student work and planned our next teaching strategies we wanted to try out. We used resources such as Strategies that Work and Igniting a Passion for eading to determine effective teaching strategies. Term One Term Two Term Three Gregory (1) Zwezdaryk (1) Attitude Survey Yes 28% No 0 % ST 72 % Yes 50% No 0 % ST 50 % Making Connections L4 16% L3 33% L2 50% L1 0% L4 0 % L3 26 % L2 33 % L1 26 % L 10 % eport Attitude Making eport Attitude Making Card Survey Connections Card Survey Connections A 4 % Yes 50% L4 26% A 19% Yes 85% L4 5% B 42 % No 5 % L3 57% B 38% No 5% L3 57% C 42% ST 45 % * L2 ST 15% = Sometimes C 28% ST 10% L2 29% D 9 % L1 5 % D 10% L1 9% 5% Attitude Survey Question = Do you like to read? A 15 % Yes * eport 67% Card L4 13 = % Grade in A eading 5% Yes 87% L4 0% B 47 % No 0% L3 40 % B 68% No 13% L3 57% C 26 % ST 33 % L2 33 % C 22% ST 0% L2 43% D 10 % L1 13 % D 5% L1 0% L 0 % 0% eport Card Cleghorn (2) Yes 27% No 7 % ST 67 % L4 0 % L3 33 % L2 45 % L1 22 % A 5 % B 47 % C 24 % D 24 % Yes 44% No 6 % ST 50 % L4 0% L3 43% L2 50% L1 7% A 5% B 61% C 17% D 17% 0% Yes 56% No 13% ST 31% L4 0% L3 50% L2 49% L1 1% Greer (2) Yes 41% No 12% ST 47 % L4 0 % L3 44 % L2 44 % L1 11 % A 38 % B 16 % C 5 % D 38 % Yes 56% No 12 % ST 31 % L4 11 % L3 61 % L2 28 % L1 0 % A 44% B 11% C 17% D 22% 6% Yes 94% No 0% ST 6% L4 23% L3 45% L2 21% L1 11% Lacey (2/3) Yes 72% No 0 % ST 28 % L4 16% L3 37% L2 26% L1 21% A 52 % B 11 % C 16 % D 16 % 5 % Yes 64% No 14% ST 21 % L4 32% L3 42% L2 16% L1 10% A 46% B 13% C 28% D 13% 0% Yes 78% No 0% ST 22% L4 31% L3 31% L2 38 L1 0% L Fisher (3) Yes 67% No 11% ST 22 % L4 31% L3 37% L2 21% L1 11% A 31 % B 15 % C 32 % D 15 % 5 % Yes78% No 11% ST 11% L4 26% L3 47% L2 17% L1 10% A 28% B 28% C 33% D 11% 0% Yes 84% No 5% ST 11% L4 21% L3 26% L2 37% L1 16%

5 Simcoe County District School Board Page 5 IMPOVING ATTITUDES TOWADS EADING AND WITING MISA Project eflection and Next Steps Our data shows that in most cases, improving students attitudes towards literacy will indeed improve academic achievement. There is a direct correlation between students feelings towards reading and the effort and interest they put into their work. Using non-fiction texts and committing to daily read alouds both had a positive impact on student attitudes. Students began making connections spontaneously and were able to connect fiction and non-fiction texts. Inviting people from the community and intermediate students from our school to read to the kids and talk about why reading is important and used in their professions left a lasting impression with the students. These strategies will continue to be used in future years. As a next step, we would do more oral assessment such as mini-conferencing. We suspect that students would be able to demonstrate their understanding better in a conference format in replace of written responses. Teachers also feel they can give immediate feedback during a conference.

6 Page 6 Our esults - Attitude Survey Zwezdaryk Gregory First Term Second Term Third Term Greer Cleghorn Lacey Fisher Percentage of students who answered Yes to the survey question Do you like to read?

7 Page 7 Making Connections Student esponse Worksheet A cool new fact I learned is This reminds me of Tell me more Making Connections ubric Expresses personal thoughts and feelings (opinions) about what has been read. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Oops my ideas don t connect to what I read. I connected my life to the topic of what I read. I connected my life to what I read using words from the text. My writing makes sense. I connected my life to what I read using words from the text. My writing makes sense and is organized.